Portal:Cars

The Cars Portal

The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car of all-time.

A car (or automobile) is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transportation. Most definitions of cars say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than goods.

Cars came into global use during the 20th century, and developed economies depend on them. The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car when German inventor Karl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Cars became widely available in the early 20th century. One of the first cars accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the US, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other parts of the world.

Cars have controls for driving, parking, passenger comfort, and a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex, but also more reliable and easier to operate. These include rear-reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in-car entertainment. Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels. Electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, became commercially available in the 2000s and are predicted to cost less to buy than gasoline cars before 2025. The transition from fossil fuels to electric cars features prominently in most climate change mitigation scenarios, such as Project Drawdown's 100 actionable solutions for climate change. (Full article...)

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The AIL Storm (Hebrew: סופה‎, Sufa) is an Israeli manufactured off-road vehicle and the workhorse of the Israeli Security Forces. The series of Jeep Wrangler based vehicles have been produced by Automotive Industries Ltd. in Upper Nazareth under license from Chrysler since 1990. The vehicles fill a number of military roles, including that of armoured Infantry Mobility Vehicle, and certain models are available for export as well as for the civilian market.

Production of an updated four-door second generation model commenced in 2006 despite some mixed messages from the Storm's primary customer, the Israel Defense Forces. Development of a third generation vehicle based on the new Jeep Wrangler JK has been completed and significant production for both Israeli and foreign customers is under way. (Full article...)

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The Hyundai Motor Company (commonly known as Hyundai) (Korean: 현대자동차; Hanja: 現代自動車; RR: Hyeondae Jadongcha listen; Korean: 현대; Hanja: 現代; RR: Hyeondae, IPA: [hjə́ːndɛ], lit. 'modernity'; KRX: 005380), is a South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Seoul. Hyundai Motor Company was founded in 1967. Currently, the company owns 33.88 percent of Kia Corporation, and also fully owns two marque including its luxury cars subsidiary, Genesis Motor, and electric vehicle subsidiary, Ioniq. Those three brands altogether comprise the Hyundai Motor Group.

Hyundai operates the world's largest integrated automobile manufacturing facility in Ulsan, South Korea which has an annual production capacity of 1.6 million units. The company employs about 75,000 people worldwide. Hyundai vehicles are sold in 193 countries through 5,000 dealerships and showrooms. (Full article...)

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DMC DeLorean Mini Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W205) Mini Moke Volkswagen Beetle Le Mans Prototype Mercedes-Benz BMW General Motors Chrysler Ford Motor Company Maserati Lamborghini Volkswagen Pickup truck Electric car Buick Toyota Honda Ford Taurus Autobianchi Primula Lancia Flaminia Sedan (automobile)

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Selected picture of the day

2005 Mercedes-Benz S350

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Nicolaus August Otto circa 1868

Nicolaus August Otto (10 June 1832, Holzhausen an der Haide, Nassau – 26 January 1891, Cologne) was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the modern internal combustion engine. The Association of German Engineers (VDI) created DIN standard 1940 which says "Otto Engine: internal combustion engine in which the ignition of the compressed fuel-air mixture is initiated by a timed spark", which has been applied to all engines of this type since. (Full article...)

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J. B. Straubel Bertha Benz Michelle Christensen Edward T. Welburn Leilani Munter Elwood Haynes Karl-Gottfried Nordmann Henry Ford

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On this day March 7

1956 — The Ford Motor Company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time

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Selected quote of the day

The Aston Martin DB9 is the car that I'd be most likely to sell my children into slavery for.

—Jeremy Clarkson

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Did you know...

...that the racing version of the Dauer 962 Le Mans, winner of 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans, is a roadcar converted from a Porsche 962 racecar, which dominated Le Mans, Group C and IMSA during the 1980s.
...that the 25 Millionth VW Golf rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg in March 2007. The first Golf started production in 1974, 33 years later the 1.4 litre TSI version became the 25 Millionth car.
...that the nearly identical Ford Model T engines were produced for exactly 12,000 days
...that the first production turbocharged cars were General Motors' A-body 1962 Chevrolet Corvair and Oldsmobile F-85?
...that Jeep introduced the 1993 Grand Cherokee and 2007 Wrangler in the same way — by driving them through a plate glass window?
...that a small number of Renault 20s, badged as Dacia 2000, were made in the 1980s by Dacia in Romania for Romanian communist dignitaries of that time?
...that the Autobianchi Primula was the Fiat's first automobile with the front-wheel drive, transverse engine setup and rack and pinion steering?
...that the Plymouth Sundance is a liftback, even though the outside appearance might suggest that it is a sedan?

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General images

The following are images from various car-related articles on Wikipedia.

Steam Machine Of Verbiest, In 1678. (Ferdinand Verbiest)
A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car
In the Ford Model T the left-side hand lever sets the rear wheel parking brakes and puts the transmission in neutral. The lever to the right controls the throttle. The lever on the left of the steering column is for ignition timing. The left foot pedal changes the two forward gears while the centre pedal controls reverse. The right pedal is the brake.
Vehicles in use per country from 2001 to 2007. It shows the significant growth in BRIC.
Karl Benz, the inventor of the modern car
1927 Ford Model T
1959 Morris Mini-Minor
1926 Bugatti Type 35
Kiichiro Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation 1941–1950
Model-T Ford car parked near the Geelong Art Gallery at its launch in Australia in 1915
A Stanley Steamer racecar in 1903. In 1906, a similar Stanley Rocket set the world land speed record at 127.7 miles per hour (205.5 km/h) at Daytona Beach Road Course
The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car of all-time.
1929 Austin Seven
Volkswagen Beetle
The Smart Fortwo car from 1998 to 2002, weighing 730 kg (1,610 lb)
The original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept
A Chevrolet Suburban extended-length SUV weighs 3,300 kg (7,200 lb) (gross weight)
1929 Alfa Romeo 6C
Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A
LED daytime running lights on an Audi A4
1958 Lancia Appia
A car being assembled in a factory
Ransom E. Olds founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company (Oldsmobile) in 1897
The first automobile in Japan, a French Panhard-Levassor, in 1898
1924 Doble Model E
1885-built Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first car to go into production with an internal combustion engine
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903
The Vélib' in Paris, France is the largest bikesharing system outside China
Fiat 4 HP, the first car model produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat in 1899
Armand Peugeot
1974 Citroën DS
The Selden Road-Engine
Bertha Benz, the first long distance driver
Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France
Road congestion is an issue in many major cities. (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing)
Gurgel Supermini
Rolls-Royce Phantom III
The second Marcus car of 1888 at the Technical Museum in Vienna
Cugnot's steam wagon, the second (1771) version
German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, perhaps the first electric car in the world
The Toyota Corolla is the world's best-selling nameplate.
Émile Levassor
A replica of Richard Trevithick's 1801 road locomotive 'Puffing Devil'
The Präsident automobile
1946 GAZ-M20 Pobeda one of the first mass-produced cars with ponton design
The Nissan Leaf is an all-electric car launched in December 2010
Result of a serious car collision
The Ford Model T (foreground) and Volkswagen Beetle (background) are among the most mass-produced car models in history.
Gustave Trouvé's tricycle, the first ever electric automobile to be shown in public
Mass production at a Toyota plant in the 1950s
1954 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, one of the first U.S. all-metal station wagons