Michelin Challenge Design 2013 finalists announced

The finalists of the 2013 Michelin Challenge Design global vehicle design competition have been announced with all 15 of the chosen entrants' work to be displayed at NAIAS 2013. This year's theme, 'HALF! Lightweight with Passion', asked participants to explore how design contributes to and impacts the ongoing effort to develop more efficienct vehicles, while keeping the emotional side of car design front of mind.

Saab: China’s Youngman submits new $2 billion offer

Youngman is committed to acquiring Saab The founder of China’s Youngman - Pang Qingnian – has revealed Youngman submitted a $2 billion offer to buy Saab from the administrators on 14th February. We’ve all seemingly written-off Saab as dead and buried; a once proud marque consigned to the scrap heap of history after the debacle of GM ownership and Victor Muller’s ill-fated battle to make Saab an in dependent marque. But there’s one man who hasn’t given up hope of securing a future for Saab, and that man is the Chinese billionaire founder of Youngman, the company which has already spent significant sums trying to acquire Saab, but has so far been thwarted by GM’s golden bullet.

Honda Jazz / Honda Fit recall – faulty electric window switch

Honda is recalling the Jazz/Fit to replace faulty electric window switches It’s not exactly on the scale of the Toyota recall for a sticking throttle, but nevertheless the announcement by Honda that they are recalling almost 650,000 (MY 2002-2008) Honda Fits (that’s the Honda Jazz in the UK) around the world is another blow to a Japanese car maker just as the worst of the auto industry woes of the last year or two seem to be easing. The European Honda Jazz recall seems only to affect RHD cars, so it looks like it’s just the UK that needs a fix to the master window switch on the driver’s door on 171,00 models here. If the window gets left open for long periods – or if there are long periods of heavy rain – water can get in to the switch and cause it to malfunction and, at worst, catch fire.