Author Topic: Mexico Limits Auto Imports to 1998 Model Year  (Read 2754 times)

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Offline Chris_

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Mexico Limits Auto Imports to 1998 Model Year
« on: March 04, 2008, 05:39:54 PM »
Import limit makes '98 F-150 Mexico's most-wanted truck

The changes in Mexico's import law were urged by the Mexican Association of Automobile Distributors, which protested that cars newer or older than 10 years undercut their new-car sales. Before Monday, Mexican motorists and dealers were allowed to import vehicles that were 10-15 years old.

The flood of cars on the older end of that spectrum, the group argued, threatened to turn Mexico into "the world's biggest automotive garbage dump."

As Mexico on Monday limited used-car imports from the U.S. to those made in 1998, the ever-popular F-150 seemed poised to become one of the most-coveted used vehicles in Mexico. Prices for the truck — and for all other 1998 models — were expected to soar.

"The prices we'd be asking for them retail is what we're going to be paying wholesale," said Luis Esparza, sales manager for H.E.D. Sales Co., a Houston Heights used-car dealer. "You can throw the Blue Book away."

(more...) 


Today's Automotive TOTD shamelessly stolen from those gearheads and car-nerds at Jalopnik.  If you were limited to a vehicle from 1998, what would you drive?
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Mexico Limits Auto Imports to 1998 Model Year
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2008, 05:48:41 PM »
Lots of car news today.  It is the first day of the Geneva Auto Show, and Audi dropped a stump-puller into their monster R8.



Audi is presenting a revolution in the top class - the first 12-cylinder diesel engine in a high-performance roadgoing sports car. The V12 TDI with a displacement of six liters powers a concept car based on the Audi R8. This unit generates a huge 500 hp and 1,000 Newton-meters (737.56 lb-ft) of torque. Audi is writing a new chapter in diesel technology with this power unit. Equipped with the expertise that Audi has built up through its motor sport activities, the R8 TDI Le Mans in Brilliant Red embodies superb road handling, pioneering technology and fascinating design.

The V12 TDI is closely related to the engine in the Audi R10, the two-time Le Mans winner - so it catapults the Audi R8 into supercar terrain concerning performance too. It sprints from zero to 100 km/h (62.14 mph) in just 4.2 seconds and its top speed is well over 300 km/h (186.41 mph). The peak torque, reached at only 1,750 rpm, paves the way for effortless acceleration that is unrivaled even at this level.

LINK


The same engine is rated at 20 MPG in their station wagon, the Q7.  Not bad.   :p
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Chris_

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Re: Mexico Limits Auto Imports to 1998 Model Year
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2008, 05:51:48 PM »
Traffic jams without bottlenecks—experimental evidence for the physical mechanism of the formation of a jam

A traffic jam on a highway is a very familiar phenomenon. From the physical viewpoint, the system of vehicular flow is a non-equilibrium system of interacting particles (vehicles). The collective effect of the many-particle system induces the instability of a free flow state caused by the enhancement of fluctuations, and the transition to a jamming state occurs spontaneously if the average vehicle density exceeds a certain critical value. Thus, a bottleneck is only a trigger and not the essential origin of a traffic jam. In this paper, we present the first experimental evidence that the emergence of a traffic jam is a collective phenomenon like `dynamical' phase transitions and pattern formation in a non-equilibrium system.

We have performed an experiment on a circuit to show the emergence of a jam with no bottleneck. In the initial condition, all the vehicles are moving, homogeneously distributed on the circular road, with the same velocity. The average density of the vehicles is prepared for the onset of the instability. Even a tiny fluctuation grows larger and then the homogeneous movement cannot be maintained. Finally, a jam cluster appears and propagates backward like a solitary wave with the same speed as that of a jam cluster on a highway.


Telegraph (UK) article
« Last Edit: March 04, 2008, 05:53:32 PM by Chris »
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If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Chris_

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Re: Mexico Limits Auto Imports to 1998 Model Year
« Reply #4 on: March 05, 2008, 06:07:18 PM »
Golf TDI Diesel-Electric Hybrid Concept: 69 MPG US

The Golf TDI Hybrid concept introduced by Volkswagen at the Geneva Motor Show combines an advanced diesel engine with an electric motor and the latest generation of VW’s seven-speed DSG gearbox. The hybrid concept vehicle is capable of achieving 3.4 L/100km (69 mpg US) of fuel consumption.

At the core of the new Golf TDI Hybrid is a 1.2-liter three-cylinder common rail TDI diesel engine developing 55 kW (74 hp) and 179 Nm (132 lb-ft) of torque. Working either in tandem with the diesel engine or, if required, on its own in all-electric mode, is an electric motor developing 20 kW and 140 Nm (103 lb-ft) of torque. The electric motor also replaces the conventional starter motor and alternator to save weight and improve packaging.

The motor can also operate as a generator, recovering kinetic energy from the car during braking to charge the 220 volt, 45 kg nickel metal hydride battery which has a capacity of 1.4 kWh.


If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.