101Carsense

Redesigned Corolla The redesigned Toyota Corolla is a bold ‘game on’ statement from Toyota Motors to all major competitors especially Hyundai and Honda. Toyota before now is known for putting little efforts into how cool their Toyota branded cars look both from the outside and inside. This, Honda and very recently Hyundai and even Kia has capatalised on greatly to become great threats to Toyota cars in some markets. Realizing this, Toyota in the past five or so years started some real visual upgrade and redesign with emphasis on aesthetics. Though not all the redesigns and face-lifts has come out well (case in point, the 2013 Camry face-lift), the recent corolla redesign is definitely a big thumbs up. Came out way better than the Civic , Elantra and … what. 2014 civic 2014 Elantra Though the looks of the last Hyundai Elantra may be a point to ague compared to that of the Corolla, I still mentain that there is something very grown-up about the Corolla looks thats not t...

On ‘popular but wrong’, I will be bringing you a few popular opinions on car tech with explanations why they are wrong. Catalytic converter Catalytic converter Indomie noodles On this side of the globe, the catalytic converter has gained a very popular alias - ‘the Indomie’, after Indomie noodles because of the noodles like shape of the converter metals. In other worlds, it is simply called the ‘Cat’. Cat with sensors There is a popular believe and claim that the Cat/Indomie improves fuel economy, I.e. reduces fuel economy.  I say a big Wrong to that. The Cat is not designed to, and so doesn't improve fuel consumption. The Cat is designed to remove poisonous gases and elements like Carbon monoxide and Nitrogen from the exhaust gas. Thus, its main function is to reduce excessive air pollution. It does this by reacting with the gas as it passes through the exhaust pipe. Or more specifically, it facilitates the reaction, that’s why it is called a catalyst. One ...

We love Toyota, we love Honda. But if its something else like a Pontiac or Subaru or even Opel, we say its a no go area around here (Nigeria). That's the power in a name. Pontiac Vibe Toyota Matrix The Pontiac Vibe and the Toyota Matrix are basically the same car made by the same person, and I can say for 'the same persons' at different times. Something that shows how much we love 'anything' Toyota is how fast we around here accepted the Pontiac Vibe as soon as we saw the Toyota Matrix and were convinced its the same car. The vibe was a car you could hardly sell in Nigeria about 10 year ago (2002-2005), not for any other reason, but because its neither a Toyota nor a Honda. Maybe it would have been a little more successful then if it was a Mercedes or a VW. But Pontiac? 'whats that? Then came the Matrix, an identical twin to the Vibe. You can't but notice the resemblance. People couldn't but ask if there were cousins. As soon as they...

I've itemized below some often ignored but very important practices that can be the difference between few and often visits to the repair shop.  Get to know your car You need to first of all know what car you have, what it is made of and what it is capable of. Basic information about any car can be gotten from a good car website on line, but the problem will be interpreting and understanding what you get. V6 vs I4 You can start from knowing the engine capacity commonly given in cubic centimeters (cc) and closely followed by the engine power given in bhp (break horse power). E.g. 1800cc; 140bhp. The higher these numbers are, the more power your engine should have (mostly at the expense of more fuel). So, that you drive a 2010 Honda Accord does not mean your car can drive exactly the same way any other 2010 Honda Accord on the road would. Same model year of cars come with different engines and body trim, hence, different performance. A car will perform well be...

The Governor's SUV It is now a well known fact that the governor of Kogi State was involved in a ghastly Motor accident on Friday 28 th  December. A careful look at the picture of the Lexus SUV he was travelling in and a statement credited to an anonymous family member on facebook who claimed that the vehicle was bullet proof brings me to the conclusion that the vehicle must have been travelling at quite a high speed and that the armour must be partial or something in the lower grade. Understanding car armour (bullet proof cars) A bullet proof car is a defensive armour car that is designed to withstand some level or ballistics. Just as there are different grades of ballistics, so there are different level of vehicle armour. The common standard codes for car armour from the lowest to the highest are T4/B4, T6/B6, T7/B7 and T7. In recent times, even the T4 or B4 grades are equipped with run-flat tires . Something else to know about bullet proof cars is that while a nor...

The Hyundai Jeep you can never have I was moved to write this article after reading a report on a popular Nigerian news website about a Nigerian lawmaker who bought an alleged faulty Hyundai ix35 for his wife. The report can be read here  http://saharareporters.com/news-page/nation-represented-idiots-nigerian-house-reps-summon-hyundai-motors-over-faulty-n41m-car-b . Throughout the report, he kept referring to the vehicle as ‘Hyundai ix35 Jeep’. And that brought my attention to how wide spread and common it is for a Nigerian to refer to any car in the SUV class as a ‘Jeep’. You can hear someone say my friend just bought a jeep, only to discover well you see the vehicle that is is actually a Toyota highlander . It got me thinking what the source of this common misuse was.  That took my mind back to the colonial and early post colonial days when the most common trucks on Nigerian roads (mostly among military personnel) were the Willys Jeep and early Land Rover models....

car showroom (courtesy 123rf.com) What informs an average Nigerian’s choice of what brand of car to buy is 'popular street opinion' which usually originates from Mechanic workshops. This is a wise choice for such decision making. But to understand the effect this decision is having on the Nigerian automobile market, you need to know what an average Nigerian Mechanic is made of. In advanced Countries (at least in 'who got what first') like Europe, Canada and the US where there are training centers like the Automotive training center Surrey , Jaguar Land Rover centers and other apprenticeship centers that are owned or supported by the brands they represent, technical information on new technologies can be handed down to apprentists by the very companies that introduced them. The situation in Nigerian is quite different. I refer to what we have as ‘inherited Technical skills’. This is a situation where an apprentice serves a master for a period of time, during wh...

AC vent In early cars like the 70s Peugeot 504 and other cars before that era when car AC compressors were bulky and not very efficient, it is indisputable that using your car Air Conditioner while driving means parting with some extra liters of fuel.   But we are in an era when car compressors are better built and lighter. That doesn't mean they don’t require power from the engine to be driven as is most noticeable at low rpm like when the car is idling and you switch on the AC. The noticeable drop in rpm is mostly due to inertia. So, your glasses are down and your AC is off so you can save fuel. I bet the only place you are going to save that fuel in today’s cars is ‘in your head, not in your fuel tank’. If your glasses are down and you are driving at speeds in excess of 80km/h (about 55mph), the inside of your car will be working like a big balloon or parachute to pull your car back as air flows in through the windows. This way, the engine will be wor...

old car modern car If you have been driving for many years now or you owned or drove a classic car (say one from the 70s), you may have taken one or two old habits to your modern car. The mid 19th century was really a fun period for the automobile industry as many technologies such as power steering, antilock brake system, locking differential and others were introduced then. Before the use of Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) , the proper way to break in an emergency situation is to step on the breaks as hard and safe as possible, then let go a little to avoid locking the wheels, then step on it again. You do this repeatedly until you’ve totally avoided the hazard or brought the car to a stop. If you step on the breaks and stay there, the break pad grabs the break disc so hard that the wheel locks (stops spinning), putting the car into a skid. This makes the driver loose his steering ability (he could be steering left but the car will be going in the opposite direction) a...