BTW the 2010 Taurus is a good looking car.
Posted on 01/02/2009 8:16:42 AM PST by taildragger
The Escape hybrid has a 2.3L I4 gasoline engine. Just how much smaller of an engine would you put in an SUV?
I'm shopping for a late model just-off-lease program van right now, and running CarFax reports and doing lots of research....It appears that the short brake life is pretty much endemic in the industry, even now (possibly with the exception of the Asian vans). Not sure why this is such a huge technological problem for the American manufacturers, or if aftermarket rotors and pads improve longevity, but it is nearly a universal complaint. Tires also, but again the Japanese brand (Yokohama) appears superior (even when fitted to the American vans).
I haven’t read Car and Driver magazine in decades, but back at that time, they were pretty much considered whores who would rate cars based on how many advertising pages the manufacturers bought. Anyone have any more recent experience with this than mine?
My utterly clueless comments related to flex-fuel vehicles and a more enlightened discussion can be found here:
http://www.rainier97048.org/Issues/flexfuel.htm
Problems Plague U.S. Flex-Fuel Fleet
Most Government-Bought Vehicles Still Use Standard Gas
By Kimberly Kindy and Dan Keating
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 23, 2008; A01
The federal government has invested billions of dollars over the past 16 years, building a fleet of 112,000 alternative-fuel vehicles to serve as a model for a national movement away from fossil fuels.
But the costly effort to put more workers into vehicles powered by ethanol and other fuel alternatives has been fraught with problems, many of them caused by buying vehicles before fuel stations were in place to support them, a Washington Post analysis of federal records shows.
“I call it the ‘Field of Dreams’ plan. If you buy them, they will come,” said Wayne Corey, vehicle operations manager with the U.S. Postal Service. “It hasn’t happened.”
Under a mandate from Congress, federal agencies have gradually increased their fleets of alternative-fuel vehicles, a majority of them “flex-fuel,” capable of running on either gasoline or ethanol-based E85 fuel. But many of the vehicles were sent to locations hundreds of miles from any alternative fueling sites, the analysis shows.
As a result, more than 92 percent of the fuel used in the government’s alternative-fuel fleet continues to be standard gasoline. A 2005 law — meant to align the vehicles with alternative-fuel stations — now requires agencies to seek waivers when a vehicle is more than five miles or 15 minutes from an ethanol pump.
The latest generations of alternative vehicles have compounded the problem. Often, the vehicles come only with larger engines than the ones they replaced in the fleet. Consequently, the federal program — known as EPAct — has sometimes increased gasoline consumption and emission rates, the opposite of what was intended.
The EPAct program offers a cautionary tale as President-elect Barack Obama promises to kill dependence on foreign oil and revive the economy by retooling for the green revolution, experts say.
“This is an example of a law that has had a perversely different effect than what was originally intended,’’ said Jim Kliesch, a senior engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, an nonprofit environmental organization based in Washington.
The Postal Service illustrates the problem. It estimates that its 37,000 newer alternative-fuel delivery vans, which can run on high-grade ethanol, consumed 1.5 million additional gallons of gasoline last fiscal year because of the larger engines.
The vehicles that would allow the agency to meet federal mandates were available in six- and eight-cylinder models — not the four-cylinder variety it traditionally purchased. Alternative fuel was used less than 1 percent of the time in 2007-2008.
You may be correct. I may have made a mistake. I know there are non union plants in american south, but perhaps none of them are big three. I’ll try to verify.
You got me, but my car nut buds trust it more than others.
Dude, if Ford released a Mr. Fusion, they’d be so rich that they could’ve told the other ‘Big-2’ to take a hike when they went to Washington, cap in hand.
:-P
IF you’d like to read an article with more information regarding the new hybrid Ford Fusion... try:
http://www.leftlanenews.com/ford-fusion-hybrid-review.html
Mind you, this is from a site that is usually harsh on the Big-3, too.
Volkswagen has put a 2.0L engine in their new Tiguan (small SUV).
Of course, with it being a turbocharged engine... you do get 200 hp and 207 ft-lb. torque.
Not to make you feel old, but I don’t recall those things except in what I see in old movies..
Ford has a plant in Atlanta-which use to produce the Taurus. I believe the the UAW at some point got the big 3 to agree to (forced the Big 3) to require all plants, regardless of where they were located to be unionized.
This is encouraging; it looks like they’re on the right track.
“The ford f150 is not made in america anymore.”
Hmm, I’ll have to search the archives to find out when Dearborn, MI and Kansas City seceeded from the union.
It should also be noted HOW Ford paid to license Toyota’s patents.
They paid with licenses on Ford patents to Toyota for direct injection and diesel tech that Toyota would otherwise have been in violation of... then Toyota would have significantly lower mpg for some of their vehicles.
A few notes:
I’m a big fan of Yokohama and BF Goodrich tires - I’ve always had great service out of them. I just replaced the 7 year old Goodrich tires on my 12 year old Taurus with new Yokohamas. The BF’s lasted about 70,000 miles (plenty of tread left, but sidewalls were cracking). I despise Goodyear products, though, and have had nothing but bad luck with them.
As for brakes, it’s a mixed bag. I found OEM Ford drums were great. Their rotors were lacking (as with my Camry), but the cheap aftermarket rotors at AutoZone have been great. I think they cost me $24 each.
The Focus is NOT made in Mexico. Every last one sold in the US and Canada is built in Wayne, Michigan.
It used to be made in the Hermosillo plant and in Wayne, but production was consolidated in Michigan to free capacity for the Fusion, Milan, and MKZ - which are the only vehicles Ford imports from Mexico (they export MANY vehicles TO Mexico from the US, btw).
BTW the 2010 Taurus is a good looking car.
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