Rolls Royce car pictures

Rolls Royce car pictures

Rolls Royce concept interior

Are you in the market for a new car? Are you thinking that a certain tiny four seat subcompact will deliver to you the best fuel economy? Think again - some of today's cars are using advanced technologies which are helping larger, heavier cars achieve better fuel economy numbers than their smaller competitors.

Yes, you'll pay more for the larger models, but your pain at the pump will, in some cases, be slightly less than that tiny lightweight you have your eye on. The difference? It is all in the gears - transmission gears, that is. Let's take a look at a pair of models from different manufacturers to find what sets these cars apart besides their size......


Kia Spectra vs. Chevrolet Malibu

Chevrolet Malibu Picture



Kia Spectra Picture



For the record, the Kia Spectra is made in South Korea by the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group and is imported to the US while the Chevrolet Malibu is built in America. The Spectra is a compact car, the Malibu is classified as a midsize; both have enough seat belts to carry five passengers.

Base engine for the Spectra is a 2.0L I4 paired with a five-speed manual transmission while a four-speed automatic transmission is offered optionally. The standard engine for the Malibu is a 2.4L I4 that is paired with a six-speed automatic transmission. Though the Spectra gets 24 mpg city and the Malibu 22 mpg city, the Malibu has a highway edge of 33-32. Interestingly, the standard manual transmission engine combination results in 30 mpg on the highway for the Spectra.

Extra Gears, Better Fuel Economy

What makes the difference between the two models? The two extra gears in the Malibu is what does it. Earlier models had a four speed manual which delivered 30 mpg, but with the six-speed now included, Chevrolet drivers can get ten percent better fuel economy than before.

Having extra gears means the transmission can operate at lower ratios which means that less fuel is used. For people who do a lot of highway driving, the Malibu wins out in fuel economy, besides being a larger, roomier car for long trips. This doesn't mean that the Spectra isn't a capable car, but it does contradict a certain maxim - smaller cars are always more fuel efficient. Instead, the maxim should be that cars with the newest technologies, particular those with modern transmissions of at least six gears could be the most fuel efficient vehicles available.

Technology You'll Pay For

Most certainly the Spectra and the Malibu are designed for different drivers so my comparison does not include price or prestige, but it does indicate that car shoppers should look very closely at what they are getting: the bigger car could offer the best combination of ride and fuel economy for you and your family - you just have to ask yourself if you are willing to pay for these enhancements.

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Copyright 2008-2012 - Matthew C. Keegan is the owner of a successful writing and marketing business based in North Carolina, USA. He manages several websites and is a contributing writer for Andy's Auto Sport, a quality retailer of aftermarket automotive parts including automotive body kits.

Your Choice in Transmissions Could Save You Gasoline

Speaker Positioning

Speaker installation is very critical for performance. Whether you spent $1000 or $10,000 on a set of speakers, if they are not properly installed, they would not sound as they should. Even though it may seem that the best position for most speakers are in the stock housing's that came with the car e.g. on the door panel near your feet, this is just not so. You would see why such positions are still used however along with alternative solutions such as center channels for 5.1 Dolby, LCD screen, in-dash DVD players. There are many factors that need to be considered in placing the speakers in the correct position.

Distance

The first thing to consider is distance. If the left speaker is only a couple feet away from your ears, while the right speaker is several feet away from you, then the sound will arrive at different times giving you poor sound. Since the left speaker is closer, it sounds louder. The best solution is to figure out a location where the difference between the distance of the right speaker to your ears and left speaker (also known as path length difference), are minimal. This is where kick panels become the preferred location......


Multiple Speaker Placement

If you have a system with two or more speakers per side, you need to try out different locations to obtain the best possible sound in your car. If you have a 2-way system with a tweeter and sub per side. The subs are mounted in the stock location at the bottom of the door. The tweeters are mounted high up on the front corner of the door panel. From the driver's seat, you can see that there are 4 speakers all aimed towards different orientations and all at a different distance to your ears. This interaction of sound waves at different frequencies arriving at your ears at different times seldom sounds good. The best thing to do is to position the woofer and tweeter on each side as close as possible to each other. This is also why kick panels are used so much these days. Professional installers do use some tricks such as inverting the tweeters' polarity when mounted for example on top of the dash while the woofers are low. Achieving good sound with unconventional mounting schemes is very, very hard and is only achieved after plenty of time has been spent trying different configurations.



Aiming

Our ears can distinguish the direction of sound more easily at higher frequencies. This means that aiming the mids, and most importantly, tweeters towards your ears play a critical role in sound imaging. Midbases are not so critical, but should be also aimed towards the listener's ears if possible. To figure out the best aiming angle involves many hours -even days- of work. To start, try to aim the speakers towards the center of the car. Play around with different angles until you obtain the best sounding position. Subwoofers should be mounted up front for best sound. Since this is not possible in most cars, mounting subs in the back is not such a bad thing, since most people can't distinguish where bass comes from. If you have good midbases going down to 60 Hz or less and subs picking up the signal below 60 Hz, then the bass will seem to come from the front.

Enclosures

Subwoofers need a properly designed enclosure to give top performance. Midbases and mids also do sound much better if they are installed in enclosures. The best sounding and easier to build enclosure type for midbases and mids is sealed.



Mounting Speakers

If you are using speakers that fit into the stock location, make sure there are no spaces or holes. Sometimes building a wood or fiberglass baffle helps reduce holes and gives you much better sound. Always be careful when using power tools around speakers. Holes in speakers usually are not covered by the warranty. For unconventional speaker locations, sometimes metal has to be cut. If you have the resources, plasma cutters and pneumatics tools work great. For most of us that do not have these tools, a pair of metal snips (left and right cut) will do the job.

Take your time to plan your system and don't just buy brand and product for the sake of popularity. Sometimes the simplest system is the most effective.

Photo: 1,

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Beginner's Guide to Car Audio Installation - DIY