I’d love to see this as well. Along with a lifecycle carbon footprint study of DEF and DPFs.

Bingo, a properly tuned and deleted diesel is a whole new truck. It also does not spew unburnt fuel out the tail pipe. And have you ever seen what an EGR puts back into the charge side of your motor? Its obscene. Plus has anyone ever really calculated the carbon footprint of producing, packaging, shipping, selling,…

Not really. I’ve helped delete 2, and put the same 2 back on when it came time to trade. Its a 2 man driveway job, or a 1 man with a lift and proper jacks. No more effort than it was to take off. Just re-install previously removed parts, and re-flash with stock software.

Hot Take:

I’ll second this. Slide my GTI across groomed grass at least once a week on my way home. Never leave a mark.

I’m with you. 100K miles at 17MPG and $3/gallon gas is $17,650 in fuel, at 19MPG its $15,790. Total savings $1,860 for an unproven FCA system that will likely cost 1K for a major repair plus downtime. Nope.

Had an interesting discussion with a friends dad the other day. He grew up with 4bbl carbs, caps, rotors, and an engine you could actually see on his pick up trucks. Opened the hood on his new truck and cant see a valve cover, much less anything of importance. His comment was “Back in my day you could rebuild a Ford…

Exactly, so to produce the amount of power required to move the object (in this case a large, heavy, high drag, high frontal area object), an IC engine must produce that much power while only being 20%-30% efficient. Which is why I said fuel numbers will remain the same without a fundamental shift in the power train…

GM has been doing this since ‘07 or so. The early models had some issues with lifter collapse and putting flat spots on the cams. However they’ve had a decade of experience to get the bugs worked out on the 5.3. I’d feel confident that there would be no long term adverse affects.

It takes a certain amount of energy to move a 7,000lb brick down the road at 60MPH. Basic truck design has not yielded a dramatic increase in aero or weight reduction over the past 20 years. The only way fuel efficiency goes up is better efficiency in the power train. Sadly even with cylinder deactivation and 23 speed…

They probably just suck at driving/parking like most people. The larger vehicle just makes it more pronounced. Don’t think its anything inherit to truck drivers, you just notice it more. I own a full sized GMC and a VW GTI. Both fit in my normal parking spot, but in my GTI if i’m a few inches offset to one side its…

You either got stuck on 501 in Conway, or near the 17/Hwy 9 Interchange. Only 3 places to cross the Waccamaw River that splits this county. So every Tourist gets bottle necked.

I’m with pretty much everyone else. I’ve got a 2010 GTI, you need 1,500-2K to get it moving. I’ve also got a 1965 International Harvester with 185HP and a 2 speed rear diff, It just needs to idle to get moving. Seriously, dump the clutch at idle and off you go at 1.5MPH.

You do know there is a skilled labor shortage in SC right now. Wages are on the rise, and demand for skilled employees is huge. So yes, if you work on the line at Volvo and dont like it, Mercedes, BMW, Boeing, Honda, Husquvarana, or many of their subsidiary plants making parts would hire you tomorrow with a competitive…

Attend some classes at a tech-school, even a few basic night classes show your willingness to learn and commitment to your words.

I’ll second what TsunamiWombat said. All of our migrant workers come over with a 6 month visa from Jamaica, Russia, Eastern Europe or a variety of Asian countries. They work seasonal jobs from May-September, then go home.

I’m from a little further up the coast, and we have the same problem here. Plenty of people, no skills. The recession hit us hard from a knowledge base and brain-drain standpoint. We have lots of bodies willing to go to work, but they all need to be trained or re-trained first.

Steel mill in Georgetown only produces wire from existing steel ingots. No sheet metal, no refining, or large steel bits. Just steel wire, so they are not a source for Volvo.

Its that cost of replacement that will drive the theft market. When a brand new tailgate cost $750, no one wants to buy a used one for $300 and they arent worth stealing. When a new tailgate cost $2,500, but a used one is $1,250, some enterprising shady low-life will start stealing them from peoples driveways. I know…

Yep, beats my ‘01 6.0L. And with a tune and a few bolt ons will probably jump to 375HP and 400-ft/lbs of torque.