Ford Cars to Run on Laser Beams?

No, not that kind of Ford Laser...

I’ve decided that Ford should be the domestic automaker this country rallies around.

I mean really, it’s the only company that hasn’t gone bankrupt or been bailed out by the U.S. government. General Motors doesn’t appear to have changed its management style, and the old-timers at the company are still running the show. Chrysler might show some promise later, but its current lineup of vehicles is laughable. Plus, the company now has an Italian owner, which could present the question of whether or not it is a true “domestic” company.

Ford, though, is making genuine technological advances at a time when they are needed most.

...that kind!

How’s this for technology: Ford  engineers have found a way to replace spark plugs with lasers within two years. Yeah, a car powered by honest-to-God laser beams… is that the coolest thing in the world?

Laser ignition would reduce the amount of fuel needed and produce more stable combustion, so less fuel would be needed in each cylinder.

Our friends at Left Lane News said,

Not only does the system need less fuel, it also requires less electricity than normal spark plugs. Researchers say the laser’s pinprick beam fires more than 50 times in a fraction of a second to produce 3,000 rpm. The laser can also be reflected back to a receiver to provide information to the computer about fuel type, to help optimize the engine’s settings.

The new technology will probably show up first in high-end Ford products, but eventually become standard fare in even the company’s entry-level offerings.

If you had to buy a domestic automobile today, would you buy from Ford, GM, or Chrysler?

-tgriffith

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These Cars Never Seem to Fail (and Get Over 30 MPG!)

Why is it so difficult for modern vehicles to approach 40 mpg? For some reason it takes complicated and expensive hybrid systems to deliver that kind of mileage now, when cars of the 1980s easily and consistently topped 30 miles per gallon and often approached 40.

Yes, there’s the issue of a modern car’s weight and safety equipment, which no doubt have impacted fuel economy. But come on - 20 years of development, and we’re struggling to get 25 mpg? That sucks. So with that in mind, here are some of the cars from the past that have proven themselves by easily topping 200,000 miles and burning very little fuel:

Just count how many of these you see on the road in the next week. They’re EVERYWHERE, probably because they get 30-40 mpg, are cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, and simply don’t die. You could drive one of these cars for 5 years, forget to change the oil even once, and still know you could drive across the country. Twice.

You may not look or even feel great driving one, considering even the deluxe versions lacked power anything, but you’ll get over 40 mpg on the highway and be able to laugh at all the Prius owners getting the same mileage, but with a $600 monthly car payment.

Hey, I’m not making this list because the cars are fast. I’m making it because they last. That’s why this Subie gets added. My mom had one with 250,000 miles on it, and it ALWAYS started and went where she wanted it to go. I won’t mention the part where flooring the accelerator was necessary to climb even the smallest incline, but that little 1.6-liter hatch consistently got over 30 mpg and refused to die.

1984 Toyota Pickup (or any Toyota with the famous 22R engine)

Got 150,000 or even 200,000 miles on your 22R engine? Relax, she’s hardly broken in! The team at Toyota who came up with the four-cylinder 22R really hit one out of the park, creating an engine that goes down in history as perhaps the most reliable ever built. Look for it in model years from 1981 to 1995. Yeah, 15 years. It was that good.

Do you have any stories of cars that refused to die?

-tgriffith

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Who has the best ideas: Congress or a guy named Norm?

Congress may think it comes up with great ideas, but sometimes it just takes a guy named Norm to really hit one out of the park.

The U.S. Congress’ idea is the “Cash for Clunkers” plan, which would give cash incentives of up to $4,500 to owners of gas guzzlers who want to trade up to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

It’s a solid idea and has worked well in other countries. While the idea is simple, the plan behind it has unfortunately become quite complicated. (I swear, Congress must have a rule that they can’t pass legislation that requires fewer than 500 pages to spell out.) You can read a great Q&A article about the plan here.

Enter Norm Davis, a reader of our blog who sent us this response to the Cash for Clunkers plan:

That’s a good start - it’s the “carrot.” But they left out the stick: Charge the owners of these gas guzzlers every time they re-register their vehicles. I’m thinking along the lines of $20 per mile under the national EPA average 22 MPG, per year. So if you drive a car that gets 16 MPG, you will pay an extra $160 each year. The extra registration fees collected will help pay for the cash-for-clunker program, so it won’t have to be totally funded out of the taxpayers’ pockets. I think that’s fair. What do you think?

Norm, you need to run for Congress. Your idea is brilliant. Not only does it provide funding for the Cash for Clunkers program, it provides a stronger incentive for owners of gas guzzlers to get rid of them.

The only addition I would make is an escape clause for small-business owners who need an 8.1-liter V8 for business purposes. Everyone else, pony up and pay!

What do you think of Norm’s idea to charge extra registration fees to owners of vehicles that get less than 22 miles per gallon?

-tgriffith

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Obama Raises the Bar for Cleaner Cars

It’s quite amazing that the auto companies, after years of fighting the slightest move toward better CAFE and emissions standards, are now happily signing on to the much more stringent regs the President proposed today. Mr. Obama complimented the diverse group gathered in the White House Rose Garden for having “set aside the past for the sake of the future.”

So by 2016, automakers must meet a 35.5-mpg fleet average and institute a 30-percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions, both first proposed by California and tabled by the Bush administration. The new rules bring in four years sooner the 40-percent cut mandated by 2020 and basically put the whole country on the California standard.

The occasion brought forth the kind of Washington conviviality that often masks painful truths. Consumers will have to pay an additional $1,300 per vehicle. Some $1.4 billion in R&D funds will be needed. Increased gas taxes may well be coming.

The carmakers say having one federal standard (not different ones set by individual states) apply will make their goal much easier to achieve. Baloney. The government is now the major industry stakeholder, the economy stinks, bankruptcy is imminent for GM and already a reality for Chrysler, sales are down 40 percent—and there’s no way they could have held on to the old standards.

Not everybody claims to be happy. One former GM employee in Florida thinks there is too much pressure on automakers.

“The government keeps moving the bar higher and higher and making it that much harder to be successful. If the government keeps changing the rules, I don’t know how they [the carmakers] can keep up.”

One dealer thought the challenge of the new standards could be met and was far preferable to having to conform to a multitude of state standards. But in the end we couldn’t find too many naysayers, and of course the environmentalists are thrilled.

They should be. This is a real step forward in producing more-efficient cars and a cleaner atmosphere, something we all want and need. For the moment, the Obama administration has gotten old enemies to shake hands and, we hope, finally get down to work on the future.

The President says a buyer will recoup the $1,300 cost of a cleaner, more-fuel-efficient car in three years’ time. That’s figured on $3.50 gas by 2016. Do you think these are reasonable assumptions?

—jgoods

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A 55 mpg Volkswagen diesel?

It’s not a hybrid. It’s not electric. It’s not even a thrifty four-cylinder. It’s a diesel, which shows you just how far the technology has come in the last few years.

VW BlueSport concept

Now, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, V-dub is showing off a concept called the BlueSport, which if it lives up to its claims of 0-60 in 6.2 seconds and 55 mpg on the highway, just may prove to diesel-wary Americans that this technology is for real.  

But what exactly IS diesel, and how does it work?

Both gas and diesel are refined from petroleum. While gas is a liquid, diesel is closer to the consistency of oil and has a higher combustion point. It also requires less refining, which is why it was cheaper than gas until demand for it increased. Since diesel fuel is more dense, it delivers fuel economy about 20 to 30 percent better than gasoline.

In gas engines, gas is mixed with air, compressed by pistons and then ignited by spark plugs. In a diesel engine, the air is compressed by pistons first and then the fuel is injected. Since air heats up when it is compressed, the fuel ignites. Diesel engines don’t use spark plugs and have fewer moving parts, so they require significantly less maintenance and generally last longer.

The historical drawbacks of diesel have been dirty exhaust and lackluster acceleration, but these two issues appear to have been put to rest by Volkswagen’s Jetta TDI and BlueSport concept.

Then there’s biodiesel, which isn’t a petroleum based product. Biodiesel is made from plant or animal oils that have been altered to fuel diesel engines. Wired’s Autopia goes into some detail about British ultra-luxe carmaker Bentley and its plans to develop a biofuel vehicle and debut it at the Geneva Auto Show in March.

Would you consider buying a diesel vehicle? Do you think biodiesel has a future, or would you rather go electric? Let’s talk about it in the comment section!

 -tgriffith

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