Drew Dowdell

What a week it's been! On Tuesday, looking at Irma's track and strength, I made a last minute decision to drive down to Homestead Florida to help my parents prepare for the storm. At that time, it was looking like an extremely strong Cat 5 hurricane was going to go through their back yard.... looking at the center of the track projection maps, it was literally a line drawn over their house. On top of that, had she made landfall on that track, they would have been a mere 30 miles from the landfall point. Things just didn't look good. Adding to this was the complication that they were in the middle of moving to a new house. They've been rebuilding a home for the past 2 years and had just started moving from the house they have been renting for the past 7 or 8 years. While the new house was built to the latest hurricane standards and might survive a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane, the old house was a slap job rebuild that was put together in a rush after Hurricane Andrew demolished Homestead in 1992. It was already leaking and in a bad state of repair, we had no illusions of it surviving a direct hit. There is only about 10 miles between the two houses. I loaded up my Honda with the chainsaws, water, vehicle ramps, jack stands, and three 5-gallon gas cans strapped to the hitch mount cargo platform. I drove 19 hours overnight from Pittsburgh to Homestead, arriving mid-afternoon at my parent's house. The gas panic there had already set in with many stations running out of gas. About 15 miles from my parent's house I stopped and filled up one last time. It took over an hour in line to get gas, but I knew it could be my last chance to get gas before I left, and with a range of merely 275 miles per tank, I would need every mile possible to get out of Florida before the storm hit. We worked until 10:30 that night moving furniture, appliances, and large items in my parents' trucks. Thursday was spent grabbing smaller stuff that wasn't replaceable and a trip to my parents' business to do computer backups, grab computers out, and cover electronic machinery with plastic. There was an odd state of both panic and normalcy in the air all of Thursday. People were having fist fights over gasoline. There were hoarders who had bought truckloads of bottled water selling cases for $20 each sitting in otherwise vacant grocery store parking lots. Yet at the same time, there was this guy mowing his lawn ...and people giving haircuts on front porches. Friday, my dad went to grab as much as possible out of their boat, remove all the canvas, and secure it as best as possible. On the original track, the storm surge was forecast to be as high as 20 feet. In that situation, we assumed the boat was going to be lost. It is too large of a boat, 45 foot long with a 15 foot beam, to trailer it out. To give you an idea of the devastation a 20 foot storm surge would have caused, Hurricane Andrew's storm surge in Biscayne Bay was 14 feet and Andrew is among of the worst natural disasters to hit the US. I spent the day with my sister and mom to get the last of the things they wanted to save out of the old house. We were down to stuff that could be easily replaced at that point, so it was more like a regular house move. At 2:30 on friday we finally could stop to catch our breath. Everything that could be done to prepare was done. They had over 35 gallons of gas for their generator, plus all three vehicles filled up. The fridges and freezers were loaded as much as possible. I noticed on my last few trips around Homestead that the local panic had subsided a bit. Nearly all houses had their windows shuttered or boarded over. Gas stations still had lines, but they were minimal and moving fast. Even the traffic, which is irritating even under normal circumstances, had greatly subsided. Everyone who was going to leave had left and everyone who was going to stay was done with their preparations. I took a few hours to just spend some time with my family. My sister and I walked the avocado orchard that is part of the new property picking avocados to bring back to Pittsburgh with me. Their trees produce some famously large avocados. By Friday afternoon, Irma's projected path had shifted substantially to the west. Storm surge estimates for where the boat is kept were reduced to under 9 ft max, this meant the boat had a chance. I don't have an update yet on it's status, but as I've been following the storm surge totals, I expect that it has survived. (An old picture of the boat and my partner helping to get us ready to go out for a day on Biscayne Bay) Friday at 5pm the air changed suddenly. After 3 days of oppressive heat, humidity, and no wind, there was suddenly a cool breeze in the air. That cool breeze that normally would have been a welcome guest, was actually an ominous sign; the outer bands of Irma would be here soon. I had already packed up the car. I said my goodbyes to my family and started the trek north. Rather than try for 19 hours direct to Pittsburgh, I aimed for 15 hours to Manassas Virginia where my partner's sister lives. I took it slow, trying to squeak every last drop of miles-per-gallon out of the Honda to get me as far as possible north before needing to fill up again. I waited too long, and due to gas stations as far north as Daytona Florida being out of gas, I got a bit nervous. I made it into a Wawa just north of Daytona with 325 miles on the trip meter and a very angry looking low fuel light. The rest of the trip was uneventful. My parents are still assessing the damage to their properties, but it looks like they escaped with relatively little damage. They still have no power at the house and their generator fried. Five of the avocado trees out of their ninety or so came down, twenty other trees, various tall palms and such also came down. The business did not sustain any damage, and they've emailed the marina where the boat is and they report only superficial damage to the marina and no boats down. It's been an exhausting week, but I'm glad I was able to make it down there to help them get ready for what could have been an epic disaster. I'll probably go back down in a few weeks to help with cleanup, but I'll probably drive to Virginia and take the AutoTrain down instead. For now, I sleep.

It's not that it's anecdotal, it's that it's not a good comparison. The Titan engine has never been and today is still not competitive on the balance of power and fuel economy compared to anything from Detroit. GMs modern direct injected VVT V8s are what you want to compare. They are modern technology to compare to the Ecoboost. I have gotten equal or better fuel economy in the GMs than in equivalent Fords. The point I was making earlier was that while your friend might think he is using a light touch on the throttle, the computer could be tricking him and giving more throttle than he thinks he is to use the boost to try and compensate for the lack of displacement.

For a city so used to hurricanes you'd think they'd be more organized about it. I can to Miami to help my parents prepare. Some things in Miami very well organized other things are pandemonium and panic.

ANYWAY....

This would be for long distance trips. Pittsburgh to Miami and back or Pittsburgh to Denver and back. I use(d) the Avalanche as a camper with an air mattress in the back and would sleep with my feet in the bed area and my head in the cab with the midgate down.

Need some tow hitch advice: I want to put a motorcycle carrier on the back of an Avalanche. The carrier is rated for a 600 lb bike and weighs 97 pounds itself. One of these: http://amzn.to/2x1Hkc0 The bike I want to put on there is 485 fully fueled for a total weight of 582 after adding the carrier. I know much is made about tongue weight when towing, but I'm not really towing in this case, it's really just a platform with a bike riding on it. Can I put this setup on an Avalanche with a 500 lbs max tongue weight? The max tongue weight with a weight distributing hitch (which is not possible in this scenario) is at least 800lbs depending on setup, so the metal can take it. A Class III hitch receiver is supposed to be rated to a 600 lb max tongue weight. Something else makes me think this is just GM being stupid. The Escalade EXT and Suburban are rated at 600 lbs... and I doubt they use different receiver hardware between those two and the Avalanche. I'm just 85lbs over the official GM rating...... thoughts? tagging @balthazar and @ocnblu

I haven't left the house all day.

Dang! These guys are really good!

You are correct that the throttle is opening artificially higher. In the 55% case, that was more spirited driving, but still not 50% of the pedal. I'll have to get a screen shot or find a way to record the screen of my android while I'm driving the car.

Honda announces the 2018 Honda CR-V Type-R. This newest edition to the Type-R family features a 370 horsepower 2.4 liter turbo-charged direct injected engine with available 6-speed manual transmission. Configurable All-wheel drive is standard on all CR-V Type-Rs. In the driver selectable Comfort mode, the All-Wheel drive continuously monitors road conditions and adjusts traction as necessary, Sport mode locks the AWD into full time 4x4 mode with torque split evenly front to rear, +R mode allows the AWD system to adjust to performance driving inputs favoring torque to the rear wheels with the ability to send up to 90% of the torque to the rearward. Like Civic Type-R, Brembo calipers are standard. An active damping suspension automatically lowers the vehicle up to 30 mm at speeds above 45 mph or when +R mode is selected. Thicker front and rear stabilizer bars assist in handling the curves for spirited driving. The 2018 CR-V Type-R comes standard with HondaSense safety system. Optional Recaro front seats are available. The 2018 Honda CR-V Type-R arrives in dealerships on September 31st with a base price of $38,995 plus delivery.

They need one, but it can't be a rebadge of a Trax. They need to head the Renegade route and put a completely different body on the thing, probably raise the ride height a bit and give a little more driver control over the AWD system. The Trax AWD is already excellent for a softroader, but putting the ability to lock it into 4x4 mode and having some hill descent control would be good additions. Oh, and put a professional grade engine in there. The 1.6T gasser and the 1.6T Whisper diesel would do just fine.

Fake news has been in the press a lot lately, so I figured let's generate some of our own. Rules: 1. It has to be automotive related, no politics, not even a hint of politics. 2. It has to be plausible enough to be believable by someone who isn't a car enthusiast. (I.E., no Tucker is not resuming operations, no GM is not reviving Pontiac) 3. Write it as if it were a press release or news announcement.

The reality is, in daily driving around suburbia, you're really just driving a 1.5T minus the T. 1.5 liters in a large compact aren't all that fun.

Exactly. While it might feel you are just lightly using the gas pedal, the computer is amplifying that throttle input. In the case of my Encore, 1/4 pedal throttle is actually over 55% throttle reported by the throttle position sensor. It's because of this that small turbos are able to really ace the EPA tests because the EPA test accelerates ridiculously slow, so the turbo doesn't spool up the same way it does in the real world. It's why in the real world, a Fusion 2.0T with less power gets lower fuel economy than a brick shaped 300c 3.6 V6. One might think they're being gentle in the Fusion, but in reality, the throttle is probably cresting 50% under most acceleration situations just to give good feel. My grandmother downsized from a Lacrosse V6 AWD to a Regal 2.0T AWD last January, and while she really likes her new car, she has mentioned that the fuel economy is disappointing especially now that she went from a V6 to a 4-cylinder. .... and she drives like a grandmother. I'll have a Ford 2.7 EB and a GMC Sierra 5.3, nearly identically equipped, both 6-speed autos, coming up for a test in about 2 weeks. The results should be interesting.

This is the wrong thread on this and I intend to start one in the near future... but suffice it to say that I have full proof and will happily present it in an article coming up in a month or two that Ford (And GM, and Honda, and anyone else who is using a turbo) is fooling the driver by way of throttle calibration. I'll show my full findings in the article, but the long story short is that a naturally aspirated engine runs around 10% throttle at idle while turbo engines run around 20% throttle at idle. Furthermore, the throttle on a naturally aspirated engine opens less to accelerate, generally less than 40%, while turbo engines generally go well over 50%. These numbers are not from a "feel of the foot" measurement but from actual throttle position sensor readouts from various cars. So while your Escape feels like it's not using much throttle to get moving, the truth is that the computer is amplifying the movement of your foot more than it actually moves. The reading also gives me the amount of boost provided when its a turbo engine. I bought an OBDII reader to deal with issues on my CR-V, but I found out it will give you the throttle position reading as well which allows me to collect the data relative to different cars. I'm aiming for late October to finish the article because I'll have a fleet of cars to test it on in mid october.

I really wanted one of these when they came out.

I don't take advice on being manly from a guy who's manliness is so fragile a taller overdrive gear and an underbody shield on a Cruze can be shattered by it.

Lord... didn't I say let bygones be bygones? IF you must know, it was with regard to throttle position, turbos, and power output.

Guys, I was more looking for factory sleepers, and jokes to go with.

The Outlander will get you into an AWD 3 row crossover for $26k MSRP, $31k MSRP gets you a V6 and leather...and we all know you can do better than MSRP at a Mitsubishi dealership. For that price they are not terrible if you're not looking for fluff and just need that sort of functionality. Plus they have as long a warranty as a Kia. The Bolt's packaging makes it much larger inside than it is on the outside.

Chrysler has been in partnership with VW on and off since at least 1978.

Most cars are fluff over function, crossovers of all shapes in particular, LOL. If all you're looking for is function and little fluff, the best value in this segment is actually the Mitsubishi Outlander.

As far as the name, I'm "meh" about it.... names don't matter or mean anything anymore outside of pony cars. Also, even though the XT5 hasn't done anything to wow me, I will give it this: It feels very very spacious for that class of vehicle and the 3.6 will be stupid fast in this Chevy.

I guess it wasn't clear because I don't understand what the issue is with choices in the same showroom. If you want upright, go for a Traverse, Acadia, Terrain, or Enclave. Traverse, though the largest in the segment, is still considered in the mid-size category since it competes on price with Explorer, Durango, and Pilot. As the title to the article says, this is filling a gap between Traverse and Equinox that Chevy has currently that some of the competition already has filled (Ford, Nissan, VW, Lexus, Lincoln) or will be filling (Honda, Acura)