2011 Mustang Fuel Economy

Ford just announced that the 2011 Mustang with 3.7L V5 will get 19mpg city and 29mpg highway, with the manual transmission. This is due in part to the use of newer engine technologies such as variable cam timing, and they haven't resorted to direct injection or turbocharging (yet).

I went on Edmunds and did some digging, to make a chart of how the base Mustang engines have evolved over the years. It is a great example of how far powertrains have improved in the last 15 years.




Since the 1990's the Mustang base powertrain has gotten dramatically more powerful, while keeping about the same fuel efficiency. Now, for 2011, both power and fuel economy are improved. This same pattern is going to repeat on other vehicles going forward. Instead of just ramping up performance, automakers are going to be looking at efficiency, while trying to preserve power and affordability as best they can.

The good old ICE still has a long way to evolve before it is put out to pasture.

Read At Joe's

One of my favorite autobloggers is Joe Sherlock. He writes well, usually has interesting things to say, and has been doing it for a long time. Go check him out, here.

Chrysler Naming Fun

Rumour has it that the Chrysler Sebring midsized mediocrity will be renamed the 200C when relaunched under Fiat rule.  This is funny because the 300 is a large car, and the upcoming 500 will be a very small car.  

Chrysler clearly needs a consistent naming convention, and as an engineer I am ready to help.

Chrysler cars should be named in terms of 1/(size).  Therefore, since the 300C is a large car, and the 500 will be a very small one, the car-formerly-known-as-Sebring should be named the 400.

Unintended Acceleration Round 2

News reports are out that that NHTSA is still getting Unintended Acceleration complaints from Toyotas which have apparently been repaired with the various recall fixes.

What is going on?

I think that what we are seeing is normal cases of UI, which happen to all brands of vehicles, amplified through the media and the Toyota recall frenzy.  In other words, people hitting the wrong pedal, or both pedals.

It is unreasonable to expect that Toyota's repairs will drive the number of UI cases to zero.  Instead, it should reduce them to "background" rates, similar to the other major automakers.

Spyker Interview

This morning Paul W. Smith (WJR 760AM) interviewed Spyker CEO Victor Muller about the acquisition of Saab, and the plans going forward.

A few interesting bits, from memory:

"We are going to return Saabishness to Saab" ... "We are going to restore the Saab DNA."

"Saab buyers are the most educated in the market, with 67% of them having a college degree or better"

"Saab buyers are very loyal.  We don't need new customers.  We just need to get our Saab customers back, who left for some reason."

"When Saab customers left, they didn't go to Volvo, they went to Audi and BMW mostly"

"Saab only needs to sell 100,000 vehicles to be a great company.  Audi sells 70,000 units in the US, out of 1,000,0000 produced, Saab can sell 50,000 out of 100,000, and make money!"

"We have 200 dealers in the US, and that is about right.  They have been very supportive."

I don't see Saab becoming a major player, after the damage that GM did to the brand, but it doesn't sound like Spyker expects them to.  It sounds like they expect to be a niche product, sitting somewhere between Volvo and Audi.  We won't see any more lame badge-jobs like the 9-2 or 9-7, so Saab will be limited to just a couple of products for a while.  

Brake-Throttle Override And Two Foot Driving

Amazing as it sounds, there are people who drive automatic transmission cars with two feet.  They typically drive with the left foot resting gently on the brake pedal, with the belief that they can brake more quickly than if they move their right foot from the gas to the brake.  They of course neglect the possibility that they will overlap, and will reduce the effectiveness of the brakes.

It is likely that NHTSA will mandate, or Congress will pass a law which requires that automakers who use Electronic Throttle Control Systems (ETC) must have brake override logic, similar to the software update that Toyota is releasing as part of its recent unintended acceleration recall.   

As this feature becomes more widespread, two-foot driving will become a little bit more difficult.  The two-foot driver will find that if they overlap brake and throttle pedal application, that they will get abrupt reduction in engine torque, and therefore more abrupt deceleration, as the ETC system slams the throttle closed to reduce engine power.  In order to drive smoothly, they will have to take the time to lift off of the throttle before pushing the brake, giving up much of the perceived advantage of two-foot driving.

Wow! AdBlock on Chrome!

Wow.  I was sure that Google would not allow adblocking extensions to run on Chrome, but amazingly, they do.  Chrome + AdBlock is now my favorite browser, because it is fast.