No, but seriously

The right oil for the right job.

2009-06-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

Time for a quick refresher: in multigrade oils, there are two viscosity ratings. For example 5W40 indicates an oil which is thinner when cold and thicker when hot. The "W" indicates "winter" - more typically "cold". So 5W is an oil which has a viscosity value of 5 when cold. The other number is the viscosity when hot. In this example, a viscosity value of 40. So why use a multigrade oil? Well when the engine is cold, you want the oil to flow as quickly as possible to all the engine parts, and also not to impede the power of the starter motor in turning the engine over. But if the engine oil stays thin when it gets hot, then it does no good because it runs too quickly, and doesn't stick to any moving parts. Hence multigrade oil that thickens up with temperature.
So which oil should you use? Suffice to say that a 5W oil isn't going to give you much benefit if you live in Singapore in the same way that a 20W oil won't do you any good if you live in northern Alaska. Here's your rough guide:

5W-30 Cooler climates, like Sweden or Canada
10W-40 Temperate climates, like England, northern Europe, New Zealand
15W-50 Hot climates, like Italy, Spain, Egypt, Australia

The 2009 Mercedes C Class

2009-06-22T02:48:00.002-06:00

Another business trip, another car rental. This time the glitch in my corporate account means that I'm paying for a Ford Focus but driving a 2009 Mercedes C Class with only 15 miles on the clock.
Initial impressions? Very nice. It drives pretty well for such a large car. It's an automatic, which means it has a "C" and "S" mode, "S" mode simply meaning - "the mode with most of the electronic shackles removed". It took me a while to find the 12v accessory socket though. I found one in the glovebox, but the small cubby hole at the front of the dash is so well disguised I didn't find it until this morning.
One thing that's a little bizarre is Mercedes choice of stalk controls behind the steering wheel - there's only one. It does headlights, washer/wiper and indicators all on one stalk. My daily driver is Japanese so I'm used to controls split across two stalks, so driving the Mercedes from the airport yesterday, I spent a lot of time flashing the cars in front and randomly indicating left whilst trying to use the windscreen wipers. The location of this giant multi-control stalk is also a bit Ford-like in that it's very low down. If the car was a manual, I'd no doubt have snapped it off by now because it just about touches my left knee even with the adjustable steering column in the highest position.
Otherwise it seems Mercedes have come out of their early 2000's funk when they were building just awful cars, and it looks like they're trying to regain their status as a luxury marque. It's quiet and comfortable, and there's definitely something unique about driving with a visible emblem in front of you - in this case the Mercedes star that protrudes from the front of the hood.
Would I buy a C-Class Mercedes (or any Merc for that matter)? Still probably not. Not only because of the cost, but it's just too much luxury and too many nanny items for me. It doesn't feel like driving a car any more - as the driver I feel too far removed from the process in it.

F1, FIA or FOTA?

2009-06-19T07:50:00.002-06:00

It seems that Max Mosley and the FIA are absolutely determined to destroy Formula 1 motor racing as we know it. For years they've been adding regulation on top of regulation trying to hobble the cars and drivers. Frankly I'm surprised the Grand Prix events don't just have drivers pushing their cars around the circuits now. And so, of course, with the 2010 season, Mosley wanted to introduce yet another ridiculous restriction - this time a cap on the R&D budgets of the teams. Apparently he doesn't understand that cutting-edge motorsports development costs quite a bit of money. Only this time the teams have fought back and today they announced a breakaway series - FOTA - backed by Ferrai, Brawn GP, McLaren, Renault, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso.

So where does this leave us - the fans? Well the TV rights will go to hell - all the existing contracts are very long term, and are with F1 and FIA. The same goes for the circuit contracts. So if the FOTA goes ahead with this, we'll be left with scant TV coverage of their events next year, and they'll likely be racing at backwater circuits nobody has ever heard of. In place, we'll have a neutered F1 series with no-name teams, no-name drivers and no-name sponsors racing at empty circuits with no spectators. Genius decision guys - thanks for that.

Why can't the FIA just fire Mosely? That idiot has been nothing but trouble for motor sports with his meddling.

My biggest concern with all of this is that the breakaway FOTA will probably be no better off without the FIA. I doubt they have the stones to re-introduce small wings, V8 and V10 engines, turbochargers and driver aids - in fact all the stuff Mosley has removed over the past decade. Mosley and the FIA keep insisting that their changes make the sport better, when in fact it becomes duller and duller to watch because you essentially have a sport which has been dumbed down to the level of Indy Car - a sport where a procession of cars turn left for 200 miles and then they all finish in the exact same order they started.

Speaking of Indy - Mosley, the FIA and for that matter the breakway FOTA could do well to open the history books and look what happened when the IRL split from CART back in the day. As in nature, when two competing species try to occupy the same niche, one will always die out. In that case it was CART that vanished, and the resulting IRL was weak in comparison, and has never regained the popularity, sponsorship or attendance that CART did. If the same happens in Formula 1, it will become just another motorsports event that nobody cares about.

Conglatulations on your new Hummel.

2009-06-11T15:29:00.000-06:00

It's a racist stereotype I know, but I couldn't resist. The fact of the matter is that the ailing GM have now sold the Hummer brand to Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery in China. Quite what this means for the company I'm not sure. I know the Chinese will probably be delighted at the acquisition but what about GM and its employees? Will the existing plants be kept open, or will they be culled in favour of building the ubiquitous gas guzzler in the Orient instead? Can the new owners make a more fuel-economic version? How about stripping out the petrol engine and stuffing in a nice turbodiesel instead?
I'm in two minds about this latest in the saga of a death of a thousand cuts. On the one hand, the Hummer always has been, and will likely continue to be a ridiculous vehicle for private ownership and use. It should have died years ago. But on the other hand, that does put a lot of people's jobs at risk. The sensible company would find a way to adjust and re-task, and Tengzhong Machinery might just do that. But what if they don't? What if all the workers are laid off? Who do you blame? It's easy to sit behind a keyboard and answer that question: GM's arrogant management. They continued to build terrible vehicles with terrible gas mileage that people didn't really want, believing that was the correct way to steer the company.
But that will be of little solace to the Hummer employees if they end up on the job line. Sadly - if that happens - GM's bosses high in their ivory towers probably won't even be able to hear the angry mob below, through the triple-glazed windows whilst leaving from the rooftop helipad with their briefcases stuffed with billions.

The wheel on the rental car goes ....

2009-06-06T14:41:00.000-06:00

Pop. Well more of a hiss than a pop. The car we rented whilst in England recently had a slow puncture in one of the tyres. Avis were excellent - I called them and explained that it wasn't worth a breakdown call because I could get back to the airport for an exchange. The girl assured me there would be a car for me when I got there, so we bumbled back up to Gatwick. Sure enough they knew I was coming and had a replacement car ready to go. The slight sting in the tail? Because I didn't do fully comprehensive insurance with them, I had to pay a flat (pun intended) £89 fee for the replacement tyre. In retrospect though, their fully comprehensive insurance only brings the deductible down from £800 to £100 so it wouldn't have covered the tyre cost - I would still have had to pay. No biggie - it was an expense we could do without, but Avis dealt with it courteously and promptly. That's a lot more than can be said for some of the issues I've had with Hertz at Gatwick in the past.
+1 to Avis.

I'm an impatient driver...

2009-05-30T14:20:00.002-06:00

...but for the sake of 2 seconds, even I couldn't care. Apparently A10AOW did care though. As I was reversing out of a parking space this morning, this guy came barreling down the parking lot towards me. I was blocking the way - because I was backing out - and as I turned to straighten up, he cut me off, squeezing between me and the parked row of cars I'd just come from. I honked him and gave him the internationally-recongised sign for "you're number 1" and drove off, chalking it up to the day-to-day inability of Utahns to be able to drive. The bespectacled, moustachio'd man in his red saloon did a quick three-point turn and raced up behind me, then tailed me out to the next set of traffic lights where he got out and leaned in through the passenger window of my car. "Swear at me again and I'll fucking bust your fucking head in!" he spat, whilst reaching in to the car but not being able to get quite all the way to me.

Wow. Not only was he impatient, but apparently my one-fingered salute actually spoke to him. Not only spoke, but swore at him.Must get on the phone to the Guinness book of records - apparently my left middle finger can speak.

Oh - and if that was you, I gave all your details to the police and the guy in the black truck next to us gave a witness statement. You're being charged with assault.

Have a nice day :-)

Driving with like-minded people

2009-05-20T15:27:00.000-06:00

I recently spent 5 days back in my childhood country of Holland, driving all over the place in a rented Hyundai. It was a joy to be on roads with like-minded drivers. For the most part, they all obeyed the road signs, almost always used their indicators, waved people in to gaps, acknowledged such gestures, and drove like pros. Especially compared to the UK and my current home drivers in Utah. It was just so pleasurable to be surrounded by drivers who weren't texting, weren't talking on cellphones and who were so in tune with actually driving a vehicle on the road, that the whole traffic stream just works like a finely choreographed ballet.
Now that's not to say they're perfect - I saw the odd idiot move - but it was 90/10 between good drivers and bad, as opposed to 5/95 which is the split back in Utah.
And the less said about the UK drivers, the better.
The odd thing is, and not being a trained expert, bribed official or trained consultant I could be wrong on this - the driving in Holland is commensurate with their driver education which is long, comprehensive and strict. The driving in Utah is similarly commensurate, with their driver training being essentially that you know what a car is. Could it be, and perish the thoughts, that better driver training results in better drivers?

Driving on the wrong side of the road.

2009-05-15T08:09:00.001-06:00

You might think from the title of this entry that it's going to be about driving in England, but it's not. This morning on the way to work I encountered a car driving the wrong way up a divided highway. Being the abrasive person I am, I stopped him and challenged him. His excuse was that he "just needed to get in to the back entrance to the post office". Rather than go to the end of the road and do a legal U-turn, he'd crossed the centre divider and started driving up the wrong side of the road because it presented a shorter route to him. One long, heated argument later, and I got the police involved - more because he was trying to call my bluff than anything. After a couple of minutes, we had assembled quite the audience, listening to the argument, and when the police turned up, it was immediately obvious to them what the problem was. The guy was given a ticket for dangerous driving based solely on the various eye witness reports, and the fact that he was parked facing oncoming traffic. He was also ordered to go to traffic school or face points on his licence and a ding on his insurance notification.
So here's the thing. It really doesn't matter what excuse you think you have, driving the wrong way down a road is never acceptable. You're not that important, and you will cause an accident or come across someone like me who'll make good and sure that you pay for your stupidity.
In this driver's case, his attempt to save 20 seconds caused him a half-hour delay making him late for work, a huge fine, traffic school, and potentially points on his license and increased insurance premiums.
Frankly if I'd been one of the policemen who turned up, I'd have just taken his licence away.

I love your car but the legroom sucks

2009-05-06T12:12:00.002-06:00

There's a group of us who go out to lunch every day from my office, so we take it in turns to drive. Most of the cars are average runabouts but one guy has a beautiful red Audi A4 with full leather and the works. I love Audis - I'll defend them in any argument. But the legroom in the back of the new A4 leaves something to be desired. Actually - it leaves a lot to be desired.
What amazes me is how manufacturers will claim that a car has 5 seats when it clearly can only seat 4 people. The hump in the middle of the bench seat at the back isn't a seat at all. Worse, most cars have trouble sitting 4 normal people because of legroom problems in the back. Sure, technically you can fit 5 people, but not in anything resembling comfort. Realistically the average saloon car should better be described as a 2+2 - 2 adults plus 2 children. Alternatively, make the cars 20cm longer and use that 20cm as additional legroom for the rear passengers.

America to Chrysler : "Screw You".

2009-04-30T17:08:00.003-06:00

Following on from Chrysler's ill thought-out advertising campaign in December (see Chrysler to America : "Scew You"), they finally entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy today and completed the deal with Fiat. CNN had a good list of reasons Chrysler have ended up like this, including the 6 vehicles that finally finished them off (2004 Chrysler 300C, 2006 Dodge Caliber, 2006 Jeep commander, 2007 Dodge Nitro, 2007 Chrysler Sebring, 2009 Dodge Ram).
So what happens now? Hopefully Fiat can inject some sense into the smouldering pile that once was Chrysler. Stop building awful, fuel-thirsty cars that are unreliable, ugly, and out-of-touch, and start producing cars like Fiat's own mega hit Fiat 500. Better yet - don't build anything - just import cars from Europe and sell them in America.
Whatever happens it will be interesting to follow this saga closely. Not least of which because as an American taxpayer, I own(ed) part of Chrysler thanks to the equally ill thought-out bailout package.

What a drag.

2009-04-25T16:35:00.002-06:00

I've just finished adding the section on aerodynamic efficiency to the Hybrids bible and it was a bit of an eye-opener doing the research on drag coefficients. I know we all poke fun at the Hummer for being such a ridiculous vehicle, but did you know just how bad it is? In the grand scheme of things there are really only 2 vehicles ever made that have a worse drag coefficient than the Hummer H2. The Bugatti type 51 (which was made in 1933) and the Caterham 7 racing car, which is largely unchanged from it's 1950's design. Way to go GM - and they wonder why the company is failing.

Please don't race me.

2009-04-19T10:37:00.002-06:00

You're going to lose anyway, so what's the point?
As a motorcyclist and a car driver, it never ceases to amaze me the number of car-only drivers who don't understand power-to-weight ratio. This lovely, clear sunday morning, I was out for a ride and at one set of lights I came to, a gold Subaru pulled up behind me, then backed up, and moved over to the empty lane to my left. The lovely little thing inside gunned her engine, and I could hear the big bore exhaust, and I thought "Do I let her win, or do I teach her a lesson". Obviously, being a testosterone-fuelled male, I went for option B and smoked her off the lights. The difference is that I settled at the speed limit whilst she went tearing past a good 20mph over it. At the next set of lights, there she was again, gunning her engine, looking over at me. Again, I smoked her and again she took off way over the speed limit. This could have gone on all day as far as I was concerned, because as well as she was driving the car, and as modified as it was, the combination was still singularly incapable of out-dragging a totally stock 1 litre motorbike, complete with lardy rider.
By all means race other cars, if you feel you must, but please don't try it against a motorbike - you'll only look silly.

Motoring, Vegas style

2009-04-12T18:01:00.002-06:00

We just got back from a short trip to Vegas, and with the spring weather, driving down the strip was a joy for a petrolhead. From the stretch limos and "girls to you" advertising trucks, to the Ferraris and Aston Martins - everyone had their top down or the windows open. Most entertaining of all was a boosted F350 pickup that was next to us at one set of lights. As the lights went green, the guy in front of him didn't move off, so he used his horn. And what a horn. It was a diesel locomotive air horn - the sort you hear American freight trains using when they're approaching road crossings and freight yards. Glorious Vegas excess.
Of course the best place to go car-spotting is the valet at the Wynn or the Bellagio. Millions of dollars of exotica, just parked up for the pose value. If you've never been to Vegas, you really should go at least once. If you're a regular, you know all about what I'm describing here from a motoring point of view...

Don't drive like a dick

2009-04-04T15:15:00.002-06:00

This morning I was making my way west across town and came to merge on to one of the motorways. Traffic was light and it was relatively early. As I set off down the on-ramp, I saw a white Ford Taurus jump the red lights behind me and careen past me on the dirt, accelerating towards the motorway. Just about the time I thought "he's going to crash!" he shot across all three lanes of traffic. His brake lights came on just as he slammed into the concrete divider in the middle of the motorway. Overcompensating for the first crash, the driver then yanked the wheel hard to the right which deflected him back across all three lanes again, this time with the front wheels locked up and performing a full 360 on the way across. Last I saw he vanished off the hard shoulder down the grass verge, presumably to come to rest upside down in a ditch.
You know what my first thought was? Not "I wonder if he's OK" or "wow that was lucky he didn't hit anyone". No - it was "what a total dick. Nice to see Karma work so quickly once in a while."
Does that make me a bad person to wish ill of someone driving like that? I don't think so. Clearly he had no right being behind the wheel of a car, and forces beyond my control sorted the problem out nice and quick.

Motorcycle safety course

2009-03-30T10:03:00.002-06:00

I've ridden motorbikes since I was 14. That doesn't mean I know everything there is to know - it just means I've ridden bikes for 26 years. This weekend a friend and I went to a local motorcycle safety course for a post-winter refresher. It was fun to be out with like-minded individuals, and whilst I didn't learn anything totally new, it was good to put some techniques to the test in a controlled environment. For example I did learn how far I could go before the ABS kicks in on my bike.

We did a lot of cone work - cornering, low-speed maneuvering, swerve-and-brake, emergency stops - that sort of thing. For the most part, all the riders on the course were pretty competent although one guy did have a really hard time with his Harley. He dropped it a couple of times and just didn't look confident on it at all. His undoing was the double-u-turn test where you have to perform a double-u-turn inside a 26ft wide box. I found that one hard and my bike is nice and maneuverable. I kept letting the speed get down too low and losing balance. Once I had the hang of it, things were OK but one of the instructors put us all to shame by doing the same exercise in a 23ft box on a fully loaded Honda Goldwing. If you're not into bikes, Google for a Honda Goldwing for a picture, then walk out a 23ft box in your office and see if you think that bike could double-u-turn in that space. It can - I've seen it done.

So what's the point of a course like this for riders who've been doing it for as long as I have? The point is that it helps refresh your technique on things you might have taken for granted, and that you can still learn things in a controlled environment. The same goes for cars - perhaps we should all consider advanced motorist courses once in a while. It won't do anything for all the other lunatics on the road, but it will give you a better insight into stuff you didn't know you didn't know.

Vanity mirrors in the driver's sun visor. Really?

2009-03-26T16:56:00.003-06:00

My new Honda has a vanity mirror in the driver's side sun visor - a first for me. It's not bad enough that I have to content with women using their rear view mirror to apply makeup and guys using it for shaving on my morning commute every day; now there's the potential that they can use a vanity mirror in the sun visor too? Who's bright idea was that? Surely there can be no reasonable explanation for doing this. Drivers are distracted enough as it is now - did we really need to add just one more thing to take their mind away from the matter at hand? It does seem that car manufacturers are more and more interested in clogging up the interiors of our cars with useless junk, and less and less interested in keeping the driver accountable for piloting a 2 ton weapon.

Only make improvements where they are needed.

2009-03-20T11:26:00.001-06:00

I'm enjoying my new Honda Element. I replaced the old one with a 2009 model year largely because I liked the changes they'd made externally. But on taking delivery of the car, there are numerous things which Honda have improved - almost all of which were things I griped about in the past. For example the cruise control on/off button is now on the steering wheel instead of down by my left knee on the dash, and the intermittent wipe now has variable timing. Plus, the improved engine air intake, remapped ECU and 5 speed auto instead of 4 speed returns 5mpg more than the old one. Ok so these aren't exactly groundbreaking items in today's car market, but the fact that they were so illogically implemented the first time around meant there was room to improve. So either Honda listened to their customers, or they've since employed a designer who looked at the original Element and had a "WTF?" moment.

The really nice thing is that a lot of the stuff which didn't need touching has been left alone, and that was also a pleasant surprise. How many times have you upgraded a car, or changed cars within the same brand, and found something which worked just fine in the original but seems to have been "improved" or moved in the new one just for the sake of it?

I guess the message to the car manufacturers here is to only improve that which needs it. If something works well and logically, leave it alone.

Now that's how a car dealer should be.

2009-03-16T11:03:00.002-06:00

I settled the paperwork on a new car last weekend. Far from the high-pressure no-haggle screw-the-customer mainstream dealersm Willey Honda in Bountiful, UT, did me proud on the price of the new car. I'm a repeat customer for them - I got the original Element from them in 2006. I went back there because they are a pleasant car dealer, with pleasant staff and a no bullshit pricing approach. For example they didn't lowball me on the trade-in value. In fact they were higher than I'd budgeted for. On the new car they came in at an out-the-door price which was $200 less than the MSRP. Bear in mind the MSRP doesn't include tax, title, license and paperwork etc etc. In short : they came down $2,200 on the price. The best part? It reduces my monthly car payment by $40. Oh wait - that's not the best part. The best part is that the car I want is in Vegas and the dealer is trucking it up to me here at no cost to me....
That's how you do business as a car dealer.

OnStar advertising: suspect.

2009-03-11T07:27:00.001-06:00

OnStar's latest advertising campaign seems a little suspect to me. They claim that in the last year alone they have responded to 100 million calls for help. That doesn't add up and here's why. GM Produce an average of 2.2m vehicles a year equipped with OnStar. They've been doing so since 1996. To date that means about 26.4m vehicles. The subscription is free for the first year, then it costs, so assume that 50% of those vehicles don't have active subscriptions. Being GM products, the chances of all those vehicles still being on the road with functioning OnStar units is slim, but we'll be kind and say 70% are still on the road. That gives us a napkin calculation of about 9.25m OnStar equipped cars on the road, with live subscriptions. So for OnStar's advertising to be true, that implies every GM OnStar owner crashed their car over 10 times last year.....

That's clearly wrong, so we have to assume that their 'calls for help' include people calling for directions and their other services. But the ads always feature someone trapped in a wreck crying for help which is totally misleading because they imply that all 100 million people were in a situation that made OnStar critical for them. By GM's own figures they only respond to about 700 air bag deployments a month - or 8,400 a year.

8,400 is not 100 million.

NASCAR's Car Of Yesteryear

2009-03-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

If you've read my site or blog for any length of time, you'll know I'm not the world's biggest fan of American cars. As an extension, I think NASCAR is the most pointless waste of motorsports in the history of Creation. (And I'm an atheist so that's saying something).

So it's amusing to read about their Car Of Tomorrow that was introduced in 2007. It had 'cutting-edge' innovations like crumple zones, a rerouted exhaust designed not to fry the driver, a front splitter, a larger rear wing and - well - that's it really. It still uses pushrod engines and with the exception of a couple of courses like Watkins Glen, they all still drive in left-handed circles.

Those design features would have been the Car Of Tomorrow in the late 70's. Most other motorsports have had all of those features and dozens more true technical innovations for decades. So from this should I conclude that NASCAR is a full 30 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to their 'technology' ? I know it was only fairly recently that they decided the drivers would fare better in crashes if the circuits had tyre walls and impact barriers rather than three metres of impenetrable concrete to stop wayward cars.

Basic jack safety.

2009-03-02T07:35:00.002-07:00

This weekend I swapped the winter wheel and tyre combo on my vehicle for the summer one. To make life easier, I used a 3-ton floor jack to get the job done and it occurred to me that it would make a good blog entry. Too many people, it seems, assume that trolley-style floor jacks (and bottle jacks for that matter) are a safe way to lift a car. For the most part that's true - obviously, or you wouldn't be able to buy one - but they're not the best way to hold a car off the ground once it's up there. Why? Trolley jacks rely on seals and valves to hold the pressure in the cylinder that is used to jack up the arm holding your car off the ground. Those seals and valves normally rely on rubber o-rings, and rubber, as we all know, perishes. At some point, that seal isn't going to be as good as it was when new and it will slowly let all the pressure out. When that happens, the jack will slowly lower the car back down on it's own. If the failure is sudden, it won't so much lower the car as drop it. Either of these scenarios is bad news if you've got a wheel off the car - it results in the car being dropped on it's brake rotors and that will essentially mean new brakes. But brakes can be replaced easily. Squishy bags of mostly water - you and me - don't fix quite so readily when two tons of car fall on us. If you're working on wheels, likely your legs will get pinned under the car and you'll have two broken shins. If you're working under the car, then it will crush your chest. As the drug commercials would say - a potentially fatal side effect.
So how to prevent this from happening? Simple - jack stands. Once the car is up at the height you need it, pop a jack stand underneath against a load-bearing part of the chassis or subframe and lower the car on to it. For 10 seconds of extra hassle, you now have a purely mechanical support under the vehicle as well as the trolley jack. The chances of both failing at once are slim to none.

Product review and competition time !

2009-02-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

I've posted the product review of the CarMD automotive diagnostic tool, as well as a competition to win one. Enjoy, and good luck.

Site update.

2009-02-26T08:31:00.001-07:00

I've concluded the long term test of the Pulstar spark plugs. You can read the review here : Pulstar plugs review.

The right engine makes all the difference.

2009-02-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

Gas mileage in a vehicle has a lot to do with how you drive it, but more importantly is how well matched the engine is to the weight of the vehicle.
I recently test-drove a Mazda CX7. The mpg figures are in the same ballpark as my current vehicle - the Honda Element - averaging about 19mpg. But the performance difference is staggering. The CX7 has a smaller engine but it's turbocharged and that makes all the difference in the world. It's not sluggish. It doesn't bog down going up long inclines, and it just feels altogether more peppy. Well - with a turbo, it would, but the 6-speed automatic gearbox helps too.

So I figured it was the turbo and the lighter vehicle that made it more zippy to drive (I can't bring myself to use Mazda's "Z" word). Well - not so much. The quoted kerb weight for an Element is 3640lbs for the 4WD AT. For the CX7 it's 3930lbs - about 300lbs heavier.

So a smaller (albeit turbocharged engine) in a 300lb heavier car, with 6 gears instead of 4 and returning about the same gas mileage, makes it an infinitely more driveable SUV than the Element.

And this is the problem with the Element overall. It's a wonderful vehicle - totally practical and fun to drive, but it's just out of breath all the time. The engine just isn't up to the job because it's a normally aspirated 2.4 engine from the Civic and Accord. What Mazda did was realise they were hauling a heavier vehicle around and adjust the engine accordingly. Honda didn't. The difference is like night and day.

Variable Vent Tubes?

2009-02-18T10:02:00.002-07:00

I went to test drive a Mazda CX7 yesterday. The car is nice - peppy - a lot different to the Honda Element. It's because of the turbocharged engine of course. What was entertaining was when the salesman started to tell me about the VVT engine. According to "Chuck", that meant variable vent tubes, which as he described it, was the difference between the size of your airway when you are breathing normally, and the size of your airway when you are panting for breath whilst running. Say what? The Mazda engine is able to alter the size of it's intake manifold depending on how hard I'm breathing?

Well I suppose it was a nice try. He got the 'variable' part of it right at least. What he was trying to describe of course was variable valve timing. More zippy engine performance requires more fuel-air mix, which requires altered and lengthened valve opening timing.

The closest thing to what he was describing (I think) is the variable length intake tubes on the Yamaha R1 motorbike. Or he could have just been pulling it out of his arse. Either way, he was trying to sell me a product he clearly didn't know anything about.