John Reed, motor industry correspondent, explores car design since Henry Ford’s Model T, 100 years old this year, and looks at today’s wilder visions for the cars of the future, as oil prices stay high and economic times darken. He shows how cars have embodied our hopes and dreams. In the jet age, cars were built to look like planes. In the 1970s oil shocks catapulted functional but efficient Japanese cars to bestselling spots.

Looking to the future, John Reed reveals the wilder visions of car designers. BMW shows off a concept car built out of cloth that can change shape. Nissan has dreamed up a car that swivels. He points to the new focus of the auto makers, Asia, and how that is changing the look of cars. And he asks if the car in fact has any future with the younger generation, and in emerging markets like India.