Buick to scrap trim levels

Buick will eliminate its “CX,” “CXL” and “CXS” trim levels in the 2012 model year, opting for a few “stair-step” packages instead, one of the brand's top marketers said today. “It isn't befitting a premium brand. No other premium brand has those designations,” said Craig Bierley, Buick-GMC director of advertising and sales promotion.

Full-scale model of 5th Peugeot Design Competition winner revealed in Shanghai

A life-sized model of Carlos Arturo Torres Tovar's RD concept, for which the 26 year old Columbian designer won the 5th Peugeot Design competition, is on display at the Peugeot stand in Shanghai. The 'RD' concept was chosen via an online internet poll and a competition jury headed by Peugeot's Managing Director, Jean Philippe Collin in September last year. The theme for the 2008 competition was 'Imagine the Peugeot in the worldwide megapolis of tomorrow'.

Hongik University's transportation design process

Hongik University in Seoul, Korea, is one of the preeminent design schools in the country with a diverse range of programs. But the school's transportation design department has also developed a unique approach for concept ideation. At the International Transportation Design Forum in Pforzheim, Germany, Professor Joo Hyun Chung from the school's Transportation Design course gave Car Design News an exclusive insight into the process, explaining how students express their ideas into 3D surfaces directly, using materials such as paper and wire for the first exploration of the form rather than the traditional 2D to 3D process.