Used 1973 Ford F 100 Custom Pickup, Right Front Side Marker Light #250 on 2040-parts.com

Cash for clunkers: Is it ready for prime time in America?

One proposed solution to prop up new-car sales in the United States involves paying bonuses to owners of older vehicles who send their cars to the scrapyard and buy new ones. Proponents say that not only does the auto industry benefit, but so does the environment, as emissions decrease and fuel economy typically improves in newer models. Critics, however, say that scrapping older vehicles hurts collectors by reducing the number of older models available and also hurts those least able to afford to buy newer vehicles by driving up the price of used cars.

Jaguar XE Estate & Coupe “…a very difficult business case”

It’ll be tough to extend the Jaguar XE Range in to an Estate & Coupe We’ve banged on for years about Jaguar extending their saloon car range (well, the XJ and XF as that’s all they had until the XE arrived) to coupes and estates, at the very least. We know, for example, that the Jaguar XJ Coupe has been on the drawing board for as long as the current XJ, but Jaguar has failed to build it. Similarly, there have been rumblings about an XF Coupe for years, but that has come to nought too, although Jaguar did finally manage to launch the XF Sportbrake Estate to extend the XF range a little.

Who's Where: Martin Smith to retire, succeeded by Joel Piaskowski as Ford Europe head of design

Martin Smith, head of Ford of Europe design for the last 10 years, will retire at the end of this year, before which he will work on a project to study the future direction of the company's global design direction. He will be replaced by current head of strategic concepts group, Joel Piaskowski on 1 July. Smith (64) first joined Ford back in 2004, leaving General Motors as director of design for Opel/Vauxhall.