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As a man thinks, so he is. Some people are never. Recent Posts
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CarSpace Alternate RouteTurn off the nav system, crumple up that MapQuest printout, and let's find out where the next random turn may take us! Jul 13, 2008 - Air Force
Seems that back in the day, some in France believed that propeller power was the most efficient way to move a vehicle. Since everything old is new again, I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen someone try to revive this concept, perhaps with a ducted fan design, or maybe a really sporty concept with some kind of jet turbine drive. If you want to read a bit more about the Helicron and see more photos, head on over to conceptcarz.com, one of my favorite places to let my mind wander. Propeller power
Jan 6, 2008 - Blind Faith
BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. (AP) — A Global Positioning System can tell a driver a lot of things — but apparently not when a train is coming. A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him. A train was barreling toward him, but he escaped in time and no one was injured. The driver had turned right, as the system advised, and the car somehow got stuck on the tracks at the crossing. He jumped out and tried to warn the engineer by waving. He got out of the way just before the train slammed into the car at 60 mph, Metro-North railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said Thursday. The car was pushed more than 100 feet during the fiery crash. Some 500 train passengers were stranded for more than two hours during the Wednesday evening rush hour. The accident also heavily damaged 250 feet of rail, Brucker said. The railroad said that the driver was issued a minor summons for obstructing a railroad crossing and that he and his rental company would be liable for the damage, estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are we becoming so totally dependent on gadgets that do things for us that we've forgotten how to do anything for ourselves? How about looking out the window of the car instead of just blindly following some computer voice before you make that turn buddy? Stories like this make an election year a really scary proposition! Can't think for myself
Nov 18, 2007 - Test Your Enthusiasm
There are car nut and then there are car nuts, and if you want to see some of CarSpace's masters of obscure auto information in action, you owe it to yourself to stop into the Mystery Car Pix discussion on the Automotive News & Views forum. What started as a simple challenge to see if enthusiasts could stump each other on the identification of obscure vehicles caught on and almost 14,000 posts later, the group continues to come up with photos and identifications of vehicles that you may have never heard of, but will certainly find interesting and eductaional as well. These guys know their stuff. There have been a lot of different cars out there and some time, some place, someone took a picture of one. Your job... make the identification. Car enthusiasts
Oct 21, 2007 - Destination Moon
While von Braun had nothing to do with introducing the Braun drip coffee maker in 1963, he did mastermind the U.S. space program and in less than 10 years we had landed on the moon. Goes to show you that the executives providing leadership at the top are just as important to the success of a venture as the worker bees at the bottom are. As noted in Micheel Krebs' AutoObserver, Ford recently announced that it had hired Jim Farley, group vice president of Lexus, away from Toyota to be Ford's first global chief marketing and communications officer. Farley's departure is yet another blow to Toyota. In recent months, Chrysler has hired Jim Press, Toyota's top-ranking exec, and Deborah Meyer, head of Lexus marketing. Ford and Chrysler raiding the ranks of Toyota and Toyota suddenly dropping in the Consumer Reports rankings are likely mere coincidence. But the domestic manufacturers recognizing that Toyota must have been doing something right and trying to get the right people in the right spots at the top doesn't seem to be a fluke. It sounds more like a plan.
Keep up on the latest happenings in the auto industry at AutoObserver
Sep 22, 2007 - Boon or Bane?
The story points out that "the average gas mileage of hybrid models available in the U.S. is 33 miles per gallon (combined city and highway). But Chevy's newest Silverado hybrid truck gets only 16 mpg. The newest Lexus LS 600h L hybrid sedan clocks in at 21 mpg, the 2007 Saturn Vue hybrid at 26 mpg." A J.D. Power study cited in the article found that "buyers expected hybrids to gain 18.5 mpg over similar non-hybrid vehicles." As much as hybrid enthusiasts want to ignore the "hybrid premium", the decision to purchase a hybrid for many doesn't come down to whether or not someone wants to "go green", but how much of their green it's going to cost. Many hybrid owners do squeeze astronomical mileage numbers out of their hybrids using hypermiling techniques, but setting those aside, and ignoring those people who drive like maniacs and complain that their hyrbid doesn't perform as advertised, you can sift through the real world mileage discussions on the CarSpace forums and find folks who are simply driving their vehicles to get a feel for the kind of mileage performance you might get in your average daily driving. Average Prius owners, for example, seem to be reporting combined driving mileage numbers of 48-50mpg. Price on the base 2007 Prius is $22,175. Price on my base 2007 Versa that I purchased in February was $13,675, and I'm getting 33mpg in combined driving. That puts me right in the range of that 18.5 mpg difference that buyers expect hybrids to get over similar non-hybrid vehicles. The Prius and Versa would seem to be vehicles of a similar class with regard to form and function. If my past driving habits continue, I'll be driving it about 10,000 miles per year and using roughly 303 gallons of gasoline. Had I purchased a Prius and was getting 50mpg, I could expect to use only 200 gallons over the course of a year, saving me 103 gallons of gas annually. Using $4/gallon gas prices to give me even more incentive to choose a hybrid, that's $412 per year still in my pocket. Price difference between the cars is $8500. You know the math. That's over 20 years to break even. And even the most loyal hybrid advocate doesn't expect that the hybrid battery pack won't have to be replaced in that length of time. Normal maintenance and wear and tear is going to be the same for both, so that's a wash. So other than to feel good about myself or tell people how much smarter I am than they are, where's my incentive to buy? Premium hybrid
Sep 10, 2007 - Got a Gasoline Jones
I'm not a big believer in massive conspiracies. Generally, these theories tend to fall apart once a few facts get tossed into the mix, and that seems to be the case here. I have no doubt that in spots, gas prices get changed to take advantage of circumstances. The station owners say it's just supply and demand, and I'd agree with them as long as we call it anticipated demand. This past weekend, there was a minor college football clash with Notre Dame coming to play here at Penn State. Roughly a gazillion people showed up. Final score: PSU 31 ND 10. Parking lots around the stadium opened at 8AM and kickoff was scheduled for 6PM, so people arrived early and stayed late. Gas prices in the area had been stable at $2.69 for regular. Lo and behold on Thursday evening/Friday morning sometime, prices at the pump jumped to $2.75 as they always seem to do in anticipation of an influx of vehicles, most of which have come a long way and are going to need to fill up to get back home after the game. 15 to 20 miles from the epicenter, there was no price change over the weekend. So, is it gouging, or just what the market will bear? Monkey on my back
Sep 8, 2007 - Tread Lightly
When was the last time you had a flat tire? I've had only two in the 35 years I've been behind the wheel, and the last time was 16 years ago. Fortunately for me, Dad was very good about making sure I knew everything I could about the vehicle I was going to be driving, and changing tires was pretty much lesson number one. My first exposure was very much like Ralphie Parker's in A Christmas Story, holding the hubcap so the lug nuts wouldn't get lost. And while I never got the Lifebuoy treatment for uttering the queen-mother of dirty words, I managed to get the hubcap knocked out of my hands on more than one occasion while trying to keep those lug nuts readily available for Dad. I've always attributed my flat tire-less streak to improved tire technology, but my buddies at Tire Town keep a collection of items that wind up skewering tires that makes me think I've just been very lucky. The picture shows an assortment of tire killers that they've collected over the last few weeks. Run-of-the-mill nails and screws are to be expected, but the range of unusual items might surprise you. Among the items pictured on the desk are a railroad spike, piece of a razor blade, a random chunk of wood, small piece of bone, a clevis pin from a brake system, and a chunk of a PT Cruiser that penetrated the sidewall of a tire. Apparently there are many more road hazards out there besides pot holes and left lane campers. So be careful. It's a minefield out there! Changing flat tires
Sep 7, 2007 - Virginia is for Bug-ers
I'm not sure that this will solve some of VW's percieved problems like reliability or lack of concern for the customer. And if the recent series of postings in the Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible discussion is any indication, VW has a fairly steep hill to climb. Un-pimp my auto?
Aug 31, 2007 - Setting the Pace?
An online survey of nearly 2,500 car enthusiasts voted the AMC Pacer as the most ill-conceived vehicle in automotive history. I don't know how many of you ever had any actual time in a Pacer, but I have. My wife had a bright orange one as a company car for almost a year. If you liked visibility, this was the car for you. I know it was a bit polarizing and people either loved it or hated it, but worst of all time? Oh, Canada! Perhaps you should make a trek south across the Peace Bridge to thaw out a bit. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen... I knew the Chevy Vega. The Chevy Vega was in my driveway. And the Pacer was no Chevy Vega And would mentioning the Aztek be piling on?
Aug 30, 2007 - Cruising Attitude
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