Mercedes Benz, the German luxury car manufacturer, has launched a new and advanced edition of its C-Class sedan. The company also has plans to present 3-4 new products within the next few months. These would include upgrades as well as entirely new variants of its existing product range.
Speaking at the launch, Debashis Mitra, Director (Sales and Marketing), Mercedes-Benz India, said “The C-Class is our flagship model and we are the market leader in this segment. The new C-Class will further strengthen our position in the market.” He further added, “Setting new standards in its segment, this new C-Class will occupy an excellent position in the competitive line-up.”
The high point of this new C-Class is that it is priced between Rs. 29.75 and Rs. 32.30 lacs. It is an interesting fact that the outgoing model of the C-Class was also sold for around the same price tag, ranging from Rs. 29.75 to 32.80 lacs. Consequently, luxury car buyers can now purchase the new advanced version of the C-Class at a price similar to the older one. This strategically done pricing will help the cause of Mercedes-Benz India in achieving an even higher number of sales.
During the launch event, Mitra also said that “We are mainly targeting the youth in the age group of 25-30 years for this new car, and to attract them, we have added many advanced technical features in the car". As per market experts, it is a smart move as the youth, who upon being well settled in their careers, are increasingly opting for luxury cars.
This new C-Class model has several advanced features that take care of various aspects, including comfort, convenience, safety and luxury. The new Panoramic Sunroof gives the car a stylish appearance and the large glass windows help in providing ample of natural light. The 'Parktronic', including parking guidance, is aimed at minimising the stress that many face while parking the car. This system warns the driver automatically, when the space in front or rear is not enough for parking or manoeuvring. Parktronic works on the echo sounder principle, in which, sensors located on the rear as well as front bumpers emit ultrasound signals that are reflected back by other vehicle or any other obstruction.
A first-in-its-class innovation, Attention Assist, comes as standard in the new-generation C-Class. This revolutionary safety feature detects sign of drowsiness and alerts the driver well in time to prevent occurrence of unfortunate events like collision that can even be fatal. The new Intelligent Light System that the car is equipped with boasts of as many as 6 different functions which help the driver in almost any and every driving condition. This system aids the driver in an ideal manner, be it automatically increasing the headlight intensity on highways or illuminating turns according to the steering movement. Apart from this, the LED daytime running lights enhance the car's stylish appearance. Having so many features, the stylish new C-Class is expected to give even tougher competition to its arch rivals, BMW 3-series and Audi A4.
2011年9月5日星期一
2011年5月15日星期日
Citizens' Fire Academy Learns About Fire Inspections and Role of AVFD Explorers
It felt like I was standing in the middle of a well choreographed dance. As the bright lights of the fire trucks cut into the darkness, members of the Avon Volunteer Fire Department moved around me with swift efficiency and determination.
We were witnessing a demonstration during the fifth class of the Avon Citizens’ Fire Academy, and watching several firefighting activities simultaneously in the shadows of the parking lot of Company One on Darling Drive.
It was impressive, yet somewhat surreal. I was overcome with a feeling of gratitude for these men, women and youth who put themselves at risk for us on a regular basis.
Seventeen-year-old Tom Sherber is a lieutenant in the Explorers program and has earned over 1,000 volunteer hours during the past three years.
He tightly held a ladder with fellow Explorer Cameron Metz, as a firefighter ascended to the roof at lightning speed.
The Avon High School senior then strapped an ax to a long rope and helped hoist it into her waiting hands.
A few weeks earlier, a firefighter I met described the fire department response to a call as “orchestrated chaos,” which I found very fitting as I stood taking in the activities around me during this chilly spring night.
I was very surprised to learn how critical a role the Explorers play at a scene.
According to Sherber, who plans to study aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech in the fall, Explorers are considered “external firefighters,” who can do most on-site tasks except enter a burning building.
Their responsibilities include readying equipment for inside use by a firefighter, sending in additional air tanks, holding ladders and ropes for tethered firefighters, setting up and manning water hoses and being ready to lend a quick hand wherever one is needed.
The group of about 20 Explorers meets every Wednesday night for training and camaraderie, and over time, said Sherber, they have become part of the welcoming Avon firefighter family.
“They’ve been there for me. It’s a bunch of great people,” said Sherber, who is also a certified Emergency Medical Technician and has applied for a job at the Virginia Tech Rescue Department.
Being part of the Explorer program during high school, he said, has been “a constructive way to spend my time.”
Jill Margolis turned 18 last month and after more than three years as an Explorer has become a junior member of the Avon Volunteer Fire Department. She would like to begin the 160 hours of initial fire-fighting training, but will enter Penn State in September and is uncertain about her time constraints.
She knows, however, that she will greatly miss the friends of all ages with whom she has bonded during her time as an Explorer.
“It’s a different kind of friendship,” she said.
During part of our class, Fire Marshal and retired Fire Chief Jamie DiPace, sans moustache, provided an overview of his job and discussed the importance of residential sprinkler systems.
Calling them “the next step in life-safety in homes,” DiPace quoted studies that show children from six months through early teens often may sleep through smoke alarms.
DiPace said he experienced this in his own home – which he admitted has seven smoke detectors – when his boiler malfunctioned and his daughter never woke up, despite having three within several feet of her bed.
“She slept through them. It was uncanny,” he said.
While the building industry resists regulations that require sprinkler systems in new homes, DiPace said the cost would be “cheaper than putting carpet in your house.”
In case of a fire, he explained, sprinklers would go off in the immediate area of the flames, at a rate of 18 gallons a minute, as compared to firefighters “who come in with a nozzle at 250 gallons a minute.”
A residential sprinkler system, he said, “knocks the fire down, keeps smoke generation down and water damage is a lot easier to clean up.”
The breath of DiPace’s responsibilities as Avon Fire Marshal is daunting. Although Tom Post, an Avon fire inspector, helps out part-time, 900 sites fall into DiPace's jurisdiction for inspections. He is not responsible for one- and two-family dwellings.
DiPace spends hours each week visiting convalescent homes, schools, hotels, apartment complexes, day care centers, restaurants and other buildings in town to ensure that they meet the latest fire code.
He meets with contractors working on renovations, like the Avon Free Public Library project, to ensure safety during construction, as well as builders proposing new projects.
In his role as fire marshal, DiPace is responsible for determining the cause of all fires that the fire department responds to and preparing an incident report for each that eventually ends up in a national data base.
An interesting aside: product recalls often are based on these statistics. For example, if a specific model of toaster oven is determined to be the cause of a significant number of fires, it may be subject to a recall.
DiPace also is the emergency management head for the town of Avon. In this capacity, he is charged with establishing protocols for major disasters, overseeing a community emergency response team, and keeping abreast and implementing the latest state and national response strategies and requirements.
On a regular basis, DiPace and Dennis Bianchi visit fifth grade students at Thompson Brook School to introduce the concept of emergency preparedness. Bianchi is a retired police officer who oversees our program and is a member of the Avon Fire Police.
For me, a poignant moment during our class was when the Rev. Jon Whiting told heartbreaking and heartwarming stories about his experiences as a chaplain and Avon Volunteer Fire Department photographer.
His words were touching and inspiring as he talked about his role at the scene of a tragedy and recalled what it was like at Ground Zero after 9/11.
“It’s an undercover job … a quiet job,” said Whiting, who has been a minister for more than three decades.
For many people in a crisis situation, he noted, "it's important to have a symbolic figure, just to be there as a physical presence."
Whiting takes a gentle approach, telling those who seek his guidance that he is there “to walk with you at your pace, with a confidence that you will get through this.”
“I let people know that there’s more to life than this day,” he said. “The worst things are never the last things.”
Next week we will learn about hazardous materials and experience a smoke-filled building with “white smoke.”
We were witnessing a demonstration during the fifth class of the Avon Citizens’ Fire Academy, and watching several firefighting activities simultaneously in the shadows of the parking lot of Company One on Darling Drive.
It was impressive, yet somewhat surreal. I was overcome with a feeling of gratitude for these men, women and youth who put themselves at risk for us on a regular basis.
Seventeen-year-old Tom Sherber is a lieutenant in the Explorers program and has earned over 1,000 volunteer hours during the past three years.
He tightly held a ladder with fellow Explorer Cameron Metz, as a firefighter ascended to the roof at lightning speed.
The Avon High School senior then strapped an ax to a long rope and helped hoist it into her waiting hands.
A few weeks earlier, a firefighter I met described the fire department response to a call as “orchestrated chaos,” which I found very fitting as I stood taking in the activities around me during this chilly spring night.
I was very surprised to learn how critical a role the Explorers play at a scene.
According to Sherber, who plans to study aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech in the fall, Explorers are considered “external firefighters,” who can do most on-site tasks except enter a burning building.
Their responsibilities include readying equipment for inside use by a firefighter, sending in additional air tanks, holding ladders and ropes for tethered firefighters, setting up and manning water hoses and being ready to lend a quick hand wherever one is needed.
The group of about 20 Explorers meets every Wednesday night for training and camaraderie, and over time, said Sherber, they have become part of the welcoming Avon firefighter family.
“They’ve been there for me. It’s a bunch of great people,” said Sherber, who is also a certified Emergency Medical Technician and has applied for a job at the Virginia Tech Rescue Department.
Being part of the Explorer program during high school, he said, has been “a constructive way to spend my time.”
Jill Margolis turned 18 last month and after more than three years as an Explorer has become a junior member of the Avon Volunteer Fire Department. She would like to begin the 160 hours of initial fire-fighting training, but will enter Penn State in September and is uncertain about her time constraints.
She knows, however, that she will greatly miss the friends of all ages with whom she has bonded during her time as an Explorer.
“It’s a different kind of friendship,” she said.
During part of our class, Fire Marshal and retired Fire Chief Jamie DiPace, sans moustache, provided an overview of his job and discussed the importance of residential sprinkler systems.
Calling them “the next step in life-safety in homes,” DiPace quoted studies that show children from six months through early teens often may sleep through smoke alarms.
DiPace said he experienced this in his own home – which he admitted has seven smoke detectors – when his boiler malfunctioned and his daughter never woke up, despite having three within several feet of her bed.
“She slept through them. It was uncanny,” he said.
While the building industry resists regulations that require sprinkler systems in new homes, DiPace said the cost would be “cheaper than putting carpet in your house.”
In case of a fire, he explained, sprinklers would go off in the immediate area of the flames, at a rate of 18 gallons a minute, as compared to firefighters “who come in with a nozzle at 250 gallons a minute.”
A residential sprinkler system, he said, “knocks the fire down, keeps smoke generation down and water damage is a lot easier to clean up.”
The breath of DiPace’s responsibilities as Avon Fire Marshal is daunting. Although Tom Post, an Avon fire inspector, helps out part-time, 900 sites fall into DiPace's jurisdiction for inspections. He is not responsible for one- and two-family dwellings.
DiPace spends hours each week visiting convalescent homes, schools, hotels, apartment complexes, day care centers, restaurants and other buildings in town to ensure that they meet the latest fire code.
He meets with contractors working on renovations, like the Avon Free Public Library project, to ensure safety during construction, as well as builders proposing new projects.
In his role as fire marshal, DiPace is responsible for determining the cause of all fires that the fire department responds to and preparing an incident report for each that eventually ends up in a national data base.
An interesting aside: product recalls often are based on these statistics. For example, if a specific model of toaster oven is determined to be the cause of a significant number of fires, it may be subject to a recall.
DiPace also is the emergency management head for the town of Avon. In this capacity, he is charged with establishing protocols for major disasters, overseeing a community emergency response team, and keeping abreast and implementing the latest state and national response strategies and requirements.
On a regular basis, DiPace and Dennis Bianchi visit fifth grade students at Thompson Brook School to introduce the concept of emergency preparedness. Bianchi is a retired police officer who oversees our program and is a member of the Avon Fire Police.
For me, a poignant moment during our class was when the Rev. Jon Whiting told heartbreaking and heartwarming stories about his experiences as a chaplain and Avon Volunteer Fire Department photographer.
His words were touching and inspiring as he talked about his role at the scene of a tragedy and recalled what it was like at Ground Zero after 9/11.
“It’s an undercover job … a quiet job,” said Whiting, who has been a minister for more than three decades.
For many people in a crisis situation, he noted, "it's important to have a symbolic figure, just to be there as a physical presence."
Whiting takes a gentle approach, telling those who seek his guidance that he is there “to walk with you at your pace, with a confidence that you will get through this.”
“I let people know that there’s more to life than this day,” he said. “The worst things are never the last things.”
Next week we will learn about hazardous materials and experience a smoke-filled building with “white smoke.”
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