Who has really good engine management?

[straight5]

I'm curious what tricks car manufacturers use in their engine management, and who makes the best / most advanced.
I drive a Saab 9-5. Although the car is 16 years old, I'm really impressed with the Trionic engine management.

It is a 2.3l turbo, 5 speed manual. Drag coefficient is 0.29. CURB WEIGHT 3360 lbs.
With no modifications, & 190+k miles on the clock, it is averaging 34.1mpg. EPA 18/27 mpg. My commute is 28 miles each way.
(Once did 702 miles on one tank of fuel)
my Saab (Saab 9-5) | Fuelly

......9-5
From Eeuroparts tech corner:
"Trionic does things fundamentally differently. In combination with a critical component called a Direct Ignition Cassette, the computer is able to very precisely control everything that is going on with each individual cylinder and spark plug. The critical difference from a knock sensor is the system’s ability to detect the ionization in each cylinder and relay that info back to the computer individually.
To do this, the computer uses the DIC to send a signal between the spark plug electrodes to measure the electrical resistance of the air in between. Depending on how well the flame envelope is burned, and what is left over after the main combustion, the computer can deduce a lot. "
Tech Corner: SAAB Trionic and Ionization Sensing - eEuroparts.com Blog

Considering the age of my car, I figure there are better, more advanced systems in today's cars, at least until I hear someone talking about needing to replace knock sensors or cam sensors, and then I wonder

[ChillyBear]

If you want REALLY good management, go custom. Granted you are talking 100+ hours of tuning and heartache. The computer is tuned for emission, then reliability and horsepower. I'm not trolling.

If you don't care about smog and acid rain, you can probably do 50mpg without aeromods. Granted it's illegal and won't pass an e-check unless you go the route that pretty much every auto maker has. Google cycle beating.

I'm not gonna ramble about EPA conspiracies lol. 14.7 afr's are for the environmentt. Many cars car run VERY lean without getting carbon problem. volkswagen hid their secrets, Honda actually came close to having it perfect PUBLICALLY then the EPA shut that down, ford did it secretly (in a way similar to the civic, only without variable cam timing etc).

I'm not gonna get started on the TDI's. The EPA is on their way to fining them 18+ BILLION dollars.

If you have lots of money, small aircraft computers are really nice for an ultimate MPG tuner.

Long story short, unless it has direct injection, computers before around 1993 were the best. But they often only did cool stuff mpg wise when the car was in a scenario that wouldn't show up during the pre determined epa test cycle. Ie over a certain throttle percentage or OVER 55mph etc. But when ford did that in the 1.9l, 4.9l, and 8.4l, they got a 30 million dollar slap on the wrist. What they are doing to VW is not justice.


If you want gas mileage on an obd2 car, pay a dyno tuner who has a little rebellion in their blood. Just my .02