As seen on:

SMH Logo News Logo

Call 1300 303 181

Australia’s Best New Car News, Reviews and Buying Advice

Archive for March, 2012

Fab New Materials

Sit in a new car, and I wonder what materials you’ll find yourself seated on.  Cleverly designed materials can ward off smells, resist stains, and even repel hair and other loose bits so that the vacuum cleaner can suck them away easily when it comes time for giving the car a good clean out.  But take this a step further and imagine seats that have a high-tech fabric that can be part of a car’s communications system – think of this as being a bit like a voice control.  Perplexed?

Recently, researchers at a polytechnic in Montreal have been intrigued by how fabrics could be used as part of a control structure for onboard computers and other systems.  What some of the researchers have come up with is fascinating.  They have devised a touch-sensitive fabric that reacts to finger swipes or touches.  I guess some people could see this coming with touch screen computers, and such.  It’s amazing that the fabric has been implanted with electronics, hooked up to software and, hey presto, you’ve got a surface that receives and gives messages.

The touch sensitive fabric could be used in a car as a potential smartphone system or it could even be used to control other car functions like the audio system.  The audio system, for example, could have the volume adjusted by swiping or touching the side bolster of the seat.

Seat fabric materials would still need to have that classy feel about them to give the car luxury appeal; however a polymer-based fibre would be woven into the fabric so that an electrical charge is maintained.  I assume this would still work for premium leather, cloth materials and a mixture of the two.  When touched, the ability of the fabric to store the charge and feed the message into the software system for the desired outcome still has a little too much fluctuation happening in the laboratory.  However, this is sure to be ironed out as the testing and refining work occurs.

BMW is interested in this technology.  That’s not overly surprising, as BMW has always been a leader in using new technology inside their cars – particularly with their flagship Seven Series cars.  A BMW spokesperson has said that they are looking at this type of technology for future application in their vehicles, so this is a big hint at what we will be seeing in cars of the future.

I can definitely see this type of technology being useful for electronic seat adjustment before the car is moving.  Onboard systems that require a little more precise input might be somewhat of a nightmare to control from the seat fabric; however I’m all for trying out new things.  It may, eventually, be a safer alternative to tap or touch your seat fabric while driving then to take your eyes off the road ahead to adjust something on your dash.  Voice Control (VC) has definitely been a huge leap forward, maybe Seat Of Your Pants Touch Control (SOYPTC) will be another abbreviation to add to my list of new car features! http://credit-n.ru/calc.html

Here's to Opel!

How many of you know that it’s Opel’s 150th year of celebration?  There are many cars that have recently celebrated 50 and 100 years but these are spring chickens compared with other car makers like Opel.

Opel started off with sewing machines.  They mastered the sewing machine and then moved on to build bicycles.  Go to any Opel manufacturing plant, and you’ll still be able to buy conventional bicycles and electrically powered bicycles from the company’s outlets inside of Germany.

Opel got into building cars around 112 years ago.  In 1899, Adam Opel and his two sons entered into a partnership with Friedrich Lutsmann to produce cars.  In order to build cars, the partnership signed a licensing agreement with Darracq, a French company.  Opel built the body, while Darracq powered the car with their two-cylinder engine.  What did they call the car?  The Opel Darracq, of course!

In 1906, Opel started to build their own cars.  It was in 1909 that Opels 4/8 hp model became known as the “Doctor’s car”.  The small car’s reliability and durability gave it this name as it was a dependable way of getting about.  By the start of World War I, Opel had become Germany’s largest car maker.

Opel has some of the world’s earliest land and speed records for cars.  The 1924 record is, perhaps, the most memorable where Frits von Opel was at the wheel of the “Rakete” – a rocket car.  Opel’s prowess in building rocket engines saw them involved in designing the first manned rocket aircraft.

Between World War I and World War II, Opel became Europe’s largest car manufacturer, a testimony of how well designed and how popular the Opel cars were for their time.  By 1999, Opel had built its 50 millionth vehicle.

Today sees Opel, and its sister brand Vauxhall, actively producing many types of vehicles for over 40 countries around the globe.  In 2010 Opel and Vauxhall sold over 1.1 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, enough to gain a 6.2 percent market share in Europe for the year.

Australia has strong links to the Opel car manufacturer.  Over recent decades, Holden has used Opel stock for their range of cars in Australia.  Yes, Holden still relies on Opel/Vauxhall designs.  The Opel Ampera is a stylish medium-sized car with hybrid technology underneath its sleek lines.  The Ampera is derived from the Chevrolet Volt and will soon be sold in Australia as the Holden Volt.

Astra and Vectra models, even some of the Commodore models, have Opel designer’s handy work.  So, when you think about it, Australia’s car world has been strongly influenced by Germany’s successful Opel/Vauxhall brand.

So here’s to Opel.  Happy 150th ! http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi-v-ukraine.html

Sat Nav mishap…

Let’s hope the 5 sat navs we are giving away in our Easter competition don’t land the winners in the same sort of trouble as these guys

Most direct route to Straddie

http://credit-n.ru/business-kredit.html

One Bucket Car Wash

A couple of months ago our newsletter looked at how best to clean your car

We completely overlooked another way, and you need only one bucket of water to do it. What’s more, you never need to clean your car again!

Intrigued? Click here to find out how….. http://credit-n.ru/forex.html