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Ford EVOS! Don’t Confuse with Volkswagen EOS

EVOS is the Ford’s new concept vehicle, which was revealed in Berlin couple of days ago. And EOS is the VW’s coupe cabrio model. Many of you might have typed Ford EOS on Google, or VW EVOS! And I was expecting this to happen, not something surprising! Ford invented a new brand name that is very similar to an existing brand. Eventually, many people will struggle to remember it properly and hopefully Google will correct the mistake. 
Anyway, let’s focus on new the Ford EVOS. This new concept vehicle is a flash forward of Ford’s new design and technology philosophy. Firstly the design, Ford defines this vehicle as drop-dead four-door fastback. This car has four doors, don’t be confused with the seamless design. Unidentified rear door concept is not very familiar with the Ford, usually we see this with Alfa Romeos. So that’s makes it very clear that Ford is going to shift into a unique design philosophy with the new Mondeo in 2013. 
In 2005, Ford revealed the Iosis concept vehicle and the design concept shift into a totally different level. More competitive and more distinctive. With EVOS concept, I am expecting to see more competitive Ford models in next decade. This indicates one thing, new Ford models will be competing with Audi! They already mentioned this couple of years ago. Ford is targeting to Audi’s segment and they are planning to be there less than a decade! 
EVOS concept vehicle proofs this strategy. EVOS offers more adaptive technologies, new Ford’s will be understanding the drivers’s habits (New Fords will be monitoring driver’s heart-rate and adjusts the vehicles according to driver, no more pushing comfort button for comfort), clean the air more comprehensively with the climate control, connects with the cloud technology. Basically, new Fords will be more competitive than ever. 
I hope that, Ford will not use EVOS brand for production. They should consider the side effects on Google search.
For more photos please check the Facebook Page

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Ford

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Car of the Day # 20 Volkswagen IROC Concept

This photo is from 2006, Auto Show Istanbul. And this is the IROC concept, which became Scirocco.

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Volkswagen Lupo 3L

Nowadays, there are some campaigns against VW’s environment concern. When all these things happened, I remembered a car from 1999! VW Lupo 3L; this car was introduced at 1999 and achieved 3 lt of petrol consumption per 100 kilometres! Sounds crazy but it achieved this crazy figure. If you don’t use lt per km scale, it is 94 MPG!
This car had a 1,2 lt turbo diesel engine with 61 hp, aerodynamic design, low weight materials (whole was 830 kg) and automatic transmission. And it was capable of achieving 1000km with 34 lt of diesel! It was creating only 79gr/km CO2 on 1999, twelve years ago! But at those years, people were not concerned about CO2 or environment and the demand was too weak. As VW is a company to make profit, they stopped the production. Honestly, they did everything to sustain production until 2005 but customers did not wish to buy an environmental small car! 3L Lupo had a wrong schedule!
By the way, in automotive industry low weight materials mean one thing. It is more expensive! It is not cheap to make a car weight less. Lower weight means more composite components and this means complicated manufacturing. And this leads to increase manufacturing costs. Basically, making something lighter is more expensive than the standard production.
Before criticising an automotive company, please think twice and also consider the demand of consumers to products! It is not always possible to sustain a product with a very low demand. If you want to see the efficiency improvement in automotive industry just check the consumption of a vehicle in 2000 and now! You will see the difference.
And I am sure that VW will reveal a 1 lt vehicle soon to market.

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VW


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Volkswagen CrossPassat with Louis Vuitton!

Again the same; VW is going to offer a taller Passat Estate and brand it as CrossPassat (Audi did it this by turning A6 Estate into A6 Allroad). It will probably have four-wheel drive and many plastic bumpers! Similar Audi A6 Allroader and BMW 5GT, I don’t see an emotional reason to buy these vehicles.
On paper, this type of vehicles fills the gap between the SUV and the estate. These cars are not as high as SUV and more practically than usual estate. However, consumers never think like this and usual find vehicles like Audi A6 Allroader, BMW 5 GT and upcoming CrossPassat a bit odd! You can see this from the sales performance of Audi Allroad family and BMW 5GT. Unfortunately, a similar scenario may happen to VW CrossPassat. I wish it won’t happen but history tells the opposite.
The rendered picture of CrossPassat reminded me Louis Vuitton Zipped Totebag. It looks very similar to SUV-Estate cars. It offers different colours in the same bag! The black parts look like the black plastics of CrossPassat. Based on this product evaluation, I can see that Zipped Tote bag is as practical as a CrossPassat or Audi Allroader. If you are planning to you buy this type of car, you should also buy this bag.
CrossPassat in second picture is under heavy camouflage!

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BMW, Audi, VW, Autoblog.nl, WorldCarFans, Louis Vuitton

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Volkswagen Eos vs. Volkswagen Golf Cabrio

You didn’t read wrong, VW revealed a new Golf Cabrio. After this car, VW’s cabrio strategy became more complicated than Paris Hilton’s love life! Currently in VW range, there is a car called Eos and this is a cabrio, actually it is a coupe cabrio with a metal roof. However, it is open top car! And VW decided to stop Golf Cabrio, when they revealed the VW Eos and it was a very good decision. Because, Eos and Golf Cabrio would definitely collapsed with each other.
Interestingly, VW changed mind and revealed the new Golf Cabrio. It is not a coupe cabrio with a metal roof, it has a soft top but still open top car. I really wonder how consumers will react to this; they both offer four seat and they look very similar to each other. And I find really hard to find a different among these two cars! My opinion is still Eos is a better option, thanks to its metal roof. Unless you buy a Rolls Royce or Bentley, I don’t like soft top cars.
Probably, either Eos or Golf Cabrio will be erased from production, and it will be decided by the consumers!
I didn’t wish to discuss the technical features, because they are identical with each other! VW, unexpectedly revealed a car that is going to be a competitor of their own car.

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VW

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Bentley Continental SUV

During last one decade, we couldn’t ignore two things. SUVs and Google! They suddenly take a part in our lives whilst we are not aware of their existence. Google started as a basic search engine web site with a plain design. As the years have passed, they developed more and more and more. Finally, end up with taking your home’s photo and publishing on Google Earth.
SUVs are the same, it started with a plain design of Mercedes M-Class and chased by Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park! After this traumatic event, SUVs started to chase us in everywhere. Nearly, each manufacturer thought about an SUV model inside their model range. “It would not be a bad idea to offer an SUV, everyone likes it”. Even the Dacia’s ultra-cheap SUV received a respectful demand from all around the world. I am not saying the demand to BMW X Series, Mercedes ML, Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 and the others.
As the SUV became so addicted to automotive industry and impossible to take out from the market. Some manufacturers started to think about their own interpretation of SUV. I mean the Bentley Motors. If you don’t know let me tell you, Bentley is owned by Volkswagen and Continental family shares many parts with VW Phaëton. Anyway, Bentley received unexpected demand around the world since it was reveal on 2004. It was offering everything; powerful engine, luxury, four-wheel drive, exquisite design. But, it is not an SUV, that’s the minor problem. People want to have a luxury SUV not a four-wheel passenger car.
If you want to buy a luxury SUV, the alternative is extremely clear; Range Rover. That’s the best luxury SUV on planet. Unfortunately, rest of the competitors are imitating Range Rover’ style but it is not working that well. Ask anyone for the ultimate luxury SUV, they will say Range Rover. From this basic scientific research, we can assume that; there is a great market for luxury SUVs.
Let’s go back to Bentley HQ; most probably they received some reports from Germany for a potential SUV model. It will be explaining how great it would be to have SUV under the Bentley brand and how we can make money from this. Honestly, this is totally right. People would definitely buy a Bentley Continental SUV. Because, it is an SUV and it is a Bentley!
So, the problem is production; and it is easy also. Audi Q7 has meaningless big and long chassis for and Audi but it would be a great match for Bentley. Just change the exterior design and use the chassis. The interior will be same with Continental FlyingSpur, so there is nothing to worry. The drive train would be the same with Q7 but they should have low range gearbox (take from VW Touareg) and a better off road capability than the Q7. It will be expensive and try to compete with Range Rover. Therefore, it should offer state of art off road capabilities. And customer will be expecting to see something similar to Range Rover, even though they would never ever use on off road.
Basically, in next five year I am expecting to see a Bentley Continental SUV based Audi Q7 chassis, using VW Touareg’s off road gearbox and interior from FlyingSpur. They only need to design exterior and do the necessary long term testing, which they would be doing at the moment. There were some rumours about this and Bentley denied the SUV. Let’s make a flash back to year 2001, Porsche mentioned, “we will never use a diesel engine” but they are using now. So, it won’t be a surprise to see one.

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Land Rover, Bentley, Audi

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Renault Latitude vs. VW Passat CC

Today I read one of the French magazine called Le Point. As I don’t know French, I didn’t understand anything! But suddenly I noticed the picture of Renault Latitude. There was an article about the car, probably a review of test drive by Emily Ryzat.
The interesting thing was the picture. Latitude was not something really different in terms of design. Especially, it reminded me another car! Such as, Volkswagen Passat CC. Just ignore the Renault logo from the front grille and you end up with Passat CC. The grille looks the same. This is really something unexpected from Renault. They always have a unique design concept.
I don’t like Renault cars but they always had a unique design concept which is mostly relies on their concept vehicle. But Latitude was a great shock for me, it was something similar to a competitor’s car. I know the Renault is trying to change it brand image and willing to be perceived as a premium, there is no problem with that.  Renault should not change its design concept. The main problem is, their production quality and reliability. They should transfer these two things from their competitors, instead of design concept.

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Renault and Volkswagen

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VW Beetle: A new car

VW revealed the new Beetle.
The engine is still sitting in front of the car and drives front wheels! Still, it is not a rear engined, rear wheel car :( For me; Beetle means a car which has the engine placed at the back and drives the rear wheels. I do know that mass production of contemporary world does not allow this. However, VW has enough money to do this! I hope one day, we will have a proper Beetle with an engine placed at the rear.

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VW

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VW Touareg vs. Range Rover video with some mistakes !!!

Honestly I really like Volkswagen vehicles, they are really well built, and they offer good features with reasonable price. Actually sometimes overpriced but still deserves that money. But they look boring, most of them looking boring. Except GTi models, I would not buy any VW with emotional reasons.
Recently VW USA released a video for new Touareg on YouTube. And it is comparing the Touareg with an unknown brand which sounds like it is from UK! Let’s guess the brand; Bentley (They don’t offer SUV), Lotus (No SUV), Rolls Royce (No SUV), Land Rover (Lots of SUV). Actually the video is comparing Touareg with Range Rover. (Range Rover is a brand of Land Rover.)
The scenario is really creative, I appreciated the PR team but they did lots of mistakes! I guess they did not read the Range Rover’s option list and features. Let’s start with first feature of Range Rover; Terrain Response! And it is not available on Touareg! I never seen a knob to select the terrain surface to alter the vehicle’s driving dynamics; such as braking and throttle response. In other words, with Range Rover you can off road even if you have no idea of what is the meaning off road. And secondly, the Touareg without off road, it is totally useless! Don’t every try off road because it cannot do it. The Range Rover offers, Low Range gear box and central differential lock. This means, you can handle with serious off road. With Touareg, you can park on sidewalks in terms of off road! (You need to pay for extra to have off road package with Touareg and it comes with six (6) speed auto transmission not eight (8) !)

Then the seats, Range Rover offers leather and heated seats as standard! This is not Suzuki Vitara! Also air suspension is standard, this helps to raise and lower the vehicles and travel with comfort. I guess it is optional in Touareg. Also Range Rover offers 8 speed automatic transmission. Sorry VW, you are not the only product with 8 speed auto because it is produced a by firm called ZF not by VW!

The CD player in Touareg, very nice :) If we were in 1995, it would sound a very good feature but now even the Chinese cars offer CD player. And what are you going to be with dual SD card reader? I really wonder :) Also Range Rover offers ventilated seats, electrically adjustable rear seats, Autobiography bespoke programme to create your unique Range Rover with endless colour scheme.
And lastly, you buy a Range Rover! Addition to these features, a car which never looks old or looks out-dated. Just look around, have you ever seen an out-dated Range Rover, I think the previous Touareg was outside from the first moment :)
I don’t have any negative feelings with Touareg but I would never buy it. On the other hand, it really offers state of the art technologies but the PR firm should have studied the Range Rover better!!! It is really tough competitors. In other words, if you are planning to construct a building more impressive than Pyramids, you have to study really well !

Range Rover USA Website

(Old Touareg)

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This is real!

Parking a car and placing it in a very good way is like cooking a thick sirloin beef without burning the meat! To avoid burning the meat, you need to burn many meats and have experience. This experience will develop your sense and you will know how long you should cook each part. This is very similar to parking a car. When you first start parking, you will look for very huge spaces, then you will find medium size spaces and finally you will be parking a space which is only twenty centimetres bigger than your car. But each time, parking is something annoying, look left, look right, look there, look here! Similar to cooking! You must look to everywhere all the time.
For many years, I was wondering will it be possible to see a car parking by itself. It sounded very science fiction for many years. Actually parking sensor was a revolution in automotive business and it was very expensive. Everyone said parking sensors changed everything and they did it. Now it is nearly impossible to park without the sensors unless you have a very well trained sixth sense. I think Volkswagen understood this problem and focused on self-parking technology. They did not wish us to develop our sense :)
Many of you might have heard of automatic parking systems and they sound a bit useless. You need to press this and do that and wait. Lexus has a very useless system as a matter of fact but Volkswagen has something really intelligent. I never thought that a car can park like and it would be entertaining. And this happened with VW Passat. Last week I had a test drive with new Passat and I wanted to try the auto parking function. For the first time it is a bit complicated; you have to signal to right and drive slow and then party starts! Passat recognizes the empty spot and tell you, let’s do it.
Honestly, it is working brilliantly. You don’t need to worry for anything, everything is under the control of German made Passat. You only need to press throttle and press brake that’s all, and change the gear. I think it would be easier as you use it more often. Even though, it was amazing for the first. Again, this systems works excellently, go and buy it :) Unfortunately, there is a no auto cooking for beefs.
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VW