II. True, false, or not given
1.The first Passat came into a market in 1973.
2.Passat was the first station wagon for family usage.
3.In Europe and America Passat was known under different names.
4.The first Passat diesel engine was introduced in 1979.
5.Before 1979 Passat had an engine comprised of four pistons allocated linearly.
6.Starting from 1981 Volkswagen produced diesel-powered Passat Wagons only the US.
7.Up to the third generation of Passats, there were only diesel-engined VPs available in the US.
8.From 1998 to 2000 Volkswagen offered American buyers a choice of either a 5-speed automatic or 5-speed manual transmission.
9.Passat became a luxury car in 2000 and has stayed in the segment ever since.
10.There had not been any upgrades of diesel engines before 2004.
11.Passat will become a more squared vehicle again in the near future.
12.Volkswagen’s representatives have made some comments on the future development of Passat.
some extra texts to enjoy and ponder on
Text A. Criticism
A poster used to promote carpooling as a way to ration gasoline during World War II.
Transportation is a major contributor to air pollution in most industrialised nations. According to the American Surface Transportation Policy Project nearly half of all Americans are breathing unhealthy air. Their study showed air quality in dozens of metropolitan areas has worsened over the last decade. In the United States the average passenger car emits 11,450 pounds (5,190 kg) of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide annually, along with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen.
Animals and plants are often negatively impacted by automobiles via habitat destruction and pollution. Over the lifetime of the average automobile the "loss of habitat potential" may be over 50,000 square meters (540,000 sq.ft.). Millions of animals are also killed every year on roads by automobiles—so-called roadkill.
Growth in the popularity of vehicles and commuting has led to traffic congestion. Brussels is considered Europe's most congested city.
Fuel taxes may act as an incentive for the production of more efficient, hence less polluting, car designs (e.g. hybrid vehicles) and the development of alternative fuels. High fuel taxes may provide a strong incentive for consumers to purchase lighter, smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, or to not drive. On average, today's automobiles are about 75 percent recyclable, and using recycled steel helps reduce energy use and pollution. In the United States Congress, federally mandated fuel efficiency standards have been debated regularly, passenger car standards have not risen above the 27.5 miles per US gallon (8.55L/100km; 33.0mpg-imp) standard set in 1985. Light truck standards have changed more frequently, and were set at 22.2miles per US gallon (10.6L/100km; 26.7mpg-imp) in 2007. Alternative fuel vehicles are another option that is less polluting than conventional petroleum powered vehicles.
Oil consumption in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been abundantly pushed by automobile growth; the 1985 – 2003 oil glut (перепроизводство нефти, перенасыщение рынка нефти) even fuelled the sales of low economy vehicles in OECD (Организация экономического сотрудничества и развития) countries. The BRIC countries might also kick in, as China briefly was the first automobile market in December 2009.
Residents of low-density, residential-only sprawling communities are also more likely to die in car collisions which kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number. Sprawl is more broadly a factor in inactivity and obesity, which in turn can lead to increased risk of a variety of diseases.
Source: http://www.transact.org/report.asp?id=227
John A. Jakle, Keith A. Sculle. (2004). Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture. Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press.ISBN 0813922666.
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Text B. BMW
BMW entered existence as a business entity following a restructuring of the Rapp Motorenwerke aircraft engine manufacturing firm in 1917. After the end of World War I in 1918, BMW was forced to cease aircraft engine production by the terms of the Versailles Armistice Treaty. The company consequently shifted to motorcycle production in 1923 once the restrictions of the treaty started to be lifted, followed by automobiles in 1928–29.
The circular blue and white BMW logo or roundel is portrayed by BMW as the movement of an aircraft propeller, to signify the white blades cutting through the blue sky – an interpretation that BMW adopted for convenience in 1929, twelve years after the roundel was created. The emblem evolved from the circular Rapp Motorenwerke company logo, from which the BMW company grew, combined with the blue and white colours of the flag of Bavaria, reversed to produce the BMW roundel (маленький диск, нечто круглое). However, the origin of the logo being based on the movement of a propeller is in dispute, according to an article posted in 2010 by the New York Times, quoting “at the BMW Museum in Munich, Anne Schmidt-Possiwal, explained that the blue-and-white company logo did not represent a spinning propeller, but was meant to show the colours of the Free State of Bavaria.”
BMW's first significant aircraft engine was the BMW IIIa inline-six liquid-cooled engine of 1918, much preferred for its high-altitude performance. With German rearmament in the 1930s, the company again began producing aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe. Among its successful WWII engine designs were the BMW 132 and BMW 801 air-cooled radial engines, and the pioneering BMW 003 axial-flow turbojet, which powered the tiny, 1944-1945-era jet-powered "emergency fighter", the Heinkel He 162 Spatz. The BMW 003 jet engine was tested in the A-1b version of the world's first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt, but BMW engines failed on takeoff, a major setback for the jet fighter program until successful testing with Junkers engines.
In 2006, the BMW group (including Mini and Rolls-Royce) produced 1,366,838 four-wheeled vehicles, which were manufactured in five countries. In 2010, it manufactured 1,481,253 four-wheeled vehicles and 112,271 motorcycles (under both the BMW and Husqvarna brands).
The BMW X3 (E83) was made by Magna Steyr, a subsidiary of Magna of Canada, in Graz, Austria under license from BMW until 2010. Over 45.973 were produced in 2009. Starting October 2010 the new BMW X3 (F25) is produced in BMW's plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S.A. From September 2010, the plant is producing MINI Countryman.
It is reported that about 56 per cent BMW brand vehicles produced are powered by petrol engines and the remaining 44 per cent are powered by diesel engines. Of those petrol vehicles, about 27 per cent are four cylinder models and about nine per cent are eight-cylinder models.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW
http://www.ovguide.com/bmw-9202a8c04000641f8000000000009faf
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