Vehicles: Page 200

Truckin’ Back to the Eighties

The Bible says you reap what you sow and because of that, the domestic auto-makers had better start looking for some divine intervention, because years of concentrating on nothing but trucks and SUVs now has the domestics sucking wind on several fronts, including powertrain development. You see, rampant truckmaking virtually dictates that a company suspend innovation. The truck/SUV profit formula

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 2001

New BMW engines: No throttle

BMW AG is ready with a significant step forward in the ongoing advance of engine design with its innovative, all-new Valvetronic concept. The new Valvetronic design eliminates the throttle as we know it. Valvetronic electronically and instantaneously varies both lift and the timing of inlet valves, so the engine breathing is controlled completely by the intake valves. It eliminates the usual throttle

By David Scott • Jan. 1, 2001

Duramax Redefines the Diesel Landscape

Let me say right off the bat that I'm not a pickup truck kind of guy. My personal vehicle preference pretty much runs the gamut of German luxury cars from A to B. Well actually, A to M-B. The best new car I drove in 2000 was the BMW 530i. The second best was probably the Audi allroad. You get the picture. So I have to tell you that when I first stomped on the throttle of our Silverado three-quarter-ton

By Drew Winter • Jan. 1, 2001

Ten best engines: long-term update

Oblivious to one of the Midwest's nastiest winters in memory, our long-term test cars didn't stop rolling for even a day.Ford Motor Co.'s stupefyingly agile Contour SE and Mazda Motor Corp.s' surprisingly complete Millenia S both feature top-notch traction-control systems that abide no nonsense from foul weather.The Millenia's traction control was editor-in-chief Dave Smith's unflappable copilot for

By Bill Visnic • Dec. 21, 2000

Supplier tiering creates purchasing pickle: shifting buying patterns raise autonomy and control issues

Ford Motor Co. Vice President-Purchasing Carlos E. Mazzorin emphasizes that price resistance isn't confined to the automotive market: Even cereal makers are finding consumers won't accept a steady diet of price hikes. Indeed, during June the major cereal producers rolled back prices sharply to shore up sinking sales.But even the breakfast food makers don't have to worry about Toyota Motor Corp. dropping

By Drew Winter • Dec. 21, 2000

Techspex offers trial

CHICAGO, IL -- Machine tool users can receive a limited-time free trial subscription to Techspex's turning or machining center database on the Web. Offering the first comprehensive database driven by a powerful search engine, Techspex helps machine tool buyers specify the right machines from hundreds of CNC machine models available today. A built-in feature allows users to quickly print spreadsheets

Dec. 21, 2000

NEXT - GENERATION AKULON[R] NYLON 6 MATERIALS FROM DSM

DSM Engineering Plastics, a global leader in nylon 6 for the automotive industry, has recently announced two new additions to our extensive nylon 6 product portfolio. These materials are important for anyone designing or processing automotive components for underhood, drivetrain, exterior trim, or auto electrical systems.Akulon[R] ReCap[TM] - Meeting Environmental Demands in the Automotive MarketWith

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Dec. 1, 2000

LEM Develops Smaller Sensors for 42-Volt Architecture

With the much-anticipated 42-volt architecture fast approaching, companies such as LEM U.S.A. Inc. are entering the automotive market with smaller, more cost-effective sensors that are able to support higher voltage systems.The supplier says it has been providing sensors for the industrial automation, traction, power conversion, welding, robotics computers and telecommunications markets for the past

By Laurel Wright • Nov. 1, 2000

Hybrids Will Need Boost to be Mass Produced

Driving habits and fuel prices will be the significant drivers determining volume production of hybrid-powered vehicles, says John Wormald of autoPOLIS at the recent Hybrid 2000 Conference in Windsor, Ont.A simple formula indicates U.S. citizens drive twice as much as Europeans - and Europeans, in turn, drive twice the number of kilometers as Japanese.This is the kind of work autoPOLIS does - it's

By Bob Krantz • Nov. 1, 2000

Delphi Launches Smart Sensing, MobileAria

Last month's Convergence 2000 marked a milestone in the 26-year history of the biennial meeting of the minds between automotive and electronics folks. A move to the roomier quarters provided at Detroit's Cobo Center (from its former digs in suburban Dearborn, MI) saw attendance double to more than 10,000 attendees over the exhibition's three days. The event offered 13 technical sessions and more than

By Tom Murphy • Nov. 1, 2000

Lear Unveils New Formula One APEX System

Lear Corp., in partnership with Jaguar Racing, unveils the APEX (Advanced Protection and Extrication) system, the next generation of the supplier's Formula One extractable seat.Lear says the system provides better head protection and enhanced safety during the removal of an injured driver. Lear's current extractable system was made mandatory on all Formula One race cars in 1999, and the supplier hopes

By Laurel Wright • Nov. 1, 2000

SmartMove Demonstrates End-to-End Telematics

Claiming its technology will literally turn the telematics industry upside down, SmartMove NV, a Belgium-based software developer, demonstrated Tuesday what it calls a complete, fully functional end-to-end Java-based open software solution for the entire telematics pipeline. Called the SmartMove Open Telematics Framework (OTF), it is claimed to be the first end-to-end open telematics solution in the

By Drew Winter • Nov. 1, 2000

A Year of Rebuilding

Struggling IBEC looks to the future Since 1993, automotive body engineers have gathered each year to discuss topics such as math-based modeling, rapid prototyping and how to crash a car digitally.But this year's International Body Engineering Conference and Exposition (IBEC) hit a brick wall of its own.It was held in early October at Detroit's Cobo Center, and many of the 500 attendees and 18 exhibitors

By Tom Murphy • Nov. 1, 2000

New firm automates collision repair claims process

Goal is to reduce costs and time For more than eight months, a fledging Redwood Shores, CA company was in stealth mode while its team of programmers and designers developed solutions to automate the marketplace processes in the automotive collision repair industry under the code name EngineRoar.com.That was then. Today, the new company, Ensera, Inc. (www.ensera.com), claims it is first-to-market with

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Nov. 1, 2000

EDS, IBM BLAZE DEALER PATH TO WEB

Strange bedfellows bring new product to IT scene It's said that politics make strange bedfellows. Well, so do the Internet and dealership information technology systems.EDS and IBM, who normally spar along with Reynolds & Reynolds and ADP for the dollars dealers earmark for IT hardware and software, have joined forces to help dealers and their employees find the information highway.DealerPath, which

By Tim Keenan • Nov. 1, 2000

High-Strength Steels Get New Crash Data

Thanks to new high-speed computers and newly available strain rate data, engineers now can replicate crash behavior of high-strength steels in crush-zone and safety cage structures, says a paper presented by Jody Shaw, manager of technical marketing, U.S. Steel Group, at the recent International Body Engineering Conference in Detroit.Computers previously have had a difficult time simulating the behavior

By Brian Corbett • Nov. 1, 2000

Making the MOST of Wiring Technology - Free of Charge

The MOST Cooperation, a 65-member consortium that includes 14 global auto-makers and 51 suppliers seeking to develop a standard to allow interconnectivity for in-vehicle audio, video and data services, has decided to make its technology available royalty-free.The decision ends a more than 18-month debate for the MOST Cooperation, initially formed with a small group of automakers and suppliers in 1996

By Dave Zoia • Nov. 1, 2000

New Cobalt product lets buyers “build” dream cars online

The Cobalt Group launched a product designed to give consumers the ability to build and select their dream cars right on a dealer's web site.Cobalt's Make & Match, integrating vehicle configuration technology and data from Chrome Data with Cobalt's new proprietary inventory matching software, could help auto dealers market their new vehicle inventory and secure more qualified leads from their Internet

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Nov. 1, 2000

Paving a Telematics Future

In-vehicle electronics systems to grow tenfold Visitors to Convergence 2000 this month in Detroit's Cobo Center will explore the future of telematics, which is predicted by 2010 to grow globally more than tenfold -from a current $4 billion to $46 billion - and produce more than $7 billion in earnings.Based on a recent study by UBS Warburg LLC, 71% of those revenues a decade hence will be service-based

By Mike Arnholt • Oct. 1, 2000

DEVICE DISABLES DEADBEATS’ VEHICLES

New gizmos always are popular, but when they offer a revolutionary way to collect from non-paying customers, they become a sensation.The On-Time device clearly qualifies as a sensation.Placed in a vehicle, the small gadget requires customers to punch in a code in order to start up their cars. Every week they must make their payment on time to receive a new code. Similar devices require a card swipe

By Stacey Lewis • Oct. 1, 2000

Software Factories

Siemens drives for 20% hike in global output of engine softwareMichael Reinfrank has a term he likes to use - "chaotic engineering" - when describing what it takes to get the brains behind the brawn.The director of powertrain software for Siemens Automotive oversees a team of 400 software engineers who write code for powertrain controllers, and the nature of the business - like the product itself

By Tom Murphy • Oct. 1, 2000

CarOrder.com calls it quits, want to focus on dealerships

CarOrder.com, the Internet car-buying service backed with $100 million of seed money from Trilogy Software Inc., has decided to give up on-line brokering and purchase dealerships instead.The company's web site stopped taking online consumer orders for new vehicles on Aug. 18. The company says it will focus on buying dealerships - perhaps acquiring six or seven by year's end.CarOrder.com was launched

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Sept. 1, 2000

GM, ExxonMobil in Fuel Cell Advance

In an unusual partnership that combines oil industry refining expertise with General Motors Corp.'s fuel cell technology, GM and ExxonMobil Corp. announced Aug. 10 they have developed a new highly efficient gasoline fuel processor for fuel cell vehicles.The on-board processor turns ordinary gasoline into a high-quality stream of hydrogen that powers a fuel cell, enabling them to be "gassed up" at

By Drew Winter • Sept. 1, 2000

Quality Swat Team

A defective part threatens to shut down the line at a Canadian assembly plant. Speed is imperative in today's just-in-time automotive world - but the supplier is based in the U.S., Mexico, maybe even Japan.Increasingly, the call for help is being answered by companies such as Engineered Solutions Corp. (ESC) of Cambridge, Ont., with a float of quality engineers available 24 hours a day, seven days

By Alisa Priddle • Aug. 1, 2000

CALIFORNIA STUDY SAYS MASS MARKET NOT READY FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Average consumers would demand that a battery-powered electric vehicle cost about $28,000 less than a comparable internal-combustion vehicle before they would agree to own and drive the EV.That's according to a study by Professor Kenneth Train of the University of California - Berkley. He presented it to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) workshop on California's electric vehicle (EV) mandate."Since

July 1, 2000