Arp Stainless Steel Bolt 760-1005 on 2040-parts.com

Hot seats: from design to delivery [sponsored]

As the user demands on car interiors are increasingly influenced by their growing design consciousness, so suppliers like Lear strive to bring better-engineered seating to satisfy. 2013 was another big year for Lear, as Jeanette Puig-Pey, its global fabric & leather design manager, enthuses: "At our ‘Design2Perform' event we celebrated the unveiling of our brand new collection, with special emphasis on color and texture and our TeXstyle Enhance product, perfect for customization. Laser etching is part of this offering, it is exclusive to Lear Corporation and can be used to add refined design elements to cloth and leather." A mix of fabric and leather in seating is not new but is often seen by the consumer as a cheaper alternative to full leather.

Lexus tops J.D. Power survey in the UK

Lexus tops the UK J.D. Power Survey for the ninth year running People who buy a Lexus are buying in to something very specific. They are willing to pay a premium price for a well-built car that doesn’t go wrong and which is quiet and compliant.

Euro NCAP gets tough on whiplash

[ad#ad-1] As we reported a few days ago, the Renault Megane succeeded in achieving the joint highest ever score in the Euro NCAP tests. But as we noted then, this was the last bunch of NCAP tests under the existing regulations, and all changes from the New Year. As an introduction to the new tests, NCAP has just released test figures for whiplash testing on a group of 25 cars recently tested, and the results are rather enlightening.