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Book Review: Masters of Modern Car Design

Authors Bart Lenaerts and Lies Del Mol Publisher Waft ISBN 978-9081482042 Price €60 Available from http://www.waft.be/ There are surprisingly few books dedicated to car designers and fewer still that scratch below the surface of the slick, sharply-suited PR messages that have elevated today's top creatives to front men of many brands. The guys from Waft see things differently. They first came to our attention with their book Belgian Car Designers, profiling the surprising number of their countrymen holding top design seats.

Mercedes Vision S500 Plug In Hybrid (2009)

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 11 September 2009 09:55 This is Mercedes’ latest Vision concept car, the S500 Plug-in Hybrid, and it will be unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show next week alongside an electric version of the company's new SLS supercar. Based on the current-gen but pre-facelift S-class the S500 Plug-in Hybrid achieves over 88mpg but only emits 74g/km, and the company claims the car demonstrates 'the future of Mercedes' modular set of hybrid systems.' All next-gen S-classes are expected to get stop/start technology as standard, while full hybrid and plug-in hybrids will also be offered. Merc is claiming that its S500 Plug-in Hybrid is the world’s first 'three-litre' limo, offering 88.3mpg (or 3.2l/100km), figures that shame the Lexus LS600h (30.4mpg), BMW’s 7 ActiveHybrid (29.1) and even the company’s own S400 Hybrid (35.8).

Crunch watch Jan 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Gareth Evans Motor Industry 30 January 2009 12:39 Friday 30 January 2009• Honda is about to close the Swindon factory for four months when Friday's shifts are finished; the shutdown will affect 2500 of the 3700 staff, who will receive full pay for two months and then 60% pay for the next eight weeks (BBC News)• Porsche has announced a sharp drop in sales and likely profits. It forecasts a 27% drop in 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne sales to around 34,000 units in the six months to the end of January 2009 (Financial Times, subscription required)• Ford wants Washington to do more to stimulate car sales, after posting a record loss of nearly $14.6 billion earlier this week (Detroit News)• Honda's quarterly profit has crashed by 90% – forcing the Japanese car maker to halve its annual profit target (Detroit Free Press)Thursday 29 January 2009• Ford of Europe is a bright spot in the Blue Oval's quarterly results today, making $1.06 billion pre-tax profit in 2008 (up from $997m in 2007). It's the first profit of more than $1bn since 1989 (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Volvo suffered a 'disastrous 2008' with a pre-tax loss of $1.46bn.