Let the Manual Be Your Guide

Believe it or not, the owner’s manual that comes with your vehicle actually contains a great deal of useful information. Many times people skip the instruction book that comes with whatever cool new thing they have bought, but in the case of the owner’s manual for your car, it is well worth your time spending a few moments studying the information found in its pages.

You might not need to read the instructions on how to start your car, or how to buckle your seat belt (those things are actually outlined in great detail), but you should definitely study the chapters pertaining to vehicle maintenance. This is the best way to determine what services are required and when. Every owner’s manual will have a maintenance schedule that will tell when you need to have certain preventative maintenance services performed.

These are things like oil changes and tire rotations. Any service that is recommended based on mileage or time is necessary just to help prevent any future problems or to stave off undue wear and tear. Common services that are always found in the owner’s manual are things like oil changes, and tire rotations, as mentioned above; but also things like air filter replacement, spark plug replacement, coolant service, transmission service, brake inspection, and all sorts of other things.

Many manufacturers will show two different maintenance schedules in the owner’s manual, “normal”, and “severe.” The difference between the two is that severe calls for more service at more frequent intervals. The one that you should follow depends on how and where you drive your vehicle. The following is a description of severe driving conditions according to the owner’s manual in a 2005 Honda Civic.

• Driving less than 5 miles (8 km) per trip or, in freezing temperatures, driving less than 10 miles (16 km) per trip.
• Driving in extremely hot [over 90°F (32°C)] conditions.
• Extensive idling or long periods of stop-and-go driving, such as a taxi or a commercial delivery vehicle.
• Driving with a roof rack, or driving in mountainous conditions.
• Driving on muddy, dusty, or deiced roads.

If you drive in any of these conditions then you drive your vehicle under severe conditions. This of course is silly because anybody who drives any car anywhere is likely to be severe. Maybe a little old lady, who lives in San Diego and only drives her car twice a week for 10 to 15 miles at a time, can be considered normal.

An example of a service schedule from an owner's manual.

The reason for this nonsense is to make the cost of maintenance seem cheaper for the car shopper that is doing their homework. Most people think that they are normal and if they are calculating the total cost of ownership, they will figure maintenance costs according to the normal schedule.

Knowing the maintenance schedule for your vehicle is helpful because if you take your car in for an oil change and they try to tell you that you should have something else serviced, you will have an idea if what they are telling you is true or not. Knowledge is power.

If you are not sure when to replace a filter or if your car even
has a particular filter check the owner's manual first.

Not everything that your car will ever need is outlined in the maintenance schedule. Sometimes your mechanic will recommend something that is not listed, and they may tell you that it is part of routine maintenance. A good example of this is fuel filter replacement. Cars that have one of these almost never have a recommendation for replacement, but it is almost always a good idea to service it regularly.

Arm yourself with information from the owner’s manual and your car will last longer, and you will be more educated when you take it to the shop. This is the best guide that you have and the information will help you take care of this machine that you rely on so much.

GREAT FIERY VOLTS!!!

So now the Chevy Volt is catching fire. This is not to say that the Volt is experiencing a dramatic increase in popularity and sales are through the roof because they certainly are not. What I am saying here is that the Volt has gone up in literal flames a few times after being wrecked. So far this seems like a first for hybrids, as cars like the Toyota Prius have been around for 10 years now without much trouble.

At least one incidence has been reported of a Chevrolet Volt catching fire out behind a body shop while it was waiting for some restoration after having been wrecked. A few incidences have also occurred of the Volt catching fire while sitting out behind the facilities of a crash test center. At least one of these fires occurred after the test center wrecked the car and stuck it out back to specifically see if it would catch on fire, according to CNN. The fires seem to be erupting from the high-voltage battery. Every time one of these cars has gone down in a blaze of glory, it was always days or weeks after it was wrecked, and with every car, GM procedures for discharging the battery after it was damaged have not been followed.

The bad PR has caused GM to offer temporary loaner cars to owners of the Volt while an investigation is being conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, just in case the owners are freaking out and afraid of getting burned alive. GM of course is down playing everything saying that it’s not that bad since the fires don’t occur until well after the crash.

So what should we make of all of this? I for one am torn a bit with my opinion of the Chevy Volt.  The topic of the Chevy Volt can be rather incendiary (current fire problems not withstanding). I think it is ridiculous that the federal government took control of GM when they filed for bankruptcy back in 2009, and then forced the Volt to market for purely political reasons. The Volt kindles similar feelings amongst many taxpayers. I don’t have a problem with companies doing things for the purposes of being politically correct, or to advance some agenda. A privately held company ought to be able to do whatever they want to do as long as it’s not illegal. The problem is that even today GM is not privately held and the U.S. taxpayer still owns about 25% of the “new” GM.

The Volt was pushed to market with federal tax dollars, and then congress passed legislation awarding $7500 to anyone willing to buy a Volt in order to ignite interest in this new car. MSRP on a new volt is about $42k so with the $7500 incentive (from the developers and builders of the Volt i.e. the Feds) the price people actually end up paying is about $34k. This tax credit for Volt buyers means that tax payers are paying impractical rich people a large chunk of money to buy something that they will use to make a political statement, or they will just use as a toy. This is the real conflagration of the Chevy Volt

Now having said all of this, the part where I am torn is in that I love the technology that is wrapped up in the Volt. I am a technology geek of the highest order and the Volt does have some pretty cool stuff under the hood that makes it go. I have had a chance to inspect a Volt up close and personal, and I even took it for a spin. The car is without a doubt the most impressive thing to ever bear the Chevy bowtie. The ride is great, the handling is nice, and the gas/electric motor combination provides plenty of pep. The Volt beats the Prius in the quarter mile anytime, anywhere. I think that some alternative fuel vehicle is likely to take over at some point anyway, although it will probably not happen overnight. When it does happen it will be gradual and it will be a result of regular market demand, not the result of anyones political agenda.

The problem is that the Volt is like the U.S. military. While it is great at what is does, and perhaps it does its job better than anything in its class, when considering the overall cost, it’s obvious that things could be done better for a lot less money. Since the U.S. Constitution calls for the Federal Government to fund the military to protect us all, and since I am pretty sure there is nothing in the document that allows the government to build impractical cars, we can be concerned with G(overnment) M(otors), and we kind of have to learn to live with the military scorching cash.

So what about the fires? On the one hand I would ask what do you expect from a government funded project? On the other hand I would say that it is likely much ado about nothing. Gasoline powered cars catch fire all of the time and we still, after more than a century, keep the highly explosive fuel used to power these cars in plastic or metal tanks that are only inches from the ground as these land missiles cruise about and get into fender fights with other cars. If the Volt fires are a big deal then we will see it all unfold shortly. I think that the media loves fires and explosions so they will try to over inflate this entire issue and we can count on hearing about every battery that is set ablaze.

Roll In Style Not In Danger

Rolling down the street in your SUV with 22 inch rims can be something that makes you feel like you are king of the road. Oversized rims are all the rage on all sorts of vehicles and nothing adds bling to your ride like wheels that are huge and loaded with chrome.

While you might think it makes your ride look good, and I’m not saying it doesn’t, there are a few problems that you have when you put big custom rims at each corner of your ride. The biggest problem with this type of customization has to do with what we call unsprung weight.

Anything on the vehicle or in the vehicle that exerts the force of its weight on the springs of the suspension system is sprung weight. This would be most of the vehicle, such as the body, frame, engine and transmission, or anything that is placed inside the vehicle like passengers and cargo. This is sprung weight because it is all supported by the springs, and suspension system action can control the force of this weight.

Anything that exerts the force of its weight on the tires only, and not on the springs, is unsprung weight. This is because the weight is below the springs. Things like rims and tires, steering knuckles, brake assemblies, and drive axles fall into this category. These are all items that spring action and suspension articulation cannot control.

Generally speaking the more unsprung weight a vehicle carries, the harsher the ride is. Pickup trucks and many SUV’s that are built for heavy-duty applications tend to have more unsprung weight and therefore have a ride that is not so smooth. Higher unsprung weight can also lead to handling characteristics that are undesirable. All that weight causes the wheels to bounce around more and lead to more situations where they are not firmly planted. Wheels that are not firmly planted cause poor ride quality and poor directional stability.

Oversized rims are very heavy and add a tremendous amount of unsprung weight to the vehicle. Even if the rims are made of aluminum they can still add hundreds of extra pounds, especially if you add bigger tires with the bigger rims. Many times the tires are not much bigger in diameter than the stock tires, but the section height, or the height of the sidewall, is narrower to accommodate the larger rims. This low profile tire adds to the modern, sporty look of the large rims but it further decreases ride quality.

Another common mistake when having custom rims installed relates to the overall fit of the rim and tire assembly. Obviously the tire and rim assembly must fit within the wheel arch and not be so big that it rubs on any of the body or suspension parts. In order to get some wheels to fit properly, or to provide the look that the owner of the vehicle wants, wheel spacers are added to the hub of the wheel and then the tire and rim assemblies are bolted to the spacers.

Wheel spacers can cause big problems and are actually illegal in some states because they can make the vehicle handle dangerously, and they are easy to install improperly which may cause the wheels to fall off while driving. Like the over-sized rims, they can cause excessive wear and tear on the steering and suspension components as well because suspension geometry is changed.

None of this means that you can’t customize your wheels but it just means that you need to be careful. Just because a wheel assembly bolts on doesn’t mean that it will work just fine. With so many different types of custom rims available for nearly every vehicle on the road there is no reason not to find something that will fit just right, and give you the look that you want.

The Ingenuity of a Master Craftsman

When it comes to auto repair there is a right way and there is a wrong way and there is the cheap yet still effective way. The right way is indisputable, not really subject to debate. If the cylinder head gasket is blown then the proper way to repair it is to replace the gasket. If all of the tread is worn off of the tire, the tire must be replaced. The proper way to handle these situations are absolute.

This level of repair while desirable, but is quite often cost prohibitive. The following are some crazy examples of repair jobs that people have tried. These are things just pulled randomly off of the web. Some of them are wrong but probably work just fine and some of them are crazy dangerous. Despite the fact that these repair jobs are not by the book, you have to admire the ingenuity on a few of them.

Oh the skills of a master carpenter. Turning raw materials such wood, nails, screws and other bits of hardware into anything in the world you might need. This is actually a great job of reinventing the old woodies of the 1940's, and honestly the fit and finish doesn't look much worse than the original steel trunk lid that this Oldsmopile came with from the factory. Just think how good this would look in mahogany with a nice dark stain and a lacquer finish. Four hinges make it sturdy while opening and closing and it even has a lock on it to protect the valuable things that typically go in the trunk. 

If this guy had a saw and a hammer maybe he could have done as well as the guy above did. Not only does the cardboard not fit very well but it won't hold up to the weather and there are no hinges that allow for easy open and easy close. Actually the hinges are still there but they are just sticking uselessly into the air.

When you go rolling down the city streets in your Mercedes-Benz you need to represent. If the hood ornament is broken off of your ride then you might look like tool. No problem. Just take take a wire coat hanger and fashion a new one. You can tell people it was sculpted by Salvador Dali. They won't know who he was but they will appreciate the artistic accents of your and they will think that you are truly part of the upper crust.

So you drive a 1989 Volkswagen Jetta that doesn't have an USB port for your iPod, and it doesn't even have a CD player. You don't need to spend a pile of Benjamins on a new deck. Just find an old CD ROM drive that will play MP3 discs and wire it in to the dash. These usually run off of 12 volts D/C anyway so everything you need to make this thing play the latest hits from Adele is right there in the dash. 

Windshield wipers are a must have on every vehicle unless you live in a place like Las Vegas or Phoenix where rain storms are few and far between. If the wiper motor burns up it's okay. All that you need to do is get two pieces of rope and tie them both to your wiper arms or arm as the case may be. Then stick one rope into an open driver side window and one rope into an open passenger side window. Then all you have to do is pull one rope, and pull the other rope, then repeat over and over again until it stops raining. This might make it difficult to drive but it can't be any more difficult than texting while driving and that always works out just fine when you do that. Also, make sure that as you are driving and pulling the ropes back and forth that you keep your speed up so that less rain can blow into your open side windows. You wouldn't want your phone to get wet while you are texting.

In most small fender benders, you know, the kind where the vehicle only gets a little banged up and is by no means disabled. The part of the car that is still very susceptible to damage are things like the headlights and taillights. The problem with a broken headlight is that the bulb will usually still come on, but as soon as it gets wet it will burn out. This can be easily solved mounting a mason jar or some glass bottle sideways with the bottom pointing forward to direct the light. The bulb can be put inside the jar and the opening taped off. This will provide excellent lighting for all of your nighttime motoring needs, and it's much cheaper than taking it to the body shop.

The controls for the heater are extremely important. Even if you don't mind freezing a bit as you drive around in your car, you must have functional heater controls in order to have a windshield defroster. These controls help to route hot coolant through the heater core under the dash. where the blower can blow the heated air onto the windshield. Since hot coolant is a lot like hot water forget about getting the factory heater control parts, those are of course, too expensive. Just get the cheapest faucet that you can find at home depot and attach the heater hoses to it. You will have all the temperature control that you need.

Duct tape is the answer to most of life's quandaries. Anything in the world can be fashioned from duct tape including a new car door release strap. The outside door handle is just a lever that lifts a rod connected to the latch down inside the door. If the handle breaks off just make a strap from some duct tape and...oh, I don't know, a stick, and you are back in business.

When you need some new tires, or when you have some sweet five spoke alloys that you want to use to add some bling to your ride, there is always a way to make it happen. Today oversize wheels are very popular but if they don't clear the fender then all you have to do is some trimming here and there and they will look sick. A good pair of aviation shears can make short work of your fenders, a reciprocating saw can also be very effective for all manner of auto customization and repair, including the facilitation of proper tire fitment. 

Speaking of sick tire and wheel combinations. If you don't have oversized wheels but you still want to look cool you can put very low profile tires on your rims. These tires can be expensive so it might be cheaper for you to get an old garden hose and wrap it around the rim enough times so the hose will touch the ground. Most of those low profile tires are just like rubber bands stretched around the rim anyway so using an old garden hose should do the trick. If you are lucky your will be able to find four old hoses that are the same color so that all of your wheels will look cool. Either way, when people look at your car they will know that it's cool.

The Subaru Outback is a rugged, outdoorsy wagon for people that love being outdoors, love mother nature, and love all things biodegradable. A good idea is to remove the rear bumper and send it to the recycler because that plastic might hurt a landfill somewhere if you just throw it away. Then steal some felled timber and a few chains from some lumber jacks that your are protesting against and fashion your self a new bumper that not only looks rugged and natural, but is biodegradable and helps the car blend in much more easily with the forest. This can help you to be good friends with the squirrels.

It's a rear view mirror. Everyone knows that a hand held mirror like this is often used for viewing rears, therefore it should work good as a replacement for the rear view mirror on your car. I wonder if objects in this kind of mirror appear closer than they are.

This Chevy/Geo Metro is a one of a kind thanks to the creativity and resorsfulness of one individual. With escalating gas prices it may only be a matter time before people are selling their big pickup trucks so that they can get something like this that offers the best of both worlds. The fuel economy of a a sub compact, with cargo hauling capacity of...a...well, a subcompact with a wooden box on the back. At least it has four doors so that you can still take a few kids along when you go to buy a load of bricks for the retaining wall that you are building in your back yard.  

An exhaust leak is something that can happen on any car, and it can make itself known rather suddenly. As it turns out, Red Bulls gives you exhaust repair. actually you could use any aluminum or steel can as a repair sleeve to put the two broken pipe ends into. Make sure you use a couple of radiator hose clamps to seal the deal. The other advantage to aluminum cans is that they don't rust, and it reduces the overall weight of the vehicle which can actually make the car faster. 

A broken control arm can be a real problem. The last thing you need while your are driving down the road is for one of your wheels to suddenly flop over sideways. Maintaining the directional stability of the vehicle in this type of situation becomes considerably difficult. Many different things can actually be used to put the two halves of this important bit of suspension linkage back together. The safety minded individual who owns this car used the three best things (after duct tape) that can be used to repair anything. Radiator hose clamps are very sturdy and completely adjustable. Not only do they work for clamping tin cans onto your exhaust pipe but they can also hold a control arm together. The old leather belt that you used to use to hold up your pants up should also be able to hold up that back tire as it keeps that broken control arm from falling apart. Finally, the zip tie. Made from space age polymers, zip ties are are super tough, very high tech, and adjust to the shape of anything. The vehicle in this picture will be safe for many miles to come because of the careful repair performed by a true craftsman.

AWD v. 4WD

If all the wheels are pushing, what’s the difference?

When the SUV craze first began back in the mid 90’s, nearly every single new SUV offering, from every manufacturer, had four-wheel-drive (4WD). As customer preferences have evolved, which they can do very very quickly. That 4WD option that nearly everything was equipped with has changed to what might be more accurately called all-wheel-drive (AWD).

AWD and 4WD seem like they are the same thing because vehicles that are equipped with either have the ability to allow all 4 wheels to propel the vehicle down the road. This is true, they are pretty much the same, but there are some fundamental differences that make them what they are, and in the end these differences make them very different. One thing that seems certain is that the term 4WD seems to be applied to things that are more truck like, and AWD seems to be applied to things that are more car like. This is one difference but let’s get into this a little deeper.

Drivetrain

Typical FWD layout

The drivetrain of the vehicle is the part, or system of parts, that make up all of the rotating assemblies that come inline after the engine. This includes the transmission, the driveshafts, the axles and axle shafts, and the wheels. All of these parts can be laid out in different ways but every vehicle will usually have all of these drivetrain parts somewhere in the system. The drivetrain and the engine together are usually referred to as the powertrain. Front-wheel-drive (FWD) vehicles have a more compact drivetrain with everything essentially located under the hood, or in or near the engine compartment. Small vehicles usually have this kind of drivetrain layout. Rear-wheel-drive (RWD) vehicles have a different layout that supplies the rotational power to the rear wheels. This has all of the same drivetrain components as a vehicle with FWD except it will also have a driveshaft that will come out of the back of the transmission to send power back to the rear wheels. This kind of setup is always found on pickup trucks and on many larger cars.

Typical RWD layout.

The trucks, SUVs, and a few cars that are equipped with 4WD have a drivetrain layout that is pretty much like a RWD vehicle but there are a bunch of extra things thrown in. Instead of a driveshaft being attached to the back of the transmission, another box of gears known as the transfer case is there between the driveshaft and the transmission. The transfer case is responsible for taking some of the torque that is going to the rear wheels and turning that rotation around to send it to the front wheels.

4WD

The transfer case usually has several different modes under which it can operate. Some of the more familiar ones include 2 high, 4 high, 4 low, and in many cases Neutral. 2 high is the mode that you would drive in when roads are good and extra traction is not required. This is kind of like the normal mode of operation.

4 high will shift the transfer case to direct power to the front wheels and the rear wheels equally. In 4 high the driveshaft to the front wheels and the driveshaft to the rear wheels will turn with an equal amount of force and speed. This is the reason that the wheels of a 4WD vehicle seems to hop or bind when the vehicle makes a sharp turn on pavement or hard ground while in 4 high. This mode provides the high traction necessary to maintain control in snow or mud loose dirt.

Most 4WD and some AWD systems
will be laid out like this.

4 low is like 4 high in that power is directed to the front wheels and the rear wheels equally, except now the torque is multiplied through a final, super low gear reduction. This means that the engine will turn very quickly but the wheels will turn very slowly, in all of the gears. This torque multiplication is used to sacrifice speed for more of the raw twisting force that is torque. This helps a big heavy truck climb straight up a very steep hill with minimal effort. The trade off is that while the truck can now climb the hill that it couldn’t climb in 4 high, it won’t climb very quickly. 4 low is all about maximum torque along with maximum traction.

The last mode is neutral. This disengages the output of the transmission from the output of the transfer case. This is pretty much what neutral in the transmission does; it’s just another way to do it. Some 4WD vehicles do not have neutral in the transfer case; they only have it in the transmission. When towing a truck or SUV with a tow rope, it is better to put the transfer case into neutral than to put the transmission into neutral while towing.

All of these different modes of 4WD are usually selected manually as needed. This is why sometimes 4WD is referred to as part-time 4WD. Many newer vehicles with 4WD will have some auto selection capabilities in the transfer case as well. These vehicles might have a transfer case selection that is referred to as AWD or auto 4WD. In this mode the transfer case uses computer controls to look for slippage between the front and rear wheels. If the computer sees any of this slippage it will automatically shift the transfer case from 2 high, to a mode that is essentially AWD.

AWD

So then what exactly makes this auto mode AWD and not 4 high? When the vehicle is running with AWD, the transfer case is splitting power between the front and rear wheels, but the 2 drive shafts, meaning the front and rear driveshafts, are not locked together. They are allowed to turn at different speeds if needed.

Any transfer case capable of running in this kind of AWD mode contains what is called a differential. This is the set of gears that allows the front and read driveshafts to turn at different speeds. The differential allows a rotational speed differentiation to occur when needed. The time that this is needed is usually while the vehicle is turning. Remember the SUV in 4 high, and how the wheels bind and skip when turning? This is because there is nothing in the transfer case to allow one driveshaft to turn at a different speed from the other while the vehicle is going around a corner. Every drive axle on the vehicle will also have differential located between the drive axles that turn each wheel. This allows the outside wheel to turn faster when going around a corner than the inside wheel.

Because of this center differential, AWD is not as effective in extremely low traction situations as 4 high. This is because if the front or rear axle has no traction whatsoever and the wheels are slipping, the differential will actually take all of the torque from the wheels or axle that does have traction. The slipping wheels literally take all the power from the non-slipping wheels and the vehicle quits moving. This happens because of the way the differential works. It must allow for faster rotation of one wheel or axle if that’s what that wheel or axle what’s to do. On normal dry pavement the wheel spinning faster is allowed to do so in order to go smoothly around corners, so in low traction situations the wheel that wants to spin faster (the one with no traction that is spinning on the ice) is allowed to spin as fast as it can. Many AWD and 4WD vehicles will have some kind of mechanical or electromechanical device that will prevent this from getting out of control to the point where you are totally stuck. If your vehicle doesn’t have this kind of torque limiting device then it is very frustrating to get stuck and see just one wheel spinning, even if you have 4WD or AWD.

In Plain English

So let’s sum it all up. AWD has a center differential and 4WD does not. AWD usually requires no action on the part of the driver to make all 4 wheels turn, and 4WD usually does require the pull of a lever or the push of a button in order to engage. AWD works well for all driving situations, and 4WD is only for low traction situations. AWD vehicles almost never have a low range, and 4WD vehicles almost always do have a low range. AWD is good in snow, a little mud, and gravel, 4WD is better in each of these situations and will also climb steep hills, as well as go down steep hills and remain in perfect control (most of the time).

Nearly all 4WD vehicles have the exact same drivetrain layout, but when it comes to AWD the layout has many variations. Many AWD vehicles will have a drivetrain layout that is essentially the same as any FWD vehicle. This is because they usually run around with only the front wheels moving the vehicle down the road. They will of course have a driveshaft coming out of some sort of transfer case that goes to the rear wheels, but this rear driveshaft, and the rear wheels will only engage when the front wheels slip. This is the type of AWD system that you typically find on all of the cross over type vehicles that are on the road today. Cars such as the Chevy Equinox, Ford Escape, Honda CRV, and Toyota RAV4 fall into this category. Sometimes you will see some kind of emblem that says 4WD on the back of a vehicle with this type of FWD bias AWD system. Don’t be fooled, they do not have true 4WD.

Which One Should I Buy

AWD cannot compete with something like this SUV
with 4WD.

If you want good traction in the snow then get AWD. If you want good traction in the snow but spend a fair amount of time off-road then get 4WD. If you want to drive something more like a normal car then get AWD. Trucks with 4WD will require a bit more maintenance, are usually heavier, and usually don’t have as much interior space. 4WD is also more complex and costs more to make. Trucks with AWD are usually not really that great off-road, and cannot come close to getting to the places that 4WD go. Because most people are not into climbing steep mountains and slogging through deep mud, they usually go for the AWD. That is why today’s SUVs usually have AWD and not 4WD.

Monitoring the Thermostat

 

This is not that control panel on the wall of your house that you argue with your significant other over where the ideal setting should be. The thermostat is a control valve within the cooling system of your engine. Like the control panel for the furnace in your house, the engine thermostat is used to regulate temperature.

When the engine is cold the thermostat is closed, so coolant flow is restricted. This allows the coolant to heat up much more quickly because it cannot make its way out to the radiator where heat is released from the coolant into the outside air. The thermostat is located at the coolant outlet pipe coming from the engine going to the radiator.

Normal engine operating temperature is about 190 to 200 degrees F. Once the engine gets to a temperature close to this, the thermostat will open automatically. Most thermostats contain some kind of device that expands and contracts with temperature. When this thermally reactive unit gets hot it pulls the valve open allowing coolant to flow.

There are no fancy computer controls at work here, just old fashioned thermal expansion causing this thing to open. When the coolant gives off enough heat in the radiator to start bringing down engine temperature, the thermostat will react by closing slightly until the engine temperature is maintained at the optimum level for which it was designed.

Two problems result from a thermostat that has malfunctioned, but only one of them is well known because it leads to massive engine failure. The first and most dramatic thing that could happen when a thermostat goes bad is overheating. A bad thermostat can cause this when it simply fails to open at the proper temperature, or it gets stuck while opening and fails to open all the way.

When the engine overheats, the coolant heats up way past 190° to a point where the expansion of the various metal parts of the engine cause the parts themselves to fail. An engine can run safely up to about 230° F with no problems. When the temperature gets much above that the coolant can boil. Once the coolant boils it will build very high pressure in the cooling system and will boil over past the radiator cap or through the coolant expansion tank. This is why you see steam coming from some cars broken down by the side of the road. If temperatures get up to about 250° F the possibility for engine damage becomes a reality. Parts get weak and cylinder pressures go through the roof, literally.

The other thermostat failure that is not as well known but is probably just as common is overcooling. This is of course the opposite of overheating. Instead of the thermostat being stuck closed, overcooling happens when the thermostat is stuck open. If the engine is not allowed to warm up with the thermostat blocking coolant flow, it might not reach operating temperature at all.

Overcooling does not lead to a dramatic meltdown of expensive engine parts, which is why it goes undetected so much of the time, but it is still a problem that should be fixed. When an engine does not reach operating temperature it will not be able to maintain the correct air/fuel ratio. It will run rich, or with too much fuel. This is going to have an impact on fuel economy, but it will also have an impact on how much power the engine produces, and how much pollution will come from the tailpipe.

A typical engine that suffers from a thermostat that is stuck open might run as cold as 140° F. This might not seem that cold but it is. At this temperature you likely will not see your engine temperature gauge move very high off the lowest readings. In addition to this your heater performance will most certainly suffer. On those cold days when ambient temperatures are below 0, your engine will never come close to heating up, and you will probably have frost develop on the inside of the windshield.

Diagnosing a bad thermostat is no problem for an experienced technician. Many times a good repair shop will also recommend thermostat replacement anytime any work is done on the engine near the thermostat, regardless of whether or not it is currently known to be bad. Thermostats commonly go bad at inconvenient times, and considering it’s a $10 part, you should have it replaced anytime your mechanic is in the area.

Keeping the thermostat working will keep your engine running better, keep your fuel economy and power output up. And keep you from suffering a major breakdown from overheating in the middle of nowhere. Don’t forget about your thermostat, it would be a shame for a $10 part to cause so much grief. 

Mind Your Binders

Don't let your brakes break 

Many different vehicle systems could be classified as important, but there is only one system that gets used all of the time and if it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed too only one time, serious property damage and injury is guaranteed to result. This system is the braking system. Think about how many times you have applied the brakes of your car as you are barreling off of the freeway heading straight towards another car, a pedestrian, or a concrete wall, and your 2 or 3 ton instrument of death and destruction stops effortlessly. The amount of dynamic inertia contained in the movement of the mass of your vehicle is tremendous but you are so used to the brakes working without even thinking about it, that it’s no big deal.

So what’s happening when you step on that pedal? Brakes are nothing more than energy converters. The vehicle moving through space is nothing more then kinetic energy, energy in motion. In order for the vehicle to stop we cannot simply take away the energy or destroy it, we have to convert it into something else which would be another form of energy. The easiest thing to convert the kinetic energy into is heat. To convert the energy into heat we take advantage of friction between the rotating wheels and the material that makes up the brake pads or shoes. These brake components get hot and then the heat is dissipated into the air surrounding the brakes.

Sometimes when the brakes get overused they loose the ability to convert the kinetic energy in to heat energy. This is called brake fade. When the brakes get too hot, the coefficient of friction between the brake pads and the brake rotors is decreased. If the components of the braking system do not dissipate the heat, then they cannot convert any more energy into heat, if this conversion does not take place then deceleration of the vehicle does not take place, or at least it does not take place as much as it should. This is the reason that big trucks take their time when driving down a steep canyon road. These trucks are so heavy that they have an enormous amount of kinetic energy so they use engine braking to keep their speed in check, because they are very susceptible to brake fade.

So how is the force of your little foot enough force to bring a 6000 lb. land yacht to halt? Several different things are in place that makes this possible. First of all a good old fashioned lever is attached to the brake pedal. When you push on the pedal you are pushing on one end of a lever. On the other end of the lever there is a mechanism called a brake booster. The brake booster uses vacuum force from the engine, or hydraulic power from the power steering pump to help the brake pedal lever exert force on a hydraulic piston inside of the master cylinder. The master cylinder is where we find the brake fluid that flows through a closed system to each one of the wheels.

An old dead scientist by the name of Blaise Pascal discovered that mechanical advantage could be gained when a small diameter piston pushes fluid through a closed circuit and pushes against a larger piston. This means that the small piston in the master cylinder can move a few inches and the pistons at the brake calipers increase that force greatly as they push against the pads. This concept is similar to the way torque is multiplied when a small gear turns a larger gear. The large gear turns with more force but it turns slowly. In the case of a hydraulic circuit, the small piston moves a longer distance than the large piston, but the large piston exerts tremendous force.

A brake master cylinder attached to a brake booster

On the other side of the large piston are the brake pads. The brake pads are pressed into the discs or rotors at the center of the wheels. In the case of drum brakes the piston or actuator that is located at the wheel is much smaller then the piston used for disc brake assemblies. The moveable friction units that are used with drum brakes are called brake shoes. When the shoes are acted upon by the hydraulic piston, or wheel cylinder as its called, they expand outward, away from each other and press with great force into the inside of the brake drum. So in the case of disc brakes the pads grab the rotors, and in the case of drum brakes the shoes push outward against the inside of the drums. This is so simple and so reliable that people never think about this action whenever they mash that wide pedal on the left to throw on the skids.

In order to meet safety standards all cars and trucks must have disc brakes in the front. Disc brakes aren’t necessarily more powerful than drum brakes but they are much more resistant to fading, and the application is more consistently smooth. Since the front brakes do the majority of the heat conversion that brings the vehicle to a stop, it is important that they be up to the task. Many vehicles will have disc brakes on the rear axle as well. These disc brakes will always have smaller pads and rotors than the disc brakes that are on the front of the vehicle. Drum brakes are not as common as they used to be but they are still common enough. Drum brakes are only found on the rear axle of cars and trucks and are usually used on lower end vehicles. These would be cars and trucks that are more entry level or less expensive. Usually disc brakes on the rear of a vehicle would be 

considered an upgrade.

Brakes don’t require a tremendous amount of maintenance, but brake pads and rotors are perhaps the most common wear and tear items anywhere on the vehicle. Front brake pads can wear out under normal usage in as quickly as 25,000 miles. Rear brake pads or shoes will usually last 2 or 3 times as long as the front brake pads, because the rear brakes provide less of the stopping force. The speed at which the brakes will wear out depends on the habits of the driver and the conditions under which the vehicle is driven. If the driver lives at the top of a canyon and drives down the canyon everyday to go to work, they are probably going to have to replace the pads on a more frequent basis.

Replacing break pads and shoes is very simple and doesn’t require much in the way of special tools. When selecting new pads at the parts store many different options exist. These options are based on the composition of the friction material used on the pads. The three most common materials can be classified as semi-metallic, organic, or ceramic. Each one of these materials has different qualities that affect performance. Typically the ceramic pads are the best all around brake pad, but of course that means that they are also the most expensive.

Brake pads

Should the brake rotors be machined or replaced every time the pads are replaced? The answer to that is technically no. If the rotors are not machined to remove any warpage, or replaced with new ones when the pads are replaced, the brakes will still work fine. The problem is that many times the pads will not break in properly and they may begin to vibrate in the calipers when the brakes are applied. This will lead to a squealing noise. The other thing that may happen is the rotors may have a tendency to become warped. Warpage usually occurs when the brakes are overheated, and when this happens is causes a vibration in the pedal and a shimmy in the steering wheel when the brakes are applied. Mounting the rotors on a lathe and cutting them so they turn true, used to be the most common way to service the rotors. Most shops it seems now just recommend replacing the rotors. This is not a bad policy because it more often results in trouble free brakes on the customer’s car in the future. Sometime the cost of machining the rotors and cleaning them up is the same as the cost of replacement rotors.

A few other things related to the brake system that require periodic maintenance are things such as brake fluid, brake shoe adjustment, and parking brake adjustment. Brake fluid typically should be replaced about every three years. On 99.9% percent of the vehicles out there the brake fluid has probably never been replaced because it is one of the most forgotten and neglected fluids on the automobile. The reason that the service of brake fluid depends more on time rather than miles is because one of the jobs of the brake fluid is to absorb moisture. This will occur whether the vehicle is driven or not. If the brake fluid becomes saturated with moisture it causes the boiling point of the fluid to decrease substantially. If the boiling point gets low enough it will boil when the brakes get hot and the vapors in the brake lines will compress rather than transmit force. This will cause failure of the brakes. Moisture is also corrosive to the brake components, and corrosion can also lead to brake failure.

A blown out caliper piston caused by brake pads wearing out and grinding metal on metal.

A few adjustments still remain as far as the braking system is concerned. Even though drum brake assemblies have been fitted with automatic self adjusters for the last 30 years or so, they still benefit from routine adjustment. The automatic adjusters just keep the shoes somewhat adjusted. The shoes in the drum brake assembly need to ride very close to the drums to ensure proper application. If they are not adjusted then the drum brakes will not take their share of the stopping duties. This can lead to premature wear of the front brakes or even brake fade. The parking brake can still be adjusted on all vehicles as well. This may be a matter of adjusting the parking brake shoes (these are part of a separate braking mechanism at the rear wheels of some cars), or adjusting the cable. If you apply the parking brake and it will not hold the vehicle, or even if the lever has to move to far in order to apply the brake, it might be out of adjustment.

One more thing to look for is the brake warning light. This is not the ABS light, which is something different. The brake warning light comes on for one of three reasons. The parking brake is left on, the brake fluid in the master cylinder reservoir is low, or there is a failure in the hydraulic system. If the light comes on and you have a hydraulic failure, the pedal will feel very spongy and may sink to the floor. This is very bad, get your brakes looked at right away. If you have left the parking brake engaged than you can easily remedy that situation. If the light is on, and the previous two scenarios don’t seem to fit, then it is likely your brake fluid is low. Do not top it off. Brake fluid does not get consumed or run out. If the fluid is low it is likely that your brake pads are worn out and require replacement. As the pads wear thin, the pistons in the brake calipers move out from the housing. The space behind the pistons fills with fluid. This fluid comes from the reservoir, which causes the level in the reservoir to go down.

Pay attention to your brakes. If they don’t feel right they aren’t right. If you hear grinding, or any other noise that is abnormal, don’t delay, get your brakes checked. Many people wait way too long to check their brakes. Some minor squealing and chirping is normal for disc brakes, but if you are not sure then it’s best to have them checked. The best thing that results from such neglect is a much higher repair bill because worn out parts damage other parts. The worst thing that results is serious damage to property and person. No excuses are valid for neglecting your braking system. If they fail you not only hurt yourself but you could hurt others.

Power to the People! Electric Power That Is!



2011 Toyota Prius

 In 1999 Honda introduced the first Insight to the U.S. market and at that time the race began. The race was obviously not a very fast one since we are talking about hybrids which are not very fast. The race was a race to develop new technology that would make cars go farther on less fuel, and create less pollution. Both of these things amount to greater energy efficiency. Of all of the alternative fuel systems that are on the market right now, none have experienced the kind of growth over the last decade that the hybrid vehicle has.

1999 Honda Insight

A hybrid vehicle is one that runs on more than one power source. Hybrid vehicles use a gasoline engine and an electric motor for propulsion. Depending on the design it may be able to run on gasoline only, electric motor only, or a combination of the two. Examples of hybrid vehicles are things such the Toyota Prius, the most popular hybrid ever, the Honda Insight, and the Chevrolet Volt. Often you hear the Volt described as an electric car but the fact of the matter is that the Volt has a gasoline engine that will come on to assist the electric motor to propel the vehicle down the road, or to generate electricity for the electric motor the use. A true electric car such as the Nissan leaf has no gasoline engine at all, more on the Volt in a minute.

The gas/electric hybrids that are on the market now will always have the following components: Gasoline engine, one or two electric motor/generators, a high-voltage battery, and some kind of power inverter. All of these systems use complex computer controls to keep everything running nicely. Depending on the hybrid setup they may not have a transmission like we are used to on normal cars, or they may have one that is just like those found on normal cars. Hybrid drivetrain designs vary.

2000 Toyota Prius

Some hybrids have more complex systems that allow the vehicle to function more in electric mode only. These are what are known as series/parallel hybrids. With this design the electric motor or motors, are the primary drive units and the gas engine is there to assist and turn generators to produce electricity. Some hybrid designs cannot function at all in electric mode only. These are called parallel hybrids.  A parallel hybrid uses the gas engine for the majority of the drive and the electric motor is there to assist. A design known as a series hybrid also exists but none of the hybrids currently on the market fall into this category. The series design has no mechanical connection between the engine and the wheels. All drive is accomplished by the electric motors and the gasoline engine is there only to turn a generator. This is essentially the way modern diesel electric locomotives run.

ICE

The gasoline engine is not much different from those that we are used to in regular cars. They still use the regular principles of internal combustion in order to move pitons up and down and turn the crankshaft. The engine is usually known as the ICE (internal combustion engine). Some extra measures are taken however to help them be ultra-efficient, and work well with the electric motor/generators. Most of the time the gas engine will not have a regular starter motor because the large electric motors used to propel the vehicle can also be used to start the gasoline engine. Some times when the ICE is started it seems strange because you don’t get the usual cranking sound that you have with regular engines, it’s almost as if the engine just instantly come to life.

An A/C compressor with no pulley

Many times these gas engine will not have any of the accessories or the associated belts that are found on the front of the engine. These items can be powered directly by small electric motors. The air conditioning compressor doesn’t need to be belt driven because a small electric motor inside the compressor can be used to turn it. This is a good thing because the gasoline engine on every hybrid will not always be running whenever the car is in use. If the engine isn’t running then an engine powered device will not work. This would mean no A/C when the vehicle comes to a stop. Other things that are electrically powered are things like the power steering, the engine water pump, and the alternator. The alternator is actually completely eliminated. Why do you need a small 12 volt generator that is spun by the engine when you have 300 volt generators onboard?

Engine and transmission removed from a hybrid vehicle. The big orange cables carry the  high-voltage.

Motor/Generator

The motor generators on a hybrid vehicle are usually located in what might usually be referred to as the transmission, or between the gasoline engine and the transmission. The amount of propulsion that is provided by the electric motors totally depends on the hybrid design. As mentioned before, some hybrids only use the electric motor to assist the gasoline engine, and the vehicle will not move on electric only. On some hybrids the electric motor can propel the vehicle alone, up to about 50 miles per hour. One way to get a rough idea about how much fuel a hybrid can save is by how much the electric motors can propel the vehicle without the gasoline engine running. Most hybrids currently on the market can move down the road on electric only but most of them can’t accelerate to speeds above 10 mph without the gasoline engine coming on. Once they get up to speed there are some hybrids that can run on electric only at a steady cruise between 25 and 40 mph. As the technology gets better and better, more hybrids are capable of going faster, for longer periods of time running on electric only.



The rotor of of a brushless motor
from a hybrid. Notice how well the scraper
 sticks to the permanent magnets



The motor/generators are motors that help to move the vehicle but they are also generators. All hybrids have a mode called regenerative braking. In this mode the motor/generators become a generator to produce electricity that can be stored in the high-voltage battery. The generators are attached to the wheels which are spinning because the vehicle is moving. The generators provide resistance to stop the vehicle, and because the generators spin, they produce electricity.

The motors are able to switch from motor mode to generator mode in an instant because they are brushless A/C motors. This essentially means that they use permanent magnets in the armature (the center spinny part of the motor), and electromagnets in the stator or field windings (the part that doesn’t move, that surrounds the spinny part). When the field windings are turned on, the opposing magnetic forces cause the armature to spin and we have a motor. When the field windings are turned off, we are then spinning permanent magnets around inside a conductor, this is a generator.

The Battery can only hold D/C electricity so the A/C that comes from the generators must get converted to D/C in order to be stored in the battery. Then, as the battery feed the electric motors the power must be converted back to A/C. All of this takes place in the power inverter that is found on all hybrid vehicles.

The field windings of a brushless motor from a hybrid

Battery

Early hybrid vehicles used Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries for the high-voltage battery that powers the electric motors. Newer hybrids are starting to use lithium-ion batteries, or lithium-polymer batteries. These batteries function just like other rechargeable batteries, but they are much bigger so they can put out more voltage and amperage. Most of these batteries put out somewhere between 100 and 350 volts. Because of the tremendous amount of electricity that they can store, there are certain precautions that must be taken when working on a hybrid vehicle.

Hybrid HV batteries located under the back seat

These batteries are made up of hundreds of small cells that each put out somewhere between 1.5 to 3.0 volts. All of these cells are wired together in series which causes the voltage and amperage to be multiplied until there are enough cells in the battery pack to put out a great deal of power. Each of these cells is actually quit similar to either a cell phone battery, or a D cell battery in appearance and function. The cells cannot be serviced individually so if enough of them go bad that the battery output is diminished, then the entire battery pack must be replaced.

A complex computer control system is used to monitor and control the state of charge of the HV battery. State of charge is never allowed to be higher than 80% of its actual capacity and it’s never allowed to drop below 20% of its actual capacity. The instrumentation that the driver sees may display that the HV battery is fully charged or fully depleted but it always stays within the middle 60% limits when things are operating normally. Because of these precise controls HV battery service life has proved to be much better than originally predicted.

Just like any other rechargeable battery, it was believed that the hybrid HV batteries would have a definite service life. The average life of your run of the mill car battery is between 3 and 5 years, maybe 6 at the most, and cell phone batteries usually go bad before the rest of the phone does. With hybrids first being introduced 13 years ago by Honda and Toyota, many of these first hybrids have well over 100k miles on the odometer and they are still running around on their original batteries. Eventually they can still degrade to the point where they don’t hold a charge and need to be replaced, but if they last for 15 years and 150k miles, or more, it may not matter if they need to be replaced.

So how do they drive?

Very well, actually. Despite what people say, most hybrid vehicles drive very nicely and have plenty of pep. The amount of power is usually not any different from a similarly sized vehicle. Some of the ways in which a hybrid functions might be very different and require some time to get used to. Every time you pull up to a stop the engine will shut off if it has been running. This is the idle stop function and it helps to save fuel. When you are waiting to turn left across traffic and the engine isn’t running it may seem a bit unnerving at first, but as soon as you lift your foot off the brake pedal to hit the accelerator the vehicle will move and the engine will start up right away if it is required.

Prius controls require a bit of explanation.

Some hybrids such as the Honda Civic Hybrid or Ford Escape Hybrid feel very much like a normal car. All of the controls are familiar and no special instruction is needed to get the car started and moving down the road. Hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt are a bit different and may require a new driving lesson. Once you are moving down the road however, all hybrids handle well and drive nicely.

Weighing the Cost

One of the great debates surrounding hybrid vehicles is whether or not the owner of a hybrid will actually save enough money on fuel to make up the extra cost involved in buying a hybrid, versus buying a normal gasoline powered car. All of this depends on how many miles the vehicle is driven in a year. Using the Civic hybrid for an example we can look at some numbers to figure this out. The reason that the Civic Hybrid is a good example is because we can compare the exact same car in hybrid form, regular form, a high fuel economy HF version, and just for the fun of it, we can look at the natural gas powered Civics as well.

2012 Civic Hybrid

All of the cars that we are comparing here are similarly equipped as far as the normal whistles and bells are concerned. They all have automatic transmissions, power windows and door locks, similar audio systems and other creature comforts, but they are not exactly alike. According to Honda’s website the pricing and the estimated fuel economy breaks down in the following manner:

•          2012 Civic EX (the normal gas powered Civic)             $21,505    39 mpg
•          2012 Civic Hybrid                                                        $24,505    44 mpg
•          2012 Civic HF (the high fuel economy model)               $19,455    41 mpg
•          2012 Civic GX (natural gas powered)                           $26,155    38 mpg

With these figures and some arithmetic you can see that if the driver puts 15,000 miles on their car per year, and gas is $3.00 per gallon, it will take 25 years to save the extra cost for the Hybrid. This shows us that buying the Hybrid is not worth it. The hybrid version only saves the average driver about $100 a year on fuel cost but the Hybrid purchase price is about $2500 more than the EX. The HF is probably the best value of all of the Civics because the MSRP is lower than that of the normal EX, and it gets better fuel economy.

A civic that runs on natural gas is more practical than the hybrid.

The GX is the compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Civic. This one is the most expensive but the fuel is only about $1.50 per gallon, cheaper in some places, more expensive in others. The time to make up the difference with a CNG powered civic under the same terms is about 10 years. If, however the cost of gasoline goes back up to $4.00 per gallon, and you live in a place where natural gas can be purchased for $1.05 per gallon, and your drive 20,000 miles a year, it would only take 3 years to make up the cost difference.

Plug-In to Better Fuel Economy

Plug-in hybrids represent the next evolution of the hybrid vehicle, and this feature may be the thing that allows hybrids to become a very legitimate alternative. The thing that makes a plug-in hybrid different is the fact that they can typically run much faster and much farther on electric motors only. The Chevy Volt for example can go about 40 miles at speeds up to 40 or 50 mph on the electric motor only. This means that the gasoline engine would never come on. If your daily compute is 20 or 30 miles round trip, you could drive to work and back, maybe run a few errands along the way, and never use any gasoline. When you get home you could plug your car in for the night and in the morning it would be all charged up and ready to go.

The Chevrolet Volt is actually a hybrid and not a true electric.

If you want to drive a longer distance, the gasoline engine comes on as needed to generate power for the electric motors and to provide mechanical assist to the electric motors. This means that you could drive the car for several days on electric only, and then just use gasoline on the weekends for a road trip. Fuel economy numbers have been difficult to calculate because of the way these things work but estimates are generally somewhere between 50 and 100 mpg.

Currently the Volt is the only plug-in hybrid on the market but Toyota will be releasing a plug-in Prius, and Ford will release a plug-in Fusion Hybrid sometime in 2012. Most other manufacturers that currently offer hybrids will be adapting a plug-in feature to their models at some point.

The Volt carries an MSRP of about $41,000 which is pretty steep for a small sedan, and makes regular hybrids look like a good deal. Chevy released the car to market after the federal government had taken over the bankrupt GM. The Feds will give you a $7500 tax credit if you buy a Volt. That only brings the cost of a new Volt down to $33500 which is still a lot of money for this type of car. Having U.S. tax payers fund a certain percentage of your new car purchase also seems somewhat immoral. If you are wealthy enough to spend over 30k on a new car what entitles you to receive another $7500 from your neighbors?

Plug-in Prius.

The new Prius plug-in will carry an MSRP of $32,000. The tax credit that this car will qualify for is probably going to be about $2500 (why less than the Prius?) bringing the cost of the car to the purchaser down to $29,500. Better than the Volt but still a lot to pay for a small car such as this. Pricing for the Ford Fusion 

plug-in has not yet been announced.

Plug-in hybrids sound great but considering the cost it’s hard to justify buying one as well. Whne they bring the cost down then maybe we will have something worthwhile. The other thing to consider is that the electric power charged to the batteries when the car is plugged in has to come from somewhere and still has to be paid for.

What about the Horse and Buggy?

While it seems fairly obvious that hybrid vehicles are probably still impractical for the most part it helps if we put things into perspective. Imagine the year is 1900. It has been 14 years since Karl Benz built his motorwagen, which is considered to be the first modern car powered by an internal combustion engine. Other upstarts have been around for just a few years and Henry Ford is doing a lot of experimentation, but the Model T is still 8 years away. Some of the wealthy are just beginning to run around town in these noisy little horseless carriages from names such as Ransom E. Olds and David Buick.

At this point, many say that these might be the future, but such a thing is hard to imagine and here are some of the reasons why. These little motor cars are slow, expensive, reliability is dubious, and no real practicality can be seen in owning one. When they break down and you take it to the blacksmith shop they aren’t going to know how to work on them. They are so complicated compared to what we are used to that it makes no sense to say that this will one day be the standard. Those that currently own them are trying to make a statement about themselves, or they are just trying to show off and act like they are ultra-modern.  Some might say, “Just give me a good team of horses and a sturdy wagon or buggy and I can get around just fine for the rest of my life.”

Now reread the above paragraph and substitute the word blacksmith with mechanic, and the words, team of horses and a sturdy wagon or buggy, with normal car, and you could apply the message to some of the negative viewpoints surrounding hybrids today. The bottom line on hybrids is that this technology is new and still unproven, and still needs to develop further. Current hybrids are not good enough to be the future of transportation, but a future hybrid that is much better and much cheaper might be. Let’s sit back and see what happens.

Porsche Cayenne Hybrid