Sold My Buick Grand National...

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Glocktogo

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All the manufacturers are going to turbos and dropping cylinders. Even makes like Porsche are dumping normally aspirated sixes for turbo fours. Volvo dropped the 4.4 liter, 311hp V8 in the XC90 and replaced it with twin charged (super and turbo) 2.0 liter four making 316hp. IIRC, the top of the line F-150 engine is now the ecoboost 6 cylinder, not the V8.

It's all so they can meet CAFE fuel economy standards across the entire lineup. So for every Hellcat Challenger or Charger FCA sells, they have to sell that many more Fiat 500s and Dodge Darts. Porsche has the same problem with the Cayenne SUV. They introduced it to increase overall sales, but they quickly became the most popular model in the lineup. That hurts their CAFE totals, so now they have to go smaller and more efficient on the engines in the Boxster, Cayman and standard 911, along with making the smaller, more efficient Macan SUV.

It won't be that many more years before the V8 will be an endangered species.
 

doctorjj

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All the manufacturers are going to turbos and dropping cylinders. Even makes like Porsche are dumping normally aspirated sixes for turbo fours. Volvo dropped the 4.4 liter, 311hp V8 in the XC90 and replaced it with twin charged (super and turbo) 2.0 liter four making 316hp. IIRC, the top of the line F-150 engine is now the ecoboost 6 cylinder, not the V8.

It's all so they can meet CAFE fuel economy standards across the entire lineup. So for every Hellcat Challenger or Charger FCA sells, they have to sell that many more Fiat 500s and Dodge Darts. Porsche has the same problem with the Cayenne SUV. They introduced it to increase overall sales, but they quickly became the most popular model in the lineup. That hurts their CAFE totals, so now they have to go smaller and more efficient on the engines in the Boxster, Cayman and standard 911, along with making the smaller, more efficient Macan SUV.

It won't be that many more years before the V8 will be an endangered species.
My Porsche Cayenne Turbo gets great mpg. That's surprising to me that they would be struggling to meet CAFE.
 

zghorner

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I know its a little different but when it comes to turbocharged engines and longevity one only needs to look at diesel motors...although the new cummins and PSD aren't going as long as the older 12v and 7.3 they are also worked a lot harder. I read claims the 6.7 cummins will go 350k miles before the first engine overhaul is needed...that's not bad for motor putting out that much power.
 

Glocktogo

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My Porsche Cayenne Turbo gets great mpg. That's surprising to me that they would be struggling to meet CAFE.

The highest EPA combined rating for any Cayenne is 21 mpg. CAFE standards are measured by each car's "footprint". Porsche's "footprint" is going to be different from every other manufacturer, but their 2016 target is 29.8 mpg for light trucks/SUVs and 41.1 mpg for passenger cars. That's an old estimate and their footprint has changed with the introduction of the Macan. The trick isn't just to decrease the footprint, because that just results in an increase in their target EPA rating overall. The trick is to increase efficiency per sq. ft. of footprint they have.

How Automakers Will Meet 2016 CAFE Standards - Feature

The relevant dimension is called the “footprint” and is defined as the product of a vehicle’s wheelbase and track, in square feet. The idea is to apply fuel-efficiency standards to individual vehicles, thus encouraging all cars and trucks to be more fuel efficient.

Here’s how it works. A 2010 Honda Accord has a wheelbase of 110.2 inches and a track of 62.6 inches. Multiplying those two figures yields a footprint of 47.9 square feet. If you plug that figure into the government’s formula, you get a target mpg of 35.9 for 2016. The smaller its footprint, the higher the fuel economy a given vehicle has to meet. A current Ford Focus would have to achieve 40.8 by 2016, while a Mercedes S-class will have a bogey of 31.8 mpg. The aforementioned 328i will have to hit 38.2 mpg.

That's the reason for Atkinson cycle engines, direct port injection, start stop technology, 7, 8, 9 speed transmissions, lowered drag coefficients (fighting against competing pedestrian safety regs) and weight reductions (competing against passenger safety regs). So a Volvo XC90, of which 40% of the total vehicle curb weight is high strength steel for passenger safety, has to have an even higher efficiency engine/drivetrain/drag coefficient in order to be a viable part of the maker's lineup.

Long story short, the more Chevy sells of the Spark, Sonic, Cruze and Volt, the more Camaro SS's they can sell. Bringing back the Colorado was a no brainer and the 2.8L Duramax diesel is critical to continue selling those 6.2L V8 Silverados.

The days of the stand alone, no compromise car models are long gone. To get approval from the head shed, any new car design is going to be measured against it's expected popularity and overall impact on the maker's CAFE goals.
 

ultimase

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Funny you should mention that as the big news coming from both Toyota and Honda is the addition of turbo'd engines to their lineups.

The problem with turbo's in the past was reliability issues. Now moving away from bigger motors to turbo's mean fuel efficiency. Reliability wise they're not too bad now, but with warranty periods going down instead of up for most as long as the turbo lasts past the base warranty someone else eats the cost.
 

stick4

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I couild write a book on Grand Nationals. Was vice dir of the club for a while and helped 30 or more new members get up to speed on their cars at my shop. I'm out of Turbo Buicks now except for machining and rebuilding throttle bodys for them. I'd still be driving one but at 69 yrs now I don't enjoy working on cars anymore.
Pic below is my old car. Now owned by my Godson. Runs mid 10s.
Video on Facebook of a miracle save on the strip. Unknown car owner.
 

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