Nice read !

 

The Ecotec that was introduced to the North American market 8 years ago and continues today was actually a combined effort of Opel, GM Powertrain in Pontiac, MI, Saab, and Lotus. The previous Opel engines were the Family 0/1 architecture and don't share anything with the modern Ecotecs.

The E-TEC is manufactured by Holden in Australia for GM Daewoo and GM India.

 

Thanks for the correction! However The Chevy Orlando that is slated for 2011 is not much different than mini-vans already made by opel and daewoo. American GM seem to be a bit behind their international companies.

 

Did anyone see that elect concept car that pushs 900+ tq and runs 0-60 in 5.8 secs?
Guess what keeps the batteries charged?
If you guessed the 2.0 turbo Eco you are correct....if you didn't see it,you need to!
Fiska Karma- 408 HP 100 mpg and a 500 mile range.

 

minor correction, it's the Fisker Karma.

 

There's a reason for that. Safety standards are completely different in the USA and require testing to ensure that unbelted occupants will be protected. Existing european and asian standards only require that belted occupants be protected in a collision.

 

Out of curiosity, how can standard apply when we have airbags that will kill elderly folks or kids if they are unbelted? (My dad died when the airbag detonated in a very low speed (minimal vehicle damage) crash in his Ford Ranger Pickup) because he was not wearing a belt and slipped forward against the steering wheel.

 

I am sorry to hear your father was killed in an accident involving an airbag deployment.

Airbags are a supplementary restraint, they are not designed to take the place of seat belts. they cant offer any protection to an unbelted occupant. The structure of the vehicle itself needs to be designed in order to absorb motion of unrestrained persons.

I used to be a firefighter,I also have testified in court on multiple occasions as a Vertronix SRS data access tech, I have never seen or heard of an actual instance where the airbag itself caused fatal injuries to a passenger. The injuries are in my experiences caused by the hard surfaces of the vehicle.

Many people complain of burns from airbags.....usually on the face, they arent burns, but actually a reaction to the chemicals used to "lubricate" and and keep the bags from being eaten by pests. Most broken noses from airbags are caused by the persons arm striking them in face because it was over the airbag, or striking the wheel or dash because they were too close or unbelted.

Airbags are a touchy situation, they do help but they get a horribly bad rap, and they are expensive and heavy to add to a vehicle, but ever since the 80s or so when Mercedes made them standard(GM actually debuted them in the early 70's in Olds and Caddy) it pretty much became a customer demanded technology. A company cant just stop putting them in now because they would become a pariah for not caring about the customer.

 

Perhaps i should have been more clear, I didnt do statistics or go over every reported airbag injury or anything, i was the guy that was sometimes called on to retrieve data from the SDM followinf a crash(usually only if there were multiple cars or numerosu crashes in a day and the State Polices software wouldnt be available in a reasonable amount of time) I never retrieved data or attended any case involving vehicle made before 2000. I no longer participate in any official proceedings regarding airbag deployments, but being the kind of person i am and also still being a tech i would be very interested to read any information you may have links or access to regarding serious airbag injuries. The last numbers I had access to listed ~260 airbag related deaths since 1990. Of those, nearly 95% are in vehicles made in 1998 or earlier(1st gen bags) like any statistic that can be twiste around, i know, for instance you could say obviously there were more injuries in older cars because they travelled more miles, or anything you like. However the data that I know of remains that in a modern multistage system, people with belts on, even the eldery or properly sized children in the front seat arent recieving anything more than minor bruises or abrasions from the actual deployment itself.(unfortunately something like 80% of all airbag injuries and deaths are to unrestrained children or infants in rear facing seat improperly located in the front seat near an airbag.

 

Most broken noses from airbags are caused by the persons arm striking them in face because it was over the airbag, or striking the wheel or dash because they were too close or unbelted.

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what does this mean about "they were too close" ? i got kinda short legs. does this mean i could be "to close" ? or be injured or killed just be cause i have short legs? just curious.