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Five reasons to love and hate Skoda Yeti
Leaving the main design solutions, the engineers were forced to use the larger Volkswagen PQ35 platform, on which models such as the Skoda Octavia, Volkswagen Tiguan and Volkswagen Golf were built at the time. The Fabia and Polo platform originally prepared by the Yeti turned out to be too small.
In the spring of 2009, the crossover premiere was held at the same Geneva Motor Show, sales began in Europe in the summer, and in November of the same year Russian sales of Skoda Yeti were launched. Initially, two of the available range of engines were selected: 1.2 TSI (105 hp, 175 Nm) and 1.8 TSI (160 hp, 250 Nm). With them, a 7-speed robotized box with a double dry clutch DSG7 and a six-speed “mechanics” aggregated. The car was offered both in front-wheel drive version, and with the system of automatically connected all-wheel drive. Continue reading
Five reasons to love and hate the Mazda CX-7
Mazda joined the crossover race later than other Japanese brands. Toyota, Honda and Subaru were already working on the third generation of their crossovers, and Nissan and Mitsubishi were working on the second, when in February 2006 at the Los Angeles auto show the Mazda CX-Crossport concept was shown, which after a little tweaking and minimal changes and went to the series in April of the same year as the Mazda CX-7. Mazda had to offer something new in the already highly competitive market, and this “something” was not the usual motor for the family of universal cars.
Under the hood of the crossover, a four-turbocharged 2.3 MZR L3-VDT was registered, borrowed from the Mazdaspeed Atenza sportscar (aka Mazda 6 MPS) with a K04 turbocharger retuned to lower power and more torque. Power for different markets ranged from 238 hp (in Russia) up to 256 hp (in England). Transmission – or six-speed automatic Aisin Warner AW TF-80SC (aka – AWF21, AF40-6, AM6, AW6A-EL), or six-speed mechanics. All-wheel drive Active Torque Split AWD with Haldex controlled electronic multi-plate clutch was taken from the same Mazda 6 MPS. Continue reading
Trump is in a frenzy: GM turns off the production of cars in the US
On the eve of the Los Angeles Motor Show, General Motors announced a large-scale restructuring of its business, during which eight plants would be closed (five of them in North America) and about 15,000 employees were laid off. Tough measures due to the “hazy future” will allow the corporation to save about $ 6 billion.
What, everything is so bad? Not at all, but the corporation is worried about the two main trends of the global automotive industry: electric cars and UAVs – it seems that without them we cannot survive in the next decade, but it is difficult to predict the demand and costs for developing such equipment, because before GM has experience in mass production of electric vehicles and the more drones were not. As for traditional cars, GM plans to bet on what they take, that is, on pickups and crossovers, and put everything else under the knife. In essence, the position is exactly the same as the Ford company is now occupying, the same vector of development adheres to FCA. Continue reading
