Vehicles: Page

The Road to Relaxation

Automotive seat producers are in constant pursuit of clever new ways to pamper the posterior. Seats currently are available that are heated, cooled, ventilated and covered with innovative new fabrics to improve comfort. Lumbar adjustments are increasingly common, and some luxury cars offer seats with gentle massaging mechanisms. At the recent Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit,

By Tom Murphy • May 1, 2006

Pat Ryan Jr.: From Teacher to Police Officer to CEO

A used-car inventory-management software system with impressive dealership clients comes from First Look, a firm headed by Patrick G. Ryan Jr., a former teacher and an ex-police officer.

By Steve Finlay • May 1, 2006

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from WardsAuto

Automakers are evaluating their long-term strategies, revisiting their product mix, and approach to both retail and manufacturing approach along the way.

By WardsAuto staff

GM to Add 20 More E85 Fueling Sites in Michigan

The effort is part of a partnership with Cleanfuel U.S.A. and Meijer shopping centers to promote the increased use of the clean-burning alternative fuel.

By Ward's Staff • April 19, 2006

Hybrids in California Fast Lane

California New Motor Vehicle Board's fifth annual roundtable focuses on alternative fuels of today and tomorrow.

By Steve Finlay • April 13, 2006

Ssangyong Promises Diesel Hybrid in 2008

The FEV/Ssangyong concept uses a 2.7L turbodiesel backed by an electric motor in a parallel arrangement similar to Honda’s hybrid drivetrain.

By Bill Visnic • April 7, 2006

Shiatsu Massage Seat Ready for ’08

At the SAE World Congress, Leggett & Platt Automotive displays a concept seat that offers Japanese-style shiatsu massage.

By Tom Murphy • April 6, 2006

Mann+Hummel Tweaks Turbo Whistle

The purely mechanical “symposer” changes the familiar high-frequency turbocharger whistle to a conventional engine’s more throaty sound.

April 6, 2006

BMW Capping Engine Size

Customers always crave more power, but BMW says its engines aren’t going to get any larger.

By Bill Visnic • April 6, 2006

Lear Focusing on Seats, Electronics

As GM scales back its interior integration strategy, Lear wants to scratch cockpits, door trim panels, headliners and acoustics from its product portfolio.

By Tom Murphy • April 5, 2006

Ferrari Picks MagneRide

The '07 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano unveiled at the Geneva auto show has a top speed of 205 mph (330 km/h) and sprints from a standstill to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 3.7 seconds. So imagine how pleased the product and engineering ranks are at beleaguered Delphi Corp. Its Energy and Chassis division makes the MagneRide variable damper technology that was chosen to give the 599 GTB its razor-sharp handling.

By Tom Murphy • April 1, 2006

Econoboxes No Longer

Please don't call them And don't design and market them that way either. There's a new wave of small cars coming to the U.S., and for the smart players in the sector it won't be all about fuel economy and frugality. Forever, it seems, auto makers have struggled when it comes to selling small cars in America. During oil shocks, U.S. consumers have been willing to pay a fair price for fuel-efficient

By David E. Zoia • April 1, 2006

Applying Pressure

Robert Bosch GmbH is developing a common-rail fuel-injection system for diesels that would achieve efficiency-enhancing pressures of around 36,200 psi (2,500 bar) or even 43,500 psi (3,000 bar), far higher than current-production, best-in-class 26,100-psi (1,800-bar) systems, or next-generation 29,000-psi (2,000-bar) systems. Stefan Kampmann, senior vice president of engineering for Bosch diesel systems,

By William Diem • April 1, 2006

Deep Roots, Winning Attitude

France is a mature market, but it continues to attract investment from American suppliers, because when the automotive industry puts down roots, they grow deep and strong. During the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress this month, the Invest in France organization is honoring three suppliers for their investments to expand existing facilities in French automotive regions: BorgWarner Inc.,

By William Diem • April 1, 2006

Suzuki’s All-New XL7 CUV to Bow in N.Y.

The XL7 will come equipped with a 3.6L, twin-cam V-6 engine and will go on sale in the U.S. in fourth-quarter 2006.

By Ward's Staff • March 29, 2006

Volvo Unveils New Inline Engine for S80

Volvo Cars unveils at this week's Geneva auto show its '07 S80 flagship and an all-new, highly compact 3.2L DOHC inline 6-cyl. that for the S80 replaces Volvo's longstanding inline 5-cyl. engines. Production of the new 3.2L DOHC I-6 is scheduled to begin later this month at Volvo owner Ford Motor Co.'s engine plant in Bridgend, U.K. The second-generation S80 goes on sale later this year. (See related

By Herb Shuldiner • March 1, 2006

Hybrid With Attitude

Toyota Motor Corp. is getting pretty good at this hybrid thing. When consumers complained that the first-generation Prius hybrid/electric vehicle suffered from power surges, engineers smoothed out the delivery of torque. When critics said hybrids still lacked punch, Toyota boosted displacement with a V-6 for its Lexus RX 400h and Toyota Highlander hybrid cross/utility vehicles. The RX 400h is good,

By Tom Murphy • March 1, 2006

Something In Common

Automotive interiors giant Johnson Controls Inc. says about 80% of the seats it has produced for multiple auto makers over the past four years have a common bond: They all share the same guts. JCI's MS seat frame an acronym for Master Plan Structure is part of an industry-wide push by component makers to commonize parts whenever practical. JCI has been pushing its standardized seat frame for a number

By Tom Murphy • March 1, 2006

$70 Million Makeover

Automotive designers love to talk about the importance of thinking outside the box. Occasionally, that thinking goes too far. The interior of the Nissan Quest minivan is a prime example. When the current model launched in 2003 as an '04, the boldly styled vehicle demonstrated desperation on the part of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. designers to craft a family hauler that broke the mold for minivans, injecting

By Tom Murphy • March 1, 2006

Detroit, Jump on E85

I used to think converting corn to ethanol to make fuel for autos didn't make a whole lot of sense. Not anymore. You've heard the anti-ethanol arguments. It costs too much. It takes more energy to make than you get out of it. Few people put E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) in their tank because few stations sell it. Well guess what? The world changed a lot in the last year. Oil prices shot up to $60

By John McElroy • Feb. 1, 2006

Email Your CAD Model

Design engineers often complain they spend 30% of their time actually designing and about 70% of their time explaining details of their work to others. Adobe Systems Inc., the company most of us associate with the Adobe Acrobat PDF files we find in our everyday emails, now has an answer: an inexpensive system for sharing information on 3D engineering renderings that is as easy as, well, trading emails.

By Drew Winter • Feb. 1, 2006

WARD’S Motor Vehicle Facts & Figures

Editor's note: This story is part of the WardsAuto digital archive, which may include content that was first published in print, or in different web layouts. Get Ward’s Motor Vehicle Facts & Figures content – along with virtually all the information Ward’s compiles - in a WardsAuto.com sub...

Jan. 19, 2006

WARD’S World Motor Vehicle Databook

Editor's note: This story is part of the WardsAuto digital archive, which may include content that was first published in print, or in different web layouts. Get Ward’s World Motor Vehicle Data Book content – along with virtually all the information Ward’s compiles - in a WardsAuto.com subscri...

Jan. 19, 2006

Honda Working on 50-State Diesel

DETROIT – Honda Motor Co. Ltd. CEO Takeo Fukui says the auto maker is hard at work on creating a diesel engine that could be sold in all 50 U.S. states. Honda is selling its Civic with a 2.2L 4-cyl. turbodiesel in Europe right now to much success, but Fukui says due to strict emission standards in California and four New England states the engine cannot be sold in those states. “Right now, we could

By Christie Schweinsberg • Jan. 10, 2006

JCI Shows Safe-Seating Concepts at NAIAS

DETROIT Johnson Controls Inc. uses the North American International Auto Show here to unveil a pair of seat-based safety features designed to reduce lower extremity and whiplash-induced injuries resulting from front- and rear-end collisions. Whiplash injuries resulting from low-speed, rear-end collisions are the most common among all insurance claims compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway

By Mike Sutton • Jan. 8, 2006

Saturn Hybrid May Prove Less is More

DETROIT General Motors Corp. is unveiling for journalists, the '07 Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid, its first high-volume hybrid-electric vehicle, this evening at the North American International Auto Show. The auto maker has been lambasted for being pitifully late to the HEV party, and the Vue Green Line already has been attacked because it is a “mild” HEV that lacks all the capabilities of full-blown

By Drew Winter • Jan. 8, 2006