New Delhi, October 15: Bullish on the Indian market despite global economic downturn, Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo said it will enhance its product portfolio in the country, including a premium sports utility vehicle to be launched sometime next year.

The company introduced a new variant of its existing SUV, XC90, in the Indian market, priced at Rs 58 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).

“Not many people are affected at the top end by the ongoing global financial crisis and the luxury segment is picking up very fast,” Volvo Car India Managing Director Paul de Voijs said in New Delhi.

He said the company is not facing any slowdown in the segment and is planning to introduce another SUV, XC60, in India after its European launch in November this year.

“We are internally preparing for the homologation process and will launch the car accordingly then,” he said.

When asked if the company was considering to foray into the small car segment in India, Voijs said, “We have 1.6 litre powered engine S40, V50 and C30 cars in our portfolio. There is a possibility of these cars coming into India, but we have not taken a decision yet.”

He, however, said the company did not have any intention to develop an India specific car.

Article Source: Express India

Toyota, the makers of the Lexus line of luxury autos, has just publicly disclosed the full details regarding its newest model. With the success of the less expensive Toyota “Prius”, it only makes sense for Toyota to produce a higher-end model, and the new Lexus LS 600h L will be the most expensive hybrid car in production.

Technological advances and industry firsts help make this hybrid car expensive. The engine will be the world’s first full hybrid V8 powertrain engine. Other specs include full-time all-wheel drive, 430 horsepower, and an extremely low emission rating that puts other hybrids to shame.

The Lexus Hybrid Drive system found in the LS 600h L claims to be the automotive industry’s most advanced gas-electric hybrid system developed to date, providing power and performance comparable to modern 12-cylinder engines while still delivering best-in-V8-class fuel efficiency. The LS 600h L will also be the world’s first vehicle to be equipped with LED headlamps for night and low-beam use.

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Extremely expensive SUV’s are not anything new. Porsche and Hummer currently produce some of the world’s most expensive SUVs. An infatuation with high-priced gas-guzzlers has produced a market of jaw dropping SUV’s that are sure to impress even the toughest critics.

CNN’s Warrior One

On January 20th of 2007, CNN auctioned off a Hummer used by journalists that were covering the war in Iraq. Warrior One was auctioned for $1.25 million USD with the proceeds being donated to the Fisher House Foundation. Dave Liniger a Vietnam veteran and the founder of Re/Max International Inc. purchased the most expensive SUV sold at auction, bidding $1 million for the Hummer. Dave Ressler after bidding against Liniger at the auction contributed an additional $250,000 to benefit the charity. The Hummer H1 was the world’s most expensive SUV until it ended production in 2006.

By the end of 2007, the Spyker “D12 Peking-to-Paris” SSUV will retail at $300,000, making it the most expensive SUV in the world. Some of the standard features of the Spyker SSUV include: fulltime four-wheel drive, four doors (suicide configuration), VW’s 6-liter, W12 engine with an output of 500hp, 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds, carbon-ceramic matrix brakes, and all aluminum construction.

Read the interesting SUV article by Hunter Davis here

Mumbai, October 9: Cashing in on the growing fad for green vehicles, Mahindra & Mahindra plans to launch its fuel-efficient SUVs in the United States by early 2009.

“We are planning to launch our commercial vehicles in the United States but we are not ready yet to share the exact date of launch,” Mahindra Group Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said in Mumbai.

The Mahindra diesel SUVs have already cleared the tests and fulfilled the stringent emission norms in the US, he said, adding the announcement of the launch would be made shortly.

M&M already sells tractors in the US.

To a question if people there prefer smaller vehicles, Mahindra said Americans are not against large vehicles but are increasingly averse to fuel guzzlers that are not eco-friendly.

“They want fuel efficiency so that they can be guilt-free” of not polluting the environment, Mahindra said.

He said the company was also gearing up to introduce vehicles that could run on bio-diesel, diesel-electric hybrids and other green vehicles.

“We are ready to launch bio-diesel vehicles in India,” he said, adding, “whenever the government gears itself to make available bio-diesel, we will be ready with our vehicles.”

Mahindra said that it is not true to say that diesel vehicles cause pollution but it is the quality of fuel used that is critical.

Delivering fuel to the fire was every early engine designer’s worst headache. In the 1890s, Rudolf Diesel proved the merits of his engine during four years of research. But it was Robert Bosch who made diesels practical by developing the first fuel-injection system, a fifteen-year effort.

On the gasoline side, when Henry Ford was anxious to get an experimental engine running on Christmas Eve in 1893, he assigned his wife carburetion duty. While Henry whirled the flywheel, Clara dripped gas into the intake pipe.

Their collaboration worked: Ford’s single-cylinder engine shot flames from its exhaust and shook the kitchen sink it was clamped to until Henry signaled Clara to cease fuel delivery.

After more than a century of these headaches, an ideal means of getting fuel to the fire is finally gaining production applications. Direct injection-squirting pressurized fuel straight into each cylinder-is the key to keeping internal-combustion engines relevant in the future.

For enabling a major step forward in gas and diesel engine power, efficiency, and cleanliness, direct fuel injection is AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE’s 2009 Technology of the Year.

During World War II, direct injection enabled German fighters powered by Daimler-Benz V-12s to fly inverted, a maneuver that left their British Spitfire rivals’ carbureted Rolls-Royce engines sputtering. After peace resumed, Mercedes-Benz brought direct injection down to earth, making the 300SL and SLR sports cars the scourge of both street and track.

Gasoline direct injection began trickling into the United States five years ago on BMW V-12s and Isuzu V-6s. While injecting fuel into the combustion chamber requires approximately fifty times the pressure used with port injection and additional electronic control sophistication, significant benefits are delivered. Since no fuel is deposited on intake-port walls, the air/fuel mixture can be more precisely maintained, benefitting both mileage and emissions.

In addition, the cooling effect of gasoline droplets changing to vapor inside the combustion chamber facilitates a higher compression ratio without incurring detonation. Squeezing the mixture harder during compression and allowing it to expand longer on the power stroke wrings additional power out of every ounce of gasoline.

Read the complete article here

Americans’ affection for monstrous SUVs might be withering in the face of rising gas prices, but no one’s really sure whether they’ll readily accept the little Smart ForTwo as a remedy for fuel-pump woes.

More than 750,000 ForTwo units have been sold throughout Europe over the past eight years, DaimlerChrysler says. The car is also available in Canada.

The ForTwo isn’t a hybrid, nor is it actually “smart” in the high-tech sense–i.e., it doesn’t contain any fancy chips that let it talk or fly or automatically know where its driver wants to go–but the pod-shaped car certainly gets impressive gas mileage, averaging 46.3 miles per gallon in cities and 70.6 on the highway, according to DaimlerChrysler.

And the Smart ForTwo is tiny; the two-seater (hence the name–there’s also a Smart ForFour in Europe) is less than nine feet long, slightly less than five feet wide, and a smidgen over five feet tall. Compare that with the Mini Cooper, the vehicle most Americans think of when “subcompact car” is mentioned. The Mini is about three feet longer and six inches wider, not to mention more than 900 pounds heavier.

But like any car, the ForTwo has its drawbacks. With a top speed of 84 miles per hour, the vehicle will leave speed enthusiasts unimpressed. And it may prove impossible for the ForTwo to convince American consumers that anything that small doesn’t automatically equal foreign. After all, even Hollywood has contributed to a thoroughly Euro image for the car: Tom Hanks rode in one through the streets of Paris in the film adaptation of “The Da Vinci Code,” as did Steve Martin in this year’s remake of “The Pink Panther.”

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The nephew of singer and actress Jennifer Hudson was found dead in the back of an SUV on Monday. Hudson’s mother and brother were found shot to death 3 days earlier. (Oct. 27)

Source: youtube

An online contest to promote Chevy trucks and the TV show “The Apprentice” has instead been used by environmentalists to condemn General Motors for building vehicles they believe contribute to global warming.

Last month, General Motors launched a contest to see which member of the public could craft the best commercial for the Chevy Tahoe, a sports utility vehicle. At ChevyApprentice.com, visitors could choose from a range of soundtracks and video clips of the Tahoe traveling through different terrains. They also had the option of writing their own text to accompany the video and music.
Click here to Play

Video: Chevy gets trashed in commercial contest

Chevrolet let users make ads for the Chevy Tahoe, but a couple slipped by depicting SUV as a gas-guzzling machine.

One of the videos circulating around the Web featured shots of the Tahoe zooming through snow, mountains and desert. Over the video appeared the words: “Global warming isn’t a pretty SUV ad. It’s a frightening reality.”

Another commercial entry read: “Temperatures are rising. The polar ice caps are melting. Global warming is happening now. What will you tell your kids that you drove?”

Article source: Cnet news

By Michael Ehline

The ever-popular SUV has design flaws that most people are quite aware of by now. These design flaws are responsible for most SUV rollover accidents. The many injuries the occupants sustain in these rollover accidents in Orange County and cities located there like Anaheim or Malibu are as varied as the SUV’s.

Orange County and Los Angeles lawyers always seem to be handling a current SUV rollover claim These well qualified and experienced personal injury lawyers have a lot of insight into the design flaws that are responsible for SUV Rollovers.

The first thing they will tell you is that most American SUV’s do not have roll bars. This causes the tops of the SUV’s to completely collapse in most rollover crashes. SUV’s also have a higher center of gravity and that makes them top heavy and prone to rollover. The distance between the left and right tires and the middle of the vehicle determines the center of gravity. They also have a very narrow wheelbase which can easily tip and rollover when cornering or taking a turn too fast. Since SUV are top heavy, any quick turning of the steering wheel can cause the SUV to flip. It is extremely dangerous to over correct the popular SUV.

Soccer moms and large families mostly use SUV’s. In many ways the SUV has taken the place of station wagons of old. SUV’s were originally created for sports activities. Off road use was what the designer had in mind for these vehicles. They really were not designed to carry heavy loads and lots of people and families out for taking daily trips to the grocery store for just a few items. The design flaws that are responsible for SUV rollovers were not really a concern for the original use the designers had in mind. But never the less, many people are driving these vehicles and risking rollover accidents out on the public streets in Malibu, Anaheim and other Orange County residents.

Since the original intent for SUV usage was not for soccer moms and families out for Sunday drives, there was no roll bar designed into them. No roll bar, high center of gravity, narrow wheelbase, all spell rollover disaster for SUV’s.

Every year people are killed in these rollover accidents. If you have been injured or have lost a love one to an SUV rollover crash, do not hesitate to contact the professional, caring, personal injury lawyers for advice on any California legal claims for compensation. SUV Rollover attorneys are who you will need.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Ehline
http://EzineArticles.com/?Design-Flaws-Responsible-For-SUV-Rollovers&id=1393143

Introduction

While the name and a minute number of parts remain the same, the 2009 Honda Pilot is a new vehicle. Every piece of sheetmetal and glass, every mechanical component, and every feature has been gone through yielding a just slightly larger Pilot that put all the space to use inside. And unlike many similar designs it didn’t gain too many pounds.

An eight-passenger Pilot can handle four adults and four kids easily, or four infant seats if you have the earplugs. It has useful cargo space beyond the third-row seats so you needn’t fold one to fit a cooler or week’s worth of groceries. And with six cupholders in the second row alone, eight door cargo pockets and the ability to carry a 4×8-foot sheet of building material flat inside, finding a place for everything isn’t an issue.

Apart from perhaps flexibility and fuel economy for like vehicles the Pilot doesn’t strike one as superior in any given aspect, but rather feels like a well balanced vehicle that maintains average or better performance in any number of areas; the utility moniker is apropos. Good carrying space, road manners, and comfort are now wrapped up in a much better looking box.

Lineup

The Honda Pilot comes in four variants with few options. Each model is offered with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive (4WD). All mechanical and safety components and systems are identical across the range. Navigation only comes on top-line models, and the rear-seat DVD entertainment system is available only on the top two trims.

The LX comes with cloth upholstery, front and rear climate control, steel wheels, five-speed automatic, Hill Start Assist, flip-up hatch glass, intermittent rear wipe/wash, power windows/locks/mirrors, tow hitch, tinted rear windows, automatic headlamps, cruise control, center console, visor extensions and illuminated mirrors, tilt/telescoping steering column, four front seatback pockets, six reading lights, reconfigurable cargo area, 60/40 split-folding second and third row seats, trip computer, seven-speaker system with 6CD changer and MP3 jack. There are no options on the LX.

The EX upgrades with three-zone climate control, alloy wheels, security system, heated body-color mirrors, roof rails, fog lights, chrome exhaust tips, HomeLink, conversation mirror, eight-way power driver seat, XM radio, and exterior temperature indicator. No options.

Walkaround

Honda says the Pilot’s styling was inspired by an “ultra-rugged laptop computer,” and while the new Pilot is certainly more rugged looking than its predecessor, it’s also much cleaner with fewer indentations and carving in the body panels, more integrated lines, and a boxier shape that serves usefulness as well as it caters to image. Surfaces that aren’t sloped inward at the roof pay dividends in head space and big-box cargo loading, and the three inches of extra length have gone between the axles and into the cabin.

With substantial chrome trim and “eyebrows” in the headlight housings, fog lights much higher in the bumper, and a hatch that tapers more to the sides than forward at the top, the new Pilot looks much wider than the extra inch it is. Viewed from dead astern the Pilot appears as bulky as the full-size SUV Nissan Armada and Toyota Sequoia, though it weighs substantially less than any full-size four-wheel drive like those.

Interior

Regardless of trim level, the Honda Pilot interior appears well though-out and assembled, with functional touches at every turn and a luxury factor that increases alongside price. In simple terms the base LX will do everything a Touring will do except reposition your seat and mirrors or open and close the power tailgate.

The cloth upholstery on LX and EX is comfortable in temperature extremes and a subdued design with just enough pattern to hide stains that become part and parcel of any eight-seat vehicle. One may desire more features from higher-priced models yet the basics are all here, including power windows and locks and air conditioning for front and rear. Just like the priciest Pilot, door armrests have soft cushioned elbow pads and there’s no cheap feel in frequently felt surfaces. All trims offer four interior colors dependent on paint hue. Premium models are upgraded with nicely textured leather, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift lever, and more upscale door panel trim.

The front seats deliver good support for long-term comfort and bolsters on the seatbacks provide lateral support without imposing thigh cushions you’d have to climb over for every entry or exit. The power driver’s seat on the EX adjusts in one more plane than the LX and is easier underway for minor improvements in finding the ideal position and height, yet we had no fatigue or wish for more after hours in an LX.

Driving Impressions

On the road, the Honda Pilot feels balanced, with sufficient power and brakes, decent ride quality and handling, and on 4WD models the ability to leave the pavement or tackle pre-plowed snow. Most owners won’t go as far as a Pilot will go, but the rugged looks match vehicles that will go farther on a bad trail, so “off-road” travel is best kept to scenic byways and mountain motorways.

The 3.5-liter V6 takes on a characteristic Honda growl when you push it and you’ll need to be towing or accelerating uphill on an on-ramp to require such grunt. For the most part the engine is in the background, never silenced, never rough and never annoying. It now uses Honda’s Variable Cylinder Management to switch off two or three of its six cylinders to save fuel; the ECO light on the dash shows when you are getting best economy and does not necessarily mean it is running as a three- or four-cylinder engine. Like the all-wheel drive system, the VCM is transparent to the driver and requires no action on his or her part, and apart from some front tire spin under heavy acceleration from rest the front-drive model drives just like the all-wheel drive.

Among the host of three-row crossovers in the 3.5-liter to 3.8-liter V6 class, there isn’t a wide range between the slowest and fastest and the Honda feels right in the middle. Where the others may enjoy a slight advantage is with six speeds in the transmission, and/or the ability to address each of them separately or in a “sport” mode for quicker response. The Pilot shifter offers an OD Off switch which locks out the top two gears, so if you want fourth to control speed on long hill descents or winding roads you’re out of luck. Toyota’s Highlander and Mazda’s CX-9 come to mind as better in these respects, and to a lesser extent, GM’s Acadia/Enclave/Outlook/Traverse family.

Since the Pilot is among the lightest of the eight-seat crossovers the suspension can be tuned for ride comfort without requiring undue stiffness for control. It swallows up most road surfaces with aplomb and never bottomed out on dirt road whoop-de-doos when driven sensibly but briskly. No single noise source stands out and normal conversations are quite possible at highway speeds. The Michelin tires on the premium model may last longer or prove better in severe snow but you’d need instruments far more sophisticated than your behind to show any other advantage. The stability assist is one of the lesser intrusive such algorithms and if it comes into play you probably won’t notice as you’ll be busy wondering how you got into a bad situation.

Read the complete review here