Vehicles: Page 193

BMW Bi-Fuel Cars on Tap for U.S.

BMW AG will put a small number of 7-Series bi-fuel cars on the road that can run on liquid hydrogen or gasoline with the flip of a switch. The technology was tested on the H2R Hydrogen Record Car that set nine land speed records, proving BMW's contention that hydrogen can replace gasoline for conventional internal-combustion engines without foregoing performance.

Feb. 1, 2005

Audi Sees Sales Up, Diesel Leadership

DETROIT – Saying Audi of America Inc. will sell more vehicles this year than the 78,000-plus units the company moved in 2004, Johan de Nyssthen, recently installed executive vice president, promises the surging upscale unit of Volkswagen AG will focus on “comfortable growth” this year. Although Audi’s 2004 worldwide sales of 779,000 units was an all-time high, de Nyssthen says the U.S. subsidiary

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 10, 2005

DaimlerChrysler Mercedes 3.2L DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel

What’s not to like about an advanced-technology turbocharged inline 6-cyl. diesel that, compared with a same-size gasoline V-6 in a midsize luxury sedan, punches the car from 0-to-60 mph (97 km/h) a half-second quicker – and deals out more than 30% better fuel economy? What’s not to like, indeed, about DaimlerChrysler’s spectacular Mercedes CDI 3.2L I-6 turbodiesel, the latest generation of Mercedes

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 4, 2005

Give Me Diesel or Give Me Death!

Like a child at Christmas, I could hardly wait to get my hands on the Mercedes E320 CDI. Imagine: a fine German luxury automobile combined with the brute power of a 3.2L I-6 turbodiesel, all right here in the land of red and blue states. As the key turned, I was rewarded with the sweetest of sounds: a very low rumble coming from the engine bay I only could liken to the purring of a conventional gasoline

By Kevin Kelly • Jan. 4, 2005

Ringing Endorsement

As a high-volume SUV program was preparing to launch a few years ago for a Big Three auto maker, wind noise and water leaks suggested a serious problem with a closure panel. Eager for a solution, the auto maker first had to identify the source of the problem, which baffled its body engineers. Perceptron Inc., a supplier that specializes in laser-based measuring, got the call to analyze five doors,

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 1, 2005

Seats Without Sensors

Key Safety Systems could have an active low-risk-deployment passenger-side airbag that will eliminate the need for seat-embedded occupant position sensors in cars by '07, thanks to the use of ticker-tape-like polyester sensor strips. Key (formerly Breed Technologies Inc.) is in talks with auto makers in Asia, Europe and North America about supplying the component to future vehicle programs. One OEM

By John D. Stoll • Jan. 1, 2005

WARD’S 10 Best Engines 2005

An emphasis on fuel-saving technology, such as hybrids, diesel and cylinder deactivation, emerged as a theme in this year’s 10 Best Engines competition. Click here for full coverage.

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 2005

Certified Programs Get Serious

Certified used vehicles have become such a growing profit center that auto makers are adding extended powertrain warranties as a selling feature and including loan offers with low interest rates for cream-of-the-crop pre-owneds. As sales of certified used vehicles head for a record 1.5 million mark this year, Mitsubishi has entered the ranks of certified program sponsors with a segment first. The

By Mac Gordon • Dec. 1, 2004

McKinsey: Electronics Need to Become Core Competency

As the gizmo-driven fever generated by Convergence 2004 hits the auto industry full steam this week, at least one top management consulting firm is advocating a degree of cold calculation in the introduction of innovation. “Let’s be very clear, this is a little bit of a revolution we (in the auto industry) are going through,” says Stefan Knupfer, McKinsey and Co.’s leader-North American automotive

By John D. Stoll • Oct. 18, 2004

Standardization Finally Coming for Vehicle Diagnostics

DETROIT – It’s been a long haul, but standardization for handling the diagnostic information from autos finally is becoming a reality, say engineers at the Convergence 2004 conference here. Electronics and powertrain engineers speaking at the “Automotive On/Off Board Diagnostics” session say the industry has gathered enough momentum behind the movement to standardize basic diagnostic information handling

By Bill Visnic • Oct. 18, 2004

Underhood Electronics

If you love cars isn't the first word that pops into your brain when you're talking about powertrains. But lets face it, today's most glorious engines in fact, any new engine at all can't sputter out its first exhaust note without the help of sophisticated electronics under the hood. That's why organizers of the bi-annual Convergence conference are devoting four sessions to powertrain issues Oct.

By Drew Winter • Oct. 1, 2004

Europe with NADA Kids

The year was 1967. Dustin Hoffman debuted in The Graduate. A Time magazine reviewer at the time said: OK, he was good, but can he handle other acting roles besides that of a disillusioned youth corrupted by decadent elders? An adult character in the movie oozed of artificiality with his one word of advice: Turns out, anyone who took that tip would have done well. Hollywood trials and tribulations

Oct. 1, 2004

All-Wheel Drive for All

Think all-wheel drive for vehicles never meant to travel off-road is a passing fad? An oddity for those who appreciate a little engineering overkill? Then check this list of 11 new-for-’05 cars offering AWD most for the first time. If the AWD system isn’t standard, it’s offered as an option for a surprisingly low price that reflects how hardware improvements and new electronic controls have enabled

By Bill Visnic • Sept. 30, 2004

Ferrari Unveils ’05 F430 Monza

Ferrari SpA takes the wraps off its newest 2-seat performance beauty, the ’05 F430 Monza during the Paris auto show. The F430 will replace the volume-leading 360 Modena, which replaced the F355 in 2000. ’05 Ferrari F430 The F430, designed by Carrozzeria Pininfarina SpA, features Ferrari’s 4.3L V-8, producing 490 hp and a top speed in excess of 196 mph (315 km/h). Ferrari says the F430 can accelerate

By Kevin Kelly • Sept. 24, 2004

Politics of Big Vehicles

When they walk into showrooms ready to plunk down their hard-earned income to buy a new car, Americans choose vehicles that are larger than those sold anywhere else in the world. But political forces may dramatically limit consumers' choices forces that will cripple the domestic industry, while handing a bonanza to foreign auto makers. Driving conditions in the U.S. are vastly different from those

By John McElroy • Sept. 1, 2004

DASEC’s Challenge

As U.S. emissions regulations become more stringent in the coming years, auto makers and suppliers must bolster their engineering and testing capabilities a mission that is neither inexpensive nor simple. Earlier this year, Motorola Automotive added an entire test bench to its ambient vehicle test cell in Dearborn, MI, at the company's Detroit Applications and Systems Engineering Center (DASEC). Now,

By Tom Murphy • Sept. 1, 2004

Pumping Up The Power of Flex

TRAVERSE CITY, MI Packaging flexible manufacturing into an assembly cell makes it possible for Cosma International Inc., a division of Magna International Inc., to center on niche and low-volume vehicles, Frank Horton, executive vice president-engineering, says at the Management Briefing Seminars here. Cosma’s flexible cell is unique, Horton says. It has robots with collaborative motion, meaning they

By Alisa Priddle • Aug. 5, 2004

Delphi Adding Engineers in China

TRAVERSE CITY, MI Delphi Corp. has 100 engineers in China now, but that number will grow to 500 next year and to 1,500 eventually, Vice Chairman Donald L. Runkle says during an address at the Management Briefing Seminars here. Runkle recently visited Shanghai, where Delphi has just broken ground on a new technical center. Despite a slowdown in car and truck sales in China, Runkle tells Ward’s that

By David C. Smith • Aug. 4, 2004

Mitsubishi Woes Could Impact Dundee

TRAVERSE CITY, MI Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s financial woes may be spilling over into its partnership in the Global Engine Mfg. Alliance LLC’s plant in Dundee, MI. Executives at the troubled Japanese auto maker are looking at future product plans and determining which vehicles to build and which to scuttle. Those decisions could determine whether Mitsubishi fulfills its engine volume commitment to

By Kevin Kelly • Aug. 3, 2004

Global Engine Saves DC $100 Million

TRAVERSE CITY, MI Global Engine Alliance LLC is delivering better-than-expected returns for its investors DaimlerChrysler AG, Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. For DC alone, the savings are more than $100 million per year when compared with its own engine manufacturing facilities in Mexico. Through the use of global sourcing and the development of common manufacturing systems shared

By Kevin Kelly • Aug. 2, 2004

Applicants Tested at Dundee

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Anyone interested in landing a job at the new Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance LLC factory in Dundee, MI, should be prepared for rejection. According to Bruce Coventry, president of the unit, nearly one in 10 applicants fail the testing needed to qualify for employment at the plant. Requirements include a 2-year college degree, as well as the ability to operate state-of-the-art

By Kevin Kelly • Aug. 2, 2004

DB9 Gets $20,000 Deposits

At least 800 people in the U.S. have slapped down deposits as large as $20,000 for the Aston Martin DB9, without ever having test driving the $155,000-$168,000 car. In addition, Aston Martin's forthcoming coupe and convertible, with deliveries beginning later this year, boasts a waiting list of 12 to 18 months. And in some extreme cases such as when a buyer orders a more customized interior deposits

By John D. Stoll • Aug. 1, 2004

So Long Rat Fur

Grizzled observers of the auto industry have heard the Big Three promising for years that world-class interiors in their cars and trucks are just around the corner. That message still is out there, delivered most recently by interior design executives from General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. during a panel discussion at the recent Auto Interiors Show in Detroit. Marek Reichman, Ford's director-interior

By Tom Murphy • July 1, 2004

Arresting Developments

Environmental interests and the automotive media work themselves into a lather almost daily about the horsepower race that's supposedly under way. It makes for good headlines, and if explosive sales of vehicles with ever-larger and more-bombastic engines are any indicator, it appears there is truth to the adage horsepower sells. But there is a less-sexy race under way at the other end of the performance

By Bill Visnic • July 1, 2004

Pulse Welding Arrives

After years of engineering, testing and pitching its proprietary magnetic pulse welding manufacturing process for joining dissimilar metals, Dana Corp. appears to have a high-volume customer. The Toledo-based supplier plans to use the innovative spark-free welding method to produce a driveshaft for a high-volume light truck produced in the U.S. by one of the Big Six auto makers in 2006 for an '07

By Tom Murphy • June 1, 2004