The Uncle-ized car (which is all new cars) has some “features” you may want to consider carefully before you buy in. Features that could hit you with cost – and hassles – once the warranty runs out.
And otherwise, too.
Let’s have a look at a few of these:
* Direct injection –
In order to achieve a fractional gain in miles-per-gallon (in order to avoid Uncle’s “gas guzzler” taxes) the entire industry (all brands, all models) has been switching over to direct gas injection (DI) in place of port fuel injection (PFI).
DI offers no obvious/quantifiable advantage to the car buyer over PFI but has several disadvantages – including a noisy engine. DI gas engines sound like diesel engines; they rattle at idle due to the very high (3-4,000 PSI) fuel system pressure. The car companies try to cover this up by fitting DI engines with acoustic covers, but the sound is still very noticeable, especially when you are standing outside the car.
But the DI sound is merely unpleasant. It’s the functional problems that are more worrisome.
In a DI system, fuel is sprayed directly into the cylinder from a hole in the cylinder itself – very much like a spark plug “sprays” its spark into the cylinder. This differs from PFI, which sprays the fuel into the cylinder from above, typically behind the intake valve(s), which cools and cleans the valves and keeps them from carbon fouling. A developing issue with DI engines is the accumulation of carbon crud on the back of intake valves.
There have been problems reported along these lines with several DI engines from different manufacturers. And fixing the problem – cleaning the crud – can mean physical disassembly of the engine – removal of the cylinder head(s) – to get at the crudded up valves.
This will not be inexpensive.
Neither is the DI system itself.
The system uses two pumps, operates under very high pressure (several thousand pounds per square inch) and no one really knows whether it will be durable over the long haul and post-warranty because the technology has not been in widespread, real-world use long enough. If unforeseen problems crop up post-warranty, the bill could be steep.
And all on you.
* Very small, very turbocharged engines –
Turbos are mechanical devices that compress the incoming air charge (which is ordinarily sucked in by engine vacuum only) and force-feed it to the engine. This is done in order to make the engine produce more power – particularly when more power is needed. When the driver pushes down on the accelerator pedal, the turbo “spools up” – pressurizes the incoming air charge – and the engine makes more power as this “boost” increases.
Turbos can make a small engine perform like a bigger engine – but when the driver eases off the accelerator the boost decreases and the engine uses less fuel.
Historically, turbochargers were used mostly if not entirely in performance car applications – sporty cars – but lately, they’re being fitted to ordinary A to B cars, such as mid-sized family sedans and even pick-up trucks (e.g., Ford F-150). This is being done to maintain acceptable levels of performance with smaller engines while also achieving an uptick in fuel economy over an otherwise comparably powerful (but not turbocharged) larger engine.
The downsides – actual and potential – as are follows:
Higher buy-in cost, because of the additional components (the turbocharger and related exhaust plumbing, etc.) and potentially higher down-the-road repair/replacements costs, in the event there is a problem with the turbo and its related components. Which may be more likely due to the high levels of boost (many new turbocharged cars run 21-plus pounds of boost) which places a lot of pressure – literally – on internal components as well as the fact of there being more components.
The car companies have made a number of improvements to the basic design of turbocharged engines to improve their longevity and durability (including specialized oiling systems and very heavy-duty components designed to to handle the pressure/load of turbocharging) but the fact remains there are additional parts and the more parts you’ve got, the more potential there is that something will fail. Turbos can be very expensive to replace – several thousand dollars each. And some vehicles have two of them.
An extended warranty might be well worth the cost if you’re thinking about buying a new car with a turbocharged engine. And a very smart move, if the car you’re considering is used – and the factory powertrain warranty is either used up or close to being used up.
