Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.

Scion reveals rear-wheel-drive FR-S concept

The collaboration between Toyota and Subaru to develop a rear-wheel-drive sports car hasn't been a secret. It's been common knowledge that the car would feature a boxer four-cylinder engine, but there were questions about what badge the Toyota version of the car would wear when it hit the U.S. market.

BMW i3 gets four-star Euro NCAP safety rating

BMW’s i3 electric city car has scored a four-star Euro NCAP safety rating in the latest round of crash testing by the European car safety body. Although the i3 recorded strong results in the adult and child occupant protection categories, it missed out on a maximum five-star score due to weaker showings in the pedestrian protection and safety assist classes. On Bing: see pictures of the BMW i3Find out how much a used BMW costs on Auto Trader This is somewhat surprising as the BMW i3 features cutting edge technology in the city car sector, including a strong but lightweight carbonfibre body shell.