Noul Suzuki Swift

În cadrul Salonului Auto de la Paris din luna octombrie, japonezii de la Suzuki au prezentat un succesor al noului model Swift. 

           Trebuie să menţionez faptul că modelul lansat în 2004 a impresionat foarte mult prin noua linie de design agresiv adoptată, Suzuki reuşind să atragă atenţia peste tot în lume, la vremea respectivă reuşind să câştige mai multe distincţii, printre care şi 63 de premii „Maşina anului” în 19 ţări.

            În schimb, noul model nu mai impresionează atât de mult, riscând chiar să se înţeleagă prin designul abordat că de fapt ar fi vorba doar despre o restilizare şi nu o nouă generaţie. Rămâne de văzut cum va fi primit de către clienţi.

Pentru Europa, Suzuki va produce acest model în fabrica sa din Esztergom, Ungaria. Deşi din punct de vedere estetic modificările nu sunt majore, luând în considerare datele tehnice furnizate de către producător putem observa că noul Swift are dimensiuni mai mari decât vechea generaţie, fiind mai înalt cu 10 mm si mai lung cu 90 mm, existând două versiuni de caroserie, cu 3 şi 5 uşi.

Clienţii noului Swift vor putea alege între două variante de motorizare, ambele în 3 cilindri, una pe benzină iar cealaltă diesel. Motorul pe benzină, de 1,2 litri si 94 cai putere dispune de tehnologia de tip VVT. Unitatea diesel are o capacitate de 1,3 litri şi dispune de 75 cai putere.

Nici normele de poluare nu au fost neglijate de către cei de la Suzuki, aceştia anunţând că unitatea pe benzina are un consum de 5 litri/100 km, iar emisiile de CO2 au fost reduse cu 17 procente, până la valoarea de 116 grame/km. Pentru motorul diesel sunt necesari doar 4,2 litri de combustibil pentru a parcurge 100 km, iar emisiile de CO2 sunt de 109 grame/km, cu 9 procente mai mici decât vechea motorizare.

Producătorul mai precizează faptul că folosirea pe scară largă a unui oţel cu rezistenţă mai mare, a dus la scăderea greutăţii, dar in acelaşi timp crescând rigiditatea modelului.

What is GM doing?

To tell you the truth I am very disappointed about GM. Let me explain you why.

In 2009 GM was in a very critical situation and needed help from US Government. They got it...dozens of billions of dollars, Governmental help.

Then, they decided last summer to sell Opel/Vauxhall, a very important brand in Europe. They started negotiation with Magna (a Canadian car parts company) and Sversbank (a Russian state bank). In these negotiations were involved also the German authorities. Suddenly the GM officials changed their mind and cut all negotiations involving Opel.


GM is also the owner of Swedish auto manufacturer SAAB. They wanted to sell it too, so the negotiations started with different bidders but only one of them was than selected - Koenigsegg (I know, pretty hard to pronounce it). Koenigsegg is a Swedish super-car manufacturer. After many talks, GM started to have more and more demands from Koenigsegg, so the Swedish bidder dropped the negotiations. A new bidder came along and wanted to buy SAAB. This bidder was also a super-car manufacturer, like Koenigsegg, but Dutch and with a dog's name: Spyker. GM considers that the new bidder was not good enough so they rejected the offer. However, Spyker, like a dog that did not want to give up his bone, made another bid. Again, GM rejected the offer and they conclude that nobody is good enough to buy SAAB, and as if a mad husband said that if he cannot have SAAB, nobody will have it...so they will kill it. Sad, isn't it?

Now, we find out that GM has not finish giving bad news to its employees from Europe. Today they announced that the Opel factory from Antwerp, Belgium is going to be close and more than 2.600 people will lose their job.

It is very interesting how GM does things. On the Buick carmaker website, they say that are going to launch a new model named Regal, a model based on Opel Insignia, a very successful model. Opel engineers developed Insignia and after their great job; GM taught they could give a great bonus to Opel...SHUTTING DOWN THE PLANT FROM ANTWERP!!!

Does anybody understand what is GM doing? What are the CEO's, Officers and Managers have in their heads?

GM lost $88 billion between 2005 and 2008 and now they have to sell everything. I wonder what will be the next step/shock that GM will make.

Haiti crisis

At this hour, everybody heard about the Haiti earthquake. It's interesting how in these difficult times for this Haitian people, there are others that try to "earn" money with scams about raising support for Haiti, using this crisis as a "gold mine".

If you want to be part of the people who want to help with money, make sure that you know something about the organization that does this. Try to find out some information about the organization, so your money will get where it supposed.

I do not want to give any links to different organizations involved in helping Haiti; I only want to make you aware of what is happening around Haiti situation.

Please pray for Haiti nation as it is going probably through the worst time of its history. Pray that all funds and help raised by all organizations will get where they supposed.