Motors The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have

That's smart thinking there. I guess that's why you live in earthquake country? Let me guess you drive a powder blue prius?

Also let me guess where your mentality came from. Your great uncles friends brothers uncles sisters cousin had a 88taurus and it exploded after 10years of not maintaining and caring for it? How sad... Ill cry a tear for the poor taurus, it deserved better.

I got a even better one for you, I just bought a 2001 crownvictoria as a toy, cost me almost no money, its a retired nyc cab and it has........gasp...... 410,000 miles on it. Guess what? It runs perfect. All it needs is 4new tires, even the oil change was done for me......gasp. We are going to die, a ford with almost 1/2 million miles, whats this society coming to? BTW it still gets 25mpg, not bad considering its got 5000lb of weight.

Grow a pair and form educated opinions, jump in the bandwagon is a simple thing to do. If we all jumped in the same bandwagon we would all be driving econoboxes with no soul.

 

say that when you got me in your reaview and catching on fast. All your going to see black line passing and the heavenly sound of a screaming v8 as a soundtrack.

In all seriousness. I have not driven a anything newer than the 2001 jetta TDI for pasenger car. I will probably test drive a blutec merc when I get a chance. I like test driving new things. Helps form a world view of cars.

 

jaguarking11 avoid double posting, use the edit button.

try driving some of the new VW diesels, they are awesome.

 

4500rpm is where an engine should just be coming on-cam

 

Not in a daily driver .

 

That's what makes the daily commute bearable!

 

by the way, thanks to adblue we have buses that produce very low levels of pollution compared to previous models.

 

The buses in nyc are diesel hybrid, at least most of them are. They run on natural gas though. Basically 0 emissions vehicles. You can hear the engine spin at the same rate whether the buss is idling or accelerating.

 

That's a temperament that, I find, is becoming more scarce. We're hugely outnumbered by people who like to reduce motoring to a numbers game on paper; it doesn't work like that in the real world and it never will. Personally, I think there are only a handful of people here who have palleted experience in driving a wide variety of cars, engines, and drivetrain layouts, so opinions tend to be skewed.

Good ya, man.

P.S.: What are your thoughts of the new Challenger coupe?

 

natural gas is a hydrocarbon based fuel, it creates pollution anyway, even if less than other fuel sources.

 

I have driven the bigger brother of the challenger, the dodge charger, the srt8 version at that. My thoughts on it? Well its a very heavy car and it shows in the numbers @4200lb+. However when its moving it is very light on its feet. It can imbarace quite a few cars and suprise a good few as well as far as cornering is concerned. The steering is precise and behaves much like a bmw sedan but less twitchy, it seems very sure footed. As for the 6.1L hemi? Well the engine is way under rated from the factory. Basically a tune will produce close to 500hp crank. 0-60 can be had in under 5seconds with a bit of practice and as low as 4.4 under factory trim, with tuning it can do 4.2 -4seconds flat. It is a brute when it comes to power delivery, it starts pulling and wont quit, but can be extremely civilised under regular driving and luxurious even. As for the interior, the srt8 is very.....um European feeling but its also very imposing like a trucks interior, not my taste. Cavernus feeling even. I don't think its very well thought out as far as elegance is concerned. Overall I say its a good vehicle for someone who wants a muscle car but still likes to take their family along for the ride.

The challenger is on my list to test drive as well, if it behaves like the charger then I think its a winner. But like I said underneath the challenger a dodge charger lies. I think its a stunning looking car as well with a good presence. Comes down to taste really.

Thats as close as I have come to the new challenger.

I have a whole list of cars I do want to drive as well. Mostly small hatches and a few roadsters. Considering getting a roadster sometime next year so time will tell.

Remember guys, cars can look great on paper but if it does not feel right to the driver, then its a bad choice. Brand has nothing to do with it.

 

For the SRT-8 Chrysler sedans on the LX platform (Charger, defunct Magnum, 300) you're right about the weight. I used to assemble and drive them at the assembly plant. Yes, the ride is quite stiff, picking a lot of road feedback but it's something that I prefer--I like to feel the road through the car (except for luxury/VIP sedans). My thoughts on the engine are largely in line with yours, although I'm skeptical about the drivetrain since, first of all, it's an automatic + semi-auto mode with some laughably slow-reacting shift times. I never really liked the way the semi-auto gear shifter action was horizontal. Secondly, they were equipped with a open differential. For most people, it's a minor quibble since the car's responsive (but rough) engine would just torque right through in-lift, anyway... I suspect the choice of an open diff was for safety reasons in provinces with snow and other slippery weather. Brakes were spot on for a sport sedan, coming on relatively softly before stiffening up, but I have speculations about its stopping distance with so much weight. But, even with all that weight, the car resists roll quite amirably, a surprisingly nimble car. Love the exhaust note, though. I always hated the noise on the Mustang GT and C5 Z06 simply because they were needlessly and obnoxiously loud under such regular, daily loads and would blare and ring in the high revs. The SRT-8 keeps it close to its Mercedes-Benz AMG siblings with a subtle, but very deep and smooth note all the way through. Also, the wheels on the 300C SRT-8 are absolutely beautiful in person.

The Charger's interior is humourously daft: modestly-assorted front end with paint-matching accents, but the rear seating area is tripe... On the flipside, they had comfortable bucket seats with exceptional thigh support (but, oddly, little back support), while remaining soft to the touch. The 300C SRT-8, I find, has an excellent combination of European styling and some of the Charger's brutality down the centre console. The steering wheel was a bit clunky and, like most Chrysler models 2002 onwards, turned too slowly and resisted driver input too much, inducing driver fatigue on winding roads. I liked the Boston audio systems, though. And, oh, watch out when driving the 300C SRT-8: the front air spoiler lip is quite tall and the ride height is very low! And the Charger's bulging bonnet scoop gets annoying in tight city driving.

Overall, I think the three SRT-8 so far were well-suited for short dashes and freeway shootouts, but driving one for long trips or high-speed freeway driving becomes unbearable, even for the 300. SRT-8 are no E60 M5, but they are pretty nippy rides for their price and have family functionality and an American grunt underneath its skin.

 

Saab and vauxhall have been developing some very interesting diesels.

1.9 Twin Turbo Diesel delivering 212bhp (112bhp per litre) with 400Nm of torque, Vauxhall claims that this is the most powerful 1.9-litre diesel ever built. I think what they have done is to use a smaller turbo that spools up much faster for low RPM, then the bigger turbo for higher RPM.

On the note of the 3L CDTI vectra, i have been at a track day with my mates dad who owns such a car, off the line a scobby is just ahead by a fraction, but the V6 diesel pulls it back and they sit side by side all the way to 145mph. I agree that some vectras are a little crap when it comes down to handling, and the torque steer is very noticable on gear changes with your foot mashed down.

 

The new diesels from VAG and BMW are the ones to have, I've got the last gen 1.9TDI in my car (same as what would be in that Jetta) and I like it, but a longer power band would be nice. I drove the new 2.0TDI and it has got just what i needs, it's an absolute beast!

Then you move on to BMW, my friend has the 120d, now I think the car is rubbish, but the engine is brilliant. the bi-turbo removes pretty much all the lag, and it revs clean and hard, surely one of the best small cap diesels out there?!

As for the challenger, the one you want is blatently the RT with the Trackpack!

 

The twin-sequential turbine configuration was hugely popular in sports cars in the '80s and '90s. The fascination was eventually dropped for larger, lighter naturally aspirated engines since the ridiculously complicated twin-turbo setups were expensive to produce and expensive to maintain. Personally, I don't think Saab deserve an applause from me for reviving the twin-turbo since it was just the smaller-engine Japanese sports cars that needed it and using it for diesel is totally daft. Doesn't it seem counterintuitive to be using a turbine for low-rev output on a diesel? Just use a big turbine and push peak power to the top--you'll be getting superb fuel economy when driving below boost, anyway.

 

Id like to see what a diesel like would react like if saab used a supercharger instead. Older comercial diesels were supercharged, they used roots type blowers. Then they used centri superchargers that allow for the no boost scenario at low rpm and widen the powerband to higher rpm.

As for sequential turbocharging? Pure trash, complexity makes for a problematic vehicle down the line, and power transmission between one and the other will feel like a notch in the rev range. Geometric turbochargers, aka variable vane turbos are a godsent to engine like that. Wonder why they didn't use those?

 

See if you can get a test drive in a Bmw 530d, I think you might change your mind.

However, with VAG's new TSI engines, they may have closed to gap to the Diesels so much that there are really very little savings to be had! Turbo Charged and Supercharged at the same time, they've got the 1.4 unit pumping out more power than my 1.9tdi lump, although they are probably at their maximum power output already where as mine can be re-mapped to 170bhp with no hassle so I guess it's horses for courses.

 

Stay with your 1.9. I understand there are some serious reliability issues with the 2.0TDi. A lot of guys over on the 'honestjohn' Backroom forum would say the 1.9 is the better engine. (And avoid a DPF at all costs)

 

Ford use variable vane turbo's in their TDCI units.

 

The problem comes when the UK gets alot of good diesel motors with a wide range to choose from, and america dosen't have the same choice. So of course jaguarking11 is going to be negative towards some diesels as ford US is different to ford UK. VW has been producing 1.9L blocks for years and just tweaks them a little ever new model released. There solid as brick and can always be trusted.

Now if america could put there fast food love to good use, i.e bio-diesel from chip fat then there fuel shortage would disappear! yes another joke about the general health of the poor yankys.