PaulG's blog: "Car crap"

I'm elated that the 2007 Ford Mustang is available with a Dove White leather interior. Sure, you have to get the optional California Package but who cares? I'm so tired of car companies being unimaginative and only offering three shades of leather on average, black, grey and beige. I don't think anything looks better in a car than a white leather interior. I wish more car companies would offer additional interior colors. I'm not saying that dealers need to order their stock in these non-intrusive colors, but at least make other colors an extra cost option for those people like me who might actually want something else other than black, grey or beige. I feel like trading in my current Mustang and buying a 2007 one with that Dove White leather.

So, as some of you may know, BMW's next 3-series coupe will use a twin-turbo straight-6 engine. BMW is notorious for eshewing the use of turbocharging, or any kind of forced induction in their engines. They have even criticized other manufacturers for using forced induction methods to increase the power output of their engines. Now, they go and build their first factory turbocharged engine in a longtime. Why did BMW engineers suddenly decide to resort to turbocharging? I don't know the answer to this question. BMW was one of the first manufacturers to offer a production car with a turbocharged engine. That car was the 1973 2002 Turbo. This car is notorious for two reasons. One was it's terrible turbo lab and the other was for its absurb looking front air dam with the word "turbo" written backwards. Presumably, this was to alert other cars in front of the driver of the 2002 Turbo that a fast car was coming up behind them. Personally, the front air dam with "turbo" written backwards never bothered me. BMW's next turbo car was never officially imported into the United States. It was the BMW 745i . This car was built between 1984 and 1986 I believe. A few have slipped into the US as grey market cars. These cars, like the 2002 Turbo, were also known for having sluggish acceleration and terrible turbo lag. As a result of these cars, BMW swore they would never use another turbocharged engine in a car. That brings us to 2006 and BMW's shocking announcement that the next 3-series coupe will be a bi-turbo engine. A company that swore they'd never use another turbocharged engine develops one for the new 3-series coupe. It should be interesting to see how well this car sells. I'm certain it won't have any problems in sales. I've read initial test drive reports of this car and journalists speak highly of the engine and it's utter lack of turbo lag. In fact, they claim you cannot even hear the turbos spooling. I'd be interested to hear anyone's opinion on BMW's decision to use a twin-turbo engine in their new 3-series coupe. I've also read reports that the next M3 will use a V8.

I've always been a big fan of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit/Spur and its sister, the Bentley Mulsanne. These cars began production in 1981. Unfortunately, I have a few complaints about these cars: 1. Up until about the late 1980s, these cars had the homeliest looking steering wheel and steering column I had ever seen in a car. Both the steering wheel and shift indicator look like they came off of a farm tractor. This is inexcusable for a car of this caliber. 2. What is up with the cheesy AC Delco stereo they put in these cars? I believe they started with that in 1985. I’d expect to see a stereo like that in a 1986 Chevy Cavalier, and not a $100,000 car. If that isn't bad enough, a lot of the earlier models (pre 1985'ish) had manual tune radios. That's unforgivable! 3. Although I can’t say for sure since I’ve never actually sat in one, both the Rolls and the Bentley appear to have manual seat recliners. Even my 1984 Lincoln has dual power recliners. How did the engineers at Rolls-Royce somehow overlook this small detail? 4. I question whether the outside mirrors are operated manually by remote control. If you look in the center console area, there appears to be two remote controls for what I guess are the mirrors. Usually, when a car has power mirrors, there is only one switch with a toggle to select which mirror to control. I could be completely wrong on this, but those mirrors don’t look power to me. 5. I never understood Roll-Royce’s policy of not quoting power output of their 6.75L engine. It was simply rated as being “adequate” or “more than adequate” in their literature. Surely, someone must have put one of these cars on a dyno and measured the horsepower and torque of this engine. I was able to find something on the internet but I don’t know how accurate it is, or how it was obtained. Someone quoted an 1981 Silver Spur as having 260 HP @ 4000 rpm and 280.3 ft*lb @ 2500 rpm. I can believe the horsepower but the torque seems a little low. A 412 cid engine should be putting out a lot more torque than 280 ft*lb. Even the detuned 302 cid in my Lincoln puts out 250 ft*lb. I would think that the torque out of a 412 cid should be at least 350 ft*lb, and that’s being conservative. Ideally, it should be pretty close to 400 ft*lb. I’d really like to know the specifications for this engine during the 1980s.

...and this question (or answer technically) ever pops up: Question: This was the first front drive car to feature a transversally mounted V-8 engine. Answer: The 1985 Cadillac Deville. Cadillac downsized the Deville for 1985 and used the GM C-body platform shared by the Oldsmobile 98, 88 and Buick LeSabre and Park Avenue. There might be a couple other C-body cars that I'm forgetting about. However, the Cadillac was the only one that got the infamous 4.1L engine. It is not an understatement to say that this aluminum engine is one of the biggest pieces of shit ever conceived. It is right up there with the Olds 350 diesel, Ford 3.8L and Cadillac V-8-6-4 variable displacement engines. All these engines, including the Cadillac 4.1L, warrant their own discussions.

I think automakers are getting too comfortable with the standardization that is occurring across the industry. Standardization is a good thing, but it can lead to just being plain cheap and uninventive in certain areas of cars. Take for instance colours. During the 1970s and 1980s, it wasn’t uncommon for a car to be offered in over 20 different exterior colours and maybe 8 or more interior colours. Many cars were available with two-tone paint jobs too, so that added even more exterior colour combinations. You try to find a car built today that doesn’t offer more than, say, 3 interior colours. It’s very uncommon. Seems to me that you can get most cars today with any interior colour you want as long as it’s beige, grey or black. What happened to the good old days when you could order white leather or red leather? Unless you are buying a Porsche or some other fairly expensive car, you won’t see any other colours but beige, grey and black for interiors. The other thing that is equally as annoying is that oftentimes manufacturers limit what interior colour you can get with a certain exterior colour. Does it honestly cost Ford anymore money to offer white leather for a red Mustang? You can get white leather only with a white exterior. Why can’t I get white leather with a red or yellow exterior? Why does Ford feel the need to decide for me what interior colours look right with certain exterior colours? I don’t even care if they charge extra for it, just make the choice available for those who don’t want the standard run-of-the-mill colour combinations. Exterior colours aren’t much better. Popular colours at the moment seem to be silver, black and tan. In 1981, Lincoln offered the Town Car in 18 exterior colours. Even more colours were available in subsequent years. Most cars today aren’t available in 18 colours. I suspect the reason why less colours are available now is so fewer colour combinations are available for the customer, thus simplifying ordering for dealerships. These colours also reduce the likely hood of an unusual colour combination. Most of the colours available for cars seem to be on the conservative side also. Of course, there are exceptions. The VW Beetle is available in some pretty unusual colours. I love that Sundance Orange they have for that. Car makers seem to be getting a little bit too stingy on the colours in my opinion. I can understand if dealerships want to order their stock in these non-offensive colours since they probably appeal to the majority of people. All I’m asking is that they at least make more colour choices available for those who might actually be interested in them, especially with the interior colours. I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I don’t think anything looks better in a car than a white leather interior. Why is white leather not available on practically every car? I have no idea. Maybe it’s cost. I can’t understand why it would cost anymore money to at least make it available. I’m no economist; I just know that I’m disappointed with the colour palette that most cars are limited to these days. I’d like to write more on this topic some other time.