Auto Trends

It may be almost Halloween around here at Auto Trends, but I’m not talking about a cool scary mask, or a new Friday the 13^th movie, but rather your standard, everyday automotive shop creeper… with a serious love of heights!

Your standard creeper has been around for decades. It keeps your back clean, allows you to move around on the garage floor to various areas of the underside of your vehicle with relative ease, and can actually make the chore of changing your oil, an acceptable task. Heck, I know of a mechanic or two who has even been known to fall asleep on one of these a time or two.

But come to think of it, after decades of using one, we were missing half of the equation. The top portion of the equation. Imagine how nice it would be to arrange yourself to conveniently levitate around the top portion of your engine. The convenience to slide around the various nooks and crannies, without the necessity of physically climbing into the engine bay (been there, done that).

I didn’t even know what I had been missing, until I was introduced this Fall to a rather innovative product. It is called The Elevator and it is manufactured by Nomad. Basically it is an elevated shop creeper, which works particularly well on large trucks, SUVs, and other 4X4s. It has various heights it can be adjusted to, ranging from anywhere around 3-feet to 6 ½-feet suspended off the ground.

It features a relatively comfortable padded top, grippers to help you climb aboard, a tool tray, so you won’t find yourself climbing up and down. It also has soft touch bumpers, to protect the finish of your vehicle while sliding it in and out from the underside of your vehicle. About the only things this unit doesn’t include is a pillow, cup holder, and big screen television.

It doesn’t come cheap at around $650 for the entire assembly, but for those of you with a less than perfect backs, you just might be able to pay it off in a couple of years with the reduced number of trips to the orthopedist and masseuse. If you know how to weld, you might also be able to facet one together yourself, if you’re game. Either way, this is a pretty cool garage helper for the serious hobbyist.

[Photo via Nomad Manufacturing]

Autowereld.com: Mitsubishi PX-MiEV, originally uploaded by iflavour

Continuing on with the Tokyo Motor Show, which opened to the public on October 21, 2009. Mitsubishi had a rather interesting plug-in hybrid concept to show, which got people thinking. What does my current vehicle smell like? Do those fragrance pine trees really do all that much good? Who thinks up this stuff anyway?

The Mitsubishi PX-MiEV is an electric hybrid vehicle that has taken some of its focus from performance and exterior appeal, and placed it on its smell. The entire interior package (called the “cocochi”) of the concept MiEV is dedicated to making the drivers experience in their vehicle, as pleasurable to the olfactory senses as possible.

Unlike the typical fragrance aids you can purchase for your vehicle, such as those pine trees, the MiEV does not try to cover over the chemical smell of your vehicle, but rather cancel it out from its source. To begin with, the interior is lined with a double layer of fabric, which serves two purposes:

Layer #1- An anti-allergy coating prevents the offensive odor and effects of pollens, organic compounds, and even those little bugs that live in our carpets and beds.

Layer #2- A second layer is designed to resist fragrant smells (chemicals) from being released into the cabin. The seats will also each feature internal air conditioning, which will help circulate the stagnant air around the passengers.

There are a lot of candle companies that claim they can change ones mood, simply by smelling a certain fragrance. The PX-MiEV is banking on this fact, as it introduces its new detection software, which is able to decipher the smell a driver most needs to remain comfortable, relaxed, and alert.

On a normal day, when the driver is detected as energetic and controlling the vehicle well, the MiEV will concentrate a very faint perfume and negative-ion oxygen, in order to keep them relaxed, while also helping to reduce any fatigue.

On a rough day, where the drivers concentration is off (wandering on the road), the MiEV will produce a slightly different fragrance meant to heighten driver alertness. For those really bad days, where the driver is actually nodding at the wheel, the MiEV will alert the driver with a series of visual, vibration, and audio warnings. Yes, having a back-up just in case the fragrance isn’t enough to do the job, is always a good thing!

To top it off, the glass will feature UV radiation blocking layers, to keep the dangerous rays of the sun off the skin during those really long days in rush hour. This vehicle is practically a mobile health-spa if you ask me, only without the masseuse.

But less we forget the true purpose of the PV-MiEV, which is to get its passengers from A to B. It also features a high tech, hybrid electric motor system, worth 118 miles to the gallon. Okay, now all that is left is a really good slogan:

At last, an automotive improvement that doesn’t stink!

Something smell a little fishy? Well it’s certainly ain’t your PV-MiEV!

Well, you get the idea…

N800 GPS Jukebox, originally uploaded by Qole Tech

GearLog reported this week that the supply and demand curve for the portable GPS is about to dip down favorably for the buyer. The market for portable GPS grew about 40 percent last year, but this year they are expecting growth to level off significantly, and even drop slightly. The drop in growth will only surmount to about 1 percent, with approximate 42 million units sold.

If you have been shopping for a new GPS within the last couple years, you undoubtedly have noticed that prices have dropped compared to several years ago. You can get a decently loaded unit these days for around $150 to $200, with the better units running around $300-plus. What’s been going on is manufacturing costs for the technology has been steadily decreasing.

There is also that little factor known as competition. While the GPS was once considered a luxury item, now-a-days, you’ll find standard units in just about everything from a Lexus to a Ford. Another reason the marketability for the portable GPS is leveling off, is most companies are preparing for the shift in technology to cell phone applications.

The trend of the cell phone is to become the universal remote control for our life; controlling everything from our homes to our vehicles. There are several mapping programs out, but up until recently their features were not nearly as convenient as the stand alone units.

The old GPS cell phone applications used minimum memory, relying on the server to track your destination and current location. With memory cards becoming smaller and less expensive, the newer applications will load the entire mapping software directly to the cell phone (1GB), where it will be more reliable, convenient, quick, and easy to use.

How Cheap Could We Be Looking At?
The price of a typical units with a nice amount of bells and whistles should settle in around $99 to $125. Even the more elite units shouldn’t cost much more than $250 on average. You can expect these prices to possibly start to settle in just in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season.

Source: GearLog