In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, writer Jeff Bennett looks at the leading candidates to replace Dan Akerson as CEO when he retires. Unfortunately, between the the writer and his editors, there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how vehicles are actually engineered and built.
In his section on product development chief Mary Barra, he appears to have paraphrased her words without actually knowing what they meant and in the process completely mangled them.
Until recently, many GM vehicles were designed to accommodate the biggest engine available in the model line, even if only 20% of customers ordered it. The result, Ms. Barra says, is that many GM cars and trucks carried "scar mass," or extra weight that undercut fuel economy. Vehicles were loaded with the same-sized engine block no matter how many cylinders were needed. For a four-cylinder, four holes were drilled and the rest was just unused weight.
A journalism degree is far from adequate qualification to practice real journalism. The journalist needs to actually understand the topic they are writing about. They also need to be humble enough to acknowledge when they don't and ask questions until they do.
Bennett is by no means unique in doing this, but this is a great example.
FWIW, Vehicles are engineered to accommodate the largest engine they need which can lead to structures and other components like brakes that are over-engineered for the highest volume variants. A four cylinder engine is not made by only drilling four holes in a V8 block. Different engines have unique blocks. The so-called "scar mass" that Barra referred to is a structure that can support the weight of V8 when 80% of the vehicles built carry a four or six cylinder.
A new Game of Thrones at General Motors
As CEO Dan Akerson prepares to step down, the nation’s largest auto maker has four candidates tackling some of its most vexing problems in a race to see who’s most fit for the job.
So according to this logic, I could just go bore out a couple more cylinders and get more displacement and power, right? Cool!
Le sigh.
+Melina M I've already been spending the morning adding a couple more cylinders to my Mustang
My wife's going to be psyched when she comes home and finds out that her Mini is now an I-8…
+George Jones you're not thinking big enough, man! I'm gonna go get a BRZ and make it a flat 12!
+Melina M I wanted a CTS-V, but couldn't justify the price. Now with my $50 hammer drill from Home Depot I'm set. Cheapest automotive upgrade since the tailpipe whistle…