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Drew Dowdell

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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    The CVT is all about cost and fuel economy. As you point out, modern automatics are very seamless these days, so they're not doing it for that reason. I have some suspicion that some vendor came out with a technological advancement to CVT design and is shopping it around to the manufacturers. Hyundai is moving the Elantra to a CVT also and making great claims as to its feel. Toyota did similar. Nissan is claiming advances with their CVT. It's odd they all come up with it a same time.
  2. Drew Dowdell
    For me, it's a nice easy Fifty Thirty. 307ci - 5030cc
  3. Drew Dowdell
    Yeah, I don't think totally alacarte is the way to go either, but some things need to be decoupled from the high price option packages, especially if they are safety items like blind spot monitoring or automatic cruise control. Accord, Camry, Corolla, Avalon (most of the Toyota line really) are all coming with these things standard now, it's time for GM and Ford and others to step up. The Mazda 6 comes with it standard on the Touring model and it's available for just $625 on the base model. That is a very fair way to do it. On the Regal it is still a $1600 option on the GS! Automatic Cruise and automatic forward braking doesn't become an option until you're in the highest non-GS trim, and then it still costs $2500 in packages to get. It is simply uncompetitive.
  4. Drew Dowdell
    I haven't noticed any quality issues with Envision... it is just completely anonymous to me....even as a current Buick owner I can't get excited for it. It's another one that is packaged weirdly compared to the competition. The base 2.5 has to go... GM did "ecoboost" before Ford did, that is turbo with direct injection, putting it attainable cars at the start. The 2008 Cobalt SS is arguably more attainable than a 2010 Taurus SHO. The Regal Turbo (2009) and Verano Turbo (2013) were both out before and at the same time respectively as the Fusion Ecoboost (2013). Your argument is correct however if you are saying that Ford was first to put Turbo+DI at the bottom end of the option packages. the Explorer was the first to get a Turbo+DI as a base engine.
  5. Drew Dowdell
    I prefer 7,700 cc.
  6. Drew Dowdell
    Here's an example: Perhaps the most direct competitor to the Buick Lacrosse is either the Toyota Avalon or the Lexus ES. The Avalon comes standard with active cruise, lane departure, automatic high beams. You can bet the new ES will come with all of that standard as well. You can't get any of that until you option up to the very top non-Avenir package and then it is still an additional $1600 on top of that. To add insult to injury, the Corolla even comes standard with that tech now. Then, as @Paolino has pointed out, rain sensing wipers aren't even an option on the Lacrosse but are available in my Encore. I get that premium brands want to charge extra for things (Benz and BMW charge you extra for Apple Car Play when it is standard in just about every mainstream brand vehicle), but even just forcing people into top of the line trim before making a feature available isn't very good business.... especially safety features. It's not just Buick either. I've seen other GM brands doing this with the newer models also.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    Buick lately is being packaged uncompetitively. I get that they're trying to be a premium brand, but many of the combinations don't make sense in light of what the competition is offering.
  8. Drew Dowdell
    It was the first Buick to get it. GMC has been using it on the 6.2 powered trucks as apparently they are unpleasant in 4 cylinder mode and some of the Denali line. Most, if not all, of the Cadillacs have it.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    Microphones placed throughout the cabin. When it picks up a sound the engineers have deemed undesirable, the audio system puts out an equal but opposite sounds wave to cancel it out. I believe they also use active engine mounts in a similar way in some models. In the Mustang and some Benzes they go a step further and enhance the good engine sounds, using the same tech.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    I think he is confusing loudness with harshness. GM (and others) cheats on some of their Turbo-4s in Buick and Cadillac by putting active noise cancellation in. My Encore has it and is very quiet, though the engine isn't as smooth as I'd want it to be. I drove a Trax which doesn't have Active Noise Cancellation and the racket was horrible. I have weird hearing though, it is difficult for me to hear at some frequencies and I have higher sensitivity to higher frequency harsh sounds. Most turbo-4s in cars without active noise cancellation aren't very pleasant for me. It's not the volume though, it's what the sound "sounds" like. With ACN, the engineers can change the interior sound quite a bit, so while a turbo-4 might be at a lower dB than a V6, the sound might be irritating (I'm not saying that is the case in the ATS T4 v. ATS V6, I'm just using it as an example). I think that is what @dfelt is trying to say.
  11. Drew Dowdell
    Nothing has been announced yet. Just because this particular tester might have a V6 doesn't mean other options won't be available.
  12. Drew Dowdell
    If only they would build something like that....
  13. Drew Dowdell
    I've been pretty happy with my TripleTreds. I don't know how they are for true performance driving (Encore, 138hp), but they've been a great all-around tire. One of the reasons I picked them was for their superior snow performance. Not quite a snow tire, but better than most other All-Seasons in that regard. The downside to them is that I've never gotten the same MPG out of the car since they went on.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    You can donate your airline miles to the cause.
  15. Drew Dowdell
    Lol a slightly larger tire would be the least of this car's mpg concerns, but thanks Those are just the US main offices for Michelin. I work for a UK owned company, but our US headquarters is in Houston and where you would be referred if you had company questions.
  16. Drew Dowdell
    Coker tire = $255 per tire The others are all $70 - $80 per tire. .... so no, I won't be going with Cokers. The Uniroyals don't come in a 225/70r15 with ww... ? Any reason I can't do a 215/70r15? They do make those.
  17. Drew Dowdell
    Toyota does not "own" Subaru, but they do own a significant amount of shares of the company to insist on some platform and tech sharing.
  18. Drew Dowdell
    The speedo has never been accurate anyway. thanks for the advice.
  19. Drew Dowdell
    Okay, but it still sounds like the 225 is the better way to go, both a wider tread and a slightly taller sidewall. Even if the advantages are small, I'll take them. Are there disadvantages to going this route?
  20. Drew Dowdell
    lol, so now I'm getting lost.... which one is the wider tire? The Uniroyals seem to have the best reviews regarding road noise. I'm looking for somewhat more compliant tires though. Modern tires seem so much stiffer than the ones this would have come with. Stiff tires are fine if the suspension is setup to absorb the harder initial hit. Right now, it feels like it slams over more severe road imperfections. Wouldn't a taller sidewall help with that? American has always been fine for me. United is "eh", but Albert gets to fly them for free now, so I imagine that's who we'll use going forward. We don't have Alaska here. Southwest doesn't impress me because I can't get upgraded to first class on them.
  21. Drew Dowdell
    The base seats are 10-way adjustable. The up-level seats are 30-way adjustable. The 30-way are the ones with the independent thigh adjusters. On the 10-way, they have a seam down the center, but are not split.
  22. Drew Dowdell
    Those seats are optional. Don't like 'em, don't buy 'em.
  23. Drew Dowdell
    That blue grille would be a fantastic departure from the norm. Small change, big difference on looks. I'd buy one of these just so I could get it painted like....
  24. Drew Dowdell
    Erm... we may need to change the title of the article. This would be the second Subaru hybrid. The Crosstrek Hybrid was in production from 2014 - 2016.
  25. Drew Dowdell
    The ATS is priced to compete with the 1/2 series and CLA. More space in a Cadillac is not a disadvantage. The new Navigator has a much better interior than the current Escalade. The Escalade is more nimble, but in this segment, that is a very relative statement anyway. That said, I'm told the new Escalade will have an Escala looking interior. Much less brash than the Navigator, but no less luxurious.
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