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Lotus gets a new boss – former Citroen Peugeot President Jean-Marc Gales

Jean-Marc Gales left) new Lotus CEO with Aslam Farikullah Following the debacle of Dany Bahar’s grandiose plans to turn Lotus in to a cross between Aston Martin and Ferrari, owners DRB-HICOM/Proton have been busy trying to get ship Lotus back on an even keel. That started with the appointment of engineer Aslam Farikullah as chief operating officer at Lotus when Bahar got his marching orders, and he’s been busy for the last two years bolting Lotus back together, cutting costs, improving quality and increasing sales. Now, it looks like Lotus are readying themselves for the next stage of their recovery – which will include new models – as former PSA president Jean-Marc Gales is appointed as Lotus CEO to work with Aslam Farikullah.

Official: Aston Martin gets its hands on Mercedes AMG engines & Electronic Architecture

Aston Martin & AMG confirm they’re getting in bed together Back in December we reported that Aston Martin had new investment from Investindustrial and wondered if that would mean – thanks to an existing relationship between Investindustrial and AMG – if we’d see Aston Martin finally getting access to AMG’s engines and platforms. By May, things had moved on and it was clear that Aston Martin and AMG were in talks for Aston Martin to get access to their engines for the next generation of AML’s cars. Now those talks have borne fruit and AMG and AML have signed a letter of intent for Aston Martin to “access significant Mercedes-AMG GmbH and Mercedes-Benz Cars’ resources, allowing the development of bespoke V8 powertrains and the use of certain components of electric/electronic (e/e) architecture.” Interestingly, there’s no talk of V12 engines – which could mean Aston Martin are going to move from the current Ford V12 for the DB9 and Vanquish to a powerful V8 from AMG – and nor is there talk of sharing platforms.

Quarter of car sellers 'lie'

MORE THAN a quarter (28%) of people selling a car admit to telling a ‘white lie’ to help the sale go ahead. The statistics are higher among young car sellers aged 18-25-years old, where 33% admit to lying to make sure their cars is sold. A study commissioned by vehicle history service HPI found 11% of sellers admitted to hiding problems with their car, while 9% are prepared to alter the mileage of their car to achieve a better price.