Breakdown of В отличие от обычного автомобиля, у гоночной машины другой бампер.
машина
car
у
at, by
автомобиль
car, automobile
другой
other
Questions & Answers about В отличие от обычного автомобиля, у гоночной машины другой бампер.
How does the compound preposition в отличие от affect the case of the words that follow it?
It always requires the Genitive case. Because от is the last part of this compound preposition, it dictates the case of the following noun. That is why we see the Genitive form обычного автомобиля derived from the masculine Nominative обычный автомобиль.
Why does the word отличие end in -е here, and does it ever change?
It always ends in -е in this construction and never changes. Historically, this compound preposition was formed using the Accusative case: в plus the Accusative отличие. Even native speakers sometimes misspell this with an ending of -и, but you simply need to memorize в отличие от as a fixed, unchanging phrase.
Why is другой бампер in the Nominative case rather than the Accusative?
The second half of the sentence uses the standard Russian possession structure: у plus the Genitive possessor гоночной машины plus the Nominative object другой бампер. Because the grammar literally expresses that a different bumper exists at the racing car, the bumper is the grammatical subject of the clause.
The sentence uses both автомобиль and машина. Is there a difference between them?