Car-infosm is built and design to provide one with easily accessible, simple and basic information about the latest, most popular vehicle currently available on the market. Should you want to view a few photos of the different vehicles that this site showcases, just scroll below and if you happen to see one that catches your attention you may simply click on it so that you will be re-directed to the page that contains some basic information about that particular vehicle. Otherwise you may click on a car brand above and see some of the vehicles available by these motor manufacturers.
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CAR BACKGROUNDS
First and foremost 'What is a car?'
- It is mostly defined as a wheeled motor vehicle that is self powered. By today's standards this means that a vehicle has to have an engine off some sort, be it gasoline, diesel etc or motor electric for self propulsion. So basically a car would not be considered a car if it did not have the ability to self propel itself.
- Gasoline (Also commonly referred to as Petrol) Before 1986 most petrol cars use to use leaded fuel, but after 1986 most vehicles used unleaded as it was more efficient and more environmentally friendly, so to speak. Now there are three types of unleaded fuel available to date, these are Unleaded, Premium Unleaded and High Octane (98). The last two mentioned are mostly used/more suited for high performance and prestige vehicles. It should be noted that they cost slightly more than the normal unleaded fuel. Benefits of a petrol powered vehicle is that the engine is allowed to reach a higher output level, meaning more power (HP-Horse Power / kilo Watt-KW) and they get to run smoother and quieter vs their diesel counterparts as they are more refined.
- Diesel (Can be also referred to as Gas-oil) Is obtained from fossil fuel and has been commonly used for years as gasoline. Nowadays diesel powered vehicle are a lot cleaner than previous diesel cars, some even cleaner than petrol powered cars. Other benefits of diesel fuel is that it consists of higher energy, so vehicle running on diesel tends to have a lot off Torque/NM, this is good for hauling huge loads around. Furthermore, this allows the vehicle to travel a much longer distance when compared to a similarly sized gasoline. Most auto manufacturers are fitting turbo chargers to their diesel engine, this allows them to extract even more power whilst at the same time increasing overall engine efficiency. The benefit that diesel engines gets from using turbo charges compared to gasoline engine is 'less turbo lag' as the rpm range (speed of the engine) is limited to most often @ 4,000 - 5,000 RPM vs 6,000 - 8,000 RPM in petrol engines. Therefore the power you get from the engine combined with the turbos is almost instantaneous.
- Bio-diesel (Is obtained from waste animal fats or from vegetable oil)
- Autogas. (LPG) It is a cleaner burning fuel than both diesel and petrol and is also slightly cheaper. Most unleaded petrol cars can be converted to use autogas, however, specialist have to install a special gas cylinder inside the car for storage.
- Ethanol Blend (Is usually blended with normal petrol to reduce the overall vehicle harmful emissions, to keep the engine healthier and to lower the price of fuel)
- Hybrid (A vehicle that is powered by two different sources of fuel) The most common combination is between an internal combustion engine (Be it gasoline or diesel fueled) and one or more electric motors. With today's technologies both the mechanical engine and the electric motors can work in unison to increase power when needed, and efficiency or work individually. But it should be noted that they both have their limits and restrictions. For example the electric motor is able to run by itself only to a certain speed and only for a few miles as the battery reserve is very limited, then the internal combustion engine will have to take over. The good thing with a hybrid vehicle though is that the engine self charge the battery used by the electric motor and they also use an advanced technology called 'regenerative braking', this system uses the the energy that would otherwise be dissipated in a normal vehicle braking system whilst the vehicle is decelerating and converts it into electric fuel used to replenish the battery reserve for later use.
- Hydrogen Fuel Cells The benefits of cars running on Hydrogen is that they have zero emissions. The byproduct of hydrogen powered vehicles is water vapour and this is harmless to the environment. However, the drawbacks associated with it is the difficulty to store the Hydrogen and the low energy content per unit volume.
- Electrical Power A vehicle that is powered by one or more electric motors found at different convenient locations in a vehicle. The electric motors gets their electrical energy from a stack of batteries which is usually found in the floor of a car. A huge benefit of an electric motor is that you get instant and high volumes off Torque for strong and smooth acceleration. Whilst operating there are zero emmissions produced from such vehicles. A major drawback however is that the distance allowed to travel on a full charge is rather limited and once you have exhausted the battery reserve you will have to stop somewhere at a charge station or someplace with electrical connections in order to charge the car. This process can take some time though, up to eight hours at times for a full charge. But day by day researchers are working their best to increase the distance allowed to travel on a full charge, at least to match that of a petrol / diesel driven vehicle.
The different types of cars available:
- Hatchback: Have you seen a station wagon...well a hatchback more or less looks like a smaller version of a station wagon. The station wagons roof extends all the way to the rear maximizing cargo capacity whilst the hatchback their roof usually ends abruptly after the rear seats area to favor style more than cargo area. Hatchbacks are also easier to drive especially to reverse in tight spots as they do not have a long ''rear end'' that you have to take into account when maneuvering into tight spaces etc.. You will find mainly sub-compact and compact and anything below the two with hatchbacks design, rarely will you find a mid-size car or anything bigger with this design.
- 4 - Door Sedan: Ranges from small compact cars to full-size luxury vehicle. These types of cars are easily distinguishable with their trunk which is protruded at the rear compared to Hatchbacks. Sedans are quite popular as because of their design they provide better drag coefficient therefore better fuel economy compared to SUVs, Trucks and Vans. The most luxurious types of cars are actually sedan as they have four doors therefore they provide easy access to all the passengers both front and rear as well. You can get a luxury sedan as a LWB (Long Wheel Base) model or SWB (Short Wheel Base), at least most of them. Luxury sedans usually have huge powerful engines with the ability to compete against sports cars. Compact sedans have the smaller engines with usually excellent fuel efficiency. _
- 2 - Door Coupe: As it names suggest this type of vehicle only has two doors available best suited for owners who does not carry a lot of baggage and passengers around. Many has two small rear seats as well but it quite difficult to access them as coup has only two front doors. They mostly have a hatchback design as well. It should be noted that we have sports luxury coupe as well from automobile manufacturers such as Porsche, Maserati and Mercedes-Benz.
- Convertibles: Like its name suggest this vehicle can be converted into a roof less two door car or a two door coupe when the roof is raised. They are almost always sports oriented cars or luxury cars. These cars are quite stylish as well especially with the roof down and the wind in your hair and you are zooming down the country lane.
- Station Wagons (Estates): This vehicle is actually a sedan but with a high roofed trunk. It best suits family's that needs the boot space of an SUV but does not want to own a big SUV.
- Sports cars: Now these cars are mostly two-seat roadster with supreme power and speed capabilities. But nevertheless we should also take into account that there are another completely different type of sports car, and that is the now most popular luxury sports sedan. You may find these from auto giants such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi just to name a few. The main benefits of a sports sedan over a pure two-seat roadster is that usually at a push of a button the car can become super soft like a personal limousine (Think of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class especially the AMG variant just as an example).
- Mini-Vans: These are mostly front-wheel drive vehicle best suited for large families and for those that likes to carry around loads of stuffs. It is usually referred to as ''Mom's Cars'' as quite a lot of mothers especially in the US prefers to use this type of vehicle for school runs and carrying kids to plays and other activities. The seating capacity is usually around seven or more, but never less than seven.
- Vans: These types of vehicle are a lot bigger than the average minivans and should be left to those who has to carry a lot off cargo around or if one needs to carry a soccer team to and fro matches. They come in different variants such as panel vans, these are the ones that does not have rear windows or seats and is used only for cargo purposes, extended, these can seat even more adults into its belly. Compared to mini-vans Vans are always rear-wheel drive due to the extra length and size as well as to increase the weight carrying capacity.
- Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) & Crossover Utility Vehicle (CUV): You may find yourself asking the question - What is the difference between these two? Well to answer the question as simply as possible, a pure SUV is a Jeep that is built on the frame/chassis (commonly referred to as a body on frame design) , they tend to be quite rugged, tough and are known to be able to handle hardcore off-road situations. Whilst the Crossover SUV is an SUV that the body is built in unison with the frame just a like a regular car. A a result a Crossover handles almost like a regular car, has similar fuel efficiency level as well compared to pure body on frame SUVs. Most Sports Utility Vehicles are being built as a Crossover nowadays as they are more appealing and better suited to and for the current market. Another point for SUVs is that they come in different sizes as well, from small compact, medium and full-size luxury. Actually you can refer to the different classes of vehicles for a better idea of their sizes as they us the same principle as a normal sedan except for the fact that they are an SUV.
- Sport Activity Vehicle (SAV): This is a term birthed by BMW for the ir SUVs mainly the X5 and X6 variants. Why is that you may be asking? Well BMWs SUVs are built mainly for road use than for dirt purposes. They will shudder at the sight of an off-road course but when you put them on the street they are like an unlisted hungry beast ready to pounce. Performance wise on the road they are really awesome but they have low towing capabilities etc compared to normal SUVs. So that is why BMW decided to adopt this term for them.
- Pickup Trucks: These trucks ranges from compact pickups to full-size trucks. Variants on offer are single cab, extended cab or crew cab (double cab) depending on your needs. The compacts are usually more economical due to their overall smaller size and to their small engines, which are usually four cylinders or 6 cylinders, rarely V8. Whilst full-size pickup trucks are much bigger with huge engines mostly V8 and V10, rarely V6. They are quite powerful and they have the ability to carry around huge loads as well.
- Minicompact - These are usually very small hatchbacks that is purely made for people with a small budget as they are super cheap to buy, maintain etc. The TATA Nano comes to mind as an example for such a vehicle.
- Subcompact - A vehicle that is significantly smaller / shorter than a compact car. These are usually small city cars. They are named differently depending on the market / country. Some of the common names are: A-segment, B-segment, Supermini
- Compact - A vehicle that is slightly larger than a subcompact but smaller than a midsize.
- Midsize - A vehicle that is slightly larger than a compact but smaller than a large car. Can be referred as follows: D-Segment, large family cars depending on the regions off-course.
- Large - Most often referred to as full-size. These types of cars are typically larger than the mid-size car sold and are usually quite expensive to purchase and own.
I'll Be Damned!
- The World's most expensive car was made in 1931 and that is the Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe which is also known as the Bugatti Type 41. Presently this car is work around $10 Million (US Dollars). It is extremely rare as only six was made and only three actually sold. Their original targeted market was for super rich royalties. This car was the Brainchild of Ettore Bugatti and it featured a 12.7 L engine (Prototype was a 15 L engine) straight eight. At 6.4 m this one of the worlds longest car.
- In Sweden fines are proportionate to income and that is why the largest speeding ticket at $ 1,000,000.00 was issued to Swedish man who got clocked doing 180 mph (290 km/hr).
- Tried and tested, nineteen people can fit into a Smart car.
- In Albania around 80% of cars registered are Mercedes-Benz.
- Around 60 Million cars are produced in a single year which rounds up to around 165,000 cars per day.
- In Germany they have developed a car that can be controlled solely by the thought of the driver.
- Have you ever wondered why there are so much limousine based on the Lincoln Town car... The reason for that being that the Town car is the only luxury car still in production that features a body-on-frame construction design opposed to a uni-body frame making it easier to be lengthened.
We hope that Car-infosm was of use or help to you.
Good Day & keep on Driving.
Good Day & keep on Driving.
Lekker dag! - Hav en god dag - Schonen Tag noch! - Buona giornata! - Die dulci fruimini - Bonne journee ! - Que pase un buen dia! -Have a nice day