Building a new car from scratch

Esquire has published the best article I've ever seen on what is involved with creating a new car, in this case the Cadillac ATS. Article via longform.org.

Thomas Prevost, a designer for the ATS, heard from a hide supplier that if automobile companies were not using leather to furnish their rides, every year those remaining cowhides would form a stack as high as the Empire State Building . Prevost, a Frenchman, pronounces Cadillac "Kah-dee-yak." He helped design the interior of the car, the carpet, the leather, and the grain. The carpet was new. It was a thicker "loop" carpet, just for the ATS, a year of work. And at fourteen ounces, two ounces thicker than the tuft carpet in other Cadillacs. But compromises had to be made. The loop carpet was too heavy, even by two lousy ounces. So were the doors' interior supports. The car had to be light. So the loop carpet was scratched, perhaps to be used in a car of the future. A new, lighter, natural-fiber material was created for the door support.