[ale] way OT - used car buying tips - yea or nea - PT 2

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Wed Nov 28 16:01:02 EST 2012


Ha!

Little 4banger turbo can haul a trailer! You just have to pop the
clutch AFTER the RPMs are high enough to make the turbo whine :-)

Eats clutches but will yank a load from a dead stop :-)

On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Sean Kilpatrick <kilpatms at gmail.com> wrote:
> About a year ago we purchased a new Hyundai Santa Fe AWD to use as a tow
> vehicle. After using it to haul our 1-ton camping trailer through Colorado
> to the west coast and then up into the Canadian Rockies I can comment on a
> few things Ron mentioned.
>
> Fuel economy: The latest version of the 3.5 V6 is rated at 275 bhp, but
> those are Clydesdales, not quarter horses. They need more oats. I didn't
> hesitate to let the engine spool up to 4500 rpm climbing 10,000 foot
> mountain passes in the Rockies -- at 65 mph, while pulling the trailer. Gas
> mileage suffered! :)
>
> For the whole trip we averaged about 17.5 while towing and anywhere from 18
> - 22 when not. I have never owned a car that was as sensitive as this one to
> different brands of gasoline. Best mileage was in Canada, where they do NOT
> add ethanol to the petrol.
>
> The best widget I purchased for the trip was the Scan Guage II.
>
> http://www.scangauge.com/
>
> This plugs into the OBDI port under the dash and allows constant readout of
> nearly every variable the engine's computer is tracking. Displays any four.
> Especially useful for towing are the (near) instant fuel economy and water
> temp. The temp. gauge in this car is a joke. It looks like a regular temp
> gauge, but it really has only three positions: cold, normal, and overheated.
> It shows as "normal" anything from 157F to 223F, the highest I have seen so
> far.
>
> To put the fuel economy into some perspective, this V6 is producing more
> drive-wheel horsepower than many of the muscle cars of the late 60s with
> their hulking, ginormous V8s -- which got 12-15 mpg IF you only touched the
> gas pedal with a feather-light foot. Those four-barrel carbs were thirsty!
>
> The 2013 version of the car no longer comes with the V6 -- only a regular
> 4-banger and a turbo-four. Couldn't find anything on tow capacity, but I
> suspect it is now limited to one ton. The V6 is rated to tow up to 3500 lbs
> with trailer brakes.
>
> Bottom line: strong engines with lots of torque are thirsty. Those little
> turbocharged 4-bangers produce enough horsepower at high revs while sipping
> gas, but are gutless coming away from a stop, especially up hill with a
> load. We need the grunt factor, so we put up with the fuel mileage. If we
> didn't we'd have a much smaller car with a turbo-four and enjoy 40% - 50%
> better fuel economy.
>
> Sean
>
>
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-- 
--
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain

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