Cars are very important in today's society. They are a means of transport and also a luxury one. The automotive industry is a $904 billion industry. (Franco) Cars are everywhere and have been on all continents, they help us travel long distances over land; road or no road. Car designs vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, as well as the country of origin and the country in which the car is sold. There are also many different styles of automobiles, and different countries or areas tend to have a favorite automobile. The biggest problem with most cars today is that they burn fossil fuels and eventually we will run out of all our fossil fuels and need to find something else to power our beloved cars. Cars are an important part of world trade. What exactly is a car? An automobile is a self-propelled vehicle intended for the transport of people; and usually has four wheels and an internal combustion engine for land transportation. In the year 1886, German inventor Karl Benz received a patent and then designed the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. (Bellis) This first vehicle had three wheels and a 2/3 horsepower engine and could seat two people. Benz's first automobile was intended for transporting people and had limited use; yet the name Benz is widely known thanks to Mercedes-Benz. Today there are many different classes of automobiles that have a wide spectrum of uses. Automobiles can also be used to transport goods across tracts of land. Cars don't always use an internal combustion engine (an engine that creates motive power by burning gasoline, oil, or other fuels along with air, high temperature... middle of paper...l website and browsing their showroom you will see over forty different vehicles, while in the United States there are only eighteen Toyota vehicles available. In addition to this, vehicles sold in the US market generally have a cheaper interior quality than those sold in Japan or Europe nationals sell us inferior vehicle interiors. Works CitedBellis, M. (nd) Retrieved January 28, 2014, from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/. blbenz.htmFranco, V. (2011, April 18 ) Auto Industry to Grow to $904 Billion by 2014 - Yahoo Finance Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Car-Industry-Will-. 904-iw-761650321.htmlOICA (n.d.). Statistics 2012 | Retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2012-statistics./