Equinox Quality Field Sample

I spotted this blue Chevy Equinox on the road recently, and I happened to have a camera with me.


GM can not afford to let these out of the plant, assuming it wasn't damaged later. Even a slight mis-alignment of door trim really ruins the perceived quality of a vehicle.

And how could she even stand to drive the car like that? I would feel nauseous.

Oops... Chrysler Techs Break Edison2 X-Prize Cars

In a blog post about the Progressive Automotive X-Prize, here, the sad tale of the coast-down testing at Chrysler's Chelsea Proving Grounds is told.  The Chrysler test drivers who were to run the coast-down tests accidentally over-revved both of the Edison2 cars, which use sequential manual transmissions, and blew up the engines.

Also on the morning of Day 3, Edison2, TW4XP, and X-Tracer hit the proving grounds for their turn through Coast Down. On the straight-away of the test track, Edison2's Mainstream Class entries, vehicle numbers 97 and 98, were fielded. In both cases, as third party test drivers accelerated the vehicles to speed, a mechanical over-rev condition resulted in engine failures and the tests had to be aborted.

The fact that the Edison2 vehicles employ sequential transmissions may have contributed to the unintended downshift and subsequent mechanical over-rev condition that damaged the engines. In a typical racing configuration, the driver pulls rearword on the shift lever to shift up through the gears. This is opposite the convention used by many US automakers in their semi-automatic transmissions (like Chrysler's AutoStick), where manual upshifting is executed by pushing forward, away from the driver. Further, given that this is a competition vehicle, the automated software that would normally override an unintended downshift at speed or at high RPM is not yet perfected.

All was not lost however.  Since the point of coast-down testing is to coast the vehicle to measure its decelerating forces, an engine isn't needed except to get up to speed.  Chrysler was able to save the day for Edison2 by pushing their cars up to speed with another vehicle.

Video: Moscow Carnage

A distrubing compilation of wrecks from Russian traffic camera footage. Many of these look like they are serious injury or fatal accidents.

GM's European "Lifetime" Warranty

In Europe, GM is going to offer a "lifetime" warranty on its Opel and Vauxhall brands.  Except that lifetime is limited to 100,000 miles (160,000km).

Which begs the question, are EU GM cars only designed for a 100,000mi service life?

If I was GM, I'd stay away from marketing hyperbole.  Either make it unlimited miles, or don't call it lifetime  

Volt Architecture 201, Voltec Fiero Anyone?

Over at AutoBlog Green, Sam Abuelsamid* delves into the Volt's powertrain architecture, and why GM may have chosen not to have a mechanical path from the gasoline engine to the drive wheels.  It's worth a read.

Another reason that a gasoline-electric-battery-motor-road path makes sense is that it is easy in the future to replace the gasoline engine with some other sort of power source, without having to do as much re-engineering of the electric powertrain side of things.  For example, if GM wanted to package a diesel range extender for Europe, or drop the range extender completely, it would not be a radical re-engineering job.  Perhaps in the future, the gasoline I4 will be replaced with a hydrogen fuel cell stack, or a flux capacitor.  

Having no mechanical connection also allows for some packaging flexibility.  Though GM decided to package the 1.4L I4 in the traditional underhood location, in another application it might make sense to package the motor in the rear of the vehicle--Voltec Fiero, anyone?

*Props to Sam, who is an actual engineer, not just a news writer, he tends to understand his topics.

Frigidaire Dryer Bearing Failure

I have a 5 year old Frigidaire clothes drier.  It started making terrible squealing noises recently, and since I don't run piglets in my dryer, I suspected something was wearing out.  After some internet research, I learned it may be the rear main bearing, which is difficult to replace yourself.  

We called an appliance repairman, and sure enough, $140 later, we had a new main bearing and a quiet dryer.  So, if you have a squeaky Frigidaire dryer, it may be the rear main bearing.   It will cost about $150 to fix.  

Chevy Cruze, Damned With Faint Praise?

The WSJ had an in depth review of the new Chevrolet Cruze, and to sum it up in one word, it basically said "meh".  The new Cruze is quiet, and has a nice interior, but a bland exterior and bland handling.

It looks like GM has made a decision to produce a smaller version of the Malibu--a competitive, competent cruizer, but not a sexy vehicle.  In other words, a Korean-American Corolla (the Cruze was developed primarily by GM's Korean division, Daewoo).  This is a different strategy than much of the competition.  Ford, for example, is bringing European handling in the upcoming 2012 Focus, so there will be a definite focus on the fun-to-drive aspect.  Honda is due for a redesign of its Civic, which is a sharp handling car, though noisy.

I think WSJ is too hard on the Cruze's styling, I like it personally.  It is clean and athletic without being over-busy.  But the bland handling worries me.  Is this going to work for GM?  Will they beat Corolla at the no-drama small sedan game?  Or will they, like Cobalt before it, wind up selling a lot of rental cars?