1960 Chevrolet Impala Bel Air Biscayne El Camino Airplane Molding Clips (4) 60 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 NV200 (2012): London's next taxi cab?

The London black cab is being thoroughly rebooted, and it's Nissan who's challenging the dominance of the traditional black taxi. It's brought a new NV200 London Taxi to the capital during the 2012 Olympics in its bid to replace one of the world's most iconic vehicles. Nissan claims the NV200 cab will be cheaper, greener, and more user-friendly than the current fleet of LTI TX4s, and we may yet see a fully electric version join the ranks if trials are successful.

Vauxhall Ampera: Try for 30 days – and then give it back

Vauxhall are offering buyers of the range extender Ampera the chance to buy risk free for 30 days and return the Ampera. So in an effort to get more car buyers looking seriously at the Vauxhall Ampera range-extender, Vauxhall have come up with a scheme to allow Ampera buyers to grab a new Ampera, try it for 30 days and then give it back if they don’t get on with it. It’s a clever scheme, because the Ampera is a good car.