Opel has appointed Martin Smith as director of design at Adam Opel, succeeding Hans Seer, who is retiring after a 40 year career with the manufacturer.

Smith previously served as vehicle line design director responsible for the Astra and its derivatives. He has had a long career in the German car industry dating back to 1973 when he joined Porsche and after joining Audi in 1977 he designed the original Audi Quattro.

Smith, who moved to Opel in 1997, said: 'Since joining the company my goal has been to help re-establish Opel as a design leader in the European industry. Hopefully, I am in an even better position to do that now.' 'We have made great strides recently. We've developed a new form language with the Opel Speedster - one which has an identifiable dynamic presence on the road - and with the new Vectra we have taken this new Opel look into our volume production vehicles. The interior quality of the Vectra has been recognised as a major step forward. We will be building on this progress with all our future vehicles,' he added.