Quote:
Originally posted by oab_au
Yes mate and the super high diff ratio. Nissan did this too with the Z cars, 3.7:1 everywhere, 3.545:1 when they were sent over there. Don't know why.
Harvey.
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sorry for the continuing highjack...
probably because of the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) law, wherein a company in penalized by added vehicle tax if their whole (averaged) fleet doesn't meet some arbitrary value. It's one reason Subaru is trying to get some vehicles reclassified from car to truck (In addition to fuel economy standards, a truck label also allows lower safety standards, which doesn't necessarily mean lower safety, but less testing to Government standards). I suspect that some emissions testing had also been accomplished with certain common driveline components. The use of the older 4EAT design for the NA market could well be due to this factor. Government testing, as you might imagine, is a long drawn out affair requiring many hours of lab certified tests. I'm not sure how much of a driveline change is allowed before a retest must occur, but I suspect it isn't much. The common drivetrain of many US automakers isn't just for fewer parts - although that saves a bit in logistics too.