Who's Where: Martin Uhlarik appointed SAIC UK Design Director

SAIC Motor has announced the appointment of Martin Uhlarik as its new UK Design Director amidst plans to significantly expand its European Design Center at Longbridge, UK. Canadian-born Uhlarik has been appointed by Tony Williams-Kenny, who takes over as Global Design Director at SAIC's Shanghai design base. Uhlarik comes in with experience as Senior Interior Designer for Skoda's Prague studio, Project Design Leader for Nissan Design Europe in London.

2015 Audi TT drops its top – TT & TTS Roadster for Paris debut

The Audi TTS Roadster (pictured) debuts at Paris 2014 It’s only six months since the new Audi TT arrived at the Geneva Motor Show, but now Audi is ready to show its drop-top version with a debut of the Audi TT Roadster scheduled for the Paris Motor Show next week. As you’d expect, to all intents and purposes, the TT (and TT S) Roadster are pretty much the same as the TT Coupe, with the top chopped off and replaced by a retractable fabric roof – a roof that opens and closes in just 10 seconds – and a bump in price of around £2,000. That means the Audi TT Roadster with the 2.0 litre TFSI engine with 182bhp, manual ‘box and Sport trim will come in at a bit under £32,000 and the 306bhp TTS Roadster at a bit under £38,000.

New Volkswagen Tiguan (2012) gets R-Line options

2012 VW Tiguan gets R-Line options The new VW Tiguan turned up earlier this year, looking for all the world like a mini-me VW Touareg. But with the reveal of the 2012 Tiguan came no news of the R-Line add-ons which turned the old model Tiguan from a bit of a bland and boring-looking compact SUV, to something more appealing (as we discovered when we reviewed the old model VW Tiguan R-Line). But now the 2012 Tiguan is in the showrooms VW has decided the time is right to offer a bit more pizzazz for the new Tiguan, so they’ve revealed R-Line packages for the interior and exterior.