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GM develops diesel-like gasoline engines
MILFORD, Mich. -General Motors Corp. says it intends to improve the mileage of its gasoline engines by making them run more like diesel engines.
Although many automakers are pursuing the same strategy - notably Honda - GM became the first company Friday to demonstrate the technology in running concept cars.
I think we're about due for some kind of fuel efficiency breakthrough on the gasoline engine, so why not homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI)?
But you can read more about what I think about innovation on the Alternate Route
The one I saw was I guess a lower end model and had blackout trim on the lower valance. From a distance it just disappeared. It looked like it was missing a piece. The back reminded me of a Kia Sorrento. The interior looked like it was pretty good (I was just looking through the window. The tires also looked smallish against the slab sides but I'm sure as you go up the range, the tires get nicer.
What is the story with the car? Is it all new? Where is it built? How does it fit into Saturn's new image as the Domestic European? Should the car maybe have been dropped in favor or an improved Equinox/Torrent?
The car looks like it deserves to be in the mix with those mentioned above. Nothing is really extraordinary and I didn't see anything on the Vue that raises the bar. Personally, I'm liking the little but of curviess that Hyundai is injecting into this market.
Monte carlo isnt made anymore and I dont even think it had side airbags. The Accord didnt have 6 standard airbags until 2006 model year. Camry still doesnt have standard stability control on any model.
Lets try and keep the facts straight.
as for stick shift cars, the overwhelming majority of cars sold (even compacts) are sold with autos. The Cobalt with auto is quite a bit faster than the Civic. Thats what more hp and torque will do usually.
L
Vue is very competitive with the other small utes in this class. Import loving Dan Neil gave i a good review and said the interior is better than the Rav4 or CR-V and he would be right. I sat in one a few weeks ago and the interior reminds you of a VW product.
I thought it was common knowledge that the Vue was the same as the Opel Antara.
MT reported that the engine could not meet upcoming emissions requirements and GM wasnt going to invest money into upgrading such a low volume engine. Since the 2L turbo exists I supposed the 2L supercharged engine became unnecessary.
again, I am fully aware of when the civic came out. My point was when the Cobalt came out in 2004 it was not totally outclassed as Mitia and others keep suggesting. I do understand that the Civic was new in 2005 and in terms of style and features the new civic was far better than the old one. Whenever a competiting car comes out afterwards you can rest assured the newer car will advance the segment a little bit.
civic is better at things that the old car was already better at, such as fuel economy. Aside from that and futuristic styling I'm not quite sure how the civic has the cobalt beat. The EX model does have a few features like optional navigation. Cobalt still has more power, more space, onstar, 6 CD changer, leather heated seats, remote start, etc.
Yes, the world knows that in USA people prefer auto transmissions. This however doesn't mean everyone wants an automatic. With a four banger, the most bang is with a stick. And with a GOOD stick transmission, you can even have fun with it. Depends on the stop and go traffic in your area. That said, in Euorope they have heavy traffic + manual transmission use as the majority of all vehicles sold.
And yes, I agree, the Cobalt is faster to the gas station.
L
This is not intended to be an apple to apple comparison from the very beginning.
I like that name Opel more so than Saturn. So how is the gas mileage compared to the competition?
L
just trying to be helpful,
Loren
If GM failed to see the advances that were just around the corner and just benchmarked to competitors that were coming to the end of their product cycles, they dropped the ball again.
Fine. But what it WAS, was a comparison of fuel economy, in relative terms. If I want to, I'll go out and buy a brand new Lucerne w/ the 3800 eng. If my experience tells me anything, I'll STILL get my 22-24 mpg in mixed driving, and 31-33.5 mpg on a long highway trip, and have gobs more room than the Civic.
Where I live in RI, it can get as cold in the morning as anywhere (just not as often). Nothing is better for a car than to start it up, let it idle for 15-20 seconds, put it in gear and go. You'll have hot air in 2-3 minutes, and a warm cabin shortly thereafter.
I personally would never buy a new Buick due to its depreciation rate. A one-year-old will be the best buy in Buick's case.
That surprises me a bit, the implication is that somewhere some emissions rules have tightened. Is that the case? Is it nationwide or just some of those "green" states?
Older cars are a different story. Not sure how old it has to be.
There's a steep hill about a quarter mile from my house. I can practically let the Chrysler's fast idle pull the car out onto my street, and down the road to that hill, and it's strong enough to pull the car over the hill at about 25 mph, without ever hitting the gas pedal. And it's a 30 mph speed limit, so it's not like it's particularly dangerous to do so.
I remember back in the day, seeing my parents and grandparents let those 70's and 80's cars warm up for 5 minutes or more on a cold day. Heck, I even learned that habit when I started driving in 1987! You could almost let the car warm up for 5 minutes, hop in, and it would still try to stall out at the most inopportune moment. It's amazing to think how much resources we wasted back then, not to mention stress on the car letting it idle like that.
Nowadays though, if it's a cold day, like around freezing or below, I might let the car warm up a minute before taking off.
I think with me it's just starting to become more of a depreciation issue than anything else. If I'm in the mood for something like a Buick, I might try to pick up one that's a year or two old. For instance, a local dealership group has a nice looking 2006 Lucerne CXL with a V-8, sunroof, and about 14,000 miles for around $22K. I'd imagine that was a $32K or more car new. And I'll admit, I've been tempted. I'm just forcing myself to stay off that website and not look at it. It's green, too, and I'm a sucker for green!
Right now though, I just don't want a car payment. If what I currently have starts getting too unreliable, or too expensive to keep running, then I'll look into replacing it.
If I'm in the mood for something smaller and more fuel efficient though, and something with lower depreciation, like a Civic or Corolla (I do like the Civic, but don't really care for the Corolla), I'd probably just go with a new one.
Not everyone reads from that book. Some folks would rather have the warranty, and not feel at the mercy of whatever the previous owner did or didn't do to the car. And, to be honest, a 2007 Civic is a nicer car than a 2004 LeSabre.
The XE, if FWD, has the 2.4L 4-cylinder in it; if the XE is AWD, then it has the 3.5L V6. The XR trim level (both FWD and AWD) have the 3.6L V6 with 257 HP. Both V6's come with a 6-speed automatic.
Our XR is so much better than the '04 VUE we had, in terms of refinement. Our last tank netted us just over 21MPG, which isn't bad considering the EPA numbers of 16 and 22.
You have enough vehicles to drive a different one every day of the week. They'll last for ten thousand years at that pace.
Nationwide, I think. One of those EPA Tier Bin things I'm too lazy to look up.
Wow, that sounds pretty evil...I didn't think newer, fuel-injected cars would do that? I know on a warm day like today, my Intrepid will momentarily spike to about 1400 rpm when I first turn it on, but then settle down to about 900 rpm while it's warming up. In gear, idling at a stop, such as at a traffic light, it drops down to around 500 when it's fully warmed up.
Now my older vehicles don't have tachs, so I don't know how fast they're revving, but even on a warm day like today, my pickup or NYer would definitely kick up some gravel on fast idle! The Intrepid would probably just sit there until I gave it some gas. It's amazing, in some ways, how far cars have come.
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/aug2007/bw20070824_951944.htm?campaign- _id=yhoo
Thing is that the EPA city mileage of 16 is about the same as the Ford Explorer- so I am still confused as what the deal is. In these days of high fuel prices (and projections to be higher again next Summer), I still can't understand the buzz that these crossovers from GM are such an awesome advance in vehicle design- am I missing something? I guess that GM covets the profit of the luxury crossovers, but I can't imagine these gas hogs getting GM back into the mainstream of what North American drivers are looking for these days.
Personal taste in styling opinions of course. Saw a picture of new Lacrosse in Oct Car and Driver on page 59. The front end reminds me of some 90's era Korean
car(s).
Civic is in totally different class than Buick. 2-door Civic SI has exceptionally good styling (opinion of course). Test drove one and liked it. Handled well, shifter was great and digital speedo on top of dash made sense.
Car and driver thought the braking on Buick Enclave was just so-so (page 58) and gas mileage was not too good. Also, car seemed kind of slow at 9.0 seconds to sixty. But, then again, age group of people usually buying Buicks like to take it slow and easy.
Saw new Enclave parked nose to nose with Rendezvous in Depot parking lot recently. Enclave good improvement in package and style over Rendezvous.
They compared it to cars that cost thousands more and said it was as good as the compition in the things in this segment that matter (seating comfort, interior refinement, ride quality) and not so good in things that don't matter as much (drag racing, marginal difference in mpg)
I don't see how 16-17 mpg in city driving is bad for a vehicle of this size. Minivans get 18/25 or so. They are about the same.
I don't think 16-17 city mileage is bad for something that bulky either. That's about what my buddy's Xterra gets. Now if it's true that the Outlook/et al with the 3.6 do 0-60 in about 9 seconds, the Xterra would probably blow them off in a drag race. But if you drive it like that, you won't be getting 16-17 mpg :P
All GM cars have standard side airbags for 2008. Gm also has stability control standard on more non luxury models than Toyota or Nissan. Hyundai has them all beat when it comes to making ESC standard.
As for older Korean cars, I like them. Who but the Koreans would have the guts to build something as bizarre as the Kia Amanti? It looks like a LeSabre with a Mercedes E-Class front end clip with a Chrysler grille. Cool! I also liked the recent Hyundai XG300 and XG350. Looks like a mini-Bentley from the rear 3/4 view. Heck, even the previous generation Sonata and Optima were neat. The oft-ridiculed Daewoos were also attractive.
Trouble is, Hyundai-Kia is wimping-out and building Accord and Camry clones via the new Sonata and Azera.
yes thats it. GM true purpose is for you to break your AC and force you to fix it. I know you think that only GM is pushing the "gimmick" of remote start but other manufacturers offer it as well. In fact, the camry offers it now.
I have never heard of anything like this in my life. If thats the case you better run and tell Toyota, Ford, Dodge, etc. since they all offer remote start.
Do you have a problem with every feature offered by GM? Or only those that Honda doesnt offer?
WHEN WILL YOU STOP PUTTING WORDS IN OTHER PEOPLE'S MOUTHS???? Show me where I said that GM is the only one pushing this? I said that it can be had in the aftermarket for $150 installed so it would not be a big deal if a car had it or not.
actually the fielded a car that was better equipped, more powerful and more refined than the majority of the competition at the time. Prior to the Si coming out the SS/SC was the hands down leader in performance in the class although the Neon SRT-4 was also a good performer. The Si came close but still was unable to surpass the SS/SC model.
Not quite the same as dropping the ball. Still waiting for an exhaustive, verifiable, objective list of Cobalt faults from you. Since the car is so bad you should have no problem producing such a list. criticising a car for styling (in a segment full of plain cars) isnt going to cut it though.