No, but seriously

Chrysler to America : "Screw You"

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:41:00 +0000

In an astonishing display of "not getting it", Chrysler has taken out a week of full-page ads in national newspapers to 'thank' America for investing in it via the $4bn it received in the bailout package to car manufacturers. In essence, what they're really saying is "screw you", because rather than spending the money on producing cars that work, are fuel efficient, and that people want to buy, they're frittering it away on full-page ads, shareholder dividends and CEO bonuses. The full-page ads alone cost at least $3.3M. Or put another way, it just cost 66 Chrysler employees their jobs.
I don't understand why the big three are being rewarded with my money for their abject failure. Let them fail. Let them go in to chapter 11 - at least that will force a restructuring. Simply giving them cash isn't going to solve anything. Sure Bush says it's a short-term loan which must be repaid, but you know a substantial amount of that money is going to be spent on very expensive laywers to explain why that money actually shouldn't be repaid.

Raise the gas tax? Are you crazy?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:44:00 +0000

I see a lot of people are talking about now being the time to increase the tax on petrol here in America. I've got to say I think they're crazy. In Europe, higher petrol taxes are supposed to fund public transport and road projects. Instead they prop up government pension and health insurance programs. The idea is to 'encourage' drivers to ditch their cars and use public transport.
Newsflash : that doesn't work if the public transport system is poor, or non-existent. Look at England - they pay more in gas tax than we pay for the gas itself. The three stacked taxes are all percentages added on top of each other, resulting in about a 515% equivalent tax. Gas tax + fuel duty escalator + sales tax = wholesale rape of the motorist. I Don't say that lightly either because the simple fact of the matter is that there is no alternative. For decades, government after government have trimmed, underfunded and slashed public transport across the country. So they know there is no way the average driver could use public transport. In other words, gas tax is blackmail. You can't use public transport - you have to drive, which means you have to fill your car with petrol, which means you have to pay the tax.
Now consider that scenario in America - a country designed around the road system. This summer showed what high petrol prices do to a country reliant on roads - the cost of everything went up so high that it contributed to plunging the country in to recession.
So think about that if you support higher gas tax. Because once we're paying $10/gallon for petrol over here because of taxes, you won't be able to complain if you supported the move.

Snow tyres.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:44:00 +0000

It seems the right time of year to bring up snow tyres. For those of you who live in sunnier climes, this is a moot point, but for those of us for whom the early morning commute means blasting through fresh snow, snow tyres are a must-have item.
For years, M+S tyres (mud + snow) were nothing more than a super-blocky tread. They sort of worked, but once the tread blocks were full of compacted snow, their performance fell off dramatically. In the last few years there's been a revolution in snow tyres with more 3-dimensional tread, more deep siping and stickier, softer rubber compounds. The current generation of purpose-built snow tyres, like Bridgestone Blizzaks and Firestone WinterForces are nothing short of amazing to drive on. I've fitted some of the WinterForces to my OE wheels. I'm fortunate that I have aftermarket alloys, so I have two sets of wheels - the aftermarket ones with the all-weather tyres, and the OE Honda jobs which now have the snow tyres on them. For the last couple of days I've been having a complete blast on the slick, snowy roadways of Utah. I kid you not - the current generation of snow tyres are simply incredible in their performance. On all but the hardest of hard-packed snow, it's like night and day compared to all-weather tyres. Acceleration and cornering performance is way up as is braking performance. Not the same as dry road performance, obviously, but a whole lot more confidence-inspiring than regular tyres.
The WinterForce tyres can be fitted with studs but I've opted not to. So if you live in the snowier parts of the world and haven't tried the current generation of snow tyres, I would seriously recommend you do.

Have a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful new year.

Variable Valve Timing

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:29:00 +0000

I've added a new page to the site covering 4 different types of variable valve timing.

The competition to win a ScanGauge II is still running too - I've had a lot of entries so far. The winner will be announced January 7th.

New product review and competition : ScanGauge II

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:34:00 +0000

I've posted a new product review of the ScanGauge II add-on car computer. It's a great little device for adding a trip computer and additional gauges and readouts to your car, plus it can scan your OBD II port for error codes and turn off the check engine light if you want. Read the review here : ScanGauge II Review. There's also a competition now running to win one....

The state of cabs.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:49:00 +0000

I'm at a trade show at the moment, meaning I go everywhere on foot or in a cab.
The cab ride from the airport was in an old Crown Victoria that wouldn't go above 45mph, had over 400,000 miles on it, and no shock absorbers to speak of. It weaved all over the road on it's own, even when the driver held the wheel still, and it reeked of petrol. Tonight I took a cab ride back to the hotel, and the cabbie spent most of the time nearly running into the people in front because he was busy instant-messaging on his laptop on the front seat.
So when I see cabbies complaining about poor treatment on TV, I'm bound to ask the obvious : "why don't you learn to drive, learn to navigate, and maintain your vehicles, then maybe you'll get some respect?"
I'd rather get from A to B in a cab in one piece and without smelling of vomit and petrol and fearing for my life.
Or is that just me?

1000 real-world miles on a tank.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Top Gear was interesting this week. They did a hyper-miling race from Basel in Switzerland to Blackpool in England. Three diesel cars - a VW Polo Bluemotion, a Subaru Legacy TDI wagon and a Jag twin-turbo TDI sedan. The VW and the Subaru were driven carefully with an eye on gas mileage, and the Jag (driven by Clarkson) was driven taking no account of range and fuel consumption.
All three made it to Blackpool - between 750 and 860 miles depending on their chosen routes - and all on a single tank of diesel. All three had zero on their miles-to-empty displays, and fuel gauges buried on "E" a good 40 miles before reaching the finish. Yet the Jag had another 120 miles-worth of diesel left in it.
Think about it for a moment - that's a 1000 mile range on a luxury car on a single tank. The VW is a practical runabout that can do 800 miles on a tank, and the Subaru is a wagon that can do 750 miles on a tank.
I ask again : why do the manufacturers not import and sell diesel vehicles in America? They're cheaper than any hybrid, they're cleaner than most petrol cars now, and they have high torque, very driveable engines that deliver astonishing gas mileage - 80mpg or more (imperial) which is 67mpg US.

A worrying trend

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:48:00 +0000

Maverick have been doing this for ages, and it looks like Chevron have now cottoned on to the idea: screw over motorists who want to pay for petrol with credit or debit cards. This week, the Chevron nearest us changed it's sign. There's now two prices for each grade of petrol. The cash or Chevron Card price, and the credit/debit/pay at the pump price.
Of course the credit/debit price is 5¢ a gallon more.
So let me get this straight.
Because we pump the petrol ourselves, and don't have to interact with their staff, and don't give them the cost and potential fraud of cash-counting, we have to pay more?
Surely paying cash should cost more? After all, that involves infrastructure and employees which cost a lot more than a petrol pump calling up my bank and just taking the money.
Of course Chevron will argue that the credit/debit fees are so expensive they have to charge more. But wait - if you use the Chevron-branded card, apparently the fees aren't as expensive.
Here's the bottom line. If you can sell petrol for one price to people with cash, you can bloody well sell it for the same price to people who are absolving you of the cost of dealing with cash. Until that happens, may I politely suggest we all boycott Chevron.

We're so poor.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:36:00 +0000

The CEOs of the big three car makers all turned up in Washington this week to plea poverty and beg for billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout money. All three of them turned up in corporate jets - at about $20,000 round-trip cost. And all three of them refused to take a cut from their $28M salary to $1 and just receive the benefits and stock options.
Then they said they were running out of money.
Maintaining seven private jets each (plus a fleet of King Airs and other light aircraft) will do that to your cash flow. It would of course be cheaper to fly commercially in first class, or heaven forbid, coach. Or even chartering someone else's private jet - these are all cheaper options that would save money.
They've laid off 51,000 employees between them. If all three CEOs took a $1 salary then that would have saved 16,800 of those jobs. Getting rid of 21 corporate jets with their associated maintenance and operating costs would have saved the other 34,200 jobs easily.
I have the same opinion on this as I did on the $700bn bailout package - vote it down. As a taxpayer it's not my responsibility that the car makers have squandered their cash and can't make a car that does more than 25mpg. Screw them. Let them fail. I don't see Honda, or Toyota, or Daewoo, or Hyundai begging for cash. Why reward Ford, Chrysler and GM's poor business ethic with taxpayers money when they clearly couldn't care about actually saving money?

Ditching the car for a weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:14:00 +0000

I'm a great fan of public transport when it's done right. Case in point, Portland's MAX light rail system (read: tram). We decided on a short weekend away and rather than renting a car, we decided to rely on public transport instead. There's a MAX station right at Portland airport, and the red line goes into downtown Portland, within a block of most of the hotels. We hopped on, paid $4.60, and hopped off 40 minutes later within two minutes walk of the hotel. On the way, we watched gridlocked rush hour traffic, nose-to-tail on I84 and when we got to the hotel, we discovered overnight parking was $29. In this case, it's a total no-brainer. Sit in traffic, pay three day's car rental ($150), two nights valet ($58) and half a tank of petrol ($15), or spend a grand total of $9.20 on public transport to do the exact same thing.

Think about it next time you go away somewhere - do you really need that rental car?

In motoring terms, England is broken.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:43:00 +0000

Having left the UK 8 years ago, it never ceases to amaze me how much is broken about England when I return for visits. This time around it occurred to me how ridiculously small the parking spaces are. They're not quite big enough to get a car into. Well - they are, but only if you don't want to open the doors and get out.
Then there's the new mayor of London - Boris Johnson. Now he wants to tax motorcycles for parking in the city centre. Typical. They introduce the "congestion charge" to try to encourage people to use bikes, motorbikes and public transport instead of cars, and it works to some extent. Now so many people have swapped to motorbikes, BoJo has decided it's time to tax those too.
Then there's the traffic police - or lack of them. So many speed cameras have been installed since I left that by the police force's own admission, they've slashed the number of actual traffic police. In some cases by as much as 90%. So whereas an physical policeman pulling you over could assess the road and traffic conditions, as well as your driving, and thus make a subjective assessment of whether or not you truly deserve a ticket, now the country is presided over by automated cameras that fine you two weeks after the offence. Which is of course totally ridiculous. Take me for example - if I get a speeding fine in a rental car, two weeks after I've left the country, then it tells me two things.
1. I don't need to pay it because they can't prosecute me outside of England
2. It didn't make the road I allegedly committed the offence on any safer because I wasn't stopped at the point of my alleged offence. In fact after two weeks, I'd be lucky to even remember where the hell I was with the amount of travelling I do.

Yes. England is well and truly broken. But if you still live there, you already know that.

And don't get me started on the price of petrol.....

More crap car design.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:15:00 +0000

I've got a Ford Galaxy MPV on rental at the moment (apparently Hertz think that's in the same class as a "compact 4 door saloon"). It drives OK but it's laced with awful design problems. The three that stand out immediately are the handbrake, the interior lights and the heating and ventilation system.
The handbrake is this interesting double-pronged affair that looks like the throttle control from a fighter jet. It's cleverly designed so that when you release it, it traps your thumb between the release button and the centre console.
The interior lighting is very art nouveau - soft dimming, soft illuminating, accent lighting in the footwells etc. It's all very clever but totally useless because there's no light at the ignition switch. So when you get in in the dark, you end up scratching up all the plastic on the steering column trying to find the ignition key slot.
And finally, the heating and a/c system. In manual mode it's fine. In Auto mode it's totally useless. For some reason, when you use Auto mode, Ford seemed to think that what you want is a right foot that is either baked or frozen. In Auto mode it only uses the footwell ventilation outlets, and on the driver's side, it's pointed straight at the accelerator pedal. So if you want to heat the air up inside, you end up with a burned foot long before the air actually begins to circulate out of the footwells.

This is the 21st century isn't it? Because those sorts of design decisions are reminiscent of the horse-drawn carriage.

New product review started.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Started the long-term test of Pulstar Pulse spark plugs : Pulstar plugs.

1000mph land speed record?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Richard Noble and Andy Green are back to their old tricks with the proposed Bloodhound project - a "car" designed to break the 1000mph barrier on land.

Supersonic car targets 1,000mph.

Frankly I hope they manage it, because it would be as big a spectacle as it is an achievement.

That's a good moneyspinner.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:35:00 +0000

The tax and licensing renewal for my wife's Yaris came up this week. The car is 11 months and a week old, and the Utah State Tax Commission tell me that it needs an inspection and emissions test this year. That's the US version of the MOT back in England, only a lot less rigorous.
What a racket. Inspection and emissions on a year-1 vehicle? That's just an excuse to print money. I called the state tax offices on this. It used to be that they required an inspection and emissions check every year from the third year on. Now it's been changed to every other year from new.
I know why.
In America, it's the norm for people to sell their cars and buy new ones every three years. If this happened at a dealer, a loophole in the law meant the vehicle was excused the tests that year, presuming the dealer would do them in order to verify the vehicle was fit for re-sale. Meaning the tax commission didn't see a penny in testing revenue until the fourth year of a car's life.
With the change, even if people sell their car after three years, the tax commission get one lot of testing revenue out of them at the beginning of the second year.
That's a good moneyspinner.

First snow of the season.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:50:00 +0000

Which means first really spectacular demonstrations of Utah driving of the season. You see, around here, people have a goldfish-like memory for snow and ice on the roads. It happens every year, regular as clockwork, yet each year when it finally arrives, it seems to take them all by surprise. We end up with cars upside down on the wrong side of the road, cars upside down in trees, cars upside down perched on crash barriers, and cars upside down stuffed into the sides of houses. Regular as clockwork. I shall venture out with quiet trepidation this morning - it's been snowing all night so I expect complete carnage today, even though the roads themselves are actually just wet, not icy. The snow will distract them from their makeup and cellphones, which have already distracted them from the task at hand - actually driving their cars - and that will be all she wrote.

It's got a cop motor, cop tyres, cop suspension, cop shocks....

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:14:00 +0000

I had the privilege of going on a police ride along this saturday night - the 10-3 DUI shift with South Jordan police over on the west side of the valley. It was entertaining being in the passenger seat as we pulled over vehicle after vehicle for things like broken tail lights. We caught one DUI. More interesting for me was the vehicle itself and the kit inside. SJCPD have optioned the Dodge Charger Police edition and it is amazing. The one I was in was a V6 and it performed well. It was returning an average 16mpg doing police duty which is pretty good given how they drive and how much extra stuff is crammed into the cars. The handling was good - really good. Not sure if the suspension was stock or upgraded to deal with the rigours of police duty, but we whipped around corners like it was on rails. Brakes were hot, acceleration was hot, steering was hot. Unbelievably it looks like Dodge have managed to make a hot car!

In terms of the police kit - it had the perspex divider between the front and rear seats, the shotgun strapped to the roof, front and rear doppler radar, front camera, light bar, takedown lights, alley lights, front crash bar - the works. There was also a Dell laptop hooked up to the police network. We could tap in a licence plate and it would return the car make and model, spoken in computer synthesised voice, within a couple of seconds. From there we could go to the driver's licence information and it would pull up a copy of the registered driver's photo. The officer used this a few times - when we checked plates randomly and they came back clean, we'd do a driver check to see if the person in the car matched the photo on the licence.
The doppler radar was interesting and we could tell which cars did and didn't have radar detectors. The officer would flick the radar on for a second or so to pull a speed from oncoming vehicles. For the most part they wouldn't change speed, but every now and then, we'd pick someone up doing 60 or more and the instant we pinged them with radar, their speed dropped significantly. On unlit roads, they couldn't tell we were a police car so they must have been using detectors. One guy slowed down as he came towards us, then the office flicked on the rear doppler and watched as the guy sped up once he'd passed us. We flipped around and pulled him over. No DUI that time though.
So the Police Charger. Super hot. And you know how I feel about American cars in general. Frankly, if I was in the market for a new car, I'd have to seriously consider a Charger. Looks great. Performs great.
Thanks to South Jordan PD for the ride-along.

Why can't the US make decent cars?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:11:00 +0000

Case in point. The new Ford Focus Coupe. Look at the image below. On the left, the bloated, 1980's-looking attempt from Ford Motor Corporation. On the right, the über-slick "Rest Of The World" version. Underneath it's ostensibly the same car. Why do we have to be stuck with this grotesque American thing? Why can't they just use the same version as the rest of the frickin' world?

You know what they say about turds. It doesn't matter how much you polish it - it's still a turd.

Self fulfilling prophecy.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:36:00 +0000

With so many people expecting petrol prices to go up again in the wake of hurricane Ike, what do you think the petrol companies are going to do?
Price gouge, of course. They're going to use Ike as an excuse.
Here in Utah, greed is going to rear its ugly head. Despite importing our oil from Canada, and having a refinery right on our doorstep (I can see it as I type this), it's hard to imagine the local oil companies resisting the temptation.
It amazes me how stupid the oil companies think we all are.

Minor page update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Revised the section on grounding kits and noise absorbers.

Minor page update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:35:00 +0000

I have added a mini paragraph and an illustration of Ford truck twin I-beam suspension to the Suspension Bible.
Twin I-beam suspension

Hurricane Gustav and the price of crude.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:41:00 +0000

You know what's odd? When hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Of Mexico three years ago, we were primed by the news organisations for disastrous rises in the price of crude because it had ripped drilling rigs from their moorings, and damaged refineries along the gulf coast.
Gustav is right over the Gulf oil fields today, so shouldn't the same thing be happening?

Or was that all a load of bull designed to justify another year of record profits?

Are Red Light Cameras Safe?

admin@accurateautoadvice.com (Jason of AccurateAutoAdvice.com) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:58:00 +0000

Guest post from Jason Lancaster of AccurateAutoAdvice.com.

As a resident of a major city I couldn’t help but notice the installation of red-light cameras in some of the intersections in my neighborhood. If you’re not aware, a red light camera (abbreviated RLC) is designed to take a picture of every vehicle that runs a red light at a particular intersection. Using the photo, the offender’s license plate is identified and a hefty ticket is sent to the vehicle owner.

At first glance, the theory behind RLC’s seems solid. They serve as a deterrent to running a red light, and in so doing they reduce the likelihood of right-angle (aka T-Bone) crashes. Pedestrians benefit too – they’re less likely to be hit by someone charging a red light. RLCs seem like a no-brainer.

So why is it that a Federal Highway Administration study published in 2005 found that RLC’s did not effectively lower the number of crashes at their test intersections?

In the period before RLCs were installed, there were a total of 4,063 crashes reported in the test intersections. In the period after the RLCs were installed, there were 4,059 crashes. That’s a reduction of less than one-tenth of one percent. What gives?

While the number of right-angle crashes decreased by nearly 25% with the introduction of RLCs, the number of rear-end crashes increased 15%. Considering that rear-end crashes are much more common than right-angle crashes, the net effect was a “push.” The number of crashes was essentially the same with or without RLCs.

So what about injuries? Common sense would tell us that right-angle crashes are more dangerous than rear-end crashes. Again, the data says otherwise. 482 injuries pre-RLC, 459 injuries post. That’s a reduction of about 5%. Not bad, but that’s certainly not enough to prove that RLCs make anyone safer. Furthermore, it’s important to note that the most common rear-end crash injuries (whip-lash and back pain) often don’t manifest themselves for two or three days. It’s entirely possible that the number of reported rear-end crash injuries is low.

Bottom Line: The Federal Highway Administration found it difficult to recommend RLCs for every intersection, and for good reason. The studies have shown that RLCs have little impact on the total number of crashes at a particular intersection. Still, that hasn’t stopped cities from installing them. Perhaps the RLC ticket revenue is biggest reason for installing these cameras.

Visit AccurateAutoAdvice.com for more news, information, and auto advice.

My little pony

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:25:00 +0000

My current rental car (yes, another business trip) is a 2007 Ford Mustang with 18,500 miles on the clock. Well you all know my opinion of American cars - crap. The paint on the Mustang is wafer thin - it drops off if you so much as walk too close to it. The inside is a vast sea of hateful, hard, rattly, scratchy grey plastic. The suspension is prehistoric - driving over a bump in the road feels like falling down stairs in leg irons. God - it's just - bloody wonderful actually. Ok so the rear wheel drive is suicidal in the wet, but this latest generation Pony Car has the 'it' factor for me. It's surprisingly roomy inside and the view through the windscreen is nowhere near as cramped as it was on the previous model. The power steering is the usual over-done affair but because the front wheels aren't driven, I can feel a lot more of what the road is doing, and it does take a lot less effort to steer it in a straight line than most American land yachts. The engine noise from inside is wonderful though. Even the sound of the electric radiator fans winding down after I've turned the ignition off - it sounds like a spaceship cooling down its hyperdrive. I found it a bit overpowering to start with - narrow windows all round, hugely overdone engine, deep seats. It was like piloting a submarine for the first day. But today I had my bonding experience with it on I-280 going down to Cupertino. The Mustang is one of those cars that is such a fun car that it's actually easy to overlook all its niggles. If you don't own one, rent one for a few days. Ford have a winner on their hands here - unusual for that company - but the Pony Car lives on nicely in this current revision.

Sirens and flashing lights - why do people panic?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:13:00 +0000

I've come to the conclusion that there are three types of driver when it comes to emergency vehicles.
Type I - let's call them the average motorist - are those who respond quite well. They slow down or pull over and leave room for the fire engine or ambulance to get through.
Type II are what I like to call the automobilista nervosa. They're the ones who see the lights or hear the sirens and all common sense goes out the window. They crash into each other, drive up kerbs, mow down pedestrians and generally lose all control of themselves, their vehicles and their common sense.
Type III are the blissfully ignorant. These are the same people that can drive from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas with the left hand indicator going. These ones don't use their mirrors, don't see the flashing lights, and don't hear the sirens until it's too late. By which point, they normally single themselves out as the only car that hasn't pulled over (type I) or driven into something (type II), by being the one car stuck in the middle of the intersection blocking traffic and being blitzed by emergency vehicles.

Try to be a type I - it makes everyone's lives so much easier.