Chrysler rethinking Smart car in US on MSNBC.com

And when most of your trips are 15 minutes or less in length, noise is
less of a factor. When you drive all day long, it makes more difference.

I lived and worked near Chester back in the early 80s. I remember many
of the folks that I worked with talking about a drive to London as
though it was a major trip. I drove down early one morning to pick up
my mother-in-law when she flew over for a visit. I think the trip was
something like 3 hours each way. I left at 2 AM to meet her flight that
arrived around 6 AM. I was back before noon. I considered that just a
little drive, yet many of the local folks thought it was a major road
trip. I've driving more than 20 hours in a single day several times on
vacations and don't consider 3 hours to even be a trip.

Noise is much more fatiguing over a long period of time so cars designed
to be driven 10-12 hours at a time, need to pay more attention to noise
management.

Matt

 

I do know what you mean. You must have been lucky with traffic and
roadworks, and speeded a bit though, at 80mph, chester-heathrow is
more like 4 hours. I was in Liverpool until abot 3 years ago myself,
and on at least one occasion left at 1am, to drive to london, got
there bang at 7am (in hackney, right in the middle) did 13 huors or
work, and then drove straight back home again.

It was actually more comfortable, though, than my last two long(ish0
drives - altanta-talahassee and back, and atlanta - salisbury, NC and
back in a day.both of them in my 80s caravan, rather than my similar
age volvo 340 (for the london trips)

 

It may have been closer to 4 hours as that was 23 years ago and I'm
going on memory here, but I remember thinking that the trip wasn't much
different than my drive to our state capital in Harrisburg - which is
about 3.5 hours.

I drove 70-80 on the way down as it was somewhat foggy in spots and at
night. On the way back I drove closer to 100, which was just staying
with traffic in the middle lane. The fast lane had cars going close to
130 I'd guess. The slow lane was going 70-80. The funny thing is that
we passed several police cars and none gave us a second look. I still
remember the look on my mother-in-laws face when I asked her if she'd
ever went 100 MPH before in a car. She said "no" so I had her look at
the speedometer. I was going about 105 at the time. We had a fairly
nice car, a Ford Granada station wagon with a V-6 as I recall. I was a
lowly engineer and only warranted a Ford Cortina (I hope I'm remembering
these names correctly) with a 4 cylinder and standard shift, but one of
the project managers had the Granada and offered that for our little
trip. I'm pretty sure it was a Granada as my wife and I owned a 1977
Ford Granada at the time, and I was rather amazed at how different the
European Granada was from the American Granada. The only thing they
shared was a name.


Matt

 

Definitely. Road surface a big factor. Very low noise on some stretches on
British roads. More so in Germany. Wed/Thu I drove to Rouen and back for a
meeting (c. 425 miles from London and back). Some very quiet surfaces,
especially noticeable in my rag-top.

BTW, a few years ago I discovered that there was very little international
cooperation and info exchange on road construction materials.... I was
sitting next to this guy on a tour bus in Iceland and I asked him what he
was doing in Reykjavik... he was attending an international meeting on just
this subject, one of very few (the first?) in this field.

It seems to be that everywhere else in technology and science there are
meetings, international journals, seminars...

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
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Where in the UK? Quite a few in London.

It's a big-city commuter car, maybe the second or third in a family.

DAS

 

Oh yeah, there's a Stretch iof the M40 near oxford thats very noisy
(looks like poured concrete) - the newer parts of the M6 near the
thelwall viaduct is quiet and smooth. You can often tell the
differences by the colour - the m40 stretch is grey, the M6's is pitch
black.

 

I'm assuming thats UK gallons, not US (4.2l for a UK one, about 3.8l
for a US)[/QUOTE]
The "I" was for Imperial measure; the USA uses a unique volume measure.
I know it's difficult in the UK with your mix of metric and Imperial
measurements ( L of fuel and miles), even mixed in your weather reports-
?C temp and MPH wind. <
My Palm keeps this straight for me. Here in CDA we are metric, expect
for vegetable and meat advertising.

My brother in laws Seat was much quieter, and two previous Focus
hatchbacks plus many other UK cars we've rented over the years were
quieter. I suspect the SW form factor was the reason.
Here in Canada we have noisy all season tires (tyres EH) , but our
Chrysler cars are much quieter. Roads are similar in both countries,
although we've noticed the Uk roads are dropping in surface quality.
I'll have to try a CDN Focus sometime, but the latest Business Week said
the NA Focus has older technology than the UK one. According to the BW
article Ford NA sold a high number of Focuses this year, but they are
losing US$4,000 per car. >

 

Much cleaner, but still to dirty for clean air leading CA, NY and NE
states. Part of the reason in NA is we still are using low grade diesel
fuel.
According to Mercedes their diesels will be clean enough for several USA
states in a few years.
You probably can't see the recent BW article on this without a
subscription, so I've copied it at the bottom.
"THE DIESEL FACTOR"
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_21/b3985084.htm?campaign_
id=search

Yes I see in the UK the Smart FourTwo is not diesel, very strange.
In Germany I see a choice of Gasoline or Diesel.
See-http://www.smart.com/-snm-0155109868-1148443915-0000009596-0000008133
-1150596538-enm-is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/mpc-uk-content-Site/en_UK/-
/GBP/SVCPresentationPipeline-Start?Page=issite%3a%2f%2fmpc-uk-Site%2fmpc-
uk%2ecom%2fRootFolder%2fsmart%2fmodelle%2epage

The Smart Fortwo Coupe sold here in CDA is only Diesel and believe it's
the only Smart model we get here.
See- http://www.thesmart.ca/index.cfm?id=4723

THE DIESEL FACTOR (From Business Week
Across the atlantic, German engineers say diesel is the way to go. While
it is still no cure-all for drivers here, the fuel gives the best bang
for the buck when it comes to fuel savings. Diesel engines sold in
Europe by BMW, DaimlerChrysler (DCX ), and Volkswagen can boost fuel
economy by up to 50%. Hook an air-blowing turbocharger to such an
engine, and you can hike up fuel economy and provide the kind of
tire-squealing torque that Americans crave. BMW is now mulling a diesel
version of its popular 330 sedan for the U.S. market. The car gets 34
mpg with 231 horsepower and enough torque to make it an out-and-out hot
rod off the line.

The catch is, the emissions are dirty, and filtering them to tolerable
levels costs money. Diesel cars emit carcinogenic soot and a lot of
nitrogen oxides, or NOx, a component of smog. The exhaust is cleaner
than what emanated from the coughing, sputtering diesels of the '80s.
But it's still too dirty to meet clean air rules in California, New
York, and New England. That means almost one-third of Americans can't
buy such a car.

There are new technologies that can remedy diesel pollution and meet
clean air regulations in all 50 states, including the tougher emissions
rules that go into effect next year. And according to Mercedes, they
won't cost that much. Bernie Glaser, a general manager at Mercedes-Benz
U.S.A. (DCX ), says the company's new BlueTec diesel technology should
meet the regulations and could be on the market within two years. Today,
Mercedes' E320 diesel is $1,000 more than a comparable gas-powered E350
sedan but with a 20% mileage boost. Glaser says the new clean diesels
won't have much more of a premium, but the company is waiting for
approval of its exhaust-cleaning technology.
=

 

Very few UK highway trips are that short.
A &B-xx road trips are slow and the UK people I know drive greater total
distances than I do here in Canada. It is true that we often drive
further on a vacation trip.
In Canada the population is concentrated in several cities and commutes
are much shorter than in the USA.

 

I wasn't in the core of London, but in other parts of Southern England
in three trips there over the last few years.
IMO the Yaris greatly out numbers the Smart ForTwo- the Smart I'm
thinking of.
Here in Canada 4,000 Smarts were sold last year. That is a trickle
compared to the Yaris and the previous Echo. I now see there is a longer
Yaris with a trunk. Toyota just makes the cars that customers want, so
their sales continue to go up and up.

 

Those high speeds in the UK ended a few years ago with the introduction
of photo radar, although I did see more 70+ drivers recently than last
year.

 

^^^^^ What?

The daily work commutes in the UK were MUCH shorter than on average here
in the US. And many folks drove minis and similar vehicles. I own my
first small car in years (A Hyundai Sonata) and it is huge by the
standards in the UK in the early 80s. Things are likely different now,
but I'm guessing there is still a large disparity in both vehicle size
and average commute.


Matt

 

Not in time in the metro areas, I bet...

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
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I dunno, over the last 25 years, my father has averaged a 35 minute
commute to work each day. right now he goes half way around liverpool,
past the aguar x-type plant, and on that road for about 20 miles, to
get to work. If the runcorn bridge is blocked or closed somehow
(accident/jumper) its another 90 miles to go around in either
direction.

My average commute in the UK has been closer to an hour.

not really, ford focus is about standard size, and has been since the
mid 80s (with the ford escort) . people drove minis and suchlike
because they were just cheaper to run. even 10 years ago, fuel was
more expensive then than it is in the US now. (roughly $4/USGal back
then)

 

<snip aarticle>

the diesel 330 is the most powerful 3-series on sale int he UK now,
and of course, look at lemans...

 

Does going past the Jag plant slow him down because he gets stuck in a
gawpers jam (like going past accidents) or does it speed him up?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
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