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UPDATED: Honda hints at new European advanced design studio

On the eve of the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show, Honda Design's Creative Director, Toshinobu Minami, announced that the company is looking to once again open a design facility in Europe. The announcement came during a presentation at the R&D Center in Waco, just outside the Japanese capital and, while not confirmed, Minami-san strongly hinted that the UK would be a likely candidate to play host to Honda's revitalized European design operations. He cited the country's existing manufacturing and administration facilities, as well as a wealth of new talent from the Royal College of Art in particular.

Lexus LF-LC turns blue for Australian motor show

Lexus has changed the color of its LF-LC for the 2012 Australian motor show in Sydney. We first saw the LF-LC in January at the 2012 Detroit auto show where it appeared in deep metallic red. To spice it up for the Australian show, Lexus has sprayed the exterior Opal Blue, inspired by the base color found in the naturally occurring semi-precious opal stone found in the Australian outback.

Mazda Hazumi Concept previews new Mazda2 – teased for Geneva Motor Show

The Mazda Hazumi Concept (pictured) teased ahead of Geneva Mazda are gearing up for the Geneva Motor Show next week with the first teaser image of the Mazda Hazumi Concept. The Hazumi Concept – which apparently means ‘Spring up’ or ‘bound’ (as in ‘bound around’ not ‘bound up’) – is the firts clear view of the next generation Mazda 2 featuring the latest iteration of Mazda’s Kodo design language and clearly takes design cues from the new Mazda3. We’ll get more details on the Hazumi/new Mazda2 as Geneva approaches, but we’re expecting it to spawn a production version of the next generation Mazda 2 that will go on sale before the end of 2014.