This Just In
* In engine-related news, Automotive News brings word of a wholly new internal combustion technology. Called homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), the process combines the high efficiency and torque production of a diesel engine with the low emissions of gasoline. That's because HCCI ignites fuel with high cylinder compression, like a conventional diesel engine. Yet it can do so using gasoline as fuel, so it doesn't have the same emissions issues as diesel. In practice, an engine will run in HCCI mode only part of the time-like during steady state cruising-and will have to transition between HCCI and conventional operation as conditions change. GM plans to have an HCCI engine running for test purposes by next year and hopes that the HCCI technology will eventually deliver 80 percent of a diesel engine's efficiency for less than the cost difference between diesel and gas engines.
* Think high gas prices are killing truck sales? You'd be right, but not completely. According to SEMA and Wardsauto.com, large pickup sales in general were down 11.2 percent for the first half of 2006, while small pickup sales fell 10 percent. But some individual nameplates are faring far better. Honda Ridgeline sales, for example, were up a whopping 88 percent, Nissan Frontier sales were up nearly 20 percent, and Toyota Tacoma sales climbed 10 percent. Among fullsize trucks, only the luxe Lincoln Mark LT posted a sales gain-137 percent!-but that was due to its production ramp-up over the time period.
* In case you haven't heard the ads by now: GM has increased the powertrain warranties on all its '07 vehicles to five years or 100,000 miles.
* Looking into its crystal ball, Automotive News laid out these plans for Toyota: Land Cruiser will get a redesign in the world market this year, with a version coming to North America in '08; Sequoia will get a redesign in '08 as well, sharing the Tundra's new fullsize platform; and 4Runner is due for a redo in '09.
* AN's prognostications for Nissan: Frontier and Pathfinder will be freshened for '08, and the SUV will be fully redone for '10 or '11; a diesel may be available for Titan in '08, and both it and its sister Armada will be completely redesigned for '10; Xterra gets a facelift in '09 or '10.
* Tonneau and cap manufacturer SnugTop recently did some back-to-back testing of tonneau-equipped pickups to see if the accessory had an effect on fuel economy. Testing fullsize Ford, Chevy, and Dodge trucks over 100 laps at the Irwindale Speedway oval track, the results were mixed: The Dodge and Chevy improved their fuel economy by 7 and 2 percent, respectively, while the Ford's economy actually dropped by half a percent. According to SnugTop, the economy gains would have been greater had the trucks run faster than the 45-mph limit set by the track. Reading between the lines, it looks to us like Ford had done its aero homework pretty well, while the Ram needs the help.
Environmental & Political Watch
* Can't get enough Trent McGee? Superlift's Off-Road Adventures TV show, broadcast on the Outdoor Channel, is now available on DVD. Log on to www.superlift.tv for more info.
* Government doings, brought to us by SEMA's Washington, D.C., staffers: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wants to establish safety standards for ATVs. They would be largely based on current industry standards and would cover the mechanical operation of ATVs, require that the ATV industry provide safety information to consumers on how to operate the motorized vehicles, and include certification, testing, and record-keeping mandates. The proposed standards would cover adult, single-rider, tandem, and youth-size ATVs. The CPSC rule would ban three-wheeled ATVs.
* Interested in buying a flex-fuel vehicle that can run on the gas/ethanol blend E85? Are you still interested after learning that your fuel economy will go down when burning E85? Those questions were posed in a recent consumer survey by Synovate, which found 37 percent of U.S. consumers would consider purchasing a flex-fuel vehicle that runs on gasoline or E85. But more than a third of these same consumers lost interest in flex-fuel vehicles when they learned that using E85 means a drop in mpg. "It certainly appears as if consumers have bought into the appeal of a flex-fuel vehicle that can run on either gasoline or E85," said Scott Miller, CEO of Synovate Motoresearch. "However, consumers also are largely unaware that they will experience a 25 percent loss in fuel economy when the vehicle is running on ethanol." Miller believes this fuel-economy loss won't impact flex-fuel vehicle sales, but "it will generate disappointment among enthusiastic buyers. It also means that E85 will have to retain a substantially lower price per gallon over gasoline for it to have any impact on consumption."