Portal:Cars

The Cars Portal

An electric car charging station at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This station is run by Petrobras and uses solar energy.

A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people, not cargo.

The French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first steam-powered road vehicle in 1769, while the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed and constructed the first internal combustion-powered automobile in 1808. The modern car—a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use—was invented in 1886, when the German inventor Carl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Commercial cars became widely available during the 20th century. One of the first cars affordable by the masses was the Ford Model T, begun in 1908, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the US, where they replaced horse-drawn carriages. In Europe and other parts of the world, demand for automobiles did not increase until after World War II. The car is considered an essential part of the developed economy.

Cars have controls for driving, parking, passenger comfort, and a variety of lamps. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex. These include rear-reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in-car entertainment. Most cars in use in the early 2020s are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels. Electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, became commercially available in the 2000s and are predicted to cost less to buy than petrol-driven cars before 2025. The transition from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric cars features prominently in most climate change mitigation scenarios, such as Project Drawdown's 100 actionable solutions for climate change. (Full article...)

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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

"Cog" is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Honda in 2003 to promote the seventh-generation Accord line of cars. It follows the convention of a Rube Goldberg machine, utilizing a chain of colliding parts taken from a disassembled Accord. Wieden+Kennedy developed a £6 million marketing campaign around "Cog" and its partner pieces, "Sense" and "Everyday", broadcast later in the year. The piece itself was produced on a budget of £1 million by Partizan Midi-Minuit. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet directed the seven-month production, contracting The Mill to handle post-production. The 120-second final cut of "Cog" was broadcast on British television on 6 April 2003, during a commercial break in ITV's coverage of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.

The campaign was very successful both critically and financially. Honda's UK domain saw more web traffic in the 24 hours after "Cog"'s television début than all but one UK automotive brand received during that entire month. The branded content attached to "Cog" through interactive television was accessed by more than 250,000 people, and 10,000 people followed up with a request for a brochure for the Honda Accord or a DVD copy of the advertisement. The media reaction to the advertisement was equally effusive; The Independent's Peter York described it as creating "the water-cooler ad conversation of the year", while Quentin Letts of The Daily Telegraph believed it was "certain to become an advertising legend". (Full article...)

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The service station in 2010

The Huning Highlands Conoco Service Station is a historic gas station in the Huning Highlands neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was built in 1937 by the Continental Oil Company (Conoco) and is notable as a well-preserved example of the automobile-oriented development that shaped the city during the mid-20th century. The building was listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The service station is built in the form of a cottage, a popular design at the time, with a steeply pitched compound gable roof and a chimney. The walls are white glazed brick with green trim. The building has a side-gabled office section on the west side adjoining two front-gabled garage bays with wooden roll-up doors. The easternmost garage bay was an addition built onto the original station around 1939. The property also includes concrete gas pump islands, a c. 1960s light pole and a steel sign post, though the pumps, tanks, and signage have been removed. The station was operated by Conoco until 1961, then by Horn Oil Company until around 1983. In 1992, the vacant station was leased by the Albuquerque Conservation Association (TACA), which uses the building as headquarters for its preservation workshops and other activities. (Full article...)

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1928 Model A Ford

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Ferdinand Karl Piëch (German pronunciation: [ˈfɛʁdinant ˈpiːɛç] ^ⓘ; 17 April 1937 – 25 August 2019) was an Austrian business magnate, engineer and executive who was the chairman of the executive board (Vorstandsvorsitzender) of Volkswagen Group in 1993–2002 and the chairman of the supervisory board (Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender) of Volkswagen Group in 2002–2015.

Ferdinand Piëch, a luminary in automotive engineering, spearheaded groundbreaking technologies such as TDI and the Quattro all-wheel drive system. His pivotal contributions transformed Volkswagen into a global titan among car manufacturers. With unparalleled engineering acumen, he epitomized passionate perfectionism, ceaselessly advancing automotive innovation. Piëch's legacy endures as one of Germany's most esteemed engineers, notably influencing the development of the MQB platform. (Full article...)

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On this day May 27

1923 — André Lagache and René Léonard win the first 24 Hours of Le Mans race

1927 — Ford Model T production is halted after 19 years

2002 — The first Nissan Quest is built at Nissan's plant in Canton, Mississippi

2004 — Umberto Agnelli dies

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Did you know...

...that the racing version of the Dauer 962 Le Mans, winner of 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans, is a roadcar converted from a Porsche 962 racecar, which dominated Le Mans, Group C and IMSA during the 1980s.
...that the 25 Millionth VW Golf rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg in March 2007. The first Golf started production in 1974, 33 years later the 1.4 litre TSI version became the 25 Millionth car.
...that the nearly identical Ford Model T engines were produced for exactly 12,000 days
...that the first production turbocharged cars were General Motors' A-body 1962 Chevrolet Corvair and Oldsmobile F-85?
...that Jeep introduced the 1993 Grand Cherokee and 2007 Wrangler in the same way — by driving them through a plate glass window?
...that a small number of Renault 20s, badged as Dacia 2000, were made in the 1980s by Dacia in Romania for Romanian communist dignitaries of that time?
...that the Autobianchi Primula was the Fiat's first automobile with the front-wheel drive, transverse engine setup and rack and pinion steering?
...that the Plymouth Sundance is a liftback, even though the outside appearance might suggest that it is a sedan?

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We could remain independent while we had a fighting chance. Emissions and new Japanese competition showed us we didn't.

—Sir John Egan, explaining the sale of Jaguar Cars to Ford

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General images

The following are images from various car-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, perhaps the first electric car in the world (from History of the automobile)
Image 21946 GAZ-M20 Pobeda, one of the first mass-produced cars with pontoon design (from History of the automobile)
Image 3The Selden Road-Engine (from History of the automobile)
Image 41974 Citroën DS (from History of the automobile)
Image 51926 Bugatti Type 35 (from History of the automobile)
Image 6A car being assembled in a factory (from Car)
Image 7A Tesla Model Y electric car, the world's best-selling car in the first and second quarters of 2023. (from History of the automobile)
Image 8Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A (from History of the automobile)
Image 9A replica of Richard Trevithick's 1801 road locomotive 'Puffing Devil' (from History of the automobile)
Image 10Gurgel Supermini (from History of the automobile)
Image 11Ransom E. Olds founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company (Oldsmobile) in 1897. (from Car)
Image 12The Toyota Corolla is the world's bestselling nameplate. (from History of the automobile)
Image 13Bertha Benz, the first long distance driver (from Car)
Image 14Carl Benz, the inventor of the modern car (from Car)
Image 15Audi A4 daytime running lights (from Car)
Image 161929 Alfa Romeo 6C (from History of the automobile)
Image 17Cugnot's steam wagon, the second (1771) version (from History of the automobile)
Image 181885-built Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first modern car—a practical, marketable automobile for everyday use (from History of the automobile)
Image 19The Flocken Elektrowagen was the first four-wheeled electric car (from Car)
Image 20Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris (from Car)
Image 21Steam machine of Verbiest, in 1678 (Ferdinand Verbiest) (from Car)
Image 22The first automobile in Japan, a French Panhard-Levassor, in 1898 (from History of the automobile)
Image 23Car exhaust gas is one type of pollution
Image 24Result of a serious car collision (from Car)
Image 252011 Nissan Leaf electric car (from Car)
Image 26A Stanley Steamer racecar in 1903. In 1906, a similar Stanley Rocket set the world land speed record at 205.5 km/h (127.7 mph) at Daytona Beach Road Course. (from History of the automobile)
Image 27Rolls-Royce Phantom III (from History of the automobile)
Image 28The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car of all-time. (from Car)
Image 29Volkswagen Beetle (from History of the automobile)
Image 30A Chevrolet Suburban extended-length SUV weighs 3,300 kilograms (7,200 lb) (gross weight). (from Car)
Image 31The original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first modern car, built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept (from Car)
Image 32Scaled model of the second Marcus car of 1875 (from History of the automobile)
Image 331959 Morris Mini-Minor (from History of the automobile)
Image 34Model-T Ford car parked near the Geelong Art Gallery at its launch in Australia in 1915 (from History of the automobile)
Image 351958 Lancia Appia (from History of the automobile)
Image 36The weight of the low battery stabilises the car. This is a dual-motor, four-wheel-drive layout but many cars only have one motor. (from Car)
Image 371929 Austin Seven (from History of the automobile)
Image 38In the Ford Model T the left-side hand lever sets the rear wheel parking brakes and puts the transmission in neutral. The lever to the right controls the throttle. The lever on the left of the steering column is for ignition timing. The left foot pedal changes the two forward gears while the centre pedal controls reverse. The right pedal is the brake. (from Car)
Image 39Stuttgart, a cradle of the car with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach working there at the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and place of the modern day headquarters of Mercedes-Benz Group and Porsche (from Car)
Image 40The Vélib' in Paris, France, is the largest bikesharing system outside China. (from Car)
Image 41Panel for fuses and circuit breakers (from Car)
Image 42Trucks' share of US vehicles produced, has tripled since 1975. Though vehicle fuel efficiency has increased within each category, the overall trend toward less efficient types of vehicles has offset some of the benefits of greater fuel economy and reductions in pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. Without the shift towards SUVs, energy use per unit distance could have fallen 30% more than it did from 2010 to 2022. (from Car)
Image 43Fiat 4 HP, the first car model produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat in 1899 (from History of the automobile)
Image 44Ford Motor Company automobile assembly line in the 1920s (from Car)
Image 451954 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, one of the first US all-metal station wagons (from History of the automobile)
Image 46A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car. (from Car)
Image 47Road congestion is an issue in many major cities (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing). (from Car)
Image 481924 Doble Model E (from History of the automobile)
Image 49The Präsident automobile (from History of the automobile)
Image 50The Ford Model T (foreground) and Volkswagen Beetle (background) are among the most mass-produced car models in history. (from History of the automobile)