1957 Chevrolet 150 210 Belair Nomad Nos Motor Mount 3735064 on 2040-parts.com

Man-made Modern Luxury Materials in Cars

Luxury, within the context of a car interior, has been closely related to the use of wood and leather for over a century. These natural materials have a familiar organic, tactile quality that are intrinsically desirable attributes for most people and, in today's mass manufactured plastic world, they also assume a luxury or premium quality. Throughout the last century, metal, leather and wood have also been progressively supplanted by bakelite, vinyl and then polymer-based plastic materials in car interiors as well.

BMW X1 gets updated for 2014

The 2014 BMW X1 (pictured) gets a tweaked front end The BMW X1 arrived back in 2009 as a high-riding Sports Activity Vehicle (BMW’s preferred description for their compact SUV come crossover) and had a bit of a facelift for 2012 to keep it fresh. Now, two years on from the last facelift, BMW has decided they need to up the ante a little (especially with more competition arriving in the shape of the new Mercedes GLA) so the BMW X1 is getting a mild makeover for 2014. The only real changes you’ll notice are tweaks to the front end of the X1 with new accents on the bumper and a bigger air intake, daytime running lights across the X1 range, new 17″ alloys and the availability of Sparkling Brown metallic to the paint colour options.

New watch alert: Fiero

We've featured some pretty fancy lifestyle successories around here, but until today, we hadn't been able to find anything that captures the spirit of the mighty Pontiac Fiero. But today is a new day. Thanks to the miracles of modern shipping, we're able to order this little beauty straight from Kowloon, Hong Kong.