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Dumb and Dumber In Detroit
Decide our Truck Choices
by Kent Scott
I was anxiously awaiting the
introduction of the new mid-size Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks as
they were expected to use the fantastic new 4.2 inline six used the the
Blazer and Envoy. I was both disappointed and amazed that some product
managers decided to only offer a five cylinder version as the largest
offering.
The result was I bought a
Dodge Dakota Quad Cab with the 4.7 V8. It's a good vehicle, but I would
have preferred the higher tech 4.2 six if it had been available. The
result for Chevy and GMC excluding the six has been poor sales, poor
performance and a poor image for the entire line of vehicles.
Meanwhile Toyota and Nissan
have introduces high tech 4.0 V6 engines that blow even the enlarged
five into the weeds and are backing them with a five speed automatic.
On top of the poor initial
decision to not initially offer the six, they claim they don't have room
to put it in if they wanted to. Who are these decision makers, who are
the bosses that hired them and why do they still have their jobs? Do you
think some kid in his back yard couldn't swap the five for a six if he
wanted to?
There are a multitude of
ways to do it, but a very simple way is to just put an electric fan in
front of the radiator instead of behind it. The shroud would have to
have an intake surface to assure airflow when the fan wasn't running,
but that's a no-brainer.
An alternative is to just
sell GM to someone who can run it. It isn't the engineers, it's the
managers. It's time to clean house in Detroit so they can compete
worldwide. |