Chrysler's Pentastar 3.6L V6 engine

[CougTek]

BTW, does he drive a minivan?

 

[timwhit]

BTW, does he drive a minivan?

He has a different car in every season, but he does have a minivan in one season.

 

[CougTek]

I've found another factor to consider. This is the respective estimated annual CO2 production of each vehicle I've been considering :

Dodge Grand Caravan : ~4700Kg
Honda Odyssey : ~4200Kg
Hyundai Elantra Touring : ~3600Kg
Subaru Legacy P-ZEV : ~3700Kg
Hyundai Elantra sedan : ~2700Kg
Chevy Cruze : ~2700Kg

It's really no surprise, but the additional cargo space of larger vehicles translates into a quite significant impact on the environment, especially considering the fact that most of the time, I would be driving alone with little equipment to move. I cannot rationally justify the increased polution, even at a similar selling price, between the Grand Caravan and the Cruze/Elantra. If I had a family or needed to move a lot of stuff more often than not, then the final decision would be otherwise. But as it is now, I put a cross on the minivan thought.

 

[time]

Unless you get a car with an extraordinarily large trunk, I much prefer hatchbacks or wagons for their utility value. Not as quiet, but much more practical. You can fit a surprising amount of stuff in even a tiny hatchback.

The Elantra Touring is about 25cm longer than the Elantra hatch, which gives it a sports wagon type load area, but you pay a premium for it. The Elantra (elsewhere known as the i30) is probably the best design of all the vehicles you've listed, but it's a little overweight; it works better with the diesel engines because of the far greater low-range torque. Still an excellent vehicle in terms of functionality and low maintenance costs; see the linked review.

I don't know how much this applies to CougTek, but I've found that after you've had significant recurring expenses in your life (house, kids), I'm a lot less impressed with car features I don't need and more focused on much it's going to add to those recurring expenses. Car's aren't an investment, they're an indulgence, and it's far easier to justify that when you're "young and fancy free".

This pragmatism is assisted by the fact that cars are simply much, much better than they used to be. With almost no exceptions, any modern car can be put through a slalom, can stop in a straight line, and can keep up in the traffic light derby or overtake in the multi-lane conduits that most of us are limited to. Some are better than others, and it still affects my purchasing decisions, but it's just not the show-stopper it used to be.

I used to heavily modify cars to boost performance and especially handling, but I can now buy an acceptable car in the first place, and just changing wheels/tires fixes a lot of problems. To be fair, I no longer do 2,000 km trips at high speed; the rabid enforcement of speed limits here has put paid to that.

 

[Pradeep]

Looks like the i40 will be out this year:

http://wot.motortrend.com/hyundai-offers-sneak-peak-euro-market-i40-sedan-75781.html

Time: you should try living in a country where demerit points/speeding tickets get your insurance rates upped On a brighter note I don't have to worry about a speed camera hidden in a van parked on the side of the road, or hidden in a bush somewhere (the politicians are too scared of getting caught on film with their mistresses).

 

[LunarMist]

Certainly not the people writing CAFE standards.

Though after watching Ford's Ecoboost torture test special that was on TV I'm not sure that all these new turbo engines will be maintenance nightmares. It's worth a watch to see how they beat on the motor in the 6 tests. link

I rented one of those Ford egoboost vehicles for about a week. The engine was quite responsive and passing was very good at highway speeds. Fuel economy was also very good, more along the lines of the lighter-weight Asian vehicles. The speed was limited to 80 though, which is a problem when the speed limit is 80. :queen:

 

[CougTek]

80 what, mph or kph? 80mph is reasonable, but 80kph is dangerous as it's so boring to drive at that speed that you're in danger of falling asleep.

 

[Stereodude]

I rented one of those Ford egoboost vehicles for about a week. The engine was quite responsive and passing was very good at highway speeds. Fuel economy was also very good, more along the lines of the lighter-weight Asian vehicles. The speed was limited to 80 though, which is a problem when the speed limit is 80. :queen:

What car had the speed limited to 80MPH?

 

[CougTek]

I don't think it was a car since there must not be a lot of Taurus SHOW for rent. He must have driven a Ford Flex or maybe an F150 with the V6 engine. They are both more common than the SHOW. An F150 limited at 80mph would make more sense than a similarly crippled Flex.

 

[Will Rickards]

It was probably limited by the rental company.

 

[LunarMist]

80MPH. I assume that it is only for the rental company. Drudering would probably hack it.

 

[Stereodude]

Thanks for still not letting us know what car it was.

 

[CougTek]

Lunar likes to leave us in the mist.

 

[LunarMist]

Oops, I said too much already. :spiderman: No, I did not have a Ford or the egoboost. :skepo: :elephant: :bsmurf: :smurf:

 

[Pradeep]

Oops, I said too much already. :spiderman: No, I did not have a Ford or the egoboost. :skepo: :elephant: :bsmurf: :smurf:

Could have been worse, you could have been limited to 65

http://blogs.insideline.com/straigh...-limits-speed-radio-stations-teenage-fun.html

 

[Handruin]

The Element has been discontinued, so clearly it didn't have many fans at Honda to begin with. And yes, it looks like a toaster, but it's an incredibly practical vehicle.

I was just at a Honda dealer this evening and there was a 2011 Element in the showroom and a few in the lot. Is 2011 the last year?

 

[LunarMist]

Yes, 2011 is the last year. I think they are still being made or new production recently stopped. I'm not sure if the earthquake affected anything.

 

[e_dawg]

Certainly not the people writing CAFE standards.

Though after watching Ford's Ecoboost torture test special that was on TV I'm not sure that all these new turbo engines will be maintenance nightmares. It's worth a watch to see how they beat on the motor in the 6 tests. link

That's awesome. I would have loved the option of an Ecoboost engine on my Fusion (preferably, something smaller than the 3.5L V6 that goes into the Flex and F-150), as the fuel economy is a little disappointing (averaging ~11 L/100km or ~21 mpg over the past year in mixed city/highway use). Otherwise, i still really like my Fusion Sport 3.5 AWD.

I never liked American cars that much in the past, but i feel they have really improved over the last few years to the point where they make some highly competitive products. Ford's lineup, IMHO, leads the pack... the Fusion, Flex, F-150, Explorer, Edge, and Focus are all solid vehicles worthy of consideration. If Ford can make a variety of Ecoboost engines available in all their models, i'm sure that would represent a compelling option for a lot of buyers, as it works better in practice than Chevy / GM's solution of using smaller, higher horsepower engines with tall gear ratios and transmissions programmed to upshift and hold higher gears as much as possible.

Diesels are already big in Europe, hybrids are great in the city, and EV's are promising assuming the infrastructure expands to support it. But they can't forget about improving fuel economy of straight gasoline engines too. Adding both forced induction and direct injection across the board to smaller combustion engines is really the practical solution right here, right now for the mainstream, IMHO.