AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

3.5 Reasons Why GM is in Trouble
Toyotas Leading Engine is Best and Cheapest to Make

Automobile.com posted an article about how Toyota has used innovative manufacturing techniques to half the manufacturing costs of their advanced 3.5 liter V-6 engine. The cost of this MADE-IN-THE-USA 3.5 liter engine is $1000 per engine according to the article, half of the previous costs. Although the engine is cheap to build, it provides excellent power and fuel economy. In the full-sized Avalon, the engine provides 280 horsepower, yet the car gets 31 mpg highway. The 268 horsepower version in the Rav4 moves the SUV to 0-60 in 6.8 seconds, better than some muscle cars, yet produced tested overall fuel economy of 22 mpg in a Consumer Reports test, only 1 mpg less than the four-cylinder version, and comparable to many mainstream passenger cars.

Toyota then produces this engine in quantity and the engine provides a competitive advantage for the Avalon. Camry and Rav4. I suspect that the engine will find its way into the Highlander, Solara and Sienna soon.

Several years ago GM split its V-6 engines into two lines. Value engines and feature engines. The value engines are descendants of GM's old V-6 engines and are based on a overhead valve or "cam in block" design. The feature engines are dual overhead cam (like the Toyota engine) and are generally modern, but available only on higher priced models. Still, the "feature" GM 3.6-liter V-6 makes less power than the mass-market version of the Toyota 3.5.

GM moved production of much of its value V-6 line to China because of high manufacturing costs in the United States. It is ironic that Toyota is building better engines for less cost in the United States. Trevor Hofmann, the author of the automobile.com article elaborates on GM's failure to compete in the V-6 technology arena:

Putting this into context, Toyota has not only managed to halve the cost of its most popular six-cylinder engine, but the very fact this same engine is used in so many vehicles will, through economies of scale, increase Toyotas profitability overall. Compare this to rival General Motors, the worlds largest automaker and one that looks as if it will soon be passed by the Japanese giant for overall global sales, which makes so many engines V6 engines that its difficult to keep track of them all. A lesson could be learned, with the General producing a variety of antiquated overhead-valve engines with only 3-valves per cylinder, measuring 3.4-, 3.5-, 3.8- and 3.9-liters in displacement, plus a supercharged 3.8-liter version in its Pontiac Grand Prix. Only Cadillacs 3.6-liter V6 boasts four-valve per cylinder and dual overhead cam technology, an engine also found in Buicks top-line LaCrosse. To complicate things even further, it could be argued that GMs most sophisticated V6 is the 3.5-liter mill found in the top-line Saturn VUE, but the fact that its nothing less than Hondas superb Accord V6 is no doubt embarrassing to the Detroit-based automakers execs.

The question that General Motors should be asking itself is, why make a total of six V6 engines and borrow another from Honda, adding complexity and resultant cost to the automakers bottom line, when the only truly competitive GM V6 to Toyotas 3.5, or for that matter Hondas 3.5-, Nissans 3.5-, Hyundais 3.3- and 3.8-, or Fords all-new 3.5-liter V6, is the 3.6-liter unit only available in the Cadillac CTS, SRX and STS, plus the LaCrosse? Wouldn't it be simpler, more efficient and therefore potentially cheaper to make one extremely good V6 engine, rather than five that dont really measure up to the competition?