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Automotive News & Views Buying American Cars What Does It Mean?
7263 messages, Last post on May 27, 2009 at 4:31 AM
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With parts coming from everywhere, does "Buying American" have much meaning anymore? Is quality and price the bottom line?
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Replying to: gee35coupe (Mar 10, 2006 9:48 am) -juice |
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state of the art product. Even of it is percieved, perception is over half the battle in getting people into the showroom.
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Replying to: gee35coupe (Mar 10, 2006 9:56 am)  -juice |
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Replying to: gee35coupe (Mar 10, 2006 9:56 am) Keep in mind that many companies will build the same engine with various materials depending on the application, sometimes even mixing (Iron block, aluminum heads). Dodges V-10 is aluminum in the Viper, cast iron the the Ram. Also, it was the "state of the art" OHC, aluminum engine that destroyed the Vega's reputation. The optional (and dated even at that time) "iron duke" was probably one of GM's most reliable engines. The Vega engine was later recast in iron, solving many (but not all) of its reliability issues. State of the art materials in this day and age would be ceramics, carbon fiber and to a lesser degree, titanium. I'm not seeing alot of these materials on Asian cars these days.
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For not having an all alloy engine, I'm gonna go ahead and put my wager in for bankrupcy protection coming up. That's a very sad argument. I know the "Iron Duke" later the "Tech 4" was a reliable engine. But it also had pushrods. That's another discussion too. You don't see any Asian cars with those either. We are discussing the bread and butter models. Camry Malibu, Accord, Civic, Cobalt, even 300C. I don't think you are gonna see much carbon fiber or titanium in these cars.
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Replying to: ubbermotor (Mar 11, 2006 9:26 am) For racing, or for plush little Mom Car's? For racing, no, Aluminum is not exactly state of the art. However, it wouldn't make much sense to put a $250,000 engine in a $25,000 mom car. I guess that aluminum is only about 85% state of the art for racing applications. For mom cars, yes, modern aluminum alloys are state of the art. Right now, the very best, most modern engines used in the very best and newest car in the class have aluminum engines. Some day, the state of the art in $25K mom cars will be more exotic than plain old aluminum, but not for a good while. The light weight, power output, and durability for the price is going to be hard to beat for a long time. We shoudn't confuse the THEN state of the art silicon-impregnated aluminum used in the Vega with modern alloys and casting techniques. The state of the art has advanced tremendously since the Vega.
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Replying to: bobad (Mar 12, 2006 8:12 am) Light weight and heat dispersal are the advantages of aluminum over iron, cost and duribility are the downsides. As far as OHV, you would have a hard time convincing me SOHC has any advantage.
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Replying to: ubbermotor (Mar 12, 2006 11:39 am)  Add 200 extra pounds of iron to the nose of an already pudgy FWD car of 3200 lbs, and it's usually a problem. Until titanium, ceramics etc. replace it in the far future, aluminum is the best compromise. |
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I understand plastics are moving into the powertrain (intake manifold). That should be a cheap way to drop weight.
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Replying to: ubbermotor (Mar 12, 2006 12:35 pm) I suppose all the manufacturers are afraid to pioneer with plastics as main engine parts. It's totally understandable.
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