The big news this week was the long-expected announcement ZF would swallow TRW whole, re-establishing the respected chassis systems and safety equipment maker as a separate business division in a US$13.5bn deal.

By coincidence, colleague Simon Warburton was at one of TRW’s always interesting show and tell events in the US when the announcement was made but word about the merger quickly went out to the assembled multitude – no questions and no comment, if you please. So we put an analyst on the case and his verdict, generally, is a good fit.

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Meanwhile, Simon found plenty of tales to tell with both TRW and the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) – here, here, here, here and here.

It was announced a while ago and now Tata Motors has begun selling its locally assembled Jagaur XJ sedan in India – with a two-litre I4 engine and a three-litre diesel to follow. Tata has the plant space in Pune and KD assembly makes sense as it reduces the price as less import duty is paid on a kit than a complete car. The Land Rover Freelander and Jaguar XF were already being made in India.

In Russia, General Motors decided to shake up Opel with a new chief, production cuts and redundancies and we learned more about the plan to build the next Nissan Micra in France. That should please the French unions.

Finally, BMW’s Rolls-Royce announced its biggest ever order, for 30 Phantoms (this wood ‘n’ creamy leather traditionalist will refrain from further comment but I’d advise donning dark glasses before looking at the photos) and engineers at a Nissan tech centre decided to build themselves a runabout based on a Leaf EV.

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Have a nice weekend.

Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com