Ways to Treat Your Car Right

Those of you who know me in real life have heard the story of how I murdered my last car by going over 10,000 miles between oil changes. Turns out, there are things you can do to significantly shorten (or lengthen) the life of your car. This article lays out some of the more critical DOs and DON'Ts of taking care of your car.

7. Ignoring Your Car’s Sounds
Every sound your car makes means something, if you pay attention, your car can usually tell you exactly what needs fixing. Those squeaking brakes mean you need new pads, and if you ignore that sound, eventually you’ll hear scraping metal, which means you need new rotors, and if you ignore that, you’ll eventually hear the sound of your own scream as you lose your brakes completely and fly off a cliff in a spectacular fireball of death. It’s more common than you think. Listen to your car.

Random Thought - Speedometers

If automobile companies want us to be law-abiding citizens, why are speedometers set to show speeds up to (and in some cases beyond) 120 MPH? And why are they tilted in such a way that when you reach 65 MPH (the average max speed allowable on American highways), the needle is still not at the "midpoint" of the gauge visually? Would changing the orientation of speedometers lead to less speeding?

Or is it all just a conspiracy to meet police budgets by giving out tickets? ;-)

The power of the firehose

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Most Fuel Efficient Cars

CRChair and I were talking recently about how despite all the talk about saving money on gas, it is not easy to find even small cars which really get a good MPG (miles per gallon). So I was happy to come across this list which holds the 82 most fuel-efficient cars for sale in America and their MPG rating. I was even more happy to see that the vehicle I chose - the Pontiac Vibe - is #18 on the list.

A Better Battery

One of the problems with an electric car is a battery that will work for more than a 60 mile commute. According to Wired, EEStor believes they have solved this problem with patent number 7,033,406.

84 year-old man still driving his first car... a Model T!

I know a number of our readers work in the automotive maintenance field, and I wonder how eager they would be to get their hands on Clarence Curtiss's car. Mr. Curtiss still owns his first car, bought during the Depression, and it is a Model T! He credits the longevity of the car to changing the oil every 3,000 miles. If only I had known this a year ago when I let my one car go about 10,000 miles between oil changes and wound up grinding the engine into a useless block of metal.

Oh, yeah. And Mr. Curtiss lives right here in Shelton, CT as well!

Safe Driving Tips the Police Use

This article is a nice summary of safe driving tips recommended to police officers which are VERY applicable to the average non-police driver. Some are common sense, some are not so much.

Airbags save lives, but many a police officer has been unnecessarily injured because their hands were over the airbag when it went off. At the school for law enforcement driving instructors I recently attended, the story was told of an officer who was driving with his wrist draped over the top of the steering wheel. His attention was diverted by the in-car computer and he smashed into a car that suddenly pulled in front of him: the deploying airbag broke his lower arm and caused his own hand to break out his front teeth. While driving straight, police instructors say that your hands should be at 3 and 9 o'clock on the steering wheel.

Another tip offered is to always drive with your windows all the up, or all the way down. They say that many accidents become lethal when a partially-opened window hits the drivers head sideways and cuts deep into the skull.

Now THAT is a Pothole

All I can say about these pictures is that it goes to show we all really need amphibious cars... or competent street repair crews.