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VW Emissions Scandal, New Ford Super-Duty | Autoblog Minute

We got our first looks at look at the 2017 Ford F-250 but it?s Volkswagen that has been dominating the news cycle this week, as the emissions scandal over VW clean diesel engines continues. Autoblog Senior editor Greg Migliore reports on the Weekly Recap edition of Autoblog Minute. Ford Volkswagen Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video ford f-250 super duty

EPA upping its game amid Volkswagen probe

In the wake of the Volkswagen emissions-cheating scandal, the Environmental Protection Agency vowed to crack down on the auto industry with renewed vigor. That process has started. Janet McCabe, the agency's assistant administrator, said Tuesday that the EPA has already obtained a range of vehicles for testing purposes and that its enforcement staff is working as quickly as possible to determine whether other automakers are gaming emission results. "That's another detail we'd rather be obscure about, so that we can make sure people don't know what we're doing." For now, she said the agency is focused on diesel vehicles. But the scope of the new examinations could broaden to include gasoline-powered cars. The renewed efforts could include more light-duty vehicles or focus on heavy-duty trucks. The testing procedures could use dynamometers or portable emissions equipment. Right now, pretty much everything is a possibility. "We're going to become unpredictable, we're upping our game and we're going to use the whole range of technology that we have," she said. That technology now includes a heavy-duty truck chassis dynamometer at the EPA's national Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, MI. Officials unveiled the $3 million piece of equipment Tuesday and hailed it as the first of its kind in North America. A Freightliner Super Truck, which boosted its fuel efficiency to 12 miles per gallon with the help of a $40 million federal grant, rolled onto the dynamometer in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday. McCabe said the new dynamometer will allow the EPA to assess the performance of the entire truck – not just its engine – and help engineers test 18-wheel tractor trailers measure, hydrocarbons, greenhouse gases, carbon monoxide and more. In the past, it took about a week for engineers to remove an engine from a truck and prep it for testing. With the new equipment, drivers can open a garage door and drive the rigs straight onto the dynamometer. A wealth of new, real-time data will be helpful as the EPA works with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in planning for the second phase of the government's greenhouse gas emission and fuel-efficiency standards for medium and heavy-duty engines and vehicles – a process now underway. While there's been a crush of attention on Volkswagen's scheming to circumvent emissions test, in the real world, it's these medium and heavy-duty trucks that are the bigger polluters.

Cruze Diesel Road Trip reveals the good and bad, but no ugly

Most of us have strong opinions on diesel-powered cars based on our perceptions of and experience with them. I used to thoroughly dislike oil burners for their noise, smoke and lackluster performance, and the fact that they ran on greasy, smelly stuff that was more expensive than gasoline, could be hard to find and was nasty to get on your hands when refueling. Those negatives, for me, trumped diesel's major positives of big torque for strong acceleration and better fuel economy. Are any of those knocks on diesel still valid today? I'm not talking semis, which continue to annoy me when their operators for some reason almost never shut them down. At any busy truck stop, the air seems always filled with the sound – and sometimes smell – of dozens of big-rig diesels idling endlessly and mindlessly. Or diesel heavy-duty pickups. Those muscular workhorses are far more refined than they once were and burn much less fuel than their gasoline counterparts. But good luck arriving home late at night, or departing early morning, without waking your housemates and neighbors with their clattery racket. No, I'm talking diesel-powered passenger cars, which account for more than half the market in Europe (diesel fuel is cheaper there) yet still barely bump the sales charts in North America. Diesel fuel remains more expensive here, too few stations carry it, and too many Americans remember when diesel cars were noisy, smelly slugs. Also, US emissions requirements make them substantially more expensive to certify, and therefore to buy. But put aside (if you can) higher vehicle purchase and fuel prices, and today's diesel cars can be delightful to drive while delivering much better fuel efficiency than gas-powered versions. So far in the US, all except Chevrolet's compact Cruze Diesel come from German brands, and all are amazingly quiet, visually clean (no smoke) and can be torquey-fun to drive. When a GM Powertrain engineering team set out to modify a tried-and-true GM of Europe turbodiesel four for North American Chevy Cruze compacts, says assistant chief engineer Mike Siegrist, it had a clear target in mind: the Volkswagen Jetta TDI 2.0-liter diesel. And they'll tell you that they beat it in nearly every way. "I believe we have a superior product," he says. "It's powerful, efficient and clean, and it will change perceptions of what a diesel car can be." The 2.0L Cruze turbodiesel pumps out 151 SAE certified horses and 264 pound-feet of torque (at just 2,000 rpm) vs.