YouTube’s Drive Channel is delivering some great car content. In their latest video, Chris Harris takes his GT3 4.0 out for one last drive before storing it for the winter season.
Autos.ca has a great article about Direct vs. Port Fuel Injection. I’ve talked about Direct Injection in the past, but this summary is written quite well and talks about the advantages and disadvantages. As more and more cars adopt direct injection, it’s good to learn about what is probably going to be in your next car.
Back in 2008, when Direct Injection was relatively new technology I compiled a list of cars that featured it in their engines. Fast forward to 2011 and many cars use this. Winding Road compiled a complete list of all cars (in the USA) that feature this tech:
Land Rover
2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4. Applications: Range Rover Evoque
5.0-liter V-8. Applications: LR4, Range Rover
5.0-liter supercharged V-8. Applications: Range Rover Sport
Mini
1.6-liter turbocharged inline-4. Applications: Cooper S, Cooper JCW, Clubman Cooper S, Clubman Cooper JCW, Coupe Cooper S, Coupe Cooper JCW, Countryman Cooper S
Autos.ca featured the cheapest new cars you can buy although they do warn that the base models are often unavailable, and exist only to get you into the showroom:
I can’t summarize better what Inside Line posted about winter tires. Some of my old posts are below, but the Inside Line article is the most up-to-date.
In case you still feel you don’t need winter tires, at a minimum walk around your car and test the tire pressure for all four of your tires. As the temperature drops, the pressure in your tires will drop as well – usually far below recommended tire pressure. Better to do this now before it gets all snowy and wet outside. While you’re at it, check your oil level.
At the end of this year (yes, 2010) the Chevrolet Volt will be available for sale. This hybrid is different than all the others made by the major car companies – it can run on it’s battery only, and charge while parked with an electrical outlet. Toyota is rumored to be developing a plug-in Prius and Mercedes just announced a plug-in S400 concept. However, can a car like this succeed in Toronto?
Toronto is a very urban city. It has many, many high rises and multiple-unit dwellings where the garages are shared among all the residents. Most apartments and condos have few, if any, available electrical outlets for use by residents. How will these people charge their cars? This affects people at work too – have you considered how you can plug in your car at your office parking lot?
Toronto’s older neighborhoods lack garages. In fact in my neighborhood there is only street parking available for residents and most of the downtown core is like that. Will you run a 100-200ft power cable to your car overnight?
I’m curious how this will all play out. Plug-in hybrids or electric-only vehicles will be pretty efficient, and don’t produce much carbon. It might do good in the lawn-and-garage suburbs but it will be hard to tell how well they can sell in the urban areas.
Possible solutions are incentives for multi-dwelling buildings to implement charging technology in their garages. Having charging stations in public lots. Inexpensive home-based charging centers. It will be interesting how the private and public sectors deal with the charging issue.
Last year I published a list of cars with direct injection, looks like Winding Road beat me to it and published a an updated list. I love direct injection engines because it’s one of those technologies that defy the fuel economy/horsepower tradeoff. Direct injection engines have better fuel economy and higher performance.
Their complete list is on their website and it’s amazing how large this list is. Just a few years ago, only Audi produced cars with this technology, now almost every brand is represented.
Satellite Weather and Traffic Reports (I don’t think any of these systems work in Canada)
Pushbutton locking differentials
Turbocharging (woohoo!)
LED lights
Torque vectoring differentials
Direct Fuel Injection
Real power outlets
Folding hard tops
Hood scoops (wtf?)
Adaptive headlights
Regenerative Braking
I’m not sure about hood scoops, but the rest of the list is pretty cool. Recently I bought a new car, and it was nice to have features that my old car didn’t have, like adaptive lights, turbocharged direct-injection engine, heated seats and iPhone integration. Technology is wonderful.
The New York Times created an interactive map that shows what cars are Made in the USA. Fortunately, they also list models made in Canada and Mexico, seperately. For the cars made in the US, they list where then engines and transmissions come from, because many plants only do final assembly in the States.
If you are taking advantage of the strong Canadian dollar. By buying a car made in the USA, Canada or Mexico, you will save yourself paying duty at the border. There’s even some BMW’s, Mercedes and VW’s made in the USA now.
Support your local economy by buying cars made in Canada. I’ve listed them below:
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