Conceptual thinking

Automakers' concept vehicles test the limits, but even extreme dream cars harbor some production content.

There was a time when concept cars were stylistic flights of fancy, pointing the way to an atomic jet-powered future that never was. But even in those days, when the main point of concept cars was to lure auto-show visitors to the manufacturer's stand to see the production models, the zoomy exercises steered the styling of production cars, as they gained cues like fighter-plane-inspired tail fins. And hands-free autopilot driving is probably now at least as far off in the future as it was believed to be then, if lawyers ever let it happen.

Today's concept cars serve a wide variety of roles, from helping develop and showcase emerging technologies, to testing the waters of new style and color trends, to simply previewing upcoming new models.