Who's Where: Gorden Wagener to head Mercedes Advanced Design NA

German designer Gorden Wagener, 37, has been appointed President of Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design of North America. Beginning his new position on January 1. 2006, Wagener now focuses on products specifically for North America, including production and show cars as well as advanced projects.

Nissan teams up with Williams for sporty Nismo cars from 2014

Nissan’s performance car skunkworks arm Nismo (short for Nissan Motorsports) has agreed a deal with Williams Advanced Engineering to co-develop faster versions of Nissan’s road cars from 2014. It doesn’t mean the Williams F1 team will be developing the forthcoming Nismo version of the GT-R, but the Formula One team and Williams Advanced Engineering are part of the same group founded by Sir Frank Williams. Sir Frank said: ‘Williams Advanced Engineering has a history of developing world class, high-performance products and this agreement is particularly exciting because of the ambition and potential of the Nismo brand.

Nissan rekindles Almera with new Golf rival

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 08 April 2010 09:26 Nissan plans to re-enter some of the heartland markets it departed with the loss of the Almera and Primera, CAR can reveal. It's a U-turn from a strategy that saw Nissan desert mainstream models in favour of crossovers and niche cars such as the Qashqai and Note. In an interview at the signing of the Daimler-Renault-Nissan cooperation yesterday, the Japanese firm's global product chief told CAR a new Golf rival to replace the unloved Almera was underway.'There's a live, upstream project,' Andy Palmer confirmed.