BMW 4 Series Coupe: Video

The new 2014 BMW 4 Series (pictured) on video It seems to have taken a while for the BMW 4 Series – the replacement for the old 3 Series Coupe – to arrive – but now it’s here. Revealed last week, the 5 Series is a convincing take on a coupe version of the 3 Series, so convincing – and with more room in the back than before – that its seems likely it will take a bigger share of ’3 Series’ sales than the previous generation coupe. Not only is the overall package of the new 4 Series more convincing, so is the spec level.

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.

Toyota talks powertrain plans

After trailing many of its competitors in the recent engine- and transmission-technology wars, Toyota Motor Corp. will launch a swath of powertrains in the next several years, a top powertrain r&d executive said. Koei Saga, senior managing officer in charge of drivetrain r&d, said that Toyota is investing heavily in turbocharged engines, larger displacement Atkinson cycle engines, continuously variable and fixed-gear automatic transmissions, and new hybrid and fuel cell technologies.