The Sydney Morning Herald on cars Aussies love to hate.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/motoring//4593059/Cars-people-love-to-hate
Posts Tagged ‘cars’
Pioneer offers head units for cars with iPhone support, 10M iPhone 5 ordered, iPhone 5 and iPad 2 to have NFC
January 25th, 2011 |
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Pioneer is a big name in the aftermarket world for car speakers and head units. The latest offerings from the company have cool LCD screens, support the iPhone, and include the MVH-8300BT and the MVH-7300. Over 10 million iPhone 5 smartphones have been ordered according to reports. Pegatron has also boosted production to meet the [...]
Chasing cars
January 21st, 2011 |
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News that the French Gendarmerie Nationale is to kit itself out with the rather sporty Megane RS model reminds me of a time I spent in the back of a Paris police car.
I hasten to add it wasn’t my fault. I’d been er, done over by a group of ne’er-do-wells after taking the wrong fork in the Metro en route to Charles-de-Gaulle airport – not a mistake I’ll be making again.
Anyway, after being involuntarily relieved of my passport, phone and work items, two gendarmes found me and asked incredulously what I was doing in such a tough neighbourhood – a stone’s throw from the Stade de France.
Kindly they said they would take me to the airport after going to the station to give a statement – and sort out how I was going to get home without a passport – but as we were driving – a Peugeot 308 from recollection – the car in front jumped the lights leading our driver to put his siren on and give chase.
I held on avoiding the CS gas canister that was rolling about as the police Peugeot tore ahead – reflecting that 20min ago I should have checked in. After stopping the speedster and calling another patrol car, we went back to the station.
A few minutes after we were there, a fire engine roared up and several ‘pompiers’ dragged out some more individuals who were clearly not best pleased with the turn of events.
That will be – hopefully – my one and only experience of French police – although these were the smart, cap-wearing variety. At the Paris Motor Show last autumn, there must have been nearly 20 vans loaded with the CRS variety in their paramilitary uniforms as President Sarkozy arrived for a visit. Not to be messed with.
Texting Deaths Drive U.S. to Consider Disabling Phones in Cars
November 30th, 2010 |
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The Department of Transportation is considering cell phone software that would prevent the devices from working in moving vehicles, as “distracted driving” laws have proven ineffective. – U.S. Department of Transportation officials are considering software solutions that would prevent cell phones from working in moving vehicles, Secretary of Transportation Raymond LaHood said at a talk this month, according to Discovery News.
The comment followed the launch of the departments “Fa…
Singapore’s retail sales excluding cars grow at slower pace
November 15th, 2010 |
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Singapore’s retail sales excluding motor vehicles rose at a slower pace in September after the economy contracted last quarter.
The index measuring purchases excluding automobiles climbed 5.3% from a year earlier in September, after gaining a revised 6.4% in August, the Statistics Department said today. Including vehicles, which are sold subject to government caps, total retail sales rose 0.3%, less than the median forecast for a 1.5% increase in a Bloomberg News survey of eight economists.
Selling cars: Ford can fiesta again
October 28th, 2010 |
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Innovative marketing helped Ford’s recovery
“WE LIVED on farms, we lived in cities, and now we’re going to live on the internet!” proclaims the actor playing Sean Parker, one of the Facebook pioneers in the film “The Social Network”. Earlier than most of his rivals, Jim Farley also understood how important the internet was becoming to car buyers. Now, as global marketing chief for Ford, he is hoping to push America’s second-biggest carmaker to the leading edge of online advertising.
This year in America he launched the Fiesta, a European-styled subcompact, using internet campaigns, and introduced the new Explorer SUV on Facebook. Early next year he plans to launch a new Focus compact car globally via the internet. Mr Farley uses traditional media as well as online advertising, but combines both with unconventional marketing. …
The Cars Reunite for New album & Possible Tour
October 22nd, 2010 |
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LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL
 The Cars |
Legendary new wave rockers The Cars are reuniting for their first album of new material in 23 years. Ever
since a photo of the surviving members in a recording studio surfaced on their Facebook page in July, rumors have been swirling about the future of
the band.
Last week they posted a 73 second video preview of a new song called “Blue Tip.” Click here to check out the video. An article
on
Billboard.com
indicates that the band is considering a tour, but no dates have yet been confirmed.
The Cars called it quits
after the release of Door to Door in 1987. Bassist/vocalist Benjamin Orr died of pancreatic cancer
in 2000.
Singapore retail sales excluding cars gain most in three months
October 15th, 2010 |
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Singapore’s retail sales excluding motor vehicles rose at the fastest pace in three months, a sign that consumer spending is holding up even as easing demand for the nation’s drugs and electronics hurt growth last quarter.
The index measuring purchases excluding automobiles climbed 6.2% from a year earlier in August, after gaining 6% in July, the Statistics Department said today. Including vehicles, which are sold subject to government caps, total retail sales fell 1.2 percent, less than the median forecast for a 5.3% decline in a Bloomberg News survey of 8 economists.
Google Experimental Self-driving Cars Logged 140K Miles
October 10th, 2010 |
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Google is using Toyota Priuses that drive themselves in an ambitious experiment to save peoples’ lives, time and pare strain on the environment. – Google Oct. 9 said it has built technology to make cars drive
themselves, an exercise to help reduce traffic accidents, free up
motorists’ time and ultimately curb carbon emissions.
In what the company is calling a first in
robotics research, Google for the past year has sent out Toyota Priuse…
Electric cars: A sparky new motor
October 7th, 2010 |
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The first mass-market electric cars are arriving in showrooms. They represent a big gamble for carmakers
THE star of this week’s Paris Motor Show was a Jaguar supercar. The C-X75 can accelerate to 100kph (62mph) in just 3.4 seconds and has a top speed of 330kph. It is powered by batteries that are recharged by miniature diesel-sipping jet turbines. Although it is a mere experimental vehicle, the excited response shows that carmakers have come to see electric vehicles as part of their future. How large a part will depend on how drivers react to the rather less racy electric offerings from big producers such as General Motors (GM), Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault.
The first mass-market electric cars are now arriving in showrooms in America, Europe and Japan (see table). They come in three flavours. Pure electric vehicles like Nissan’s Leaf can be driven for 150km or so before they need to be recharged for six to eight hours. Range-extenders like GM’s Volt (the Ampera in Europe) are powered by an electric motor that can be recharged either from the mains or by an on-board internal-combustion engine. Then there are familiar hybrids like the Toyota Prius, now being adapted to take a charging cord and with a longer electric-only range. …
Cars and motorbikes
October 5th, 2010 |
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There were some interesting observations in this article from Honda’s David Hodgetts concerning the diverse retail worlds of motorbikes and cars.
Can the two learn from each other? Maybe, but the cultures are very different.
Many car customers simply don’t want to engage with the product on an emotional level in the way that motorcycle people do. But if you can get that going with a car brand, get something like the motorcycle level of enthusiasm going, the engagement of buyer and seller in a shared joy of the product, that’s a very positive thing. And you do see something like that with certain car brands with sports values and a heritage that is ‘independent of spirit’ and not led by the kinds of all-pervasive big company values that dominate the industry. Lotus springs to mind. Maybe Saab loyalists are in a similar camp.
But the typical Honda car customer? Well, it’s often more a commodity puchase than an emotional one, albeit a relatively complex commodity purchase judged on criteria that apply to all the volume brands in the customer’s purchasing decision mix.
And Hodgett seems to understand that selling Fireblades is a very different kettle of fish to selling Civics. Interesting to reflect on the brand values that apply to Honda as a whole though.
So, the Honda brand can support motorbikes and lawnmowers as well as cars. BMW’s motorbikes support its premium brand values. And, somehow, the Mercedes-Benz freight truck or van is perfectly fine, part of an industrial powerhouse brand value that doesn’t detract one iota from the prestige of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars. Industrial strength is being projected for Benz, the knowledge of the formidable Daimler parent overseeing in the background also there. And the consumer knows that there are Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks. There’s a very long history and a Benz three-pointed star on a truck is instantly accepted in a way that a Jaguar badge put on a truck would be deeply unsettling and wrong.
The way these brand values seep into the popular conscious is a powerful thing. If you can shift motorcycles, lawnmowers and cars under one brand, great, but you’d want to be very careful about mixing things up.
Facebook, Google Maps Go Mobile in GM’s High-End OnStar Cars
September 23rd, 2010 |
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NEW YORK CITY& General Motors’ OnStar motor vehicle roadside safety and communications group has been coming on strong in recent months to challenge the Microsoft Ford Synch technology. The company has launched the capability for users to shuttle Google Maps from desktop computers to their OnStar on-board systems and even post status updates to Facebook and retrieve updates others have posted, all using voice recognition technology. The company has even enabled voice texting capabilities as part of its "responsible connectivity" to help grow beyond its 6 million OnStar subscribers. OnStar President Chris Preuss and his team convened here Sept. 14 to show off what they’ve built and talk about what they’re building for the future of telematics, which leverage popular Web services for information-sharing and safety purposes. Check out these features and some high-end GM vehicles in this eWEEK slideshow. – …
Chip Shot: Men’s Journal Talks Futuristic Cars with Intel
September 21st, 2010 |
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Men’s Journal featured Intel in the article, “The Car of the Future is Here Now.” The article covered futuristic automotive products that are available and possible with today’s technology. Ton Steenman discussed the possibilities of Internet-connected dashboards, such as in-car applications, social networking and traffic updates via crowd-sourcing. The October 2010 print edition is available now.
The Cars: Possible Reunion
July 26th, 2010 |
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LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL
 The Cars |
Rolling Stone is reporting
that
legendary new wave rockers The Cars are considering reuniting for the first time in 22 years. The band
recently put up a photo on their facebook fan page
showing Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, David Robinson, and Greg Hawkes rehearsing in a recording
studio with a caption reading: “Anyone in the mood for a reunion by The Cars?” When pressed about the reunion by
the
Boston Globe, keyboardist Hawkes replied, “I hate to be vague, but I really can’t say. It’s a crazy world.”
The Cars called it quits in 1988 after the release of Door to Door. Bassist/vocalist Benjamin
Orr
died
of pancreatic cancer in 2000.
Google Removes WiFi Gear from Street View Cars
July 9th, 2010 |
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Google has removed any equipment used to collect WiFi data in its Street View cars, which have resumed their tours of Sweden, Ireland, Norway and South Africa at the approval of regulators. – Google July 8 said it has officially removed all hardware
and software used to corral WiFi data in its Street View cars, which have
resumed their tours of Sweden,
Ireland, Norway
and South Africa.
Google grounded its entire fleet of Street View cars which collect real-life
footage of city st…
Manufacturing electric cars: The lighter drive
July 8th, 2010 |
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Electric cars made from carbon fibre will be safer and go farther
MARK WEBBER has a lot to thank tiny strands of carbon for. When his Formula 1 car cartwheeled in a spectacular 306kph (190mph) crash at the recent Valencia Grand Prix, what helped him to escape unscathed was the immensely strong carbon-fibre “tub” that racing drivers now sit in. Carbon fibre is an expensive alternative to making things in steel or aluminium, but besides being extremely strong it is also very light. It is found in high-performance parts, like aircraft wings, bits of supercars and the frames of pricey mountain bikes. But if work by Germany’s BMW proves successful, it could also become the material of choice to mass-produce electric cars.
The Bavarian carmaker plans to launch a new plug-in electric car in 2013. It will be one of the first designed from scratch to use an electric motor rather than being converted from an existing model. Reducing the weight of this four-seater car, known as the Megacity concept, will be crucial to improving its performance and range. So BMW is planning to use no steel at all. The Megacity will be built as two modules: an aluminium chassis will contain the electric drive-system and battery, and a body made almost entirely of carbon fibre will be fitted onto it. …
June 29, 1956: Ike Signs Interstate Highway Act
June 29th, 2010 |
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1956: Urged to ease congestion on America’s roads, and inspired by Germany’s use of autobahns for troop movement during World War II, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.
The new law poured $33 billion (about $265 billion in modern purchasing power) into overhauling the country’s roadways. Then-Secretary of Commerce Sinclair [...]
Electric cars: Hub of the matter
April 22nd, 2010 |
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Putting electric motors into the wheels of cars is the way forward
THERE are many innovations turning up in the latest experimental and production electric cars, affecting everything from batteries to motors to control systems. The need to make them all work together is prompting a complete rethink about the way cars should be designed and manufactured, and it is unclear which technologies will dominate as the constraints imposed by internal combustion engines give way to the new limits and possibilities associated with electric propulsion. But one group of engineers have stuck their necks out and declared that a particular technology, the electric hub motor, is likely to become the most widely used drive system.
A hub motor, as its name suggests, is built into the hub of a wheel and drives it directly, rather than having a single motor driving the wheels via a mechanical transmission. It is an idea pioneered by Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of the carmaker of the same name, more than 100 years ago. Mr Porsche got his first job in the automotive business with Jacob Lohner in Vienna, and put electric motors into the hubs of the wheels of the Lohner-Porsche, a vehicle which made its debut at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. It was a hybrid car that relied on both batteries and a generator to produce electricity for its motors. Capable of more than 56kph (35mph), it also set a number of speed records. …
Ford Enables Voice Control over Smartphone Apps in 2011 Cars
April 20th, 2010 |
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Automaker Ford reveals that its 2011 Fiesta model will become the first vehicle to enable BlackBerry and Android smartphone users to control Websites such as Twitter, Stitcher and online radio service Pandora with voice commands.
– While Toyota, the world’s largest auto manufacturer, keeps having to put out
fires involving manufacturing issues, Ford which recently replaced General
Motors as the No. 1 seller of American cars is plunging ahead by putting more
and more IT features into its product line.
Ford revealed April …