too expensive FE ideas?
 

Auto manufacturers do latch on to the FE ideas that are cheap. I'm wondering about the ones they don't use because they're too little return for the expense, and just where is that line?

And some ideas get ignored because styling and marketing are more important, or people don't want them. Aerodynamics seems to be the number one sacrifice in pursuit of convenience and looks. As in, no rear wheel skirts.

But the sorts of things I'm thinking about are things such as ceramic coatings, cryo treatments, lighter components made of magnesium alloys or carbon fiber, instant engine on/off capability, and better transmissions. Conventional automatic trannies are a crime. The manufacturer bears none of the fuel cost for those, and I'm guessing of all the ways to avoid having to shift gears, the conventional automatic is the cheapest from the manufacturer's view and the worst for FE.

So what all is out there that works except it's too expensive to be worth doing? Stuff that would take 500,000 miles or some such to pay back.

FE cars dont get along well with BigOil, and like you've mentioned, have a smaller profit margin with the manufacturer. Right there your screwed. And since most people would rather have a sporty looking car, or hp beast, I don't think there is much of a market for the extreme hypermiler.

And their is always the security factor too. Weight=safety (please dont knit-pick that one).

electric power steering
electric water pump
hybrids
all led lighting
??

Most people are lazy,dumb, and uncompromising. People like their big suv's with power,safetym , and plenty of room.

Compromise! is the only answer. If you want good mpg, you'll have to sacrifice something, and the general public probably wont until gas touches 5$.

--Solar panel roof to recharge the battery.

--carbon fiber body panels for weight reduction.

--Replacing mirrors with cameras + monitor.

Thats all I can think of. There are plenty of other things.

Flaming River, a company noted for street rod steering components, has a new electric assist power steering unit. Mighty spendy though--like thousands. Ignoring the cost, it does seem to have potential.

New cars. :D

regen braking (either battery or compressed inert gases)
https://img.timeinc.net/popsci/images...graph1_485.jpg

The 3 easiest things for manufacturers to do that they never will because they are scumbags:
-Less emphasis on power, speed and size in advertising and more emphasis on economy and environment
-More aerodynamic styling instead of the modern boxy agressive look
-Torque converter locks whenever the car isn't stopped or accelerating (Simple ECU mod)

Things that won't happen because of america's lazy and "I want it to be easier/faster for me" society:
-Less automatics, more manuals
-Slower cars, smaller engines
-Less heavy sh*t (POWER folding seats? POWER opening doors? Giagantic useless luxury SUV/Pickup? That crap just isn't necessary and never will be!)
-Aerodynamic, sleek styling (again), everyone loves the big agressive look! Why can't it be like the 30s and 40s when cars were more aerodynamic than some of the aircraft of the era?
-SLOWING DOWN, this one will never happen in our society



Mainly, the lack of effeciency in the world is a societal thing, if it were cool to be green and save money, believe me, all of our cars would get 50mpg off the lot and practically crap live baby trees and animals out the exhaust pipe!

Lots of weight reducing stuff. Aluminum bodies, thin glass, and so on. But the sky's the limit: composite everything held together with through-drilled titanium bolts.

There's lots of things that harshness is the issue, not money. No sound insulation, zero toe-in, straight-cut sliding-gear transmissions, etc. You can get way better aerodynamics for free if you didn't care about looks.

Small engines. It is too expensive to sleeve an engine down yourself, and manufacturers (for cars sold in the USA) aren't willing to put money into developing small engines - around 600cc - for cars. This is more than enough to get around with the technologies they could apply to such small engines today. I drove my Honda Beat (656cc) from Buffalo, NY to Newnan, GA with no issues. My only gripe is that I would like to see a slightly longer ratio transmission mated to such an engine.

FWIW - VW/Audi has already made OE elec. assist P/S a reality in the Audi A3, VW Jetta & Rabbit/GTI.

full belly pan
tall 6th gear on every MT

But with all this money being put into the car, that jacks up the value. So what if you get 100mpg if you have a 50,000$ car loan. Personally, it would be cheaper to get a normal car and drop a few grand into it for modifications.

It's called mass production. The incremental cost to put in the modifications from the factory goes way down the more they produce. It won't cost $50k. I might actually cost less than it does you and me.

Hopefully Adaptive Cruise Control works its way down from luxury car status :D

really really good wheels

ive pondered this question too, why doesnt every car/truck/suv have an electric fan? everyone knows they are far more efficent than a clutch fan and since most automakers make fwd cars and such that already are supplied with electric fans why not spend the extra $2 to design a plastic clip to hold the fan to the radiator and just order more electric fans from thier supplier...

i put an electric fan out of a 87 cavileer into my 95 s-10 and it fits perfectly! one bolt and 2 slots cut into the plastic shroud and wall! instant 2mpg gain and a very noticeable better acceleeration and torque.

I've been pessimistic lately, but...
Many of us already know this one, being it is far easy for profit margin automaker (Detroit in particular) to stamp out a fan in steel and bolt it to another stamped piece than actually improve on a design that's as old as the automobile itself and make electric windings and wires and plugs and such for an electric one. In automotive design, it will always be about the bottom line; No use in making an intelligent, well-designed car that can make us less dependent on oil if all America wants is a big ol' pushrod piece o' $#!t that is neither innovative nor helping us do anything better but burn resources in an effort to keep up w/ the Jones'. Mak

When gas was a buck, people said SUVs would rule until gas hit 3 bucks. Here it is, now the block has been moved to 5? Sorry. It won't start affecting people until it hit 7-10 dollars a gallon, which it never will. The oil companies are already having problems with 3 buck a gallon gas. When gasoline is over 3 bucks a gallon, other technologies are now affordable. They are going to have to settle gas back to about 2 bucks a gallon, maybe 2.50 a gallon, if they want to stifle the competition. Gas may one day hit 5 bucks a gallon, but it won't be for several years barring a major disaster. If gasoline did hit even 4 bucks a gallon, how does that compare to the price of electricity? LPG? Ethanol? Gasoline is now more expensive than these other alternate fuels, enough so that it is worth it to innovate and bring new products to the market.

And remember that European gasoline is so much more expensive because they have very high taxes on it, which is used to subsidize their public transportation. US gasoline has a relatively small tax on it, so is a better barometer.