Recent Comments:
Tokyo 2007 Preview: Suzuki X-HEAD {Autoblog}
Sep 29th 2007 2:50AM No Jeep Compass?
Automakers to face $2B class-action for Canadian price discrepancies {Autoblog}
Sep 26th 2007 4:26PM I bought a car in late 2003. Two years later a redesigned and improved model was cheaper. That sucks when you've got a slightly used car and you know the resale value is only 33% of what you paid for it because due to the exchange rates the new version is only 66% what you paid (and still owe) on your car.
If the car makers wanted to they could adjust prices, but there is no indication this dollar parity is permanent so it's good they're providing a bit of stability.
BTW a McBurgger is $1.40 CDN vs. $0.99 US still. Better sue every multinataional company and require all Canadians to take a pay cut.
2008 Toyota Land Cruiser climbs 12.4% in price {Autoblog}
Sep 20th 2007 12:12PM Mike, the post said solid axles provide better *offroad* handling, at the expense of on road handling. Ford puts a solid axle in the rear of their *car* and people get upset. Toyota puts it in a vehicle they show climbing a hill and most people, with the notable exception of this blogger :/, praise them.
When you slowly crawl (most "true" 4wd vehicles have both 4high which is for normal highway use and 4low which uses gear reduction to significantly decrease your top speed and increase torque and driving control) over rocks the solid axle works wonders for maintaining traction, the compressed spring acts as a fulcrum so as one tire is pushed towards the vehicle the other tire is actually pushed back down towards the ground where the traction is!
Also you've got more dynamic clearance. As the tire moves up the ground clearance under the axle increases. With IFS/IRS you have static clearance where as the suspension compresses you actually have less clearance.
So solid axles are quite better for slow off highway use where you're worried about simply making it there and not getting stuck.
Spy Shots: Production Jeep JT pickup caught testing! {Autoblog}
Aug 18th 2007 12:43PM Doesn't look as good as the Gladiator concept.
Ford kills Aussie inline 6-cylinder {Autoblog}
Jul 18th 2007 11:07PM The I6 is essentially the best piston engine configuration possible. It is one of the few designs that has no natural imbalances. Engines like a V12 or I12 are better as they have more power pulses per revolution and are therefore slightly smoother, but they're just two I6s in one.
All things equal the V6 will be rougher running. A balance shaft can make a V6 smooth like an i6, but that adds cost, weight, and hurts fuel economy and performance. The other problems with a v6 are more cost for duplicating the cam shafts and all the VVT stuff. And of course more friction from the extra gears, so more power loss. When you go to a shop get an old v6 fixed they have two heads to work on, so the maintenance costs are higher due to the increased complexity.
I can't think of a single technical advantage to a v6 over an i6.
Of course the v6 is lower, shorter, and easier to fit under your hood (even though the actual volume of the same displacement engine is higher), making it more suited for putting in cars instead of in a generator or boat so only a few companies still use it.
v6 is not the only future, thanks to the i6's simpler design, lower initial cost, lower maintenance costs, higher efficiency, and smoother running there will always be an i6 around somewhere.
Ford's "Twin-Force" powering towards production {Autoblog}
Jul 2nd 2007 5:21PM Diesel and turbo work well together because a diesel is compression ignition instead of spark ignition. A diesel is always running at 100% throttle for air so there is always enough pressure to trigger the compression ignition. Diesels love extra air so turbos work well with them.
A spark ignition gasoline engine wants a constant air fuel mixture of ~14.7:1. Half throttle means half air. This results in a nice engine braking system for going down hills.
People add turbos and super chargers to gasoline engines in order to get more air in, which allows them to inject and burn more fuel, which results in more power from the same displacement. More power, not improved fuel economy.
I don't understand how directly squirting fuel into the cylinders instead of just in front of them changes things.
VW invites Touareg owners on an adventure {Autoblog}
Jun 25th 2007 10:27PM Jeep Canada killed the Canadian Jeep Jamboree this year :(
Who'd have thought Jeep would be retreating from Hummer's increasing off road presence while VW actually has the balls to support using their vehicle off of pavement!
Chileans top Jeep altitude record...with modded Suzuki Samurai {Autoblog}
Apr 27th 2007 11:26PM I translated it the post through
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twistedandes.com%2Fforo%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D34944%26page%3D1%26pp%3D10&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
and it looks like Jeep's attempt cost 500,000 Euros, had 19 people, and SEVEN vehicles. It took five modified trucks to tow the two jeeps up??
Pretty impressive for two guys in one vehicle. Maybe a bit stupid? It's a long walk home when you're almost 7km high!)
Chileans top Jeep altitude record...with modded Suzuki Samurai {Autoblog}
Apr 27th 2007 11:17PM Where does it say they took the sign?? The link in the article http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/chilean-team-sets-altitude-record/226171/ shows they took the part that said "ALL OTHERS DON'T MAKE IT UP HERE ANYWAY" and doesn't indicate they took the sign down. Their samurai made it up there, so they simply corrected the sign. That's fair.
BTW the Jeeps weren't stock, they had different, presumably bigger tires, and most importantly had a winch. With a winch you can drag anything up there.
I hope Jeep tries to out do these guys now :)
AdAge: Bargain bin Chrysler a marketing nightmare {Autoblog}
Apr 10th 2007 10:14PM They can't stop building the compass, Jeep needs it if they want to replace Plymouth. :P
