Automotive Guruz

When it comes to shopping around for vehicles, a lot of people do an immense amount of research before finally deciding on which car they want. Once they make that decision, they then need to go begin the exhaustive procedure of searching around to get the best deal on that specific model of their choice.  After contacting local dealerships and searching through Autotraders and classifieds they may be able to find the perfect deal on the car of their choice.

When it comes to the first step and finding out which cars are actually the best bang for your money, consider that the US News officially announced the following cars and their respective awards:

• Toyota Camry was named the best midsize car for the money
• Honda Fit won the honor of being the best subcompact car for the money
• Mazda M5 won the award of being the best compact crossover for the money
• Hyundai Elantra received the award for being the best overall compact car for the money
• Toyota Highlander got the best midsize crossover for the money
• Lexus RX won the best luxury crossover for the money
• Chevrolet Tahoe won the best full size SUV for the money
• Mazda Miata took home the award for the best sports car for the money
• Lexus GS won the dubious honor of being the best luxury car for the money
• Toyota Tacoma won the best compact truck for the money
• Chevy Silverado received the award for being the best full size truck for the money
• Toyota Sienna won the best minivan for the money
• Toyota Avalon won the best large car for the money
• Lexus ES won the best upscale car for the money

A big congrulations to all the winners! Very interesting that Toyota won 5 of the awards, quite a feat! And when you consider that Lexus took hom another 3 awards, (Lexus and Toyota are the same company just different divisions) they won over half the automotive awards that were handed out in 2009 by the US NEWS Rankings & Reviews.

When looking for your next car, try and remember the aforementioned cars so that you can really get the most for your money when buying automobiles.

There was a time when gas guzzling cars with their big fat engines, were the charm of the road. But that era is phasing out very rapidly now. People and their governments have been forced to take notice of the environmental pollution that is being caused by the increasing number of cars. But it’s very difficult to limit the production of cars being built and sold, as the demand is higher than ever. However, we can surely increase the proportion of new fuel-efficient cars. These cars not only travel more with less fuel but also cause less pollution by burning the fuel in a cleaner, more efficient manner.

Fuel-efficient cars can be categorized into various types according to the technology they use to burn lesser fuel and include battery electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars, biodiesel cars, ethanol cars and even natural gas cars. Read below for a brief synopsis of each kind of new energy efficient cars:

Battery-electric cars: These cars don’t use any fuel at all. Once the battery pack in the car is charged from a normal electric port - they can do a limited number of miles. These cars are very light, small, relatively slow, but excellent for personal use in city and town conditions. Some governments are even offering tax benefits for people driving such cars. Although not very popular as of now, these cars have a lot of potential for the future. The main reason for many people disliking the car is their plastic feel and the lack of speed on open roads and the highways.

Hydrogen-fuel cell cars: These cars are powered by hydrogen fuel cells which generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen. This combination leads to the formation of water which is discarded from the car. The electricity that is produced in the process is stored in batteries and is then used for powering the car. The benefit of this car is that even though it uses some kind of fuel for powering the car, it does not lead to any pollution. As hydrogen quantity is found in the atmosphere, thus it has to be extracted from water or petroleum products.

Biodiesel cars: Biodiesel is a compound which is produced from oils and fats which may be extracted from vegetable oils, used cooking oil and other oil-based waste products. Cars powered from biodiesel are not as non-polluting as the two cars mentioned above, but they don’t use the conventional diesel and thus are aimed towards conserving our oil reserves. However, greenhouse gas emissions for biodiesel are less than conventional diesel and thus this is a greener alternative fuel.

Ethanol cars: Ethanol is the chemical which is the main ingredient of alcohol. Like alcohol, ethanol is made by fermenting sugar or similar starch based agricultural products. As the main raw material needed for production in agricultural products, scientists are still working on technologies to make this from non-food products. This way it will not only be cheaper but also will be produced in larger quantities. Ethanol based vehicles combine ethanol with gasoline to make a mixture that is not only combustible but also much less polluting than pure gasoline. The benefit of these kind of vehicles is that they can run on a wide variety of ethanol-gasoline mixtures and the ratio of the mixture does not effect the functioning of the car that much. Ethanol, like biodiesel, helps conserve conventional petroleum fuels and leads to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Natural Gas cars: These cars use natural gas as their fuel in the form of CNG which stands for Compressed Natural Gas. This fuel has considerably lower emissions of greenhouse gases and can be used in all kinds of gasoline based vehicles without losing too much of the car’s original performance. The vehicle does not even need to be a CNG vehicle to start with and can be easily converted into a CNG vehicle with the addition of a set of equipments, usually called the CNG kit.

Invention of the car was one of the greatest moments of the human civilization. Interestingly, unlike many other inventions, there was no clear moment that defined the invention of car. On the contrary, it was a gradual process that evolved over time and transformed the automobile industry to the shape that we find it today.

A car is an automobile, and an automobile is defined to be a self-moving object. Tracing back far into history, the thoughts and abstract design of such a vehicle was made by none other than the legendary artist-and-scientist Leonardo Da Vinci. The first ever implementation of a self-boosted road-moving vehicle was achieved in 1769 by Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot - a steam-driven military tractor built for the Army of France.

The car that we know today was first built in 1885 Carl Benz - a German - and he got it patented a year later in 1886. The car had a gasoline-powered single-cylinder engine with three wheels. Another year later in 1887, Benz became selling his cars. The other person who also has a huge contribution to making cars was another German, Gottlieb Diamler. Along with his partner William Maybach, he produced the first four-stroke internal combustion engine and patented that in the year 1885. He had invented the carburetor. Diamler sold his first car in 1889 to the Sultan of Morocco. Many year later in 1926, Benz and Diamler joined hands to form the famous Diamler-Benz company and expanded their business worldwide with time.

The Duryea brothers, Frank and Charles, achieved the landmark of being the first ever manufacturer of cars in America in 1893. They industrialized building cars and raised the art of car manufacturing to a systematic mass production. The Detroit assembly line was introduced in 1901 by Ransome Eli Ods. The year 1913 marked another significant achievement in production of cars as Henry Ford’s assembly plant in Highland Park, Michigan could increase the rate of car production by introducing a technically advanced conveyor belt. The result was superfast production of cars - a Ford model car could be produced in a shade over an hour and half. The speed propelled Ford to become the largest manufacturer of cars in the world.

With advancement of technology, cars are nowhere similar to what they were during the yester-years. Automobile research is still a huge industry with new innovations coming up every year that still amuse, please and even dazzle us. However, the thoughts of owning and enjoying a vintage car still charms many of us - vintage cars are unique and classic in their own rights just like vintage wine and carpets.

I really had my eyes opened this past week when I finally decided to get rid of my old Junk car (a 2000 VW Rabbit). I was just going to drive it down to a local shredding facility and hoped they would give me enough money to cover the taxi ride back home. Luckily I mentioned my plan to my mom and I was shocked that she knew so much about this, apparently she helped her best friend junk a car a few months before and both her and her friend are really into saving the environment.

She explained that it was very important to dispose of old cars in an eco-friendly way as to not add pollution to the earth. I found a couple of local green disposal companies and talked to them on the phone and soon realized they took the business of green car disposal quite seriously. It is funny because I ended up going on a 45 minute tour of the facility when I took my car there and it was a lot of fun and they even told me I could come back with my two sons and press the button to start the crusher next weekend.

Just goes to show you that you are never too old to learn something new and helping save the planet can take on many different looks in today’s society.

When it comes down to doing any automotive research, there’s no better medium these days than the internet. With thousands of automotive blogs (just like this one) as well as thousands of automotive articles online, there’s really no need to search anywhere else like TV or print media for example. Searching online for automotive information can be extremely useful when you are trying to find out more information on a unique car, or a unique auto service.

Let’ say you needed to find out information on antique car shipping, as about as unique an automotive service as there is, without searching online where would you even begin to collect your data from? Exactly! So for unique automotive resources like antique car shipping, it’s quick and easy to just go online and search instead of worrying about having to contact local companies out of your phonebook or directory. But what happens if you are looking for an automotive resource that isn’t local? Then a phonebook would be of no value to you and you’d have to search online.

For any information regarding a recreation vehicle rental guide you’d definitely have to do some research online, but need not worry because there is a plethora of free, automotive information readily available online!