Car Brands | Car Tuning Central






By N2H

SAAB

Founded in 1947 SAAB Automobile was created as a part of the mega corporation SAAB (an airplane manufacturing company) which is an acronym in itself for “The Swedish Airplane Company”. The founding company was started as far back as the 30’s with war plane manufacturing in preparation of future European continental conflicts which soon occurred (World War Two). After the Second World War car manufacturing began and the first vehicle off the line was the Saab 92, which was built in the fashion of the popular streamliner and had a small two stroke two cylinder engine, with front wheel drive and full independent suspension. The reason it had the high number of 92 was that model 91 was an airplane, as were the models before that. Following this were the models 95 and 96, which both used a V4 engine rather than the older two stroke, which was ended due to emission controls in the 1970’s.

Production from Saab and its emergence as a major brand coincided with the 500,000^th car mark in 1970, as manufacturing and development of technology went on a fast track - having been spurred by the oil crisis. The first large car by Saab was the Saab 99 built in 1967, and then in 1970 Saab manufactured the engine independently of the English company beforehand, and in 1972 they increased volume to two liters. Following this turbochargers were incorporated and optional by 1977, and they incorporated a unique feature that also used a wastegate that regulated boost level and greatly increased performance. This is very significant, as unlike a large turbocharger that had lag, it enabled a smaller turbocharger to do the same job as the large one without lag, and without the emissions waste and fuel consumption waste while still delivering near to same levels of performance.

Throughout the late 70s and early 80s Saab had begun to pick up a large number of customers and increase market share mainly because of its better turbo system in its cars, and the introduction of the Saab 900 which incorporated it. However by the mid 1980’s Saab was producing more than it was selling, and losses began to accrue, with over forty thousand vehicles remaining unsold - to combat this Saab took emergency steps by shutting down a major factory and then opening talks with other companies, resulting in the 1990 50% acquisition by GM. By 1995 it paid off with Saab posting in the black for the first time since the 80’s, and then in 200 GM bought SAAB’s remaining shares and SAAB Automobile became one of GM’s child companies. Currently Saab manufactures two popular models of vehicles, the 9-3 and the 9-5, which are manufactured and imported from Sweden; also there is the 9-7X SUV which is manufactured in Ohio, and does not need to be imported to the United States because… Ohio is in the United States. A new vehicle is planned for release in 2009 called the 9-4X, a large SUV that will also share its main platform components with the new Cadillac BRX.

Tags: Car Brands, Saab

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Suzuki

Suzuki has been around since 1905, having been founded by Michio Suzuki as the Suzuki Loom manufacturing company, and at first manufactured, as you can guess by the name, weaving looms. With the success of the loom weaving industry came a chance to expand the empire, and Michio soon did so in 1937 with a new project on cars. At the time they were powered by a liquid cooled design that was new, and also ran a four stroke cycle four cylinder engine.

When the Second World War broke loose the plans for building these vehicles was scrapped as the Japanese Empire needed war goods, as the government of the Japanese Empire declared them a non-essential need. When the war ended, Suzuki continued to produce looms until the market collapsed in 1951. Looking at the total obliteration of Suzuki holdings, Michio again looked at automobiles as an alternative. Starting with motorized bicycles through a small but ingenious modification created by Shunzo Suzuki (The son of Michio) they soon moved on to motorcycles, and eventually by the mid 50’s 6k motorcycles were being delivered to consumers per month.

In 1955 the first car called the Suzulight was released, and began what is known throughout Japan as the light car age, after which the company split between the car and loom manufacturing sectors and thus created different entities in order to focus on the cars in a more effective way. By 1963 Suzuki had established a foothold in the United States, starting in Los Angeles and throughout the 60’s and 70’s continued to advance toward better designs. In 2005 their vehicle, the Swift, was awarded the car of the year award by RJC and later on more developments in designs were implemented, including an updated motocross bike that has fuel injection. In addition to their own cars Suzuki has manufactured cars for GM, Subaru, Mazda, Nissan and several others.

Tags: Car Brands, Suzuki

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Skoda

One of the oldest auto manufacturers, and now a child company of Volkswagen, Skoda Auto have been producing cars since the late 1910s. Originally founded as Laurin & Klement in 1895, Skoda is one of the four oldest car manufacturers still in production today. It was founded in the Austria-Hungary Empire and was named for Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement. After production had begun in 1905 they were soon the largest automobile manufacturer in Austria-Hungary, until it was bought by Skoda Works, a large European conglomerate at the time before the Second World War.

During the Second World War Skoda and all its little companies, including the automobile manufacturing firm was forced into war machine production to feed the German need for industrial goods, weapons, and anything else to further the NAZI rise to power. After liberation, in a war torn Europe, Skoda emerged scathed and battered, but had rebuilt and was already producing its first cars again in June of 45, just months after Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Later on the Skoda firm became a planned company, and was torn away from the megacorp’s hands into the communist government. This caused them to lose ties and technological trades and contracts with many sources - but despite this they continued on.

As the Cold War froze over the world the Skoda Company provided many of the Warsaw pact with vehicles, and was known for building extremely rugged and tough vehicles that were reliable under the most adverse of conditions. By the 1980’s they had stalled in technological developments for more than twenty years, leaving their models as outdated and seen as old - however they were still able to match western car power standards and even won some rallies with their 130 hp engines. In fact they won the RAC Rally a whole seventeen consecutive times.

In 1987 engineers were able to use some western ideas and technologies, and came up with the Favorit model of vehicle, giving it a modern look and an engine with western motor work technology that still performed as well as western cars of its class. With the downfall of the soviets and the iron curtain Volkswagen immediately stepped in, in 1990, to grab onto Skoda, and by the mid 1990’s the technology was up to date. Eventually the image of Skoda changed and was seen as a more modern car, and more concept cars are on the way. Last year they hit the 550k mark, and at the end of last year it grew by another 50k. Skoda vehicles have a planned return to worldwide market shares soon, with Australia being one of the major locations.

Tags: Car Brands, Skoda

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Vauxhall

Vauxhall was founded in Vauxhall, which is in London in 1857. The company started out not as an automotive company, since the car had not yet been invented, but instead as a pump building and ship engine company. It was not until 1903 that the first car was built by the company. This first car had a five horsepower engine and used two forward gears, but lacked the ability to go in reverse. The expansion of its production quickly came soon after, and was moved to a placed called Luton in 1905, following success with its sports-styled models of vehicles. After World War One the company focused more on the luxury based and otherwise higher class vehicles that were popular of the time until GM bought them outright for 2.5 million in 1925 - four years before the bottom fell out of the market and it all went to hell in a hand-basket. Indeed after this market crash Vauxhall suffered until World War Two when production of vehicles was suspended in favor of producing tanks for the war effort.

After the war ended the models designed were a simple nature and were meant for easy mass production, this allowed for a larger expansion of sales and of market share, allowing further expansion throughout the 50’s and 60’s. As more families started and more people could afford the better cars Vauxhall’s sales were up, however misfortune was around the bend. During that time many of their vehicles were undercoated and rusted, and the reputation of a rusty wrecker stuck with them for years, well into the 1980s. During the beginning of the 1970s the sales were up, and then they went down because of a perceived out datedness of design. Furthermore without keeping up pace Ford was gaining ground along with British Leyland. In response Vauxhall launched the Chevette and the Cavalier, allowing them to close the gap and regain lost ground. As the decade closed they again redesigned and went with a hatchback and tried to appeal to the family market which was more prone to buy these. After this it overtook Rover. In 1981 their most successful car during the 80s was unleashed, the 1981 MK2 Cavalier. This car was different in that not only was it a hatchback but it also had front wheel drove and because it was innovative it was seen as modern - something they strived for. Sales bounded forward, and in 1983 the Nova was also released, creating a reputation as a cutting edge company. By the close of this decade they were tied with Rover and close to Ford.

The 1990s saw Vauxhall closing the gap further with Ford Motor, and the Cavalier was helping to keep the Vauxhall name close to number one. As they kept releasing updated models and better vehicles, like the Astra, they continued to make the gap smaller and smaller. However, by 1998 the edges of the fabric began to fray for them, customer satisfaction was bottoming out and many cars were called unreliable and seen as easily broken. In spite of this and in spite of customer satisfaction they matched ford in 1999 for sales in the UK. This trend continued all the way through today, with the newest Astra being launched in 2004 as the fifth gen, and the third gen Vectra on the way in 08.

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Car Technical Specifications - 2008

We’ve just added to cartuningcentral.com a massive number of 3500+ articles (3640 to be exact) with full technical specifications of various car models and editions, from various car brands.

It would be insane to list all the models here, still, I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for; all you need is to browse our tags or use our search features to find the exact brand/model/edition you need.