Man-made Modern Luxury Materials in Cars

Luxury, within the context of a car interior, has been closely related to the use of wood and leather for over a century. These natural materials have a familiar organic, tactile quality that are intrinsically desirable attributes for most people and, in today's mass manufactured plastic world, they also assume a luxury or premium quality. Throughout the last century, metal, leather and wood have also been progressively supplanted by bakelite, vinyl and then polymer-based plastic materials in car interiors as well.

New entry-level Caterham Seven to cost under £17k

The new entry-level, sub-£17k Caterham Seven If there’s one thing you know about the Caterham Seven – Caterham’s recreation of Colin Chapman’s iconic Lotus Seven – it’s that it’s not b exactly laden with fripperies and heavy technology. So when Caterham tell us that they’re soon going to launch a new, entry-level, Seven that takes the Seven “…back to its simple design roots” we do wonder how much simpler the Seven can be than it already is. But Caterham say the new Seven will be probably the most fuel efficient car they produce with a new EU-6 compliant engine providing accessible fun for ‘under £17k’.

Audi S3 Sportback (2013) prices revealed

Audi has revealed prices for the new S3 Sportback ahead of its arrival in September. The BMW M135i and Mercedes A45 AMG rival starts at £31,260 for the six-speed manual, but you’ll want to pay an extra £1480 and get the six-speed twin-clutch S-tronic 'box that helps the five-door version of Audi’s 296bhp Quattro hot hatch see off 0 to 62mph in 4.9sec. How does it compare to its closest rivals?