Sensible Sedan Shopping @Chevrolet with @Gurdonark

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I went this morning with @Gurdonark sensible sedan shopping.  He has a long daily commute to work, and needs a large compact or small midsize sedan for a daily driver.  He had already tested the Ford Fusion.

I offered to drive, since this was also a great excuse for a day out in my Cadillac STS-V.

Today we started at Tony’s Cafe for breakfast.  My Wife joined us, so that made a pleasant outing, then she headed for her day and we headed to the car dealers.

Here are photos of the Cruze and the Malibu.  They look very similar to me but I think I have them captioned right.

Chevrolet Cruze

Chevrolet Malibu

For Car Shopping, we went to Huffines Chevrolet in Plano.  @Gurdonark wanted to check the Cruze, Malibu, and Equinox, then head over to Huffines Hyundai to check their comparable offerings.

The Chevrolet Cruze replaced the Cobalt.  Although it is smaller than a Malibu, it still had acceptable rear leg room.  The Cruze has a smaller engine, and higher MPG, and the Malibu has more interior room.  Among the base models, the Cruze appears to have better infotainment access, with bluetooth, USB, and ipod ports.

Chevrolet Equinox

The surprise choice of a sensible sedan for me was the Chevrolet Equinox, especially since it is a Crossover SUV and not technically a sedan.  With good gas mileage, plenty of room, a higher driving position, and a mid-20s price the Malibu-or-Cruze comparison quickly changed to an Equinox-or-Cruze comparison.  Since the Cruze is around $5K less money, I think the deal on each would be the way I would decide between these two for a daily commuter.

2.4L Ecotec Engine in the Chevrolet Equinox

 

Huffines has a Hyundai lot on the same property, where we test drove the Elantra and Sonata.  @Gurdonark’s current car is a Sonata. Although they seemed very roomy, they did not test drive as well as the Cruze or Equinox.

We drove around the corner to a Chrysler dealer where we tested the Chrysler 200.  Although it seemed a handsome car it also seems a car waiting for a bottoms-up rewrite and not just the current make-over of an otherwise basic vehicle.

Lunch at Dickey's - beef, turkey, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, roll

After car shopping we wrapped up with Lunch at Dickey’s BBQ which worked well.

Summary

Among the sensible sedans, I would choose the Chevrolet Cruze.  Among the cars we shopped, I would choose between the Cruze or the Equinox and decide based on the price level I was able to get each one at.

@Gurdonark & Chevrolet Corvette

Among the rest of the cars we saw, I would get the Chevrolet Corvette, or a Camaro SS.

 

Project Cadillac Tuning Plan

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I am enjoying my 2008 Cadillac STS-V; it is a terrific design right out of the box.   Cadillac pulled out some stops in developing this unique 4.4L Supercharged Northstar variant.  For example, the exhaust manifold was extrude honed to optimize flow.  Originally the V was rumored to get 440 hp, but with some final tuning the team was able to raise the STS-V to 469 hp.

An engine dyno as in the graph above measures horepower at the crank (hp).  A chassis dyno measures horsepower at the wheels (whp).  Horsepower at the wheels includes inefficiencies of the powertrain.

For an automatic RWD automobile, powertrain inefficiencies often run 20% of the power.  So for a 469 hp STS-V, one might expect to measure 469 x 0.8 = 375 hp at the wheels.  From my research, most STS-Vs measure 360-370 hp at the wheels, so perhaps a bit more than 20% loss at 22-24% due to luxury isolation in the powertrain. One outlier pulled 379-387 whp however.

HP is often used to indicate hp at the crank, and whp, or wheel horsepower, is used to indicate horsepower at the wheels.

To go from chassis dyno wheel hp to hp at the crank, divide by 1-inefficiency.  So if inefficiency = 20%, WHP/(1-20%) = WHP/80% = crank hp.

The classic hot rodding questions are,

  • How much money do you have?  and
  • How fast do you want to go?

The hidden gem in this discussion is, before you sink a ton of money into your car, you should have a plan.  If you want to achieve a specific goal, then you might start with a different car, for an extreme example.

Supercharged Northstar

My goals for developing my STS-V:

  • It is a Cadillac: maintain luxury features,  & avoid “noise for noise sake”
  • Test and Tune:  only add / change items which prove to add performance
  • Phase 1:  500 hp, so 400 whp
  • Phase 2: 550 hp, so 440 whp

What will that let me do?

  • Be happy that the Cadillac STS-V is tuned to optimum performance
  • Enjoy the journey of researching, selecting, testing, and writing about the Cadillac Project

My first Project looks set to be a Spectre intake from Jaime at StreetSideAuto.  In Spectre’s tests the intake added 40+ whp.  True Street Motorsports has agreed to help with testing the new intake once it arrives using their Dynojet dyno.  First we’ll establish a baseline for the STS-V stock.  Then hopefully we can get clear before/after apples to apples tests with and without each modification.

In my True Streets Motorsports correspondence they refer to the test as “Project Cadillac”, hence today’s title.

Other project ideas in sight:

  • Custom Tuning
  • Intercooler pump, reservoir or heat exchanger mods

More to come as things change, arrive, and evolve.

What would you like to see tested on a Cadillac STS-V?  If you have a performance product you would like to have independently tested on a Cadillac STS-V, please let me know.

Covering the Cadillac: Empire Car Covers #Motorama @Empire_Covers

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Empire Covers contacted me recently to ask if I would review their Titan Quatro 4L car cover for my 2008 Cadillac STS-V.

I asked that they send me a cover that would be great for sun, and good in the dust we get here in Texas.  Using the easy gadgets on their website I was able to focus in on the Cadillac car covers that would fit my STS-V, and the protection levels each type of car cover offers.  I suggested the Titan Quatro since it offers Sun 5 and Dust 5 protection levels.  My STS-V is a size 4 in the Empire system.

Empire Car Cover de-boxing

Six days later and I have the car cover on my doorstep — I like fast service and delivery.  I put it on the car right out of the box, then took it off the Cadillac and put it on the right-way round after I saw that the part of the cover that read “Front” was just in the middle of the back.

Empire Car Cover on the Cadillac STS-V

This cover is described by Empire as

We’ve taken our years of cover experience and created the ultimate outdoor/indoor cover with 4 layers ultrasonically welded together to ensure 100% waterproof protection. The cover works as a total protective system, the pinnacle of cover technology.

A key concern here in Texas is keeping the cover on in the wind.  This cover came with options Empire Covers Gust Guard tie-downs front and back, and the bag stays attached via a lanyard to the cover itself.  The Gust Guard is a separate product that works with the cover to keep it in place when you anticipate more wind than the elastic band on the bottom of the cover can accommodate.  The GustGuard on the Empire site uses bungee cords, but the one I received has 2 adjustable straps.  Either would work; I mention the difference only for clarity.

With the ties on the cover and the Gust Guard, the Empire car cover should stay in place even in a strong wind and be effective in protecting the car from sun or dust.  Because the Gust Guard connecting straps are easy-on, easy-off, no worries about them getting in the way or scratching the paint when putting the cover on or off.

To avoid my initial error, having the bag attached to the cover acts as a quick identifier for the ‘back’ of the cover, and keeps the bag from getting lost.

Disclosure:  Empirecovers provided the car cover for free so that I could review it.

Summary:

The Empire Car Cover site was easy to use and I was able to select a cover appropriate to my needs.  The Empire Car Cover arrived quickly and was as-described, and fit my Cadillac.  It appears to be well constructed, and I am happy with the quality.  I believe that the under-car Gust Guard straps will act to keep the cover in place, but I will have to test that in the wind to confirm.