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Detroit, 7:18 PM
Sat Nov 7
5 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/06/09
[www.vw.co.za] #vwgolf
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
Small, light, roomy as hell, and ultra simple. The diesel version, while painfully slow and loud, came with its own built-in smokescreen capability and got like 50 MPG. Plus, it needed no anti-theft system. Who'd bother...and you'd be able to catch 'em on foot.
Nowadays, 2,000 lbs. is just the add-on crap in a small car.
"But where are my 43 air bags and my dual 9" DVD monitors?"
Sigh. #vwgolf
11/06/09
11/06/09
I hope the last ones are all GTi-s #vwgolf
11/06/09
11/06/09
I wonder what the differences are between these and the ones that rolled out of the factory in PA back in the day. (aside from the whole steering wheel thing) #vwgolf
11/06/09
@Tiberiuswise: Notice how the grille is slightly leaned back from vertical on the pictured car, like on the Mark II Golf. All original Mk. I Golfs/Rabbits had strictly vertical grilles. The US-made version got rectangular headlights, wraparound front signal lights, wide taillights, and an interior that was color-coordinated to hell and back. #vwgolf
11/06/09
11/06/09
Also, the wheels look pushed out a little on the black one in the post. I'm tempted to think some suspension and other engineering refinements were made. #vwgolf
11/06/09
@Tiberiuswise: I'm sure that there were some minor engineering changes for US production. Also, the wraparound turn signals and wide taillights were only on the 1981 and later cars. The '79-'80 Rabbits had more Euro-like front end and rear lights, though still with rectangular headlights. #vwgolf
10/09/09
Now I'm not sure how GM is going to use this advantage, but being that it is only running to charge the batteries, you could benefit by only running the engine at its most efficient operating conditions (Wide open throttle, peak torque, etc.), unlike a normal engine which has to run over its entire range of operating conditions, with most of them way below peak efficiency.
10/10/09
But that's not what Ben said and that's not how the Volt works. Ben wrote "It doesn't make sense to charge the batteries and drive the wheels." When the Volt's battery pack runs down to ~50% state of charge, the engine runs to generate electricity to power the motor to turn the wheels. Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah says "We’re going to tune the system to operate efficiently at a few points" and they can route any electricity generated beyond the instantanteous demand of the motor to the batteries, but the Volt is not trying to return the batteries to full charge. Should the batteries get to 80+%, maybe because you slammed on the brakes or drove downhill for a while, then the engine will turn off and the batteries will take over again.
Take all of this with a grain of salt since NO ONE outside of GM has driven a Volt with a depleted battery pack, but gm-volt.com is reporting the engineers' latest thinking.
You want to recharge a battery at home where electricity is cheapest - otherwise we'd all run gasoline generators to power our homes!
10/09/09
10/09/09
GM wants to get you where you're going with the cheapest energy source available. For the first 40 miles, that's electricity, for the rest of the available range, that's gasoline. It doesn't make sense to charge the batteries and drive the wheels. Drive the wheels with the e-motors, keep it simple without some complex engine decoupling mechanism.
When you get home, plug in the car and juice the batteries with cheap electricity instead of filling them up with expensive gasoline generated electricity.
10/10/09
10/09/09
10/03/09
My civic get's better city, and same highway...
10/03/09
10/04/09
10/03/09
And it smelled like fresh french-fries whenever he was burning the SVO...
I think it had somewhere around 250k mi when he bought it and did the SVO conversion, and he had put on another 100k last I heard...
Good stuff.
10/03/09
Go up a bit if diesel was higher and you still wnd up with some incredibly low costs for road tripping! Will we ever have it so good again?
10/03/09
The first ones, like Murilee's find, are even better. Not as quick but even more durable with better mileage.
Another brilliant find, Murilee!
10/03/09
Got it b/c they were supposed to be cheap to deal with and get great mileage.
According to him, it's the only car he's ever hated. And he once drove a car with the hood held down by a rope.
It didn't get the mileage it was supposed to and it kept breaking.