Discover how a car is made: every step to get it on the road

For everyone who loves cars, we enjoy seeing new models, the prototypes that appear from time to time in the specialist press, and the manufacturers’ proposals to keep us hooked on what they are trying to show us. But do we know how a car gets from the drawing board to the dealership? This is a process that goes well beyond what we already know from prototypes and “mules“, which are really just the final stages of production.

The process of bringing that new model, the one a brand is counting on, starts about four years before the car reaches the market. It all begins with a meeting, to be followed by many more, to refine the original idea and give it its final shape, from which work will begin on making it the car’s definitive form.

After this first stage, and even during it, artists set about creating the car’s definitive shape on their drawing boards. They start with the first directions that come out of the meetings, and little by little these get refined. The first sketches are just that, rough drafts with little definition. The last ones are almost photographs, showing nearly every detail of the final design.

CAD design is the next phase. The model is created in three dimensions using design software. This gives it volume and produces an almost real virtual image, which also makes it possible to see how the car works in a simulation.

From the drawing board to the real world

The design process starts four years before the car appears on the marketThe clay mock-up is the next step. In it, the model’s appearance is physically recreated. Whenever a change is made to the computer model, it is also made to the clay one. In this way, one can see in detail how the car changes and how those changes affect it. Once the exterior design is approved, it is ready to move on to the next phase, and it is a model that could be mistaken for the real car. Mind you, the craftsmanship that goes into modelling it weighs almost 5,000 kilos, roughly triple the weight of the final model once it leaves the assembly plant.

In parallel, once the final model has been obtained, the Color & Trim department sets about finding the most suitable exterior colours for the car. Although there are around 100 formulations and about 1,000 kilos of paint, only around 12 final colours get the go-ahead, and these too will undergo changes, cancellations and modifications.

In addition, the best option for decorating the interior is also sought, both in terms of the seats and the rest of the elements that shape the car’s cabin. From the dashboard to the materials to be used and all the other elements that will be in the passenger compartment, everything must be ready to offer all the quality needed to keep the buyer satisfied.

The whole process takes around four years, from that first meeting to determine the initial ideas for the car to be built until production begins. There are also stages where it is tested on the road and on the track, to check whether all the solutions created are truly useful and whether everything meets the expectations placed on the new model. And when it is all finished… back to the beginning with a new project.

Source | Seat