2010 Chevy Cobalt Lt Coupe Automatic Spoiler Only 55k Texas Direct Auto on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chevy says not to look at the 2019 Silverado's fuel economy rating

The 2019 Chevy Silverado is hitting dealerships soon, and one of the most notable changes for the new full-size pickup is the addition of a 2.7-liter turbocharged inline-four. The engine replaces the naturally-aspirated 4.3-liter V6 in volume consumer models like the Silverado LT and promises more power, less weight and — most importantly — better fuel economy. The thing is, the gains in efficiency haven't been as dramatic as some might have hoped, especially when stacked up against competitors from Ford and Ram. As Automotive News reports, GM's response is a little murky. First, let's talk numbers. We're pulling all figures from FuelEconomy.gov, the official U.S. government source for fuel ratings. Fuel economy numbers on trucks vary greatly based on a number of factors. Bed and cab configuration play a part, but so does a four-wheel-drive system. You also have to factor in tires, transmissions, rear-axle gearing, hybrid systems and cylinder deactivation. Things like that can make the difference between best- and worst-in-class. The EPA's website doesn't give enough information a lot of the time, so there's really no easy way to compare apples-to-apples. First, take a look at the ratings for the 2019 Silverado. A 2.7-liter model with two-wheel drive is rated 20 city, 23 highway and 21 combined. That's both better and worse than a two-wheel drive 2018 Silverado with the 4.3-liter V6 (18 city, 24 highway and 20 combined). The updated 2019 Silverado with a 4.3-liter V6 has yet to be rated. With less weight and a smaller engine, many hoped Chevy would make bigger gains. It's unusual to see any decrease in a fuel economy metric these days. GM says that it's not done tuning the new 2.7-liter engine, so fuel economy could theoretically increase. Expanding further, a V8-powered 2019 Silverado (17 city, 24 highway and 19 combined) actually gets better highway fuel economy than a turbocharged four-cylinder powered truck in certain configurations, even if the latter has a better overall average. But that's only with two-wheel drive, the 8-speed transmission and cylinder deactivation. A Silverado with the 5.3-liter V8 and a 6-speed automatic is rated at 15 city, 22 highway and 17 combined. The biggest issue with the Silverado 2.7-liter doesn't come from within GM itself but from Ford and Ram. GM cites the Ford F-150 with the 3.3-liter V6 and the Ram 1500 with the 3.6-liter V6 as the closest competitors to its new 2.7-liter inline-four.

Callaway debuts its new C7 Stingray at National Corvette Museum

Callaway showed off its first tuned version of the 2014 Corvette Stingray at the National Corvette Museum last week, giving the rampant enthusiasts of America's sports car a look at the roughly 620-horsepower, supercharged rocket.
Unlike the Corvette SC610 we showed you back in January, this Stingray packs a fair bit more oomph. Horsepower is only up ten ponies, but torque has jumped from 556 pound-feet to "at least" 600 pound-feet. Neither horsepower nor torque is official quite yet, although Callaway is expecting to know just what its creation can do once testing and validation is completed later this month.
The 6.2-liter, supercharged V8 now boasts a new, three-element intercooler, which Callaway claims only allowed the inlet air temperature to increase by ten degrees Fahrenheit during dyno runs. Previous designs saw a 35-degree-Fahrenheit jump. The exhaust system has also been fettled with, and now is even less restrictive.

2017 Honda Ridgeline enters the landscape block war

In the test of pickup truck beds, if steel is apples and aluminum is oranges, Honda wants you to know that composites are pineapples. Chevy recently performed a test in which its own Silverado was pitted against its most obvious competitor, the Ford F-150. A loader dropped over 800 pounds of landscaping blocks into the two truck beds, and Ford's aluminum bed ended up with more damage than Chevy's steel bed. Check that test out right here. Honda apparently wasn't content to let Chevy throw stones alone. In a new test, the Japanese automaker replicated the block-drop test using its brand-new Ridgeline truck, which features a composite bed. As you'll see in the video above, there was very little damage to the high-strength plastic bed of the Ridgeline after a similar load of landscaping blocks were dropped from a loader. Without being on hand at any of these tests, we can't say with any degree of certainty that they match up in severity. But they all look pretty similar, and this is actually a test that Honda performed in front of journalists ( ourselves included) earlier this year. We visually inspected the composite bed of a Ridgeline after a demonstration just like the one on video above, and can confirm that there was basically no damage to Honda's truck. Chevy went an extra step by flinging a heavy toolbox into the Silverado and F-150; Honda didn't match that particular test. Does any of this matter? That's up to truck buyers and owners to decide, naturally, but we doubt anyone would actually dump a load like this into their own truck. And it's also worth noting that a heavy-duty spray-on bedliner would probably minimize damage to the metal surface below, whether steel or aluminum. If nothing else, it's memorable marketing. Related Video: