GM’s 4 wheel steering, AKA Quadrasteer, was a technological success and marketing blunder. I think GM made Quadrasteer from 2002-2005, but they wrapped the option in an expensive group. Dealers were reluctant to order them to have them collect dust in their parking lots, and prospective buyers were reluctant to buy them due to not being able to test-drive one and due to the $5000 option, and the unknown of reliablity. GM realized their marketing error and broke the Quadrasteer option out for around $2k, but by then it was too late. Keep in mind at that time, GM was having troubles “finding their way”, and the cool stuff quickly went away. I still have a 2003 Sierra Denali Quadrasteer in the fleet. It is a great driving truck, very maneuverable in tight spaces, but the highway towing is really where it shines. It is very stable. I kept hoping GM would bring it back, and put it behind a diesel, but no-go. So I upgraded anyway to an ‘18 Sierra Denali 2500HD diesel, and now I have to plan on parking out father in the parking lots and I had to get used to the turning radius similar to that of an aircraft carrier.
Having spent a lifetime turning wrenches starting in the 70's, and running my own shop until 2016, I was constantly amazed by the changing technology . Most of my frame of reference is from repairing V.W's Audi's and Mercedes etc. The following is a vast oversimplification, but covers the main principles. Carbs evolved into mechanical fuel injection using a sensor plate that pushed up a pin in a fuel distributor etc. Worked great and have seen these systems go for 400,000 km +. Next Air flow meters showed up in the late 80's. Brilliant! A flap in the intake air with a rheostat opens depending on how much air the engine sucks in and the computer tells the "electronic" injectors how much to inject. I thought Can't top that. Wrong. In the 90's Air mass sensors were born. Heat a wire white hot to a known baseline temp in the air intake, and the computer can see how much current is required to keep it at that temp and calculate engine load. Now, there isn't even an intake manifold with direct injection. and on and on we go. Just when I thought we had wrung the last drop of energy ont of gasoline, variable compression shows up. Progress will never stop. Until we are forced to all go Electric or Hydrogen or whatever to save some air for us. Hopefully, our stinky cars won't be legislated off the road in our lifetime.
...yes, no, very much an advantage, and no, unless you live in salt, which makes everything unreliable, latest fix was fuel lines, next is grounds... ...GM marketing killed Quadrasteer out of chute. Demo to press and commercials only for trailer towing. Prospective tow customers had simple cost choice, Quadra or diesel, duh. Shoulda done a mom winning spot in a Walmart parking lot. Maneuverability is its forte. Turning radius of a Saturn coupe, love watching cars in rearview following my U-turn and having to do a 3-point. And towing is whole new experience, low-speed maneuvering, and when Quadra goes into parallel steer on road, effortless lane-changing...
I could not possibly agree more. Bill Maher nailed it a couple of years ago when he called gasohol a "scam".
Not a fan of making a complex piece of machinery more complex. I'll drive my old cars and get my 13-14 mpg, have a cool factor but never need a tow truck or the dealership to diagnose an issue. I'm going back to the 60's; see ya... 1. Alky is pointless in a gas engine and gas is useless in an alky engine and mixing the two is even a worse idea. That said however... 2. "It is net loss fuel- requires more energy in the process to make it than it generates." That is a lie from the 60's that never dies. Alky is more economically feasable to produce than gasoline by far. 3. Alky makes more power and delivers better fuel mileage in engines over 3 liters designed to run on alky than gasoline. (proven by MIT, RIT, Cornell and a few other engineering schools until it was all shut down by ???). Do some research. 4. Distilling alky from a food source is not an issue. Take a ride through the Midwest after harvest and look at the thousands and thousands of huge piles of corn/soybeans (the size of small stadiums) waiting to go to market that will never get there and rot where it sits because President Wilson got in bed with the truckers union and dismantled the rail systems. We grow way more food than we or the rest of the world can eat but we can't move it. 5. The University of Florida developed a grass that produced more alky per acre per year than any other source to distill from and then it was shut down. (by who?) 6. Stop whining about farmers subsidies until you work from sunup till sundown 7 days a week running your farm. 7. Alky is far, far more environmentally friendly than petroleum as far as vehicle emissions and spills. 8. Alky dragster/race cars are much faster than petroleum powered cars. Why? Duh you can run much higher compression ratios and not have pre-ignition or detonate. 9. Alky as a fuel leaves no hydrocarbons in your lubricating oil so oil changes can be spaced out much further, just change the filter add a quart and move on. 10. Energy companies will never release their stranglehold on the world until we force alternative fuels. Mikey
