G. David Felt

I agree with that too, I like both in this body style!

I would have to agree with you on the data you point out here. It has been interesting that Diesel has lost a bit of it's benefit with stronger turbo gas motors and what electric power trains are doing. The break even point as we have discussed in other threads here have shown some crazy long years of ownership to recover the cost. Other than businesses, it will be hard for normal people to really justify the new straight 6 diesel or 3L Duramax that they are coming out with I feel. I hope they have it smooth and quiet like the Cruze diesel was. No one would know a diesel was next to them in how quiet that engine was.

@dwightlooi What are your thoughts Dwight on plastic oil pans and the tech changes that motors are undergoing?

Take a 650HP Tesla P100D powertrain, 2 2017 Chevy Volt Batteries and one Honda S2000 and you have a wicked fast auto!

https://www.motor1.com/news/268789/honda-cr-v-engine-troubles-report/ Seems Honda's popular CR-V and their Civics that share their 1.5L Turbo motor are all having a major stall problem from Oil and Gas getting mixed upon entering the engine. This becomes an even bigger recall for 2019, 2018 and some 2017 models as Honda sold over 500,000 CR-Vs in the US alone not including this same engine in Canada and Mexico. Honda says they are working on a solution and will apply it under warranty to all engines. Yet this makes one ask would you want a new cracked motor to fix a problem with gas / oil mixing or would you want a complete new motor? While Honda has not stated what they did on the recall for the CR-V in China, the Civic owners in China as well as around the world are not happy and with a Hybrid version on sale using this motor, many more will probably not be happy.

https://insideevs.com/nhtsa-tesla-model-3-safest-vehicle-tested/ Very cool so the Tesla 3 is the safest auto period of all the cars out there. The videos in the above links of how the car handles is very impressive. Highest rating as Musk tweeted out weeks before the testing. This is good news as they are raising the bar for personal safety in an auto.

The 2019 Cadillac XT4 is in production, on their way to dealerships and out for test drives around North America. Reviews have been very positive and people have a variety of love / hate it for the design. Even here on Cheers and Gears various members have a passion on how plastic is being used on the front and rear of the car. With that it is time to take a closer look at some of the tech on this newest CUV from Cadillac. I found sandyblogs.com and the writers Tech Link. Here they do a pretty good job of pointing out the various tech on new auto's. I wanted to bring this into C&G for discussion and see what you all think. Tech open for debate: XT4 Electro-hydraulic brakes Turbo Charged 2.0L engine Plastic Engine Oil Pan Multipoint Air filter sensors 9 speed transmission with shift by wire Active Twin Clutch AWD system Active Sports Suspension Next Generation Infotainment system Rotary Controller Driver Assistance systems Hands Free power liftgate 22 new specialty tools to work on the auto The XT4 is the first GM auto to use their new brake control system that takes up considerably less room under the hood compared to a traditional Vacuum assisted power braking system. This new brake system is 13 lbs lighter than the old one it replaces. There are new braking sensors, brake pad sensors, wheel speed sensors and a new Power up self test. This makes the braking system a very self aware system for faster response with greater safety. We then have the feature heavy 2.0L Turbo 4 motor with AFM (Active Fuel Management), SIDI (Spark ignited Direct Injection), DOHC (Dual Overhead Camshafts), VVT (Variable Valve Timing) with this being the first new engine built on CSS or cylinder set strategy. This engine also uses an electric water pump using a built in local interconnect Network to manage cooling. Oil is the Gen 2 full synthetic SAE 0W-20 and uses a hardened plastic oil pan connected to the engine block. This oil pan helps to reduce the overall weight by a few pounds. The DIC in the auto is able to manage the multiple air sensor points on when you need to change the air filter. The 9 speed transmission is one of the smallest ever and uses electronics to shift gears via input from the EPS (Electronic Precision Shift). This does have a slightly different pattern over the XT5 as it is just a straight up and down only. The AWD twin clutch system is electronically controlled and allows a perfect 50/50 between front and back wheels and yet allows power up to 100% to be sent to the wheels with the best traction. The active Sport Suspension adjusts to the road every 2 milliseconds and allows the driver to change between tour, sport or AWD mode at any time. Cadillac is rolling out their next generation infotainment system. Higher quality graphics with a much faster more responsive system. faster to touch as well as voice. This system supports NFC (Near Field Communication) for easy pairing of your phone and the system. Besides touching the screen or a button, there is a rotary controller now allowing ease in access among the menus and feature function. Driver assistance systems is easiest to just post their long list of what this includes: Safety Alert Seat Rear Camera Mirror Surround Vision 360-degree Camera Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning Front/Rear Park Assist Rear Cross Traffic Alert Front Pedestrian Braking Forward Collision Alert Forward/Reverse Automatic Braking Head-Up Display Automatic Parking Assist with Braking Final feature is one that Cadillac competitor has had for years, Hand Free power liftgate. When you are within 6 ft of the rear of the auto with the fob in your pocket, you can just swing your foot and it will open the rear liftgate. The final listed item is all the new tools needed to work on the XT4. You can review the list on the Tech Link 1. Tech Link 1 Tech Link 2

Come Back Dwight and give us your input on the new engines.

Noting how Consumer Reports badmouths the Fiat 500 / Jeep Renegade. I wonder how they will address a plug n hybrid? ?

Bound to have a few startups go up in smoke

Posting this for anyone else who is interested in learning more about Regenerative Braking. Really good info. https://chargedevs.com/features/regenerative-braking-a-closer-look-at-the-methods-and-limits-of-regen/

Came across this story, shows that many are fed up with Musk's social attack on investors and the SEC. This could really hurt Tesla as companies like Daimler decide to go after the Market Tesla has dominated and could steal away customers who were hard core supporters but have lost money due to Musk irrational actions. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-musk-stocks/greenlight-comment-adds-to-tesla-losses-from-musk-mocking-sec-idUSKCN1MF1DA

To say that today the average auto is a supercomputer would be an understatement. Auto's are being asked to do so much now that many take it for granted what they can do and others wonder why self driving auto's are not already normal here after years of self driving auto's being promised. Part of this is computer tech only now getting up to speed, other reasons is adoption by people. Consumer Reports decided to check out just how good is autonomous driving and is it more of a Semi-automated driving. Consumer Reports has compared the Cadillac Super Cruise, Tesla's AutoPilot along with Nissan's ProPilot and Volvo's Pilot Assist. While GM, Tesla and Volvo did not respond to Consumer Reports request for response, Nissan did issue a statement saying that their ProPilot Assist system is available on several models all of which cost tens of thousands of dollars less than the others in the report. While CR has tested the automated driving systems for years, this is their first official in depth testing of the systems. The testing was conducted on both private and public roads to insure real world results. With a system that uses a combination of cameras, radar and other various sensors to map, monitor and react to traffic conditions, each system had its limitations. Cadillac Super Cruise only works on divided highways that have been mapped by GM. Tesla Autopilot can work on small, curvy roads with poor lane markings but operates erratically in those situations. Nissans ProPilot did better than Tesla and Volvo for keeping the drivers engaged but just under Cadillac's Super Cruise. Over all Cadillac's Super Cruise was judged to be the best balance of High-tech capabilities with car operational safety and driver engagement. Consumer Reports does point out that Super Cruise is NOT GM's Cruise self-driving technology that Honda has just bought into to help bring to market. Reuters Story

Daimler has made this year many announcements about their electric auto program. China was a natural place to have a battery plant and of course due to the aggressive acts by the government to have an electric auto program. Daimler on Friday October 5th made what was an expected investment announcement of their Alabama factory to be upgraded to start production of their newest GLE model. What also was announced was that Daimler is going to build as part of a $1 billion dollar retrofit and expansion a massive new electric auto Battery production line. This comes as Mercedes-Benz launches their EQ product line. On Friday Board member Markus Schaefer stated “We aim to play a pioneering role in the development of e-mobility and are well-prepared to accomplish this mission,” Daimler with Board support is currently updating 6 factories to produce EQ autos for the global market and besides the Battery plant in China and now the US is adding six more for a total of 8 Auto battery manufacturing sites to support Daimlers plans to convert their whole product line to Hybrid and pure electric only auto's for the global market. The home Plant in Sindelfingen Germany which is the home to the building of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class will become their Center of Competence for building all Autonomous and electric auto's. Daimler has stated they will spend $1.75 Billion to build a battery production plant in Sindelfingen and one in Untertuerkheim which is also being converted to a high tech electric car component production facility. This expansion joins Daimlers original electric auto battery production in Kamenz Germany. Reuters Daimler story 1 Reuters Daimler Story 2

But the Car is a Sexy convertible!

The 1938 Oldsmobile Automatic Safety Transmission started the greater adoption of auto driving and increased safety by keeping both hands on the steering wheel. This is what eventually morphed into the 1940 Hydra Matic automatic transmission. The last of this car known to exist is going up for auction according to the Hemmings blog. This is one of 475 1938 L-38 Convertible Coupes built which is also the last for Oldsmobile with a rumble seat. The AST was a $100 option. This car also had the optional dual side mounts $65, deluze radio, $66.50, electric clock $15, fog lamps $6.25 and optional heater $15. This car is expected to sell for between $55,000 and $75,000 dollars. Yes as this car started the automatic transmission story, the event of electric cars seems to be ending it as the lack of need for a transmission is pretty common. The only exception to this is in 200 Mph EVs. Seems technology is truly replacing what allowed for mass movement of people in a new form. Green Car Report Story

You know you want Aquaman and his Kingdom!

Very cool additional details on the ZR2 Bison. https://www.theblock.com/article/2018/september/the-colorado-zr2-bison-is-here.html Gotta love this video:

So jazzed about this movie: Anyone else excited to see it?

Nice, but the front end looks like a squished beer can.

Very cool, will be interesting to see how this shakes out!

They could easily kill off most of their cars and a good amount of niche CUVs as I doubt they bring in any more profit to the company. Someone on the board is going to have to challenge this attitude of build a car and CUV in every class and make sure every little hole has a special something as it is the right thing to do. Nope this just proves it. I suspect MB is going to have to cut models too as the global slow down in auto's will prove out that only selling 100 of a niche model is not profitable for every class.

Maybe a Chinese company is the next Edsel.

I miss my 1969 Ford Camper Special Pickup. It was an awesome truck that just always ran and never gave me any problems. Yet career took off and I had to move out of state, so extra auto's were sold.

Course the big plastic on the bottom also looks like Shit. @ocnblu did it right on his truck when he removed it. Course the ZR2 is not bad looking. Would like this package on the GMC.