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New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.

Saab 9-2 to use MINI platform – if Saab survives

The original Saab 9-2. The new Saab 9-2 will use the current MINI platform Things are still torrid for Saab, with big lumps of downtime at Trollhattan as they struggle to get suppliers to deliver parts when those same suppliers are already owed big chunks of money. The trouble is, not producing cars for much longer is going to leave Saab in between the same rock and a hard place as when GM were procrastinating about who to offload Saab to.

Who's Where: Sangyup Lee appointed Bentley’s head of exterior design

Sangyup Lee has been appointed Bentley's head of exterior design. He reports directly to Luc Donkerwolke, head of Bentley Styling and Design and taken up the position left by Dave Hilton. Korean-born Lee joins the British carmaker from Volkswagen/Audi's Advanced studio in California, where he held the position of chief designer of Exterior from January 2010.