More Aluminum in the trucks

So where is Beavis and Oz when I need them?

 

wut

 

The 2013 Range Rover went to full aluminum construction. They dropped 800lbs over the previous versions.
The subframes are a combination of cast and extruded aluminum bits. It is a thing of beauty.

All the through bolts screw into steel "nuts" that are glued to the back side of the fixtures. They are a pain when you go to remove a bolt and the nuts spin inside the body.

All the steel bolts have loctite on them to prevent galvanic corrosion.

 

Aluminum bits? What's that?

 

Bits-Pieces.

 

Ford is not Toyota. Since the release of the Prius, Toyota has been a slow adopter of new technology in general. The Tacomas are even further behind Toyota's own cars.

Someone else posted composites. I agree with that. Composites make more sense than aluminum. No corrosion concerns and Toyota already has a little experience with the beds.

As a side, I'm really curious to see what Ford gets out of 2.7L compared to Toyota's current 159HP 2.7L. I'm guessing it will be more than the 305HP they're getting out of the 2.3L in the Mustang/Lincoln.

 

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/12/30/2015-ford-f-150-ecoboost-2.7-liter/

320 HP and 370 lb/ft with sequential turbos. Looks a little torque heavy, but that will be good in a truck.

 

I wouldn't call 370 lb/ft "torque heavy".

 

Who really wants all this fancy weight and power saving tech in a vehicle you have to replace every 10-12 years, I bought my 2.7 for better mpg's It does. It does really good for a truck and I really dont need anymore power. I dont want to sacrifice reliability, price, or have the belt driven accessories all ran electically. I'd rather have it simple and reliable, so that after 5 years it's not wore out and worthless because half the new junk they put on it broke, or fell off.

 

I know chevy's are not toyotas but Ive heard they have been having reliability problems with cylinder deactivation, the new 6 speed non allison transmissions and the electric power steering.

Things that are more complicated or electric dont seems to last as long or hold up as well.

Also I'd hate to pay 20-30k for a new vehicle and sell it for scrap value in 10 yrs because its not worth fixing.

 

Some of these new innovations by other companies are good. They will push Toyota to stay on top of things.

 

Here is more of an update.

"Like alternative drivetrain technology, lightweight materials will be a key component in meeting the fuel economy standards of the future. Ford's use of aluminum in the next F-150 foreshadows a widespread trend we'll be seeing across every vehicle segment in the coming years," says Karl Brauer of Kelley Blue Book in a statement to USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/story/driveon/2013/12/26/ford-f-150-aluminum/4203935/

 

GM has had many aluminum block and head combinations for years. Nothing new there. Corvette engine is aluminum. Pretty reliable there. Not sure where you are going with that one.

Um, they have. There are many Silverado hybrid 4WD as well as 4WD tahoe hybrids for years.

There were a few issues with the cylinder deactivation system. Many were actually attributed to the customer not understanding how the system worked. In all the years I had worked at the dealership, I think I had less than a dozen trucks that needed work on that system.

Not sure about any of the other 6-speed auto-trans, but the one that has been in the pickup truck has had less issues than their older brother, the 4L60E transmission.

Just my professional input here.

 

Yea I thought the cylinder deactivation engines had problems using oil, and heard from a friend with a 6 speed chevy that he new several people with the same trucks and the transmssion would start giving problems around 100k.

Youve probably seen more first hand than me though bama, and I guess every brand will have its lemons.

 

Define a lot. Both GM hybrids only had a 4 year run, plus they never got the mileage expected and an utter failure for GM hence their discontinuation?

 

GM sold several thousand dual mode trucks/SUVs a year. Not the 15,000/yr they'd anticipated, but that was mostly because people didnt want to pay $50k for one without all the factory rebates and room for negotiation that gas powered trucks allowed.

Dual mode hybrid truck/suv production ran 2008-2013. With the new 2014 Silverado/Sierra GM introduced direct injection and other tech to the truck line to improve mpg. Will the hybrid return down the line? Who knows. But GM doesn't need to do it in-house.
http://www.hybridcars.com/via-announces-extended-range-truck-production/

As for mileage, the dual mode was no slouch. Dual mode hybrid Tahoes got 21city/22hwy (2wd) and 20/20 (4wd) in 2008. Gas engined Tahoe in 2008 got 14/20 (2wd) and 14/19 (4wd). 2013 Silverado hybrid (start at $41k btw) was rated 21mpg combined while gas engine 2013 crewcab Silverado got 16 combined. Its not 30mpg, but it was near 50% increase in city mileage in 3 ton trucks.

Speaking of weight, GM used aluminum body panels to counter the additional weight of hybrid system. And the aluminum engine in the new Silverado is nothing new either. The aluminum 5.3 was used for years in Envoys, 9-7x, Rainier, Trailblazer.....

 

Little off topic but for example my gifriend has an 09 Ford escape with 90k on it. The throttle body went out. The freaking throttle body. Ford thought it would.be genius to replace the manual valve in there with an electronicly controlled one. The motor on it went out causing the vehicle to be undriveable. Its little things they changw like that, that become a pain in the ass. Something controlled by an electric device is almost guaranteed to wear out and fail quicker than a purely mechanical device

 

As you can see below, you are a little off. The hybrid ran from actually 2007 until 2013, so that is a 6 year run. Not sure why they discontinued in 2014 for sure, but I worked on them, and they were actually a pretty reliable vehicle overall. Not sure where you get an "utter failure" from, considering they did decent sales for a full-sized hybrid considering. Cost I am sure was a big factor. I do know that sales dropped a lot in 2013. Again, you are looking at a FULL SIZED hybrid, and GM was the one and only.

 

Thanks for reiterating what I said earlier.

 

Do you consider the hybrid Tahoe and Silverado an off road vehicle? Next are you going to tell me the Highlander falls into the same category? See I don't which was my original comment. The bottom line is GM sold what amounted to less than 200 of these vehicles a month, which is indeed a sales failure no matter how you put it. This has nothing to do with how reliable they may be. Last, I've never seen either vehicle wheeled in a capacity of their gas counterpart. The hybrid version of the Silverado/Sierra was only rated to tow 6600 lbs which I can only assume led to its demise, why the didn't continue for 2014, simple, the 4.3 power plat offers the same capability and ratings for less cost. GM did not excel at hybrid technology like Toyota and Ford...and as we speak I'll say it again, hybrid technology hasn't been developed to the point where it is practical in an off road capacity....ie your Tacoma's, FJs, 4Runners, Jeeps....fine on road, not so fine off road.