AUTOMOBILE

In terms of the lives of average people, there is little doubt that the automobile is the most revolutionary invention in the history of transportation since the wheel. The basic premise of the automobile is simple; choose a wheeled vehicle from the many types typically pulled by horses or oxen, add a motor and create a self-propelled, personal transportation vehicle. The earliest ancestor of the modern automobile is probably the Fardier, a three-wheeled, steam-powered, 2.3-mph vehicle built in 1771 by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot for the French minister of war. This cumbersome machine was never put into production because it was much slower and harder to operate than a horse-drawn vehicle.

Amedee Bollee, also a Frenchman, built an improved 12-passenger steam car in 1873, but the steam engine proved impractical for a machine that was intended to challenge the speed of a horse-and-buggy. The invention of the practical automobile had to await the invention of a workable internal combustion engine.

AT THE ACCIDENT SCENE

1. Stop immediately, but do not block traffic. Warn oncoming automobiles. Telephone the police.

2. Assist anyone who may be injured:

a. Call for an ambulance
or arrange for other
transportation to a
hospital or doctor if needed.

b. Tell the investigating officer
about the injuries.

c. Cooperate fully with the
doctor and medical staff.

3. Unless your vehicle is creating the potential for another accident, do not move it or the accident debris until you are instructed to do so by the investigating police officer.

4. Do not discuss the accident with anyone other than the investigating police officer, your doctors, your own insurance representatives and your lawyer.

5. Make written notes of any statements made by the driver or occupants of the other vehicle as to how the accident occurred.

Brazil

The Brazilian automotive industry produced almost 3 million vehicles in 2007. Most of large global companies are present in Brazil, such as Fiat, Volkswagen, Ford, GM, Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, Renault etc, and also the emerging national companies such as Troller, Marcopolo S.A., Agrale, Randon among others.

The Brazilian industry in regulated by the Associação Nacional dos Fabricantes de Veículos Automotores (Anfavea), created in 1956, which includes Auto makers (automobiles, light vehicles, trucks and buses)and Agriculture machines with factories in Brazil.

Anfavea is part of the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA), based in Paris.

Britain

The British motor industry has always been export oriented. Today it employs about 850,000 people and produces about 1.5 million cars and 216,000 commercial vehicles per year, 75% of which are exported. The top five UK car producers are Nissan, Toyota, Honda, MINI and Land Rover. However, international competitiveness of UK cars have declined consistently since the 1990s and the country became unable to sustain production on par with Germany or France. Since 2000, motor vehicle production fell from 1,813,894 to 1,750,253. The country was overtaken by fast industrializing economies such as Brazil, India and Mexico. The UK is the 12th largest automobile producer in the world but Russia is poised to overtake it in 2008.

Unlike most other automobile magazines, Automobile does not often do instrumented tests of cars or provide much technical data. Instead, the reviews of vehicles are subjective experiential reports with the cars in their naturally intended, real world environment. Additionally, Automobile reserves a good portion of each issue covering vehicles no longer in production, but still relevant to collectors or automotive history as a whole. For example, it includes features such as "Collectable Classic," an in-depth review of a particular older car, and reports from recent classic and antique car auctions. It also has a regular column by former General Motors designer Robert Cumberford, who analyzes styling elements of current production models and show cars, often linking their design to those of older cars.