Study Module: What is Diesel?

I am starting 2010 with diesel article, I hope it won't end up with natural gas powered engine :)

A breif detail about diesel engine; it was invented by MAN Engineer Rudolf Diesel in 1892. And for long time US didn't use it.

US market did not have a proper introduction with diesel engine. All they know about diesel is trucks and Cummins and pick-ups. I am not criticizing, they have cheap petrol and their culture is orientated with V8 petrol engines. That's very good, when you have very cheap petrol. But now world has changed and US market has changed also, fuel efficient is more important! They are looking for environmental and fuel efficient cars and they stuck on hybrids.

However, new technology diesels are very powerful, efficient and very silent. Eventually; US market has bias on diesel engine and they don't know it properly. Only %1 of passenger cars are equipped with diesel engine. As they don't know enough, they don't want to buy something which is unusual for the market. Now automotive companies are trying to educate US market for diesel engines. I think they should put some diesel powered NASCAR car like they did in LeMans and let customers to feel the power of diesel.

I am pretty sure that; if the US market is educated effectively and break the bias on diesel engines, they will love it. Because, you can feel the power better with diesel. Yes, this sounds very good on slogan for US market :)

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Stella McCartney leather free

Famous British fashion designer Stella McCartney announced to introduce leather free shoes. I am sure that some organizations will be satisfied with this decision and some of the ladies won't!

Faux Suede Platform Zip Ryden Sandal

Stella McCartney Website

When I read this news, I remembered something which car makers love to do it ;) "Ohh! this car has leather. No, that's not real leather." You understand difference on summer very well indeed ;)

I hope Stella McCartney won't burn their customers ;)

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Bentley flew to Maybach in Russia

I think many people watch the video how a Romanian Maybach owner repaired his car by himself.



And now in Russia; a Bentley Continental Flying Spur flew to a Maybach 62 and they had a crash. Not a big one but they crashed :)

Here is the video from WorldCarFans

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Who wants a front wheel drive, 97 horse power Aston Martin?

I pretty sure that, many people will say yes this questions. But I have bad news; as published on NYTimes.com, Cygnet the very small Toyota iQ based Aston Martin is reserved for Aston Martin owners :(

And micro Aston Martin's engine will not remmaped or increase its power! Why don't you say more basically we don't want to invest on new engine, we will try to see with Toyota engine. Very nice decision.

I really want to see how the Russian billionaires and petrol riched Gulf people will comment on this car!

And the price is very reasonable, around £20,000 - £30,000. I cannot deny the interior is very made and it has the Aston Martin design clues but that's all.

If you want to a buy an Aston Martin based on Toyota with 1.3lt 100 horsepower engine and top speed of 170 km/h and front wheel drive; go for it!

If you buy this car, you won't have any pleasure like other Aston Martin!

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Do you really want to be seriously COOL with ICON ????

If you started reading this, you have some desire deep inside your body to be Cool!! And here is the solution ;)

People are buying expensive yachts, watches from Patek Philippe or being dressed up by Chanel or buying very very privately manufactured Rolls Royce. But does anyone could fly? Of course no. Whatever you buy, you cannot use it like a car. And these tragic problems came to and end :)

You want to be cool, you want to be remembered by everyone, you want to have the coolest on earth, you want to ruin air traffic and you want to hit to ground very quickly. Here it is; ICON A5 Aircraft. Sorry for hitting the ground, it has even parachute! So you will hit the ground even in stylish way ;)

This new gadget is from James Bond movie, Mr. Bond here is your new plane which could do 180 km/h and has 100 horsepower engine. Unfortunately this cool thing does not take off stylish, you have to find a 225 meters place to take off and land.

Basically; this is very cool looking, compact airplane for casual style.

However, I have some concerns! We all know that, people tend to repair their cars by their self, I don't know why. And they cannot fix it proper and hit to a tree (time to time). Now the same guy will buy this plane and will repair at home and hit your house.

This is very good product but how could we trust people who don't have advanced level pilot experience. What about novice pilots? This is not like car, pull the hand brake and car will stop. When it stops in air, it does not stay in air, it will drop to somewhere! And also the busy air traffic will be annoyed by some new pilot who wants to show off their new air plane to their friends!

There 450 orders are made, so we should be careful ;)

By the way, it looks very cool. And practical and has innovative design :)

Picture are from;
Icon Website

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Driving Shoes in Pink, recommended by GQ

There are plenty of different types of driving shoes on market. And they have typical style and typical colours which are not shocking! Now there is something different from Kurt Geiger's Florio shoes and listed as 27. Best Thing in the World by GQ Magazine. And probably lots of people will rush into those shoes. But there is a small problem, their colours. It is starting from blue, brown, grey, navy, orange, pink, purple, red, yellow. Yes, they offer pink and puprle driving shoes!

The scenary will be very interesting, someone is coming out from Mercedes CL65 AMG which has lots of power to move the world and the driver has pink shoes by Kurt Geiger!

They should recommend the colours with cars. Pink for Nissan Micra drivers, Yellow for Yellow Ferrari owners ;)

Kurt Geiger Florio

Kurt Geiger Website

Mercedes CL 65 AMG

Mercedes AMG Website

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Proper Car Watch?

A watch is complementary of a luxury car. I am not making this suggestion, you can find this clue in Brand Management books. Also nobody denies this ;) As you cannot carry your car to a restaurant or a club or sport centre, you could carry your watch to show what you have outside ;)

Panerai, Jaeger-LeCoultre, TAG Heuer and Breitling share something in common. They all produce watches for cars brands. Panerai offers Ferrari, Jaeger-LeCoultre offers Aston Martin, TAG Heuer offers SLR and Breitling offers Breitling for Bentley watches. Most of them have some design inspirations from the car brand which they offer and some of them just reflect their price and luxury.

The point which I cannot understand or I should say; I am expecting to see is a reflection of that car in that watch. For example; when we look at Breitling for Bentley we cannot see a serious very significant different from other Breitlings. Watch experts could say the differences, but at least the number or dials should be same with Mulsane or Continental GT. There should be more than a small Bentley label in that watch. TAG Heuer is better but still, it is not reflecting the SLR properly. Panerai's Ferrari collection has Ferrari design inspiration and similar number which are used on Ferrari cars. That is very nice, I really wish to carry some Ferrari in my watch which could diversify the watch from the other Panerais. I kept the best bit in the end; Jaeger-LeCoultre is also official Aston Martin watch and does not have any Aston Martin style design in that watch. AMVOX2 DBS Transponder model which has very bad model name AMVOX2. Just imagine, you are talking with your friend; "I bought a new watch, what is it? Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX2, what ?" Of course this conversation will end up with "what". Model name is terrible! But the watch has something very interesting. Like James Bond, you just touch a button and your Aston Martin DBS's doors open and close ;) That's what a call a proper car watch :)

Panerai Scuderia Automatic

Panerai Website

TAG Heuer SLR

TAG Heuer Website

Breitling for Bentley, Bentley GT

Bentley Website

Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX2 DBS Transponder

Jaeger-LeCoultre Website

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Want to be snob quickly? Here the chance! Mini First

Unlike Fiat 500, Mini turn into a snob icon as soon as it revealed to market again. Since it was first revealed with its "over priced" price tag, people rush into Mini. Some said, Madonna drives one; this is a cool car. So Madonna is doing yoga every day, are you doing it? Of course no! And Mini obsession spread to whole world. Especially in Turkey, East Asian countries, China, Gulf Countries; Mini turned into something which you must buy when you have a lot of money. Mini became a status symbol. I drive Mini, I have style. Matter of fact, you don't have a style, you just copy someone else and try create an impression "I have a style".

Of course, Mini is very good British German car. Drives well, good equipment, equivalent of go-kart, etc. As Mini became more popular than public buses on earth, its image started to be eroded. As a luxury good, or exiquiste brand we shouldn't see Mini in every corner in everywhere on earth. And a typical Mini stereotype emerged; rich (or trying to look rich), young (sometimes old), stylish (relatively) and some of the have the impression of Alexander the Great when they go out of the car. And BMW understood this fact very well and expanded the model range, which I totally agree with them. If people love it, give it more ;)

And the Mini is First. When you don't order with tech or design or salt package, what you will get is chilly Mini or raw Mini. As you could see from the picture below, it has plastic wheel covers like in Ford Transit. But I still salute BMW. There is a huge demand, they created a Minilogy and they are making money ;)

With the help of Mini First, people who desire to be snob has a cheaper alternative ;)

Honestly I like Mini, it offers really good technology and features and safety but it is very expensive for that car. I would rather go for Alfa Romeo MiTo which does not have the same quality with Mini but it has more passion. I know, you will say Alfa Romeo will break down, it won't have the same quality, etc but it look better ;) We are not rational always in our decision!

Mini.com

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Iconic Mercedes

When we remember the old Mercedes models from 1920s to 1960s. We could see that exquisite design and engineered beyond their era. Mercedes also know this very well and in every five years they reveal a “new” model which is exactly based on old iconic model. And sometimes they ruin that iconic models, they did it once with Maybach and once with SLR. I have better expectations from SLS Gullwing!

For me there are three great Mercedes models; first one is SSK, second one is 600 Pullman and the last one is 300SLR. I think the Pullman is more famous than its owner whole over the world. Nearly every well known politician, rock star, fashion designer, very very rich people owned one of them. The fascinating thing about the 600 Pullman was; when you push a button to close the window you don’t hear any electric motor noise, because it was controlled by hydraulic! Like an airplane, Pullman’s every single detail was moving by hydraulic. And it was built in 1963.

300SLR was also fascinating car; its design, reliability, ground breaking engine technology (direct injection, which is now available with VW’s FSi engines) and its performance. I don’t want to mention about economy and environmental side effects. When it was built in 1955, no one on earth had been to moon. Phone was a very luxury device, there was no fast food and also no starbucks! And Mercedes built that car in that era.

The SSK is one of the best looking cars. And producing nearly 300 horsepower from 7.3 lt engine in 1928. There is no need to say more!

And let’s come today; last one decade did Mercedes revealed something iconic? I am sure some of you will say, Maybach, my uncle’s S Class, my father’s S Class, my classmate’s uncle’s brother’s son’s S Class. Unfortunately, neither your relatives S Class nor Russian billionaires Maybach is not iconic. S Class is a contemporary car which satisfies the needs of customers. I am not a fan of S Class, I would rather choose CL or SL. Maybach was disaster, nobody denies this! It was based on old S Class and which looks like old S Class. And after new S Class it even looks older! Maybach was great brand in 1940s but they could not manage do it again.

The last and the best Mercedes is the G Wagon! For thirty years; it is still the best off roader, looking seriously cool, extremely robust in any terrain, Range Rover looks like Paris Hilton’s small dogs when you put beside G Wagon. But it is hard to drive as a result of being a proper off roader.

Mercedes SSK, 1928
Wikipedia

Mercedes 300 SLR, 1995

Wikipedia

Mercedes 600 Pullman, 1963

Wikipedia

Mercedes G Wagon, Since 1979

Mercedes

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Five Stars Hotel in Crash Test

During last ten years cars’ safety significantly improved. The first generation Ford Mondeo had only two stars and after ten years it turned into rock solid. Actually this story is similar with every other brand, after ten years most of the cars on market have four or five stars from EuroNCAP (Independent road safety organization).

For ten years; front impact, side impact, child protection was enough for the cars. Usual crashing which we are very familiar on TV, hit the car to something. However as they becoming more solid they tend to resist every kind of shock! And their stars are rising, like hotels. But after some point all hotels have five stars but which has the real five stars? It is similar with the cars also, Ford and Mercedes has five stars.!

But there is significant gap with some brands and competitors. Mercedes introduced Pre-Safe technology in 2002, which could detect a possible crash and stretches the seat belt, closes windows and prepares for crash; may be an ejection seat in near future. And they also developed this technology further and now; under the brand of BAS Plus, car could able to detect the traffic in front of the car. If the traffic is not moving and also driver is not moving, car automatically brakes up to %40 and even if there will a crash, the exposure will be lower. So these kinds of systems, even if the drivers is willing to crash somewhere is protecting passengers more than the equivalent vehicles.

So why EuroNCAP does not rate these systems? Yes, they start to rate them! Does it have ESP? Does it have beeping for seat belt? One car is stopping by itself and the other one is just beeping. Very rational! They should focus more on rating active safety systems. The important point; is not to crash!

Also why do the cars have always front impact crash? In whole world; cars only hit by front? Of course not, the car which hits something from the front is directly hits to others car’s back. What a coincidence! Therefore, EuroNCAP should start different crash tests to change their rating.

Please click for more information about EuroNCAP and your car's rating.
http://www.euroncap.com/

EuroNCAP, Mercedes E Class (W212) Crash

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Der Phaëton und Aristoteles by VW

VW Phaëton is the icon for VW's new era for higher comfort, better technology, more luxury. It was on market in 2002 and as everyone expected it never sold enough. However, it had the state of art technologies like; air condition which never makes you sick. Despite the technologies, name derived from Greek mythology and better than Audi A8 (My opinion) never helped to boost the sales. And everyone know the rest of the story, Phaëton's platform and technology is used for Bentley Continental Family. But this is the reason why I am writing about Phaëton.

As you can see very clearly from the picture below, Der Phaëton has wheel option which was named as "Aristoteles". Yes; that Aristoteles who is the most important figure for Western philosophy; and has writings on these subjects physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. And much more to tell about him. Thanks to Volkwagen, he will also be remembered as optional 225/45 R18 sized wheel for VW Phaëton but also light weight wheel ;)

Nothing more to say! An idea, why didn't you name the car Aristoteles and name the wheel Phaëton?

www.volkwagen.de

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Contemporary art in navigation holder design: Fiat Punto EVO

Nowadays we read lots of news from Italy and we watch MediaSet. However there are some other thing happened!

Fiat Punto EVO is the new product in Fiat range. I didn't have the chance to try the new multi air engine or experience with its driving characteristics. However one caught my attention, the TOMTOM navigation on the centre. I don't have any problem with TOMTOM, I also own one. But this one inside the EVO is piece of art.

As you could see the picture below, one Italian designer forget that, there would be navigation inside the car. And as soon as he may be she remembered this, immediately put the navigation with the worst design elegance. What is the column under the navigation? You are Italian car company, not Asian. You suppose design every bit with passion. However they ran out of passion as you can see. If the rest of the car was rubbish, I wouldn't mind to write here. The rest is great, navigation is piece of art. I am pretty sure, that upcoming navigation will disappear and they will find a different way to put navigation with more style.

And here is the impression when they realized it;

"quello che è successo alla navigazione"

VW Touareg did something similar to this. When they first revealed the Touareg, the place to put your mobile was ten centimetres away from your eyes. They vergessen sorry forget to find a place for mobile and they just put it on somewhere. Later, they marvellous mobile phone holder disappeared.

And what is that picture in aircraft carrier with helicopter? You are not selling Hummer! The impression, when you buy Fiat Punto EVO, you will feel like in aircraft carrier?! Take pictures in Como Lake with girls from MediaSet ;)

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Taking Back My Love with two coloured Maserati

This summer's one of the most popular video was from Enrique Iglesias Ft. Ciara's Taking Back My Love. As we could see from the video clip, they were breaking and throwing every object in their home as they had some problems.

Ciara throw paints to swimming pool, Enrique clear the fridge and so on. But the final shot comes from Ciara! When we look at the video clip at 3:18, we could clearly see that Enrique's grey Maserati Quattroporte turns into black and grey Quattroporte. The goods side, car has two colours ;) However the this new colouring style may not be welcomed by Enrique.

I think Guggenheim will be happy to accept this post modern art which reflect the anger of lady expressed contemporary transportation object.

However, as the EU and some other countries apply regulations to paints and chemicals inside them. Most of the paint are based on water. So Enrique may clean that paint before it turns into solid. And he will be thankful, Ciara did not throw brake fluid ;) Brake fluid doesn't have mercy on any kind of paint!

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Mercedes and the City hoppss Sex and the City

Sex and the City is one of the most famous TV series and their movie was also very nice.

The point which caught my interest was the product placement of Mercedes cars. Interesting point, Mercedes placed new GLK before it was revealed and in Sex and the City 2 the new E Class was seen before it was revealed. So we could see that, the four ladies are very interested on cars :)

Also I noticed something; when Samantha does her shopping and staff from Gucci store puts everything to GLK 350's boot, we could see that her GLK has the Easy Pack system which lets you to close the boot without even touching the boot. Yes, that's not something new. I just wanted to highlight, it is not a movie trick. You just either touch the red button on boot door or push and hold the boot button inside vehicle.

So; if you are planning to be like Samantha, try to add exquisite details when ordering ;) It is not just wearing luxury brand to be like Samanth !

Pictures are from;

WorldCarFans

Sex and the City (Movie)

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Ad Blue; is it really that blue?

Recently we started to see, hear and read something called Ad Blue. And most of us have no idea what is that thing? Actually it sounds like blue advertisements. Why? Because; ad is a short term of advertisement and blue is blue. So when we combine them, we end up with blue advertisements which also mean nothing!

The real thing about Ad Blue is; it is a chemical to reduce emission and NOx levels of diesel engines. It is becoming more and more popular by manufacturers. You just fill the Ad Blue tank with Ad Blue and your diesels engine’s emissions levels go down. That’s great!

Just wait; do you really know what Ad Blue is? I don’t want to write here. Just click to link below and think twice when you go to toilet. And focus on the word “urea”. We are wasting Ad Blue : ) There are some better pictures to explain Ad Blue but I didn't wish use them :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdBlue

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%100 Cashmere ?

%100 cashmere what we all expect from a sweater. Especially, if we are paying high prices to luxury brands. Unfortunately, story doesn't end like that! Most of our clothes even from expensive brands are made up from very different materials, even some of the materials which we never heard of them. But they look nice, nobody could deny this.

Increasing competition, fluctuating commodity prices and those kind of terms which we don't know what they really mean is causing this. Minimize costs, maximize profit. Basics of economics or basics of MBA ? As the companies are trying to increase their profit margin they are looking for alternative materials for production and they end up with complicated labels which is flashback of chemistry lessons. We all know this thing, but we buy it. That's the charm of the brands, as their spirit is more powerful than their products we ignore what was written on the label.

It is similar for automotive industry; twenty years ago most of the very well known brands were producing over engineered cars. With similar reasons, they tend to change their materials on their cars. Of course some of them for environment reasons and some of them to reduce costs to make investors happy. As the car brands' power, we don't want to accept the fact that they are reducing quality. We all want to believe their quality is rising. Of course, it is rising but in some facts, it is significantly going upside down. Then they realize it from customer feedbacks and they make revisions. We saw this many times in automotive industry, they make profit, then customers are sad and they make loss.

If you want to find %100 cashmere, check the labels carefully ;)

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Winter Tyre UGG

UGG boots turn into fashion catastrophe, everyone from Spain to Turkey is wearing UGG. It became more popular than carrying your mobile phone with you. You can forget your mobile phone but you should not forget your polar bear boots. Exactly, it looks like that ! Some of my friends told me that Porsche Design shoes don't look nice but there is worse than that UGG.

During winter time, every girl is getting ready for their UGG to out. Of course, (as one of my friend told me) it keeps warm, very comfortable, ideal for snow (I didn't see that snowing for last five years) and more and more. The bottom, celebrities started to wear it, so I must wear it effect.

However while trying to walk with polar bear boots, nobody is paying attention to their winter tyres. Of couse I don't mean have a emotional relationship with tyres. But at least, try to replace them with winter ones. The answer for this question is NO. Because, it is very expensive. This "very" is a very relative word. For "couple" UGGs expensive is not a word. I can buy pointlessly expensive UGGs many of them (they all look the same) as an investment (I will be denying them after two years) and won't give a penny to save my life while I am driving.

OK; keep investing on your UGGs. I hope one day, they will introduce UGG winter tyres, they have serious potential ;)

And here Jessica Simpson with her UGG and Range Rover with four season tyres which are mostly rubbish at any season. And I noticed, some of the petrol might have been dropped to her coffee!

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Agent Provocateur, Gucci, Dior and Nürburgring

When you look at an advertisement on magazine with great looking people you dive into a different world. Agent Provocateur lingerie with charming girls motivates to buy them and that advertisement gives the impression of "you will look like this" or Gucci advertisement with great looking man in a great looking suit gives the same message, Dior, Channel, Paul Smith and so on. The function of advertisement is very clear, give a message and motivate consumption, we all know this and we love to ignore it :)

What about the German town Nürburg? Nürburgring is the longest and toughest race track on earth. You could spot any kind of prototype is driven by its limits. This circuit is a open laboratory for automotive world. As its reputation grow day by day and the power of word-of-mouth, it turn into a dream for anyone who loves cars. Porsche, Nissan, Ferrari, Renault, Ford announcing their new records for their sports car. And always the circuit lap time is going down and down and down and down. Actually in order to understand what does that new time means, you should study one year for every kind of lap time :)

When you buy the car with that superb lap time, you think that you can do it with you novice driving skill. Of course no ! One of the other ugly truth of cars. Unless your name is Schumacher or you are a former F1 driver, that lap time could happen in your dreams.

Like fashion advertisements, what you see is just dream :) We just buy a dream to live with it, so lets enjoy it ;)

Pictures are from;

Agent Provocateur

Gucci

Nürburgring Official Website

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Clutch vs. Clutch

Last year I heard some ladies talking about clutch in New Bond Street, London. The street holds luxury fashion brands and talking about clutch in front of Prada store. Then I learned that clutch is a type of bag, of course they weren't talking about the clutch which manual cars have between gearbox and engine.

Interesting synonym!

I think, I don't need to describe the other cluch which we all know. Even if don't know it, I am sure that one day any of us smelled the burned clutch.

Don't miss confuse two different products :)

Here is the two pictures for clutch. One from Ferrari F50 and the other one is from Jimmy Choo.

Pictures are from;

Net-A-Porter

UniversalAutoSports.com

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SAAB Again!!!

GM sold the technology of 9-3 and 9-5 models and nothing has left for Spyker! BAIC is going to reveal a based on these models technology and probably it will look very similar to SAAB.

I wonder, while making this decision what GM was thinking? I can sell both the company and its technology seperately and make more money ? Probably!

What Spyker would do with this condition? If VW has bought the SAAB brand, consequences would be different but Spyker does not have that much of capital and R&D. SAAB was making very safe cars but customers are looking for both safe and features technologies to proof that safety. And those technology are mostly avaiable in German brand as usual.

Good Luck Spyker

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Hybrid Ferrari 599

On May 2009, Ferrari's hybrid designs leak to internet. And it made clear about the future Ferraris. However Ferrari didn't deny about hybrid technology on their new cars, their strategy to use hybrid is to increase performance not to save the world like Prius. The idea of hybrid Ferrari does not sound nice ! Honestly I would not prefer a hybrid model.

Now Ferrari 559 has a hybrid, actually Ferrari is planning to announce it on Geneva Motor Show. Previous speculations about hybrids were based on four wheel drive concept but there is not clear informaiton about this for hybrid 599. This technology will help to reduce consumption up to %35 !!! Great economy for Ferrari drivers, they were expecting this for long years :) And KERS, braking energy regeneration system and some other systems for increasing efficiency.

There will one advantage from the electric motor, except economy electric motors provide high amount of torque at any rpm level. This means, Ferrari's acceleration might benefit from this technology but there will be extra weights like electric motor and batteries.

I am pretty sure that, Hollywood start will drive their hybrid Ferrari and stay enviromental. "I have a Ferrari and it is economical"; sounds like I have a lion at home and it is on diet !

www.Ferrari.com

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Ultimate Luxury Car by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennesy

LVMH holds sixty luxury brands and a major player in luxury business in different business categories.

And it is very well known luxury brand and a couple of years ago they were going to buy Aston Martin from Ford. (Ford is the retail store for automotive business, they have everything.)

And I designed a scenario if Aston Martin was owned by LVMH. They will offer very different type of luxury product as an option in Aston Martin. Like;

Watch: Hublot or Tag Heuer will be on option list, this is very definite.

Leather: LV, Fendi, Celine, Kenzo, Givenchy. This would be a magnificient leather option in automotive histroy.

Interior ceiling: Sure you would have options from Marc Jacobs to Donna Karan. For cheaper alternative, it would be DKNY.

Interior detailing: Of course, it would be De Beers, nothing else.

Colour choices: It will be offered after every Paris fashion show.

In can entertainment: Dom Pérignon champagne by Moët for passenger of course or while standing still.

Perfumé: For female customers it would be J' Adore and for male customers Acqua Di Parma.

Car design: It should be made by Karl Lagerfeld.

Luggages: It would come from LV also, hand made ;)

Navigation and internet connection: Navigation; nearest LVMH brands and internet connection; e-luxury website.

And engine: Who cars after all these brands about the engine, handling and so on :)

I really wish to see one day LVMH will own a car brand.

Picture are from:

Acqua Di Parma, Céline, Moët, Louis Vuitton, Aston Martin

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Hybrid, Electric, Battery, etc

Last five years, we realized that the whole world is mess and we did lots of wrong things. Hopefully we realized after decades later. And as soon as we realized this, we jumped into our hybrids and save the planet. Or we thought that we were saving the planet.

Everyone has something to say about hybrid and electric cars, which company will make more profit, German or Japanese be dominant and it is going like this. However nobody is asking, where does the lithium is coming from. Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere in our life, from laptops to mobile phone and electric cars. In current technology, it is the most effective way to store energy.

But lithium does not grow on soil or you cannot find in Gulf countries unlike petrol. %50 is in Bolivia ! I don't wish to comment about the condition of Bolivia. However, this hybird, electric or whatever technology will do something very clear; create new rich people in Bolivia. As the lithiums demand is increasing, we could see some aritifical islands made by Bolivia.

In addition Chile holds the second biggest lithium reserves.

www.Wikipedia.org

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Pilates for Luxury Segment

Pilates is a very popular physical fitness exercise. This exercise helps to strech your muscles, increase your concentration, control your breathing, better precision and more. I am not an expert on this, however I know that if you could manage to do it, it is good to do it.

In last decade; automotive companies also started to do pilates for luxury segment. However their pilates was not like the normal one! Instead of calming yourself and developing your physical health, this pilates made them more angry and agressive.

The ambition to jump luxury segment has some reasons; some brands desire to have a flagship model to strength their brand image and develop high technologies for flagship and transfer to other models (VW Phaëton model), some brands wanted revive a died brand and increase their market (Mercedes Maybach model), some brands extend their brand to extend it, even though they knew that they will fail(Renault VelSatis, Peugeot 607) and lastly some brands shift their brand image into luxury by revealing a new model (Hyundia model).

All of these models did not work as we all know that. Phaëton is an excellent car with very sophisticated technology but it didn't sell much but its structure is used for Bentley Continental Family which is very rational in economic terms. Mercedes Maybach was great project and introduced great cars which look likes old Mercedes S Class (W220) from outside and also from inside, despite the space age technology, it could not race with Rolls Royce or Bentley. Renault VelSatis was great looking and that was all, Peugeot 607 was a try to jump to a new segment and failed. However Hyundai made some success with Genesis in US market and that motivation gave more motivation and they will introduce a car for international market to compete with S Class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A8 and that is called Equus. Okay, Equus might be selling very well in Asia but the world is not Asia.

In general; a car company cannot go up into higher segments, the brand is mostly stuck on the segment which was emerged. Mercedes is always a luxury brand despite A Class, Rolls Royce is always super luxury brand, Peugeot will good price, good looking brand and Hyundia will be remembered with their Excel and Accent. It is nearly impossible to go up in automotive industry, even Mercedes spent lots of money and failed. Yes, Lexus made it but only in US. Even in Japan, their people don't buy it because they don't perceive Lexus as luxury brand.

These companies did brand extension, strecth the cars for upper segments, increase concentration, control your breath. The result? Not a good way of relaxing like Pilates. Don't strecth too much.

The best solution is to focus on increasing quality, better design and extend brand to lower segments. If the company has know-how and money like VW, go head introduce car like Phaëton. It won't hurt you, unless try not to do that.

EuroNCAP, www.euroNCAP.com

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Volvo 中国商品 (Made in China)

Todya Ford announced their plan to sell Volvo to Chineese car manufacturer Geely. This news was expecting to be announced for long time. For nearly three years, Ford was willing to sell Volvo but always denied this fact. As the financial pressure increased this strategy started to rise. As expected a Chineese manufacturer would buy the Volvo, this business deal between Ford and Geely is a milestone for Chinese automotive industry. By this way, Chinese jumped to luxury car maket with Volvo brand. Even though, Volvo is suffering serious problem in competition and could not keep up with Germans, Geely's motivation to enter luxury market will play significant role in following years.

However; there is a very important fact, does Geely has enough know-how to compete with Germans? This is one of the main reason why Volvo lost its competition power as the Germans revealed much better cars with same safety features. Therefore, Geely should also find very intelligent engineers to increase the competition power Volvo brand.

As everyone is concerning, what will happen to platform sharing with Ford? Ford Focus and Volvo S40 are basically same cars and this means, Geely also bought the some of the Ford's know-how!!!

Volvo promises future and right decisions would help to go back to good old days :)

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Schumacher is back :O

Schumacher signed a deal with Mercedes for next year's season. It was obvious that he was willing to return to F1. As he still has the potential he wants to use it in F1 instead of on top of the motorcycles.

Next year, he will be driving Brawn F1 car and as we all know from last season Button won F1 with that car. So what will happen next? We will have a flashbacks of Schumacher. Last corner Schumacher is coming !!!

Good for Mercedes, for long time they were trying to hire Schumacher, now they have achieved.

Brawngp.com

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Today, Tomorrow, Cheaper, Toyota

I am not a great fan of Toyota, actually I would never buy one but their cars reliable, problem free and doesn't have soul. Design and interior quality of Toyota is always problem, their design has never been competitive like European brands and their ergonomic, plastic quality is always lower than Germans. Therefore I could not like any Toyota.

Now they have announced that, Toyota is pressing suppliers to reduce their prices up to %30. Guess, what would happen? The quality which I don't like in Toyotas will be worse. Toyota must increase the interior quality, they don't have problem with reliability but they should not sacrifices any other quality. Okay, they could not make profit after 60 years, just couple of years bear the loss and increase quality.

Unless, Toyota will never be a real competitors of Germans and customers of German brands will not prefer Toyota.

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Paul Smith & Mini

I really like the British designer Paul Smith but I could not manage the same feelings for Mini.

Paul Smith has a range of collection with Mini print on them. But I still prefer Fiat 500 !

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