Project Arise

Archive for the ‘Automotive News’ Category

Despite the negative automotive news, the reality is we are a auto driven people. Our culture has captured the joy of one’s “first car”. Meaning, if you ask anyone, they undoubtedly will have a memory of their first car. Now, whether or not they can tell you how exactly they got their first car is another.

Here’s what we need to understand. It is a topic that also needs to be taught to our kids and college age students. It is how to go and buy a car. Car buying can be a complicated and difficult process. Unless you make yourself knowledgeable before even heading out the door to begin your car buying.

Today’s online resources make car buying much easier than it used to be, here’s why. You can research what type of car you’re looking for and check out people who already own them. The feedback is helpful. You can find some of the most interesting tidbits from there. Everything from wipers, heated seats, moon-roof, etc. Also, You can also get into the nitty gritty details of the engine efficiency, as well as, gas mileage. The multiple websites that can offer you assistance in car buying is amazing.

Deciding what car is right for you is one of the biggest challenges in car buying. However, here are a few things to consider. Buying a new car is great in that you know the history of the vehicle. Also, you have choice about color, engine, details, packages etc. Also, you will have a better chance of getting a lower interest rate. Used cars give you the advantage of pricing that is usually much lower. On top of that, some programs for buying used cars can take away some of the advantage new cars used to hold on the market.

In the end, the best advice is to know what you need and then research the cars that will fit those needs. If fuel economy is your number one need then look at sites that rank cars by fuel economy. If cargo space is your biggest concern, you can find that information easily, also. The reality is today’s information rich society gives a lot of advantage to the consumer that did not exist in years past. So, buy with confidence.
Notes: how to go and buy a car.

Radiator coolant is vital during hot weather because it prevents your car from overheating. The coolant increases the boiling point for the water in your cooling system, while drawing heat away from vulnerable engine parts. But do you know why anti-freeze is equally as important in cold weather? Because it prevents the same water in your car’s system from freezing up and destroying portions of your car. Did you know that anti-freeze is still important in the cold weather to prevent over heating, no matter how cold it gets?

In the coldest weather, anti-freeze is important to prevent the evaporation of vital fluids. Water evaporates rapidly, whereas anti-freeze does not. The lubricating properties of anti-freeze are also very important to remember. The hoses and other important parts of your vehicle need to stay protected too. Cold weather is brutal on your car and all of its moving parts, including the passengers.

This is perhaps one of the most crucial uses of anti-freeze, to keep the heat in your vehicle running. Without this precious green liquid in your car’s system, you won’t have any heat to stay warm when temperatures are frosty. Many people aren’t aware of this fact, and they think that when their heat stops working that they have a mechanical problem of some sort. They fear radiator leaks, heater core failures, a thermostat being either stuck open or closed, and all of the other possible things that can go wrong that causes a car’s heater to stop working. The truth is, what many don’t know, is that being low on anti-freeze can cause your heat to stop working.

When cars are in extreme cold weather, it is sometimes necessary to start them every few hours in order to keep them from freezing up entirely, even with anti-freeze in the system. In areas of the country and the world where temperatures are well below zero for extended periods of time, engine block heaters or frequent restarting of the engine can be required in order to prevent catastrophic failure.

Starting a car in frigid temperatures can be quite punishing. Fluids that have been lying dormant in the system have to instantly be called to life and circulate quickly throughout the system. Anti-freeze is among the most important throughout this system, along with the lubricating fluids; oil, transmission, and brake. Your car has to instantly start circulating the fluid so it will keep itself cool and keep you warm. It’s no surprise then, that car mechanics and car makers agree that keeping your anti-freeze at the proper levels is of paramount importance at any time of the year; especially in extreme heat and extreme cold.

Within the last ten years there have been major changes when it comes to the automobile industry. Not only have the technologies changed with the rise of more fuel-efficient and eco friendly vehicles taking over the market place but there also has been a major change in the world leaders when it comes to automobile production.

In 2000 the United States lead the world in production with 12,799,857 units produced, followed by Japan at 10,140,796. By 2005 the US was in a steady decline while other markets rose sharply. The most noted was China whose automobile production doubled by 2005 to 5,708,421 units produced.

As early as 2008 Japan had taken over the number one spot with 11,563,629 units produced, followed close behind by China at 9,345,101. At this time the US had a large decrease in market share with only 8,705,239 units produced.

Last year in 2009 there was a worldwide automobile crisis, which hit hard in North America when the Big 3, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, were in trouble of going bankrupt. Every country saw a significant decline in their automobile production and although the top 5 countries, Japan, China, South Korea, Germany, and the United States still maintained the top five positions there were some major changes. The following are the current world leaders based on the 2009 numbers from worldometers.info.

#1 Japan
The Japanese automotive industry is one of the most well known industries in the world and has revolutionized the automotive sector with its Just In Time inventory strategy. In 2009 Japan was the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer with 9,756,515 units produced. Japanese automotive manufacturers include Honda, Isuzu, Kawasaki, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Mitsuoka, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, and Yamaha.

#2 Germany
Germany’s automotive industry is one of the largest employers in the whole country. In 2009 Germany came in at second for the world leaders in automotive production with 5,398,508 units produced. The six car manufactures in Germany are Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Daimler AG, Porsche, and Opel.

#3 China
As of November 2009 China is the third largest automotive producing country in the world with 5,233,132 units produced. Of the automobiles produced, 44.3% are local brands, such as Chery, Geely, Hafei, Jianghuai, Chang’an, Great Wall, and so on, while the other 55.7% are made up of foreign car manufactures such as Volkswagen, General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda and Toyota. China is poised to become number one in 2010, and is already the leading automotive marketplace in the world.

#4 United Sates of America
In 2009 4,366,220 motor vehicles were manufactured in the USA making them the fourth largest in the world. The 14 major automobile manufactures that have factories in the USA are General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Daimler AG, BMW, Navistar, Paccar-DAF, Volvo, Toyota, Nissan Motors, Honda, Fuji Heavy Industries-Subaru, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Isuzu.

#5 South Korea
In 2009 South Korean became the fifth largest automobile industry in the world with 3,489,136 units being produced. Korean automotive manufacturers include Hyundai, Kia, GM Daewoo, Ssangyong, and Renault Samsung.

Only time will tell which countries will climb to the top five positions. Those that are researching new eco-friendly technologies and moving away from their dependence on oil are likely to be the leaders in automotive production.

The Honda CRZ is an impressive car in the line-up of Honda, and the abbreviation CRZ, refers to Compact Renaissance Zero. It is a hybrid gasoline electric automobile, which was planned and developed for production by the Japanese automaker Honda. The body style of the car is hatchback. Initially CRZ was released as a concept car by CEO of Honda Takeo Fukui on 23rd of October, 2007 at the Tokyo Auto Show held in 2007. Later on, Fukui announced that a production model is under progress and the car is meant to be incredibly efficient, cheap and sporty. Honda CRZ was first produced in America at the Detroit North American International Auto Show held in 2008. It uses the Integrated Motor Assist System of Honda.

Two hybrid concept cars were introduced after the production of CRZ. One is Honda Remix, which was released at the Los Angeles Motor Show held in 2006. The other one was the Honda Small Hybrid Sports, which was released at the Geneva Motor Show held in 2007. The CRZ with four seats is considered as the spiritual heir to the second generation of Honda CRX in both design and name.

According to the reports of Automotive News Europe, Honda plans to flatten the production of CRZ in the year 2009 or 2010, initially in Europe, before elaborating the distribution and production to other nations of the world. The approximate cost of the Honda CRZ is 25,000 Euros and primarily pitched to the markets of Europe. The cost of the car will be 28,000 Euros along with higher trim models. Due to the importance of Honda CRZ on the continent of Europe, Mark Turner of Honda UK says that there will be a lot of influence by Europe on the final stage of design of the car.

Many reports made by Edmunds inside-line suggest that the arrival of Honda CRZ in North America will be after the launch of Honda Insight in the early times of 2009, which is a hybrid vehicle with five doors. Confirmation about the production of Honda CRZ was granted at the 2008 end of the year speech, which was given by Takeo Fukui. From the speech the production of CRZ will be started by the end of the year 2010. After the production of the car, it will become a model which provides a new value of the joy of driving, which can be provided only by a hybrid vehicle.

When selling your own car, there are several different methods that will help your vehicle a new owner. The first thing is to find out the Galves.com value of your vehicle. You can look this up online and choose the Private Party Value. You’ll get a pretty good idea of what you can get for the car.

The first thing is to find out the Galves.com value of your vehicle. You can look this up online and choose Selling A Used Car section. You’ll get a pretty good idea of what you can get for the car. Someone looking for a used car will probably know how to do this too, so don’t expect to get $3,000 for that 1996 Chevy Cavalier.

The next thing you need to do is to make the car presentable for purchase. You must clean the car from the inside to the outside. That means taking it to the car wash and washing the engine too. When the customer opens the hood, they’ll be pretty impressed with a clean engine. While cleaning under the hood, be sure to change all fluids and flush the transmission.

You will also want to change the air and oil filters too, and replace any worn belts. Fill the window washer container and clean off the

Ford has done things a little differently with the new Focus, especially the four-door sedan model. It launched the Focus range at the Paris Motor Show in late September last year, but the prototype Focus Concept, a thinly disguised Focus sedan, was actually revealed three months earlier in June at the Beijing Motor Show.

Why would Ford showcase its best-selling European model in Asia before its world premier in Europe? Perhaps it is because, unlike the previous Focus, the new one – especially this saloon version – is targeted at the Asian markets.

The first thing one notice about the sedan is that it looks well-proportioned and neat, unlike the last model, which looked like it had its boot grafted on as an afterthought. What has also helped is that the new Focus has leaner and more elegant lines and these lend themselves better to a four-door sedan than the aggressively bold styling of the previous model. From the rear three quarters, the Focus sedan comes across as crisp and discreet, with triangular rear lamps that make it look like a scaled-down Mondeo, an important point in status-conscious Asian markets.

The last Focus set a benchmark in its class, and the new sedan has been developed to expand the Focus’ reach even beyond its better-known three-and five-door siblings, even if the cabin space is the same as offered by the five-door hatchback, boot aside. It’s also interesting to note that apart from the Renault Megane sedan, the Focus is the only other European engineered and built 1.6-litre car in the market.

One thing that remains unchanged is that Ford has not forgotten to give the new Focus an impressive list of technical features. Even on the entry-level ‘Trend’ spec, four-wheel disc brakes with a sophisticated Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) are standard equipment. More commonly found on large, high-performance cars, an ESP system acts like a co-pilot, monitoring the traction at each wheel, either braking or cutting power to should the vehicle begin to lose composure or grip. While the Focus’ chassis set-up is inherently impressive and allows the car to handle beautifully, it is reassuring to know that the car is actually intelligent enough to Intervene should its road holding limit* be reached. On the other hand, 11 rivers who want to pretend to be Mr Colin McRae, slipping and sliding on loose gravel, there is the option of switching the ESP off.

The other high-tech feature on the new Focus is the three-mode automatic gearbox. On the face of it, this might seem outmoded – after all, the latest auto boxes have intelligent adaptive programmes that ‘learn’ driving patterns, negating the need for the driver to choose between ‘economy’ or ‘power’ modes. That being said, no matter how clever a transmission is, it doesn’t read minds, and can only react to, and not predict situations. Ford has partially solved this problem by allowing the driver to select from three programmed modes: adaptive, sport or economy. True to their titles, the transmission behaves differently in each mode, with ‘economy’ making the car feel under powered because it changes up at the earliest opportunity and is reluctant to change down when the accelerator is floored.

Instead of buttons next to the transmission gate, switching transmission modes is performed through the left stalk on the steering column. This stalk also manipulates the trip computer and there is even a thumb wheel to scroll through the different readouts on the instrument binnacle. While it is impressive that so much information is handled through a single input device, it does take some time to fully comprehend and use this one-stalk computer mouse.

In fact, this multi-functional stalk best sums up the new Focus. As with the previous model, it is well-engineered and entertaining to drive, but the new model comes fully-loaded with the latest technical equipment to once again raise the bar in the family car segment. On the other hand, most of these goodies are largely invisible, and while they are tangible, they are also unseen. In ‘Trend’ trim, this is particularly obvious, as being the price-leader, it appears well-built but quite spartan, and does not have the bells and whistles that come with the Ghia trim. At the moment, only the five-door hatchback is offered in Ghia trim, with the sedan version only available later in the year.

This means the Focus’ success in Asia is still not the fait accompli as Ford had planned, crisp styling notwithstanding. The sedan looks better than it ever did, but in Trend trim, it does not feel luxurious nor as well-appointed as some of its rivals.

Get behind the wheel though, and one will be impressed with the Focus’ engine, chassis and overall ability. The problem is, there is already a good looking, 1.6-litre family sedan that drives and handles well, replete with the Focus’ impressive chassis and suspension set-up – it’s the Mazda 3. How ironic that the car that probably poses the greatest challenge to the Focus sedan is from Mazda, a company that Ford also owns.