Credit to Edmunds.com
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/d...rticleId=104734

Solstice Designer Bolts to Mazda
Date Posted 02-16-2005

Summary: Franz Von Holzhausen has been named design director for Mazda's North American Operations.

Full story: Franz von Holzhausen has resigned from General Motors to join Japanese automaker Mazda, an affiliate of Ford Motor Co., as design director of North American Operations.

Von Holzhausen, who was design manager at GM, is best known as the designer of the original Pontiac Solstice concept. At GM, he was responsible for managing the design process for several production programs, including the 2006 Solstice and its sister car, the 2007 Saturn Sky.

Prior to GM, Von Holzhausen was assistant chief designer at Volkswagen.

At Mazda, he will be responsible for overseeing the design and development of all vehicles for the company's North American operations.

Von Holzhausen is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

What this means to you: The zoom-zoom folks should be putting even more pizzazz into their future designs.

 

Interesting. Very interesting to say the least.

 

Just leave the 8 alone style wise...lol

But, the Solstice was a pretty good looking...heck, the Saturn version looks even better.

 

<linky no workie>

Mazda North American Operations Announces New Design Director Text courtesy Mazda Motor Corporation
edited 02-17-2005

Franz von Holzhausen Assumes Director Post



Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today announced the appointment of Franz von Holzhausen to the position of Design Director, effective February 21. In his new position, von Holzhausen will be responsible for overseeing the design and development of all vehicles for Mazda North American Operations. He will be based at Mazda’s North American design and research & development center in Irvine, Calif.

Von Holzhausen joins Mazda from General Motors where he held the position of Design Manager, responsible for managing the design process for multiple programs including the Pontiac Solstice concept and production vehicles, as well as Saturn derivatives. Prior to his time at GM, von Holzhausen served as Assistant Chief Designer for Volkswagen.

"The appointment of von Holzhausen underlines the importance that Mazda is placing on designing, engineering and building vehicles of the highest quality specifically for the North American market," said Robert Davis, Senior Vice President, Product Development and Quality, Mazda North American Operations. "Franz brings years of innovative design expertise to our team and we anticipate great things from him, the entire Mazda North American design team and from all future Mazda vehicles."

Von Holzhausen completed his studies at Syracuse University in the field of Industrial Design and is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Transportation Design. Mazda North America Operations is responsible for the sales and marketing, customer parts and services support of Mazda vehicles in the United States. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., MNAO has more than 700 dealerships nationwide. The company’s design and research & development facilities are located at a separate facility in Irvine, employing nearly 100 people dedicated to the design and development of vehicles specifically for the North American market.

 

good and bad

good- this guy designs some nice cars
bad- he'll be in charge of "Americanizing" the cars for this market i.e wider seats softer suspensions eeewww.....

 

It probably would be fair to look at his GM work (and any other work) before forming an opinion.

That said, can anyone point me to all his work -- besides the Solstice (which looks pretty good)?

Thanks.

 

i hope mazda cars doenst start looking like Saturns and other GM products.