DriveBlog

Spec check

If you're a first time car buyer, you're bound to feel a little overwhelmed from time to time at the kind of specifications and technical stuff that information about a car is bound to include. Well, guess what. You don't have to be an automotive genius to figure out what's going to be right for you. Just trust your hunches, good advice from others, your takeaways from the test drive and guides like this one and you should do just fine.

Great ESCapes

That's twice today that I've come across reports on how advances in Electronic Stability Control (ESC) systems can save your ass from being grass.

ECUs made easy

I've been a tad slow on the uptake over the past couple of days, thanks to a rather crazy weekend (one that went by way too fast). No surprise then, that when I decided to look up Electronic Control Units (ECU) on the web, even the 'dumbed-down' efforts by the patient folks at How Stuff Works and Wikipedia just didn't seem to cut it for me.

That's when I came across this analogy.

Drive-by-Wire

That's one term that's had my curiosity sufficiently piqued ever since I first came across it. And once I did find out what it was, well, I thought it was a pretty nifty idea! =)

For the less technically inclined, here's a more etymological explanation. Does the job just as well, methinks.

One horny post!

Here's the pretty cool story of how the now-seen-everywhere phrase, ''Horn 'OK' Please" came into being.

The inspiration for this post came from a rather sad story. Here's hoping everything looks up for them here on.

Sing a song of suspension

Intelligent suspension systems that work by 'keeping an eye on' the area around the car and sending signals on the fly to linear electromagnetic motors (whatever they are) installed under each wheel of your car promise to give you ride comfort like never before. And they come from the unlikeliest of automobile suspension manufacturers.

Meet Otto Motive

The rather oddly-nosed online mechanic at Jiffy Lube International, has an interesting 'interactive learning tool to help everyday people understand how their cars work'.

Question: Who are 'everyday people'? As opposed to 'everynight people' or 'every-other-day people'?

The homegrown advantage

Like it's been doing for the Ikon 1.3 ROCAM and the 1.6, Ford India will continue to keep manufacturing costs down by powering the belly of the Fusion with engines sourced from Hindustan Motors.

The Car Maintenance Bibles

Good primers on 'the bouncy bits of your car' and the tyres and wheels.