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Here’s an unlikely bit of news: BMW is being comissioned by Airbus to design the cabin of an upcoming plane.

See the title for the punchline…

Yesterday the nice old lady at the Maytag store grumbled under her breath “They just keep making refrigerators bigger and bigger. They have to to compete because that’s what people look at even if its not usuable space or the thing’s too big to go in their current kitchen. It’s like with cars – my garage hasn’t gotten any wider over the past 30 years but my car sure has!”

(Yes, she really did).

We’ve had the same complaint with cars for some time now – each generation has to be bigger than the last – it makes for an easier sales pitch.

The problem: cars that were perfectly sized for their intended purpose have gotten too big (e.g. BMW 3 and 5 series) and cars that were small and economical are now larger and less economical than they could be given technological advancements (e.g. Honda Civic).

The compact class has recently divided into two, with the Civic and Jetta moving upward to compete with their own big brothers, while the Cobalt and Focus remain more affordable and compact, with less emphasis on technology (The rest of the world gets the 2nd gen. Focus that the Volvo S40 and the Mazda 3 are based upon but Americans don’t. Ford’s rationale: the average small car buyer is more led by price than safety and refinement).

What that does is create a hole in the market, and with today’s structural engineering its now possible to combine small and safe like never before.

The MINI showed the world that buyers who can afford larger cars prefer small if they can get premium features like Xenons, naviation, stability control, leather, and more.

Perhaps its getting a new car for the same price as a used (albeit safer and more refined) one, or maybe it’s the soaring gas prices but it says a lot that Chevrolet is offering the Daewoo engineered and manufactured Aveo. It says even more that car magazine staffers don’t dismiss it).

No matter how ou slice it, it seems obvious Americans are more open to small cars that marketers were originally willing to admit. (They were wrong about hatches and cars like the WRX and EVO too). And here’s the thing: this time when gas prices go down I’m willing to bet we’ll stick with smaller cars.

Seen on MPH’s site:

The electric-assist (as opposed to conventional hydraulic assist) steering feels strangely artificial in operation. It doesn’t feel heavy exactly, as you’d expect a car with big, sticky tires like the 18-inchers on the 430 to, just sort of like it doesn’t really want you to turn it. The electrically activated brakes are touchy, making it hard to stop smoothly. But it’s an impressive handler even if it feels a bit like the car is driving itself—at least it’s a good driver. The GS300, which is powered by an excellent and all-new direct-injection 245-hp V-6, is, oddly, the better driver’s car of the pair. Its steering also uses electric assist, so it should feel as odd as that of the V-8 car’s, but it doesn’t. It feels light and accurate and requires fewer midcorner corrections. The suspension is nonelectrically controlled, and while the V-6 car rolls a little more, it feels more natural—sort of like a car. Lexus also adds an optional all-wheel-drive system to the GS300, turning it into the cleverly named GS300 with AWD. We know what your uncle told you, but he’s lying. You don’t need allwheel drive. The AWD version is also the least fun to drive of the otherwise rear-drive GS lot.

As automakers continue their quest for more power AND more efficiency AND lower emissions, the gasoline engine and the diesel engine are growing closer, adopting tricks from one another.

One thing the gas engine has cribbed is to spray the fuel directly into the combustion chamber at high pressure rather than introducing it to the intake charge (where some of it coated the backside of the intake valve and evaporated).

BMW once broke down the power increase of each component changed when they moved from the M52TU to M54 engine family in 2001, but no one had released how much power and efficiency D.I. gives in and of itself til now because it was bundle with other changes such as turbocharging or a radically different motor.

Rather than forced induction or hot rodding the motor as is the norm, Cadillac’s next CTS will have an optional engine that simply adds direct injection to the existing 3.6L. The resut is an 15% increase in power, an 8% increase in torque and a 25% decrease in hydrocarbon emissions.

Given that everything coming out of GM these days uses the high feature 3.6, I’d expect that sometime down the road the technology will trickle down through the lineup.

Looks like the loud ticking that you hear at idle is here to stay.

When the NSX was introduced it was so boldly innovative it changed sports cars and our expectations of exotics forever. The power to weight ratio came from light weight rather than big horsepower – the compact, mid-mounted V6 and groundbreaking all aluminum construction saw to that. The panoramic driving position was also a revelation – like Hondas of the day the low cowl and large greenhouse gave the driver a cinematic view of the road ahead and the sightlines to place the car within a micrometer of the apex. The light nose and sticky 16 inch wheels allowed the steering to remain unassisted for maximum feel. The car was an object lesson in how things turn out when the engineers are put in charge.

At first glance, the Advanced Sports Car Concept that hints at the next NSX has me wondering if the engineers had much say this time around. It seems as though the marketers demanded higher power and lower price whatever the cost to the car as a whole. With no more aluminum, a front mounted V10, a tiny greenhouse and a slab-sidedness that almost requires larger wheel sizes the Acura makes many of the same archtectural mistakes BMW did with this M5, and as anyone who understand cars can tell you the laws of physics can be bent but not broken.

I have no doubt the car will be a thrilling drive it its own right, but doesn’t the NSX deserve fresher thinking? In fact Audi’s R8 is a closer spiritual successor to the NSX than this!

I’ve been carping for some time now about how Audis are fundementally flawed because their longitudinal drivelines set the engine in front of the front wheels (and the transverse engines send too little power to the rear and have unequal length halfshafts up front).

Audi knew as well as anyone what a handicap this is: the A6 front axle was pulled forward as far as possible while the 2.0T in the A4 is connected to a shofter transmission and sits further back than the 1.8 did. But the next A4 will go a step further: the transmission will be mounted alongside the engine, allowing the motor itself to be pushed further back.

Products like the new TT, the RS4 and the S6 have shown Audi can in fact make silk purses from sow’s ears, but platforms engineered from a clean sheet now that they’ve admitted to their problem should allow them to ‘progress through technology’ at last.

Now is a great time to be an automotive enthusiast – just when you think the engineers have thought of everything or automobiles are becoming soulless something comes along and surprises you in a way you felt when you were a kid.

For me, it was learning that Audi’s R8 will have the option of LED front lighting. We’ve seen LEDs in the rear of Cadillacs etc. for years but this could mean that a generation from now few will know the feeling of a scraped knuckle in the AutoZone parking lot.

Driving the new Altima, I was impressed by Nissan’s acuity in adressing the last one’s issues so ingeniously – the attempts at nulliying torque steer have been effective, meaning you can roast your front tires evenly. But what was most impressive was the CVT transmission – not so much when left to its own devices (its too reminiscent of a powerboat in the way the engine speeds up and the car follows suit) but rather when in its sequential manual mode where shifts are quicker and smoother than even VW’s famed DSG gearbox (I drove one just after to confirm).

First drives of Mitsubishi’s new Lancer with CVT note that shifts are quick and shudder free – could CVTs, programmed with 6 or more ‘fixed’ ratios be the future of the transmission, combining the smoothness of the autos we know with the slack free response and right now shifts we crave?

(*As for the Altima it would be a far better car were its steering not electric* – the ride quality says sports sedan but the steering says nothing at all).