Major Developments » Automobile

Worthy And Best Car For American Roads

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:37:47 +0000

In earlier days, American cars were short of some good quality. But this is no longer true. In current era many American cars have good reputation in automobile market. They offer better fuel economy, cutting edge design and many more other features. Some of the worthy American cars are:

Buick Enclave – This is excellent choice for luxury and high-end stylish design. It also gives dynamic highway performances.

Chevrolet Corvette – Corvette is equipped with 6.2-liter v8 engine and six speed manual transmission. 19 mpg fuel economy is the impressive feature of this car.

Chevrolet Malibu – It is comparatively a stylish and generous featured sedan model. It is equipped with a four cylinders and V6 engine.

Ford F-150 – It is redesigned model of F-150. In 2009, it won the North American truck of the year. It is packed with many thoughtful features like a side step, comfortable interior, navigational system and many more.

Ford Fusion - It is a spacious, outstanding and dynamic sedan hybrid car. It gives 39 mpg fuel economy in city.

Top Rated Minivans For Consumer

admin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:38:59 +0000

Minivan is a comfortable transport vehicle, which offers eight passenger seats and large space for cargo. More number of passengers and a good view of road while driving are the main features of a minivan.

These are following high performance minivans available for consumer in the market:

Honda Odyssey – Redesign of earlier Odyssey is the major exaggerating features of this vehicle. It offers dual climate control, which play significant role in winter season.

Toyota Sienna – Sienna is a well-designed, comfortable, roomy style minivan. This vehicle is best for family road trip. It provides smooth drive, good visibility, many cup boards, and excellent fuel economy.

MAZDA5 – This is a cheap and best car for those families who are looking for full-size mini vans. It includes low cost price tag, greater maneuverability, and lower fuel costs. These vehicles also provide smooth driving, simple technology and excellent fuel economy.

Chrysler Town and Country – The 2010 Chrysler Town is highly innovative and friendly features minivan. It is equipped with 3.8-liter engine with 6 cylinders.

Kia Sedona – It is a total price value vehicle. Within a low cost price it provides all virtual comfort, convenience and safety measures.

Dodge Grand Caravan – This mini van delivers many comfortable features with its latest technology. It is capable to figure out when next oil change is due and then reminds you by some alert mode.

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Best Consumer Trusted Vehicle 2010

admin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:38:35 +0000

Consumer trust gives a clear meaning of vehicle quality. With the survey of many editorial and reports following vehicles are categorized below as best consumer trusted vehicles:

Chevrolet Equinox
This is a powerful, efficient and high performance SUV. It offers spacious cabin, luxurious interior and smooth driving.

Honda Accord
Accord is an appealing combination of space and comfort. It offers smooth ride, and reputation for reliability.

Honda Civic
Civic comes in small segment car category. This smartly designed vehicle includes wide array of configuration.

Nissan Altima
This is a major top pick family car. 2009 Altima offers unique styling, athletic driving manner and a cozy cabin. This is majorly available in coupe or Sedan varieties.

Honda CR-V
Honda CR-V is a highly stable and controlled vehicle. It includes intuitive controls and above average driving dynamics. This vehicle is equipped with 2.4 liter four cylinder engines and cylinder options.

GMC Terrain
This is high-defined crossover, which is almost same as RAV 4 and CR-V. It is a top pick consumer’s vehicle.

Toyota RAV4
It is a top pick crossover SUV that offers spacious, comfortable, easy drive experience. It is equipped with V 6 cylinder engine and offers kid-size third row seat.

Major cars introduced in Geneva Motor Show 2010

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:37:20 +0000

The 80th edition of the Geneva International Motor Show introduced latest environmentally and ecologically friendly automobiles, including electric or alternatively powered automobiles. Apart from these green cars, it also showcased some breath taking high performance cars. Overall, it has a good collection of vehicles suitable for almost every person. We will take a look at some of the major models that were introduced in this show.

The well-known manufacturer of high-performance sports cars, Porsche unveiled three hybrid models namely, the new Cayenne S Hybrid, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid racing car and 918 Spyder prototype.

The two-seat, ultra-high-performance 918 Spyder was the star of the motor show. With a seven-speed PDK gearbox, it is powered by a 500-horsepower 3.4-litre V8. When it comes to for the green statistics, it is said to consume just 3.0 litres per 100 kilometres with reduced C02 emissions. Another attraction of this car is it accelerates to 100 kilometres an hour in just 3.2 seconds.

Equally popular sports car maker Lotus also introduced green as well as performance based model called Evora 414E Hybrid.

Honda introduced a unique looking one seater, three-wheeler. Honda’s 3R-C is an electric vehicle. It looks as a good prospect for the future to limit the traffic congestions in urban areas.

Lexus contributed to the green movement with CT 200h compact hybrid. It can run for up to two km at city speeds on electricity alone.

Hyundai’s i-flow introduced a mid-sized sedan concept with a 1.7L diesel engine with a new six-speed dual-clutch gearbox kit.

Volkswagen launched its second edition of the Touareg sport-ute. It is lighter in weight and said to have increased mileage.

Lamborghini introduced its new Gallardo LP 570-4 Superleggera. Its 570-hp, 5.2L direct-injection V10 is said to have reduced fuel consumption and emissions by 20.5% compared to its earlier model.

Mazda exhibited its next-generation minivan called Mazda5 mini.

The Volvo introduced all new S60 sport sedan. Its high-performance, 304-hp, turbocharged 3.0L six-cylinder pleases the driving experience.

Automobile Industry Suffers Recession

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:29:38 +0000

Recession started to effect on global scale economy from the mid of 2008. This resulted in declining automobile sales and triggered widespread automotive industry crisis. This recession majorly affected the US automotive car industry. Many US car manufacturers face the problem of bailout and restructuring.

As per the New York Times, recession occurred mainly to US car industry because of bad business practices by “Big Three” U.S. automakers. These are:

General Motors
Ford
Chrysler

This fact can be justified by the example of Asian car manufacturer. These foreign-owned car companies also manufacture automobile in US and experienced no such problems. They have deep pockets and ample credits.

Because of following reason the US Big Three suffered in the recession:

Expensive automobile fuels price in the 2003-2008 oil crisis led to turn from SUV’s (sport utility vehicles)
High labor costs and their other counterparts like salaries, benefits, healthcare, and pensions.
Uncompetitive cost structures

The year 2008 heavily destructed the US automobile industry.

North American Cars And Truck Awards: 2010

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:46:13 +0000

North American cars and truck awards are the most prestigious award in automotive industry. These awards are judged by 50 most experienced and respective journalist of Canada and US. They represent newspaper, magazine, website and many more.

In 2010, 49 veteran journalists judged awards. This year Ford fusion hybrid bagged the North American car of the year award and Ford Transit Connect won the North American truck of the year award.

This is the third time in 17 years of awards ceremony when one automaker has won both awards. Earlier in the year of 2006 and 2007 Honda and General Motor respectively won both awards.

The major objective of this award is to search the most outstanding vehicles of the year based on factors like innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction, price value.

To win this award vehicle must be “all-new” or “substantially changed” from the earlier design.

Three finalists for North America car of the year are:

The Ford Fusion Hybrid with 241 points
The Volkswagen with 146 points
The Buick LaCrosse with 103 points

Three finalists for North America truck of the year are:

The Transit Connect with 213 points
The Chevrolet Equinox with 183 points
The Subaru Outback with 94 points

Last year the North American Car of the Year award was won by the Hyundai Genesis where as North American Truck of the Year award was won by the Ford F-150.

Different Innovative Car Models of 2005

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:40:14 +0000

The year 2005 was a strong season for new and redesigned models of cars. Consumer’s got plenty of options from car dealers this year. After this success, manufacturers promised to develop plenty of new models in the coming years. A renewed emphasis on passenger cars, sports cars and family cars were apparent among the new and redesigned models of 2005.

New sports cars provide many high performance specifications to consumers. For example, the exclusive release of limited-production Ford GT super car. In the passenger-car segment, Chrysler kept its new rear-wheel release. It was the 300 Sedan, which includes Hemi-powered 300C technology. A redesigned M45 from Infiniti was also debuted in the spring of 2005.

Apart from these various super models many other designed cars were also launched. These were smaller crop of SUVs, add vans, new versions of Toyota Highlander hybrid vehicle and Tuner. Thus, overall 2005 model cars showcased various innovative shades in automotive industry.

Race To Shorten the Automotive Development Time

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:36:58 +0000

Manufacturers in the automotive industry are constantly looking for new ways to maintain their competitiveness. Only developing innovative products as soon as possible could make a difference. To be top seller in the market, manufacturers have to suffer various pressures like reducing product development time, safety issues, fuel efficiency, warranty costs, and styling. These goals are set to meet the increased demands and expectations.

Time-to-market policy is a critical issue in manufacturing industry. As per this policy competitor manufacturer has to launch his product as soon as possible. It all because if the same design is launched by other manufacturer before them in market, then the value of this innovation will get lost. A few days delay could result in a loss of millions of dollars loss. So, to reduce automotive development time and to achieve desired goals, manufactures are using engineering simulation technologies. Simulation technologies includes following major steps:

Integrated simulation
Refining ride
Racecar design
CFD for design improvement
Advanced aerodynamics
Engine development

Manufacturers, to win the race of competitiveness in the automotive market did make all these developments. This race to market yields many profits to customers like lower engineering costs, reduced prototypes tooling costs, and best product from core teams.

The Impact Of Hybrid Cars On The 2005 Automotive Industry

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:10:36 +0000

Hybrid vehicles are a kind of automobiles which use two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. It is generally referred as a hybrid electric vehicle.

Hybrid cars were introduced since 1902 and they had a tremendous effect on automotive field. In the year of 2005, many major changes were implemented in hybrid car industry. With this development, about 200,000 hybrids cars of different models were launched and sold in the year of 2005. There has been an estimation to sell 3 million cars year within a decade.

Toyota and Honda were the leading manufactures in this global hybrid market. The Toyota Prius was the super seller brand over all other hybrid car models. About 107,897 units were sold in the year 2005. It represented 52 percent sale of the total hybrid car market. The next most popular hybrid was the Honda Civic Hybrid, of which over 25,000 vehicles were sold.

This fast sales growth in hybrid car market clearly shows that a new trend towards the hybrid car adoption is emerging.

Honda increases the car recall that is already reaching 1 million

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:57:03 +0000

Honda expanded its global recall of cars because of a problem in the airbags to another 437,000 vehicles globally. This adds to the vows of the auto industry that is already suffering from the massive recall announced by the top global car manufacturer Toyota that ran into more than 8 millions. Honda has been increasing the number of recalls since it first announced the fault in the airbags 15 months back. The issue is old but it is gained more focus in the midst of the biggest recall of Toyota.

This massive recall also included some models that date back to 2001 and 2002. However, there is no question about the impact on the future sales and reputation of the Japanese auto major in the international markets. They will be some erosion in the brand value in the developed markets where there are more substitutes for the segments. But in the long run this will increase the trust on the company.

Toyota recalls its vehicles to fix gas pedals

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:39:23 +0000

Toyota’s reputation in the U.S. as a builder of dependable, high-quality cars stumbles due to the concerns over the safety of the passengers. Last year it recalled 4.2 million vehicles over concerns that accelerator pedals could get struck under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration and sometimes leading to accidents. It was the sixth-largest recall ever in the United States. This problem was blamed for several accidents, including an accident involving a Lexus that accelerated to more than 120 mph before crashing.

Toyota recently said that it is recalling more 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. to fix accelerator pedals. The recall includes the vehicles 2009-2010 RAV4, the 2009-2010 Corolla, the 2009-2010 Matrix, the 2005-2010 Avalon, the 2007-2010 Camry, the 2010 Highlander, the 2008-2010 Sequoia and the 2007-2010 Tundra.

Toyota said that in some rare cases, the mechanism of gas pedal wears down, making the accelerator to become harder to press, slower to return or in some worst cases, it gets stuck.

Toyota recommends that drivers of the recalled vehicles should apply their brakes firmly if the gas pedal gets stuck and immediately approach the local dealer.

Honda recalls cars over fault in window switch

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:39:48 +0000

A child was killed when fire broke out in a Honda car last year due to a faulty switch. The Honda Motor Co. then recalled 646,000 units of its Fit/Jazz and City automobiles globally over a fault in the window switch.

Except Japan, it recalled 140,000 cars in the United States and covers these models in North America, South America, Europe, South Africa and Asia. In Japan, Fit is Honda’s best-selling model.

Earlier Toyota Motor Corp’s announced it would extend its recall of millions of cars to Europe and China due to faulty floor mats and accelerator pedals.

According to Honda, the recall was to fix a defective master switch, which could cause water to enter the power window switch and may cause fire. There were three cases of fire, two in the United States and one in South Africa, due to this defect.

A Honda’s spokesman said that the company had recalled all 2002 to 2008 year model Jazz units in South Africa. It is also said to recall 172,000 vehicles in Britain. And at the recall a waterproof switch will be fitted to the window to avoid any damage that can cause fire.

China the World’s Largest Auto Market

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:40:31 +0000

China became the world’s largest auto market last year displacing the U.S in car sales. With a 46 percent increase in vehicle sales to 13.6 million units, China was the top auto market last year. It was helped by government measures including a consumer tax cut on small cars. Except the last January, where car sales dropped, as the tax cut didn’t take effect till then, there was a huge rise in car sales in 2009.

General Motors said January sales in China rose 97 percent compared to the same month last year to 219,192 units. Ford Motor Co. reported that its passenger vehicle sales in China last month surged more than 100 percent from a year earlier. Toyota said its sales in China rose 53 percent to 72,000 units this January.

General Motors and Toyota Motors maintained strong sales in China in January this year. However, the country’s car market this year is likely to fall as many companies such as Toyota and Honda are recalling due to some technical faults.

Toyota as part of a global recall of some of its vehicles due to faulty gas pedals, is recalling 75,552 units of RAV4 sport-utility vehicles in China. We can’t say how much it will affect Toyota’s sales in the country as of now. On the other side General Motors expects to sell more than two million units in China this year.