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Nissan’s interiors – designed with the aged in mind

Much like the styling of a vehicle, there’s more to interior design than what meets the eyes (and the fingertips). Where exterior stylists must be concerned with aerodynamics and production feasibility, interior designers must take into things like fit and finish, the quality of the materials and of course, good ergonomics. For that to occur, an understanding of how cars and people interact is a must.

In its ongoing attempts to make its vehicles more user friendly to people of all walks of life, Nissan’s Interaction Design Team came up with some rather curious solutions to make its interiors more livable.

Nissan’s team has surveyed countless hours of footage, watching people make their way around their vehicles’ interiors. As cars become more complicated – with features like navigation systems, and an increased number of buttons and switches – this information has been invaluable for developing a new interior layout for future Nissans.

Nissan’s research resulted in this, the BUI-2 (Best Usability Interior 2). It features an ovoid steering wheel that doesn’t get in the way of the driver’s knees during ingress and egress. Nissan also designed the dashboard to eliminate glare, altered the font type of the instruments for easier legibility, re-organized the buttons on the steering wheel so that they’re more easily accessed, and moved the paddles closer to the edge of the steering wheel for easier use. In addition, the design team looked at the way people open and close doors and incorporated bigger handles with additional grip points into the design.

But the real innovation is the team’s creative approach to accommodating elderly drivers. During the design of BUI-2, the designers donned aging suits that give the wearer the mobility and strength of someone twice their age. Described as being “painful,” the suit gives a new perspective on what older generations must deal with when driving – as well as getting in and out – of a vehicle. It weighs about a kilogram, and features braces on the wrists and knees that limit the wearer’s range of motion.

While some of the finer points of the team’s efforts are likely to pass unnoticed, their work will make the cabins of future cars more user friendly. It’s something to think about next time you go for a drive.

Toyota cut annual output to 6.3 million

Toyota said the news report is not based on official information released by the company. Amid a deepening global economic downturn, the automaker has not yet announced output goals for the upcoming business year, said spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi.

On Wednesday, the world’s biggest automaker said its worldwide production in January slid 39.1 per cent from a year earlier to 487,984 vehicles. In the fiscal year through March 2008, Toyota made about 8.6 million vehicles worldwide. Toyota is forecasting its first annual net loss since 1950 as plunging demand for cars, especially in the United States, and the strong yen pummel earnings.

The company has tapped a member of the founding family, Akio Toyoda, to take over as president in hopes
the 52-year-old can engineer a turnaround.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4

Any car lover knows this gem. This monster two-seater is luxurious beyond words, but pièce de résistance is found behind the driver. Bugatti’s engineers combined two eight-cylinder engines together to make a 8.0-litre W16. Furthermore, it also boasts four turbochargers to produce a peak power output of 1,001 horsepower. In addition, it boasts a seven-speed double-clutch gearbox, and permanent all-wheel drive.

Critical injuries after car slams into tree

Another one person has been confirmed seriously injured after a car slammed into a tree in Markham. Regional police say that two vehicles were involved in the crash which happened at around 10:00 in the morning wednesday, in the Kennedy Road and Denison Street area.
One of the cars hit a tree. Police say the impact split the car in half.

And ofcoures to the rescue, An air ambulance is on the scene to transport a passenger who has life-threatening injuries to hospital.Traffic is being rerouted around the area while police investigate the crash scene.

The most stolen vehicles of 2008

Do you own a car or are you thinking about buying a vehicle? Styling, performance and features are important, but you may want to consider how likely your vehicle of choice is to be stolen.

The Canadian data was compiled by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, which obtained data from Canadian insurance companies. The IBC’s list provides data of the most stolen and least stolen vehicles in Canada for this year.

The U.S. data was compiled by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which obtained data regarding thefts of new vehicles sold between 2005 and 2007 in the United States.

Ticketed vehicle law’s

We all know that when it comes to grabbing the attention of the traffic law, there’s a common belief that drivers of sports cars are more prone to receiving tickets than others. However, Quality Planning Corp., the ISO company that analyzes policy holder information for insurance companies in the United States, found this isn’t necessarily the case.

Quality Planning looked at the number of tickets that drivers received between 2007 and 2008 while behind the wheel – and what make and model of vehicle they were driving. It then calculated a national average, based on the number of infractions (tickets) per 160,000 kilometres driven. Vehicles out of production for more than 10 years were excluded from the data.

The most and least polluting vehicles of 2009

Fuel efficiency has been a strong selling point in the auto industry for some time, but what’s often overlooked is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by a particular model in a given year. Fortunately, we can turn to Natural Resources Canada’s 2009 Fuel Consumption Guide to find out the most heinous eco offenders.

We’ve put together a Top 5 list of the most toxic cars, and another Top 5 of the most environmentally friendly vehicles.

Not surprisingly, vehicles with the biggest engines dominate the most-polluting vehicle list, while the most environmentally friendly cars are powered by a four-cylinder engine (some even have fewer cylinders).

Deciphering the 2009 Fuel Consumption Guide requires a bit of work: Some E85-powered vehicles are at the top of the list, but they wouldn’t be there were they ranked based on regular gas consumption (one example is the Lincoln Town Car which produces 3,040 kg of CO2 when running on E85 compared to 5,276 kg/year for the regular gas version). The other problem is that E85 is not readily available in Canada, compared to the United States where it is starting to be distributed on a larger scale. As such, the E85 figures aren’t included on our list.

Rocket ronnie’s skyline r33 gtr

08-09 Color Mathed Gauge Coming Soon!

DaddySSCP are working on a new version of their Ulta-Clarity lineup to match the 2008/2009 gauge cluster (amber/red with white needle).

They had serveral people contact them asking if they had plans to make Ultra gauges with a white needle to better match the 08+ models. Well enough folks have asked and now they are doing this sooner than expected and could have boost guages ready by end of March.

The other great news is the pricing. While the Ultra series boost gauge is normally $194.95, taking this opportunity to introduce Ultra “Basics”. Esentially they removed all the features that would require the IR Wireless remote module, and have left in the most asked for features.

So for $99.95 they will be offering a new Ultra “Basic” Boost with adjustable warning, peak recall, and 5 level day/night adjustable backlighting.

What I’d like to know is who would be immediately interested in a full set..Boost, EGT, Oil Pressure or Temp? We’re on the fence right now on just doing production of the boost or doing the fully set. Boost, EGT, Oil Pressure would run $359 when bought together($399 when purchased separte). These gauges will use the same quality sending units from the regular Ultra gauges.

This is all preliminary information, however DaddySSCP has a great reputation of following through on their great products!