The big car or small?

Let's make a reservation at once: the recommendations offered in this article, are intended first of all for the potential automobile owners who are not possessing neither surplus of free money resources, nor a rich private experience. The first should address to firm catalogues and to choose in compliance with tastes and the problems, the second are invited to share the knowledge.

The car choice is defined by many factors, not last role among which is played by an emotional estimation or predisposition of the buyer. We will try to consider the problem from the technical and economic point of view. We will not give concrete figures - they can seriously vary depending on region, a season and, at last, a fashion. We will try to compare the technical decisions put in a design, both those pluses and minuses which of them follow.
To what car to prefer:
Domestic or foreign?
Big or small?
Classical or front-wheel, and can be with a drive on all wheels?
To sedan, хэтчбэку, to the versatile person, a pickup, вэну or to a minibus?
With classical рядным the four-cylinder motor or with exotic like three or five cylinders?
With a manual or automatic transmission?
Important criteria at a car choice is the following:
Whether the first it will be at you the car or you already have some experience;
Whether you plan to serve and repair the car or address if necessary to experts;
As you plan to maintain the car: whether will go every day all year long or only on days off at good weather, whether there is a car a working horse or will carry out representation functions;
Whether you can afford expensive modern expendable materials, first of all - combustive-lubricating?
If you plan to sit down for the first time for a wheel of own car - prefer the domestic. Not so it is essential, whether there will be it the Muscovite or the Harmony, - that you are yet ready to solve independently engineering problems on search or manufacturing of an exotic bolt or a unique spherical support is more important. Having preferred the domestic technics, you always will find interested persons for reasonable compensation to help you with maintenance service and repair. You will not be anxious by index API of engine oil - ask "Zhigulevsk", it will approach both to the Muscovite, and to Zaporozhtsu. What will you lose? The Russian cars in most cases are quite good repetitions not the worst for the time of the western workings out. Therefore they it is simple on generation is more senior the modern foreign colleagues.

The foreign car even 10-year-old prescription, but the good manufacturer, will please the owner possessing some experience, reasonableness and большей with the present of a design, convenience of a cabin, in many cases - a quite good technical condition. But the approach at repair and service here one - to add, replace or regulate something follows in exact conformity with a management, which else it is necessary to get and translate into Russian. Especially it is necessary to be careful of amateur chemical experiments on engine oil and a liquid for automatic transmissions. It is not necessary to take certain маслице an unknown origin and to improve its liquid from a beautiful jar - the solid firms making and selling oils for a long time already all have improved to a possible limit and bear for the results responsibility in the most severe market. The additives which are on sale in shops, are directed on change of some limited number of parametres of a material, what their influence on the others - it is not known even to the manufacturer. Once again we will repeat: all going in foreign, and is better and in domestic, the car should be the known manufacturer and answer the specification.
So far as conversation at us has come about oils, we will give to them some more lines. Now home producers start to certificate and mark oils according to the international system - about it and speech. Many know about an index of viscosity SAE. It defines ability of oil to keep fluidity at low temperatures and to remain viscous enough at high: the first is important for start-up in the winter, the second - for work of the heated-up motor. For each motor there is a scale of applicability on SAE depending on air temperature - it is not necessary to transfer directly recommendations from one car on another. Though all-weather oils SAE 10W/40 will approach for not polar and not tropical areas all year long. Other important characteristic is the complex index of quality API. For carburettor engines it contains letter S, for diesel engines - C. Oil groups are marked on improvement by letters from A to H, though now in course F, G and H. The last is the most qualitative and, accordingly, rather expensive. For an example, the Harmony oil SAE 10W/30 API SF will approach. 10W/40 API SG you will please it with oil SAE, and 5W/50 API SH it is necessary to consider variant SAE as the thrown out money is it is necessary for very "clamped" sports motors with injection and a turbo-supercharging. At transition from one manufacturer to another it is necessary to check up the compatibility table, in solid shops such tables are. Remember: to mix oils generally it is impossible!

But we have a little distracted from our basic theme.

The big car or small? Concerning body dimensions all is more or less clear: in the big will be located more. However and weight and consequently also the majority of dynamic parametres will change not to the best. Advantages of the heavy car are shown at distant trips: it устойчивее to cross-section flaws and in it small roughnesses of road are less appreciable. It is necessary to consider that the car is larger than the Muscovite 2141 difficultly to place in standard garage in the sizes 3х6 m. problems with a street parking Are obvious also. Usually large and heavy car essentially is more safe for being in it in comparison with small in case of failure - the elementary physics here works: dynamics of a push smoothes out. But also to operate it it is necessary "in an adult more way", realising that in case of unsuccessful maneuver of your cruiser any Daihatsu Charade can turn simply to scrap metal. In the rest weight for the car - as for the woman.

Great value for controllability of the car and dynamics of movement distances between forward and back axes (base), between planes of wheels (track), and also their relation as a whole have. The more the base, the устойчивее the car on slippery road and the is more probability to tear off the muffler at an entrance to a summer residence or at entrance to garage though длиннобазный the car will to level small roughnesses of road. The more widely a track, the устойчивее the car in abrupt turn and the is more probable to depart to a ditch, having driven one board on a snow-covered or sandy roadside. The parity of these parametres defines many known lines of characters of our characters: Запорожец will pass on the wood road stony or crossed by roots and on deep snow, but will show a habit on ice; classical the Harmony because of enough broad gauge will aspire to wag in snow porridge, and on ice road of its base it is obviously not enough; The classical Muscovite in this situation it is considerable устойчивее, but during snow or sand it will be buried with great hunting, truth, for slightly other reason - configuration and weight distribution.

So, configuration. From the beginning of the century classics is the forward arrangement of the power unit (the engine with all dowry, coupling, a transmission) - карданная transfer to the back bridge - main (in sense head) transfer to the block with the back leading bridge at a dependent suspension bracket of back wheels. Classical configuration is characterised now, perhaps, by one lacks, except relative simplicity: the mechanics occupies all space under car, the driveshaft demands the longitudinal tunnel in the bottom and danger to bend it about any roughness is great, over the back bridge it is necessary to have the cross-section tunnel, the independent suspension bracket of back wheels, and also a cross-section arrangement of the engine is problematic desirable to modern measures, are inevitable conic or гипоидные the transfers showing increased requirements to трансмиссионным to oils. The forward drive solves many of layout problems: The engine naturally rises across, the main transfer to the block with a transmission can work on usual engine oils, the bottom can be flat from pedals of management to a back bumper, the back bridge can be solved somehow to the designer. A payment for it are the forward semiaxes representing on modern cars the difficult and expensive device, and also the increased radius of a turn of the car and some complexities of service of the mechanics almost completely concentrated under the truncated cowl. The front-wheel drive vehicle in comparison with classics delivers mechanics many grief though art of the designer can essentially soften a situation. Cars with a constant drive on all wheels are not so frequent and usually presented by jeeps though is also road 4х4, for example among Audi. Except the improved passableness which is reached by a not so much full drive, how many presence of the blocked differentials which are not allowing one of wheels to be turned without participation of others, these cars road for the speed, than classics or front-wheel is much better hold. Not disconnected full drive allows to move normally to a Field having a parity a track/base, unsuitable for other configuration. Those familiar owners of Fields who in view of breakages have been compelled to refuse a full drive, have already visited ditches. A transitive variant between classics and a full drive are jeeps with the disconnected forward bridge, and as the typical representative of this group serves УАЗ. These cars at the disconnected forward bridge behave in the same way, as classics. The return also is fair, and an example is LuAZ with the disconnected back bridge.

And nevertheless the ordinary buyer most likely should choose between classics and a forward drive. How these cars in movement behave? The difference will be shown on slippery road. The classic, and in even большей to a measure the car with a back arrangement of the power unit - Zaporozhets, Volkswagen "Bug", Porsche, a race car of the Formula 1, - will very soon show to the driver that such drift of a back axis. As drift in general is called sliding of wheels across a rotation plane, and its reason is Newton's law according to which for lack of action of forces the body moves rectilinearly and in regular intervals. Absence of forces comes at insufficient factor of a friction of rubber about slippery road, and straightforwardness is shown in unwillingness of some part of the car to pass turn according to a plan of the driver. So, drift of a back axis leads to that the back part of the car continues to move directly while before it is already directed to turn that leads to the beginning of rotation of the car around approximately the middle of a forward axis. From drift and movement in operated drift we now will not consider technics of a conclusion, however we will notice that for rear-wheel cars drift of a back axis is the daily phenomenon at winter driving. By a front-wheel drive vehicle, especially with шипованной rubber, it is possible отъездить some winters, without knowing about drift of a back axis: on a trope of one of articles in "At the wheel" front-wheel drive vehicle follows forward wheels "as a thread behind a needle". But if it will incur, will keep much more difficult, than to the classic. The front-wheel drive vehicle should be driven accurately all year long and not to think of any drifts - only one it is necessary to remember: Smoothly add to gas in turns and take slightly more abruptly a wheel as on slippery road the front-wheel car straightens a little. This variant especially will approach lovely ladies and in general to all who wants many and to go constantly, without representing "uncle-racer".