On trends in automotive marketing

Years back, when I first hired on with a company, I was in a position of digging around through retired equipment to find a viable company scooter to facilitate my work. Deep in the ubiquitous pile of trucks gleamed my diamond, a GMC 2500 with a utility bed. The truck had around 10 years and 200K miles on it, but it was straight and ran pretty good. So I moved in.

Specifications were simple. It had 4.11 gears, positrac, heavy springs and an AM/FM radio. This particular truck was also in a group the company bought that had the now infamous 1^st generation 6.2 liter diesel.

This engine was developed after the fairly catastrophic 5.7 liter Oldsmo-diesel from the late 70’s. The Olds engine of the era was tough in auto applications, but wasn’t a good basis for a diesel engine and was plagued with durability issues.

The 6.2 on the other hand seemed to start where the 5.7 left off, and was actually a pretty good engine except for a few issues with injector pumps and glow plugs. The one in my gleaming jewel was a little tired, but it still started easily and made enough power to keep the truck at highway speed on hills. It offered something else though – economy.

How economical you ask? In spite of the lack of overdrive and the high gear ratio (engine buzzed fast on the highway), I could consistently get 20-22 MPG on open-road--and this in a truck that weighed about 7000 lbs. with tooling on it.

Jump now to the diesel horsepower wars of the 2000’s. We developed and still have diesel engines in pickup trucks that produce more power and torque than the average over-the-road tractor from the early 1970’s.

I have little interest in trying to pull a 25,000 lb. trailer with a pickup truck for many reasons, though I understand the livestock or equine hobbyist or small business may have need. But really, how many times have we all rolled up to a stoplight only to be joined by an 8’ tall  4X4 pickup with 430 clattering horsepower and maybe a bag of groceries in back. Is this prudent use of technology?

There is no free ride. An engine can’t make power without burning fuel; the more power you make, the more fuel you burn. The little 6.2 diesel in that old GMC was rated at maybe 150 HP, but it pulled the old truck around fine.

So what need drives the monster power figures that today’s engines are producing? Even in gasoline powered equipment it is now pretty easy to go buy a ½ ton pickup that would blow the doors off an old Camaro. So is it purely ego that makes us want this power, or are we being told we need it and so we’ve swallowed it hook, line and sinker?