AD #2254 – Infiniti’s Variable Compression Engine, The Story Behind the Wrangler’s Windshield, Big Truck Sales Soar
December 15th, 2017 at 11:58am
Runtime: 9:22
0:29 Big Truck Sales Soar
1:19 Dealer Consolidation Accelerating
2:01 The Story Behind the Wrangler’s Windshield
3:08 Infiniti’s Variable Compression Engine
4:43 2018 Wards 10 Best Engines
6:13 Maven Helping GM with Off-Lease Vehicles
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On today’s show…big truck sales continue to soar in the U.S…Infiniti reveals new details about is variable compression engine…and how GM’s Maven is helping the company deal with so many vehicles coming off-lease. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
BIG TRUCK SALES SOAR
Sales of big trucks are posting stunning gains in the U.S. WardsAuto reports that medium and heavy-duty sales were up 19% in November, which follows the 27% gain the segment posted in October. Sales of the big Class 8 semis were up a whopping 25%, while Class 4 through 7 posted a strong 13% gain. Sales were down for most the year, but several months ago they turned a corner. Year-to-date big truck sales are now 2% higher than last year. And up in Canada, it’s the same story. Big truck sales skyrocketed 25% in November, the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year growth. This is very good news, because medium and heavy-duty sales are a leading indicator of how the economy will perform.
DEALER CONSOLIDATION ACCELERATING
Dale Pollack is an expert in automotive retail and was a recent guest on Autoline This Week. He points out there’s a tremendous amount of consolidation going on, as big dealers buy out small ones. Even though there are about 18,000 dealerships in the U.S., there are only 8,000 owners. And by 2025 experts say there will only be 16,000 dealers with only 6,500 owners. In less than 10 years, Pollack says, mega-dealers could control 25% of all retail sales. And that’s just going to feed on itself because as the small ones find it harder to compete, the big ones are going to gobble them up.
THE STORY BEHIND THE WRANGLER’S WINDSHIELD
No doubt most of you know that the windshield on the Jeep Wrangler can fold down flat onto the hood. But do you know why? During World War II, Willys and the Ford Motor Company built and shipped over half a million Jeeps to the European and Pacific theaters. Logistics is one of the key ways that America emerged victorious in that conflict and to pack more Jeeps on every cargo ship they took off the wheels and folded the windshield down flat. That allowed the Jeeps to be packed into shallow crates and stacked on top of each other like cord wood. The brand new Jeep Wrangler continues that tradition. The windshield folds down onto the hood. But today it’s not about logistics. It’s all about the joy of open air driving.
Still to come… Infiniti shares details about its new variable compression engine.
INFINITI’S VARIABLE COMPRESSION ENGINE
We’ve talked a little bit about Infiniti’s new variable compression engine going into the all-new QX50. Through a multi-link system, the engine is able to change the length of the piston stroke to give it a compression ratio between 8:1 (better performance) and 14:1 (better efficiency). But we’re learning more about how it makes the adjustments and it’s pretty interesting. The upper and lower connecting rod get paired together via the multi-link. The lower connecting rod attaches to a control shaft. There’s then a S-shaped actuator arm that links the control shaft to what Infiniti calls a Harmonic Drive. An electric motor will twist the Harmonic Drive, which then in turn rotates the control shaft to change the angle of the lower connecting rod, which will shorten or lengthen the piston stroke depending on which way the control shaft is turned. Infiniti says the new QX50 will get 27 MPG in front-wheel drive form and 26 with all-wheel drive. That’s a 35 and 30% improvement over the current V6 offered in the SUV. And while the engine is inherently well balanced, Infiniti is introducing an active engine mount that uses a sensor to detect vibration and then create opposite, reciprocating vibrations to balance it out. I typically don’t like new technologies that increase complexity, but I can’t wait to drive the new QX50 with its variable compression engine.
2018 WARDS 10 BEST ENGINES
And speaking of engines, our friends at WardsAuto just revealed the winners of its annual 10 Best Engines award. And there were a lot of firsts. It’s the first time no German automakers won, and the first time Kia and Jaguar made the list. Kia with the 3.3L V6 turbo in the Stinger. And Jag with the 2.0L four-cylinder in the XF. It’s also the first time four electrified powertrains were among the winners. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, the Toyota Camry Hybrid, the Chevy Bolt and the Honda Clarity fuel cell. And rounding out the list is the 2.7L twin-turbo V6 in the Ford F-150, the 5.0L V8 in the Mustang, the Civic Type R’s 2.0L turbo and the 3.0L turbo V6 in the Infiniti Q50. And if you want to learn more about Wards 10 Best Engines, keep an eye out for our Autoline This Week that will be available on our website January 18th. That show is all about the Wards editors explaining why they chose those engines.
There’s millions of vehicles coming off-lease this year and coming up next, we’ll show you how GM is using its Maven mobility service to help tackle the problem.
MAVEN HELPING GM WITH OFF-LEASE VEHICLES
The car market in the U.S. is being flooded by millions of vehicles coming off-lease. And it’s only going to grow over the next several years. On Autoline This Week, we’re joined by Maven’s Rachel Bhattacharya, the mobility start-up operated by GM. And she talked about taking those cars coming off-lease and putting them in Maven’s fleet and how it can bolster shareholder value.
(The ATW preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)
That discussion is available to watch right now on our website, Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
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Comments (21)
December 15th, 2017 at 12:24 pm
That New Infinity QX50 looks a lot like a Hyundai Santa Fe Sport going down the road.
Since the new Honda Civic Type R’s 2.0L turbo was awarded best engine status. I would consider purchasing a new CRV if it had that engine in it rather than the 1.5L Turbo currently offered.
December 15th, 2017 at 12:33 pm
Why didn’t Jeep Designers make a removable windshield rather than a folding down one on the Wrangler? I could see having a removable windshield that would slide up the “A” pillar frame for removal and then back down from the top of the “A” pillar frame into channels along the frame and be secured by four T50 bolts similar to the doors. The windshield could be stored under the rear passenger seat during off-roading.
December 15th, 2017 at 12:38 pm
I would think it would be hard for the windshield frame to be strong enough if you make the glass removable not to mention I wouldn’t want to store it anywhere inside the vehicle. There’s a few reasons most chev Avalanche owners never remove the back window.
December 15th, 2017 at 12:46 pm
Does anyone actually fold down the windshield on a Wrangler? G.A., are you out there? I’ve never seen one folded down, except for an actual WW II vintage Jeep at a car show.
December 15th, 2017 at 12:50 pm
The Infiniti Variable Compression engine looks to me like a answer to a question nobody asked. With the advent of direction, does there need to be something this complicated. Couldn’t VVT perform the same tasks of lowering cylinder pressures by hanging the exhaust valves open a little longer (like an Atkinson cycle)? Also, I’m not sure if the animations were to scale, but it looks to me like the engine would be much taller and have a higher center of gravity?
Looks like a very complicated arrangement.
The Bolt got a Ward’s 10 best engines? How? I was talking one of the engineers at the 2016 NAIAS and while it was very simple, I saw nothing particularly noteworthy about it.
December 15th, 2017 at 12:54 pm
There is a lot going on with the variable compression engine, and in my opinion, too much is going on. All that movement and extra pivot points is going to be really hard on the engine’s motor oil so I’m guessing more frequent changes needed (this just a conjecture on my part) but you see this with some motorcycles that use engine oil in the cycle’s transmission that increases shearing (because of the gears).
The Jeeps fold down windshield, while nostalgic, certainly seems ugly in this rendition. Again, JMO
December 15th, 2017 at 12:56 pm
@ 5 (Lisk)
And the Bolt’s power comes from a motor not an engine; Ward’s needs to perhaps keep these separate or maybe have a separate category.
December 15th, 2017 at 1:06 pm
The variable compression engines are a unique design and I admire the ingenuity however that is a lot of additional complexity/weight and moving parts when similar results can be achieved with adding a turbo, and variable valve timing.
Just looks like a block machining nightmare.
December 15th, 2017 at 1:17 pm
I have seen a Jeep with the windshield down on the hood, when I was a kid in the early 70’s a guy used a Jeep to pull a bunch of reel type lawn mowers and drove around his 2 acre yard in the jeep with the windshield down mowing the yard.
December 15th, 2017 at 1:55 pm
#9 I bet the Jeep was in low range for that application.
#5, 7 Ward’s evaluates the total “package” for their 10 Best Engines, and were apparently impressed the how the Bolt drove and performed. Most of the other winners involved engines/motors used in multiple vehicles, but the “winner” was a single motor/vehicle combination.
Unless there is a huge gain in efficiency, the Nissan variable compression engine makes no sense to me either. I sometimes wonder if direct injection is worth it, for a little more power, and ~3% better fuel economy. I like that it lowers fuel octane requirements, though.
The term “motor” is correct for either an ICE or an electric motor, while “engine” is correct for an ICE, a fire truck, a railroad locomotive, and a bunch of other things.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/engine
December 15th, 2017 at 3:43 pm
ford 2.7L twin turbo 6 cyl. perfect engine for mustang or ford/lincoln 3.0L 400 hp twin turbo for that matter.
December 15th, 2017 at 5:25 pm
The turbo sixes would work well in a Mustang, but Mustang buyers still like the sound of a naturally aspirated V8, for a performance engine. That may change after “baby boomers” like myself die off, or quit buying new cars.
December 15th, 2017 at 9:13 pm
As a red-blooded Baby Boomer, I do not accept the aging process. “Everyone else seems to be aging, except me.” So, let’s hope the Mustang V8 remains eternal.
December 16th, 2017 at 3:03 am
It appears to me that Mazda’s SHCCI (?) proposed design achieves same fuel economy parity as the Infinity with less complexity. I would project that this would a longer piston stroke achieving higher torque at lower RPM, when compared to current engine design. The additional pivot point in the bottom of the engine looks very complex for long term reliability. Just remember the GM-Cadillac 8-6-4 4.1 Liter engine – great idea with its disastrous complex valve train – we certainly do not need another one of those!!
December 16th, 2017 at 6:06 am
Just finished watching Gran Tour where they had a Ford GT (with the Ecoboost V-6) charging from New York City to Niagara Falls; now that V-6 (sound) lacks almost nothing to a V-8. Just saying. I’m not a Ford guy but the GT was “sweet”; beautiful machine.
December 16th, 2017 at 7:36 am
In the Infiniti engine, does the stroke really change (which would change the displacement), or does the position of a fixed stroke distance change within the cylinder (which would change the compression)? The cartoon graphic/video does not make a clear distinction.
December 16th, 2017 at 3:59 pm
Drew that is a good question; I’ve looked at the mechanics and still can’t be sure. We do know that the piston rises higher in the combustion chamber (meaning the ‘squeeze’ is greater raising the compression) but what I can’t tell is whether the fulcrum is eccentric and actually changing the length of stroke. My guess it that the squeeze is just greater (and the stoke is the same or very similar) but both may be happening.
December 16th, 2017 at 8:05 pm
It looks like if the stroke changes, it is by a small amount, with no intentional “variable displacementness.”
December 16th, 2017 at 9:02 pm
I tend to be a skeptic about Elon’s ability to make cars in high volume, but I remain impressed with his rockets. Yesterday, a “used” booster took stuff to the space station, and successfully landed. It was in day time, so not as cool to watch as the night launches, but still impressive.
December 18th, 2017 at 9:08 am
#16-17 The stroke does change and it is hard to see because it isn’t much. Doesn’t have to be much as you can remember how guys used to deck heads taking just thousands off to increase compression. I bet even the cartoon is exaggerated.
December 18th, 2017 at 10:15 am
A rough calculation finds that, assuming only a small change in stroke/displacement, the piston location at top center would change about 1/4 inch or less between high and low compression settings. The animation seems to exagerate things, to better show how the system works.