Archive for October, 2018
BMW Goes X-tra Large and Seven Up
BMW is not a brand that does things by halves. Rather than putting a toe in the water, the iconic German brand jumps in. In the passenger vehicle segment it’s “lacked” one entrant and that has now been resolved with the release of the X7 range. It’ll go up against the Volvo XC90, Audi’s Q7, Porsche’s Cayenne, and VW’s Touareg. BMW also don’t tag this 5151mm long machine as an SUV. It’s a SAV, a Sports Activity Vehicle.
The X7 will offer a choice of six or seven seats, with the third row a confirmed two seat configuration. That third row will have cup holders, separate USB points, and armrests. The middle row can be specified with two or three seats, and all seats are power adjustable. Sitting on a wheelbase of 3105mm, the X7 offers a cargo capacity variance of between 326L to 2120L. To take advantage of the space available, the X7 goes on a luxury cruise with Vernasca leather as standard, four zone climate control, a three part panoramic roof, and a high end ambient light system. BMW never skimps on the option list either, with a five zone climate control system, a Bowers and Wilkins Diamond Select audio system, an an entertainment system for the rear seat passengers. BMW’s M Sport package and the Design Pure Excellence equipment line are also offered.
Choosing an engine won’t be hard. At launch a a 340 kW/462 hp petrol V8 in the BMW X7 xDrive50i will be available although not available in Europe. The xDrive40i will receive a six-cylinder in-line petrol unit with an output of 250 kW/340 hp and a rated combined fuel consumption at 9.0 – 8.7 l/100 km. The X7 xDrive 30d will be powered by a pair of six-cylinder in-line diesels with outputs of 195 kW/265 hp. Fuel consumption for a combined cycle is rated at 6.8 – 6.5 l/100 km with CO2 emissions combined: 178 – 171 g/km) and 294 kW/400 hp in the BMW X7 M50d. The quoted fuel consumption on the combined cycle is 7.4 – 7.0 l/100 km with CO2 emissions combined: 193 – 185 g/km). All of the power units in the line-up meet the requirements of the Euro 6d-TEMP emissions standard.
Every powerplant will be bolted to an eight-speed Steptronic transmission. The BMW xDrive intelligent all wheel drive system, complete with optimised efficiency and rear-biased set-up, is how the power and torque gets to tarmac or dirt. Ensuring even more dynamic handling is the M Sport differential at the rear axle, which brings electronically controlled locking. It is fitted as standard on the BMW X7 M50d and as an option on the BMW X7 xDrive50i and BMW X7 xDrive40i.
The chassis tech is typical high end BMW. There’s Adaptive Suspension and electronically controlled dampers, air fed springs and an adjustable ride height of up to 80mm. Extra suspension ability can be optioned, such as Integral Active Steering, and the Executive Drive Pro system. An off road option package can be specced for all models bar the M50D. A four mode drive system includes xSands, xGravel, xRocks, and xSnow. The selection of each mode has the X7 adjust automatically for ride height, transmission response, and the stability control systems.
Active Cruise Control with Stop/Start is standard however BMW offers the Driving Assistant Professional package that features steering and lane control assistance, Lane Change Warning and Lance Departure Assistance, and even a side collision warning system. Traffic assistance comes in the form of wrong way alert, cross traffic warning and BMW’s priority warning system.
The driver has two 12.3 inch full colour digital screens with which to work with. There’s a binnacle display and a control display in the centre upper dash with the pair being called by BMW the Live Cockpit Professional system. An Intelligent Personal Assistant is voice activated and software can be updated remotely.
Finally, BMW stamp their authority on the luxury SAV segment with an imposing exterior design. With a width of 2000m and a height of 1805mm, the X& is one of the bigger types of its segment. The traditional kidney grille design is even more imposing and is flanked by a pair of full LED lit headlights. Optionable Laserlight headlights can illuminate at a range of up to 600 metres on high beam. A two section tailgate is flanked by stylish LED powered lights.
Contact your local BMW dealer for more information.
Holden's New Big Acadia Arrives
Holden has released details about their new, fully North American built, large SUV. The Acadia is a dedicated seven seater and is powered by a 231kW/367Nm 3.6L V6. There will be no skimping on safety features either, with the Acadia featuring: Autonomous Emergency Braking with pedestrian and bicycle detection, Following Distance Indicator, Automatic High Beam Assist, Safety Seat Alert, Forward Collision Alert with Head-Up Warning, Lateral Impact Avoidance, Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning, Side Blind Zone Alert with Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Rear Parking Assist.
TSR or Traffic Sign Recognition is a new feature. Holden says they have had an engineering team perform tests within tens of thousands of kilonetres worth of testing. This has enabled the TSR system to be sophisticated enough to recognise the variance in signs throughout Australia, which also highlights the lack of commonality in signage across the country.
There will be Holden’s next generation eight inch touchscreen plus, for all three rows of seats, fast charging USB ports, suitable for the current generation of smartphones and tablets. There’s some smart tech on board and aimed at people that will utilise the Acadia’s 2000kg towing ability. Hitch Guidance and Hitch View allows a driver to line up the Acadia using the reverse camera, plus there’s a program for the nine speed automatic transmission called Tow Haul. This changes the shifting characteristics of the shift patterns whilst driving and towing.
Inside the Acadia will be clever storage solutions such as adjustable fore and aft position for the middle row, a console drawer for the second row, a storage bin in the rear, and just in case the parents have a brain fade, an alert system for the rear seats.
The V6 is rated at a reasonable 8.9L/100km on a two wheel drive system, and increases barely to 9.3L/100km in four wheel drive. Thankfully it’ll run on standard unleaded, a handy thing with the expansion of Australia’s fuel prices. That’s helped by Stop/Start and AFM or Active Fuel Management as standard.
Suspension is the tried and true McPherson strut front and the five link rear end, tuned and fettled by Holden in testing on roads and at the Lang Lang grounds.
Pricing starts from $42,990 plus on-roads with the Acadia LT 2WD. the AWD LT clocks in at $46,990 plus on-roads. Move up to the LTZ 2WD and there’s $53,990 plus on-roads or $57,990 plus on-roads for the LTZ AWD. The top of the range LTZ-V 2WD is $63,990 and hits the ceiling at $67,990 for the AWD, again with on-roads to be added.
Here is where you can find out more and book a test drive.
Understanding Your Air Conditioning
The weather is starting to get at least a bit warmer, and it’s about time that we started thinking about summer and about summer motoring. For most of us, especially if we’re in the hotter parts of Australia, having air conditioning that works well is an absolute must if you want to stay sane during the daily commute during the heat of summer – or while on your holiday road trip.
Making sure that your air conditioning is in good working order becomes a bit easier if you understand how it works. It might seem that it works by magic – you switch it on and cool, refreshing air blows out of the vents – but of course, it doesn’t. Unless you don’t ride to work on a car but on a flying carpet or on a broomstick Harry Potter style.
Like a lot of systems in your car, air conditioning works by pumping some kind of fluid around a system, transferring heat energy as it goes. Your radiator does much the same thing, using fluid to take the heat energy away from the engine and put it somewhere else. This process is simpler in the radiator, as the natural way things work is for heat energy to pass from the hot object to the cold object – that’s part of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. However, the trick with air conditioning is to cool something down, which is a bit harder. However, it’s not rocket science and, in fact, the science of air conditioning pre-dates rocket science (almost) and cars have been sold with air-con since the 1940s at least.
Air conditioning systems have three main parts: a compressor (#4 in the image above), a condenser (#1) and an evaporator (#3 – and #2 is a one-way valve). The compressor is the powerhouse of the system and it’s driven by your car engine. This is why old-school penny pinchers wanting to get a few more kilometres per litre will advise you not to run the A/C unit unless you have to – the more you ask your engine to do, the more fuel it will consume. However, on a hot day, the only other way to keep cool while driving is to open the windows, which increases drag, which also increases fuel consumption. Your choice was between saving fuel and keeping cool. Anyway, I digress. The compressor has the job of taking the refrigerant gas and putting it under loads of pressure. This pressure heats the gas up (think of how hot a bicycle pump feels when you use it), which seems counterproductive although it’s necessary. It needs the pressure to get around the condenser.
From the condenser, the pressurised refrigerant gas moves into the condenser. This is a sort of radiator that manages to steal the heat from the pressurised gas as the gas worms around the tubes in the system. As the gas cools in the condenser, it turns to liquid. It’s now ready for the evaporator.
Cooling by evaporation is the oldest known method of cooling down. This is how your sweat works and why spritzing your face with water feels so refreshing. The process of turning the liquid into vapour or gas, be it the refrigerant in your air-con system or the sweat on your forehead, uses heat energy, so the place where the liquid used to be feels cooler. This, incidentally, is why alcohol swabs and perfume (and aftershave) feel cool on the skin: alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water so it evaporates quickly, using some of your skin’s heat to do so, and we perceive any rapid loss of heat as cold. The evaporation (technically boiling) temperature of the refrigerant is even lower (and so is its freezing temperature). In fact, when it hits the evaporator, the refrigerant should be at about 0°C.
When it gets to the evaporator, which is usually located away from the rest of the system and quite close to the car’s cabin, the refrigerant absorbs some of the heat of the cabin as it changes from liquid back to gas again. Abracadabra – the heat energy goes from the air around you and into the refrigerant and you feel nice and cool, especially if the fans in the car take that cool air and make it move, which makes the most of the windchill factor. Ahhh – refreshing!
The gas then cycles into the compressor and the process begins again. There are a few other bits and pieces in an A/C system, like the parts that remove actual water from the refrigerant liquid (this is why water drips out of the bottom when your A/C is running). Removing water and other bits is vital, as water would actually freeze in the system and damage it badly.
On the whole, air conditioning systems take care of themselves unless they’ve been physically damaged. This is why the hoses in an A/C system need to be checked, as they’re the most vulnerable parts (all that pressure!). However, no system is absolutely perfect and bits of gas will escape so from time to time, you will need to re-gas or re-charge the refrigerant in the system. Simply, this involves topping up the refrigerant levels.
And what about climate control? How does this differ from ordinary air conditioning? The big difference is that air conditioning just tries to cool things down no matter what. Climate control, on the other hand, tries to keep things at a set temperature (which YOU select). Climate control will turn the air conditioning system on or off, and will adjust air flow and add hot air from the radiator as needed, using input from the temperature sensors. And that’s about it. They say that climate control is more fuel-frugal than ordinary air conditioning because it doesn’t need to run the air conditioning system all the time nonstop – it only does it when it needs to.
Dual zone and multiple zone climate control works in the same way as ordinary climate control but it’s got a few more temperature gauges so the system can fine-tune what it’s doing in different parts of the vehicle, which avoids the “I’m too hot” – “I’m freezing” argument.
If it’s been a while since you had your air conditioning system checked out, then maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take it in for re-gassing before the summer starts.
2019 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Ready For Your Driveway.
Ford‘s 2019 Mustang range has had the EcoBoost engine added and it comes with extra spice. Sitting alongside the grunty 5.0L GT, the EcoBoost offers more torque than the previously available version. There’s also a new, optional, ten speed auto with paddle shift, extra safety features such as Autonomous Emergency Braking, the updated exterior, and a B&O sound system with 12 speakers with a total power of 1000 Watts. Warranty is now up to five years.
The fuel injected alloy engine with twin scroll turbo produces 224kW and a ripping 441 Nm of torque. That compares favourably on a kW/Nm per litre factor when looking at the 5.0L’s figures of 339kW and 556Nm. Standard transmission is a six speed auto. The turbo has been tuned to deliver a beautifully smooth torque curve which enhances the overall driveability. Strength and durability comes from forged conrods, lightweight pistons with steel rings, and variable valve timing for better upper end performance.
The interior features a new 12.4 inch instrument cluster that is heavily customisable thanks to a large involvement from ex games developers. Three modes are available, being Normal, Sport, and Track with adjustable layouts and colours. A new memory function, Mustang MyMode, allows a driver to set drive settings, steering preferences, and exhaust note preferences. A brand new active exhaust features four distinct modes, being Normal, Track, Sport, and Quiet. An electronic control system enables the note to suit the drive mode and rev range, and there is even Track Apps to allow the recording of data for analysis.
Ride and handling prowess has been upped thanks to new shock absorbers, and a new cross-axis joint for the rear suspension provides a higher level of lateral stiffness for extra stability. Redesigned stabiliser bars also factor in the increased handling capability. Magnetic damping has now been provided as an option. With an adjustment speed of up to 1000 times a second, the Ford MagneRide suspension was previously available in the Shelby GT350.
More tech for the Mustang EcoBoost comes from the Ford DAT, or Driver Assist Technology. Pedestrian Detection technology partners with Autonomous Emergency Braking, Adaptive Cruise Control, plus Lane Departure Warning and Lane Keeping Assist. Auto high beam and auto levelling headlights are also on board. Ford’s renowned SYNC3 interface is standard on the EcoBoost and features Emergency Assist which will dial emergency services should the car’s telematics detect a crash has occurred. There’s an eight inch full colour display, reverse camera, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The EcoBoost will be available in the two body shapes, Convertible and Fastback, complete with reprofiled bonnet and grille for a harder. edgier, look. LED headlights are standard across the Mustang range, along with tri-bar daytime running lights. The LED taillights feature a revamped design, as do the bumpers, and there are black painted 19 inch alloys. Brembo supply the brakes. Inside the materials have been updated for a higher quality look and feel, with a new “spun alloy” llok for the dash panel.
Complete with a five year warranty the 2019 Mustang range starts from $49,990 (manufacturer’s list price) for the Fastback manual, $52,990 (MLP) for the Fastback auto, with $59,490 being the MLP for the EcoBoost convertible auto. The 2019 Mustang range including the EcoBoost is available from Ford dealers now.
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