engineering

The fiat branch that is operating in Brazil is going to reveal its newest car on the Sao Paolo automobile fair in October.

The Fiat Mio is an all electric, 2.50 meter long car that is developed on the basis of user ideas that were shared on an online website where the design could be edited, commented and distributed.

17 000 members from over 140 countries have shared their thoughts in the web and developed Fiat’s newest creation that will be released this year. The result should be a customer friendly car, especially in terms of design and eco-friendliness.

What do you think of the car? Is the two-seater it going to be a success? Discuss here!

sources: autoevolution, auto-motor-und-sport.de

The world automotive markets are developing in different directions. On one side the Chinese car sales have slowed down a little since July after the government announced to reduce their incentives. In addition commodities around the globe are getting more expensive, which lowers the profits of the companies that need to look exactly on the development of the prices for metals like aluminum or copper.

On the other side countries like Brazil have brought companies like Ford a bigger profit due to a growing market where investments are made by several big international automotive brands.

Ford’s generated income of $765 million in the South American country might push Brazil to the second most important market, leaving the United Kingdom behind.

sources: autonews, just-auto, manager magazin

According to the German Automotive Association (VDA) the growth of the Asian, U.S. and Brazilian market has slowed down a little but, speaking especially for the Chinese sector is still at a positive rate of 17 percent in July.

In Europe things don’t look that good: du to expiry of state supported programs that made car buying in countries like Germany more affordable, sales go down.

However in India and Japan the market is happy about growing numbers. 1.3 million cars were sold in the second most populated country in the world and the Japanese could record a plus of over 13 percent last month.

The situation looks similar in Brazil, Russia and the United States where markets pick up pace and like in Russia rose by almost 50 percent.

source: automobilproduktion.de

Profits of U.S. company General Motors rose to almost 1.3 billion of this year’s second quarter.

Contrary to the loss of 12.9 billion in the second quarter of 2009, the income of the company has gone up rapidly which is also conditioned by selling a higher amount of shares in the last months.

However, the results in Europe are still unsatisfying: a $160 million loss still shows where issues problems have to be fixed. Results of the home market though look a lot better after 12 percent more cars were sold.

Also with focus on the Chinese market, GM will try to keep pace and establish their position as second biggest car seller in China, behind Volkswagen.

Source: autonews

I just found Carmio: this is a new auto parts price comparison website. It combines an easy search for your specific car parts with cheap prices.

First a search mask helps you to describe the car that requires a particular part. Once you’ve picked out the car part Carmio starts comparing prices.

The service will then list you the best offers including the online shops where you can purchase the respective auto part. According to the website you can save up to 70% of the regular price.

The price comparison also provides full market transparency.

In addition Carmio offers installation instructions for the most popular car brands and wearing parts.

We are curious to hear your opinions about this web service!

Due to a low sales volume Opel just announced a new ” lifetime guarantee”.

Expensive repairs belong to the past said Opels Nick Reilly last week in Rüsselsheim.

These new guarantee regulations start with buying a brand new Opel from today on. The guarantee ends after 160.000 kilometers.

There is no time limit for the guarantee. It’s also possible to take it over to the second owner.

The offer includes the labour costs for 160.000 km. For the first 50.000 km spare parts are also included.

To extend the normal 2 year guarantee you’ll have to pay a yearly reactivation-fee at your Opel-reseller for 11,90€.

The main reason behind the new guarantee could be that Opel sold over 40 % less cars than last year. It is said that the company is underequipped with equity and needs to cover this gap to change the Adam Opel GmbH into a stock cooperation by the end of this year.

What do you think of Opel´s new lifetime guarantee? Do these new regulations rather stand for Opel’s trust in their own products or is it simply the need to sell more cars?

source:  sueddeutsche.de

The number of cars sold in Italy this July is expected to have fallen by 26 percent. The main reason is that the government incentives ended this march.

The sales would have gone down even further, but car dealers have bought large numbers to meet their targets.

This might be the reasons for massive discounts on Italian Cars in other european countries. The Fiat Panda ist offered over 40 percent lower than mentioned in the price lists.

Now is the time to buy a cheap brandnew car.

Or do you think the prices will go down even further?

Source: Reuters, Autohaus24

Nissan has revealed plans for their new car „Leaf“ to contain a battery that can last up to eight years or over 100 000 miles. This is part of their attempt to release an affordable all-electric car on the market.

Consumer concerns about durability of the “rechargeable engine” are the reason for the company to announce that the car can keep the pace with normal gas automobiles and will have a similar lifetime. The “Leaf”, which will be on sale in the United States from December, will cost around $ 25, 000 (after tax credit) and can be charged in one of 15,000 charging stations that (will) spread all over the country.

source: autonews.com

Deutsche Autobauer belegen weiterhin Spitzenplätze, was die Beliebtheit unter Verbrauchern angeht. Das ergab eine Umfrage der Firma TNS Emnid, die verdeutlicht, wie groß das Vertrauen der Bevölkerung in die Hersteller ihrer Autos ist.

Am beliebtesten ist laut Studie der Daimler Konzern, der Vorjahresspitzenreiter VW vom Platz an der Sonne verdrängte. Unter den ersten fünf befindet sich mit Siemens nur ein Unternehmen, außerhalb der automotive Branche.

Quelle: automotive.it

Vom 14. bis 19. September 2010 findet erneut die automechanika als eine der größten und bekanntesten Automobilmessen in Deutschland statt.

Einen Teil der Veranstaltung in Frchankfurt wird dabei auch die IT-Branche darstellen, neben Bereichen wie Autoteilen, Werkstattausrüstung und Tuning. Genaueres zu der zuletzt 160 000 Besuer zählenden Messe finden Sie hier.