Bosch 80039 Glow Plug-diesel Glow Plug on 2040-parts.com

Fitness-focused autonomous vehicle pedals to victory in Interior Motives Design Awards

Earlier tonight, on the eve of the first Paris Motor Show press day, the world's top designers and automotive journalists assembled at L'Espace Clacquesin in Paris to witness sponsors Ford and Volkswagen announce the 2014 Interior Motives Student Design of the Year: ‘Life Cycle' by Jason Chen and Dirk Wan of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, USA. Launched in January of this year and themed ‘Beyond Styling: a Design for Life', the competition asked students to create projects around three diverse but specific briefs: ‘Beyond Autonomous', which posed the question of what would happen if we were to combine the latest developments in computing and robotics with automobile design; ‘An Interior for Life', in which students were asked to focus on one feature or element of a car's interior and adapt it for dual use in a user's ordinary life; and ‘Pickup Truck of 2030', which challenged the young designers to extrapolate what the future might hold for this popular and versatile mode of transport. This year's contest attracted more than 200 entries from students based at 57 schools in 24 different countries.

2014 Kia Sportage gets a mild facelift

2014 Kia Sportage (pictured) gets a mild facelift The Kia Sportage is Kia’s best-selling model in the UK, and Kia are keen to keep things that way so they’ve given the Sportage a bit of a tweak for 2014. The changes are quite modest – just enough to mark this Sportage as a 2014 model – with a new version of the ‘Tiger Nose’ grill with added chrome and restyled mesh, better back lights, new 16-18″ alloys and LED tail lights on the top-end models. The interior has been given a bit of a lift too with new soft touch trim on the doors, nano paint finish on the dashboard and centre console, heated steering wheel and electric driver’s seat on top-end models and repositioned audio tweeters for better sound.

Mercedes S600 Pullman – 6 versions planned?

New Mercedes S600 Pullman rendered The Mercedes S600 Pullman – arriving in 2013/14 to replace the unloved Maybach – will come in a range of six versions. The demise of Maybach has finally been confirmed, with Mercedes-Benz deciding to concentrate its Rolls and Bentley bashing plans on the S-Class, with plans to add a range-topping Pullman model to the new S-Class when it arrives in 2013. We had thought it likely that Mercedes would offer just a proper halo S Class Pullman in the shape of an S600 Pullman with a thumping great V12 nestling up front.