Chevy 235 Motor Mounts on 2040-parts.com

BMWism.com compiles definitive history of BMW designers

BMW fansite, BMWism.com, has compiled a definitive history of the company's key designers throughout the ages. The list tracks the brand's creatives, from Lucien Rosengart in 1881, right up to Magnus Aspegren, now Director of the Singapore Studio of BMW Group Designworks USA. It also unearths some great images from the company's vaults.

Center stack is new high-stakes battleground; showdown with safety regulators looms

For auto suppliers and gadget companies eager to get a piece of the auto industry, the hottest chunk of vehicle real estate now is the center stack. That corridor of interior space, running from the driver's right hip up through the center of the cockpit to the bottom of the windshield, has become a California gold rush of opportunity. But it is less so for traditional suppliers of molded plastics, cables, levers, buttons and radios.

Daimler and Renault-Nissan strike a global partnership

Daimler today struck a wide-ranging partnership with the Renault-Nissan alliance, in a deal that will usher in new jointly developed cars, shared technologies and a multitude of cost savings.  Cars such as the new 2014 Smart Fortwo will now be twinned with the next Renault Twingo, while the Forfour is set for a comeback and we can expect plenty of shared combustion engines and electric motors, borrowed platforms and jointly developed SUV tech across all three parties. And that's only scratching the surface of the possibilities opened up by this wide-ranging deal.