1998 Grand Pri Info/gps/tv Screen 41969 on 2040-parts.com

EV maker Coda trims staff

Not much more could go wrong for electric-car maker Coda, which has struggled to sell its four-door EV in the United States since officially launching it here in March. But Web reports, first seen at www.plugincars.com, say the company laid off 50 employees, or 15 percent of its workforce, last week, mostly in the sales and marketing departments. Efforts by Autoweek to contact Coda have not been successful.

VW Tiguan Match returns – costs from £23,245

The VW Tiguan Match (pictured) returns for 2013 Back in 2010, Volkswagen had a play with the Tiguan model lineup and replaced the Tiguan SE with a better equipped Tiguan Match. And history is now repeating itself. VW has decided, once again, to drop the Tiguan SE from the model lineup and replace it with the Tiguan Match which, this time, actually costs slightly less than the SE and yet boasts more equipment.

Ex Ford, Mazda designer to head styling at Renault

Former Ford Motor and Mazda designer Laurens van den Acker will succeed Patrick le Quement as head of design at French automaker Renault. Van den Acker, 43, quit as head of design at Mazda earlier this month. He will join Renault on May 15 and assume le Quement's full responsibilities starting on Nov.