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Thursday, December 12, 2013

2014 Buick Regal Boasts More Power, Greater Efficiency

DETROIT – The revamped 2014 Buick Regal now arriving in dealerships features the sport sedan’s most powerful standard engine ever – and increased fuel efficiency.

Producing an SAE-rated 259 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque from just two liters of displacement, the Regal has more standard horsepower and torque than the Acura TSX, Audi A4, Lexus IS 250, Mercedes-Benz CLA 250, Volkswagen CC, and Volvo S60. The new turbo four-cylinder engine incorporates an improved twin-scroll turbocharger and a host of other advancements that result in a smoother, quieter engine with improved power and efficiency.

When compared with the 2013 Regal Turbo, the new 2.0L Turbo produces 18 percent more horsepower and 13 percent more torque while delivering more miles per gallon. Equipped with its six-speed automatic transmission, the 2014 Regal gets an EPA-estimated 21 mpg city and 30 mpg highway, an increase of 3 mpg or 17 percent city economy over the 2013 Regal Turbo.

2014 Buick Regal in Ashen Gray exterior color and equipped with 18” wheels, sunroof and driver confidence page l and ll.

“Power and fuel efficiency are typically mutually exclusive,” said Mike Katerberg, chief powertrain engineer. “But with our new 2.0L Turbo, we were able to increase both and create one of the most torque rich and fuel efficient combinations on the market.”

A Ward’s 10 Best Engine, debuting in the Cadillac ATS, the new 2.0L Turbo is comprised of about 95 percent new parts compared to the outgoing engine. Both powertrains use a cast aluminum cylinder block and direct fuel injection, but enhanced driving refinement was the goal of the second-generation 2.0L Turbo.

New design elements and components work harmoniously to enrich performance, efficiency, acoustics and durability. Changes to the new 2.0L Turbo include:

Relocated balance shafts inside of the oil pan help reduce noise
A two-stage, variable displacement oil pump now located inside the oil pan contributes to greater fuel efficiency and reduced noise
A new two-piece oil pan is constructed of aluminum in the upper section to promote structural rigidity and stamped steel in the lower for its acoustic dampening
A new cylinder head design that relocates the intake system/throttle body to the firewall side of the engine compartment and positions the exhaust ports on the forward-facing section of the engine
Proprietary computational fluid dynamics analysis techniques were used to develop an all-new combustion system with a higher compression ratio, which also helped boost efficiency
Dual continuously variable cam phasing with increased authority to maximize low-speed torque and fuel efficiency
An acoustic intake manifold cover with integrated sound-absorbing blanket for improved noise isolation
Structural front engine and camshaft covers are stiffer and more rigid, contributing to lower engine noise
Premium features including a forged steel crankshaft and an inverted-tooth camshaft drive chain that enhance durability and reduce noise

“We really strived to not only give the customer great performance, but also a smoother, quieter, and more refined engine, all essential elements in a Buick,” said Katerberg.

In addition to the new standard turbocharged engine, the 2014 Regal turbo models now offer an available advanced all-wheel-drive system with electronic limited-slip differential and HiPer Strut front suspension for added performance and drivability in all types of road conditions.

The new Regal sport sedan also features refreshed exterior and interior styling. It now comes standard with next-generation IntelliLink connectivity including eight-inch color touch display, leather-appointed seating surfaces with heated front seats, rear vision camera, and 18-inch alloy wheels. A suite of active safety technologies including full-speed Adaptive Cruise Control, Forward Collision Alert, Side Blind Zone Alert, Lane Change Alert, Lane Departure Warning, and Rear Cross Traffic Alert is available.

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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Williams Buick GMC: Summer Reminder: Watch Out for Hot Cars and Kids

Summer is officially here, and many families are taking advantage of the warm weather for a vacation. In fact, a recent study from TripAdvisor stated that three in four summer travelers said they would be taking a trip by car, up from 70% last summer.

Whether it’s a trip down the road to the local ice cream shop, or a cross country road trip, remember to take extra care this summer and make sure kids are safe and comfortable in the car.

The General Motors Foundation and Safe Kids Worldwide are partnering to spread awareness of the dangers of heat stroke. According to Safe Kids Worldwide, a global organization with a mission of preventing unintentional childhood injury, roughly 38 children in the United States die each year from being trapped in a hot car. Since children’s bodies heat up three to five times faster than adults, they are at greater risk for hyperthermia—also known as heat stroke.

“In May of 2013, we recorded seven deaths from heat stroke in vehicles,” said Kate Carr of Safe Kids in a recent podcast. “And that’s heartbreaking; it’s a tragedy and something that we can avoid.” This year, there have already been 15 heatstroke related deaths reported in the United States.

Cars can heat up to dangerous levels in as little as a few minutes, and it doesn’t take a temperature of 90 degrees for this to happen—a car can reach well above 110 degrees on a nice cool day of 60 or 70 degrees.

In order to prevent heatstroke deaths, Safe Kids has developed some key tips that can be easily remembered using the acronym A.C.T.

A: Avoid heatstroke related injury and death by never leaving a child alone in a car—not even for a minute. Make sure the car is locked and the keys are out of reach to children, and teach children that a vehicle is not a play area.

C: Create reminders by putting an important item in the back seat of the car— such as a purse, briefcase or cell phone.

T: Take action. Call 9-11 if a child is left alone in a car.

“We want to make sure everyone has a safe and enjoyable summer,” said James Bell, head of consumer affairs for General Motors. “By spreading the word and making a personal commitment to never leave your child alone in the car, we can prevent these tragedies from happening.”

Safe Kids and the General Motors Foundation are also partnering with 600 coalitions across the United States—including police and fire departments, healthcare workers, and hospitals to spread the word and help educate families on the dangers of leaving a child alone in the car.

Summer vacation should be fun and relaxing! With the right planning and attention to safety, this summer will be sure to provide unforgettable memories for the whole family.

For more information, visit Safe Kids Worldwide (http://www.safekids.org/heatstroke)

Call our Toll-Free Internet Sales Hotline at: 877-344-4271

Williams Buick GMC is your official headquarters for premium Buick and GMC vehicles.

Don't miss this fantastic opportunity to order your Buick or GMC through Williams Buick GMC and receive more color and option choices!

Order now for your exclusive money saving offer at Williams Buck GMC!

http://www.williamsbuickgmc.com is your one stop shop for hassle free new and certified pre-owned car shopping.

Find out about the latest Buick and GMC, as well as schedule test drives, and request more information about any model!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Williams Buick GMC: In light of Detroit Bankrupcy, GM Continues Expansion of Landfill-Free Efforts in Asia

General Motors’ Rayong engine plant in Thailand and Cheongna proving ground in Korea are now landfill-free, bringing the company’s total to 33 sites throughout Asia that recycle, reuse or convert to energy all of their daily waste. GM’s landfill-free facility count in Asia compares to 45 in North America and 22 in Europe.

“Regardless of where our teams are building cars for our customers around the world, we all share a commitment to the environment,” said Tim Lee, GM vice president Global Manufacturing and president of International Operations. “We work with all of our plants to ensure they have a roadmap to get to landfill-free, which is important considering our commitment of 125 landfill-free facilities by 2020.”

A benefit of GM’s consistent and structured landfill-free process is the ability for facilities around the world to discuss challenges and get ideas to help cut waste. These efforts help the company balance its landfill-free progress around the globe.

For example, 70 percent of waste at GM manufacturing plants in Asia is packaging materials such as wood and cardboard. GM’s plant in Rayong, Thailand, as well as its plant in Talegaon, India, swapped wood pallets for reusable, recycled-content plastic containers that weigh and cost less. The two facilities reduced wood pallet waste by a combined 146 tons last year, success that now has GM’s North American operations researching the use of these plastic containers in their operations.

“Wood pallets oftentimes aren't built to be reused after one overseas shipment,” said John Bradburn, GM manager of waste-reduction efforts. “Our most common recycling method is to grind them for mulch, and our South Africa plant is even taking them apart to make furniture. But our teams in Asia employed a more sustainable solution. By using plastic, they cut weight by more than half and we can continue using them after the initial load.”

Waste collection and separation systems also lead to improvements. For example, employees at GM’s Changwon operations in Korea adopted new recycling containers and signage that helped eliminate 35 tons of mixed waste.

Waste-reduction best practices range from high-tech processes to minimize sludge from wastewater treatment, painting or grinding, to locally sourcing and sanitizing gloves for reuse. The latter reduced waste at the Talegaon plant 10 tons in one year alone.

The Cheongna proving ground in Incheon, Korea is recycling materials required for vehicle development and research, including batteries, plastic, chassis components, packaging and chemicals.

GM’s landfill-free manufacturing footprint spans assembly, powertrain, casting and stamping plants, and includes non-manufacturing facilities such as office buildings, warehouses and distribution centers. About half of GM’s operations in Asia are landfill-free, including 17 in Korea, 10 in China, four in Thailand and two in India. GM’s worldwide total is 106.

GM recycles and reuses more waste from its manufacturing facilities than any other automaker, and no other automaker has as many sites contributing zero waste to landfill. The company published a downloadable blueprint, "The Business Case for Zero Waste," intended to help businesses of all sizes and industries reduce waste and create efficiencies.

Call our Toll-Free Internet Sales Hotline at: 877-344-4271

Friday, July 26, 2013

Learn to Drive Manual by Hacking Xbox Controller

Original Source: Jalopnik.com

It's no secret that shifting your own gears improves your quality of life, because of science or something.

A young engineer at Ford has come up with a very clever hack of an Xbox controller and Ford's open source software to make a shift knob that helps you learn how to drive stick. It’s also a peek into the future of car mods.

Microsoft® Xbox 360™ Controller

What the engineer, Zac Nelson, has done is to essentially create a smart shift knob. What does it do, exactly? It tells you when to shift gears by vibrating. But there's so much more to it than that! So much more!

The knob, which is a custom, 3D-printed piece, talks to the car’s computer via OpenXC, the open-source application programming interface (API) Ford developed and proposed as an open standard for car communication.

The knob uses an Arduino microcontroller to handle the data from the car (engine RPM, throttle position) and control the vibration motor from the XBox controller, and a 7-segment LED to visually show the gear position. There's also a full-RGB-color LED in there just for giggles, it seems.

An Android tablet is used to configure the shift knob for both the particular car’s characteristics, or the goals of the shifting, say speed or economy. The tablet is plugged into the knob via a miniUSB port, and parameters of when the vibration happens can be set, so you can have it hold to redline for maximum acceleration, or set a much lower number for better fuel economy.

The knob has been in cars ranging from a Focus to a Shelby GT500.

While this is a very clever little car hack just on its own, it’s an even better basic tutorial of what is becoming possible for car hackers and modifiers with a few fundamental tools. One of the most interesting things about the hack is the OpenXC standard. It’s still relatively new and not yet close to becoming an open standard across manufacturers, but it’s a good start.

At the moment it provides read-only information, but the set of data it can provide is quite useful for many things. Here’s the list of supported data streams, as of January 2012:

AcceleratorPedalPosition
BrakePedalStatus
EngineSpeed
FineOdometer - a persistent odometer recording)
FuelConsumed - fuel consumed since the vehicle was started)
FuelLevel - current level of fuel in the gas tank.
HeadlampStatus - are headlamps are off or on.
HighBeamStatus
IgnitionStatus
Latitude
Longitude
Odometer
ParkingBrakeStatus - is the parking brake is engaged or not.
SteeringWheelAngle
TorqueAtTransmission - the actual current torque in the transmission.
TransmissionGearPosition - the actual current gear of the transmission.
TurnSignalStatus
VehicleButtonEvent A ButtonEvent represents a button press, release or hold on the vehicle HMI.
VehicleDoorStatus - is a door ajar?
VehicleSpeed - the current forward speed of the vehicle.
WindshieldWiperStatus

That’s all extremely handy data for a driver, and is plenty to make, say, an entirely custom instrument cluster, if you wanted. Want to replace your warning lights with a row of tiny mechanical semaphore flags? You could do it with the data given here. Want to make your car honk when a certain latitude and longitude are reached? It’s doable.

This shift knob project also is a great example of how useful common programmable microcontrollers like the Arduino are for car hacking. Just downloading and reading the code (linked here) is a huge help for learning how to read data from the car, and then act upon it.

Buick Regal GS Turbo Manual 6-Speed Transmission

With the era of the manual transmission quickly dying, car enthusiasts and automakers
could welcome the younger generation re-interest in manual transmission driving.

An Arduino has a number of pins that can be connected to various other inputs or outputs. You can use it to read the data from the car, evaluate it, and based on parameters you’ve programmed in, act upon it in many ways.

Here, the Arduino is reading RPMs, and based on the number set by the UI on the tablet, triggers the XBox vibration motor accordingly. That’s at its most basic, and setting the LED numerical display is gravy.

This project could be simplified a bit by eliminating the display and fancy custom 3D printed shift knob, and hard-coding in the shift points to the Arduino (you could always connect the Arduino to your laptop to change them) if you knew how to drive stick, but wanted a way to make sure you always hit the right RPM shift points when you track your car or something. You could modify an existing shift knob for the housing, and while it wouldn’t look as cool as the 3D printed one, it’d work.

This little project is a great tutorial for anyone looking to get started in modern car hacking. This is how hot-rodding in the future will be happening, and it’s worth getting familiar with the tools if you’re not already.

Hopefully, these open standards to get data into and out of your car will soon become industry-wide open standards. There’s lots of potential fun to be had.

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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Williams Buick GMC's Certified Service Center - Your source for GM Certified Service, Current Offers, Value and Rebates

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Not sure if your vehicle needs service or not? Check your vehicle’s on-board diagnostic system and oil change monitor to determine whether or not your vehicle is due for service. Vehicles should be checked and serviced regularly to avoid an unplanned breakdown or service issue. Our certified service technicians will help schedule a service appointment when your vehicle needs it.

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