Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Chevrolet plays the name game with paint color for the upcoming Volt

We know the Chevrolet Volt is going to be green, but what color will it be? Chevy is staging a contest to officially name the color of the Volt, and it's down to three finalists: EV-ergreen, environMINT and Viridian Joule. Two of the names were submitted by California residents, and one came from Florida.

Video: Jaguar's Julian Thomson on the importance of design values

Jaguar's Head of Advanced Design, Julian Thomson, appeared at this month's PSFK Conference in London giving a talk on design values. Thomson's talk, ‘Concepting Dreams, Making Reality Happen', dealt with questions of creating a design story as well as how Jaguar uses the value of its heritage while keeping things original and new. Thomson – the man behind the 2010 C-X75 and the recently revealed F-Type – said, "You can't get a good design story if you don't look at your heritage, where you came from, where your values came from." He went on to discuss the ‘sad years of Jaguar', from around 1968 to 2004 where Jaguar was too timid to develop and "essentially made the same-looking car." He put this down to a reluctance on Jaguar's part to move too far away from its successful models and, quite interestingly, because "not only did we start doing market research, we started asking Americans what they wanted." Watch the full video on the left.

BMW's Domagoj Dukec on the 4 Series Convertible [w/Video]

BMW's head of exterior design Domagoj Dukec has explained how the 4 Series Convertible's design sets it apart from the 3 Series in a new video. Dukec says that aside from the fact the 4 Series Convertible is visibly wider than its predecessor with an increased track and wheelbase, its design is unique. While describing the changes to features such as the kidney grille, headlamps and the lines running down the hood, Dukec also compares it to the coupé.