Power to control our existance, the Matrix perhaps *NM*

[www.reuters.com]

EU testing shows that smaller engines are not as smog friendly as larger ones. And some makers are having to abandon their current small engines in favor of larger ones.

Picked up this reference on a cleancars.com web site. Story.

Talking about reality, have you finally allowed your beautiful and dutiful wife to get the Macan she really wants? She went along with your purchase of an impractical non track, X73, Torque Vectoring, 20" wheel, hard riding car, that sits in the garage for six months a year, and has probably never been rained on.

The Macan is a wonderful AWD vehicle that she, if not you, would love.

Now I'll go back to minding my own business.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2016 10:19AM by Gary in SoFL. (view changes)

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2016 10:22AM by Gary in SoFL. (view changes)

Modern cars are pretty clean and efficient. The problem is bureauracies continue to tighten the screws for improvements that simply aren't justified and continue to "find" bad things. I'm reading in UK papers of late how many people -- it is estimated -- are killed a year in car accidents due to too high levels of pollutants in the air. I have no link to provide but from what I recall the science is silly. Apparently NoX is so thick in places drivers are being overcome and this is causing crashes.

The goal is not to make modern ICE cleaner/more efficient, the goal is to render them economically unfeasible and commerically undesireable and force automakers to produce more electric cars/more hybrids. From the article here is the goal: "The tougher tests may kill diesel engines smaller than 1.5 liters and gasolines below about 1.2, analysts predict. That in turn increases the challenge of meeting CO2 goals, adding urgency to the scramble for electric cars and hybrids."

I have given up hope that they get rid of the smaller displacement turbos, but hey, if they bring naturally aspirated back, that's great. What I'm dreading is the gradual phase out of the manual tranny. I was fiddling with my Audi's paddle shifters yesterday, and I hated it. It's not intuitive at all. With a manual, you don't have to think what gear you need to go into...it just happens naturally by feel. With the paddles, you have to look at the dashboard to see what gear number you're in and then decide how many shifts you can flip through. Also, the paddles are attached to the steering wheel, so as the wheel moves, your hands still have to be a 3 and 6 in order for a shift to take place. I sure hope Porsche still produces them there manuals! Sorry for the diversion...

This is beginning to sound like the mid seventies when everyone was crying fowl on the disappearance of the V8.
If governments didn't ask for more we would be still driving around with leaded fuel and getting 10 MPG.

Quote
carlos in Montreal
This is beginning to sound like the mid seventies when everyone was crying fowl on the disappearance of the V8.
If governments didn't ask for more we would be still driving around with leaded fuel and getting 10 MPG.

cars are much cleaner burning, get much better fuel economy, yet deliver exceptional performance, and the engines are quite long lived, than ever before.

What I'm opposed to is the bureaucratic mandated push to tighten emissions and increase fuel economy for a minuscule amount of improvement at a prohibitive additional cost.

It is not about clean(er) air. It is about moving people of out of ICE cars into electric cars or public transportation. This latter option will increase the size of these public transportation systems, add more government (and union) employees, who through their union dues will continue to fund a government in a round robin money laundering scheme. Government will continue to reward public unions with ever higher wages, benefits, pensions, at the taxpayer's expense, and the union employees/union management will continue to funnel ever increasing amounts of money back to the help re-elect/elect public officials who continue this behavior.

Think I'm dreaming? Check out how much money, millions and millions of dollars, unions, public employee unions, have contributed to the current choices running for office here in CA. The goal here in CA is for the democrats to reach a super-majority in the state legislature so there is not even the hint of any opposition and the legislature can ram through God only knows what laws/rules/regulations these people have in mind. And don't get me started on the ballot measures. This election my voter's handbook is nearly an inch thick to cover them all. Every one of these is in some way or another about raising taxes to send even more money to the state capital.

"A mile of highway will take you one mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere."

My vote will be against any tax increase. Unfortunately, my vote will get balanced out by some uninformed dope.

Prius owners just laughed as everyone else was panicking. (3 in my family) Horses for courses.