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Wagons Upcoming Wagons & Crossovers
305 messages, Last post on Aug 09, 2008 at 8:36 PM
You are in the Wagons Forum. Your Host is kcram
Post your comments about upcoming wagons (real or concept) below. Thanks for your participation!
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I think the Daily Telegraph correspondent missed the mark a bit - probably due to some underlying anti-Americanism . Anyway, the real reason that diesels are not more available here in the states is due to the emissions. While cleaner in some respects (CO and CO2 for instance) diesels are MUCH dirtier in others (particulate matter and, if I recall correctly NO). The latter pollutants are both more visible and stink much more than modern gas emissions. As to the overall jist though - that in ten years diesels will be the most common engine - there may be some truth to that. If, in fact, the Bush Admin leaves in place the current goals to reduce the sulpher content in diesel by 95%, this will eliminate the most noxious fumes and unburned particulates in current diesel emissions. That, combined with more refined diesel powerplants (quieter, faster starting) will create a demand for cars that offer 90% of the off-line performance of a typical gas engine with 30-50% better fuel economy. The author is correct when he says that diesels are as quick as any gas car once you are going but their torquey design will be better appreciated in the larger cars with 4000 lb + curb weights. SUV's being the prime candidate. Smaller cars will probably be better off with hybreds. HiC |
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Thanks for your insights on the subject....  Pocahontas Host Hatchbacks/Station Wagons Message Boards |
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"Kia will offer the lowest-priced station wagon in the world when the 2002 Rio Wagon goes on sale in the summer of 2001." Read the complete story here: 2002 Kia Rio Wagon. Also, join us in our new 2002 Kia Rio Wagon discussion. |
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The 2001 Mazda Premacy is currently sold in Europe and Japan. Although there are currently no plans to market this vehicle in the USA, Mazda brought it to the 2001 Chicago Auto Show to gauge consumer reaction....
Read more about the Mazda Premacy here. Any opinions?
Pocahontas |
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I'd also go for an Impala Wagon.  What's with the SMALL wagon prototypes that car companies are designing these days? They need to start designing FULL size wagons! People buy wagons for the extra room a wagon provides. FULL size wagons are what people want, not tiny wagons. The full size wagon that I would want to buy would have a front bench seat and a third row seat facing the rear, and it would be bigger than the Saturn LS Wagon that we now have on the market. Anybody else agree with me? |
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| I agree with George. We could use a few more full-size wagons out there. A good amount of the eurowagons and such are pretty small for us (A4, etc.) | |
| The reason we only have pint sized wagons available to us is the Europeans and Japanese are developing vehicles for their markets. If you have been to Europe and/or Japan you will recognize that their roads, streets and parking accommodations are not designed for full sized American cars. Secondly Detroit has put their total focus upon SUV's because of the Government CAFE requirements and they are exempt from this if they build and market SUV's. A production standard sized Station Wagon, like a Crown Victoria, would come under the passenger car CAFE requirements. Hell Ford could gear up and start producing a Crown Victoria Station Wagon with a minimum of engineeing and tooling costs, but what would they gain from it. Loss of SUV sales and penalities from the Government for reducing their CAFE figure. So their is no incentive for Detroit to produce a Station Wagon. I personally would get in line to buy a full sized Station Wagon, if someone would produce one. I'm making do with the last big wagon that Ford produced in 1991. At 172,000 miles I will probably have to replace the engine one of these days, if they don't offer a new wagon on the market. You can blame Uncle Sam again for sticking his nose into the Automobile design business, for the loss of our beloved full sized wagons. So what do we have now, huge behemoth SUV's, that get 10 or 12 miles to the gallon and represent a serious safety hazard to all of us that drive sensibly sized vehicles. Another triumph by our Washington Bureaucrats! | |
| The exemption for SUV's is a farce, a loophole that should be closed. Don't blame the government for trying to enforce CAFE requirements, blame the automakers for exploiting this loophole and making our energy crisis worse and our roads less safe. | |
| >>>>>Don't blame the government <<<<<<<< (My eye) What you have witnessed is the Government sticking their nose into something they know nothing about, doing a botched up job of trying to legislate a policy no one wants to support and the free enterprise system and the market place thumbing their nose at the bureaucrats. Makes about as much sense as the California legislature passing a bill that 2% of all vehicles sold in California in 2002 will be zero emission vehicles. The chances of that happening are about the same as our colonizing Mars in the next ten years. Let the market place dictate to Detroit what it wants. If gas prices rise to $3.00 a gallon, you can bet Detroit will start producing smaller more fuel efficient vehicles. California won't license or permit passenger cars to be equipped with diesel engines, yet we have millions of behemoth pickup trucks and SUV's belching black diesel smoke all over the landscape. Another wonderious decision by our befuddled breaucrats. Shall I go on? We are in this energy crisis because the Government let a lot of silly damn tree huggers convince them that nuclear energy was dangerious, so we haven't approved a Nuke Power plant for the past 20 years. Mean while, the more forward thinking countries of Europe are generating 80% of their power from Nuke Plants. What we need in this Country is a few less breaucrates and politicians and a few more free enterprise, money hungry, risk taking, industrialists and capitalists. (And a whole lot fewer environmentalist that don't know their butts from their elbows.) | |
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