Portal:Cars

The Cars Portal

Cars and trucks driving on Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada

A car (or automobile) is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transportation. Most definitions of cars say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four tires, and mainly transport people rather than goods.

Cars came into global use during the 20th century, and developed economies depend on them. The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car when German inventor Karl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Cars became widely available in the early 20th century. One of the first cars accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the US, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other parts of the world.

Cars have controls for driving, parking, passenger comfort, and a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, making them progressively more complex, but also more reliable and easier to operate. These include rear reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in-car entertainment. Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by an internal combustion engine, fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels. Electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, became commercially available in the 2000s and are predicted to cost less to buy than gasoline cars before 2025.

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Entries here consist of Good and Featured articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

The 2011 Nissan Leaf was the first electric car equipped with Nissan's Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians.

Electric vehicle warning sounds are sounds designed to alert pedestrians to the presence of electric drive vehicles such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and all-electric vehicles (EVs) travelling at low speeds. Warning sound devices were deemed necessary by some government regulators because vehicles operating in all-electric mode produce less noise than traditional combustion engine vehicles and can make it more difficult for pedestrians, the blind, cyclists, and others, to be aware of their presence. Warning sounds may be driver triggered (as in a horn but less urgent) or automatic at low speeds; in type, they vary from clearly artificial (beeps, chimes) to those that mimic engine sounds and those of tires moving over gravel.

Japan issued guidelines for such warning devices in January 2010 and the U.S. approved legislation in December 2010. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued its final ruling in February 2018, and requires the device to emit warning sounds at speeds less than 18.6 mph (30 km/h) with compliance by September 2020, but 50% of "quiet" vehicles must have the warning sounds by September 2019. In April 2014, the European Parliament approved legislation that requires the mandatory use of acoustic vehicle alerting systems (AVAS). Manufacturers must install an AVAS system in four-wheeled electric and hybrid electric vehicles that are approved from July 1, 2019, and to all new quiet electric and hybrid vehicles registered from July 2021. The vehicle must make a continuous noise level of at least 56 dBA (within 2 meters) if the car is going 20 km/h (12 mph) or slower, and a maximum of 75 dBA. Read more...

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1983 DeLorean

The DMC DeLorean (often referred to simply as the "DeLorean", as it was the only model ever produced by the company) is a sports car manufactured by John DeLorean's DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) for the American market from 1981 through 1983. The car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and stood out for its gull-wing doors and brushed stainless-steel outer body panels, as well as an innovative fiberglass body structure with a steel backbone chassis. It became widely known for its disappointing lack of power and performance, which did not match the expectations created by its looks and price tag, but it became iconic for its appearances as the time machine in the Back to the Future media franchise after 1985.

Throughout production, the car was generally unchanged, although minor modifications were made to such parts as the hood and wheels. The first production car was completed on January 21, 1981. About 9,000 DeLoreans were made before production halted in late December 1982. In 2007, about 6,500 DeLorean cars were thought to still exist. Read more...

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DMC DeLorean Mini Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W205) Mini Moke Volkswagen Beetle Le Mans Prototype Mercedes-Benz BMW General Motors Chrysler Ford Motor Company Maserati Lamborghini Volkswagen Hyundai Motor Company Pickup truck Electric car Buick Toyota Honda Ford Taurus Autobianchi Primula Lancia Flaminia Sedan (automobile)

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Selected picture of the day

2009 Hyundai Elantra Touring

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Jeffrey Brian Straubel (born December 20, 1975) is part of the founding team of Tesla Inc. He was the inaugural Chief Technical Officer until moving to an advisory role in July 2019. At Tesla, Straubel oversaw the technical and engineering design of the vehicles. Straubel also had responsibility for new technology evaluation, R&D, technical diligence review of key vendors and partners, IP, and systems validation testing.

In addition to his work at Tesla, Straubel was also on the Board of Directors for SolarCity. He is also a lecturer at his alma mater, Stanford University, where he teaches the Energy Storage Integration class in the Atmosphere and Energy Program. Read more...

List of selected biographies
J. B. Straubel Bertha Benz Nikolaus Otto Michelle Christensen Edward T. Welburn Leilani Munter Elwood Haynes Karl-Gottfried Nordmann Henry Ford

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On this day February 19

1932 — Ford of Britain introduces the Model Y, the company's first Europe-only model.

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Selected quote of the day

My car is just all ate up with motor

—Darrell Waltrip, explaining his NASCAR success in 1977

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Did you know...

...that the racing version of the Dauer 962 Le Mans, winner of 1994 24 Hours of Le Mans, is a roadcar converted from a Porsche 962 racecar, which dominated Le Mans, Group C and IMSA during the 1980s.
...that the 25 Millionth VW Golf rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg in March 2007. The first Golf started production in 1974, 33 years later the 1.4 litre TSI version became the 25 Millionth car.
...that the nearly identical Ford Model T engines were produced for exactly 12,000 days
...that the first production turbocharged cars were General Motors' A-body 1962 Chevrolet Corvair and Oldsmobile F-85?
...that Jeep introduced the 1993 Grand Cherokee and 2007 Wrangler in the same way — by driving them through a plate glass window?
...that a small number of Renault 20s, badged as Dacia 2000, were made in the 1980s by Dacia in Romania for Romanian communist dignitaries of that time?
...that the Autobianchi Primula was the Fiat's first automobile with the front-wheel drive, transverse engine setup and rack and pinion steering?
...that the Plymouth Sundance is a liftback, even though the outside appearance might suggest that it is a sedan?

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General images

The following are images from various car-related articles on Wikipedia.

A replica of Richard Trevithick's 1801 road locomotive 'Puffing Devil'
Vehicles in use per country from 2001 to 2007. It shows the significant growth in BRIC.
Cugnot's steam wagon, the second (1771) version
The second Marcus car of 1888 at the Technical Museum in Vienna
1946 GAZ-M20 Pobeda one of the first mass-produced cars with ponton design
1927 Ford Model T
The Nissan Leaf is an all-electric car launched in December 2010
1974 Citroën DS
The Selden Road-Engine
A robotic Volkswagen Passat shown at Stanford University is a driverless car
1924 Doble Model E
Result of a serious car collision
Ransom E. Olds founded Olds Motor Vehicle Company (Oldsmobile) in 1897
Volkswagen Beetle
Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A
The Smart Fortwo car from 1998-2002, weighing 730 kg (1,610 lb)
Bertha Benz, the first long distance driver
Armand Peugeot
The original Benz Patent-Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept
German Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888, regarded as the first electric car of the world
Gurgel Supermini
1958 Lancia Appia
Steam Machine Of Verbiest, In 1678. (Ferdinand Verbiest)
Kiichiro Toyoda, president of the Toyota Motor Corporation 1941–1950
1929 Alfa Romeo 6C
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903
The Toyota Corolla is the world's best-selling nameplate.
A Stanley Steamer racecar in 1903. In 1906, a similar Stanley Rocket set the world land speed record at 127.7 miles per hour (205.5 km/h) at Daytona Beach Road Course
Mass production at a Toyota plant in the 1950s
Karl Benz, the inventor of the modern car
Cars and trucks driving on Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada
A car being assembled in a factory
The Ford Model T (foreground) and Volkswagen Beetle (background) are among the most mass-produced car models in history.
LED daytime running lights on an Audi A4
Model-T Ford car parked near the Geelong Art Gallery at its launch in Australia in 1915
Émile Levassor
Rolls-Royce Phantom III
Gustave Trouvé's tricycle, the first ever electric automobile to be shown in public
The Präsident automobile
The Vélib' in Paris, France is the largest bikesharing system outside China
1929 Austin Seven
Cugnot's 1771 fardier à vapeur, as preserved at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France
A Chevrolet Suburban extended-length SUV weighs 3,300 kg (7,200 lb) (gross weight)
1959 Morris Mini-Minor
Road congestion is an issue in many major cities. (pictured is Chang'an Avenue in Beijing)
The first automobile in Japan, a French Panhard-Levassor, in 1898
1926 Bugatti Type 35
Fiat 4 HP, the first car model produced by Italian manufacturer Fiat (present-day FCA) in 1899
1954 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, one of the first U.S. all-metal station wagons
1885-built Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first car to go into production with an internal combustion engine
In the Ford Model T the left-side hand lever sets the rear wheel parking brakes and puts the transmission in neutral. The lever to the right controls the throttle. The lever on the left of the steering column is for ignition timing. The left foot pedal changes the two forward gears while the centre pedal controls reverse. The right pedal is the brake.