The use of plastics on three Chrysler Group vehicles won four of five categories in the 32nd annual Society of Plastics Engineers Innovation Awards ceremonies. The extruded polymer film fascia on the '02 Dodge Neon, which won the Process and...
PARIS Paris in September: When one's automotive thoughts wander to the whimsical and the exotic. Lovers of sheet metal used the romantic city to escape the real world and gaze upon ultra-luxury offerings such as the new Maybach and the Volkswagen...
Your mother always told you it's what's inside that counts. After giving interiors short shrift for two or three decades, Detroit's Big 3 auto makers have come to the same conclusion. It's going to start becoming apparent as new '03 and '04 cars...
One size, three colors. That sums up the interior design theme for too many vehicles today. No matter what brand or model, especially among domestic brands, there's not much originality. Grey, black and beige are the standard colors, comingled...
The Coalmine. What was the General Motors executive talking about? Then I understood. He was describing the interiors of his own new cars. Uniformly gray. Uniformly cheap. Uniformly awful. Get into a GM car yourself. Don't you think coalmine...
SANTA BARBARA, CA Invite journalists to test drive the new Navigator on narrow twisty roads in the hills of Southern California? That usually wouldn't be the intuitive venue to show off the capabilities of a huge sport/utility vehicle that weighs...
BIRMINGHAM, AL No, we're not in Greenbow County. And the movie character Forrest Gump wouldn't be able to compare the '03 Subaru Forester to a box of chocolates. After building its reputation on all-wheel-drive cars for several decades, you know...
Mercedes-Benz says the enormous Vision GST concept, first seen in Detroit in January, isn't really suited to Europe's crowded conditions. Instead, parent DaimlerChrysler AG is planning two different GSTs for European and North American...
Visteon Corp., the top supplier to Ford Motor Co., manages a coup of sorts by winning a spot in General Motors Corp.'s strategy to outsource vehicle interiors to suppliers. The Dearborn, MI, company makes fewer seats and components than the...
To many auto critics, the 2002 North American International Auto Show will be remembered cynically as the year of the silver station wagon, but to at least a few, it will be the year interior design finally turned the corner in Detroit. At least...