i heard...

[stevebeilgard]

last year g.m. was telling about a 4.0(?) duramax with a 7 speed tranny, for the 1/2 ton trucks & suburbans. it was supposed to get 34 mpg and be out in late 2010. have you heard anything about it?

[Goinghuntin]

I heard it too, but I guess it was only rumor :angry: Things are going the way of the hybrid :death:

Nathan

[Shaun_300]

I heard that a while back, I think it was a 4.5L V8 DOHC Duramax. Not sure about a 7 speed trans, it'd probably be mated to our new 6L90E which is a 6-speed. I just checked all the GM stuff I have access to, service manuals and latest news etc and see nothing about it. I checked 2011 Silverado but the only thing we have access to right now is bulletins, no service manuals yet. I'll ask one of the salesman tomorrow and see if they've heard anything. Would be nice to see for sure, maybe that got canned with all the bankruptcy stuff that happened.

[redkneck]

I don't know if I've heard that yet. It does sound about right, though that mileage seems a stretch. I figure smaller turbo diesels are going to be a big segment of the market in the coming years.

[Shaun_300]

GM is pushing the Hybrids pretty hard, I just got sent on training for the transmission in the Hybrid trucks and fullsize SUV's last week, got two 300V motors in them! Also the 2012 Chevy Volt will be out by the middle to end of next year in full production. They had one up in Timmins, ON this past winter doing testing on it to see how it performs in the cold. Timmins is about 500 miles NW of here, a lot colder up there than here. This car is full electric. It does have a 1.6L 4 cylinder gas under the hood, but the only thing it drives is the alternator for the big battery for the electric drive. Has no connection to the transmission at all.

[redkneck]

The all electric set-ups are coming fast. Nexteer is soon to be completely electric steering on GM applications, Ford is ahead of them by 2 years. Although most of us with a wrench in our hands under the carport will be able to do some basic things, much of the diagnostics are going to be out of our abilities. That sux.

[Shaun_300]

GM's have had electric power steering since the Cobalt came out in 2005. Then the Equinox, Torrent, Malibu and G6 followed in that year or 2006.

[Goinghuntin]

Didn't the Cobalt just have a problem with the electric power steering?

Nathan

[Shaun_300]

Yeah there's a recall on quite a few of them between 2005 and 2010. Got a batch of bad motors and I guess they're only seeing them start to fail now so they're replacing them with updated ones.

[redkneck]

Lots of problems on EPS Malibu and G6 over the years. I guess all the GMX381 platforms. Problems with sensors as well as the bushings in the manual racks.

[Flintlock1776]

It will take some time before the price of Hybrids comes down enough to make it a real savings. It may make you feel better to get the higher milaegae but the up-front cost of acquiring the vehicle vs. traditionally fuled similar vehicle is not there yet. I won't be an early adopted. Never had on anything before. I'll wait a bit more before I take the plunge, if I ever do.

[TBow]

I had a Ford Escape Hybrid assigned to me at my work site a couple years ago. I found that to get the kind of mileage that made a hybrid financially viable, you had to change your style, or approach to driving. No rabbit starts or zooming up to a stop sign then slamming on the brakes. And keep hiway speeds moderate. Standing on the gas pedal only starts the gas engine right away, and guess what? It burns gas! And all that extra weight with the batteries takes more energy to get them ponies up and running if you tend to retain your old driving habits and then there's a recharging system while you're driving which also uses energy.

I found that I could have got just about the same mileage with a straight gas engine (not a hybrid) if I applied some moderate driving practices and for a lot less initial capital costs.

Hybrids cost about $7K to $10K more than an equivalent vehicle with just a gas engine. Most governments offer some green incentives in buying hybrids such as partial cash rebates for a portion of the additional hybrid cost or will reduce the sales tax on hybrids. Just check with your state or provincial incentives if they exist.

And most manufacturers suggest life cycle management (LCM) on their hybrid batteries ranges from 6 to 10 years. That means if you're typically a long term owner of a single vehicle, then you'll have to budget every so many years to re-battery your hybrid at a cost of about $8K on average. And what about when you go to trade your 5 to 8 year old hybrid that you payed more money for? Do you think a car dealership will offer you more money for your trade-in when they know they may have to put $5K to $8K in new batteries in it? NADDA!

And I have to laugh when I hear people talking about "going green" when they buy a hybrid. You're not being "green". You're just being "less brown" as all hybrids still have fossil fueled engines. And what if all the car companies make pure electric cars. Where do you think they're going get the energy to charge those batteries? If every vehicle was electric, then there'll be a surge in a requirement for power stations. And that could mean more fossil fueled or nuclear power stations coming on line to meet the demand to charge all them buggies.

I had heard some talk that GM was suggesting a LCM and a recycling plan for the batteries on their hybrids that could reduce the costs to some degree for new batteries, but I haven't confirmed that.

TBow

Edited May 3, 2010 by TBow

[Goinghuntin]

Good point about the recharging TBow, I never really thought of it that way. We don't have enough open ground here either for wind energy :1eye:

Nathan