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2013 Nissan Quest base price stays at $26,815

Nissan is giving the 2013 Quest minivan the same base price as the 2012 model—$26,815 including the $825 shipping charges—and cutting the sticker price on two of the more popular trim levels. The top-trim Quest LE sees its sticker price climb of $290 to $43,465, but gets the around-view monitor added to the list of standard equipment. The sticker price of the 2013 Nissan Quest SV, one step up from the base model, was trimmed $1,310 from the 2012 model price to $30,565.

Brazilian students develop soapbox racers for Volkswagen

Brazilian design students have competed for year-long internships at Volkswagen's Brazilian design studio by designing – and racing – soapbox cars. Established 15 years ago by Volkswagen South America design director Luiz Veiga, the Volkswagen Design Talent Contest refreshed its format for 2013 by challenging students to develop a prototype for a gravity-powered soapbox racer instead of asking for sketch and render-based proposals. According to Veiga, Volkswagen was looking for someone "capable of working away from the desk and able to create design solutions, assess and build them".

CAR tech: what's next for car interior design?

Your new car could soon be as thoughtful, powerful and communicative as KITT from the Knight Rider TV series. That’s the ultimate expression of the connected car, a trend which is intensifying rapidly. Over the next five years, car cockpits will be able to relay more information on bigger, multiple screens and through the windscreen, and you’ll be able to give commands far more intuitively thanks to voice recognition and gesture control software.