Automobiles and Automobile
Cultures
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I. The Definition of Automobiles
1. An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor
vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also
carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the
term specify that automobiles are designed to run
primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight
people, to typically have four wheels, and to be
constructed principally for the transport of people rather
than goods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile
2. A self-propelled passenger vehicle that usually
has four wheels and an internal-combustion
engine, used for land transport. Also called
motorcar.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/automobile
An automobile vehicle or mechanism; esp., a selfpropelled vehicle suitable for use on a street or
roadway. Automobiles are usually propelled by internal
combustion engines (using volatile inflammable liquids,
as gasoline or petrol, alcohol, naphtha, etc.), steam
engines, or electric motors. The power of the driving
motor varies from about 4 to 50 H. P. for ordinary
vehicles, ranging from the run-about to the touring car,
up to as high as 200 H. P. for specially built racing cars.
Automobiles are also commonly, and generally in
British usage, called motor cars.
http://www.brainyquote.com/words/au/automobile1337
89.html
Vehicles that you ride in usually reflect two
things; the direction you are heading in life, and
your body. (the thing you travel or "ride" through
life in) This might vary if you are a mechanic or
designer of vehicles. Unusually over exposure to a
specific vehicle type may easily change the
meaning.
The condition of the vehicle might give you an
idea of your health. Driving an old beat up car
down a muddy road on a stormy night would be
considered a pretty bad dream! However flying a
Lear jet through blue skies with a song in your
heart and the wind at your tail would be a rather
good dream.
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II. Car classification
The cars are classified by the standard
bodies like EuroNCap in
• Superminis, Audi A2,BMW Mini,
Smart, Citroën C2, C3 ( below 3.6m )
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Familiy cars.
--Small: Alfa Romeo 147, Audi A3, Citroën
Xsara 1.4i, Daewoo Lanos 1.4 SE
--Large: Audi A4, Citroën C5, Peugeot 406,
Renault Laguna, Volkswagen (From 3.6m to
4.8m)
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Executive cars: Audi A6 , Peugeot 607,
Vauxhall/Opel Omega, Volvo S70 and S80.
Roadsters: Audi TT Roadster, Honda S2000,
Mazda MX-5 .
Small and large MPVs (Multiple Purpose Vehicle):
Small: Chrysler PT Cruiser, Citroën Picasso,
Fiat Multipla, Ford Focus C-MAX, Ford Fusion
Large: Chrysler Voyager, Hyundai Trajet, KIA
Carnival/Sedona, Mitsubishi Space Wagon,
Nissan Serena, Peugeot 806 and 807.
Chrysler PT Cruiser
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Peugeot 807
III. Automobiles/cars come in
configurations such as
I. Bubble car
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II.Convertible
III.Hatchback
IV. Sedan
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V.Sports coupé
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VI.Coupé convertible
VII.Station wagon or Estate car
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VIII. Sport utility vehicles
(SUVs)
IX. Pickup trucks
X. Truck (or lorry)
XI. Van and minivan
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Other Classifications
1.
2.
Volkswagen: AOO, AO, A, B, C, D
In China, A00级车（微型车）：A0级车（小型车） A级
车（紧凑型车）：B级车（中型车）C级车（高级车）
**按照国家规定，排量小于或等于1升，属于微型车；排
量大于1升且小于或等于1.6升，属于普通级轿车；排量
大于1.6升且小于或等于2.5升，属于中级轿车；排量大
于2.5且小于或等于4升，属于中、高级轿车；排量大于
4升，属于高级轿车。
（http://www.pcauto.com.cn/teach/qczs/qt/0702/42691
8.html）
3. 美国通用公司将轿车分为i(微型)、小型、Lowmed(中低
级)、Interm(中级)、Upp-med(中高级)、Large/Lux(高
级/豪华)等6级。
• 我国国家标准GB3730.1-86《汽车和半挂车
的术语和定义车辆类型》和GB9417-89
《汽车产品型号编制规则》，曾把轿车分
为微型轿车、普通轿车、中级轿车、中高
级轿车和高级轿车等5级。后来GB9417-89
停止执行，GB3730.1几经修订，现行
GB3730.1-2001《汽车和挂车类型的术语
和定义》对轿车只划分类别，不划分等
级，为的是与国际标准接轨，同时使技术
性的术语脱离消费层面的等级划分。目
前，中国汽车工业协会的分车型产销量统
计基本上是按照GB3730.1-2001分类的。
IV. The Importance of Automobiles
Automobile is the most important means of
personal transportation for many millions of
people around the globe. People depend on their
cars and trucks to travel to and from work, to run
errands, to visit friends,
and to take vacations.
Companies and
government organizations
operate commercial fleets
of automobiles.
19-38
The United States, China, Canada, Japan,
Western European countries, and other developed
nations have the most automobiles. But even in
developing nations, more and more people own
cars, and bumper-to-bumper traffic clogs the
streets of big cities in many of those countries.
The automobile revolutionized the American way of
life and would change living patterns in much the
same way when it spread to other countries. The
automobile helped give people the freedom to live,
work, and travel wherever they wanted. The
automobile has given many people incredible
freedom of movement. It enables them to decide
where they want to go and when.
The automobile influences where people live and
work and how they spend their leisure time. It
ended the lonely lives of farm families by placing
neighbors, cities, and towns within easy reach.
The automobile led to the growth of suburbs,
motels, shopping centers, superhighways, theme
parks, drive-in restaurants, and drive-through
banks.
But along with all the glories of the automobile
culture came serious problems. Car accidents
became a major cause of death and injury
throughout the world, exhaust fumes fouled the air,
and the roar of city traffic became nerve-racking.
Some people yearned for the old days before the
automobile, when life seemed simpler, slower, and
gentler. But there could be no going back.
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The automobile had become woven into the fabric
of modern life. And the auto industry itself had
become basic to the economic well-being of
developed countries. Today, many developing
nations also seek to set up an automotive industry
because it generates and supports a wide range
of businesses, such as automobile dealerships,
garages, and filling stations, and so can stimulate
economic growth.
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The development of automobiles has had an
enormous effect on people's way of life throughout
much of the world. Probably no other invention,
discovery, or technological advance has created
greater or more rapid changes in society.
A Machine that Changes the World
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1 Impact on society
When the first automobiles were produced, only the
well-to-do could afford them. Soon, however, prices
declined as production increased in response to the
growing demand. The lower prices put the
automobile within reach of more and more people.
Well-off urban residents found car ownership
cheaper than keeping a horse and
carriage. The growth in car ownership led
to the building of more and better roads,
which further increased travel.
Ford Model T
Although cars were first bought mainly by wealthy
city folk, it was country people who became the
first large-scale group of car owners. During the
late 1890's, most people in North America and
Europe lived in rural areas and had little contact
with people more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) or
so away. Many of these people were farmers or
residents of small towns that served farmers.
In the early 1900's, they became the first
mass group of car buyers. Automobiles
enabled farmers to sell their goods faster
and farther away, and to travel more often
and in greater comfort than ever before.
Before the development of automobiles, urban
workers walked, bicycled, or rode trains or horsedrawn vehicles to their jobs. But as roads improved
and car ownership expanded, the freedom
provided by automobile ownership enabled more
and more people to move to the suburbs. By the
mid-1950's, even factories had begun to relocate in
the suburbs.
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Wherever people have easy access to
automobiles, cars play a major role in social
life and the choice of recreational activities.
People find it fun to hop in the car and visit
friends and relatives, whether the drive takes
a few minutes, hours, or days. The
automobile helps make it easy to organize
picnics, family reunions, and other gettogethers. Trips by automobile to such places
as theme parks, national parks, and mountain
and seashore resorts are a favorite type of
vacation for many people.
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2 Economic impact
Such developed nations as the United States,
Japan, Germany, and Italy depend on automotive
production to provide jobs for millions of workers.
But even in developed nations with little or no
automotive production—for example, Norway and
New Zealand—the widespread use of cars has
become vital to the economy. Filling stations,
motels, restaurants, and other businesses that
serve automobile travelers are of major importance
to the economic well-being of all developed
countries and increasingly of developing ones.
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In addition, many developing nations have begun
making automotive vehicles or parts to stimulate
industry and to provide the vehicles needed for
growth. For example, China has promoted broadbased automotive manufacturing, and the
Philippines has expanded parts production for
export to carmakers in other countries.
3 Problems of safety
Each year, motor vehicle accidents kill an estimated
300,000 people throughout the world. A high
percentage of those killed in automobile accidents
are young people. In fact, in the United States,
traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for
people from 5 to 32 years old. Young people also
have the highest accident rate of all drivers.
Almost every accident results from one or more of
these three factors: the driver, the car, and the road.
The same three factors contribute to accident
prevention.
Drivers are the chief factor in vehicle safety because
they are responsible for about two-thirds of all
accidents. They cause accidents by speeding, driving
in the wrong lane, making improper turns, and
breaking other rules of safe driving. Many traffic
deaths involve drunken drivers. Alcohol slows a
driver's reflexes, reduces alertness and concentration,
impairs vision, and clouds judgment. The use of illegal
drugs by drivers is also a serious safety problem.
The automobile itself has become safer over the years
because of advances in its design and manufacture.
Automakers must meet strict government standards
designed to prevent accidents and to protect drivers
and passengers. The standards to prevent accidents
involve the installation of government-specified lights,
reflectors, brakes, tires, windows, windshield wipers
and defrosters, and dashboard controls.
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Standards to protect car occupants include the
installation of seat belts or air bags, head restraints,
and bumper systems. Seat belts—when used—are
probably the main safety equipment. A driver
must not assume that the engine, brakes, lights,
and steering system always operate properly. All
equipment should be tested frequently.
Modern road building techniques have increasingly
lowered the risk of automobile accidents. To build
safe roads, highway engineers consider such factors
as road foundations and surfaces, lighting, guardrails,
and grading. They carefully plan bypasses,
intersections, on-and-off ramps, traffic signals, and
the number of lanes.
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4 Environmental impact
As automobiles burn gasoline, they release
hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen
oxides into the air and so pollute it. Air pollution
endangers people's health and damages crops and
livestock. Automobiles produce terrible pollution in
many of the world's big cities. Especially severe
pollution occurs in such cities as Los Angeles,
Mexico City, Tokyo, and Madrid, where the streets
and highways are choked with traffic.
In many countries, steps have been taken to
control air pollution caused by automobiles as well
as by other sources. Government agencies enforce
emission standards that limit the amount of
pollution new automobiles may produce. The
agency that enforces these regulations in the
United States is the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).
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Automakers have made great progress in reducing
the emission of major pollutants by meeting the
increasingly strict environmental standards. From
the 1960's to the 1990's, the emission of
hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide by Americanbuilt cars was reduced more than 95 percent and
nitrogen oxides more than 90 percent.
The reduction was achieved largely with the
installation of a catalytic converter in the exhaust
system of cars. The device changes carbon
monoxide and hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide
and water vapor. In 1990, the U.S. Congress
passed new rules calling for even tougher limits
on the emission of pollutants.
V. Cars of Yesterday
The first cars.
During the late 1700's, the
development of steampowered engines
progressed rapidly in
Europe. Inventors dreamed
of a "horseless carriage"—
and steam seemed the
obvious power source.
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The steam car. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, a French
military engineer, built the first self-propelled road
vehicles in 1769 and 1770. One was designed to
carry passengers, while the other was a threewheeled steam tractor for hauling artillery. In 1801
and 1803, Richard Trevithick of the United
Kingdom demonstrated four-wheeled steampropelled road vehicles to carry passengers. But
he lacked the money to continue his work.
Numerous attempts in the United Kingdom to
promote the use and development of steam cars
failed because of competition from railroad and
stagecoach companies. Early steam cars damaged
roads and sometimes blew up. They also made a
terrible racket, dirtied the air with smoke, and
frightened horses.
In 1865, the "Red Flag Law" ended further development
of automobiles in the United Kingdom for about 30 years.
Under the law, a steam car could go no faster than 4
miles (6 kilometers) per hour in the country and 2 miles
(3 kilometers) per hour in town. To warn of its approach,
a signalman had to walk ahead of the vehicle, swinging a
red flag by day and a red lantern by night.
In 1805 in the United States, an inventor named
Oliver Evans demonstrated a steam-operated
dredge mounted on a boat. He had built it to
deepen and clean the Philadelphia waterfront.
Evans put wheels on the boat and drove the
gigantic machine, which weighed about 20 tons (18
metric tons), through the streets to the harbor and
into the water.
During the 1860's, another American inventor,
Sylvester H. Roper, developed a much smaller
steam vehicle. It looked more like a present-day
automobile. Roper's vehicle received much
public attention.
Many other Americans experimented with steam
cars during the late 1800's. They included J. N.
Carhart, Richard Dudgeon, and Ransom E. Olds.
The number of U.S. companies that made steam
cars grew rapidly. One of the most successful firms
was founded by identical twin brothers, Francis E.
and Freelan O. Stanley. They built the famous
Stanley steamer.
Steam cars had big disadvantages. At first, it took
too long for the fire to heat the boiler. Inventors
solved that problem, but others remained. The
steam engines had to be small to be practical for
cars, and so they had to be high-pressure engines
to produce the required power. However, such
engines cost much to build and maintain, and the
steam-powered car gradually disappeared. In
1924, the Stanley brothers' company—one of the
last steam car manufacturers—went bankrupt.
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The electric car. About 1891, William Morrison, an
American inventor, built a successful electric car.
The six-passenger vehicle was powered by
batteries under the seats. Electric cars quickly
became popular because they were quiet, easy to
operate, and free of smelly fumes.
In 1900, they accounted for 38 percent of all U.S. car
sales. But the batteries limited how far or fast electric
cars could go. Few electrics could travel faster than 20
miles (32 kilometers) per hour, and the batteries had to
be recharged at least every 50 miles (80 kilometers). By
1905, only about 7 percent of all cars sold in the United
States were electrics.
The gasoline car. The automobile as we know it
today resulted from the development of the internalcombustion engine. Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir, a
Belgian living in France, patented the first
commercially successful internal-combustion
engine in 1860. It burned coke oven gas and was
noisy and inefficient. But Lenoir sold several
hundred engines, which powered printing presses,
lathes, and water pumps. He also installed one in a
crude motorcar.
In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, two Germans
working separately, developed the first successful fourstroke gasoline engines. Their engines led to the
development of those used in most cars today. Many
European manufacturers turned out cars based on
Daimler's and Benz's work and patents.
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In 1891, a French company, Panhard et Levassor, created
the basic design for the automobile that remained largely
unchanged for nearly 100 years. The firm placed a
Daimler engine in the front of the car and used a
revolving chain to transfer power to the rear wheels. In
1898, the French inventor Louis Renault replaced the
chain with a drive shaft. Most cars had a front engine and
rear-wheel drive until the mid-1980's, when front-wheel
drive began to predominate.
A French rubber-making firm, Michelin, introduced
the first tires filled with compressed air for use on
cars in 1895. Michelin developed such pneumatic
tires under license from a British manufacturer of
bicycle tires. Many people believe that the
automobile became a practical means of
transportation because of, first, the invention of the
internal-combustion engine and, second, the
development of the pneumatic tire.
VI. The birth of the automobile industry
The birth of the automobile industry occurred in
1885, the year Daimler and Benz built their
successful gasoline engines. Until 1900, Europe led
the world in automobile development and production.
Many present-day European car companies began
in the late 1800's. For example, Peugeot, a French
firm, started making automobiles in 1890. Another
French company, Renault, began producing cars in
1898. Fiat of Italy dates from 1899. France and
Germany became the first large production centers.
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The Duryea brothers, Charles E. and J. Frank,
built the first successful gasoline car in the United
States. The Duryea car was completed in 1893
and made its first successful run in 1894. In 1895,
the brothers founded the Duryea Motor Wagon
Company, the first U.S. firm to make gasoline cars.
Many other automaking firms were started in the United
States during the industry's early years. Some quickly
failed, but others still produce vehicles. The center of the
auto industry shifted from Europe to the United States
after 1900. Production of American cars increased from
fewer than 5,000 in 1900 to more than 1 1/2 million in
1916.
From the beginning, the auto industry had an
enormous impact on Western economies. As car
production increased, the demand for steel, rubber,
glass, machine tools, and other goods essential to
the manufacture of the automobile grew and grew.
At the same time, the industry began to develop its
own supporting divisions for sales, service, and
repairs. Employment in the automotive industry
soared.
The discovery of huge oil fields in eastern Texas
in 1901 helped contribute to the rapid growth of
the U.S. auto industry. The discovery caused a
sharp drop in the price of gasoline, and plentiful,
cheap fuel made cars relatively inexpensive to
operate. Another factor aiding the U.S. auto
industry was the application of mass-production
techniques to the manufacture of automobiles.
Many historians credit the 1901 Oldsmobile with
being the first mass-produced car. More than any
car before, this automobile was built of parts made
by outside suppliers and shipped to the assembly
plant.
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Mass production took a giant step forward in 1904,
when Henry M. Leland took charge of the Cadillac
Automobile Company in the United States and began
building cars using interchangeable parts. Such parts
could be used to assemble or repair any car of the same
model. Previously, most parts were made to fit only one
particular car.
But more than anyone else, the American
industrialist Henry Ford perfected the mass
production of automobiles. In 1913, Ford installed
a moving assembly line in his car factory. The
frame of the car was pulled through the plant by a
chain. Workers on each side assembled the car by
adding parts that had been brought to them on
conveyor belts. This process resulted in a huge cut
in production time and costs.
• Top 10 Books on the History of Cars
http://inventors.about.com/od/inventormagaz
ines/tp/Car_Books.htm
VII. The automobile today
• About 450 million passenger cars travel
the streets and roads of the world. Most
cars are in the United States, Japan,
Canada, and the countries of Western
Europe. Many people of these nations
consider a car a necessity. In most
countries of Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe,
and South America, the car is still
regarded as a luxury by the great majority
of the people.
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The widespread use of the automobile has
resulted in a number of challenges. Gasoline, the
fuel that powers the engines of almost all cars, is
a petroleum product. But most countries do not
have a sufficient supply of oil to meet their
energy needs. Also, cars give off harmful fumes
that pollute the air. In addition, traffic accidents
cause thousands of deaths and injuries each year.
VIII. Cars of tomorrow
Cars of tomorrow will probably be increasingly
fuel efficient and less polluting. Internal
combustion engines will probably still power
most automobiles. But worries about
pollution will likely increase the use of
vehicles that use alternative fuels, despite
their limited range and speed. Delivery
services and other commercial fleets in large
cities will probably use such vehicles.
Hybrids vehicles that have all the components of
electric cars plus another power source, may
serve as a compromise between electrics and
traditional automobiles. Fuel cells, devices that
convert chemical energy to electrical energy,
may be used in hybrids.
Computerized controls will do more and more tasks in
tomorrow's cars because of their low cost and precise
functioning. With the flick of a switch, computerized
suspension systems will adjust to changes in the road
surface. Computers will also play an increasing role in
creating tomorrow's cars, from the designing to the
engineering to the assembling. The selling and servicing
of cars will also be more and more computerized.
70**
Many modern automobiles include an onboard navigation system. This electronic
device uses a network of satellites called
the Global Positioning System to locate a
driver's vehicle. It can then display a map
showing the best route to reach a specific
destination selected by the driver.
Assignment
• 1. Review the important technical
advances in the automotive history.
• 2. Try to know some famous figures in the
automotive history.