Automotive Performance and Diagnosis

Periodical Indexes/Databases - to find the most current information on an automotive-related topic, try journal or newspaper articles. In order to locate them, you must use an index. Just like in the back of a book there is an index which tells you what page to look at in the book, there are indexes to journals and newspapers which tell you which issue and page to look at in the journal. These indexes used to be just available in print but are now available online as well. Some online indexes which you should use in your work would be:

Academic Search Premier - a fine index for scholarly and general information on automotive studies
Business Source Premier - great for general information
Predicasts PROMT - especially good for industry information
Infotrac OneFile - another general index that covers automobiles

The really exciting thing about these online databases is that about 50 percent of the time, the articles which are indexed online, are available online, full-text.

These are all available through the library's databases page:

http://www.mwcc.mass.edu/HTML/Library/login.html

Just select the appropriate access - either on-campus (from anywhere at MWCC) or off-campus (if you're working from home), then find these online indexes in the alphabetical database listing.

Once in these databases, try specific keyword searches such as:

automotive or automobiles
motor vehicles and repair
transmission
service stations

Some prominent automotive magazines are indexed in the general periodical indexes. For your assignment look for ones like:

Motor Trend - America's automotive authority filled with road tests, service features, forecasts and racing news
Automotive Industries - serves the automotive original equipment manufacturing (OEM) segment, covering passenger parts and components, and engine manufacturing for the automotive engineering, design, manufacturing, and purchasing fields.
Car and Driver - examines automobiles and automobile topics, and covers both domestic and imported products. The magazine gives some attention to motor sports and personalities, but most of its coverage is "pure car", including road tests. Indexed in Academic Search Premier.
Automotive Body Repair News - Targets the body shop market. This publication reaches more than 62,000 independent and franchised business establishments involved in body repair, refinishing and restoration, providing, for many, the only regularly used source of product information and general industry news. Indexed in Business Source Premier.

Websites - To supplement your investigation, but not to substitute for information you find in journals and books.

Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
This coalition of thirteen car and light truck manufacturers is "committed to improving the environment and motor vehicle safety" using "market-based, cost effective solutions." The site seeks to convey the coalition's position on all relevant issues by providing information and data to the public, government, and media. Included are articles, press releases, news, and statistics covering the auto industry and environmental and safety issues of interest. These include topics such as alternative fuel technology, fuel economy standards, and vehicle safety. There are also links to other related Web sites.
http://www.autoalliance.org/

The Car Connection.Com: The Web's Automotive Authority
Take this site for a spin: reviews, news, automotive job boards, message boards, humor, and good collections of car-related links on everything from "green cars" (high-mileage and hybrid vehicles) to collections of articles about classic automobiles.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/

Alldata
the Internet home of ALLDATA LLC, world-leading provider of electronic diagnostic and repair information and services for the automotive service industry. http://www.alldata.com/

Check the Library's web page under databases for your student access to this important resource.

Just for fun check out NPR's Cartalk Website
http://www.cartalk.cars.com

This page is maintained by the MWCC Library.
This page last updated 9/18/02