Honda Sl175k1 Rear Fender Mount,sl175 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.

Nissan BladeGlider EV, IDx Freeflow and IDx Nismo at Tokyo Motor Show 2013

Not content with unveiling the Nismo version of its GT-R supercar at the Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan also showed three new concepts covering motorsport style, modern design and their latest dramatic electric vehicle thinking. Time to meet the triangular-shaped, three-seat BladeGlider EV, the denim-seated IDx Freeflow and the stylishly go-faster IDx Nismo. Remember a black Nissan motorsport creation called the DeltaWing that graced the 2012 Le Mans 24?

BMW 640d xDrive announced

On Thursday, Greg Kable waxed effusively about the new BMW M550d xDrive coupe, suggesting that it was the ultimate 5-series for everyday use. On Friday, Munich announced that the 5's two-door sibling will receive an AWD diesel variant: the 640d xDrive. While not quite as high-zoot as the 5-series' top oil burner, the 640d's 3.0-liter, twin-turbo straight-six cranks out a respectable 465 lb-ft of almighty torque between 1,500 rpm and 2,500 rpm, plus 313 hp at 4,400 rpm—numbers that, according to BMW, will carry the 6-series to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds.