2002-2005 Hyundai Sonata & Kia Optima Dashboard 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.

Honda Gear Concept turns up in Montreal

The Honda Gear Concept has been revealed at the Montreal Motor Show this week, a small urban runaround aimed at young car buyers. Just to the north of the Detroit Show, there’s another motor show going on in Montreal, not that anyone expected anything of much interest to appear at the much smaller Montreal Motor Show. But it has.

CDN - Opel/Vauxhall Interactive Competition - Exterior Phase Update

There are less than two weeks left for European design students to submit their exterior entry to the Car Design News - Opel/Vauxhall Interactive Design competition. The competition, which closes to entries on Friday February 11th, asks students to design a lounge exterior, based around the design of one of the three finalists of the interior competition. To register and view the brief go to www.cardesigncontest.com Students must base their exterior design around one of the designs by either: Victor Uribe and his ‘Opel City Lounge' - a maglev-inspired, levitating lounge in which users can sit in a variety of position thanks to the reconfigurable maglev interior surfaces.