Team-BHP - Interesting International Websites and Links On Automobiles!

A Nissan Note collided head on with a Skoda Octavia as reported by the media in the U.K. today. Three monks who were occupants of the Nissan Note were killed, while the guy in the Octavia suffered minor injuries.
It shows the difference in the build quality of these cars on the whole.

The link:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nati...-30196771.html

Thats a tribute to Skoda cars for the safety they offer, despite the fact that some these come with multiple gremlins, here in India.

Some current links of interest!
Daimler has refused to comply with the new norms in vogue since early 2011, that envisaged use of a new refrigerant R1234yf, which is supposed to be more environmental friendly. Its minus side is that the cars using this coolant exploded during crash tests.

http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/2013...l#.UOcMC1s9meo

The next news from Germany is that BMW has reported record sales for 2012 at 1.8 million vehicles. BMW is projecting further growth during 2013 but the European economy is sluggish. The US market offers a projected 5 % growth. The car maker is also speaking about other promising markets like Australia, Russia, Korea (should be read as South Korea) and Turkey. The company says these markets are continuing to grow.
And importantly there is no mention of India here though BMW had emerged as the no. 1 best seller in its segment during 2011.:Shockked: Wish their Hqs take cognizance of the Indian market where they are growing.

http://www.thelocal.de/money/2012122...l#.UOcOWVs9meo

Toyota's Camry and Prius rate poor on new, more stringent crash tests:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-1...rash-test.html

The new test includes a crash in which the front corner of a vehicle collides with another car, a tree or a pole. It looks like a more practical test to me because a driver is more likely to change direction of his/her vehicle when they see another vehicle on course for a head on collision.

The article states that as per insurance data, almost one fourth of frontal crashes are of this "smalll overlap" type in which someone is seriously injured or killed.

Quote:

The Camry and Prius V hybrid wagon were IIHS top safety picks in the crash tests that existed before this year. In those two cars, the only Toyotas to undergo the new test, structural components intruded into front-seat space where a driver would sit, the group said.
In the Camry, the crash shoved the front wheel into the footwell, bent the windshield pillar and pushed the parking brake pedal and left outer edge of the instrument panel back far enough to crush the driver’s body parts, the insurance group said. It said there was “significant” intrusion in the Prius V test coupled with “high forces” measured in a crash test dummy’s legs and feet.
Those cars’ air bags deployed too late or not in locations to protect drivers, the test found.

Honda on the other hand has fared a lot better.

it will be interesting to see how the car manufacturers try to balance safety and the 35MPG mandate.

The President of the German Automobile Association has writen to the German President to the German President to reconsider her decision to significantly reduce CO2 emissions by 2025 as this move is likely to hit the German car makers Audi, Mercedes Benz and BMW according to him.
The VDA (German Automobile Association) is quite skeptical about the reduction from 95 gms of CO2 per km in 2020 to around 68 to 78 gms per km by 2025.

More on this link:

http://www.thelocal.de/money/20130521-49829.html

The five Do's and Dont's on the 13,000 kms of Germany's Autobahn as listed by "The Local". After all, the German pop group Kraftwerk had an international hit with its rendition of Autobahn:

http://www.thelocal.de/galleries/lif...an-autobahn/0/

Video of Kraftwerk's Autobahn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68C-r9kSLNE

Yutaka Katayama, the man known as the father of the Datsun Z sports cars of the 1970's, passed away at the age of 105. The Z series turned into an iconic and affordable brand for budget sports cars. Our tributes to the departed soul and may his soul RIP.
More on this link:

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/ni...072608644.html

His son Mitsuo Katayama mused that his father was happily zooming around in the Z in heaven, no longer worried about "gas, police or traffic tickets."

The 2016 Cadillac CT 6 has made its debut in an advertisement today morning (IST) during the Oscar Awards.The ad from GM was showing no cars in its initial advertisement, but soon followed up, allowing viewers to have a first look at the white full size car with its dazzling LED lights .The car will first appear in the New York Auto Show on 1, April 2015:

More on this link:

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...ideo#src=10065

Jaguar says good bye to wagons as per the statement of the Design Director Ian Callum, justifying that it is a shrinking market. The SUV's are replacing the demand for wagons. Jaguar's SUV F-Pace and a smaller SUV on the anvil are likely to substitute the wagons according to JLR.

The Indian market (now the fourth largest car market in the world) has also not received wagons well since ages, irrespective of the SUV's presence or absence. JLR must also be realising why the Tata Indigo Marina is no more produced along with so many wagons that were launched a decade or more ago from Opel, Maruti (Baleno Altura) and so on.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...s-design-chief

The Jeep Renegade and the Kia Soul are compared by buyers seeking a small, square-ish, carry-all utility vehicle. The base model of the Jeep Renegade is powered by a 160-horsepower 1.4-litre four-cylinder TC engine, with a 6-speed manual. The more powerful Renegade variant comes with a 180-hp 2.4-litre 4 cyl, which uses the new 9-speed automatic transmission

The Kia Soul comes with a choice of two engines, the base 1.6-litre, 4 cyl, with an output of 130 horsepower and variants named Soul Plus and Soul Exclaim that are fitted with a more powerful 164-hp, 2.0-litre, direct-injection 4 cyl, with a 6-speed automatic (an option on the base model).

http://www.thecarconnection.com/news...cars#src=10065

These are the smallest SUV's available in the US market. Our Mahindra KUV 100, Hyundai Creta, Maruti Vitara Breeza are the smallest SUV's in our market. We ignore the Premier Rio like the Ambassador was ignored with the competition during its later years. The Creta and the KUV 100 too have matching looks comparable to the Kia Soul. Though our mini SUV's are too tiny comparably, at least our Indian market is coming of age and it shows.

Jaguar Plans New Straight-Six Engines:
Some unsurprising but welcome news arrives from the U.K. with a report that Jaguar Land Rover plans to build inline-six-cylinder variants of its new Ingenium engine family.

According to a story in Car magazine, the company plan follows in the footsteps of its German rivals by, basically, modularizing the recently launched 2.0-liter four-cylinder gas and diesel engines into 3.0-liter straight-sixes, with multiple power outputs of each to motivate the middle and upper reaches of both the Jaguar and Land Rover ranges.

Such a development could be predicted after JLR invested $650 million on a plan to double the size of its spiffy new engine plant in the English Midlands, and also because of the age of its existing 5.0-liter V-8 and 3.0-liter V-6 diesel powerplants, the latter being a version of an engine co-produced with PSA Peugeot Citroën that was introduced 12 years ago.

Source: http://blog.caranddriver.com/jaguar-...t-six-engines/