Where's My MPG? Trade-Offs on the Road to Fuel Economy
(The 2008 Buick Enclave gets surprisingly good fuel economy. But jump on the gas and it doesn't want to downshift.)
As the old saying goes, "There's no replacement for displacement."
Or is there? Can you have both good fuel efficiency and good performance.
Carmakers will tell you that yes, you can have it all. But as the Enclave demonstrates, there's usually a trade-off of some kind, somewhere in the performance. With the Enclave, it didn't want to downshift. Then, when it did, it went from sixth to fourth.
In our article we take a look at what Ford and GM are doing to keep drivers high on the emotion meter which dialing in good fuel economy in "Where's My MPG?"
Here's a brief excerpt to get you reading...
"We surveyed the automotive landscape to see how the seismic shift toward fuel economy is remapping the way cars are made. We found that, behind the scenes, engineers, designers and even marketers are changing the way cars are conceptualized, built and presented to the buyer.
"Put another way, Detroit is hoping to disprove the old saying, 'There's no replacement for displacement.' What -- if anything -- will take the place of the big block V8s that have thrilled American drivers over the past four decades? Or are we doomed to a future of creeping around in noisy, asthmatic econo-boxes with four and (gasp) even three-bangers churning like hamsters on a treadmill?"
Check out "Where's My MPG?" and get all the answers, now.
- Posted by
- Philip Reed August 5, 2008, 3:00 PM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Buying New Cars, Driving, Fuel Economy
- Technorati Tags:
- Buick, Detroit, Fuel economy, GM
About the Enclave: does it not have a "manumatic" function? If so, then I guess that's the only wat to drive it when decent performance is needed......of (you might think I'm mad) why not have a manual transmission?
To tell you the truth, I don't mind the Enclave's tranny -- but, yes, you can use the manumatic for more performance.
I agree with Philip- the GM vehicles already give decent performance. The folks who complain most are those that want to accelerate hard when they hit the throttle. My Malibu LTZ is very like the description of the Enclave above- likes to stay in the highest gear possible, downshifts hard when it does. Usually that happens because I *want* it to accelerate faster than usual, and have floored the throttle. As it should be. If it holds the higher gear when I press down on the accelerator, it's still accelerating, just not as fast. And it's not burning up extra fuel.
Lots of Mazdas have the opposite problem, and get raves from folks because of it. They downshift easily, and always feel 'in the powerband' (modern-engine-geek-speak for in the higher RPMs). A side effect is that their fuel economy suffers, even though they feel sportier.
My Malibu feels plenty sporty when I want it to, usually without messing with the paddles either (just drop the hammer, the tranny takes the hint, and it *GOES* like stink). The rest of the day it's fine saving me some money on gas. I prefer that hands-down to cars that downshift when I only want to pick up 1 or 2 mph in speed.
I'm with the adder again. This is why I prefer manual transmissions. Let ME choose how many gears to drop. I think a properly trained human can be both more efficient and more aggressive, depending on your mood.