Club Car Touch Up Paint (beige) on 2040-parts.com

Michelin Challenge Design 2007: The not so ugly truth about rising vehicle safety standards

Can cars be safe and beautiful at the same time? That may not have been the case a few decades ago when automakers were forced to hang those big, ugly so-called federal bumpers off the ends of their vehicles.  With vehicle safety standards on the rise around the globe are designers today feeling a little '70s deja vu when it comes to meeting the challenges of making cars safe as well as more fuel efficient? "(Back then) we said it was the end of automotive styling," says Patrick Le Quement, senior vice president for corporate design at Renault and one of the world's most influential automotive designers.

Concept Car of the Week: Opel CD (1969)

Despite its sophisticated suspension and spacious interior, Opel struggled to sell its big Diplomat luxury sedan. It was 1968 and Opel simply couldn't compete with Mercedes-Benz, the leader in that segment by far. Bob Lutz, then a young executive at GM Europe, thought of using the sedan's chassis to create a large GT Coupe in an attempt to boost both its sales and profile.

Audi A3 e-tron (2015) to launch Audi’s plug-in hybrid attack

Audi’s first plug-in hybrid will hit the UK by 2015, with the electric-assisted drivetrain installed in the A3. E-tron versions of the next-generation A4 and Q7 will follow, as Audi gets serious about plug-ins, and takes the fight to BMW’s forthcoming range of ‘born electric’ i cars. Audi A3 e-tron: the full lowdown Audi UK’s number-crunchers have been trying to calculate the market’s size, to estimate potential demand and help shape the A3 e-tron’s spec.