Recent trends in the automotive industry prioritise the reduction of CO \(_2\) emission by implementing advanced lightweight materials and structures within car production. An unwanted consequence of lightweight design is an increase in the level of vibration and noise. Keele’s applied mathematicians established a powerful multi-parametric framework to aid dynamic modelling of strongly inhomogeneous structures involving lightweight components, e.g. sandwich plates. The developed approach is especially useful to elucidate the particularly harmful low-frequency vibration regimes. The methodology has been adopted by the TPV Group for the manufacturing of modern automotive components, both reducing production costs and promoting a more sustainable environment.