Category: Cars

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Cars

Ford Europe is waking up!

Today I was reading a news release from Ford Europe. It was mentioning about the future Focus, Mondeo and future technologies. I was really excited about this news. Since last five years, Ford was not able to offer very competitive cars. Yes, the Mondeo and S-Max are very beautifully designed but the technological features were not that competitive, especially when you compare with Germans. New Mondeo did not receive a new petrol engine or a new diesel engine or a new small turbo engine. There were some gossips about these engines but they have never revealed. Of course, we cannot ignore the fact about Ford’s financial problems which always badly affected the Ford Europe. (A small info; unlike Ford America, Ford Europe is making profits.) Also Ford stuck on old automatic transmissions which are only offering four-speed and there is also a CVT transmission and a dual clutch auto for only 2,0 lt engines. They look nice on paper but when you compare with VW, VW is a decade beyond the Ford.
I am pretty sure that, Ford has the know-how to produce, every technology VW is offering but Ford was reluctant to offer them. But after this news release, I am pretty sure that Ford will become competitive like old days. Why? Let me tell you some facts about the near future of Ford vehicles;
Torque Vectoring Control (I don’t know what this is)
Blind Spot
Electric Power Steering
Adaptive Cruise Control for Focus, Mondeo, and other big boys
Lane Assistance
Auto High Beam
Road Sign Recognition
Low Speed Collision Mitigation System
Active Grille Shutters to Improve Aerodynamic Drag (This is available in BMW X6)
Dual Clutch Gearbox
And many more things. Most of these technologies are available in premium segment cars with high price tags. Eventually, we can have these in a Ford Focus or Ford Mondeo. I think Ford should have done these earlier. Even though, these technologies are proof of Ford ambition to become a very strong competitor to Germans!
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Cars

Perfect Combination for Bugatti Veyron

Matching shoes and handbags are vital for ladies. For every occasion they try their best to match two things together. This complicated and tiring process is a part of every ladies life!
If you are man, you don’t need to care about these things very much, until now! In Holland, a Bugatti Veyron is on sale with a same colour transporter truck. There is one thing more cool than Bugatti Veyron is a Bugatti Veyron with transporter truck with the same colour!
This interesting matching is available JamesList website. However there is one thing interesting; Bugatti is produced by VW and the truck is Mercedes Atego. In my opinion to make a better match, the truck should have been a MAN, as the MAN is partly owned by VW.
Anyway, if you have €895,000 to spend for a car, you have bargian here! Click Here
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Cars

How to fuel future?

In 1890s, internal combustion engine was a fresh technology and it was a great opportunity to replace inefficient horses which have limited top speed of seventy km/h. There were some electric engine cars and plans to run diesel engine with peanut oil but they were all died by petrol. End of 19th century was the rise of the petrol, people find out that petrol is something very vulnerable  and can be used in cars. It can be considered as petrol is invented a bit earlier than petrol engine! And this made it very easy to fill the cars’ tank. Engineers did not invent an engine which is using something that does not exist!
However the case is totally opposite now! We are trying to find ways to use electric cars and hydrogen cars. But both of them cannot be filled very easily. Honda’s fuel cell car works on hydrogen and it does not emit any emissions at all :) That’s a great news but producing hydrogen is an expensive and complicate process. It will take decades to have hydrogen filling stations like petrol stations. So the car is ready but its fuel is not ready!
With electric cars, situation is a bit complicated. We can charge our e-car by plugging into our wall at home but it takes very long time to charge and electricity is not something cheap and you still emit emissions while charging it. One other fact; if we all drive electric cars and charge them at night, we could end up burning the whole electricity network which is not designed to charge whole countries’ cars! So, there should be a huge investment to upgrade electricity network for charging our cars.
In the two alternative cases, invented technology is moving faster than the fuelling technology. I cannot say the exact for hydrogen cars but I could see one thing clear, we will drive petrol engine for quite some time.
Picture is from;
Honda Website
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Cars

Contemporary interpretation of Rolls Royce: Ghost

Recently Rolls Royce started to offer a new car; small, affordable, more accessible, for every day. That’s Rolls Royce Ghost which costs more than £200,000 in UK without any options or any other customization! When you consider with its big brother Rolls Royce Phantom and mega yachts, Ghost is a reasonable luxury car. Unlike Phantom, it is designed to be driven by its owner :) When you buy a Phantom, you are not supposed to drive by yourself, you have it have a driver! And this huge problem of hiring someone to drive your Rolls Royce emerged the idea of Ghost :)

Ghost is based on BMW 7 Series, as we expected. BMW is the owner of Rolls Royce Cars. I can guess, many people are saying; this is not a proper Rolls Royce, it is owned and produced by BMW. However this debate about automotive industry reminded me the Greek Philosophers which I studied during my undergraduate years. As I could remember they were relating every material to nature and this means everything is produced by nature. I hope I don’t remember wrong :) The debates about car companies are similar to this, Rolls Royce owned by BMW and other owned by someone else! So What? I am not happy with this but if they have relationship like BMW and Rolls Royce, they don’t have any problem.
Ghost is based on BMW 7 Series, they are sharing same V12 engine, same transmission and many other parts which we don’t see from outside. However, Ghost is not like a 7 Series! Its design denies any relationship with 7 Series and proofs that it is a totally different car. Even though I didn’t have any chance to see this car in real life, even the pictures can be considered as a solid proof. Every single detail, from outside to inside reflects the Rolls Royce heritage. The suicide doors, power reserve dial on dash board, umbrella hidden inside the door, climate control dials.
They are showing that, this car is a proper Rolls Royce. Unfortunately, BMW’s stupid iDrive can be seen inside but it does not seem like the original iDrive. I hope that, it won’t be useless like in BMW’s. One of the interesting features of Ghost is its suspensions; Ghost is riding on air springs which help to increase comfort and isolate passengers from the road. These suspensions also have same something very interesting! Suspension system can understand the where the rear passenger is sitting and adjust the suspension to maximize the comfort for that side. Anything else?
Ghost is a great car! I love Phantom but I would not wish to drive one, it is a car to be driven by someone. This can be added to list of dream cars. Despite its huge price tag, what Ghost is offering is worth all that money. I can say one more thing; Ghost is a contemporary interpretation of Rolls Royce :)
Pictures are from;
Rolls Royce Website
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Cars

Veyron O’Brien

Last couple weeks the debate between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien became very popular. NBC decided to change the schedules of the shows and Jay Leno went back to his Tonight Show and you know the rest. The interesting thing about this last episode in Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien’s guest! It was a Bugatti Veyron dressed up like a mouse :) As he told, NBC bought a Bugatti Veyron for his show!
All the debate emerged in couple of weeks time, therefore this Bugatti Veyron might be a second hand one :) Or they did a great search for finding a new one. As the Veyron does not hold reasonable price tag, production is designed to meet customers demand.

Picture is from;
Bugatti Website

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Cars

Again VW Passat CC :)

I don’t like to promote specific cars in my blog by saying their power and how they accelerate because you can find all these things on internet. However, this time I am making an exception! As you guessed from my previous blog I really love the Passat CC. They managed to vanish the boringness of family Passat and they created something totally different. And I checked the VW’s Germany website for more details and I found that they made some revisions on engine range. Now we can order Passat CC with 2.0 turbo diesel engine producing 170 horsepower and coupled with 6 speed double clutch quick automatic gearbox. And when you add other things, car ends up close to 50,000€ in Germany. This price unfortunately includes the stupid boring Passat interior but the rest of the car is very nicely made, you won’t stuck on that! For this price tag, you can buy BMW 3 Series with similar boring interior, also Mercedes C Class and more boring Audi A4. However, if you wish to order you BMW, Mercedes or Audi with this engine power and many options price will love to rocket to very high level without any hesitation.
I can hear from Audi lovers, buy A5 Sportback with its drawback! Sorry but A5 Sportback can be awarded as the most boring car of 2009! I like the Audi A6 but I could not like either A4 or A5 Sportback (normal A5 looks very good). One more thing, I don’t like to pay extra money to car which tend to understeer. An expensive car should oversteer (losing its back on corners). Since Audi A6 2.8 Quattro, I stopped loving Audi. Audi makes great cars with very high technology and offers the excellent Quattro but I cannot love Audi. For me it is just Audi! Audi does not recall something very specific like its competitors. That is the thing which makes Audi different. People who find BMW too sporty and Mercedes to grandpa style directly head onto Audi. But I like BMW and Mercedes :)
Anyway, if you want to have a four door coupe with five seat which is economical and also offer DSG gearbox and four wheel drive; then order a Passat CC ! For this price tag, you cannot buy something better ;)
The next car which will make me exciting be Alfa Romeo MiTo automatic!
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Cars

Achtung! Passat CC fünf seated, sorry five seated

VW Passat is one of the best selling and one of the most boring family sedans on market. Despite its class leading technology features, it always has a senseless design and could not become popular like two generations of Ford Mondeo. However this cursed fate of Passat ended by something called Comfort Coupe. Yes, one of the most popular family sedan turned into junior City Bankers car! Passat CC denied its brother Passat and running away from family sedans :) And ready get ready for selling your Ford Mondeo, VW Passat, Skoda Octavia or anything which is family car with four door.
What was the Comfort Coupe? When you first saw this new Passat, you will notice its unique design and the short form of Comfort Coupe which actually caused some misunderstanding. When it was first revealed people thought that it was a coupe cabrio Passat, the short form of comfort coupe, CC. This new model has similar characteristics of Mercedes CLS, Aston Martin Rapide, Porsche Panamera with reasonable price! Like, these cars Passat CC was offering only four seats. There is no chance to accommodate the fifth person inside the car. The limited accommodation is a characteristic of coupe four doors. However, I was thinking what would happen if they offered the fifth seat in this car? Some people would say, it is against the design concept of CC. And I didn’t think that much about the fifth person. And I found this car as an excellent choice for its price and feeling sorry for the fifth person.
Today, VW announced that they felt sorry for the fifth person and they are offering the seat option for fifth person as an option. Unlike other over priced options, it is only costing €100! This is bargain for a German car. With this decision, there is no official requirement to buy Passat unless you are crazy :) This new fünf seated sorry five seated Passat CC is the best sedan to buy. As you could from the picture it looks excellent, eventually it looks superb for a Passat :)

Pictures are from;
VW Website

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Cars

Testosterone Hormones vs. Winter Tyres

As it started snowing in my city in Turkey, I see the same story again. People spend enormous amount money to buy luxury cars but they don’t tend to buy winter tyres. People with reasonable car may say, I cannot afford to buy winter tyres and I stuck on snow, that’s ok! But people who are rich and ignores the winter tyres and stuck on snow is an interesting issue. Their main reason, for couple of days in snow, why I should buy winter tyres. Yes, winter tyres are for snow! So, wear your short trousers during winter until it starts to snow :)
As I noticed, people don’t believe that winter tyres can make that difference and the other fact is; their testosterone (shown in right picture) levels! For some people, using winter tyres during winter time and on snow is showing your deficiency of driving ability. In more clear way; a real man should drive on snow even with slick tyres, the testosterone hormones providing the adequate help while driving on snow :) Actually I could not see any relevant impact of hormones on tyres but many tend to believe this! Actually what they are saying is a small bit of your their potential, I think they could goto space without anything more than a car with summer tyres :)
Pictures are from;
Wikipedia Website
Mercedes Website
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Cars

The most useless flappy gear pedals by BMW (Revised)

As we are in 2010, I thought that I should nominate the flappy gearboxes on market and choose the worst one :) The flappy gearboxes, which you could change the gears from steering wheel became popular by Ferrari. However at those times, end of 1990s, there was only Alfa Romeo Selespeed available and it was rubbish. Two useless button buttons like we see on ATM machines and they were very slow to act, but it was a long time ago. During 2000s; Mercedes started to offers very small buttons for gear changes on steering and replaced with bigger ones, Lamborghini, VW, Porsche, BMW, Citroën and many more started to offer gear changes through the steering wheel.
Unfortunately, BMW made the useless one, as they did with first generation iDrive. First generation iDrive can be considered as the most complicated invention in automotive industry, which does not let any driver to use it unless you are fourteen, and you would not be a driver!

Sadly, BMW’s flappy pedals are not designed in a good way. Why? Gear changes are very quick but it works a bit in an unusual way. In normal conditions; when you pull the right flap on steering wheel, car increase the gear. For instance; your are driving in 3rd gear and you pulled the right flap and now you are in 4th gear. This works the same in BMW but when you wish to lower the gear, in normal conditions you will pull the left flap. You wish to lower the gear from 4th to 3rd and you pull the left flap on steering wheel. And I did the same in BMW and I was in 5th gear! In BMW, you suppose push the those flap in order to lower the gear! This is like; while going out from a shop you have to pull the door to exit. Yes, there are some place you suppose to pull the door and as usual people struggle to do it.

And my only nomination for the complicated flappy gear pedals is BMW! and winner is BMW :)
Please BMW; try to design things which normal people can use !

Edit: This design has changed, now the flaps are works as you expected :)

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Cars

Mini Countryman and Vertu share somethings in common !

I am sure that many of you heard of Vertu mobile phone. It is handmade mobile phone from Nokia, despite Nokia’s technological features Vertu has actually nothing except being expensive and luxurious! Despite its price as much as a small country’s GDP, people are buying it. When you consider Vertu as a phone mobile, ten years ago it could be the most technological one but now, it is one of the basic one. And it has a demand!
I know Mini and Vertu are totally different products; they only share very few things in common. People with Vertu do not tend to drive Mini very often. But their common parts are being ridiliously expensive and do not offer anything very different rather than their style.
And finally Mini revealed a car which has a demand as few as Vertu phone! This is the Mini SUV, The Countryman. Unlike its name, people who are living in country sides may not afford to buy Countryman or they might find it pointless. This new Mini, has four wheel drive, five door, big tyres, big wheel arches, and like pointless X6 it could accommodate only five people. As I consider, at the size of Ford Fiesta, four people can travel happy with the Countryman.
Mini’s product extension strategy is a very good example for marketing modules. They are marginal, iconic brand with its heritage and they extend the product range to increase sales. However their ambition to extend the product range is becoming insane, BMW has every kind of Mini concept vehicles which have potential to be built! As BMW loves to take risk and create new segment but those segments may not receive the expected demand all the time. And this might be similar with Mini also, BMW is trying to maximize the Mini brand’s assets and create money. This is very normal for a company because they are here to make money. But these kinds of aggressive marketing strategies may not help to grow more money in their account, instead it can erode the brand image. People who used to prefer Mini brand can adversely influence by aggressive extension policies.
I am pretty sure that, there is a demand for Mini SUV. Land Rover will offer one, BMW has X1. Mini has a different character than these brands. People who bought Mini and Mini Clubman (which did not make huge success) may not be very happy with new Mini. As the original Mini was reflecting the life style and memories from 1960s, these new models are just reflecting the contemporary marketing techniques.
Picture are from;
Mini Website
Vertu Website