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Beijing Auto Show 2014 – Trends and Overview

With the New York auto show just one week earlier, many carmakers took the decision to use the Beijing show as their preferred choice of launch event. While the NYC expo holds decent sway on the US East coast, it could never hope to compete with the lure of the world's biggest – and fastest expanding – car market. With over 1,300 cars on display from scores of brands – both domestic and foreign – it's a fascinating bazaar of automotive hardware across the entire bandwidth of the industry.

Mercedes-Benz F125 concept

Mercedes today revealed the F125 concept at the Frankfurt motor show. Claimed to represent ‘a radical reinterpretation of a sports sedan', the new car is also said to preview the next generation S-Class. Created in close collaboration between the technical research and development departments, as well as the Advanced Design Studios in Sindelfingen and Carlsbad, CA, Mercedes says the exterior design of the F125 is a further development of the company's current design strategy, with organic use of body surfaces, a cab-forward stance and short overhangs.

30 years of Seat Ibiza, yet the design compromises sound familiar

Over four model generations and thirty years, the Seat Ibiza's design has been overseen by some influential people; Giorgetto Giugiaro, Walter de Silva and Luc Donckerwolke shaped the Ibizas of the past, while the facelift of the most-recent model is the first to receive input from current Seat design director, Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos. Volkswagen has been the majority shareholder of Seat since 1986, taking full control in 1990. In that time, despite the designers who have passed through its doors, the brand has struggled to find its position within the Group.