Monthly Archives June 2014

Today is the last day of June, from our website statistics, below are the most popular articles of this month.

– Fun Facts

Not All Gasoline Brands Are The Same
How Many People Lease Their Cars?
New Round of Horsepower Competition
The Plastic Trend in the Automobile Industry

– Tutorial Series

Car Suspension Design
Car Braking System Design (to be continued)

– Industry News and Analysis

BMW 2-Series Crash Test and Analysis
New Plans of the MINI Brand
Direct Sales Model: Good or Bad?
Toyota 10-Speed Automatic Transmission
New Mercedes-Benz C-Class vs. Old C-Class

Nowadays, plastic is not something unfamiliar in our daily commute cars. We see them in the interior trims, body panels, cowls and even some brackets inside the engine compartment.

Previously we can never think of using plastics in some critical parts which are subject to high loads, excessive heat and demanding stress. But the usage of engineering plastics continues to expand in the auto industry.

One example is the BMW N20 4-cylider turbo engine. For some F30 3-series, the N20 engine comes with a plastic engine oil pan, as shown in the below image. The engine oil pan seals the underside of the engine and holds all of its lubrication oil.

Recently Mercedes-Benz go anoth...

Today Lexus USA released some details about the 2015 model year of the brand’s compact sports sedan – the IS.

Generally speaking there is no major mechanical changes. New options are listed below:

– LED fog light;
– AWD models equipped with heated steering wheel;
– Siri eyes free system;
– Lexus Enform remote system (control some car functionalities from smartphone app)
– Upgraded backup camera (added dynamic grid lines);
– Enhanced heated/ventilated front seats available for the FSport model;
– Updated interior trim, with piano black on several areas such as the window switches;
– Stratus Gray interior color replaces the current Light Gray color.

Although the 2015 model ...

Today you see Audi is selling the A3 hatchback and A3 sedan at the same time (although the A3 hatchback is discontinued in the US market, but it is still available in European markets). According to our source, Mercedes-Benz is also planning the same thing for the A-Class.

Yes I know Mercedes-Benz already has the CLA-class, but that will not stop the A-Class sedan from coming to life. Just like BMW is having both of the 3-series sedan and 4-series Gran Coupe .

The A-Class sedan will be developed based on Mercedes-Benz’s MFA front-wheel-drive platform, and will be officially announced in 2018...

From a media interview with the Bentley CEO, Wolfgang Dürheimer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the brand’s first SUV, which to be officially announced in 2016, will come with a starting MSRP more than GBP 130,000 (approx. $221,448 with today’s USD/GBP FX rate).

Please note that this is the price estimate for the UK market only, and the actual US market price will usually not follow the direct FX rate conversion value.

The Bentley SUV is expected to break the speed of 200mph, with at least two engine options: the twin-turbo 4.0L V8 and the twin-turbo 6.0L W12. This new model will be built in Bentley’s manufacturing plant at Crewe, UK.

Below is some spy shots of the Be...