Billet Specialties 73520 Oval Rear View Mirror Head, on 2040-parts.com

Aston Martin make Nissan’s Andy Palmer their new CEO

Andy Palmer (pictured) is taking the reins at Aston Martin Lagonda Aston Martin has effectively been without a boss since Ulrich Bez stepped down from the role last year, but that changes with the announcement that Andrew Palmer – until now, Chief Planning Officer of Nissan – is to step in to the role. There’s no specific start date for Andy Palmer at Aston, but Nissan has announced that Philippe Klein will take up Palmer’s role at Nissan on 15 September, so it shouldn’t be long before Palmer holds the reins at Aston Martin. But what exactly has persuaded Andy Palmer to jump from a big corporate behemoth like Nissan to a struggling luxury car maker with owners who either want to tug the operating strings (the Kuwaitis) or are looking for a quick return (Investindustrial)?

McLaren F1 to buy BMW F1 Engine ops

McLaren could be about to buy up BMW's F1 engine operations BMW are quitting F1 at the end of this season, and the Sauber team is up for sale. But the engine operations are not part of the deal. So it’s starting to look as if McLaren are looking to buy up the engine side from BMW and become a completely independent F1 car builder – just like Ferrari.

Mercedes planning more Coupe SUVs to add to the BMW X6 challenging MLC

The Mercedes Concept Coupe SUV (pictured) looks to be just the first in a range of Coupe SUVs No one can be in any doubt that the Mercedes Concept Coupe SUV we saw revealed at the Beijing Motor Show earlier this month will turn in to a ‘coupe’ version of the ML, probably as the Mercedes MLC. What’s also clear is that the MLC is designed to steal a chunk of the market BMW has created for big, lifestyle, coupe SUVs with the X6; take away the Mercedes badge and the Concept Coupe SUV could preview the next generation X6. But with BMW taking their X6 formula and applying it to the X3 – creating the X6 on a boil-wash X4 – Mercedes aren’t going to sit back and let BMW create another lifestyle coupe SUV without responding.