A colleague of mine pointed something out recently that I'd not noticed. You rarely see "turbo" being advertised for vehicles over here (the U.S), even on engines that actually have them. Ford use the term "Ecoboost". Mazda use the term "SkyActiv". The VW group always use "TSi" and "TDi" but never really expand on the "T". Only Hyundai seem to be particular up front about, going so far as to use the 'Turbo' moniker on their Veloster.
This led me to wonder why this is. Back in the bad old days, turbos could be unreliable beasts, badly tuned with too much boost from the factory, they were heavy, would burn through oil and bearings fairly quickly and made a lovely / horrible noise depending on your point of view. They fell out of favour in the mid 80's in America with the market preferring displacement over aspiration. V6 and V8 engines became more commonplace along with the terrible gas mileage they provided. At the time, petrol was cheap and displacement was the easiest way to get increase power.
Over in Europe and Japan, turbo engines never really went out of favour. Hot hatches were frequently sold factory-fresh with turbos that did a great job of bringing a smile to the driver's faces as well as providing a modest increase in fuel economy. Every car had a boost gauge (Saab put theirs front and centre), the turbo whine, induction roar and dump valve sounds were all allowed to echo through the engine bay and passenger cabin and all was well. For whatever reason though, the average man-in-the-street in the US was somehow afraid of turbos.
Cut to today when people are now happily driving around in turbo-engined cars, and I wonder if it's because they don't realise it. As I said above, you don't often see 'turbo' in the literature for the car. Instead it's masked with phrases like 'advanced engine technology' (turbos aren't that advanced, or new). Induction roar is quieted with airboxes and noise-deadening. Turbo whine is suppressed by putting the turbo low down at the front of the engine, away from the driver, and dump valves are soft-opening, quiet little affairs designed to be as inoffensive as possible. That's if they're present at all. Most factory turbos are managed so they never produce enough pressure to require a dump valve.
Why? Why is this? Why aren't we celebrating amazing technology like variable vanes and nested twin turbo systems that spool up at different exhaust pressures? Porsche don't mind advertising variable-vane turbos but then they're not really targeting the average driver. I just think we should embrace things like this and not be afraid of it. Put boost gauges back in the cars, let the drivers hear their engines going about their business. There's really nothing to be afraid of.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Guest post : 30 years of CD players - history of in-car entertainment
Anything people can enjoy on the sofa, they want to have on the move. This desire has fuelled rapid innovation in in-car entertainment for almost 100 years! Read on for a breakdown of in-car entertainment milestones and a look to the gadgets and gizmos of the future. Is the CD player really on its way out?
A real luxury
The topic of who made the first car radio for personal use is a hot debate but it was the Galvin brothers that gave us the first commercial in-car radio in 1930. It cost a wallet-crushing $130. Not much you say? Well, you be the judge of that when you find out that a Ford Model A Deluxe Coupe only came in at $540. If you look at the kind of car finance deals on offer for top models like MINI today, can you imagine dropping a third of the total value on a radio? That’s one for real music lovers...
Music on demand
AM/FM radio appeared during the ‘50s but it was Chrysler who spotted a gap in the market. They put a 7” record player in their high-end models so people could play proprietary records. Ah the luxury of choice!
The rise and fall of the 8-track
The eight-track tape never had it easy. Both Ford and Motorola put players in their cars during 1965 and the format saw a massive boom. However, after a decade of people getting annoyed with jammed decks and dirty tape, it was discontinued and never seen again...
The magic of a mixtape
In-car entertainment exploded in the mid-70s with the humble cassette tape. Suddenly big brands like Alpine and Pioneer were making stereos for cars and it was big business indeed.
German engineering
Sony pipped Becker to the post for in-dash CD players a year before, but it was the German company that struck gold with the first model to be installed in the factory during 1985. So began the reign of the CD...and long it was...
Apple-tastic
It was the emergence of MP3 players and the mighty iPod at the turn of the millennium that started killing CDs. Plenty of cars still come with CD players as standard but this is the time when big brands will phase them out in favour of digital docks and even app-based systems.
A taste of things to come...
In-car entertainment will develop faster in the next 5 years than ever before. Smart-phones will power app-based systems so drivers can benefit from voice-activated technology, wireless chargers, infotainment tablets and much more access to the music they want.
But the real game-changer will be augmented reality windscreens that will turn your driver’s view into something that looks like it came from a computer game... Get ready.
A real luxury
The topic of who made the first car radio for personal use is a hot debate but it was the Galvin brothers that gave us the first commercial in-car radio in 1930. It cost a wallet-crushing $130. Not much you say? Well, you be the judge of that when you find out that a Ford Model A Deluxe Coupe only came in at $540. If you look at the kind of car finance deals on offer for top models like MINI today, can you imagine dropping a third of the total value on a radio? That’s one for real music lovers...
Music on demand
AM/FM radio appeared during the ‘50s but it was Chrysler who spotted a gap in the market. They put a 7” record player in their high-end models so people could play proprietary records. Ah the luxury of choice!
The rise and fall of the 8-track
The eight-track tape never had it easy. Both Ford and Motorola put players in their cars during 1965 and the format saw a massive boom. However, after a decade of people getting annoyed with jammed decks and dirty tape, it was discontinued and never seen again...
The magic of a mixtape
In-car entertainment exploded in the mid-70s with the humble cassette tape. Suddenly big brands like Alpine and Pioneer were making stereos for cars and it was big business indeed.
German engineering
Sony pipped Becker to the post for in-dash CD players a year before, but it was the German company that struck gold with the first model to be installed in the factory during 1985. So began the reign of the CD...and long it was...
Apple-tastic
It was the emergence of MP3 players and the mighty iPod at the turn of the millennium that started killing CDs. Plenty of cars still come with CD players as standard but this is the time when big brands will phase them out in favour of digital docks and even app-based systems.
A taste of things to come...
In-car entertainment will develop faster in the next 5 years than ever before. Smart-phones will power app-based systems so drivers can benefit from voice-activated technology, wireless chargers, infotainment tablets and much more access to the music they want.
But the real game-changer will be augmented reality windscreens that will turn your driver’s view into something that looks like it came from a computer game... Get ready.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Car Shopping Part 3
This week I just wanted to finish off the car buying tale. If you followed the previous two posts you'll know we ended up with a custom build and got the dealer down to a reasonable price. If you do order a custom build, you'll end up with something that - if you're a car nerd - is fascinating. It's the factory build sheet.
The build sheet is the extremely verbose version of what you chose on the website or at the dealer when configuring your car. So for example you might have chosen a winter package that had heated seats. On the build sheet, that will be broken down into assembly codes for all the components that go into that package - the seats, controls, wiring loom - everything. Right at the bottom of the sheet - in some cases - will be a huge barcode. This has no relevance to you as a buyer, but it's the code that identifies your car to the factory.
Once the time comes for your vehicle to enter production, the factory has a copy of the build sheet attached to the engine, suspension parts, chassis (if there is a chassis) and all the other components. At each station on the production line, the barcode gets scanned and the assembly worker knows exactly what has to go into the car in front of them at their station. The robots know if bodywork needs to be cut differently, or doors needs to be changed (3 door vs 5 door etc) and the paint shop knows to prepare a set of body panels in your chosen colour. Eventually all the different parts of the car come together in final assembly and if everything worked, all the barcodes match up and they end up with a single, finished car, containing everything that was on the original build sheet.
From that point forwards, it goes through engine testing, soak testing and QA, then gets shipped (in my case, literally) to your dealer. For stuff that comes across the Atlantic to the US, there are dealer prep facilities in the ports that check the vehicles over before they get loaded on to road transporters. Cosmetic flaws get touched up, loose items get fixed or replaced and the car is given a once-over to make sure the sea-crossing didn't do any lasting damage. (Even if your car is strapped down inside a container, in a 20ft ocean swell it's going to get knocked about).
The coolest thing about this whole process is that some manufacturers allow you to track the progress of your build online. Some marques, like BMW and Audi, even have customer options where you can pay to get hands-on with the assembly of your own car, so if you fancy joining the production line for a day to tighten some bolts and add some internal parts - that's an option too. Expensive, and only for the true car nerd with a lot of money to burn, but an option nevertheless.
For us, we're just waiting for the car now. There will be a followup post when it arrives.
The build sheet is the extremely verbose version of what you chose on the website or at the dealer when configuring your car. So for example you might have chosen a winter package that had heated seats. On the build sheet, that will be broken down into assembly codes for all the components that go into that package - the seats, controls, wiring loom - everything. Right at the bottom of the sheet - in some cases - will be a huge barcode. This has no relevance to you as a buyer, but it's the code that identifies your car to the factory.
Once the time comes for your vehicle to enter production, the factory has a copy of the build sheet attached to the engine, suspension parts, chassis (if there is a chassis) and all the other components. At each station on the production line, the barcode gets scanned and the assembly worker knows exactly what has to go into the car in front of them at their station. The robots know if bodywork needs to be cut differently, or doors needs to be changed (3 door vs 5 door etc) and the paint shop knows to prepare a set of body panels in your chosen colour. Eventually all the different parts of the car come together in final assembly and if everything worked, all the barcodes match up and they end up with a single, finished car, containing everything that was on the original build sheet.
From that point forwards, it goes through engine testing, soak testing and QA, then gets shipped (in my case, literally) to your dealer. For stuff that comes across the Atlantic to the US, there are dealer prep facilities in the ports that check the vehicles over before they get loaded on to road transporters. Cosmetic flaws get touched up, loose items get fixed or replaced and the car is given a once-over to make sure the sea-crossing didn't do any lasting damage. (Even if your car is strapped down inside a container, in a 20ft ocean swell it's going to get knocked about).
The coolest thing about this whole process is that some manufacturers allow you to track the progress of your build online. Some marques, like BMW and Audi, even have customer options where you can pay to get hands-on with the assembly of your own car, so if you fancy joining the production line for a day to tighten some bolts and add some internal parts - that's an option too. Expensive, and only for the true car nerd with a lot of money to burn, but an option nevertheless.
For us, we're just waiting for the car now. There will be a followup post when it arrives.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Car Shopping Part 2.
Last week I wrote about the test drive experiences I had whilst looking around for a new car. This week I'm going to talk a bit about the actual buying process itself.
For our car, we ended up doing a custom build. Our local dealer did an inventory search across the country for us, and all the red and blue cars were too far away to make any economic sense to have them shipped to us. Plus they had extra bits and pieces and packages we didn't want or need. I don't want black, white or grey (or silver) - there's enough monochrome cars over here already. So the best option, realistically was a custom order.
You have to be patient if you're going to do this, especially if you're ordering from overseas. However that doesn't mean there isn't wiggle room on the price. Most dealers will try to tell you that when you do a custom order, you're paying MSRP or you're not getting the car. View this as the opening gambit, not the final price. It can be hard if you're a bad negotiator - I'm not the best in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but hold your ground, be polite and firm, and you will get a better deal.
The best thing to do is research the actual prices before you go near a dealer. In the US we have sites like TrueCar.com - it's been a while since I looked in Europe but I suspect the same sort of sites are available there. With a price site like this, you choose the car you're interested in and add on all the options you want - paint colours, interior and exterior options - everything. It will then tell you what the actual dealer invoice is (rather than the one the dealer will show you), as well as any current incentives to the dealers for selling the vehicle. The incentives are typically unpublished bonuses paid to the dealers for selling particular vehicles. In addition, it will tell you what the holdback is (the amount the dealer gets paid by the manufacturer no matter what price you get the car for) and in most cases you will be able to see what other people in your area paid for the car you've specified.
Use this information - print it out and take it to the dealer with you. Don't throw it in their face, but refer to it when you start talking price. Again - be firm and polite. If you're arrogant ("Don't be stupid - I know exactly what this car should cost!") then you will be paying MSRP and that's all there is to it. In most cases, that attitude will get you a hefty add-on too - you might end up paying full sticker price.
What you have to do is find the balance between how much you think the dealer wants to make, and how much they think they want to make. You'll almost never get them to bottom-dollar but 9 times out of 10, you can get the price to come down. In my case, after a little negotiation, our custom build came down to $1,700 below MSRP. That's a nice deal for me, the dealership still makes good money off me, and everyone's happy.
Be cautious of hidden add-ons though. For example my dealer told me there'd be an additional $1,350 for a ClearBra that they "put on every vehicle as standard". I'm having a custom-built vehicle, so I told them that I don't want that put on my car. It's being built for me, not for the dealership, so they can't force that on me. Look out for other things like that - paint protection packages, upholstery protection packages - these are all high profit-margin items that the dealers will use to try to increase their bottom line and don't be fooled into thinking they're worth anything; if you ever try to claim, they'll fight you the whole way and the normal outcome is a lot of angst for no payout.
The same is true for non-factory-backed warranties. They really are not worth the paper they're written on. The aftermarket warranty companies are extremely clever at getting out of claims no matter how small. The only extended warranty that counts is a manufacturer-extended warranty (not a dealer-extended warranty).
Again - be firm and polite when it comes to the upsell, and you will get your way most time. The people you're talking to are humans just like you, with families to go home to. Treat them with respect and they'll remember you. Treat them like an ass and you'll pay for it forever.
For our car, we ended up doing a custom build. Our local dealer did an inventory search across the country for us, and all the red and blue cars were too far away to make any economic sense to have them shipped to us. Plus they had extra bits and pieces and packages we didn't want or need. I don't want black, white or grey (or silver) - there's enough monochrome cars over here already. So the best option, realistically was a custom order.
You have to be patient if you're going to do this, especially if you're ordering from overseas. However that doesn't mean there isn't wiggle room on the price. Most dealers will try to tell you that when you do a custom order, you're paying MSRP or you're not getting the car. View this as the opening gambit, not the final price. It can be hard if you're a bad negotiator - I'm not the best in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but hold your ground, be polite and firm, and you will get a better deal.
The best thing to do is research the actual prices before you go near a dealer. In the US we have sites like TrueCar.com - it's been a while since I looked in Europe but I suspect the same sort of sites are available there. With a price site like this, you choose the car you're interested in and add on all the options you want - paint colours, interior and exterior options - everything. It will then tell you what the actual dealer invoice is (rather than the one the dealer will show you), as well as any current incentives to the dealers for selling the vehicle. The incentives are typically unpublished bonuses paid to the dealers for selling particular vehicles. In addition, it will tell you what the holdback is (the amount the dealer gets paid by the manufacturer no matter what price you get the car for) and in most cases you will be able to see what other people in your area paid for the car you've specified.
Use this information - print it out and take it to the dealer with you. Don't throw it in their face, but refer to it when you start talking price. Again - be firm and polite. If you're arrogant ("Don't be stupid - I know exactly what this car should cost!") then you will be paying MSRP and that's all there is to it. In most cases, that attitude will get you a hefty add-on too - you might end up paying full sticker price.
What you have to do is find the balance between how much you think the dealer wants to make, and how much they think they want to make. You'll almost never get them to bottom-dollar but 9 times out of 10, you can get the price to come down. In my case, after a little negotiation, our custom build came down to $1,700 below MSRP. That's a nice deal for me, the dealership still makes good money off me, and everyone's happy.
Be cautious of hidden add-ons though. For example my dealer told me there'd be an additional $1,350 for a ClearBra that they "put on every vehicle as standard". I'm having a custom-built vehicle, so I told them that I don't want that put on my car. It's being built for me, not for the dealership, so they can't force that on me. Look out for other things like that - paint protection packages, upholstery protection packages - these are all high profit-margin items that the dealers will use to try to increase their bottom line and don't be fooled into thinking they're worth anything; if you ever try to claim, they'll fight you the whole way and the normal outcome is a lot of angst for no payout.
The same is true for non-factory-backed warranties. They really are not worth the paper they're written on. The aftermarket warranty companies are extremely clever at getting out of claims no matter how small. The only extended warranty that counts is a manufacturer-extended warranty (not a dealer-extended warranty).
Again - be firm and polite when it comes to the upsell, and you will get your way most time. The people you're talking to are humans just like you, with families to go home to. Treat them with respect and they'll remember you. Treat them like an ass and you'll pay for it forever.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Car shopping.
I was in the fortunate position recently to be new-car shopping. This time around I decided to go a bit more up-market than everything I've owned in recent history. It was a long list to start with but in the end it boiled down to these four vehicles : Audi Q5, BMW X1, Mercedes GLK and Range Rover Evoque.
I was able to test drive all the vehicles within a few days of each other so I was able to make a fairly good comparison between them. The most disappointing of all was the Mercedes. It was smaller inside than my VW Tiguan, the controls were extremely peculiar in their layout and it really didn't drive very well. The 3.0 V6 was perky enough, but the whole package felt a bit numb.
The BMW X1 was ruled out almost before the test drive. It too was small inside - so small that with the seat in a good driving position for me, I wouldn't be able to carry any passengers in the back, and I regularly have three or four people in my car. On top of that, the plastics they've used inside felt cheap and hard and scratchy, and the centre console layout was very 1980's. Plus it had that awful iDrive computer. The drive wasn't much better. Vague steering, vague throttle response, vague brakes. Not at all what I was expecting from BMW.
The Audi rose to the top of the pile simply by virtue of not being eliminated. The drive was lovely, the layout inside was very familiar because of my ownership of the VW Tiguan. Everything was just-so. The steering had the same unusual electro-mechanical feel to it as my VW (which I'm used to) but it was nowhere near as disconnected from the wheels as the Mercedes or the BMW. In all it's a brilliant car, even if I'm not sold on the jelly-mould shape of the exterior.
Finally, the Range Rover Evoque had a drive that, for me, belied its size. It's more nimble than any of the others (in so far as any crossover can be 'nimble'), the interior was a bloody nice place to be, and the steering, brakes and throttle were all quite similar in overall feel to my VW, and the Audi. Not great, but not wooden. The big downside is the tiny slit that masquerades as a rear window, but I was willing to overlook that for two reasons. First, all US-spec Evoques come with a backup camera as standard, and second, my second ever car was an Audi Quattro that had a similarly tiny rear view when looked at in the mirrors. That's to say - I'm used to it.
The Audi is certainly the pick of the bunch if I was to pick with my head. But I've done that for so many cars now that I decided to throw caution to the wind and pick the Evoque with my heart instead. Time will tell if this was a wise choice, or if it's going to be something I'll look back on as "one of life's rich experiences".
I was able to test drive all the vehicles within a few days of each other so I was able to make a fairly good comparison between them. The most disappointing of all was the Mercedes. It was smaller inside than my VW Tiguan, the controls were extremely peculiar in their layout and it really didn't drive very well. The 3.0 V6 was perky enough, but the whole package felt a bit numb.
The BMW X1 was ruled out almost before the test drive. It too was small inside - so small that with the seat in a good driving position for me, I wouldn't be able to carry any passengers in the back, and I regularly have three or four people in my car. On top of that, the plastics they've used inside felt cheap and hard and scratchy, and the centre console layout was very 1980's. Plus it had that awful iDrive computer. The drive wasn't much better. Vague steering, vague throttle response, vague brakes. Not at all what I was expecting from BMW.
The Audi rose to the top of the pile simply by virtue of not being eliminated. The drive was lovely, the layout inside was very familiar because of my ownership of the VW Tiguan. Everything was just-so. The steering had the same unusual electro-mechanical feel to it as my VW (which I'm used to) but it was nowhere near as disconnected from the wheels as the Mercedes or the BMW. In all it's a brilliant car, even if I'm not sold on the jelly-mould shape of the exterior.
Finally, the Range Rover Evoque had a drive that, for me, belied its size. It's more nimble than any of the others (in so far as any crossover can be 'nimble'), the interior was a bloody nice place to be, and the steering, brakes and throttle were all quite similar in overall feel to my VW, and the Audi. Not great, but not wooden. The big downside is the tiny slit that masquerades as a rear window, but I was willing to overlook that for two reasons. First, all US-spec Evoques come with a backup camera as standard, and second, my second ever car was an Audi Quattro that had a similarly tiny rear view when looked at in the mirrors. That's to say - I'm used to it.
The Audi is certainly the pick of the bunch if I was to pick with my head. But I've done that for so many cars now that I decided to throw caution to the wind and pick the Evoque with my heart instead. Time will tell if this was a wise choice, or if it's going to be something I'll look back on as "one of life's rich experiences".
Monday, April 8, 2013
The mpg question: why is diesel so unpopular in the US?
A few weeks back I talked about a VW Golf that we rented whilst on a trip to the UK. It returned an impressive 88mpg - about 73mpg in US gallons. That's a car you can own and drive today - not some fly-by-night fantasy or future concept. Yes, it's a diesel, yes it has VW's package of fuel economy add-ons (low-resistance tyres, streamlined underbody, stop/start etc) but it's all entirely usable technology right now.
Meanwhile, here in the colonies, we struggle to get 40mpg out of a passenger car and 25mpg out of an SUV is a total miracle. I'm talking about real-world figures here, not the rose-tinted view of the world that the EPA live in where nobody drives in the cold, or up and down hills, or in traffic, or at night, or above 57mph. Heck if you drove that Golf at 57mph with all the electrical items turned off I reckon it would top 80mpg U.S.
I've never really understood why America hasn't taken to diesels. My best guess is that the US-built diesels of the 80's are probably what put most consumers off. Rattly, dirty, noisy beasts that sounded like a 1950's train. But modern diesels are so much better. With the soot and particulate filters and all the other technologies in the engine, they get stellar mpg numbers and in most cases (if you use low-sulphur diesel) are now cleaner than petrol cars for the same engine size. VW knows this - it's why they have the broadest range of diesels of any manufacturer selling cars in the US. Jeep seem to be catching on now - they're going to offer a diesel engine in their range this coming year, but I suspect the old biases will be tough to get past and I don't think diesels will ever really be as popular here as they are in Europe.
The bizarre thing is, of course, that now diesel is so expensive in Europe, people are starting to swing back the other way to hyper efficient petrol-engined cars. Small turbo engines with direct-injection technology are as driveable as any petrol engine you're used to but return diesel-like gas-mileage numbers. Yet again, even with that technology around right now, we still struggle here in the US.
Is it consumer apathy or lack of demand? Is it the low petrol prices? Or is it that vehicle tax over here is still based on the value of the vehicle (in most states) instead of the exhaust emissions? I guarantee if that changed, people would be begging and screaming for properly fuel-efficient engines in their cars....
Meanwhile, here in the colonies, we struggle to get 40mpg out of a passenger car and 25mpg out of an SUV is a total miracle. I'm talking about real-world figures here, not the rose-tinted view of the world that the EPA live in where nobody drives in the cold, or up and down hills, or in traffic, or at night, or above 57mph. Heck if you drove that Golf at 57mph with all the electrical items turned off I reckon it would top 80mpg U.S.
I've never really understood why America hasn't taken to diesels. My best guess is that the US-built diesels of the 80's are probably what put most consumers off. Rattly, dirty, noisy beasts that sounded like a 1950's train. But modern diesels are so much better. With the soot and particulate filters and all the other technologies in the engine, they get stellar mpg numbers and in most cases (if you use low-sulphur diesel) are now cleaner than petrol cars for the same engine size. VW knows this - it's why they have the broadest range of diesels of any manufacturer selling cars in the US. Jeep seem to be catching on now - they're going to offer a diesel engine in their range this coming year, but I suspect the old biases will be tough to get past and I don't think diesels will ever really be as popular here as they are in Europe.
The bizarre thing is, of course, that now diesel is so expensive in Europe, people are starting to swing back the other way to hyper efficient petrol-engined cars. Small turbo engines with direct-injection technology are as driveable as any petrol engine you're used to but return diesel-like gas-mileage numbers. Yet again, even with that technology around right now, we still struggle here in the US.
Is it consumer apathy or lack of demand? Is it the low petrol prices? Or is it that vehicle tax over here is still based on the value of the vehicle (in most states) instead of the exhaust emissions? I guarantee if that changed, people would be begging and screaming for properly fuel-efficient engines in their cars....
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