www.auuuu.com Home AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY: • ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE • Domestic Impact • Foreign Trade • HOW CARS ARE BUILT • Research, Design, and Development • Manufacturing and Assembly • Sales and Service • Customer Feedback • HISTORY OF THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY • Early Automobile Concepts • Henry Ford and Mass Production • Other Automakers • The Great Depression of the 1930s • Labor Unions and Strikes • Wartime Production • Postwar Production • Automobile Safety • Foreign Imports and the Energy Crisis • The 1980s and 1990s • FUTURE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY TRENDS • Computerization • Alternative Fuel Research • Materials and Safety AUTOMOBILE: • POWER SYSTEM • Engine • Engine Types • Fuel Supply • Exhaust System • Cooling and Heating System • DRIVETRAIN • Transmission • Front- and Rear-Wheel Drive • SUPPORT SYSTEMS • Suspension System • Wheels and Tires • CONTROL SYSTEMS • Steering • Brakes • ELECTRICAL SYSTEM • Ignition System • SAFETY FEATURES • HISTORY • Automobiles Through the Years • Internal-Combustion Engine • Early Electric Cars • AUTOMOBILES IN THE 20TH CENTURY • NEW TECHNOLOGIES ROAD: • TYPES OF ROADS • Highways • Urban Streets • Rural Roads • ROADWAY ENGINEERING • Roadbed • Base Course • Wearing Course • Bituminous Pavement • Concrete Pavement • ROAD PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION • HISTORY OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION www.auuuu.com Home

Customer Feedback Consumers have increasingly become part of the team that shapes the products that are designed and built—especially since the 1960s and 1970s. The company maintains a press fleet so automotive correspondents can test drive new models and review them. In some companies, top executives also test drive new cars and give their feedback. Focus groups of consumers are organized to test recent innovations to see if they would be suitable to apply across a product line. For example, focus groups of consumers who like off-road operation provided the initial market test of four-wheel drive passenger cars. Other consumer groups have road tested innovations such as fuel injection, turbocharging, and trip computers. After these focus groups give their feedback, designers refine the innovations and introduce them into other vehicles. Next auuuu.com©2006.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: • TYPES OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION • Buses • Paratransit • Streetcars • Light-Rail Transit • Heavy-Rail Transit • Commuter Rail Transit • Automated Guided Transit • Ferries • DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES • HISTORY TRUCK: • LIGHT TRUCKS • MEDIUM TRUCKS • HEAVY TRUCKS • TRAILERS • TRUCKING OPERATIONS AND REGULATIONS • HISTORY