Can Some Muscle Save Detroit ? Wall Street Journal article

[tjd24]

from today's Wall Street Journal, I hope this link works OK (unsure if its considered premium content) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1245...rsonal_journal

[bluch]

[hb-rocks]

So according to this article....due to Obama's new fuel Compliance regulations....we will not see the V8 in 2011?


Based on the complicated new scheme for measuring fuel-economy compliance -- which bases targets on a car's size, or "footprint" -- a car the size of a Ford Mustang would have to hit a fuel-economy target of 30.4 miles per gallon in 2011 and 39.4 miles per gallon in 2016, says Sandy Stojkovski, director of vehicle systems for Ricardo Inc., an engineering consulting firm. The Camaro and Challenger are larger cars, and thus could have less ambitious targets in their class. But the direction is the same; the current V-6 Camaro's 22 mpg probably won't cut it.

["prima"Donna]

Originally Posted by tjd24

from today's Wall Street Journal, I hope this link works OK (unsure if its considered premium content) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1245...rsonal_journal

Thanks for sharing a very interesting and informative article and video....

This Camaro does put us "baby boomers" back in time to the COOL cars of our youth AND it makes me, and I'm sure many other "boomers", feel like we are those teenagers again!...

It is the "fountain of youth"...

You can't put a price tag on that feeling!!!!...

[Matt'sSS]

Originally Posted by hb-rocks

So according to this article....due to Obama's new fuel Compliance regulations....we will not see the V8 in 2011?


Based on the complicated new scheme for measuring fuel-economy compliance -- which bases targets on a car's size, or "footprint" -- a car the size of a Ford Mustang would have to hit a fuel-economy target of 30.4 miles per gallon in 2011 and 39.4 miles per gallon in 2016, says Sandy Stojkovski, director of vehicle systems for Ricardo Inc., an engineering consulting firm. The Camaro and Challenger are larger cars, and thus could have less ambitious targets in their class. But the direction is the same; the current V-6 Camaro's 22 mpg probably won't cut it.

First of all, the article says the Camaro and Challenger are larger cars (than the Mustang), and I would think the Camaro should average better than 22 mpg since highway is 29.


The way it used to work was the fuel economy guidelines are company wide based on sales, they have to average a certain amount if they make more than a certain number of cars (leaving specialty makers like Bugatti safe). So if GM wants to make a car that gets 15 mpg, it better have a lot more that it sells making a lot better economy to make up for it & average out.

I don't know what the new guidelines are going to be, I usually read about the talk of what politicians are trying to push through when I happen across it in an auto mag, but it seems to change or at least vary.

I have not heard anything saying that by 2011 every car must get a certain minimum mileage though, that may be coming up at some point, but not by 2011. A lot of dates get thrown around, but they're several years down the road, giving manufacturers time to adjust.

California is really the state pushing the country for a lot of this stuff as more and more states adopt California policy.

[sabrescamaro]

Good read, I think it was interesting to hear. I think that if they work on lightening it up in the next few years, the technology will improve (or improved technology will be applied), and they'll be able to keep the big engine. It's also interesting that he (maybe unintentionally) left the challenger out of most of the article. Maybe I'm way out of the loop, but has there been more than speculation that they will cut the challenger with dodge's new predicament?