Car Design News – GM Interactive Design Competition Winners Announced at NAIAS

Car Design News and General Motors today announced the eight winners of their interactive design competition in an awards ceremony on the Cadillac stand at the North American International Auto Show 2012 (NAIAS). Over 300 design students from across the USA and Canada entered the Car Design News-GM Interactive Design Competition, launched in Spring 2011. Entrants were challenged to design both an interior and an exterior design for one of GM's four brands – Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC – each of which set a unique brief.

Ford Figo – Cool for India

The Ford Figo - made in India For has spent a few bob – around £300 million – expanding its car making facilities in India at Chennai to make the plant capable of producing 200,000 cars a year which, as Alan Mullaly, Ford’s CEO said, does show how serious Ford are about the Indian market. The Figo – which is apparently colloquial Italian for ‘Cool’ – shares Ford’s small car platform, which means that under the skin it’s a Fiesta. It looks like a Ford too, with the usual ford ‘Kinetic’ design cues written all over it.

Aston Martin Cygnet Concept – an ‘Urban’ Aston Martin

The Aston Martin Cygnet Concept - an 'Urban' Aston Martin based on the Toyota iQ I have to confess, we didn’t see this coming – an Aston Martin based on the pocket-sized Toyota iQ. This must, by a very long way, be the smallest Aston Martin ever conceived. But it seems to have been conceived to be the ‘Urban’ alternative to a big DB9 or DBS.