Ongoing General Automotive Thread 2.0

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by habernac

I drove a V6 Lexus to Vegas and back. Two door convertible, IS250 model. Decently comfortable car, but I was unimpressed with the motor. I thought it was criminally underpowered.

That's always been the issue with the IS250. Looks upmarket, the price is upmarket, but it's indistinguishable from driving a Camry.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Of all the automakers that shouldn't be pushing their luck with buyers.

Anyone buying a Chrysler/Stellantis gets what they deserve.

Wagons, yes. Really wish Audi would've brought a 6 series wagon here, not the hiked up All Road or $150k RS6.
MB at least had base E Series, without having to go the E63 route.

Buick had a wagon just for the US, pre COVID, that never made its way here.
And GM Australia (Holden) had some wagons back in the day.

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

It's missing the logo on the front too, something tells me the imperfections are part of the appeal.

I think it’s work in progress. He’s got an E63 wagon and a Buick Roadmaster too. I hate him.

[TorqueDog]

Me, leave well enough alone? Nope.

So I had a new aluminum intake charge pipe fabbed for my Range Rover.

Stock center airbox:


I wanted to replace the stock intake silencer to get more induction noise, blower whine, and improve efficiency given I’m also running upper and lower pulleys and the Velocity AP ECU and TCU tune (exhaust is — and will forever remain — factory). However, I didn’t want to eliminate the stock filter boxes and defeat the hood cowl intake system that gives the vehicle its superior water wading capability. What few intake kits I saw out there were pretty much only filter box deletes, replacing with exposed conical filters, which was a non-starter for me. I don’t do oiled filter elements on engines with mass air meters either, I enjoy not playing merry hell with my MAF sensors.

Finished piece:




The pipe was fabricated locally by Vitali at BoostFactory. He does pretty stellar work. End result is more induction / supercharger sound across the entire RPM range at every throttle position except for “driving like my dad”. I suspect my fuel economy will drop as blower whine is an absolutely intoxicating sound.

[BowRiverBruinsRule]

Auto question. Or, tech question. I have a new Ford. The instrument display has a small speed limit sign of the road you are driving on in the right bottom corner. It flashes a couple times if you go over the speed limit. Where does the vehicle get the road speed limit information from? On Highway 40 they are doing a lot of construction next to the highway - new G7 cellular towers. There are temporary speed reductions and temporary speed limit signs. It goes from 90km to 70km to 50km. My vehicle "picks up" these temporary speed reductions even when the speed reductions are new and change location. How does it "pick up" these temporary speed limits?

[Bill Bumface]

^ Cameras and image recognition.

[BowRiverBruinsRule]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

^ Cameras and image recognition.

That makes sense. I just didn't think image recognition had advanced that far. Cool stuff.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

^ Cameras and image recognition.

Bingo.

The tech isn't perfect... When using cruise control, the camera will pick up speed limits for exits and other signs and automatically adjust the cruise speed accordingly, which can vary from annoying to alarming.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by you&me

The tech isn't perfect... When using cruise control, the camera will pick up speed limits for exits and other signs and automatically adjust the cruise speed accordingly, which can vary from annoying to alarming.

That depends on the vehicle. Even with adaptive cruise and traffic sign recognition, my RR stays at the cruise speed that I told it to maintain, while keeping the distance gap between it and any vehicle it is following. I have never heard of an active cruise system changing the cruise speed based on speed limit signs. Self-driving systems, sure.

I also find that my TSR system knows to display the speed on the white speed limit signage, and will ignore the ‘recommended’ speed signs (yellow background). It also detects the lines on the road for lane departure warning, and uses that when determining if a speed limit sign applies to the lane you’re in (eg: exit lane with a different signed speed).

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

That depends on the vehicle. Even with adaptive cruise and traffic sign recognition, my RR stays at the cruise speed that I told it to maintain, while keeping the distance gap between it and any vehicle it is following. I have never heard of an active cruise system changing the cruise speed based on speed limit signs. Self-driving systems, sure.

I also find that my TSR system knows to display the speed on the white speed limit signage, and will ignore the ‘recommended’ speed signs (yellow background). It also detects the lines on the road for lane departure warning, and uses that when determining if a speed limit sign applies to the lane you’re in (eg: exit lane with a different signed speed).

It's a setting in my F150 and was also one in my Genesis. I have it turned off, but you can have it set to obey the speed limit signs automatically (and exceed by up to 10km/h).

[you&me]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

That depends on the vehicle. Even with adaptive cruise and traffic sign recognition, my RR stays at the cruise speed that I told it to maintain, while keeping the distance gap between it and any vehicle it is following. I have never heard of an active cruise system changing the cruise speed based on speed limit signs. Self-driving systems, sure.
...

Oh, it definitely depends on the vehicle... I should have clarified that I was referring to the Ford system, like the one BRBR was posting about.

Originally Posted by Sliver

It's a setting in my F150 and was also one in my Genesis. I have it turned off, but you can have it set to obey the speed limit signs automatically (and exceed by up to 10km/h).

Will have to look through the settings. Thanks for the heads up.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Sliver

It's a setting in my F150 and was also one in my Genesis. I have it turned off, but you can have it set to obey the speed limit signs automatically (and exceed by up to 10km/h).

I love that you can set it to exceed the limit by up to 10km/h.

[WideReceiver]

We’re in the market for a brand-new RAV5 hybrid. What’s the best way to sell out 2008 RAV? Very low mileage. A friend asked me about buying it a year ago. I’ll have to see if he’s still in the market but he’ll want a sweet deal so I’ll probably sell elsewhere.

[Fuzz]

The RAV5 isn't scheduled to come out until they work out the anti-grav generators.

In seriousness, you may want to check on availability of what you want, Rav4's are hard to get your hands on right now. Doesn't help dealers buy them up before potential customers can get it, mark them up 10 grand and sell them. My dad has been waiting since November(though the dealer has messed up a few times on ones he should have had priority on).

[Nufy]

I don't have adaptive Cruise Control in my 2024 but it does recognize road signs and alert me when I am going too fast.

Its turned off...

[WideReceiver]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The RAV5 isn't scheduled to come out until they work out the anti-grav generators.

In seriousness, you may want to check on availability of what you want, Rav4's are hard to get your hands on right now. Doesn't help dealers buy them up before potential customers can get it, mark them up 10 grand and sell them. My dad has been waiting since November(though the dealer has messed up a few times on ones he should have had priority on).

That’s not comforting.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Sliver

It's a setting in my F150 and was also one in my Genesis. I have it turned off, but you can have it set to obey the speed limit signs automatically (and exceed by up to 10km/h).

Yeah, I have that option too, called Active Speed Limiter, and can be set to use the TSR to inform the maximum speed you can go (plus a desired overage for passing purposes). You don’t need cruise for it to be active, though. You can set the limit to 100 KM/H, then introduce the accelerator pedal to the carpet all you want and the vehicle won’t exceed the set limit.

There’s also a passive speed warning system based on TSR, but I’ve left that disabled.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Yeah, I have that option too, called Active Speed Limiter, and can be set to use the TSR to inform the maximum speed you can go (plus a desired overage for passing purposes). You don’t need cruise for it to be active, though. You can set the limit to 100 KM/H, then introduce the accelerator pedal to the carpet all you want and the vehicle won’t exceed the set limit.

There’s also a passive speed warning system based on TSR, but I’ve left that disabled.

That sounds lame AF tbh. If I press the pedal to the floor I want all the power available, no exceptions.

[TorqueDog]

Other than to act as a nanny for someone who mindlessly can’t be observant about how fast they’re going, yeah, I don’t see the value either. Used in conjunction with TSR and onboard GPS, it becomes an intelligent system that allows changing the max speed + buffer based on the posted speed limit for that particular roadway, as the other systems mentioned above do.

I think the only reason they even bother to include it is it costs nothing to add, and from a competitive standpoint it sort of completes the whole gamut of speed / acceleration control options that the vehicle already includes for off-road use, like Hill Descent Control, and All-Terrain Progress Control — which is basically off-road cruise control. ATPC was a really neat function in BC a few weeks ago, heading up some rather snowy, uncleared mountain roads.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

That's always been the issue with the IS250. Looks upmarket, the price is upmarket, but it's indistinguishable from driving a Camry.

Had a V6 Camry. Thought it was twice the car the IS250 is. I remember the motor feeling peppier, but it was a long ass time ago.