It’s the holiday season, which means numerous vehicles putzing around shopping-mall parking lots will undoubtedly boast a goofy, yet popular trend: reindeer antlers and a bright red nose strapped to the grille.
Unsurprisingly, the fun decorations don’t do any favors for fuel economy or aerodynamics. General Motors engineers strapped typical Christmas and other holiday decorations to a 2018 GMC Terrain to see their effects in the wind tunnel. With the fake antlers and Rudolph’s nose, fuel economy dropped by 1 mpg on the highway and caused a 3 percent increase in the Terrain’s drag coefficient.
Those are the most common vehicle decorations we’ve seen, but GM engineers went further. They also tacked on a roof-mounted bow, which decreased fuel economy by 3.5 mpg on the highway and increased drag by 15 percent. For those bringing home a live Christmas tree strapping it onto the roof will reduce fuel economy by 30 percent on the highway and increase the car’s drag by around 70 percent.
Finally, engineers looked at a wreath laid around the vehicle’s grille. While it didn’t have an impact on aerodynamics, the team found it could hurt cooling systems in the engine.
“It might be best to let Rudolph lead Santa’s sleigh instead of your ride this holiday season,” said Joel Ruschman, GM aero performance engineer.
Holiday cheer is good. Fake reindeer antlers are not so good.
Comments
#What an utterly dumb article. Must be hard up for news these days. Clickbait crap.
No kidding sticking anything on your car disturbs the aerodynamics. A second grader knows this.
I am going to go out and stick so much crap on my car now that I have read this crap article.
#$
Read more: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/12/gm-engineers-find-fake-reindeer-garb-on-vehicles-reduces-fuel-economy-and-efficiency/#ixzz51MOFZkq3
Might want to brush up on the definition of “clickbait”. You’re clearly misusing it in this case, as this is anything but.
And if a “second grader knows this”, then why do people do it in the first place? Perhaps not everyone is as intelligent as you are.
Although I have never seen those antlers , I have seen a ” few ” with wreaths on the grill and it is usually a vehicle with kids inside . “Tis the Season !
I would bet that if Santa were to pull his sleigh around with the Terrain he would see a drop in his MPG too .
And if it’s AWD and that sleigh weighs 3500lbs. his highway mileage will suffer a 2-3 mpg drop .
” And to all a Good Night ” .
After spending months and some cases years working on a design. The styling staff must cringe to see what some people do to their designs.
We have too many antlers here and way too many eyelashes on Souls.
I half expected Captain Obvious to step out here. WTF people! You are wasting time on money on nonsense like this when there is product to get to market? Unreal.
Who said that any resources were diverted or the development of any new product was slowed to come to the findings referenced in the story?
Off topic……… But to address the things people do to make designers cringe , In the mall parking lot last night I seen a Cadillac CT6 with a fake vinyl top , it was a Red Metallic car w/ a tan top !
I think I threw up a little ………………………………… NO $HIT . 😉
Yeah. I’ve seen these too. It’s a shame.
You know what else is energy inefficient? Christmas lights. You know what’s economically inefficient? Any gift not made in cash. So go ahead and put your f*cking fake reindeer antlers on your car. I know I will!