Alaska’s newest US Senator was one of the earliest champions of photo enforcement. Mark Begich, a Democrat, took over the senate seat held by Ted Stevens (R) in January after narrowly defeating the scandal-plagued incumbent. Twelve years ago, Begich’s photo enforcement plan lasted only for a year before being crushed by a public referendum and series of devastating court losses.
Theodore writes:
Here’s one for you: what’s the best way to secure a parked manual transmission car? I leave mine with the parking brake on and the shifter in first. My cousin puts the brake on and the shifter in reverse. My brother-in-law puts the brake on and the shifter in neutral. So putting the brake on appears to be universal, but where should the shifter be? Is there any extra wear and tear from leaving the car in gear?
Sajeev answers:
Definitely park the vehicle, apply the parking brake and leave in gear. Engaging the clutch ensures the car won’t roll in the time between disengaging the parking brake and putting your foot on the brake pedal. Kinda makes sense when you think about it, no?
Leaving the car in gear won’t increase wear on the engine or clutch, unless you like to crank ‘er up without depressing the clutch pedal. Which assumes you hacked the system to allow the starter to crank without the clutch switch activated. If you went to all that trouble, perhaps you should find another hobby.
As far as your chosen gear, that’s irrelevant: all you care about getting the clutch connected to the engine. Since you mentioned it, I like second gear: it’ll slide in with a mere slap of a wrist from my billet short-shifter.
[Send your technical queries to mehta@ttac.com]
Whoever has been on the inside of Volkswagen knows that they are devout skeptics when it comes to alternative energies. Sure, they do some token research into hydrogen and hybrids to give the blue VW logo a greener hue, but deep in their hydrocarbon pumping hearts, they are devoted pistonhardheads. The aggressive incremental improvement of internal combustion has been their true strategy. Under the “BlueMotion” moniker, they tweak existing technology to wring every last drop of gas (or diesel) out of it. So far, the conservative (and conserving) strategy has succeeded: The new BlueMotion Golf VI, fitted with a peppy 1.6L TDI oil-burning engine, gets 61.9 mpg, handily beating the 2010 EPA 51/48/50 mpg numbers of Toyota’s third gen Prius (YMMV, as you well know.) Suddenly, Wolfsburgologists are registering a change in VeeDub’s secretive Forschung und Entwicklungs Abteilung (R&D Dept., see picture above.)
I’ll never forget my first ride in a BMW. I remember the excitement, anticipating a high speed run in an [echt] autobahn-tuned automobile. The driver never broke Nixon’s double nickel. In fact, he stayed in the right lane for the entire trip. Flash forward to two hours ago, G-forcing through the S-curves into Providence. In the middle of the second bend, a Nissan GT-R zipped by my minivan like it was standing still. Hakuna matata. What a wonderful phrase. Hakuna matata. Ain’t no passing craze. The GT-R driver was there. In the moment. In control. Safe?
Yes, I realize animated GIFs are so twentieth century, but when I try to explain how my car cover works, I’m often met with looks of confusion and bewilderment. Known as SmartCover, this product lands between the nearly useless cardboard/foil foam windshield reflector and a whole-car-takes-ten-minutes-to-unfurl-and-position-before-you-realize-it’s-inside-out cover in both price and usability.
Summers in the California Central Valley are brutal. Just last week we had a few days of 100°+ temperatures that cause the leather interiors of most cars to become skin singers. First-degree burns on the backs of thighs aren’t fun (don’t ask me how I know). When you think about it, what good is a windshield shade if the sun is in its highest position or if your car is pointing away from the rising or setting sun? Not much good at all. Better to shield all your car’s windows if you’re going to bother.
If speed killed, we would all be dead. After all, we are rotating around earth’s axis at up to 1038 mph (1670 kmh) and Earth is zipping around the sun at a whopping 66,660 mph (107,279 kmh). Speed’s not a problem. The problem is when we collide with objects that are moving at speeds that are substantially different than our own. Jack Baruth would have us believe that if we follow the advice he imparts in his “Maximum Street Speed Explained” series, that we can safely navigate American highways and byways, day or night while traveling at two or three times faster than the prevailing traffic norm. Unfortunately, his advice ranges from the obvious to absurdly dangerous (if he’s trying to be ironic or funny, he has very poor timing).
While its Detroit rivals unravel with publicly-funded gusto, Ford continues to enjoy nearly unanimous praise from the media and industry commentators. And why not? Free from the public funding, bankruptcy, dealer slashing and attendant bad publicity plaguing its competitors, Ford is clearly the healthiest of America’s automakers. But it’s impossible to forget that Ford’s buoyancy is but one of the final boons of the pre-collapse credit markets. Mortgaged to the hilt, Ford finds itself facing new CAFE and emissions standards without a certain deep-pocketed uncle standing by to pay its way into the new, green automotive paradigm. As a result, Ford seems to be trading long-term opportunities for short-term survival.
Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that ex-GM CEO Rick Wagoner missed out on a $39.2 million payday. We already knew about Red Ink Rick’s as-yet-unpaid $22.1 million pension fund. (The Presidential Task Force on Autos (PTFOA) won’t sign the company killer’s pension check for fear of an epic bailout backlash.) We now learn that the GM Board of Directors—an august body so deep in Wagoner’s pocket it nearly suffocated in lint—could have “awarded” Wagoner an additional $17.1 million in severance pay. Bailout regulations put paid to that bonanza. Wagoner also saw the value of his stock plummet from $93.62 a share to nearasdammit niente. Are we feeling sorry for Rick? During the GM lifer’s 17-year tenure as a senior executive, he banked some $9 million via stock options. I’ve yet to read about Rick’s total salary to date (he’s currently earning a buck a year) or the perks he will continue to enjoy into his dotage. As the Brits would say, I’m sure Rick’s not short a bob or two.
The Web as we know it is a teenager, but car makers seem to think it’s a baby: cute, with much potential, but inscrutable and insomnia-inducing. One could think of numerous, obvious new applications for automotive marketing, but we don’t see them in practice. Click on a manufacturer’s site to get an instant, confirmed test drive appointment for a car of your ideal configuration? Nope. Can you publicize your satisfaction or disatisfaction with a dealer on a maker’s site (similar to what yelp.com is enabling for all kinds of services)? No dice. Indeed, most commercial car stuff on the web is conventional, and boring. But recently I’ve heard of some Web-based brand-building that is supposed to be better. Here are three examples from the UK.
This one make more sense than the Mitsubishi and Saturn hook-up floated last week. Automotive News [sub] reports that Roger Penske thinks it’s a good idea to import Korean-built Renault-Samsung Motors vehicles to sell through the Saturn dealer network. (Apparently, Roger’s been en France kicking the idea around with Renault – Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.) Remember: I said more sense. Not a lot of sense. The details that would make this deal seem sensible are . . . uh . . . sketchy. “It’s not known which vehicles would be sold by Saturn or whether they would be current Samsung offerings or new ones based on Renault engineering. Also unclear: the corporate relationship between Penske and Renault-Nissan.” In the deal’s favor, the move might return Saturn to its roots as the first-time car buyer’s first port-of-call. Against, plenty. But it does back-up what we’ve been saying for some time: Renault – Nissan is sniffing around GM’s remains, looking for a tasty snack. Saturn or . . . the whole company? Watch this space.
Automotive News reports that bailout binging, eleventh-hour-back-room-rule-change bank (and former captive financier) GMAC has one set of rules for Chrysler dealers, another for GM’s. “Chrysler dealers must make monthly payments totaling 10 percent of the original outstanding balance on new vehicles that have been sitting on the dealership lot at least a year. [Plus a $25 “surcharge” per year-or-older car.] By contrast, GM dealers make monthly payments totaling 10 percent of the original balance on new vehicles that have sat on dealership lots at least 18 months. [Plus a $15 “surcharge” per year-or-older car.] Hey! Not fair! “And GMAC will finance just 80 percent of the purchase price when Chrysler dealers buy used vehicles at auction, compared with 100 percent for GM dealers.” Double not fair! GMAC’s reasoning (or lack thereof) after the jump.
Mr. Niedermeyer has crafted another “Curbside Classic” for your literary delectation and pistonhead perusal. I’ll publish the latest in his series tomorrow. Meanwhile, we’ve started our contest to “name that curbside classic.” This week’s booty: Mr. Herbert H. Blaha’s most estimable work Taschenwörterbuch der Kraftfahrzeugtechnik. That’s a German – English, English – German pocket dictionary of automotive engineering to you and me. [Also available from www.brandstetter-verlag.de.] So, first one to identify this week’s curbside classic gets the tome with which no transplanted Volkswagen technician (or owner, come to think of it) should be without.
“To live outside the law,” Dylan sang, “you must be honest.” And so we come to the final part of a series that has offended some and delighted others. Just to provide some value to the querulous quislings of quaint quotidian travel, I’ll pass along one tip for the highway cell-phone snitch. Most highway patrol operations discount singular drunk-driving phone-ins, but they are not permitted to ignore reports of brandished firearms. Don’t like the speeder who just blew by? Call him in for waving a gun. Use a prepaid phone for this, as most cops have little patience for being used in this fashion. Some would say that snitching is bad; didn’t our mothers tell us not be little snitches? Still, you know what’s best for others, so go ahead and make that call.
10 years, 6 months, and 1 lifetime ago, I bought my first car at auction. It was a base 1986 Honda Civic hatchback. One owner. 166k miles and power nothing. Not even close. It did have A/C and a radio (thank God!). But it was little more than basic A to B, which was fine because I was in school at the time. I bought it for $525 at a public auction, which came to $630 including taxes and auction fees. It was a beautiful buy at a point in my life when I literally needed to save every nickel in my pocket. So what did I end up doing?
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