Csaba Csere

Csaba Csere.

The other morning (Thursday, February 26, 2009) I read an interesting comment by Csaba Csere (“CHUBB-uh CHEDD-uh”), the head honcho at Car & Driver magazine.
It was apparently written after Congress had just loaned 17 billion dollars to General Motors and Chrysler.
It was advice to the so-called “car-czar,” the gumint appointee to see that GM and Chrysler actually remade their companies into viable auto-making institutions.
He wasn’t making the tiresome charge that their failing conditions were all the fault (“foult”) of the dreaded United Auto Workers.
The primary boondoggle (his opinion) was Detroit’s failure to ramp up in technology; that the dreaded ferriners had moved to four-valves-per-cylinder, and double-overhead-cams, while Detroit stuck with two-valves per cylinder, and the cam still in the block.
Also at issue was the ferriners adding speeds to their auto-trannies, while Detroit stuck with three speeds. Ferrin auto trannies became four and even five-speed. (I bet ya could find a six-speed auto-tranny.)
The ferriners also moved beyond the ancient tractor chassis layout: a solid sprung rear-axle, complete with heavy differential, while the ferriners moved to independent-rear-suspension.
Toyota and Honda are independent-rear-suspension, while the Cadillac Escalade is tractor layout.
And then there’s reliability, the downfall of Detroit.
If ya wanna car ya can depend on, ya buy Jap.
Wanna spend time in the shop, buy a Pontiac.
My old friend Lenore Friend (“Queeny” at the mighty Mezz) was always regaling me with stories about their horrible F150.
Our Chevrolet Astrovan was fairly reliable, but I had to replace the tranny lockout a couple times.
It was chintzy, a cheesy solenoid.
Before buying our Faithful Hunda, I pointed out a gas-door cable-release; remembering how the old one failed on our Volkswagen Dasher.
The dealer was afraid of losing the sale over a gas-door cable-release.
We had that car 13 years, and it always worked.
The Astrovan was newer (a ‘93; Honda was an ‘89), but the a gas-door cable-release failed.
I had to drive it with the gas-door open; I was always getting flagged — especially by toll-takers.
The Faithful Hunda had a raft of complex technology, but it always worked.
The Faithful Hunda was never in the shop.
The so-called soccer-mom Astrovan -a) broke a torsion-bar, and -b) ruptured an oil-seal.
Both were fixable, but that’s shop-time.
The Astrovan was also all-the-time throwing up a “check-engine” light.
Finally, Molye Chevrolet in nearby Honeoye Falls ascertained it had a failed oxygen-sensor.
That sensor was failed at least 60,000 miles.
We used the Astro to ride Auto-Train, and here was the “check-engine” light glowing at me intermittently driving back from D.C.
Csere also mentioned his employ at Ford, and how they see-sawed about bringing out a new V6 motor.
Back-and-forth they went — produce it and then not, produce it and then not, produce it and then not. Finally it was introduced, but suppliers had been put in a tizzy.
Ex-kyooze me, but the Europeans are operating under worse conditions than here in America, yet they managed to improve their technology.
Years ago Chevrolet lost me when Volkswagen started producing an overhead-cam motor they put in their Rabbit and Dasher.
The Chevrolet alternative was the bigger Citation powered by the Iron-Duke — half the Small-Block.
Vibrated like the dickens, and was still cam-in-block.
A venerable motor, but an antique.
And our Faithful Hunda was single overhead-cam, three valves per cylinder.
The CR-V is four valves per cylinder, as is the Bathtub (a V6), which is also variable valve-timing.
Does Detroit make any variable valve-timing at all?
Csere has hit the mark — as if I didn’t know that already. I’d like to go back to Chevrolet, but I need a car that runs. (And not to the shop.)
Csere also remarked how Detroit is mostly marketing trucks; which guzzle fuel like the dickens.
The Japs and Koreans are building what American needs — cars that are tiny enough to not use much gas.
Since when do I need a gigantic F350 “dually” to get to Weggers?
Chrysler is building the Neon here in America — Ford and GM seem to hafta source the Japs/Koreans — but the Neon ain’t that small.
I bet Hertz classifies it as a compact car, not the smallest. (Ford’s tiny Focus is compact.)

I’ve been a subscriber to “Car & Driver magazine” since college — over 40 years. —I’m a car-fan.

RE: “Foult......” —For years my brother-from-Delaware and I have been having an argument about the spelling of “Foulk” Road. When we moved there in 1957 it was spelled “F-a-u-l-k.” He noisily insists it’s always been spelled with an “O.” So I spell “fault” as “foult.”

“Dreaded United Auto Workers.......” —All my siblings are flagrantly anti-union, and noisily claim the reason the American automobile industry is tanking is because of the United Auto Workers.

“Ferriners” are foreigners. “Ferrin” equals foreign.

“Four-valves-per-cylinder, and double-overhead-cams” is recent internal combustion engine technology, and “two-valves per cylinder, and the cam still in the block” is engine technology introduced in the ‘50s. Earlier the engines were “side-valve;” intake and exhaust valves in the engine-block beside the cylinders; a “flat-head;” so-called because the engine cylinder-head was a simple flat casting that capped everything. Lawnmower engines, etc, (small engines) still do it this way. In the ‘50s overhead-valve technology found flower, since it vastly improved the shape of the combustion-chamber, making it much smaller and less contorted. But the engine-valves were still opened by a rotating camshaft down in the block, but with pushrods and rockers that reversed the valve-motion about 180°. —Four valves per cylinder breathe much better than two, and locating the camshafts up in the cylinder-head, directly over the valves, is less likely to vibrate harmonically than pushrod technology. “Double-overhead-cams” is a camshaft for each valve-bank; one for all the intake valves; the other for the exhaust-valves. A “single-overhead-cam” requires -a) both the intake and exhaust valves all line up, and/or -b) rockers to operate the valves that don’t line up. The old way is cheaper, but the new way more advantageous.

An “auto-tranny” is an automatic transmission.

The “tractor chassis layout” is essentially the same as a farm-tractor: a solid rear axle, solid between both wheels. “Independent-rear-suspension” is a rear axle in two halves, each independently sprung. In this arrangement the heavy center differential is mounted to the car, independent of the axles. The “tractor chassis layout,” with the heavy center differential a part of the rear axle, is the arrangement used since time immemorial. “Independent-rear-suspension” can better handle bumps that only contact one side; the “tractor chassis layout” disturbs both wheels even though only one side hits the bump. —I had a ‘72 Chevrolet Vega GT, that handled fairly well except over bumps. It had a “tractor chassis layout,” and jumped sideways over bumps.

My all-knowing, blowhard brother-from-Boston, the macho ad-hominem king, who noisily badmouths everything I do or say, called my Chevrolet Astrovan a “soccer-mom minivan” as a put-down, since he noisily declared they weren’t macho enough.

The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over three years ago. Best job I ever had. —Lenore Friend was an editor there. I called her “Queeny” because she was the queen-of-the-newsroom.

An “F150” is the Ford half-ton pickup truck.

“The Faithful Hunda” is our 1989 Honda Civic All-Wheel-Drive station-wagon, by far the BEST car we’ve ever owned, now departed (replaced by our 2003 Honda CR-V). (Called a “Hunda” because that was how a fellow bus-driver at Transit [Regional-Transit-Service in Rochester, where I once worked] pronounced it.)

The “Iron-Duke” was the name for a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine offered by General Motors. —The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first at 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the Small-Block. It was made in various larger displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The Iron-Duke was half the 5-liter Small-Block V8, although vertical.

“D.C.” is Washington, D.C.; actually Lorton VA, near Washington, the northern Amtrak Auto-Train terminal. (Auto-Train saves your driving to Floridy on I-95. Your car goes with you in the same train. — The train ends at Sanford, FL; in the northern part of the state.)

The front of the Chevrolet Astrovan is spring by “torsion-bars” parallel to the frame; springs but not coil-springs.

The “CR-V” is our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV, which replaced the Faithful Hunda when it was totaled in a crash. The “Bathtub” is our 2005 Toyota Sienna van; called that because it’s white and like sitting in a bathtub. (It replaced our Astrovan.)

“Variable valve-timing” is to open-and-close the valves at times that maximize low-speed and then high-speed performance. (At low speed the exhaust valves need to open earlier; but as engine-speed increases, the exhaust valves should open later.) Static valve-timing maximizes one or the other, or compromises both. Variable valve-timing is very hard to engineer, and costly.

The “F350 dually” is the one-ton Ford pickup truck with double tires (total: four) on each side of the real axle. Such a truck is HUGE, and with four rear tires can support a heavy trailer.

“Weggers” is Wegmans, a large supermarket-chain based in Rochester we often buy groceries at.