You Guys Ever Wonder if the OEMs Ever Read this Forum?
 

I know there a lot of us hobbyist on here who read the forum and contribute daily, but there is a lot of GOLD on this forum in the wealth of knowledge in just about every area of vehicles. I bet you when Engineers who work for the OEMs think of new cost-effective ideas to pitch on their projects at work... well it makes me wonder if they ever pull up any of our articles and read through them and take notes. I know I joined this forum in 7th grade and now I'm a Junior in college for mechanical engineering and hope to work for an OEM or Aerospace company one day.

I think they care more about the opinions of below average focus groups.

I hope they read my 125cc motorcycle thread...

They probably have access to studies and such that give them more useful information than what is available to the public and posted on here. As far as design advice to see how far they can take aerodynamics without affecting appearance too much, they probably do what oil pan said.

Just remember the number of cup holders is more important than fuel economy the vast majority of new car buyers.
They know this.

I guess I didn't mean hard numbers, but its easy to scroll through here and jot down ideas for things to try given the results people have had here to bring back to the drawing board. There is a ton of neat little tiny efficiency mods I've seen people do on here that I'm just now starting to see oem's implement now. But yeah it seems like efficiency doesn't sell quite yet. lol

Where're my plasma actuators? :mad:

The big problem I see is the vBulletin software. The whole site is so clunky. Why can't I sort my albums?

Someone with adequate resources could scrape the site (kind of like Cambridge Analytica did to Facebook) and then strip out the pagination, headers and footers and isolate that content of a complete thread.

Then something like Google Tensorflow could be trained on the corpus to prune all the blind allies alleys and bullet-point the back and forth discussions.

edit:
It occurs to me that the site owners could expose a API hook to the underlying data, before it gets 'decorated'. This should update the Ecomodder Wiki automagically.

We have several users signed up with email addresses from major OEMs. They do read here. How much? I have no clue.

When GM started to fit the Duramax 2.8 in the Express van, this was one of the first things that came across my mind.

The guys responsible for actual design and engineering might read, but I doubt the suits do, and likely would shoot down most things inspired by reading here. More likely, they focus their time on make- or model-dedicated forums, if any at all.

I wouldn't doubt that. Eventually they might try to look at some way to make some backyard-engineering sound more sophisticated in order to increase the price of a penalty box around $200 for just a few pieces of plastic :D

Well, Honda certainly took care of that in the Fit. TEN cupholders! :D

Ten? That's also how you know it's not a German car :D

Better than my 90s civic that could only hold two medium drinks for four people lol

I had one of those before this. I think you're being generous using the word "hold". Those bins were amazing for spilling drinks.

Yes, TEN. Two below the radio, two at the back of the center console, two in the front doors, two in the rear doors, and two up in the dashboard. Those are amazing, every car should have them.

If they did, it SURE WOULD BE NICE if American Honda would BRING THE S660 TO THE USA.

HINT HINT.

On that note, why not a slate of kei cars? I don't think they'd sell (or pass safety, blah. I could rant about safety regs), but it would be nice to have the option.

Honestly Honda Toyota and Nissan have talked about bringing back Kei cars in the form of slower but fun two doors but nobody has had the balls to actually sell them here. lol

Some "specialized" versions such as 4WD mini SUVs, those microvans or the mid-engines sportscars could get an actual demand to justify their introduction to the U.S., and eventually other engines can be used to remain EPA-compliant, but I doubt the NHTSA would provide a waiver to allow them to circumvent crash standards. Well, I guess some folks there in the U.S. would actually enjoy something similar to the JDM Pajero Mini.

Considering the sales trends in the auto industry, we are lucky that anything gets produced other than a full-sized pickup, or SUV/crossover.

People are buying those like hotckes and cars of any description sit on the lots.

Further, pickups, SUVs, and crossovers (over $40,000) are more profitable than $27,000 econoboxes.

With the lack of traditional station-wagons, and tax incentives to buy an oversized truck or SUV, it's quite obvious that both manufacturers and most of the customers would feel good about it.