ISUZU clung to the U.S. market two to three years after the automotive press began predicting its departure. Although Isuzu relied on sport/utilities for most of the 2000s, and that segment took a big plunge just before the brand left North America in ’09, it didn’t exactly light the SUV world on fire even when the segment was popular. Continue reading
FIAT BUILDS its MultiAir engine in five plants around the globe, though only one plant builds it for the 500: Chrysler’s Dundee, Michigan, factory. Other world markets, including Europe, don’t use the cutting-edge MultiAir, with its infinitely variable intake valve movement, in the 500. In the North American Fiat 500, the 160-hp 1.4-liter turbo version is for the new Abarth 500. A third MultiAir will go into the new Dodge compact unveiled at the Detroit show in January. Continue reading
TOYOTA rushed a cut-rate version of its current Prius into development when Honda announced a sub-$20,000 price for the Insight a couple years ago, but the loss-leader never came to production. Turns out the incremental costs involved with adding crank windows and the like to the Prius weren’t recoverable, and anyway, there was no need to worry. Insight sales provided no serious competition. Continue reading
Road Conditions Can Change in the Blink of an Eye. The Rogue’s Intuitive AWD Adapts 33 Times Faster Than That Blink.
If you remember that little hammer your doctor taps on your knee, you know human reaction time is pretty fast. In fact, we react in just a third of a second. But when you’re on the road, you might want something quicker than that. Like the intuitive AWD system in the Nissan Rogue that automatically adjusts to 1 changing road conditions 30 times faster I than you can blink. So you’ve got maximum grip when you need it and maximum efficiency when you don’t. No matter what the road is like. It’s innovation that adapts.
Stay on Course, No Matter the Road:
Grip is one of those things you don’t appreciate until you start to lose it. Like when you accelerate through a turn and the wheels spin at different rates, pulling you off course. To correct this, every hundredth of a second Rogue’s intuitive AWD system calculates changes in your wheel speed, steering angle and yaw rate. It then adapts and distributes power between the front and back wheels. All to help keep your car going where you want it to.
You Don’t Need All-Wheel Drive All the Time:
Sensing changing road conditions is great, when hey change. But what about when they don’t? ‘he Rogue knows when you’re just cruising down the highway. So its AWD system transfers 100% of the power to the front wheels to give you maximum efficiency in static conditions. But the second those conditions change, it’ll give you the grip you need, faster than you can tell someone about it…