Thursday, February 28, 2013

BMW Série 6 Gran Coupé

Pode-se dizer que esta novidade foi antecipada pelo Inovar-Auto. Entrar no programa com projeto de fábrica no país trouxe a isenção do IPI de importados para os veículos da BMW, culminando na recente redução de preços em quase toda a linha nacional. Foi a lista deste evento que chamou atenção para ver que a Série 6 teria novidades em breve. A excelente surpresa é nós termos recebido um dos mais novos modelos da marca com menos de um ano de atraso, cujas informações você poderá conhecer neste artigo.

Prosperar no mercado de carros da atualidade é um objetivo que só tem alguma chance de se cumprir se os trabalhos para isso incluírem o ato de inovar. Seja em desenho, tamanho, equipamentos, o espectro de possibilidades sempre foi enorme, mas apenas nas últimas décadas tem sido explorado como sempre mereceu. A estratégia de procurar lacunas para preencher fez o mercado receber diversas categorias de carros que seriam inimagináveis quinze anos atrás, mas assim como criar novos conceitos nem sempre resulta em sucesso, mesmo o ato de apenas seguir um concorrente ao entrar no segmento que ele criou requer cuidados. Como a iniciativa do Mercedes-Benz CLS já foi seguida por Audi A7, Aston Martin Rapide, Porsche Panamera e até Volkswagen CC, mesmo que a BMW tivesse decidido segui-las, o atraso que teve foi compensado pelo conceito que traz o Gran Coupé. Sua dianteira mantém os traços da Série 6, mas seu pulo-do-gato está nas proporções: em vez de esticar o conceito de cupê até comportar as portas adicionais, a ideia aqui parece ter sido partir de um sedã convencional e deixá-lo muito mais casual e esportivo. Fica bastante claro que o objetivo de fazê-lo mais elegante que os rivais diretos foi cumprido, porque a esportividade do Gran Coupé ficou muito mais sutil, sem intenções explícitas como o caimento tipo fastback do A7.

Um traço comum a todos os modelos da Série 6 é que a parte traseira não dispensa o terceiro volume curto, mas bem pronunciado; ver isso no Gran Coupé permite a interessante elucubração de que se a BMW não fosse uma marca de tradições tão fortes, este carro poderia ter vindo como uma nova Série 5 ou Série 7 sem deixar nada a desejar. Mas o porta-malas de 460 litros é apenas a entrada dos fundos ao próximo encanto deste carro: a luxuosa cabine, dedicada a quatro pessoas. A novidade chega ao Brasil na versão 640i, cujo pacote inclui bancos de couro com ajustes elétricos, rodas de 19”, sistema de som com sete alto-falantes e disco rígido de 12 GB e o Connected Drive, a central multimídia que usa uma touchscreen de 10,2” para acessar a lista de funções que inclui navegação GPS e uso da internet 3G de celulares. Já o pacote de segurança inclui farois com LEDs e iluminação inteligente, seis airbags e controles de tração e estabilidade – como opcionais, ele terá controle ativo de velocidade, sistema HUD, novas opções de acabamento e o kit aerodinâmico M Sports. Espera-se a versão 650i para breve, mas por enquanto já se tem a performance do 3.0 turbo de seis cilindros, que entrega potência de 320 cv e torque de 45,9 kgfm, suficientes para que ele esqueça dos 1.825 kg e acelere de 0 a 100 km/h em 5s4 e chegue à máxima limitada de 250 km/h. Custando R$ 399.950, a BMW pretende vender cinquenta unidades do 640i até o fim do ano.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Chevrolet SS

Taking measures to protect the environment has already become an important part of many people’s everyday. There is at least one task that can be added to any lifestyle very easily, but the problem comes when they attack what a person likes best – like making car fans drive electric or hybrid vehicles. The prevailing attitude has been to accept the ecological cars, but we’ll always have that hidden thirst for speed produced by big gasoline engines with their irresistible sounds. This sedan is GM’s latest way of quenching it.

Yes, if you integrate the team who defends efficiency and low-polluting need to be every car’s concerns, unfortunately you won’t like this one. SS is the result of Chevrolet’s wish of a performance-focused sedan, which means having not only a powerful engine but also the whole concept dedicated to this, which finds response also in the sporty design and exclusive structural characteristics such as the rear traction. GM has essentially rebadged the recently showed Holden Commodore VF to the North-American brand, just like they did in 2007 with Pontiac G8. In fact, the latter only had to be dropped due to the 2008 crisis, which made GM reorganize its entire line and cut even entire brands. Pontiac’s end couldn’t avoid taking G8, but there was always a rumor that something would be done to sell this car in North America once again. The older came from Commodore VE, but this and VF are nothing but different phases of the Australian’s same fourth and current generation – VF must’ve been projected considering SS since the beginning, because Chevy’s car was released only few days after Holden’s. It is true that those cars use an aging platform that will be completely dropped in some years, but it’s also the best solution for now. The Australian division has made a huge evolution when it comes to technology and performance, including retuned chassis and new electrical architecture.

In other words, the covered parts were as refreshed as the exterior, which dropped the 2000s’ typical straight creases and lines for a much more elegant design, characterized by more imponent shapes and smoother volumes – to be more specific, SS is the rebadged version of Holden’s SSV version, not Calais. Chevrolet’s influence is noticed at the dual-cockpit interior, but also in the huge touchscreen’s infotainment system: MyLink is only one item of the large list which includes stitched-leather seats, Bose sound system and even automatic parking assist, with the optional power sunroof. What the attractive black, chrome and red decoration doesn’t show, though, is SS’s top-notch powertrain: the rear axle will be powered by Camaro’s LS3 6.2L V-8, delivering 415-hp power and 415-lb-ft torque, which takes it very close to the new Corvette Stingray. The six-speed automatic transmission will help SS to achieve the announced 5-second 0 to 60 mph acceleration, while the stopping will be credited to Brembo brakes (front rotors with 14” and rear with 12.8”), everything running on 19” wheels and Bridgestone tires (245/40 and 275/35, respectively). SS received the entire latest collision-prevention equipment, but the technology didn’t reached too much under the hood: there aren’t direct injection, cylinder deactivation or variable valve timing. After all, everyone’s entitled to remember once again the good old times of “there’s no substitute for cubic inches”.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Mazda5 2013

LED turn signals are the only change you’ll be able to see in any external view of this stylish minivan. Mazda decided to postpone style updates and added some minor equipments, like new coatings, piano-black dashboard, illuminated glovebox with an USB port and a new lane-change alert: tapping the signal lever emits three direction light blinks and turns off. The safety was improved with the addition of rear parking camera and auto-dimming rearview mirror. There are also new colors: Jet Black, Meteor Gray and Zeal Red.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Linha BMW e Mini 2013

Como a marca alemã foi habilitada no programa Inovar-Auto, iniciar a construção de uma fábrica no país livrou a BMW do IPI de 30%. Os descontos também valeram aos modelos da Mini, mas o repasse não foi uniforme – o modelo de entrada, 116i, ficou R$ 15 mil mais barato, enquanto a Série 7 não teve alterações. Outra novidade é que a Série 6 trocou a versão 650i pelo novíssimo 640i Gran Coupé, mas você pode conferir a tabela completa na galeria do Facebook, que se pode acessar clicando na imagem ao lado.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Kia pro_cee’d 2

The concept of car family was founded around the 1970s, but became truly popular two decades later. Consists in entering multiple categories by deriving their respective body variations from one single car, enabling the automaker to promote only one identity at that price range. However, as the two-door E-Class’s article shows much better, prospering with this concept requires deep studies. One of its results, in fact, turned into the latest trend among the hatchbacks, which Kia has started to follow with the new pro_cee’d.

Do you remember when the ideal was to release taller hatchbacks in order to offer bigger internal space, just like what the minivans do? This trend rose in the early 2000s, with cars like Stilo, A-Class and 307 in Europe and Fox in Brazil – Volkswagen even created an additional model in 2005, Golf Plus. This concept didn’t take long to subside first because the actual minivans never stopped to exist (or to be a much better option for big families), but also for a second very important reason: being bad minivans deviated the hatchbacks from the sporty potential they’ve had for decades. The North-Americans may prefer the sedans and the Australians the pick-ups, but Europeans and Brazilians usually apply their high-performance packages on hatchbacks. Finally, one possible third reason would be the very limited “genetic predisposition”. In order to have a bigger cabin without an also big external size, these compacts needed to use rational designs, which fatally include the vans’ almost-horizontal roof line. Therefore, adapting coupés, sedans or other siblings turned impossible by the simple fact that all these designs need descending roofs. That’s precisely why the mentioned cars could only receive station wagon variations, respectively Multiwagon, SW and Variant (the latter using the original Golf) – the only possibility was to stretch them, like the Mercedes’ old extended-wheelbase L option.

However, the car fans can be happy again because the current trend could be defined as having only the good part of the first Mégane’s concept brought back. In other words, the family concept is still being used, but no longer intensely to the point of the entire line being the very same car until the central console. The second pro_cee’d won’t ever deny being cee’d’s two-door sibling, but this didn’t stopped it from offering a much more sporty design. If the four-door was already very attractive, the younger brother received elements such as the imponent crease that starts around the handles and gets really strong at the back, to the point of making the cabin look narrower than the lower portion – this muscle impression on compacts became famous most recently with VW Scirocco, which competes with pro_cee’d just like Opel Astra, Renault Mégane and the upcoming Seat León’s “coupe-hatch” siblings. The car’s interior features a driver-centered console and a very sporty combination of matte and piano-black, without any excess of chrome items. Kia will offer S and SE trims, the first one already bringing electric windows, s climate control, multimedia sound system and a large safety package, while the other adds a 7” touchscreen and several style accessories. This car won’t take long to receive the GT trim, but even that one repeats what could be this car’s only important weakness: both the 1.6L GDi (gasoline) and CRDi (diesel)’s numbers leave Kia without competing as this car’s design suggests.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

McLaren P1

How good was the car world in the 1990s. Everyone was excited for the long-awaited new millenium finally getting closer, creating a futuristic atmosphere that surely helped the public to receive the then-surprising technology progress in their everyday, including seeing all the big companies’ evolutions. But if the car fans’ desktop images were used to follow only Ferrari or Porsche’s news, a British automaker suddenly stole all the attentions. This article’s car proves that now, two decades later, McLaren’s time arrives once again.

There will always be controversies concerning the first place of some records, but what is known for sure is that after being entitled in 1998 as the fastest production car in the world, F1 was overcome by other vehicles but still makes part of the top 5. So far it isn’t known if McLaren will try to retrieve the golden medal, but the fact is P1 has everything to succeed it when it comes to the image. This goes much further than only the fact of the new coupé being McLaren’s latest flagship car: if one of its goals was to exalt its own brand, there are no doubts that this has been achieved even before the official release (which will be made at the upcoming Geneva Auto Show). The design shows a conceptual mixture, creating visual connections not only with the current design trends but also with the iconic predecessor. There is an astonishing combination of smooth and strong lines, creating a much more organic silhouette than a Lamborghini’s but filled with very well-designed elements whose design boldness isn’t seen even on the latest Ferraris. Everything is intended to improve the aerodynamics, making the vehicle look stuck to the ground just like an F-1. Besides that, using large portions in two contrasting colors helps to make it look nimbler, without the size impression of an Aventador, for example.

Once again the doors have gullwing-opening, but the fans will miss F1’s central position for the driver. Just like most of the other sports cars on their competition-inspired versions, P1’s cutting-edge technologies are more focused on weight reduction than on pampering the couple of lucky occupants. There will be s climate control, GPS navigation and even a Meridian sound system, but having all the controls facing the driver gives enough explanation of who this car puts in charge of everything. Besides, there’s carbon fiber in almost everything, since the MonoCage chassis and the external panels to the console and even the seats, which will be customized specifically for each customer and its favorite “+1”. The weight concern goes to extremes such as the car giving away internal coatings, sound isolation and even some of the seats foam. There isn’t powertrain information so far, but this car is highly expected to bring an improved variation of MP4-12C’s engine. Such power will be controlled by a very interesting sy-digital dashboard, with a large central screen and an auxiliary one on each side. In other words, even when McLaren needs to surrender to the current car trends it is done in style – two other amazing examples are the lights: since the intention was to use LEDs, this rear set must be the most creative ever seen on a production car. And when it comes to the front, what would deserve bigger applause than having the headlights shaped as McLaren’s logo?

Friday, February 22, 2013

Easy professional translations for YouTube video captioning

This quick-tip is about an extension to YouTube's captioning service. It's relevant to bloggers who focus strongly on videos as a complement to their blog content.

In Septemeber 2012, YouTube introduced a feature that let you or your friend translate the captions of videos (that you own) into additional languages.

Now they've partnered with some professional translation firms so you can get a quote, order, receive and pay for professional translation - all within YouTube / Google. So you don't have to worry about whether your friend's high-school Spanish is really good enough for your international audience!

The first step to doing this is uploading a transcript file for your video. Something to bear in mind if you do this: If SEO matters for your blog, then you probably don't want to put the transcript into both YouTube and the blog, because that would create duplicate content.

Holden Commodore SSV

This one is for those who liked the VF Australian sedan unveiled just a couple of days ago, but would really prefer to change Calais’ black-tie to a more casual luxury. The sedan once again honors Holden’s sporty version, so that’s why there are beautiful wheels matching exclusive bumpers, which have bigger intakes and two twin exhaust pipes. The interior shares Calais’ top-notch equipment list, but coming in a black-with-silver combination only broken by the red lights. This car is expected to share Chevrolet’s V8 6.2L.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Lifan 320 e 620 2013

Existem tantas marcas chinesas tentando a sorte no Brasil que se torna até difícil lembrar de todas. Lifan é aquela que tem fábrica no Uruguai, e atualmente passa por um período de estabilidade porque deixou de ter seus veículos trazidos pela Effa e passou a assumir suas operações daqui sozinha. Os carros permanecem inalterados mas ganharam uma redução de preços, que fez o hatchback 320 ficar em R$ 27.480 (R$ 500 mais barato) e foi mais generosa com o sedã 620, que perdeu R$ 1.990 e ficou em R$ 36.990.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A simple time-management tool for bloggers

This QuickTip shares a template that I used to help me be productive when I was working as a free-lance blogger (and a other things besides).

Blogging can seem overwhelming: there just is so much to learn, to do, to read

And if you don't have a boss, official work-hours or school-pickup-times to structure the day, it can be easy to get to the end of the week and discover that you've done lots of research, but nothing has actually been finished and published..

I had a few months between jobs, and found that it really helped to plan my week, by:

setting very small, achievable goals for each of my blogs,
allocating my time in two hour blocks.
writing this all down on old-fashioned pen-and-paper on a one-page-at-a-glance sheet that I could hang on the wall, tick of my achievements and keep track of the progress.

A week-planner template

Here's the template that I used to do my planning every Sunday night.

It's licensed under Creative Commons, so you are free to copy, adapt and share it.

My tips for being productive:

Choose a set time to review your plan each week. Mine was Sunday night - but any time is fine, so long as it's consistent.

If your blog is not your Number One priority, then allocate time, before you set goals. There's no point getting six goals for your blog if you can only spend two hours working on it this week!

Make sure that there are some small, totally-achievable-in-one-hour goals, and some that are simply steps toward doing a bigger project.

If you need to be flexible, fill it in using a pencil and adapt as the week goes on: this is a tool to make life better, not a way to overburden yourself.

Make sure you allow time for meals, housework, exercise, socialising and relaxation - and even sleeping in sometimes (but not every day).

Give yourself some weekends and "annual leave" days: ones when you choose not to schedule all your time, or any of it.

What has worked for you?

TagAZ Aquila

Once again, popular culture proves its timeless wisdom. Like with almost everything in life, sometimes it could be a great experience to do new things, or even the same ones in a different way, at least. It could be taking a different route for going to work, tasting different cuisines, or buying products from other brands. The latter example is what this article exposes. Even though many brands’ bad reputation is justified by aspects such as bad quality, Aquila wants to show the very bright side of “there’s a first time for everything”.

Have you ever heard of this automaker? It was founded in 1997 at the Russian city of Taganrog, and in the following year started to manufacture Daewoo vehicles under license. In fact, until now it has only produced other brands’ cars, such as Chery, Hyundai JAC, SsangYong and even Citroën’s – Berlingo’s first generation went rebadged as Orion M. Therefore, they deserve even bigger compliments for creating such a good-looking first car. Many young automakers try to cause better first impressions with flamboyant designs, but end up showing a car that no one would like to have. That’s what turns Aquila’s moderation interesting to see, in fact. There aren’t strangely-shaped or oversized elements, creating an overall well-proportioned style which even reminds the 1990s cars, but in a good way: sometimes, creating too complex lines results too heavy for certain vehicles. The original intention was to create a low-cost coupé for city use, but fortunately this didn’t stop TagAZ to add some items usually restricted to super sports cars, such as painting the trunk lid in piano black to resemble a central-engine car’s hood and a discreet aerodynamic kit, composed by front and side spoilers. There are some dissonances, like bubble-shaped mirrors combined to very angular doors, but the overall result is very positive.

Entering the car once again gives the impression of going back to the 1990s: doesn’t this steering wheel remind you of cars like Ferrari 456 and Lamborghini Diablo? The cabin also applies an interesting combination of black, chrome and red, but items such as the standard single-slot sound system exposes the concern with reducing the costs. On the other side, it’s always nice to see that this car brings air conditioner, electrically-operated windows, hydraulic steering, driver airbag, sound system and heated rearview mirrors as standard equipments, with optional parking sensors and rearview camera – the latter ones were added because TagAZ listened to the opinions of some press members. What could be a problem is the powertrain: Aquila starts with Mitsubishi’s 16-valve 1.6L with 105 hp with a five-speed manual gearbox, clearly underpowered for any more intense use than at the big cities. But TagAZ keeps showing confidence on its car’s success, announcing that it’ll receive another engine option later, probably a 2.0L with 150 hp, and even a two-door version with even sportier looks. This can only lead the public to have big expectations for this car’s future, which has already begun successsy: the automaker states that its production has started last week, and there are about 7,000 requests already. And how about you: would you give this Russian coupé a try?

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Seat León SC

Every car fan must have at least one car which just looking to it leads to think “I bet it would be a huge success in the entire world”. Some of these potentials are squandered because the car is bad in some aspect, others because its brand doesn’t have the charisma to attract many customers… and others because its brand’s group prefers to have another vehicle taken to the foreign market. We all know that the new Golf is an excellent car, but wouldn’t be great if VW’s Spanish division was allowed to offer Leon around the world?

While some brands maintain heavy traditions when replacing a particular vehicle, others prefer to take the opportunity of projecting each time an entirely new car. León turns interesting to observe because Seat’s strategy with it acts like a halfway: the mid-size hatchback has been carrying the same name for three generations and fourteen years without even thinking of dropping this name. The first one couldn’t ever deny it arrived in 1999: the overall round, plain shapes were typical 2000s elements, while the wedged front with narrow lights and the high-deck rear remind the 1990s’ cars. Later, the second phase arrived with a much more organic design, using several strong creases only to highlight all the elliptical shapes, such as the headlights. And this time, the compass seem to have been dropped in favor of the ruler: in this generation we observe the smooth lines highlighting square elements. The nicest part is that Seat decided to extend this excellent work by giving León its very first two-door option, not only as a new version but with a whole new body. In other words, instead of only subtracting the rear doors, increasing the front ones and adapting the side panels to this, SC is actually a coupé-inspired hatchback, perfectly suitable to compete with Renault Mégane and Opel Astra.

And once again just like those others’ sporty variations, SC brings a very stylish exterior, with took advantage of VW’s MQB platform to become slightly shorter and wider than the five-doors, everything in order to improve the handling. Some might compare it to the new A3, but the fact is León once again managed to show how it’s possible to avoid the big traditions and deliver very nice products every time. The interior won’t be too focused on being spacious because this is a sporty version, but it’ll take four occupants with plenty of comfort. Besides, as it’s getting (too) usual with the VW Group’s cars, the cabin uses everything in black, gray and silver. It does create a modern impression, but adding some colored details would go really well with a car that comes from the same country as Pedro Almodóvar’s movies. But if you’re the kind of driver which prefers to see the landscape’s colors, specially as quick blurs, Seat will offer you a huge list of powertrain options: only with gasoline there will be the TSi 1.2 (85 or 103 hp), 1.4 (120 or 138 hp) and 1.8 (177 hp), while with diesel it’ll come with the TDi 1.6 (89 or 103 hp) or 2.0 (148 or 181 hp) – the latter ones will obtain very low consumption rates. The transmission options will be manual with five or six speeds or DSG with six or seven, depending on each of its three trims.

Monday, February 18, 2013

What "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" really means

This article explains what "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" means when you see it while setting up a custom domain for your blog - and what you can do to fix it.

What is a custom domain

A custom domain is a "real" website address, instead of the free one that you get when you first set up a blog using Blogger. It's one of he essential steps if you want to use Blogger to make a "real" website. For example:

You initially set up www.yourBusiness.blogspot.com
Then you hear that people will treat you with more respect if you have www.yourBusiness.com or www.yourBusiness.co.uk.

In this case, www.yourBusiness.com and www.yourBusiness.co.uk are both "custom domains", ie web-addressed without "blogspot.com" or "wordpress.com" at the end of the address.

To use www.yourBusiness.com, you need to either use Blogger's custom domain wizard - available under Settings > Basic > Publshing +Buy a custom domain.

To use www.yourBusiness.co.uk (or any other type of URL that Blogger doesn't offer), you need to firstly buy the URL from another domain registrar, and then use a similar procedure to use that URL for your blog.

Sometimes things go wrong

If you're lucky - and most people are - then setting up your blog to use your custom domain is a smooth process: there are a few minutes where your new address doesn't quite work for you, and a few hours while it doesn't work for people around the works. But the computers all catch up with each other fairly quickly and within 24-72 hours it's working perfectly.

But sometimes things go wrong - and that is when you see this message in one of Blogger's screens:

Another blog or Google Site is already using this address

Mostly (pretty much always, in fact), this doesn't mean that another blog is using the address that you just paid $10 for.

What it means is that something has gone wrong with the process of setting up the domain for your blog. Nothing more, and nothing less.

You can check this by looking at what happens when you try to navigate to the address. Most probably you will see something like this:

That's what I see using Google Chrome - other browsers will display it a little differently, and Google may change the picture from time to tile. But the key part is the "404" error code, which says that there is no website currently using the address.

How to fix it

The Masterclass:

Chuck from Nitecruzr.net has recently published a comprehensive article about the various sources of this message, and how to fix it. As he explains, it's not so much an error message as a symptom. Basically, it's Blogger's way of saying "there's a problem with your URL setup".

His post may look daunting at first; there's a lot of technical language, and you need to delve into all sorts of places you may not have looked before, including setting up an administrator account for your domain in the registrar. And just to make it more complicated, Google changed they way that they offer domains (by removing free single-user accounts in Google Apps) in January 2013, so now it also depends on when you purchased the domain, too. But it's worth trying to work out the problem, and its solution yourself, before asking for help (see below). You will learn about how Blogger works with custom domains, and it stops the help-forum people being overloaded with questions.

Methods that used to work

When I've had this problem in the past, the first thing I did was to check that Google Sites was disabled on my Apps account. This was easy, and often effective, but I suspect it's not so relevant any more.

Another older approach was to enter the custom-domain into the Magical Custom Domain Form, and wait 48 hours to see if Google have fixed it. In the background, the Google staff would check domain settings and fix up problems if they could. However it looks like that process isn't supported any more: clicking the link now brings up a message

We're sorry.The form at this URL could not be found. Make sure that you have the right URL and that the owner of the form hasn't deleted it.

Asking for help

If you really cannot work out a solution, then post a question in the Blogger Product Forum - I usually use the "How do I" category. Include:

Your blog's URL (eg yourBusiness.blogspot.com)
The URL you are trying to use (eg yourBusiness.com or yourBusiness.co.uk)
Whether you bought the URL thru Blogger, or from another domain registrar
Details of all error messages you are seeing

Post the details into a new question (use the big red "Post a Question")button - don't try to hijack someone else's question, because their problem and solution will probably be different, for this particular error message.

Make sure your question has a meaningful title (eg "Custom domain - another blog or site is hosted"): many helpers don't read questions with generic titles like "help" which don't give any clues about what skills are needed to answer the question.

If your question doesn't get answered in a day or two, post an update in the same thread - even something as simple as the word "bump" will take your question up to the top of the pile again, and tell the helpers that you are actively looking for help with the problem.

Using Blogger to make a proper website

Using a website address from another domain registrar for your blog

Setting up an administrator for a custom domain purchased through Blogger

Jeep Grand Cherokee CRD

Você lembra do breve período em que a Chrysler esteve nas mãos da Mercedes-Benz? Iniciadas no final da década de 1990, as boas intenções da aliança salvaram a montadora norteamericana de graves problemas financeiros e pretendiam aumentar a competitividade mundial de ambas, mas levaram apenas a uma sucessão de problemas. Nos dias de hoje, a união com a Fiat dá cada vez mais provas de que foi uma decisão bem mais acertada. Para nós, a mais recente é esta versão do SUV que agora chega ao lançamento oficial.

Guardadas as proporções, as chamadas joint-ventures podem ser entendidas com uma breve associação ao conceito de casamento. Mais ou menos como com as pessoas, uma empresa se associa a outra quando se detectam interesses comuns, neste caso para efetivar a ideia de começar dividindo os custos para no futuro aumentar os lucros. Mas com a convivência também surgem os projetos comuns. Começam em geral com uma cedendo veículos à outra para vendê-los em outros mercados, e continua com o uso compartilhado de tecnologias e por fim plataformas – é a evolução que Ford e VW tiveram no começo dos anos 1990 no Brasil, com a Autolatina. Atualmente, a Chrysler está por concluir a separação da Mercedes-Benz, mas já se encontra desfrutando de muitos benefícios da união com os italianos. Ou seja, depois de começarem com carros como Fiat Freemont e mais tarde RAM ProMaster, hoje em dia os benefícios estão chegando também às esferas mais tradicionais. A divisão de luxo Lancia, por exemplo, já expandiu suas operações na Europa ganhando modelos da Chrysler e até vendendo outros com essa marca, em alguns países. Já na América do Norte, a família 500 marcou o retorno da Fiat tanto em hatchback como na inédita versão minivan, chamada 500L. Por outro lado, carros como a versão CRD do Grand Cherokee abandonaram o motor de origem Mercedes-Benz por um de origem italiana.

Estima-se que as primeiras unidades do CRD (anterior ao face-lift que a linha receberá para este ano) chegaram ao Brasil ainda no final do ano passado, mas só agora se faz o lançamento oficial. Ele chega pelo preço de R$ 219.900, e com o mesmo atrativo que sempre garante boas vendas aos utilitários no Brasil: evitar o consumo de um motor grande movido a gasolina mas manter o ótimo desempenho. Trata-se do V6 3.0 24v turbo fabricado pela VM Motori, empresa italiana de propriedade da Fiat. A tecnologia Multijet II atua em parceria com duplo comando de válvulas no cabeçote, bloco de ferro, virabrequim de aço forjado e turbina Garrett de geometria variável. Tudo isso lhe permite chegar a 241 cv de potência e 56 kgfm de torque, força suficiente para fazer o Grand Cherokee ignorar seus 2.347 kg e acelerar de 0 a 100 km/h em 8s2, chegando à máxima de 202 km/h. Tudo isso é comandado pelo câmbio automático sequencial de cinco marchas (com opção de trocas manuais pela alavanca) e, obviamente, tração integral. Como dita a reputação de décadas que este carro exibe com orgulho, esse potencial para enfrentar as mais puras trilhas off-road fica restrito ao lado de fora. Ver a cabine faz pensar que se entrou em um sedã de luxo, seja por causa dos belos revestimentos ou da profusão de itens de conforto e segurança, carregados de tecnologia.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Alfa Romeo 4C

Geneva was where the concept car’s first appearance took place, and now, two years later, Geneva will be where the production version’s arrival will take place. The current times are asking for new strategies, so Alfa Romeo will use this car as its first solid attempt to expand the sales around the whole world, just like almost every car fan has dreamed to see for decades. If there isn’t only one correct direction to achieve success, it’s undeniable that Alfa’s is the most commendable one: 4C comes as Italian as it could possibly be.

Like most of the European brands, Alfa had to reorganize its plans in order to become more profitable. Fiat, like every other car group, won’t ever give too much information about what it’s trying to do with each brand, but it’s possible to think the intention is to make both Alfa Romeo and Lancia have a s-size showroom, working from mid-size to entry-luxury price ranges but always maintaining their very heavy conceptual difference: the Alfas would be always sporty, while Lancia would take care of the classy side, leaving Maserati to the high luxury zone – it would be the only way of keeping all of them and living in peace with each other, but so far this is nothing more than speculation. The great fact for now, though, is that 4C comes with really small changes from the concept version, such as the different headlights. The customers which were waiting for new GTV and Spider unfortunately will have to keep praying, because this one brings a totally different style, which is actually closer to some English cars like Lotus Elise. In other words, the Italian coupé focuses much more at the best handling it could have than to break speed records. The design, for example, has only 13.1-feet length but 6.6-feet width, combined to a 3.9-feet height. Like Chanel and Dior (or Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, to keep it Italian), Alfa wanted its new sports car to be concentrated in a small, but very, very beautiful flask.

Smaller sports cars aren’t used to be very attractive because there isn’t much space to use those opulent creases and volumes such as Enzo Ferrari or Mercedes-Benz SLS’s, but 4C turned out very well-designed. The MiTo-inspired front fascia still uses big and round headlights, but the black painting made them very elegant. Besides that, it’s nice to observe that Alfa used cleaner lines, which suit smaller cars much better than too many shapes: the lower grille seems to create only one big element, getting divided only by the cuore sportivo, which also defines two big lines that make the hood seem smaller – simply excellent. Those two lines fade after the doors, whose windows became visually connected to the windshield by black-painted A-columns, and give space to the imponent real air intakes. And going a little further we see the beautiful tiny rear, which takes the attentions to the round lights and the rear windshield, this one because of the rear-mid engine: this car uses the turbocharged 1.8L with four cylinders (that’s why it’s called 4C) debuted with Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde. It’ll generate 232-hp power and 251-lb-ft torque, leading to expect that the carbon fiber chassis’ reduced weight will help to achieve very interesting performance. 4C will use only a six-speed dual-clutch TCT automatic gearbox, but it also features the DNA selector: there will be Dynamic, Natural and All Weather modes as usual, but here along with Race, each one with different driving parameters.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Holden Commodore VF

Even though every market has very particular preferences when it comes to cars, some result even more interesting to observe than the others. Australia and Brazil, for example, have very different cars but coincide in some aspects, such as creating their own categories (and turning them very successful) and receiving almost as many foreign projects as having domestic ones being exported. So before this sedan appears as North American Chevrolet’s new s-size, how about knowing what its homeland has just revealed?

Just like Ford with Falcon, GM’s Australian division has been selling Commodore with great numbers for many years. Holden has taken inspiration some times from Chevrolet and others from Opel, but always resulting at an excellent car which could easily be sold anywhere else – the last two generations, for example, went to Brazil as Chevrolet Omega. But if the Europeans are used to reduce the cars’ updates only to half-life facelifts and new generations, and North Americans receive several tiny updates between the bigger changes, the Australians extend a car lifecycle by creating some partial restylings each two or three years; the third Commodore, alone, had three of them in about ten years. The current phase debuted in 2006, but the bigger time lapse until its first update is probably explained by the very big initial budget spent on attending the public’s very high expectations. The codename VF, comes as a more important facelift because it might be the only one: GM is planning to create a whole new Commodore for 2016 underpinned by a whole new global platform. However, since this will take a long time to happen, for now it’s possible to to appreciate what is certainly this car’s best moment ever. The excellent first impression was guaranteed by starting with Calais, which is this car’s upmarket version. That’s Holden’s way of showing everything its sedan is capable of.

The external pictures start to show that Holden managed to refresh this sedan making it so attractive that could easily be mistaken for a new generation. The overall impression is that it abandoned the 2000s style trends in favor of a more European inspiration, giving away the sharp cuts and creases in exchange of smoother volumes and much more classy elements. In fact, there’s no wonder why this car has been exported as Opel Omega’s equivalent: VF really resembles Insignia, not a direct competitor but as a bigger brother, because it’s more opulent. But the many similarities are there, specially related to the implicit sportiness given by the irregularly-shaped lights and the very discreet creases. Entering the car reveals a whole new cabin, with seats, doors and console matched in a very elegant two-toned decoration. But the even better news are located at the items list: like every true luxury version, Calais can bring heads-up display, GM MyLink infotainment system, parallel and 90-degree parking assistance, electric steering and several safety systems, to prevent front and rear collisions at low speed, involuntary lane changing and to improve external visibility. Engine data wasn’t revealed so far, but it’s expected that Commodore’s biggest changes will be efficiency improvements, rather than engine changes. This new phase will also generate the other versions, such as Berlina, Omega, HSV, SSV, SV6 and Z-Series.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Volkswagen Cross Up!

Do you remember that big group of up!’s conceptual versions VW showed shortly after releasing the main one? There were the ecological one, the sporty, the electric… Almost one hatchback for each kind of driver. It took some months, but they’re finally starting to turn into production vehicles. After the four-door body and the eco up! version, now this supermini borrows inspiration from the big brothers around the world and officially follows one of the latest car trends to be successful both in Europe and Latin America.

This trend is nothing more than what was initiated in the late 1990s, with Volvo V70 Cross Country in Europe almost at the same time as Fiat Palio Adventure in Brazil, which could be defined as a “prequel” to the current crossovers. In other words, the right proportion between off-road capacities and urban-car conveniences were already been searched for years, but those two’s concept was the first one to achieve considerable success. It was nothing more than adding items like elevated suspension and off-road tires to urban vehicles – the station wagons must’ve been chosen probably for being similar to the actual SUVs – along to very attractive visual accessories. This formula such good acceptance that started to spread around more countries, but specially around the automakers and their lines. Hatches, pick-ups, minivans and even compact crossovers, in nowadays almost everyone offers at least one “urban off-road”, despite of this name being a huge paradox. However, having such this variety of these cars led the buyers to draw more specific preferences with them. The biggest difference turned out to be whether to offer the typical off-road characteristics or not. Items such as four-wheel traction, differential lock and special tires became preferred by the upscale market, whose customers have more frequent trips around off-road tracks, like to non-urban properties.

On the other side, the lower-budget customers started to give more attention to other aspects when looking for one of these cars. Besides of having smaller prices, giving away those more specific technologies was the right decision also because almost all of them travel mostly in streets and highways. In Volkswagen’s showroom, for example, those are the reasons why Golf 4Motion suits the first group better and CrossGolf suits the second. And since up! is the brand’s entry-level car, it only makes sense as it actually comes: since there aren’t any deep changes, it comes only as a new version. Therefore, cross up! has added nothing more than exclusive bumpers with bigger front grille and gray painting, black plastic fenders and side protectors, roof rack and the beautiful 16” wheels – internally, it’ll only offer the red-and-black coating seen in the pictures, which has received some minor styling changes compared to the original options; as the pictures show, this car’s effort is to look cute, and specially slightly different from the urban up!, rather than giving impressions that it could climb mountains or cross deep rivers. This is what the customers expect from this car’s price range and nothing more, actually both in Europe and Latin America. Since the intention is to sell cross as an upmarket trim it’ll only come in four doors, but conserving the three-cylinder 1.0L with 70 hp, the front-wheel-drive and the five-speed manual transmission, starting at € 13.925 in Germany.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Volkswagen Logus (1993-1996)

Só na primeira impressão ele já redimiria o Apollo. As belas linhas nem pareciam parentes do Escort porque a Autolatina partiu da plataforma, em vez do rebatismo de antes. Perdendo em luxo só para o Santana, ele deveria ser um médio muito bom… se não fosse pelo Verona. A mecânica do Ford deixava o Logus macio demais para um VW, sua própria existência lhe vetava as quatro portas, e só a vinda do AP 2.0 melhorou o desempenho dos 1.6 e 1.8 do início. Mas a Wolfsburg Edition lhe fez cair com a Autolatina sem perder o estilo.

LG introduces new Optimus L series smartphones

LG won’t spare any inch of their business field to any mobile companies, whichever it would be Samsung or Apple or Motorolla or any other. They are back in the battlefield with new three L series smartphones, LG Optimus L7ll, LG Optimus L5ll and LG Optimus L3ll. Optimus series are quite successful in terms of customer satisfaction and business return. LG disclosed that over 10 million Optimus L series smartphones ware sold worldwide in the last 10 months and the counting is on. But, due to many new upgraded smartphones floated recently, LG also pushing the battle with great features and enhanced user interface smartphone to turn back customers towards them.

LG Optimus L7ll,LG Optimus L5ll,LG Optimus L3ll,

All of these new Optimus L series smartphones will embodies similarities of their ancesters but there will be few designing upgrades like Seamless Layout, Laser Cut Contour, Radiant Rear Design and Smart LED Lit home button.

Users could experience new enhanced high resolution WVGA 4.3 inch IPS display on L7ll, WVGA 4.0 inch IPS display on L5ll and QVGA 3.2 inch IPS display on L3ll. Dual SIM versions could turn new customers also. Dual SIM or single SIM you could decide which to grab. There would be more powerful batteries to support users stay with these models for long time.

Another turning point; LG is going to launch Optimus L7ll Dual SIM version coming week and Russian customers will be the first to taste this new model.

Some key specifications of LG Optimus L7ll :

Chipset: 1GHz Dual-Core (Qualcomm MSM8225)
Memory: Up to 4GB eMMC / 768MB RAM / Micro SD
Display: 4.3-inch WVGA IPS
Camera: Rear 8.0MP with LED Flash / Front VGA
OS: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Battery: 2,460mAh
Size: 121.5 x 66.6 x 9.7 mm/ 122.2 x 66.6 x 9.7 mm (Dual-SIM)

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**Disclaimer:Information and images collected mainly from manufacturer's website, manuals, user guides and some other online resources. Only some editorial touch given for better understanding and viewing experience. Author of this blog will not bear any liabilities on this regards.