Vehicles: Page

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

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

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

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

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

Ten Best Engines 2000 - Long-term Intro

We all love when a totally new engine breaks onto the annual Ward's Ten Best Engines list, because it becomes an immediate target. The new engine beats plenty of excellent competition, not to mention displacing an engine that previously won a spot.Is this winner worthy, or just a flashy new engine that briefly impressed the Best Engines judges?That's why General Motors Corp.'s 3.5L Twin-Cam V-6 is

By Bill Visnic • July 1, 2000

Developers Say Steam is Clean Power of the Future

DETROIT - Probably the most intriguing display at the recent Global Powertrain Congress 2000 here is a new-century spin on an industrial-revolution antique: the steam engine.Once or twice every decade, somebody revives the prospect of the steam engine for modern passenger vehicles. And once or twice every decade, those promoters quietly go away when questioned about overall efficiency; transferring

By Bill Visnic • July 1, 2000

SUZUKI. wants to meld 3 brands into 1 image

While it isn't likely Suzuki car dealers will start selling motorcycles or boat engines, the parent company is hoping an evolving effort will help leverage the identity of the three brands into one cohesive Suzuki image.One problem is that it's not that unusual for people who are familiar with Suzuki's motorcycles to be unaware they sell cars or for their marine customers to be unfamiliar with the

By Jeff Green • July 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

Dropping the Bomb on Hydrogen

Fuel cell-powered vehicles that employ hydrogen as fuel are the acknowledged future hope for passenger-vehicle transportation. Hydrogen is billed as the ultimate non-polluting energy source. Burning hydrogen means no emissions, save water vapor, and as the earth's simplest element, it appears to be in huge supply.The trouble is, hydrogen isn't there just for the taking; it must be separated from other

By Bob Krantz • June 1, 2000

Saturn Gets $1.5B, 4 Vehicles - But No New Plant

Even with four new products coming in four years, thanks to a $1.5 billion investment from parent General Motors Corp., Saturn Corp. says it has no plan to add assembly plants to its manufacturing operations."It's probably not in the cards at this point. The (forthcoming sport/utility vehicle) is going to Spring Hill, and there is potentially extra capacity at the plant," a Saturn spokesman says.Saturn

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • June 1, 2000

Renault Joins Fuel Cell Venture

BMW AG and Delphi Automotive Systems have a third partner in their quest to bring automotive fuel cells to market. French automaker Renault SA joins the solid-oxide fuel cell development agreement launched by Delphi and BMW in April 1999.BMW intends to use the solid-oxide fuel cell as an auxiliary source for gasoline-powered passenger cars, while Renault will install them in light and heavy-duty diesel

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • June 1, 2000

Birthday Bash

Lear Corp. is marking the one-year anniversary of its acquisition of UT Automotive in grand style.This month, the company opens its Lear Electronic and Electrical Division (LEED) in Dearborn, MI, aimed at a new discipline - "intertronics," the meshing of, you guessed it, interiors and electronics.Lear invested $2 million to expand and upgrade the LEED headquarters, most of which was spent in the new

By Laurel Wright • May 1, 2000

GM Expects Big Dividend from New Diesel

PHOENIX, Arizona - General Motors Corp. plans to make a heavy duty impact in the heavy duty pickup market this fall when it luanches an all-new V-8 turbodiesel engine as an option for its 2001-model Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra three-quarter-ton and 1-ton "work" pickups.The new 6.6L turbodiesel engine - dubbed Duramax - was developed by GM and Isuzu Motors Ltd. through their joint venture, DMAX

By Bill Visnic • May 1, 2000

Vinyl Headed Out the Door

First, vinyl disappeared from our record cabinets. Now it's disappearing from car and truck interiors. Likely by the end of this decade, it'll be bye-bye vinyl as a covering for instrument and interior door panels in new vehicle programs in North America.Also known as PVC, (short for poly vinyl chloride) vinyl will be replaced by thermoplastic olefin (TPO) as the skin for IPs and door panels.Why?

By Frank S. Washington • May 1, 2000

Breaking Away: Global Powertrain Congress

DETROIT - You might have missed last year's Global Powertrain Congress. But if the upstart industry conference's organizers can make good on their vision, this year's GPC (June 6-8) here at Cobo Hall will lay the groundwork for GPC's emergence as a must-attend event for powertrain engineers.Global Powertrain Conference president M. Nasim Uddin is no stranger to organizing a good trade show - the original

By Bill Visnic • May 1, 2000

Deep SAE Diving

Not every exhibitor at the Society of Automotive Engineers' 2000 World Congress had BMW's allure, DuPont's booth placement (next to the front door), Lear's popular pick-your-own-interior side show or Delphi's budget.Some of the largest Tier One suppliers are naturally good at grabbing attention at the auto industry's largest gathering of engineers - just over 49,200 this year.But there were 1,300

By Tom Murphy- with Bill Visnic • April 1, 2000

INTERIOR TRIM ENTERS THE STONE AGE

Automotive designers used to have three choices when it came to decorative trim for interiors: real wood, fake wood, or just plain plastic. That left little room to create a unique personality for a specific car or truck.But automotive design now is shifting to a new era that tries to give a hand-crafted look to mass-produced interiors, and that's leading to the use of new textures and materials inside

By Drew Winter • April 1, 2000

HERE’S A LOOK AT WHAT WILL BE IN CARS OF THE FUTURE

DETROIT - What types of vehicle options and features will consumers demand in the coming years?That's hard to say for sure, but the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress and Exhibition offers a glimpse of what's ahead.About 50,000 engineers and other industry folk attended the annual event in Detroit last month. The show's 1,200 displays cover just about every system that goes - or may soon

By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2000

Eaton Debuts Four Products

Eaton Corp. introduces four new products to reduce vehicle emissions and improve fuel economy.The company says its new electronic locker, electronic limited slip differential, cylinder deactivation system and ultralight valves were designed for use in light trucks, SUVs and specialty vehicles.Eaton's electronic locker is a fully controllable locking differential that is compatible with electronic

By Rebecca Wall • April 1, 2000

Variable Compression: Small Engine, Big Power

GENEVA - An astonishing 30% reduction in fuel consumption and in consequent emissions is claimed for a variable-compression engine concept developed by Saab Automobile AB and revealed at the recent Geneva motor show here.Saab, long recognized for its out-of-the-box engine engineering, has a history of bringing cutting-edge engine designs to production. The company is largely responsible, for example,

By David Scott • April 1, 2000

Automobile wins runner-up honors

We dissent, but the ballots are in and counted. The automobile ranks a mere second on the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Century, second to electrification. Nominations from 20 professional engineering societies were selected and ranked by a distinguished panel of the nation's top engineers and announced by astronaut/engineer Neil Armstrong during National Engineers Week last month. We

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • April 1, 2000

Fueling NAFTA Region Growth

ZF Friedrichshafen AG says its continuously variable transmission (CVT) joint venture with Ford Motor Co. will turn out 1 million units annually by 2005, part of the reason the company foresees the NAFTA region as its biggest growth market going forward.The Ford-ZF JV will begin producing CVTs in fall 2001 for both Ford and Fiat Auto SpA, says ZF Group North American Operations Chief Executive James

By Dave Zoia • April 1, 2000

Automotive Insight: Back to the Drawing Board

Nearly eight years ago the Big Three, the U.S. government and the National Laboratories banded together to change the auto industry as we know it. With much fanfare they announced their ambitious goal to triple the fuel economy of the typical five-passenger family sedan to 80 miles per gallon (3L/100 km).The Clinton White House quickly equated the effort with the Apollo moon-shot program, while auto

By John McElroy • March 1, 2000

TIPS FOR ENHANCING FUTURE PROFITS

Many dealers tell me that 1999 was their best year since they have been in business, and most of those same dealers feel that 2000 will also be a very good year.Most economic indicators and industry forecasters also support the thought that this year, while not being equal to 1999, will be good. Increasing interest rates and fuel prices are two indications that change may be on the horizon.So what

By Tony Noland • March 1, 2000

The Driver Behind GDI

Akira Kijima Board member and vice corporate general manager of car research and development at Mitsubishi Motors Corp. If a word describes Akira Kijima, it's his 'passion.' And the issue he feels most passionate about is Mitsubishi's 'direct injection' gasoline engine."There's no way this technology can fail," says Mr. Kijima. "It may take 100 years, but this engine is the way of the future. The

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • March 1, 2000