Two Car Part Inventors

Early automobiles had tillers, similar to the tillers used to steer boats. The tiller was attached to a simple mechanism that made the car’s front wheels turn when the tiller was pushed to the left or right. During 1894, a French engineer named Alfred Vacheron modified his Panhard runabout, replacing the tiller with a wheel attached to a shaft that went through the floor of the vehicle at a nearly vertical angle, where it attached to a mechanism that turned the front wheels.

Packard likely came up with the glove box. An article in a 1900 edition of The Horseless Age magazine describes the Model B: “The body of the carriage shows the best possible coach work and upholstering, and the aim has been to get rid of the ‘horse wanted’ appearance. The leather dash is not used, but instead a boot or box forms part of the body. In this is ample space for parcels, waterproofs, etc.” Other automakers soon started adding compartment-like features in place of old-fashioned dashes. The modern-looking glove compartment, with a drop-down door, first appeared during the 1920s.

Sunday Car Buying

In fourteen US states, car dealers are not legally allowed to be open on Sunday and many cities have similar laws. Even in states and cities where dealerships can be open on Sunday, there are sometimes restrictions on what time they can be open or that require a dealer to choose to be closed on either Saturday or Sunday. The reason is called a blue law and blue laws were enacted for religious reasons to allow people to practice their faith on Sunday, instead of buying liquor or automobiles.

Flying vs. Driving

MIT statistics professor Arnold Barnett reports that in the last five years, the risk of dying on a flight in the United States was one in 45 million. So, you can fly every day for 123,000 years before encountering a crash.

Your chance of being killed in a car accident in a given year is one in 7,000, making flying thousands of times safer.

Car Colors

Have we become automotively boring? Seems like the car color choices we make are as boring as the car design choices.

The superstar of car colors has been silver since 1990, and according to PPG's latest study, it continues. For the tenth year in a row, the silver, charcoal and gray category are number one colors for new car buyers. In 2008, it accounted for 20 percent of vehicles sold, 25 percent in 2009, and currently is 31 percent.

Behind silver are black and white, tied for second with 18 percent apiece. Red is 11 percent and blue is 10 percent. Last at 4 percent is green.

Speaking of Quiet

The Japanese have a problem. Japan's near-silent hybrid cars have been called dangerous by the vision-impaired and some users, prompting a government review on whether to add a noise-making device, according to an official.

The gas-electric vehicles, which in recent months have become the country's top-selling autos, hum along almost soundlessly when they are switched from fuel to battery mode.

The ministry has launched a panel of scholars, vision-impaired groups, consumers, police and the automobile industry to discuss the matter. They decided to consider introducing a sound-making function" in petrol-electric hybrids when the 13-member panel held its first meeting Thursday, the official said. They have not decided on what kind of sound should be used.

"On the other hand, we should pay attention to residents along roads as hybrids are excellent in reducing noise," the official added. Reduce sound pollution. OK, we reduced it. Now how much should we add back?

New Nano

This Tata Motors (the company that bought land Rover and Jaguar) Nano went on sale this week March 23, in India for $2,000. It claims to be the 'world's cheapest car'. It will also be sold in Europe in 2011. I wonder why they didn't say 'inexpensive'?