Although we’ve known about it for several weeks, the official announcement has been made that Derek Jenkins has left VW’s North American Design Center in Santa Monica, CA. He vacated the position as VW’s Head of Design in North America and has taken up a new role as Mazda’s Head of Design in North America.

The new position will give Derek more responsibility for overall product design. It will allow him to develop a cohesive design approach for the Mazda range, using his extensive knowledge of the US market to tailor the product.
Mazda’s gain is our loss. Derek was a good friend to eurotuner magazine, giving us behind-the-scenes insight into Volkswagen projects and even allowing us to feature his own modified VW GTI (see our 6/07 issue).
He was also the driving force behind VW’s string of SEMA show concepts, with triumph’s like the Jetta and Passat R GT, the R GTI and last year’s Performance CC receiving wide acclaim. We just hope the void he leaves will be filled by somebody with a similar understanding and sympathy for the Euro aftermarket.

Furthermore, among his list of accomplishments he was responsible for two of VW’s greatest concept cars of recent times: the Microbus and GX3. The spiritual successor to the original T1 VW ’bus, the Microbus reinvented the minivan format as an ultra-cool multi-purpose vehicle. The concept remains high on the list of vehicles VW should have built. The more recent GX3 was an adventurous rear-engined, three-wheeled, open cockpit machine with lightweight construction guaranteeing high performance. Designed for the US market, it would have been eligible for the car pool lanes on the way to the racetrack. Its low-cost specification would have made it a budget alternative to machines like the Lotus Elise and Ariel Atom, but again it was consigned to history.

We know the decision to leave VW wasn’t an easy one for Derek, a self-confessed Euro enthusiast. We also suspect VW may regret letting him go, losing a passionate, experienced designer with genuine flair and an intuitive understand of the US market.
eurotuner would like to wish Derek well in the new venture but encourage him not to swap his GTI just yet!