The automobile powered by the Otto gasoline engine was invented in Germany by Karl Benz in 1885. Even though Karl Benz is credited with the invention of the modern automobile, several German engineers worked on building automobiles at the same time. These inventors are: Karl Benz, who was granted a patent dated January 29, 1886 in Mannheim for the automobile he built in 1885, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart in 1886 (also inventors of the first motor bike), and in 1888/89 German-Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus in Vienna, although Marcus didn't go beyond the experimental stage.

Steam powered vehicles

Steam-powered self-propelled cars were devised in the late 18th century. The first self-propelled car was built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1769, it could attain speeds of up to 6 km/h (3.7 mi/h). In 1771 he designed another steam-driven car, which ran so fast that it rammed into a wall, producing the world's first car accident.

Internal combustion engine powered vehicles

Animation of a 4-stroke internal combustion engine

In 1806 Fransois Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss, designed the first internal combustion engine (sometimes abbreviated "ICE" today). He subsequently used it to develop the world's first vehicle to run on such an engine that used a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen to generate energy. The design was not very successful, as was the case with the British inventor, Samuel Brown, and the American inventor, Samuel Morey, who produced vehicles powered by clumsy internal combustion engines about 1826.

Etienne Lenoir produced the first successful stationary internal combustion engine in 1860, and within a few years, about four hundred were in operation in Paris. About 1863, Lenoir installed his engine in a vehicle. It seems to have been powered by city lighting-gas in bottles, and was said by Lenoir to have "travelled more slowly than a man could walk, with breakdowns being frequent." Lenoir, in his patent of 1860, included the provision of a carburettor, so liquid fuel could be substituted for gas, particularly for mobile purposes in vehicles. Lenoir is said to have tested liquid fuel, such as alcohol, in his stationary engines; but it doesn't appear that he used them in his own vehicle. If he did, he most certainly didn't use gasoline, as this was not well-known and was considered a waste product.

The next innovation occurred in the late 1860s, with Siegfried Marcus, a German working in Vienna, Austria. He developed the idea of using gasoline as a fuel in a two-stroke internal combustion engine. In 1870, using a simple handcart, he built a crude vehicle with no seats, steering, or brakes, but it was remarkable for one reason: it was the world's first internal-combustion-engine-powered vehicle fueled by gasoline. It was tested in Vienna in September of 1870 and put aside. In 1888 or 1889, he built a second automobile, this one with seats, brakes, and steering, and included a four-stroke engine of his own design. That design may have been tested in 1890. Although he held patents for many inventions, he never applied for patents for either design in this category.

The four-stroke engine already had been documented and a patent was applied for in 1862 by the Frenchman Beau de Rochas in a long-winded and rambling pamphlet. He printed about three hundred copies of his pamphlet and they were distributed in Paris, but nothing came of this, with the patent application expiring soon afterward—and the pamphlet disappearing into total obscurity. In fact, its existence mostly was unknown and Beau de Rochas never built a single engine.

Most historians agree that Nikolaus Otto of Germany built the world's first four-stroke engine although his patent was voided. He knew nothing of Beau de Rochas's patent or idea, and came upon the idea entirely on his own. In fact, he began thinking about the concept in 1861, but abandoned the concept until the mid-1870s.

There is some evidence, although not conclusive, that Christian Reithmann, an Austrian living in Germany, had built a four-stroke engine entirely on his own by 1873. Reithmann had been experimenting with internal combustion engines as early as 1852.

In 1883, Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville and Leon Malandin of France installed an internal combustion engine powered by a tank of city gas on a tricycle. As they tested the vehicle, the tank hose came loose, resulting in an explosion. In 1884, Delamare-Deboutteville and Malandin built and patented a second vehicle. This one consisted of two four-stroke, liquid-fueled engines mounted on an old four-wheeled horse cart. The patent, and presumably the vehicle, contained many innovations, some of which wouldn't be used for decades. However, during the vehicle's first test, the frame broke apart, the vehicle literally "shaking itself to pieces," in Malandin's own words. No more vehicles were built by the two men. Their venture went completely unnoticed and their patent unexploited. Knowledge the vehicles and their experiments was obscured until years later.

Supposedly in the late 1870s, an Italian named Murnigotti patented the idea of installing an internal combustion engine on a vehicle, although there is no evidence that one was built. In 1884, Enrico Bernardi, another Italian, installed an internal combustion engine on his son's tricycle. Although merely a toy, it is said to have operated somewhat successfully in one source, but another says the engine's power was too feeble to make the vehicle move.

If all of the above experiments hadn't taken place, however, the development of the automobile wouldn't have been retarded by so much as a moment, since they were unknown experiments that never advanced beyond the testing stage. The internal-combustion-engine automobile really can be said to have begun in Germany with Karl Benz in 1885, and Gottlieb Daimler in 1889, for their vehicles were successful, they went into series-production, and they inspired others.

Karl Benz

Replica of the Benz Patent Motorwagen built in 1885

Karl Benz began to work on new engine patents in 1878. First, he concentrated all his efforts on creating a reliable two-stroke gas engine, based on Nikolaus Otto's design of the four-stroke engine. A patent on the design by Otto had been declared void. Karl Benz finished his engine on New Year's Eve and was granted a patent for it in 1879. Karl Benz built his first three-wheeled automobile in 1885 and it was granted a patent in Mannheim, dated January of 1886. This was—the first automobile designed and built as such—rather than a converted carriage, boat, or cart. Among other items Karl Benz invented for the automobile are the carburetor, the speed regulation system known also as an accelerator, ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator. He built improved versions in 1886 and 1887 and—went into production in 1888—the world's first automobile put into production. Approximately twenty-five were built before 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced. They were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, in general, more were built and sold in France through Roger, than Benz sold initially from his own factory in Germany.

Gottlieb Daimler, in 1886, fitted a horse carriage with his four-stroke engine in Stuttgart. In 1889, he built two vehicles from scratch as automobiles, with several innovations. From 1890 to 1895 about thirty vehicles were built by Daimler and his innovative assistant, Wilhelm Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after having a falling out with their backers. These two Germans, Benz and Daimler, seem to have been unaware of the early work of each other and worked independently. Daimler died in 1900. During the First World War, Benz suggested a co-operative effort between the companies the two founded, but it was not until 1926 that the companies united under the name of Daimler-Benz with a commitment to remain together under that name until the year 2000.

In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began series-producing vehicles with Daimler engines, and so laid the foundation of the motor industry in France. They were inspired by Daimler's Stahlradwagen of 1889, which was exhibited in Paris in 1889.

The first American automobile with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines supposedly was designed in 1877 by George Baldwin Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent on an automobile in 1879. Selden didn't build a single automobile until 1905, when he was forced to do so, due to a lawsuit. Selden received his patent and later sued the Ford Motor Company for infringing his patent. Henry Ford was notorious for opposing the American patent system and Selden's case against Ford went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Ford, and anyone else, was free to build automobiles without paying royalties to Selden, since automobile technology had improved significantly since Selden's patent and no one was building according to his earlier designs.

Meanwhile, notable advances in steam power evolved in Birmingham, England by the Lunar Society. It was here that the term horsepower was first used. It also was in Birmingham that the first British four-wheel petrol-driven automobiles were built in 1895 by Frederick William Lanchester. Lanchester also patented the disc brake in that city. Electric vehicles were produced by a small number of manufacturers.

Innovation

Ford Model T, 1927

The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789 for his "Amphibious Digger". It was a harbor dredge scow designed to be powered by a steam engine and he built wheels to attach to the bow. In 1804 Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle, which not only was the first automobile in the US but was also the first amphibious vehicle, as his steam-powered vehicle was able to travel on wheels on land as he domonstrated once, and via a paddle wheel in the water. It was not successful and eventually was sold as spare parts.

The Benz Motorwagen, built in 1885, was patented on January 29, 1886 by Karl Benz as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. In 1888, a major breakthrough came with the historic drive of Bertha Benz. She drove an automobile that her husband had built for a distance of more than 106 km or fifty miles. This event demonstrated the practical usefulness of the automobile and gained wide publicity, which was the promotion she thought was needed to advance the invention. The Benz vehicle was the first automobile put into production and sold commercially. Bertha Benz's historic drive is celebrated as an annual holiday in Germany with rallies of antique automobiles.

On 5 November 1895, George B. Selden was granted a United States patent for a two-stroke automobile engine (U.S. Patent 549160). This patent did more to hinder than encourage development of autos in the USA. Steam, electric, and gasoline powered autos competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.

Ransom E. Olds, the creator of the Assembly line

The large-scale, production-line manufacturing of affordable automobiles was debuted by Oldsmobile in 1902, then greatly expanded by Henry Ford in the 1910s. Development of automotive technology was rapid, due in part to the hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included electric ignition and the electric self-starter (both by Charles Kettering, for the Cadillac Motor Company in 1910-1911), independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes.

Model changeover and design change

Cars are not merely continually perfected mechanical contrivances; since the 1920s nearly all have been mass-produced to meet a market, so marketing plans and manufacture to meet them have often dominated automobile design. It was Alfred P. Sloan who established the idea of different makes of cars produced by one firm, so that buyers could "move up" as their fortunes improved. The makes shared parts with one another so that the larger production volume resulted in lower costs for each price range. For example, in the 1950s, Chevrolet shared hood, doors, roof, and windows with Pontiac; the LaSalle of the 1930s, sold by Cadillac, used the cheaper mechanical parts made by the Oldsmobile division.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

With heavy taxes on fuel, particularly in Europe and tightening environmental laws, particularly in California, and the possibility of further restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, work on alternative power systems for vehicles continues.

Diesel-powered cars can run with little or no modification on 100% pure biodiesel, a fuel that can be made from vegetable oils but require modifications if you drive in cold weather countries. The main plus of Diesel combustion engines is its 50% fuel burn advantage over 23% in the best gasoline engines. This makes Diesel engines capable of achieving an average of 17 kilometers per liter fuel efficiency. Many cars that currently use gasoline can run on ethanol, a fuel made from plant sugars. Most cars that are designed to run on gasoline are capable of running with up to 15% ethanol mixed in. With a small amount of redesign, gasoline-powered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations as high as 85%. All petrol fuelled cars can run on LPG. There has been some concern that the ethanol-gasoline mixtures prematurely wear down seals and gaskets. Theoretically, the lower energy content of alcohol should lead to considerably reduced efficiency and range when compared with gasoline. However, EPA testing has actually shown only a 20-30% reduction in range. Therefore, if your vehicle is capable of doing 750 kilometers on a 50 liter tank (15 kilometers per liter), its range would be reduced to approximately 600 kilometers (12 kilometers per liter). Of course, certain measures are available to increase this efficiency, such as different camshaft configurations, altering the timing/spark output of the ignition, increasing compression, or simply using a larger fuel tank.

In the United States, alcohol fuel was produced in corn-alcohol stills until Prohibition criminalized the production of alcohol in 1919. Brazil is the only country which produces pure ethanol powered cars, called Flex, since the late 1970s.

Attempts at building viable battery-powered electric vehicles continued throughout the 1990s (notably General Motors with the EV1), but cost, speed and inadequate driving range made them uneconomical. Battery powered cars have primarily used lead-acid batteries and NiMH batteries. Lead-acid batteries' recharge capacity is considerably reduced if they're discharged beyond 75% on a regular basis, making them a less-than-ideal solution. NiMH batteries are a better choice, but are considerably more expensive than lead-acid.

Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle. Museum of Toyota of Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Current research and development is centered on "hybrid" vehicles that use both electric power and internal combustion. The first hybrid vehicle available for sale in the USA was the Honda Insight. As of 2005, The car is still in production and achieves around 25.5 kilometers per liter.

Other R&D efforts in alternative forms of power focus on developing fuel cells, alternative forms of combustion such as GDI and HCCI, and even the stored energy of compressed air .

Accidents seem as old as automobile vehicles themselves. Joseph Cugnot crashed his steam-powered "Fardier" against a wall in 1771. The first recorded automobile fatality was Bridget Driscoll on 1896-08-17 in London and the first in the United States was Henry Bliss on 1899-09-13 in New York City, NY.

Cars have two basic safety problems: They have human drivers who make mistakes, and the wheels lose traction near a half gravity of deceleration. Automated control has been seriously proposed and successfully prototyped. Shoulder-belted passengers could tolerate a 32G emergency stop (reducing the safe intervehicle gap 64-fold) if high-speed roads incorporated a steel rail for emergency braking. Both safety modifications of the roadway are thought to be too expensive by most funding authorities, although these modifications could dramatically increase the number of vehicles that could safely use a high-speed highway.

Early safety research focused on increasing the reliability of brakes and reducing the flammability of fuel systems. For example, modern engine compartments are open at the bottom so that fuel vapors, which are heavier than air, vent to the open air. Brakes are hydraulic so that failures are slow leaks, rather than abrupt cable breaks. Systematic research on crash safety started in 1958 at Ford Motor Company. Since then, most research has focused on absorbing external crash energy with crushable panels and reducing the motion of human bodies in the passenger compartment.

There are standard tests for safety in new automobiles, like the EuroNCAP and the US NCAP tests. There are also tests run by organizations such as IIHS and backed by the insurance industry.

Despite technological advances, there is still significant loss of life from car accidents: About 40,000 people die every year in the U.S., with similar figures in Europe. This figure increases annually in step with rising population and increasing travel if no measures are taken, but the rate per capita and per mile travelled decreases steadily. The death toll is expected to nearly double worldwide by 2020. A much higher number of accidents result in injury or permanent disability. The highest accident figures are reported in China and India. The European Union has a rigid program to cut the death toll in the EU in half by 2010 and member states have started implementing measures.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Current Production

A 1993 Ford Escort station wagon, a modern automobile.

In 2005 63 million cars and light trucks were produced worldwide. The world's biggest car producer (including light trucks) is the European Union with 29% of the world's production. In non-EU Eastern Europe another 4% are produced. The second largest manufacturer is NAFTA with 25.8%, followed by Japan with 16.7%, China with 8.1%, MERCOSUR with 3.9%, India with 2.4% and the rest of the world with 10.1%. (vda-link)

Large free trade areas like EU, NAFTA and MERCOSUR attract manufacturers worldwide to produce their products within them and without currency risks or customs, additionally to being close to customers. Thus the production figures do not show the technological ability or business skill of the areas. In fact much if not most of the Third World car production is used western technology and car models (and sometimes even complete obsolete western factories shipped to the country), which is reflected in the patent statistic as well as the locations of the r&d centers.

The automobile industry is dominated by relatively few large corporations (not to be confused with the much more numerous brands), the biggest of which (by numbers of produced cars) are currently General Motors, Toyota and Ford Motor Company. It is expected, that Toyota will reach the No.1 position in 2006. The most profitable per-unit car-maker of recent years has been Porsche due to its premium price tag.

The automotive industry at large still suffers from high under-utilization of its manufacturing potential.

Future of the car

In order to limit deaths, there has been a push for self-driving automobiles. There have been many notable efforts funded by the NHTSA, including the many efforts by the NavLab group at Carnegie Mellon University. Recent efforts include the highly publicized DARPA Grand Challenge race.

Toyota FCHV (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle). A fuel cell hybrid car which runs from the hydrogen which Toyota Motor developed,. 2005

A current invention is ESP by Bosch that is claimed to reduce deaths by about 30% and is recommended by many lawmakers and carmakers to be a standard feature in all cars sold in the EU. ESP recognizes dangerous situations and corrects the drivers input for a short moment to stabilize the car.

The biggest threat to automobiles is the declining supply of oil, which does not completely stop car usage but makes it significantly more expensive. Beginning of 2006 1 liter of gas costs approx. 1.6 US$ in Germany and other European countries. If no cheap solution can be found in the relatively near future individual mobility might suffer a major setback. Nevertheless, individual mobility is highly prized in modern societies so the demand for automobiles is inelastic. Alternative individual modes of transport, such as Personal rapid transit, could make the automobile obsolete if they prove to be cheaper and more energy efficient.

Hydrogen cars, driven either by a combination of fuel cells and an electric motor, or alternatively, a conventional combustion engine, are thought to replace fossil fuel powered cars in a few decades. The biggest obstacle for a mass market of hydrogen cars is the cost of hydrogen production by electrolysis, which is inefficient and requires a comparatively expensive source of electrical energy. However Hydrogen produces 5 times as much energy than 93 octane gasoline and promises to be cheaper with mass production and none CO2, but steam H2O emissions as result of the combustion. BMW's engineering team promises a high horsepower hydrogen fuel engine in it's 7-series sedan before the next generation of the car makes it's debut.

Lexus LF-A concept car at the 2006 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show

The electric car in general appears to be a way forward in principle; electric motors are far more efficient than internal combustion engines and have a much greater power to weight ratio. They also operate efficiently across the full speed range of the vehicle and develop a lot of torque at zero speed, so are ideal for cars. A complex drivetrain and transmission would not be needed. However, despite this the electric car is held back by battery technology - so far a cell with comparable energy density to a tank of liquid fuel is a long way off, and there is no infrastructure in place to support it. A more practical approach may be to use a smaller internal combustion engine to drive a generator- this approach can be much more efficient since the IC engine can be run at a single speed, use cheaper fuel such as diesel, and drop the heavy, power wasting drivetrain. Such an approach has worked very well for railway locomotives, but so far has not been scaled down for car use.

Recently the automobile industry has determined that the biggest potential growth market (in terms of both revenue and profit), is software. Cars are now equipped with a stunning array of software; from voice recognition and vehicle navigation systems to in-vehicle distributed entertainment systems (DVD/Games), to telematics systems such as GMs Onstar not to mention the control subsystems. Software now accounts for 35% of a cars value, and this percentage is only going to get larger. The theory behind this is that the mechanical systems of automobiles are now essentially a commodity, and the real product differentiation occurs in the software systems. Many cars are equipped with full blown 32bit real-time memory protected operating systems such as QNX.

• engine
  
  • carburetor or fuel injection
    fuel pump
    engine configuration: Wankel or reciprocating (V, inline, flat).
    engine management systems
    exhaust system
    ignition system
    self starter
    emissions control devices
    turbochargers and superchargers
    front engine
    rear engine
    mid engine

Automobile ancillary power

• Ancillary power — mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, vacuum, air
• drivetrain
  
  • transmission (gearbox)
    
    • manual transmission
      semi-automatic transmission
      fully-automatic transmission
  • Layout
    
    • FF layout
      FR layout
      MR layout
      MF layout
      RR layout
  • Drive Wheels
    
    • Two-wheel drive
      Four-wheel drive
      Front-wheel drive
      Rear-wheel drive
      All-wheel drive
  • differential
    
    • limited slip differential
      locking differential
  • axle
    Live axle
• brakes
  
  • disc brakes
    drum brakes
    anti-lock braking systems (ABS)
• wheels and tires
  • custom wheels
• steering
  
  • rack and pinion
    Ackermann steering geometry
    Caster angle
    Camber angle
    Kingpin
• suspension
  
  • MacPherson strut
    wishbone
    double wishbone
    multi-link
    torsion beam
    semi-trailing arm
    axle
• body
  
  • crumple zones
    monocoque (or unibody) construction
    doors
    headlight styling
    spoiler
    Japan Black (fore-runner of modern automotive finishes)
• interior equipment
  
  • passive safety
    
    • seat belts
      airbags
      child safety locks
  • dashboard
    shifter for selecting gear ratios
    ancillary equipment such as stereos, air conditioning, cruise control, car phones, positioning systems, cup holders, etc.
• exterior equipment
  • windows
    
    • Power window
      windshield
      Daytime running lamps

Links

• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
• NHTSA.gov
• Motor Vehicle Factory Sales and Retail Sales 1970-1997 (US Census)

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Opel Vectra C GTS

An automobile platform is a shared set of components common to a number of different automobiles. Many vendors refer to this as a vehicle architecture. Originally, a platform was a literally shared chassis from a previously-engineered vehicle, as in the case for the Volkswagen Beetle frame under the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. The first generic platform to be shared among a number of vehicles was the Ford Fox platform of the 1970s. In the 1980s, Chrysler's K-cars all wore a badge with the letter, "K", to indicate their shared platform.

Today, platform sharing is much less noticeable. Vehicle architectures consist of "under the skin" components only, and shared platforms can show up in unusual places like the Nissan FM platform-mates Nissan 350Z sports car and Infiniti FX SUV. Volkswagen A platform-mates like the Audi TT and Volkswagen Golf also share much of their mechanical components but seem entirely different. Ford Motor Company has had much success building many well differentiated vehicles from many marques off the same platforms.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Automobiles

An automotive package is a collection of cosmetic or functional additions to a vehicle that are marketed and sold as a group. Such packages often represent a substantial portion of the profit on a vehicle. Over time, many of the features in a package may be incorporated into the base vehicle as costs are driven down through manufacturing experience, design refinement, materials substition, and economies of scale.

List of automotive packages

• Convenience package
• Handling package
• Navigation package
• Performance package
• Safety package
• Sports package
• Trim package (sometimes as appearance package)

An auto mechanic is a mechanic who specializes in automobile maintenance, repair, and sometimes modification and design. Education is usually post-secondary or secondary vocational education, although apprenticeship under a master mechanic is also an accepted method of learning the trade. A good mechanic must be proficient in mathematics, physics, electronics and computer science as well as logical processes used for diagnosing problems. Most reputable mechanics are ASE certified, which is a standardized method of testing skill level. The technology used in automobiles changes very rapidly and the mechanic must be prepared to learn these new technologies and systems. The auto mechanic has a physically demanding job, often exposed to temperature extremes and well as lifting heavy objects and staying in uncomfortable positions for extended periods as well as exposure to gasoline, solvents and other toxic chemicals. Related jobs include motorcycle repair and small engine repair.

Auto 'mechanics' are today professionally referred to as 'technicians', due to the level of technological competency now required to diagnose and perform needed repairs. Fading quickly is the day of the 'shadetree mechanic', who needed little knowledge of todays computerized systems. Today's technician must have knowledge of these systems, as well as more basic mechanical principles.

Due to the increasingly labyrinthine nature of the technology that is now incorporated into automobiles, most automobile dealerships now provide sophisticated diagnostic computers to each technician, without which they would be unable to diagnose or repair a multitude of common failures.

Links

• Princeton Review, Career Profiles
• HowStuffWorks, auto section

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Tire rotation or rotating tires is the practice of moving automobile tires from one wheel to another to ensure even tire wear. Tire wear is uneven for any number of reasons. Even tire wear is desirable to maintain consistent performance in the vehicle.

By design, the weight on the front and rear axles differs which causes uneven wear. As the engine is in the front, the front axle typically has more of the weight. For rear wheel drive vehicles, the weight distribution between front and back approaches 50:50. Front wheel drive vehicles also have the differential in front, adding to the weight with a typical weight distribution of no better than 60:40. This means, all else being equal, the front tires wear out at almost twice the rate of the rear wheels, especially when factoring the additional stress that braking puts on the front tires. Thus, tire rotation needs to occur more frequently for front-wheel drive vehicles.

Turning the vehicle will cause uneven tire wear. The outside, front tire is worn disproportionately. Cloverleaf interchanges and parking ramps turn right in right hand drive countries, causing the left front tire to be worn faster than the right front. Furthermore, right turns are tighter than left turns, also causing more tire wear. Conversely the sidewalls on the right tire tends to be bumped and rubbed against the curb while parking the vehicle, causing asymmetric sidewall wear. The symmetric opposite occurs in countries that drive on the left.

In additional, mechanical problems in the vehicle may cause uneven tire wear. The wheels need to be aligned with each other and the vehicle. The wheel that is out of alignment will tend to be dragged along by the other wheels, causing uneven wear in that tire. If the alignment is such that the vehicle tends to turn, the driver will correct by steering against the tendency. In effect the vehicle is constantly turning, causing uneven tire wear. Also, if a tire is under or over-inflated, it will wear differently than the other tires on the vehicle. Rotating will not help in this case and the inflation needs to be corrected.

Manufacturers will recommend tire rotation frequency and pattern. Depending on the specifics of the vehicle tire rotation may be recommended every 12,000 km (7,500 mi). The rotation pattern is typically moving the back wheels to the front and the front to the back but crossing them when moving to the back. If the tires are unidirectional, the rotation can only be rotated front to back on the same side of the vehicle to preserve the rotational direction of the tires. Most unidirectional tires can be moved from side to side if they are remounted; tires with asymmetric rims are a rare exception. More complex rotation patterns are required if the vehicle has a full-size spare tire that is part of the rotation or if there are snow tires.

In rare cases, automobile manufacturers may recommend performing no tire rotation at all (eg BMW MINI).

Links

• Sample rotation pattern

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

1937 Cord 812 with hidden headlights

Hidden headlights are an automotive styling feature that conceals an automobile's headlights when not in use. Depending on the design, the headlights may rotate to sit flush with the front end (as with the Porsche 928), may retract into the hood and/or fenders (as with the Chevrolet Corvette from 1963 to 2004), or may be concealed behind retractable or rotating grille panels (as on the 1966 Dodge Charger or 1967 Mercury Cougar).

1967 Ford Thunderbird with hidden headlights

Hidden headlights first appeared on the Cord 810 in 1936. These units had to be manually opened when the headlights needed to be used.

Powered hidden headlights were pioneered in GM's Buick Y-Job concept car of 1938 and were used briefly on the 1942 production DeSoto, but their popularity has waxed and waned during the ensuing decades. While the arrangement was again popular in the 1980s, in large part because the retracted headlamps had less aerodynamic drag, it has fallen out of favor, owing in large part to the added cost, weight, and complexity, and the dubious reliability of the mechanisms in older cars.

A 1973 SAAB Sonett III

Partial list of cars with hidden headlights

1985-1989 Acura/Honda Integra
1990-2002 Acura/Honda NSX
1976-1989 Aston Martin Lagonda
1989-1999 BMW 8 Series
1978-1981 BMW M1
1988-1991 Buick Reatta
1965-1969 Buick Riviera
1967-1968 Cadillac Eldorado
1967-1969 Chevrolet Camaro (optional)
1968-1969 Chevrolet Caprice (optional and very rare)
1963-2004 Chevrolet Corvette
1968-1971 Chrysler 300
1990-1993 Chrysler Imperial
1987-1992 Chrysler LeBaron (coupe & converible only)
1976-1981, 1988-1993 Chrysler New Yorker
1990-1993 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue
1942 DeSoto
1966-1970 Dodge Charger (optional from 1971 to 1972)
1987-1991 Dodge Daytona
1978-1979 Dodge Magnum (clear covers)
1972-1973 Dodge Monaco
1976-1978 Dodge Royal Monaco
1979-1981 Dodge St. Regis (clear covers)
1973-1988 Fiat X1/9
1968-1970 Ford LTD (including Country Squire wagon)
1975-1978 Ford LTD Landau (including Country Squire wagon)
1989-1997 Ford Probe
1970 Ford Ranchero (GT only)
1967-1969 and 1977-1982 Ford Thunderbird
1970 Ford Torino Brougham
1986-1989 Honda Accord
1982-1991 Honda Prelude
1969-1975, 1981-1983 Imperial
1975-1979 Lancia Montecarlo
1970-1979 Lincoln Continental
1968-1983 Lincoln Mark series
1962-1975 Lotus Elan 2+2
1978-2004 Lotus Esprit
1989-1995 Lotus Elan
1989-1997 Mazda MX-5
1978-2002 Mazda RX-7
1967-1970 Mercury Cougar
1969-1978 Mercury Marquis
1970 Mercury Montego (some models)
1991-1993 Mitsubishi 3000GT
1990-1992 Mitsubishi Eclipse
1989-1998 Nissan 180SX
1989-1994 Nissan 240SX/Silvia
1966-1969 and 1986-1992 Oldsmobile Toronado
1968-1973 Opel GT
1970-1971 Plymouth Fury (Gran Coupe & Sport Fury, Sport Suburban wagon for 1971)
1972 Plymouth Fury III (optional)
1984-1988 Pontiac Fiero
1982-2002 Pontiac Firebird
1968-1969 Pontiac GTO
1967-1968 Pontiac Grand Prix
1976-1988 Porsche 924
1982-1991 Porsche 944
1991-1994 Porsche 968
1985-1989 Porsche 911 Turbo SE 'Slantnose'
1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6S 'Flatnose'
1967-1970 Toyota 2000GT
1986-1993 Toyota Celica
1983-1987 Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno/Toyota Corolla GT-S
1987-1991 Toyota Corolla AE92 SR5/GT-S coupe's
1984-1999 Toyota MR2
1982-1992 Toyota Supra
1975-1982 Triumph TR7 & TR8

A Mazda 323F

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The Lincoln Mark IV is one of the most iconic American personal luxury cars.

A personal luxury car is a highly styled, luxurious automobile intended for the comfort and satisfaction of its owner/driver, sacrificing passenger space, cargo capacity, and other practical concerns for the sake of style. The personal luxury car has often been a lucrative market segment of the post-World War Two automotive market.

Definition

Personal luxury cars are usually, though not necessarily, two-door coupes or convertibles with two-passenger or 2+2 seating capacity. They are distinguished from GT cars or sports cars by their greater emphasis on comfort and convenience than on performance, although the distinction between a luxury GT and a personal luxury car is often hazy. Personal luxury cars are typically mass producted (rather than custom-bodied), sharing their mechanical components with more prosaic sedans to reduce production costs and increase profitability.

Origins

The antecedents of the personal luxury car are the expensive, often custom-bodied sporting luxury cars of the 1920s and 1930s, some of the most famous of which were built by Bugatti, Delage, Delahaye, Duesenberg, and Mercedes-Benz. Two well-known examples were the Duesenberg SJ and Mercedes SSK: tremendously fast and stratospherically expensive automobiles eschewing the comfort of pure luxury cars while being too large and heavy to be true sports cars. They nonetheless offered distinctive style, impeccable craftsmanship, and strong performance for wealthy buyers (including film and music stars, kings, and gangsters) who wanted to project a dashing image. The Great Depression and World War Two eroded the market for these expensive, bespoke cars, but the postwar era still produced noteworthy examples like the Bentley Continental R Type with its fine two-door body built by H.J. Mulliner. A related, primarily postwar phenomenon was the grand tourer (GT), a relatively comfortable, high-performance car intended for high-speed, long-distance travel. Italy became a major producer of GTs, with marques like Ferrari and Maserati offering distinctive, often custom-bodied models of considerable performance.

Both the bespoke luxury car and the GT were beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest buyers, and the 1950s saw a growing trend in both the United States and Europe towards mass-market "specialty cars" catering to drivers who coveted the image of the bespoke machinery, but who could not afford the cost -- and to wealthier buyers who could afford the genuine article, but disliked the inconvenience and complexity of servicing and repairing it, especially outside of a major urban area. Buyers were also interested in automatic transmission, air conditioning, power steering, and other convenience options not generally offered on GTs or sports cars of the day.

The result was a burdgeoning market for "factory customs," models using standard or mostly standard engines and other mechanical components, but with unique styling. A prominent early example was the 1953 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, whose customized styling gave it a price tag nearly twice that of a standard Cadillac ragtop despite nearly identical underpinnings.

The personal luxury car market segment in the United States was largely defined by the Ford Thunderbird. The first Thunderbird, launched in 1955 and sold through 1957, was a two-seat convertible, but despite its compact size and respectable performance, Ford made no claims that the softly sprung T-bird was a true sports car, calling it a "personal car." Although some Thunderbirds were quite fast for their time, and some successfully competed in various forms of competition, it was more of a compact luxury car than a GT.

In 1958 Ford transformed the Thunderbird into a bulkier, four-seat model with a large array of comfort features and styling gimmicks and found it a tremendous success, outselling any of the earlier, two-seat T-birds. While the four-seat Thunderbirds had only average performance and mediocre handling, their airplane and rocketship-inspired design cues found a receptive audience.

The personal luxury market emerges

Curiously, other U.S. automakers were slow to react to the success of the Thunderbird. It was not until 1962 when Pontiac offered the Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick offered the Wildcat, followed the next year by the Buick Riviera, that the T-Bird had serious competition. By 1970 the segment was growing, and would achieve even greater success in the later 1970s.

While Europe's slower economic recovery meant that it did not venture as much into this market until the 1960s, there were exceptions like the DKW 1000Sp, the custom-bodied Alfa Romeo 1900 Sprint, BMW 507, and Mercedes 190SL, none of which were true sports cars or GTs, but did cultivate a similar image to the U.S. personal luxury market, albeit on a smaller scale. By the 1960s models like the Jaguar E-Type,BMW CS coupes, Citroen SM, and Mercedes SL roadsters, while more expensive and somewhat smaller than their U.S. equivalents, were very much aimed at the same type of market. Indeed, the initial 6-series BMWs of 1977 were very comparable to models like the Riviera: they shared most of their mechanical components with contemporary sedans, offering very similar (and even slightly inferior) performance and less practicality at a higher price, but their distinctive style and image made them desirable automobiles.

The decline of the muscle car in the early 1970s coincided with a strong upswing in the personal luxury segment, as buyers shifted emphasis from performance to comfort. The models of that time, including the Lincoln Continental Mark series, Cadillac Eldorado, and Ford Thunderbird, largely abandoned any pretense of sport for a more intimate, luxury-oriented feel, with plush interiors and vintage styling cues like Rolls Royce-style radiator grilles, opera windows, and vinyl tops. They were mechanically uninspired other than the occasional gimmick, but despite high prices and poor fuel economy, they sold well.

Decline

American 'personal luxury' cars began to die out in the late 1980s as younger buyers moved towards imported European and Japanese cars, or towards sport utility vehicles. After years of steadily declining sales, the Buick Riviera died after 1999, the Oldsmobile Toronado after 1991, the Cadillac Eldorado after 2002, and the Lincoln Mark after 1998.

Nevertheless, conceptually similar imports from Japanese manufacturers like Lexus SC and Infiniti and European marques like BMW and Mercedes continue to sell well, even though their vehicles tend to be higher priced than their former American counterparts.

Partial list

While the vast majority of personal luxury cars came from the United States in the past, most of today's personal luxury cars are sold under German nameplates.

American vehicles

The Ford Thunderbird was one of the first American personal luxury cars and arguably the last with production ending for the 2004 model year.

American made cars that can be included in the Personal Luxury Car sector include the following. Note that not all model years with cars bearing these names count, since automobile manufacturers often re-use names, sometimes on very different types of car:

Ford Thunderbird - The original personal luxury car, and always one of the best sellers
Ford Elite - The company's first intermediate personal luxury car, obsoleted when the Thunderbird was downsized in 1977
Oldsmobile Starfire - Until the arrival of the Toronado in 1966
Oldsmobile Toronado - The first modern American front wheel drive car
Buick Riviera - Considered as one of the most beautiful American cars of the 1960s
Buick Regal - Was originally a personal luxury car until 1988
Pontiac Grand Prix - Introduced in 1962, early models are similar to the Pontiac Catalina in looks but they were always more luxurious. From 1969 through 1973, it shared a platform with the Pontiac GTO.
Chrysler Cordoba - Late to market in 1975, but for several years phenomenally successful
Mercury Cougar - Originally based on the Ford Mustang, then became related to the Ford Thunderbird
Chevrolet Monte Carlo - Introduced in 1970, and related to the Chevrolet Chevelle; again, a much more luxurious car than its stablemate, but considerably smaller and cheaper than the following cars from luxury car brands, which fitted in at the very top end of the personal luxury car market:
Cadillac Eldorado - From 1967 onwards, it shared the front wheel drive drivetrain and other characteristics of the Oldsmobile Toronado
Lincoln Continental Mark Series - From 1969, usually sharing the chassis, drivetrain and other parts of the Ford Thunderbird
Imperial - In 1981, this venerable name was briefly resurrected to compete in the personal luxury car market

European vehicles

Aston Martin Vanquish
Audi A8 coupe
Bentley Continental GT
Bentley Azure
BMW 6-Series
BMW 8-Series
Maserati Coupe
Mercedes-Benz CLK
Mercedes-Benz CLS
Mercedes-Benz CL

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

An SUV with four pillars

An A pillar is a name applied by car stylists and enthusiasts to the shaft of material that supports the windshield (windscreen) on either of the windshield frame sides. By denoting this structural member as the "A" pillar, and each successive vertical support is named after a successive letter in the alphabet (B pillar, C pillar etc.) the name allows those interested in car design to have a point of reference when discussing design elements.

When looking at the side of a vehicle, the A-pillar is the pillar that attaches to the windshield and supports the roof. The B-pillar is the second post supporting the roof, and so on towards the rear of the vehicle. In the most usual configuration, the C-pillar attaches to the rear window, however, depending on configuration, the final pillar can be B, D, or even higher in more extreme examples.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

A photographic typology illustrating variations of the design of the C-pillar

Two-level "Bangle-butt" on a BMW 645Ci

Bangle-butt is a derogatory term for the current rear-end styling paradigm among high-end automobiles. The name comes from controversial designer Chris Bangle. Although all of Bangle's designs have been the subject of heated debate, no element has been more discussed and copied than his two-level rear end styling. It features separate rear fenders with a "bustle-back" trunk (boot) lid.

Although named for Bangle, the two-level rear end styling has spread beyond BMW, and may not have even been invented there. The Maybach 57 and 62 came out the same year as Bangle's 2002 7-Series and also features this design element. Since then it has been adopted by Mercedes-Benz and others.

Vehicles with a "Bangle-butt" include:

2002-present BMW E65/E66 7-Series
2002-present Maybach 57 and 62
2004-present BMW E63/E64 6-Series
2006-present Mercedes-Benz W221 S-Class
2006-present Toyota Majesta
2007-present Toyota Camry
2004-present Toyota Mark X
2004-present Toyota Solara Coupe

Acest articol conţine materiale traduse şi adaptate din Wikipedia de Nicolae Sfetcu sub licenţă gratuită GNU.

This section tries to show every car ever made by country and then manufacturer.

1986 Toyota Camry hatchback

A hatchback is an automobile design, consisting of a passenger cabin which includes an integrated cargo space, accessed from behind by a hatch or flip-up window. Hatchbacks are also often called three-doors (two entry doors and the hatch) or five-doors (four entry doors and the hatch) cars. Small cars often incorporate a hatchback to make the best use of available space. Especially in smaller models, hatchbacks are often truncated, with the hatch nearly vertical, to reduce the car's footprint. This is an important consideration in countries where small streets and traffic congestion are factors. Hatchbacks frequently include fold-down rear seats, which enable a substantial portion of the interior space to be used as a cargo area to accommodate with the current transportation needs. Usually, the rear seat can be folded partially (for instance 1/2, 1/3 or 2/3) or completely to expand the cargo space.

Technically speaking, SUVs, station wagons and minivans can also be classified as hatchbacks. However, the term hatchback, especially in the U.S., is typically used in reference to small cars, with a smaller trunk than other vehicles. There are larger hatchbacks (i.e. Rover SD1), which have fastback rear windows.

Hatchbacks typically have a parcel shelf: a rigid shelf covering the cargo space that is hinged behind the rear seats and lifts with the hatch. An alternative is a flexible roll-up tonneau cover.

High performance variants of typical family hatchbacks are now common, known as "hot hatches".

History

The credit for the first hatchback is claimed by several manufacturers. Holden of Australia fitted what could be described as hatchbacks onto its cars in the late 1940s. The 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 featured a top-hinged rear hatch. Its successor, the 1958 DB Mark III, even offered a folding rear seat. However, since less than 700 DB2/4 and Mark III hatches were built, the Aston Martin is not universally considered the first mass-produced hatchback car. The 1954 AC Aceca and later Aceca-Bristol from AC Cars had a similar hatch at the back, though just 320 were built.

The first car which could genuinely be called a hatchback and produced in masses was the Renault 4 of 1961. This is controversial however, and some argue that the Austin A40 which predated the Renault 4 by three years was the first. However, that car had a split tailgate quite unlike what is generally accepted to be a hatchback. The Renault 4 also came with a folding rear seat. Another car often credited with being the first hatchback is the Renault 16, which was voted European Car of the Year on its launch in the autumn of 1965. The first Italian hatchback was the Fiat 127, which went into production during 1971. The first German hatchback was the Volkswagen Passat (Dasher in North America) of 1973.

By the early 1980s, most family cars produced in Europe were hatchbacks. Hatchbacks quickly became regular winners of the European Car of the Year award. However in some countries, especially with larger cars where a sedan and (usually liftback-type) hatchback is available for the same model, the sedans are often preferred. Same is true also in certain regions like Southern and Eastern Europe, where some manufacturers have been forced to offer a local sedan version of smaller cars that are sold only as hatchbacks elsewhere to comply with the preferences of local clients.

US backlash

Despite, or perhaps because of, the hatchback design's space efficiency, relatively few cars with this layout are available in the United States. Some Americans view the hatchback design elements as an "econobox" and consider this negatively in purchase decisions. Others view hatchbacks as representing support for "green" movements which some consider "un-American", although the recent commercial success of hybrid models belies this. Interestingly enough, many of the minivans and SUVs which are quite popular in the United States have hatchback design elements and car companies frequently market hatchback cars with euphemisms such as "Liftback", "Sportback", or "Sportwagon".

Similar body styles

Many sports and mid-sized cars are also designed using a variation of hatchback design, sometimes called a 'liftback. Here, the hatchback is angled down over the rear seats, and smoothly integrated into the tail of the car, resembling a fastback or sedan overall. This often improves aerodynamic performance, resulting in a reduced drag coefficient. Some of these cars are the Opel Vectra, the Ford Mondeo and the Renault Laguna.

Saab often used the term combi coupé (or 'Wagonback' in the US) for their take on the concept. Even some typical-looking sedans (saloons) have hatchbacks, such as the Mazda6, Hyundai Elantra, Kia Spectra and the Saab 9000.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

1895 Benz Velo - introduced ten years after the first patented Benz automobile of 1885

Steam-powered self propelled vehicles were devised in the late 17th century. A Flemish priest, Ferdinand Verbiest, demonstrated in 1678 a small steam car. The car was made for the Chinese emperor. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot successfully demonstrated such a vehicle on a real scale as early as 1769. Cugnot's invention initially saw little application in his native France, and the center of innovation passed to Great Britain, where Richard Trevithick was running a steam-carriage in 1801. Such vehicles were in vogue for a time, and over the next decades such innovations as hand brakes, multi-speed transmissions, and improved speed and steering were developed. Some were commercially successful in providing mass transit, until a backlash against these large speedy vehicles resulted in passing laws that self-propelled vehicles on public roads in the United Kingdom must be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn. This effectively killed road auto development in the UK for most of the rest of the 19th century, as inventors and engineers shifted their efforts to improvements in railway locomotives. The red flag law was not repealed until 1896.

The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789. Later, in 1804, Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle, which not only was the first automobile in the USA but was also the first amphibious vehicle, as his steam-powered vehicle was able to travel on wheels on land and via a paddle wheel in the water.

Belgian born Etienne Lenoir made a car with an internal combustion engine around 1860, though it was driven by coal-gas. His experiment lasted for 7 miles, but it took him 3 hours; He would have been faster on foot. Lenoir never tried experimenting with cars again. The French claim that a Deboutteville-Delamare was succesfull, and the French celebrated the 100th birthday of the car in 1984.

It is generally acknowledged that the first automobiles with gasoline powered internal combustion engines were completed almost simultaneously by several German inventors working independently: Karl Benz built his first automobile in 1885 in Mannheim. Benz was granted a patent for his automobile on January 29, 1886 and began the first production of autombiles in 1888. Soon thereafter, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart in 1889 designed a vehicle from scratch to be an automobile rather than a horse carriage fitted with an engine. They also were inventors of the first motor bike in 1886. Much earlier, an Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus in Vienna built a crude vehicle by placing an engine on a handcart around 1870, although it is disputed whether it ever ran, and he never applied for a patent for this type of invention. The first four wheel petrol-driven automobiles built in Britain came in Birmingham in 1895 by Frederick William Lanchester who also patented the disc brake.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

1885-built Benz Patent Motorwagen, the first car to go into production with an internal combustion engine

Steam-powered self propelled vehicles were devised in the late 17th century. A Flemish priest, Ferdinand Verbiest, demonstrated in 1678 a small steam car. The car was made for the Chinese emperor. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot successfully demonstrated such a vehicle on a real scale as early as 1769. Cugnot's invention initially saw little application in his native France, and the center of innovation passed to Great Britain, where Richard Trevithick was running a steam-carriage in 1801. Such vehicles were in vogue for a time, and over the next decades such innovations as hand brakes, multi-speed transmissions, and improved speed and steering were developed. Some were commercially successful in providing mass transit, until a backlash against these large speedy vehicles resulted in passing laws that self-propelled vehicles on public roads in the United Kingdom must be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag and blowing a horn. This effectively killed road auto development in the UK for most of the rest of the 19th century, as inventors and engineers shifted their efforts to improvements in railway locomotives. The red flag law was not repealed until 1896.

The first automobile patent in the United States was granted to Oliver Evans in 1789. Later, in 1804, Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle, which not only was the first automobile in the USA but was also the first amphibious vehicle, as his steam-powered vehicle was able to travel on wheels on land and via a paddle wheel in the water.

Belgian born Etienne Lenoir made a car with an internal combustion engine around 1860, though it was driven by coal-gas. His experiment lasted for 7 miles, but it took him 3 hours; He would have been faster on foot. Lenoir never tried experimenting with cars again. The French claim that a Deboutteville-Delamare was succesfull, and the French celebrated the 100th birthday of the car in 1984.

It is generally acknowledged that the first automobiles with gasoline powered internal combustion engines were completed almost simultaneously by several German inventors working independently: Karl Benz built his first automobile in 1885 in Mannheim. Benz was granted a patent for his automobile on January 29, 1886 and began the first production of autombiles in 1888. Soon thereafter, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Stuttgart in 1889 designed a vehicle from scratch to be an automobile rather than a horse carriage fitted with an engine. They also were inventors of the first motor bike in 1886. Much earlier, an Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus in Vienna built a crude vehicle by placing an engine on a handcart around 1870, although it is disputed whether it ever ran, and he never applied for a patent for this type of invention. The first four wheel petrol-driven automobiles built in Britain came in Birmingham in 1895 by Frederick William Lanchester who also patented the disc brake.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The Worthington Bottle Car

One of the earliest examples are the Bottle Cars built in the 1920s to advertise Worthington Beer in England. The five cars were fitted out with boiler plate bodies to resemble the shape of a bottle laid on its side - each one weighed about 2.3 tons.

The Nevada Car

Built on an International Harvester pickup truck as a community project during Reno, Nevada's Reno Days event. Features a "supercharger" on the hood which is actually the motor head unit from a Kirby Sani-Tronic vacuum cleaner. Owned and (formerly) driven by Patrick Dailey of Novato, California, who states: " Wherever we go people are always trying to give us more junk to put on it." and "...we hardly ever have to buy our own gas." As of summer 2005 the Nevada Car is stored in Boulder City, Nevada, in need of engine repairs.

Buddha Buggy

Buddha Buggy

A 1987 Honda CRX, the Buddha Buggy features a 1.6 m high detachable Nepalese Buddhist stupa on the roof, with strings of prayer flags running up to the golden pinnacle of the stupa. In back, a 300 mm golden Buddha, holding a miniature pagoda, is flanked by intent Laptop Buddhas. These are but a few of the 50 golden statuettes, mostly on Buddhist or Asian spiritual themes, that adorn the car and stupa. Adding to the effect are twirling yin-yang hubcaps, psychedelic-era stickers, and the vanity license plates, TOOCOOL. Not visible are the image is a 330 mm high porcelain Amitabha Buddha in its niche in the stupa, and [3] paintings of the Buddha], comic dragons, a cartoon portrait of the owner, comets, a flying saucer with 2 green aliens, and toothy, two-legged fishes. The car's interior includes a velvet altarcloth-draped dashboard with brass Tibetan incense burners, statues, and gold tassels; a painted explosion of cosmic love inside the doors; and a temporary installation of spiritual beings meditating in a circle in the back cargo area. The Buddha Buggy is the work of its Seattle, Washington owner, Larry Neilson, and his many collaborators. It has appeared at Art Car events all over the western U.S. and Canada, including the Tacoma_Art_Museum and San Jose (CA) Museum of Art.

Camera Van

A van entirely covered with photographic and videocameras and featuring a video display, built by filmmaker and art car guru Harrod Blank. This vehicle has the distinction of being one of the few works of art that actually looks back at the viewer, as it photographs and videotapes them using some of the cameras mounted upon it, and has the ability to play the video back on the external screen, allowing you to watch it - watching you as you are watching it watch you. (Seen in Oakland, California.) More at [4]

Flying Saucer

This is an otherwise conventional VW Beetle but with aluminum arching skirts all around that make the platform completely circular. In place of the sun roof is somewhat hemispherical transparent plastic dome. (Seen in a Berkeley, California parade.)

Oh my God!

A 1965 Volkswagen Beetle with the California license plate OMYGAWD, which features exotic plastic fruits and vegetables, a world globe and the phrase "Oh my God" painted in dozens of languages. A creation of Harrod Blank, this Beetle was featured in the 1992 documentary Wild Wheels (the documentary featured a scene in a courtroom where Blank was seen contesting a parking citation to the point that art cars and their respective artists were usually subjected to police harassment).

Phone Car

"Teleman" and the Phone Car

Created by business owner, Howard Davis (seen here as his alter-ego, Teleman), as a way to promote his business telephone company. It was featured in various magazines including Motor Trend and Weekly World News, and was also in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles for its exhibit on art cars.

The Phone Car is built on a 1975 Volkswagen Beetle frame and has a tinted glass windshield which allows the driver to see clearly out of it. It also has a telephone ringer as its horn, so instead of a honk, it rings!

Rocket Car

A car that looks like a Buck Rogers style art deco rocket ship, complete with a gauge-filled cockpit interior which appears to be suitable for a jet aircraft.

Furthur and Further

The day-glo painted schoolbus Further is a 'remake' of the original bus known as "Furthur" (the original) which is the actual real-life Merry Pranksters' hippie bus whose destination sign read simply "Furthur" and which "tootled the multitudes" in 1964 in 'real life' and in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test The bus is also prominently mentioned in the Grateful Dead's song "(That's it for) The Other One", as "the bus to never-ever land" with "...Cowboy Neal (Neal Cassady) at the wheel...".

H-Wing Carfighter

A "next generation" art car is the H-Wing Carfighter, a science fiction-themed 1995 Honda Civic del Sol SI two-seater. Designed after a Rebel Alliance A-Wing fighter from Star Wars, it features external laser cannons, lighting effects and an automated R2-D2 "Astromech droid". The interior features computers and other gadgetry. Many modifications are made from "found" parts including sports equipment, plumbing fixtures, and toys. The overall design blends elements of real war machines through the ages, such as World War Two fighter planes, with the fictional. H-Wing is a member of Road Squadron, a collection of science fiction-related art cars, and generated a great deal of web traffic when featured on Fark.com and Slashdot.

Note that the interior continues the striped design.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Lotus Cars final assembly line

Automakers or automobile manufacturers are companies that design and manufacture automobiles. Most of them are based in Germany, Japan, South Korea or the United States.

They are often influential political groups, hence they often affect environmental issues.

They also can be thought of as primarily financial services companies, as the majority of their profits come from the loans they give to people to buy their cars. In some cases this is the only source of profit.

While automakers are headquarted in a smaller number of countries, manufacturing facilities exist in a large number of countries. Some countries simply have cheaper labor. Other countries will encourage or mandate a certain amount of local employment and use of locally-produced parts before an automaker is allowed to sell in a country. Others have prohibitive tariffs that lead automakers to produce locally. For instance, the U.S. has a relatively low tariff of 2.5% for imported automobiles. Yet its tariff for imported pickup trucks is 25%, thus hurting the competitiveness of imported pickups. As a result, manufacturers assemble pickups intended for the American market in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico, as these countries are parties to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Automaker listing

General Motors
Toyota
Honda
Nissan Motors
Fiat
Ford Motor Company
Hyundai Motor Company
DaimlerChrysler
Volkswagen Group

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Need an webmaster? Click HERE

Prestes Maia Expressway, in São Paulo, Brazil, near rush hour, already showing some considerable traffic density.

Rules of the road are the general practices and procedures that road users follow, especially motorists and cyclists. They govern interactions with other vehicles and pedestrians. The basic traffic rules are defined by an international treaty under the authority of the United Nations, the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. Not all countries are signatory to the convention and, even among signatories, local variations in practice may be found. Driving safely is usually easier if a driver can adapt to both written and unwritten local rules of the road.

These rules should be distinguished from the mechanical procedures required to operate one's vehicle.

Directionality

Traffic going in opposite directions should be separated in such a way that they do not block each other's way. The most basic rule regarding this concept is which side of the road should be used for travel. About 34% of the world by country population drives on the left, and 66% keeps right. By roadway miles, about 72% drive on the right.

Highway code

In many countries, the rules of the road are codified, setting out the legal requirements and punishments for breaking them.

In the United Kingdom, the rules are set out in the Highway Code, including some obligations, but also a lot of other advice on how to drive sensibly and safely. For this second set of advice, it states: Although failure to comply with the other rules of the Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under Traffic Acts to establish liability. Many of its ex-colonies still retain this notice.

In the United States, traffic laws are regulated by the states and municipalities through their respective traffic code. The federal government's Department of Transportation has some control over road signage and vehicle safety, and limited control over the Interstate highway system (which is actually built and maintained by the states). However, all state vehicle or traffic laws have common elements. These include the mandatory automobile insurance requirement, right-of-way rules, the basic speed rule (go only as fast as is safe under the circumstances up to the maximum posted speed limit), and the requirement to stop after an accident. The most common state-by-state variation is in maximum speed limits; for example, rural states like Montana have speed limits as high as 75 mph (120 km/h), but Oregon has a maximum speed limit of 65 mph (104 km/h) and Hawaii has a maximum of 55 mph. (88 km/h).

Speed limits

One of the main factors that affect the damage caused by a collision is speed. Therefore, many countries of the world impose speed limits on their roads. Drivers are not supposed to drive at speeds which are higher than the posted limit.

To enforce the speed limit, two approaches are generally employed. In the USA it is common for the police to patrol the streets and use special equipment to measure the speed of vehicles, and "pull over" any vehicle found to be in violation of the speed limit. In Brazil and some European countries, there are computerized speed-measuring devices spread throughout the city, which will automatically detect speeding drivers and take a photograph of the license plate, which is later used for applying and mailing the ticket.

Another interesting mechanism that was developed in Germany is the Grüne Welle, or green wave, which is an indicator that shows the optimal speed to travel for the synchronized green lights along that corridor. This encourages drivers to travel at the posted limit in order to minimize stopping.

Priority

As well as the side of the road, priority rules also differ between countries. In the United Kingdom, priority is always indicated by signs or road markings, in that every junction has a concept of a major road and minor road (except those governed by traffic lights). In most of Continental Europe, the default priority is to give way to the right, but this default may be overridden by signs or road markings. In France, until the 1980s, the "priorité à droite" (give way to the right) rule was employed at most roundabouts, in that traffic already on the roundabout had to give way to traffic entering the roundabout. Most French roundabouts now have give-way signs for traffic entering the roundabout, but there remain some notable exceptions that operate on the old rule, such as the Place de l'Étoile around the Arc de Triomphe. Traffic on this particular roundabout is so chaotic that French insurance companies deem any accident on the roundabout to be equal liability. The default give-way-to-the-right rule used in Continental Europe causes problems for many British and Irish drivers who are accustomed to having right of way by default unless they are specifically told to give way.

4-way stop intersections

Intersection of 4th and San Fernando in San Jose, California. The intersection has crosswalks, left-turn lanes, and traffic lights.

In the United States and Canada, there are many 4-way intersections with a stop sign at every entrance. In this case, the default rule is:

1. Whichever vehicle stops first has priority.
2. If two vehicles stop at the same time, priority is given to the vehicle on the right.
3. If three vehicles stop at the same time, priority is given to the two vehicles going in the same direction.
4. If four vehicles stop, drivers usually use gestures and other communication to establish right-of-way. In some areas, the custom is for the north-south or the more-trafficked road to have priority, although this is rare.

Overtaking

Overtaking, or passing refers to a maneuver that is in effect passing vehicles traveling in the same direction. On two-lane roads, when there is a split line or a dashed line on the side of the overtaker, drivers may overtake when it is safe. In multi-lane roads in most jurisdictions, overtaking is permitted in the 'slower' lanes. See lanes below.

Lanes

Interstate 80 is a freeway with many lanes and heavy traffic.

When a street is wide enough to accommodate several vehicles traveling side-by-side, it is usual for traffic to organize itself into lanes, that is, parallel corridors of traffic. Some roads have one lane for each direction of travel and other have multiple lanes for each direction. Some countries apply pavement markings to clearly indicate the limits of each lane and the direction of travel that it must be used for. In other countries lanes have no markings at all and drivers follow them mostly by instinct rather than visual stimulus.

On roads that have multiple lanes going in the same direction, drivers may usually shift amongst lanes as they please, but they must do so in a way that does not cause inconvenience to other drivers. Driving cultures vary greatly on the issue of "lane ownership": in some countries, drivers traveling in a lane will be very protective of their right to travel in it while on others drivers will routinely expect other drivers to shift back and forth.

Designation and overtaking

The usual designation for lanes on divided highways is the fastest lane is the one closest to the center of the road, and the slowest to the edge of the road.

When driving on the left:

• The lane designated for faster traffic is on the right
• The lane designated for slower traffic is on the left
• Most freeway exits are on the left
• Overtaking is permitted to the right, and sometimes to the left.

When driving on the right:

• The lane designated for faster traffic is on the left
• The lane designated for slower traffic is on the right
• Most freeway exits are on the right
• Overtaking is permitted to the left, and sometimes to the right.

In the United States, the inside lane refers to the fastest lane, but in the United Kingdom, it refers to the slowest lane.

Usually, drivers are expected to keep in the slowest lane unless overtaking, though with more traffic, all lanes are often used. Many areas in North America do not have any laws about staying to the slowest lanes unless overtaking. In those areas, unlike many parts of Europe, traffic is allowed to overtake on any side, even in a slower lane. This practice is known as passing on the right in the United States, where it is common, overtaking on the inside, and 'undertaking' in the United Kingdom.

U.S. state-specific practices

In some U.S. states such as Massachusetts, although there are laws requiring all traffic on a public way to use the right-most lane unless overtaking, this rule is often ignored and seldom enforced on multi-lane roadways.

In other states like California, cars may use any lane on multi-lane roadways. Slower drivers are strongly encouraged to stay in the right-most lanes to keep the way clear for faster vehicles and thus speed up traffic. However, faster drivers can merely pass in the slower lanes if they wish. But the California Vehicle Code also requires trucks to stay in the right lane, or in the right two lanes if the roadway has four or more lanes going in their direction. The oldest freeways in California that pre-dated this rule often have ramps on the left, making signs like "TRUCKS OK ON LEFT LANE" or "TRUCKS MAY USE ALL LANES" necessary to override the default rule.

Right of way

Vehicles will often come into conflict with other vehicles because their intended courses of travel intersect, and thus interfere with each other's routes. The general principle that establishes who has the right to go first is called "right of way". It establishes who has the right to use the conflicting part of the road and who has to wait until the other driver does so.

Different countries have different rules that establish who has the right of way, but a common pattern is for one of the roads, usually the smaller road, to have a marking indicating that it should "yield" to drivers on the other road. This can be in the form of a stop sign, dotted lines painted on the pavement or other devices. Drivers approaching from the road with the stop sign, or equivalent device are required to stop before the intersection and only proceed when a breach occurs in the other road's traffic. Some countries also include pedestrian crossings near the STOP signs, and in this case the approaching drivers must also allow pedestrians to cross the street before advancing.

Another way to resolve the right-of-way conflict is to establish a general rule such as the French priorité-à-droite, or priority to the right when translated to the English language. This rule establishes that the right of way belongs to the driver who is coming from the right, and the driver coming from the left should yield to him. This rule is unambiguous, but may lead to some counterintuitive situations, such as in T-intersections, where, strangely enough, traffic going straight through the top segment of the T must yield to entering traffic that comes from the vertical leg of the T.

In most modern cities the traffic signal is used to establish the right of way on the busy roads. Its primary idea is to give each road a slice of time in which its traffic may use the intersection in an organized way. The intervals of time assigned for each road may be adjusted to take into account factors such as difference in volume of traffic.

Expressways

In large cities, moving from one part of the city to another by means of ordinary streets and avenues can be time-consuming since traffic usually moves at slow speeds and there are many intersections, stop signs, parked cars, pedestrian crossings, bicycle traffic and other obstacles. Therefore, it has become common practice for larger cities to build expressways, which are large and wide avenues that run for long distances and have no intersections or semaphores. Vehicles wishing to travel over great distances within the city will usually take the expressways in order to save on travel time. When another road must cross an expressway, a bridge will be built if the expressway is a ground-level road, or it will pass under the expressway if it is elevated.

Expressways usually have controlled entry and exit, that is, entering and leaving the expressway may only be done at specific points called entries and exits. Vehicles entering the expressway must yield the right of way to the vehicles already traveling on it.

Turning

Vehicles will often want to cease to travel in a straight line and turn onto another road. The vehicle's directional signals (blinkers) are often used as a way to announce one's the intention to turn, thus alerting other drivers. The actual usage of blinkers vary greatly amongst countries. Turning traffic must usually yield the right of way to oncoming traffic—on right-driving countries, vehicles must yield when performing a left turn; on left-driving countries vehicles must yield when performing a right turn.

This will usually mean that turning traffic will have to stop in order to wait for a breach to turn, and this might cause inconvenience for vehicles that follow them but do not want to turn. This is why dedicated lanes and protected traffic signals for turning are sometimes provided. On busier intersections where a protected lane would be ineffective or cannot be built, turning may be entirely prohibited, and drivers will be required to "drive around the block" in order to accomplish the turn.

On roads with multiple lanes, turning traffic is generally expected to move to the lane closest to the direction they wish to turn. For example, traffic intending to turn right will usually move to the rightmost lane before the intersection. Likewise, left-turning traffic will move to the leftmost lane. Exceptions to this rule may exist where for example the traffic authority decides that the two rightmost lanes will be for turning right, in which case drivers may take whichever of them to turn. On certain parts of the world traffic will adapt to informal patterns that rise naturally rather than by force of authority: for example, in Brazil and elsewhere it is common for drivers to observe (and trust) the turn signals used by other drivers in order to make turns from other lanes. For example if several vehicles on the right lane are all turning right, a vehicle may come from the next-to-right lane and turn right as well, doing so in parallel with the other right-turning vehicles.

One-way streets

In more sophisticated systems such as large cities, this concept is further extended: some streets are marked as being one-way, and on those streets all traffic must flow in only one direction. A driver wishing to reach a destination he already passed must use other streets in order to return. Usage of one-way streets, despite the inconveniences it can bring to individual drivers, can greatly improve traffic flow since they usually allow traffic to move faster and tend to simplify intersections.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.