Al Gore-mobile.
Posted on 01/09/2008 9:50:29 AM PST by Incorrigible
The “more power more efficiently” thing will still leave the greenies screaming. They got pissy when a few “hybrids” came out that used the electric drive to boost performance. What they really want is see us forced into Euroweenie beer cans.
More proof that the marketing folks at Ford haven’t a clue. They’ve tried this same thing twice in the past and both times it was a failure.
Once starting in the late 70’s and on into the mid 80’s. Mustangs and T-Birds with 4 cylinders that no one wanted.
Then again later when they designed the “modular engine” that became the current 4.6. Too large, too heavy and too complicated for it’s power output. All because it’s original design displacement was just too small.
Somehow they’ve missed the fact that the vehicles that sold well used a pushrod 302 right up until they no longer made them available.
Too bad about Ford. Another fine old US company taken down by management and labor who have no business in the car business...
Nice....I like those Shelby gt500s....wow
Actually, I do. The F150 has been the best selling truck for a very long time. It has a reputation as being built to be a work truck. They have a reputation of being reliable and durable. The big parts have not historically broke. There have been some off years, however where Ford tried some "value engineering" and paid for it. Ask anyone who owned and F-150 built in 1992-1996. They made the drums and rotors smaller to save weight and you couldn't keep brakes on them. They had a simiar problem with tailgates for a while on older models. They have stayed pretty much on course to cater to their customers of late. But yes, given the declining sales of the F150 and the advance of Toyota on their "turf", it would not surprise me to see Ford try something "bold" to reinvent their product. Quite frankly, I think Toyota is winning lots of appeal because of the advertising. I know I am curious. They have more HP in their LD line and those commercials are awsome. Many F150 owners do not want the bells and whistles that come easier with Chevy trucks but want tough, rugged, durable long lasting machines with low maintenance. Chevys ride nicer and have better creature comforts than most Ford trucks. But F150 has outsold them still. Ford is nervous about losing market share in with their strongest product. It would not surprise me to see them get desparate. Look what happened to the Mustang in the late 70s and 80s. Yikes.
This may be true, but decent metallurgy and not cranking the boost way up compensates for that. I had a 300ZX Turbo that I purposely kept at stock boost most of the time; I sold it at 280,000 miles and when last heard from it was still running around North Texas as a daily driver.
Carolyn
Interesting. One solution for the durability issue, of course, is diesels. But another non-solution is simply to accept the engine's limited lifespan, and balance the cost of replacement and labor against the fuel savings. This is what made American cars different from European cars in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Gas was cheap here, but expensive in Europe, whereas labor was relatively cheaper in Europe than here. The result was smaller high compression European engines that needed major service within 100K. That worked because what the European saved in gas was more than enough to pay Adolph to scrape the head after 60K. When the cars were imported over here, however, it didn’t usually work out to your advantage.
I defer to your greater knowledge of all things Ford, but I can say without fear of contradiction that the 4.4L 296 HP V8 in my BMW X5 is vastly superior to the 3.0L 6 in the same box. Both get crappy mileage with the 6 only a mile or two per gallon ahead of the V8.
The Carter Era gave us the Cadillac V8-6-4.
SEMA, the Speciality Equipment Manufacturer’s Association, has a political action network representing automotive enthusiasts. Free membership, too. I get their newsletters. Surely there are others, but this is one I know of.
“Very nice car but Mazda is discontinuing for 2008 due to lack of interest.”
At $7,000 more than the V6 model, I’m not surprised. They should just replace the V6 with the turbo DSI engine.
Actually, some of the current generation of automatic transmissions are *more* efficient and get better mileage than their manual siblings. The one in the BMW 530i, for example, gets 1-2mpg more than its manual version in both city and highway regimes.
By the way, 6 speed autos are becoming increasingly common, even before this legislation came out. 7 speed or better autos may not be widely adopted just yet because of various technical reasons.
Al Gore-mobile.
...And they are quite pricey.
Hahaha.. .like you’ll have time to worry about the metal fatiguing... good one.
That timing belt (chains are less efficient and less smooth.. fuel economy you know) in that interference engine (since fuel economy is tops, non interference will go the way of the buggy whip for that extra 1-2 inches of compression) is going to snap and kill your engine long long long before the metal parts die from fatigue.
After driving one of these for a while I have seen what a 4 cylinder can do if properly engineered....
I remember having a conversation with an engineering professor a long time ago who stated that when you really feel the “kick” of an engine ... that push you back in the seat punch ... it is not HP but rather torque that we are talking about.
This professor was an advocate of returning to steam power due to it’s high torque ability. However, I imagine that with many of the newer diesel engines, much of the same punch can be duplicated.
that’s because Ford is too cheap to aspirate their 8 cylinder engines which haven’t been retooled since the 1980’s.
With regards to turbos - turbo lag is more or less a thing of the past with electronic wastegates and variable geometry fans in modern turbos. You can also fit one small and one large turbo to an engine to make it boost all the time.
I suspect that Honda’s FCX Clarity will end up being the wave of the future - it’s a 2009 production car (Camry-class) that has a hydrogen fuel cell in the back. 0-60 is rumored to be about 5 seconds.
I always liked the sound of an aftermarket gear system that replaces the timing chains, man those things sound nice when they got up to speed...
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