Brian Vickers 5 Race Used Gmac Racing Hendrick Pit Cart Cover Side on 2040-parts.com

Volvo XC60 – Star of New Moon

The Volvo XC60 stars in 'New Moon' Product placement can work with cars in big films. Just look at what the original James Bond films did for Aston Martin, from the DB5 in Goldfinger to the DBS in Casino Royale. Then there’s the Mustang in Bullet, the VW Beetle in the Herbie films, and let’s not forget the Mini in the Italian Job.

BMW are rolling out their ‘BMW Genius’ programme across UK dealers

Even when you’re immersed in the latest car news day in and day out, it’s often quite tough to keep up with the new technologies car makers are offering, so many buyers must struggle to know exactly what their options are. That should be a job for the car salesman, but most car salesmen only worry about explaining how good the deal is and how it’s better than any other deal, so buyers often come away with a car that doesn’t fit their needs as well as it could. But with fewer new car buyers really wrapped up in performance and dynamics and more interested in the tech behind the wheels, BMW has been trying out an idea borrowed from Apple Stores by employing ’BMW Geniuses’ at 10 of their UK dealerships to explain the advantages of much of their technology to customers.

Alan Mulally spells out the future

Ford CEO Alan Mulally is famously on-message, handing out business-card-size versions of his business plan to all and sundry, including his “One Ford” mantra. “One Ford” covers a lot of ground, but it's shorthand for Ford becoming a single entity where the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. It's close kin to the concept of building global product platforms that spread costs for product development and parts over the greatest possible volume.