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“Where is the sustainable vehicle design?”

The notion of a 'new paradigm in car design' was a theme running through talks by five panelists at London's Royal College of Art last week, who debated "Seriously now, where is the sustainable vehicle design?" Despite disparate backgrounds, there was broad agreement that a truly sustainable form of personal transportation is unlikely to come from an established automotive firm any time soon. Panelist Rob Holdway of Giraffe Innovation was most vocal in his approach to the subject, saying "Frankly, I think the car is unacceptable - we hear a lot about the sustainable car, but I don't think there is such a thing as a sustainable car". The audience - made up mainly of RCA students - also heard from Nico Sergent of Riversimple about how the company's seven-point business model, and its open source strategy, incentivized the company to build a truly sustainable car and mobility package that the current auto model simply doesn't allow.

Will your next new car stop itself?

Last week in Park City, Utah, a group of us were discussing the chutzpah that some manufacturers have in charging hundreds of dollars for outboard mirrors that dip downward when the vehicle's placed in reverse. The consensus was, “Since the electric motors in the mirrors are already there, and the computers know the car's set to back up, it's only a line of code. A very expensive line of code.” The European Union seems to be thinking along the same lines.

Lexus takes top spot in Kelley Blue Book's 2014 Best Resale Value Awards

We've always known that used Lexus vehicles keep their values well, and this fact has been recently reconfirmed for a third year in a row by Kelley Blue Book. Lexus took the top spot in the Luxury Brand category in the 2014 Best Resale Value awards, which was actually the fourth time overall that Lexus reached that spot, 2011 being the only year when Lexus didn't place first since the award's inception in 2009. Back In 2011 it was Subaru took took the award for Best Brand for resale values, while BMW took the Best Luxury Brand award for that year.