ACRONYMNS & ABBREVIATIONS ABOUND III

A luxury SUV.... ahem, an SAV, a large luxo-limo, and now a luxurious everyday supercar.  The automotive world has decided unitedly to cling to acronymns and abbreviations.  The surprise with Porsche - contrary to the philosophies of BMW and Mercedes-Benz - is that all the ABC's, XYZ's and LMN's are actually clarified.  I know, I'm as shocked as you.  Here then, is the list of acro-abbrevia from the technical specifications page.

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PORSCHE 911 TURBO

VTG: "....With Variable Turbine Geometry, the exhaust flow is channeled into the turbines by way of electronically adjustable guide vanes. By changing the angle of these vanes, the system can replicate the advantages of a small turbo at low rpm, and a larger turbo as the tachometer climbs."

PTM: Porsche Traction Management

PASM: Porsche Active Suspension Management

LSA: Lightweight, stable, and agile - referring to the multilink rear suspension

PCCB: Porsche Carbon-Ceramic Brake

PSM: Porsche Stability Management

PCM: Porsche Communication Management

CAYENNE NEWS

Two wildly different Porsche Cayenne-related news items came forth recently. The German sportscar builder has now sent 2,000,000 Cayenne SUV's through production.  That's 600,000 Cayenne's on American roads.  Your guess of how many of those 600,000 are in SoCal is likely low.

A base Cayenne is Porsche USA's cheapest model at "just" $43,400. The most expensive version is double that.  Base MSRP's on Cayennes in the UK are about £3,000 higher than the £33,375 basic Boxster.  The Cayenne starts around $55,200 in Canada but $100K is easy to come by.  Bottom-of-the-rung Cayennes are the only Porsche's in Australia to start with an list price under $100K.

On the negative side of the ledger, the world's best (and hottest) bodyguard story has come to an end. Anna Loginova, a model who gained attention in campaigns for BMW and Chanel, was making about to make a routine trip in her Cayenne in Moscow when a thief appropriated the vehicle by pushing her aside.  Anna attempted to regain control of the situation but was dragged at speed by the thief and her own Porsche for several metres.  Logovina was dead before the ambulance even arrived.  The Cayenne was found abandoned later.

It was rumoured that Anna Loginova, the head of her all-woman security firm, was the bodyguard for Russian boxer Kostya Tszyu, although she denied it.  The 29-year old told the story of the previous car-jacking attempted on her in terrific fashion: "By reflex, I used a jujitsu technique. I twisted his arm and hit him on the face with my elbow. The guy obviously was not expecting such a reaction."  

VOLVO RECALL

Two of Volvo's smaller vehicles have been recalled to the tune of 82,000 cars.  Five-cylinder S40's and V50's made between 2004 and 2006 could face rust problems in their fuel pump electronic modules. That could eventually lead to a stall, and this is especially likely in major Volvo markets like Germany, the USA, and Sweden where rain, salt, and cold merge.

The V50's big brother, V70, is one of GoodCarBadCar's Good 12 for 2008.  The S40/V50 pair, and even the newer C30, are stylish small cars that major on comfort and safety, but throw in a dose of sportiness, too.  Volvo has faced the issue of too-small-compared-with-Accord and not-as-fun-as-BMW 3-series, but the S40/V50 are good cars for couples or families with small kids.

GM FLYING, JAGUAR DYIN'

General Motors American sales were 2.1% higher last month than in January of 2006, thanks in no small part to GMC's Acadia, Buick, Cadillac, and even Chevrolet and Saturn.  That 2.1% increase was generated despite a bit of negativity at Pontiac and free-falling Hummer and Saab sales, down 23.4% and 25%, respectively. 

Check out other General Motors-related posts here

Tata, the Indian conglomerate which is taking control of Jaguar and Land Rover, can't be too pleased (or surprised) with a 52.2% drop at the leaper brand or the 16.7% drop on the 4x4 side. Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln - former Jaguar/Land Rover cousins - featured lower sales than January of '06, although Volvo managed to make a minor climb, it's 2.9% gain likely aided by a C30 that's fully on stream. 

Learn more about the takeover here

Mazda, Mercedes, and Audi were the only other risers reporting.  We're unclear about BMW as of this posting.  That means Acura, Chrysler, Dodge, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jeep, Kia, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Suzuki, Subaru and Volkswagen all tumbled; at least slightly, from last January.

Mortage crisis, faltering stock markets, lack of job creation, and.... well, that sounds like enough reasons to send car salespersons into the winter blues.  Seasonal Affective Disorder?  This could be a looooong season.  Hold on tight.

ACRONYMNS & ABBREVIATIONS ABOUND II

BMW set the standard for this somewhat unfortunate competition with the X5 4.8i (check it out here). Now it's Mercedes' turn to acronym and abbreviate its way to the top of the heap.

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MERCEDES-BENZ S600

ESP: No, not that kind of power, but Mercedes would like you to think so.  This is Benz's Electronic Stability Program.

ABC: Active Body Control

ABS: Anti-lock Braking System

BAS: Brake Assist Plus

HID: High-Intensity Discharge headlamps, bi-xenon

COMAND: Cockpit Management and Navigation Display

OCS: Occupant Classification System

Coming up, Porsche will use a sports car's arsenal of acro/abbrevia to battle the S-class's ABC's.

ACRONYMNS & ABBREVIATIONS ABOUND

If that title were to more accurately reflect the nature of this article, it would be, "AAAA."  That would be adding a fair dose of alliteration to the abbreviation, which isn't such a bad thing. Although completely unnecessary for understanding this post, my father the teacher would insist on a simple grammar lesson.

Acronyms and abbreviations are different items.  OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is a word formed from the initial letters of a group.  O-P-E-C becomes a pronouncable word. CBC, or Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is a simple abbreviation.  The pronunciation is completed by simply spelling out the letters, C-B-C.  But I digress... terribly.

Read through Car&Driver, MotorTrend, Edmunds.com, or even GoodCarBadCar, and the common reader (or writer) must fight through numerous automotive acronyms and abbreviations. Just how many per spec sheet?  GoodCarBadCar is completing a website review and the results are interesting. First, a luxury sport-ute.

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BMW X5 4.8i

Before we can even start the acro/abbrev search inside the X5's Features and Specs tab, BMW lays one on thick.  The header lists the X5 as a SAV - that's sport-activity vehicle, BMW's favourite nomenclature for the vehicles we all call SUV's, sport-utes, crossovers, 4x4's, or tall wagons. Continuing down the page, here's what you find:

Under standard features, the following.....

Double-VANOS: this is BMW's terminology for a system that modifies the position of the intake camshaft as it relates to the crankshaft, in essence providing a better spread of power through the rev range.

DSC: Dynamic Stability Control

DTC: Dynamic Traction Control

(BMW ignores the potential usage of DBC and DCC and lists Dynamic Brake Control and Dynamic Cruise Control instead)

HDC: Hill Descent Control

Under packages & options and specifications, BMW uses complete words.  There are a couple abbreviations, like SRS, that are typical across the industry.  Representative of our era, the main X5 4.8i overview page lists RTTI (real time traffic information) as well as USB and HD.  

Next up, a luxury sedan from Mercedes-Benz.  Oh, but wait, we forgot one....

BMW: Bayerische Motoren Werke

 

U.S. SALES UP? OR DOWN?

Autoblog and Autoline's John McElroy wrote a very interesting post right here. Rather than look at numbers in isolation, John views the forest rather than the trees and presents a conundrum for American new car sales. Population growing, sales stagnant.  Very good reading.  Check it out.