A Quick Tour Of The $25 Billion ATVMAP

Last night, the Dept. of Energy released a preliminary rule which gives the details of the $25 billion government program offered to automakers to help meet the new CAFE standards. The official name is "Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturer Assistance Program". I spent some time reading the paper over, and thought I'd share some details, many of which are not widely reported. The rule paper is located here.

First, the program has two parts: a direct loan program, and a grant program.

The money in either case is intended only to fund plant upgrades or engineering work for a future product, not ongoing operations. In fact, companies are explicitly prohibited from investing the money, and any investment income from the loans must be returned to the government (611.102, 611.105).

Loan Program:

• To qualify for a loan, a company must be working on an Advanced Technology Vehicle. An ATV is defined as a vehicle which has at least EPA Tier II Bin 5 emissions levels, and will have fuel economy that is at least 125% of a "substantially similar" vehicle from 2005. (611.2)

To determine how vehicles are binned for CAFE improvement requirements, DOE binned vehicles into 17 classes, such as Compact Sedan and Compact Performance Sedan. Vehicles are binned by EPA size class and also power/weight ratio (for the "performance" designation".

Here is an excerpt of their examples:
This is the table that shows the fuel economy improvement requirement to be considered an ATV:
So for a Compact Sedan, to qualify as an ATV, the proposed vehicle would have to attain at least 42.2 MPG; a Compact Performance Sedan would have to have fuel economy of at least 29.5 MPG.

• For purposes of calculating the ATV's fuel economy improvement, if it is a flex fuel vehicle, its fuel economy must be calculated without credit for flexible fuel operation. That means that if burns E85, the ATV fuel economy is miles per gallon of E85, not gasoline equivalent. This would appear to penalize flex fuel vehicles compared to how they are treated currently.
• A loan applicant must be "financially viable", such that it does not require the government ATV loan to survive (611.100).
• Automakers and parts suppliers are eligible, as long as the the plant improvements or engineering is done in the U.S. So domestic arms of foreign based companies such as Honda could qualify.
• To qualify for a loan, an automaker's fleet average fuel economy (volume weighted) from the most recent year of data must be no worse than their fleet fuel economy in 2005. (611.100)

This is requirement is to make sure that the loans are only offered to companies who are already moving in the right direction with regards to fuel economy. This is probably a meaningless requirement now, because of the market shift to smaller vehicles, probably all of the automakers CAFE numbers have improved, because CAFE is based on sales volumes.

• Applicants must file environmental impact studies and economic impact studies to document how their plant changes will impact the community, both positive and negatively (611.106).
• Projects will be selected for approval based on technical merit, such as amount of fuel economy improvement, as well as other factors such as "economic diversity", and financial health. Older facilities will be given higher priority.
  
• Applicants must pay any workers that it hires to do the plant renovations a "prevailing wage" in the area the work is being done. This is probably a bone for the unions (611.101).
• A borrower can only borrow up to 80% of a project's projected cost (611.105).
• The loan terms are for 25 years, and the borrower may defer repayment for up to 5 years after the project is complete. The interest rate is to be based on "outstanding marketable obligations of the United States of comparable maturity", which I think means 25 year treasury bonds. (611.107) A 30 year U.S. bond currently pays 4.5%.
• The U.S. government gets a lein on any property which is acquired with loan funds, and any assets which are pledged as collateral for the loans.
  

Grant Program:

• If a grant is requested, the grant can be for no more than 30% of a project's cost. (611.204)
• Grants will be given preferentially for projects that re-tool facilities that are at least 20 years old. (611.206)
• 10% of the money used for grants (not loans) each year is set aside for small companies of 500 employees or less, or a consortium of such small companies (611.207).

Some observations.

This is not a "bail-out". The money can only be used for specific projects which are tied to fuel economy improvements. There are some significant strings attached to this program, and though the loans are cheap, they are expected to be repaid, or the government will be able to sieze the collateral of the borrowing company.

The program seems to be somewhat targeted towards unionized labor. There is a bias in the program to older plants (20 years), and plants which are shut down. There is a prevailing wage rule. There is also a carve-out for small suppliers.

This is not a quick fix. To apply for a grant or loan, a company has to generate a large amount of application paperwork, including environmental impact studies, economic studies, financial status information. A company also has to show with computer modelling or prototypes that their proposed project will improve fuel economy by a very significant 25%, and flexible fuels get no advantage in this calculation. The application and review process is likely to take many months if not years.

That is why, even with this program in place, the Domestic 3 are asking the government for direct aid right away.

The financial strength requirement could be a deal-killer for some or all of the Domestic 3 auto makers. If the DOE uses more stringent requirements for financial health, such as low debt/equity ratios, neither GM, Ford, nor Chrysler may qualify.

Chrysler's Fuel-less Cars!

More google ads silliness from Chrysler, spotted here. The Chrysler EV minivans aren't "Fuel-less", and they aren't for sale, until about 2011 model year.

Veyron in Birmingham MI

I was strolling in downtown Birmingham (MI) today, after cashing in my voting slip for a free Starbucks coffee, when I saw a crowd forming on the sidewalk up ahead. Parked in front of the Einstien Bagel was a Bugatti Veyron. It was black and red. I didn't have a camera with me (of course), and I didn't catch if it was a dealer car or not.


There were about 20 people crowded around the car, ogling and taking cell phone photos. It was as if some guy was hanging out on the sidewalk with a cocktail dress clad Angelina Jolie on his arm.

I can't think of a way to draw more attention for ~$2,000,000, other than maybe giving it away as $20 bills on the street corner.

Obama: Reading The Signs

This is a photo I took near my neighborhood the other morning. It sums up my position nicely.

(c) TheAutoProphet. Photo may be freely distributed and used as long as attribution is given.

Chrysler, GM Cross Shopping

Edmunds has a fascinating analysis of how customers who shop for Chrysler products cross-shop other makes. Read the whole thing here. For example, customers who shopped for Chrysler Town & Country minivans also shopped for:

Top Most Cross-Shopped Against the Chrysler Town & Country
1. Honda Odyssey 43%
2. Dodge Grand Caravan 33%
3. Toyota Sienna 33%
4. Nissan Quest 12%
5. Hyundai Entourage 12%
6. Volkswagen Routan* 9%

The conclusions that Edmunds draws from the analysis is that if GM bought Chrysler, they would want to kill off just about everything except for Jeep and the minivans, where they don't have as much presence. In segments where they do compete, such as mid-sized and compact cars, GM is a frequently cross-shopped brand. This means that if GM killed the Sebring, for example, it would expect to gain some of the volume for itself.

Top Most Cross-shopped Models Against Chrysler Sebring
1. Pontiac G6 13%
2. Chevrolet Malibu 12%
3. Honda Accord 11%
4. Nissan Altima 10%
5. Toyota Camry Solara 10%
6. Dodge Avenger 9%

Nissan is one of the least cross-shopped brands with Chrysler. This implies that a Nissan/Chrysler merger would make more sense for Nissan, because they would pick up more products they don't compete directly against. With the caveat that many of these products aren't doing well. But it might be an opening for Nissan to redevelop Chrysler's cars based on Nissan designs, manufacture them cheaply in Chrysler's plants, and play harder against GM and Ford in the competition for the "domestic" car buyer.

Honda GX Stonewall? Hardly.

According to this piece in TheAutoChannel by one Edwin Black, Honda is pulling an Evil GM (see: EV1) and intentionally limiting the number of Civic GX (compressed natural gas) vehicles it produces and sells.

For all the sinister insinuations, Black doesn't really have an explanation for why it would be that Honda might be producing Civic GXs in limited quantities. That's because Honda clammed up and won't talk to the press about it, which is not surprising. All he can come up with is that Honda is pushing its much thirster Pilot SUV. As if a mid-sized SUV would somehow be hurt by sales of a compact sedan?

There are a number of plausible explanations for why Honda, which is certainly interested in polishing its already good environmental credentials, would be cautious with the Civic GX. Here are a few that are obvious to me:

Quality. Honda is obsessive about quality, and they may want to roll their CNG Civic out slowly until they fully understand how it can fail in the harsh environment of real American drivers.

Cost. Honda may not be making money on these, in fact they could easily be losing money on them, perhaps due to supplier issues. Honda may be treating the program as more of a marketing and product research exercise (like the original Insight?) until they understand the market for CNG better.

Dealerships. Since the CNG Civic has a specialized fuel system, different engine software, and perhaps other changes, special tools and training are required to service it. Since Honda doesn't (can't by law) own dealerships, dealers may have to put up significant capital to get CNG certified. Or perhaps Honda foots the bill, in which case Honda pays significant money for each dealer.

Honda isn't going to spread CNG dealers around the country, if there aren't enough fuelling stations, or customers for that matter, for it to make sense. They will pick a few entry markets, like California and New York, and go there.

And since Honda is obligated to service their CNG Civic, they obviously aren't going to want to sell them in places where they don't have a dealer certified for it yet.

The market is shifting rapidly this way and that. At first, pundits thought diesel was the new way--then the price of diesel shot up so that there was not much of an advantage over gasoline. The ethanol pendulum is swinging one way now, but could swing back the other way again if a backlash builds up. Oil is starting to look cheap again.

Honda isn't being sinister, they're eing cautious in an unpredictible and dangerous economy.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0.2 Vista Bug

I'm posting this to help others find the answer to this bug.

Vista is running fine, but Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 had me pulling my hair out... after patching it up to v5.0.2 like Adobe says, and importing my catalog from my old computer, like Adobe says... the Organizer application wouldn't run. It showed me a splash screen, then disappeared.

Task Manager told me that it was running, but it wouldn't open a UI.

After much fooling around, un-installing and re-installing PSE, I finally found this article on Adobe's support site.

Apparently, the file monitor service breaks Organizer on some Vista sysems (like mine). To fix it, I simply turned off the service. From Adobe:

Solution

Turn off the Active File Monitor service.

1. Choose Start, type msconfig in the Search box, and then press Enter.
2. On the Services tab, deselect Adobe Active File Monitor V5.
3. Click OK, and then click Restart.

Note: You may not be able to use the Watch Folders function if you turn off the Active File Monitor service.

This fixed my problem, but now the Organizer won't be able to find new photo files that are dropped in disk folders.

WIndows Vista: Not So Bad

I needed to buy a new PC, and I found a pretty good deal on a Dell Optiplex 330 (dual core, 2GB ram, 160GB HDD). I decided to take a risk and get Windows Vista (Business), even though I read all kinds of horror stories about how unstable, slow, annoying, buggy it is.

Here is my experience so far (after using it for a few hours)

Good:

• UI is nice. Lots of eye candy, Aero interface is a bit blingy but effective. Decently organized. Lots of options for different views.
  
• Boot time is OK for me (my old XP machine took about 45 seconds to boot up, the new one takes about 30)
• Ubiquitous search boxes are neat.
• Sidebar is neat.
  
• Lots of built in goodies like scan/fax, system backup.

Bad:

• The User Account Control thing, the box that comes up and asks you "are you sure" for every little thing is annoying. I appreciate the added security, but I am tempted to turn it off.
• If I ran Windows XP on this machine, I bet it would boot in like 20s.
  

I also heard that much of my old software would not work in Vista. Not true, so far all this stuff seems to be working fine:

• WordPerfect Office 12 SP1 (but SP2 won't install!) I may break down and upgrade to the latest WP Office anyway.
• Microsoft Office XP
  
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 (with patch)
  
• FireFox 3.0
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Ad-Aware
• Antivir Free Antivirus
• Quicken 2007 (with patch)
  
• Roxio Media Creator 10
• Apple iTunes

Software that won't work:

• Epson Smart Panel (don't care, Vista has nice built-in scanning functions anyway)
• WP 12 SP2 won't install.

Considering how blazing fast the new machine is compared to my old Dell 3000 (P4), and that it cost all of about $500, I'm very pleased.

Video: Motorcycle Wreck On Board

I don't think the guy was seriously hurt, maybe he learned a lesson?


Crazy Motorcycle Crash Caught on Dash Cam - Watch more free videos

More Thoughts on GM-Chrysler Merger

A few more thoughts on the possible merger of GM and Chrysler.

It sounds preposterous because it would add even more brands to GM's already confusing portfolio.  Consider:

• Cadillac - Luxury
  
• Saab - Euro Luxury
  
• Buick - Soft near-luxury
  
• Saturn - Euro basic / near luxury
  
• Pontiac - "Sporty"
  
• Jeep - Rugged go-anywhere SUVs and some rugged looking cars
• Hummer - Rugged go-anywhere SUVs
• Dodge - "Sporty" cars, manly trucks
  
• GMC - manly trucks
  
• Chevrolet - full line of basic transportation from small cars to trucks
  
• Chrysler - full line of basic transportation from small cars to trucks
  

Chop too many brands and you starve your dealer network.  Keep too many and you get a big badge engineered mess, or lose efficiency.  The new religion in the industry is to be lean, simple, agile--picking up more brands is like going back to the 1990's.  

On the radio this morning, I heard an interview with the guy who broke the story in the New York Times, Bill Vlasic.  One theory, mentioned in the paper,  is that GM may be after a cash-out deal, where they get a pile of cash along with Chrysler.  This may make short term sense, but it would leave GM with the albatross of Chrysler's crummy products, legacy costs, UAW contracts.

Another possibility is that, somewhat like a star expanding into a huge red giant as it begins the final stages of its life, GM may be trying to grow into a company so huge it can not be allowed to fail.  The government would have to come with support, or risk an economic supernova (or black hole?).   

Also, it would make strategic sense in the long run for GM to off a major competitor.  By removing capacity from the system, it may ensure more business for GM in the future.

Video: Old Guy Backs Up Onto Cop Car

A 70 year old guy in Illinois is upset that he got a speeding ticket. He intends to speed away, but is in reverse, and winds up backing up onto the hood of the cop's car.


How To Get Jail Time For A Speeding Ticket - Watch more free videos

GM Acquiring Chrysler?

The WSJ reports from unnamed sources "familiar with the matter" that GM was in talks with Cerberus to trade the rest of GM's stake in GMAC with Cerberus for the car (not finance) part of Chrysler.

This seems like a bizarre idea to me. GM would be picking up a big portfolio of non-competitive products (Sebring, Caliber, etc.) and redundant products (Ram). GM would also get lots of deflated real estate, such as the sprawling Auburn Hills headquarters, not to mention the plants, such as Belividere, which make the weak products. GM would also wind up with more UAW workers, and more UAW pension obligations. And GM would wind up with Chrysler's dealer network, compounding the problem of having too many dealers making too little money.

But GM's management would have some business reason to want Chrysler, what would those reasons be? Here's my theory.

1) Minivans. GM got killed in the minivan segment, and this would put them back in the game.
2) Truck dominance. GM could kill off the separate Ram platform and sell a Ram based on the Silverado, taking the truck sales crown from Ford once and for all.
3) Jeep. Even though Jeep has been watered down somewhat by Chrysler's attempt to grow Jeep into small crossovers (Compass), it is still a strong brand.

But all of these strengths are in the light truck and SUV sector, precisely where GM is already too heavy. With the coming tightening of CAFE rules, what business case would there be for GM to acquire more trucks and SUVs?

The idea just doesn't make much sense to me, as the armchair CEO.

Chrysler Hijacks "Volt" Keyword

Heh, I noticed a little bit of web advertising sneakiness on the part of Chrysler. On my own blog, no less. Take a look at the Google Adwords panel in this screen capture.

The New eBay Motors Scam

There's a new scam going around, which is a slightly more sophisticated variation of a fake escrow trick.

Scammers post for sale ads in classified services such as Craigslist or AutoTrader, with a too-good-to-be-true price. Here is one example I found: 2005 Honda Accord.

"Email me for more details : brendapharell@ymail.com .The car is in a perfect cosmetic and engine conditions, and meticulously maintained. No damage, no scratches or dents, no hidden defects, never been into accidents and it is as advertised. Email me for more pictures at : brendapharell@ymail.com . I cannot get in touch with you if you use the "Email this Seller" option because my email address on autotrader is full so please e-mail me directly at: brendapharell@ymail.com"

The car is a real car--in the sense that they borrowed some photos and a VIN from somewhere, so if you run it through CarFax it will check out as a real vehicle.

If you respond, they send you a fake invoice from eBay Motors, along with a fake "Vehicle Purchase Protection" service email.

Here are examples, cick for larger view:


It isn't a perfect fake, but it may be convincing to someone who doesn't know much about eBay. The real eBay Motors does not operate an escrow service, and they explicitly don't allow MoneyGram payments! Also note the fake eBay email address, "ebay@support-center-vpp.net".

The scammers want you to send a non-traceable payment (MoneyGram, Western Union) to a "payment agent", who is probably some idiot who signed up for a "work at home" job "processing internet payments". That guy cashes the payment, and forwards it on to the scammers.

I tried to make contact with the scammer, but he was being very careful--he wouldn't give me a phone number. He stopped respoding to my emails after I pointed out that eBay doesn't allow Moneygram payments, and asked if he could take a PayPal payment instead.

Update: I am starting to see reports of this scam spreading out into Canada and the UK, using other services such as Moneybookers. The rules are the same. If the price is too good to be true (way below market) or the guy wants you to buy a car without being able to look at it, it's not real.

Oilonomics 201

There seems to be this persistent theme in the energy policy and fuel economy debate that we need to be independent of "foreign oil". In his latest column, for example, John McElroy writes about ways to reduce our use of "Pesian Gulf" oil.

This is really an emotional play, to get people worked up about the issue. There is no such thing as "Persian Gulf" oil, in terms of public policy.

Oil is a commodity, which is traded on commodities markets worldwide. Traders buy and sell contracts, and customers who actually want oil arrange delivery via tanker and pipeline.

The "middle eastern oil" label implies that if we could just reduce our consumption by a few million barrels a day, we could bankrupt the Saudis (a worthy goal) while keeping our Canadian and Mexican friends in business. But really, what would happen, is that we would drive down the global price of oil. The Saudis wouldn't starve, but they would make less profit, as would the Canadians, Russians, and Nigerians.

An unintended side effect of reducing our use of oil would be to make it cheaper for the Chinese and Indians to burn more of it--so from a global warming point of view, reducing our oil consumption may not have that big of an impact if the developing world picks up the slack.

Video: Woman Ejected

As if you didn't need another exhibit of how bad it is to not wear your seatbelt. It is very hard to be thrown out of a car if you are buckled in.


Chick Tossed Out Of Flipped Car - Watch more free videos

Video: Dumb Dad

One day, he might Darwin his way out of the gene pool.


Not Father of The Year - Watch more free videos

GM Dropping Orlando MPV

According to various sources (see Autoblog), GM is killing its plan to bring a c-class (compact) 7-seat people mover to the U.S., the Chevrolet Orlando.  

This puzzles me, for several reasons.  The concept is a handsome vehicle, and looks quite practical.  It reminds me of a down-sized Traverse.   I think it is an exciting vehicle that would compete well.

Other carmakers are already selling small people-movers with some success, such as the Kia Rondo, Mazda 5.  More small MPVs are going to be sold in the U.S. in the near future, such as the rumored Ford C-Max (and possibly S-Max) MPVs based on the European Focus.  Honda may bring the Stream here as well.

Maybe, for some reason, the economics didn't work out for GM.  But from my seat, this looks like a mistake.

WSJ On Future Powertrains

Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal ran a supplement  with some generally well written articles about the future of energy, including such things as LED light bulbs (not quite ready yet) and underground coal gassification.  It is very interesting reading, and if you haven't seen it, take half an hour and read it through.

There was a good article by Joseph B.

 White about why the gasoline engine will be with us for the foreseeable future (lots of power for the pound, low cost).  But the Journal also published a table comparing some of the different upcoming greener powertrain options, which had some issues.  

I can't reproduce the whole table here easily (but you can read it here).  I'll just hit on the parts I think they got wrong.  

First, describing Flex Fuel vehicles, WSJ wrote that they have "no price premium" compared to gasoline vehicles.  This is not really true, as ethanol capable fuel systems must be made of different materials to resist the corrosive effects of alcohol.  Also, the engine control system (mostly the software on the PCM) must be more complex to handle ethanol, because it can be present in any concentration from E10 to E85 due to fuel mixing.  This requires substantially more development work by the powertrain engineers, and substantially more testing.  The actual cost per vehicle of a flex-fuel system is somewhere closer to $100-200/car, in large volumes.

Regarding plug-in hybrids, WSJ noted that the "advanced batteries are not yet available".  This is true, in the high volume commercial sense.  However, it was not mentioned that the high capacity batteries required to make plug-in hybrid cars work will be rather expensive, on the order of $3000/car more expensive than the current hybrid batteries. 

WSJ got sloppy with pure-electric cars.  They wrote, "Technology still unproven. Batteries not available."  Except that pure electric cars have been in mass production since about 1900.  And batteries are available--until recently, most electric vehicles used lead-acid batteries.  The article also misidentified the Chevrolet Volt as a pure electric car, which it is not-it is a "series hybrid", which is a car that has electric drive but can use gasoline to power the electric motor through a generator.   What the article was probably trying to get at was that currently, pure electric cars can not compete in range with gasoline cars, but they didn't' say so explicitly.

Finally, regarding clean diesel, WSJ neglected to mention that most implementations require the driver to top off a urea tank to aid in NOX reduction--a definite annoyance, and a minus in my opinion.

Just. Plain. Wrong.

Today, minding my own business, driving up Southfield Road, I came accross a brand new shiny black Lincoln MKS.

With a glued on vinyl roof.

Any dealer caught doing that to a modern car should have their franchise yanked.

Happy Birthday GM!

Today is GM's 100th birthday. For all of its problems, you can not ignore the impact that GM has had on the automotive industry, and the impact that it continues to have today. Even in its current, pruned form, GM is still one of the largest companies in the world. Some stats:

• 266,000 Employees
• 9.37 million 2007 Vehicle Sales
• Operations in 35 countries
• 13 global brands, plus OnStar
• 6,776 U.S. dealers
• Revenue of about $172 Billion

Some GM Innovations:

• Electric headlamps
• Electric starter
• Energy absorbing steering column
• Unibody construction
• Independent front suspension
• Engines that run on unleaded gasoline
• First mass produced automatic transmission
• Production airbags
• Catalytic converter
• Frigidaire, first room air conditioner
• First mechanical blood pump (for open heart surgery)
• First metal highway barriers
• OnStar, first telematics service

And GM has made some very popular and important cars over the years. Corvette. Suburban. Impala. Camaro. Bel Aire.

Here's a toast to GM. Keep fighting, guys, Michigan and the whole industry needs you.

Food Vs. Fuel: Soybeans Spike

I was browsing through a recent copy the WSJ when I came accross an article about soybean prices. On Friday, soybeans jumped by 23% on worries of short supplies.

The writer attributed the increase to to main factors: lower supply due to displacement by corn, and a delayed harvest due to a wet spring and summer.

Agriculture processors such as Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., and Cargill Inc. crush soybeans into soybean oil and soybean meal. Soy oil is used in cooking and has industrial applications such as biodiesel. Soymeal is fed to livestock.

Soybean stocks are at near-record lows this year. That is partly because farmers last season planted more corn instead of soybeans to cash in on high corn prices driven by a booming export market and a growing appetite for corn-based ethanol.

This illustrates the danger of quickly shifting to food based bio-fuels. The high demand for corn caused farmers to plant more corn and less soybeans (and other crops, like barley and wheat). This reduces the supply of those crops, and causes our animal feed and food prices to increase. Beer is getting more expensive!

Instead of propping up corn based ethanol, making big agriculture even richer, and driving our food prices up, Congress should kill the ethanol tariff and allow importation of ethanol and sugar beet feedstock from Brazil. This will allow us to bridge our ethanol needs until the point when non-food sources of ethanol are viable.

Of course the ethanol mandates and price supports are not the only reason that food has gone up in price so dramatically, probably the largest factor is the price of oil, followed by a weakened dollar.

We have ways to reduce the price of oil, but Congress is not yet willing to use them. It's a shame, because downward pressure on oil would result in downward pressure on food prices also.

Carnival Of Cars 09/13/2008

If you haven't been watching his blog in RSS, be sure to add Mark Tapscott's Straightline Blog over at Edmunds. He just posted the latest version of the Carnival of Cars.

I started the Carnival of Cars for "independent" bloggers some time ago, and later Mark Tapscott took it over and has kept it going.

What's a blog "Carnival"? it's a compendium of posts from a few different blogs, sort of the "best of" and a quick way to check up on what different bloggers are doing. By "independent" bloggers, I mean the small guys who write their own thoughts, rather than repackaging press releases like the corporate owned blogs like Autoblog.

Not that there is anything wrong with Autoblog, but their ratio of original content to repackaged press releases is sometimes pretty small. I wonder what happened to Eric Bryant ("The Angry Engineer")? he was a good source of down-on-the-ground original writing.

The neat thing about small bloggers is that most of us don't make money from our blogs, and are doing it for fun, or as a way to vent.

Biker Vs Biker

An amusing contrast. From UrbanGrounds


(Not that there is anything wrong with riding a pedal bike, or anything. I think Palin has better legs).

Video: Euro Truck Wreck

Car Clips Speeding Truck - Watch more free videos

Video: Motorcycle Vs. Deer

Bad for deer, bad for motorcyclist. I hope the guy wasn't too badly hurt.

Video: How Not To Beat The Train

The gates are there for a reason.


Semi Truck Tries To Outrun Train - Watch more free videos

The Tale of Tampa Fraud-Boy

This story has been burning up the car modder forums the last few days. A 20 year old guy gave his 2004 Toyota Celica to a small custom car shop for a paint job. Then he brought over a few parts and asked them to "add it to the bill". The kid must have been a good talker, because he talked the shop into doing $16,000 worth of work on his car over the course of months.

Then, Fraud-boy showed up at the shop and demanded his car, saying that he never signed a work order for all that work, and he just wanted his car back. When that didn't work, he sent his girlfriend, who offered a $60 down payment and a payment plan. When that didn't work, he came with his mom and the police, but a call by the sop to the state the attorney general shut that down. By the way, the car doesn't even belong to him, really, it is financed by his mom. And, by the way, Fraud-boy has a criminal record, for fraud.

Now the car is located at an undisclosed location, and the shop has placed a mechanic's lein against it. Fraud-boy swears he is going to get it back Friday, but it seems unlikely.

Read the whole hilarious, sordid mess here and here. Things get interesting around page 5, when Fraud-boy (SCP_celica) shows up to defend himself, in his full illiterate glory.

The downside to this amazing story is that the custom shop, which is a two-man show, is now teetering financially because of the time and resources they put into Fraud-boy's car. A PayPal account has been set up for people to donate a few bucks to help them out (I already did), maybe if you are moved you might consider putting a little in the hat.

Unfortunate Product Naming: Fat Stripper Blend

This morning I stopped in at a local Coffee Beanery (I'm still boycotting Caribou Coffee, BTW) for a cup of coffee. As I waited, I looked over at the counter, where they were displaying five large tubs of protein shake mix. One of the protein shake flavors was called "Fat Stripper Blend".

I started laughing, and the lady behind the counter gave me the look.

"Did you notice the name of this?" I asked her, holding up the tub.
"Yes... it works pretty well, I hear" she said, not getting it.
"What if I don't want to turn into a fat stripper?!?" I said.

Then she got it. Snort.

I'm thinking that "Fat Stripper Blend" was either an ingenious double entendre, or someone in marketing was playing around to see if they would get fired or not.

GM's Changing Volt

Lots of pundits have had lots to say about the GM Volt... but one thing that jumped out at me recently, after watching the peek-a-boo clip on ABC News via Yahoo, was that the design will not look as radical as the concept car.

Here is a photo of the concept:

Here is a clip from the video, courtesy of Autoblog:


Toyota Camry:

Acura TL



The production Volt looks like it will lose the crisp edges and cool, squinty headlamps, and will instead get a more conventional rounded shape with very Asian looking wrap-around headlamps. They didn't show us the rear end in the video tease, but I bet it is also toned down a bit from the concept car.

Note to GM: Volt's styling should be as distinctive as its propulsion system. Don't water it down, keep it cutting edge.

Smart Cars Are Ugly

The other day, I parked next to a Smart, and had a chance to look it over up close. One thing that stood out to me is that the thing didn't look well put together. In the front, the plastic panels didn't fit together tightly. Body gaps were large, and various seams and lines were not well aligned. Maybe it was a pre-production unit? Or a Canadian on a visit? I'm not sure. But it was no Mercedes-Benz.

When Saturn used plastic body panels as a trademark feature, many reviewers commented that they had large gaps. For some reason, Smart seems to get away with it.

The Smart ForOne

I guess I'm just not a fan of Smart's design overall. The small wheels and shapeless body don't generate any desire in me at all. Small cars don't have to be ugly, look at the interesting shapes of the Nissan Versa, Honda Fit, and Scion xD.

Suspend The Regs? Not That Easy

In a recent article, the automotive industry journalist John McElroy wrote that what the U.S. government should do is suspend its regulations on automobiles so that carmakers could bring their fuel efficient European stuff over here instantly.

In his article, McElroy made it sound like it would just be a matter of Congress passing a bill that suspends regulations. In reality, it wouldn't be that easy, and may not even be desirable. Here are a few reasons:

First, emissions politics. The EPA has set tough emissions standards for cars based on legislation such as the Clean Air Act, as it has been required to do by Congress. In order to suspend the emissions regulations, Congress would have to pass a law that effectively repeals many other laws. California is permitted to set its own more stringent clean air rules because of the curse of the geology of the Los Angeles area, which acts like a smog trapping bowl. European governments, unlike the U.S., have long regulated more for fuel economy than emissions, and as a result, they have lots of diesel vehicles--which won't pass NOX regulations unless complicated and expensive aftertreatment systems (like urea injection) are added.

The environmental lobby will howl that the atmosphere will be dirtied, and it will be a political brawl which will make the ANWR drilling fracas look tiny.

Second, economics. European cars, pound for pound, are quite a bit more expensive than American cars. Partly this is due to Value Added Tax and other levies, but because Europeans are used to paying quite a bit more for their cars, they tend to have more content than their U.S. counterparts. Consider the Honda Civic: in Europe, the Civic comes with standard goodies like ESC, active head restraints, and automatic climate control.

To bring European designs here, carmakers will either have to charge more than people are used to paying, or saveagely decontent vehicles to keep the price down. Already, many people are looking at Smart cars and snickering, because you don't get much for your money compared to domestically produced small cars.

Third, competition. Allowing carmakers to bring European designs here will open the gates for even more brutal competition for the reeling domestic carmakers, and even the well established foreign car makers. Brands like Fiat, Peugot, Citroen, Seat, and Renault, which were long ago defeated could come rushing back like a tidal wave.

Yes, consumers would have many more vehicles to choose from, but our already fragmented marketplace would become even more fragmented, and it would be difficult for anyone to make money.

A Five Hundred for Mom

My mom's last two cars were Buicks, and both turned junky before their time. The latest, a Century, started to rust through the rocker panels and lower doors, and had a drivers seat cushion that had completely collapsed, at the early age of 90,000 miles. The last straw came last week, when the Buick was whacked by an inattentive driver on Southfield road, and was unceremoniously totaled by the insurance company.

I started looking around at what was available. Historically a GM family, my parents told me they would be open to a Ford product as well, but please no Chrysler. The requirements: a soft riding mid or full sized sedan, less than 24,000 miles, around $15,000. We looked at Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Malibu, Mercury Milan, Ford Five Hundred.

My mom decided she liked the Five Hundred the best, because it had a very high seating position compared to the others. I think she was sick of Buick, also, after the qualify fiasco of her Century. She also was amused at the size of the trunk--"we could go camping in there!"

The Five Hundreds we found depreciated so badly that we got a pretty good deal: a 2006 with 20,000 miles, certified pre-owned, with side airbags, leather, automatic climate control, and adjustable pedals for about $15,000. It is a lot of car for the money.

Things I like about the Ford Five Hundred:

• Huge interior but a moderately sized exterior, huge trunk
• High seating position
• Depreciation means lots of features for not much money
• High safety ratings from NHTSA and IIHS
• Adjustable pedals
• Good looking 18" wheels
• Good NVH, even over railroad crossing
  
• Good ride/handling balance, not too firm or too squishy
• Decent fuel economy for such a large car
• Six speed transmission
• Real rear seat headrests
• Smooth sided, understated exterior (but most say much too understated)
• Four wheel disc brakes with traction control
• Good overall quality record so far
  

Things I don't:

• Noticeable body roll when cornering
• Weak sounding radio
• A bit underpowered
• Gear selector only has D and L gear choices
• Bland interior design
• According to Consumer Reports, the brake system is less reliable than average
  

If you don't mind sleepy styling and modest acceleration, used Five Hundreds/Montegos are hard to beat in value for comfortable, roomy, safe transportation.

Video: Bad Rally Crash

Rally racing is not for the timid.


Rally Car Slams Into Metal Pole - Watch more free videos

Another sign of the apocalypse?

Starbucks is going to close 600 stores. Surely the end is nigh.

I remember a Simpsons episode where Bart is walking through a mall, and every other store is either a Starbucks or has a sign that says "Coming Soon: Starbucks".

Oh well, at least we still have Krispy Kreme...

Silly Camaro Gauges

Photos of the production version of the 2010 Camaro are out, and it looks like GM has retained the silly retro muscle car gauges they had on the concept vehicle. In front of the shifter, and down low away from the driver's forward line of sight, are four analog pods showing engine torque, battery voltage, coolant temperature, and oil pressure.

Photo borrowed from Autoblog

This is a strange idea. If the information is important, it should be at eye level. Many high performance cars have important or interesting information (turbo boost) shown on pods mounted to the A-pillar. If the information isn't that important, then use the space for something that is, like a slot for your cool retro Ray-Ban sunglasses. Who really tracks battery voltage? Either you have enough to crank or you don't. And torque, who needs a torque meter when you have a tachometer and a throttle to give you the same basic information?

A better idea would have been to integrate an accelerometer display into the IP, so the driver could lay down some rubber and then see how many g's they managed to pull.

McCain Throws MI Under The Bus

Today John McCain appeared in Warren at the GM Tech Center. According to the Detroit News, when asked if California should be allowed to set its own carbon emissions standards, he said

"It's hard for me to tell the states they can't set their own standards. ... At the end of the day, I think states should make their own decisions."

According to the News, this is a flip-flop from something he said in Ohio, where he supposedly said that he favors a national standard.

Even liberal Democrat John Dingell gets it:

"I don't think much of the idea of several sets of standards that the auto industry has to make and I think if you're trying to destroy the auto industry, that's a pretty good way of beginning," said Rep. John Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (Associated Press)

Someone needs to sit McCain down and have a good hard talk about economics with him. Fragmented regulatory standards are a huge shadow tax on businesses that have an interstate presence. Imagine what it would be like if UPS had to deliver packages a different way depending on if they were going east or west of the Mississipi.

Regional standards create big headaches (and costs) for the automakers. They have to make complicated plans to comply with each state's mandates while still planning product development and production for the EPA-only states. Product mix may have to be dramatically different, with unintended consequences like shortages of small cars in some regions and oversupply of trucks in others.

It looks like McCain is looking to trade votes in the midwest battleground states, which have a large automotive industry presence, for votes in the "green states", which are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington. I hope his political calculus is right, because Michigan and Ohio seem pretty important right now.

Here's a better idea. The green states should encourage their citizens to choose more fuel efficient vehicles by taxing fuel more. The EPA should set a single national standard for fuel economy. And there should be as few fuel formulations permitted as absolutely necessary, preferably two: summer and winter. (Summer blend gas has fewer light hydrocarbons to reduce smog-forming evaporative emissions.)

Video: Top Gear Blind

This is a neat clip from Top Gear where a blind guy races around the test track with Jeremy Clarkson shouting directions in the passenger seat. He makes it onto the time board, beating two previous drivers.


Blind Man Outraces Female Driver - Watch more free videos

My First Sponsor -- www.AmericanMuscle.com

When I started this blog, I didn't know if anyone would bother reading it, but I knew I wanted to have some fun, share my opinion on the state of the automotive industry, and sharpen my writing skills. I definitely did not think anyone would want to advertise with me, but now someone has.

As you can see from the banner flying at the top of my blog, I have picked up a sponsor, AmericanMuscle.com. American Muscle sells performance parts of all kinds for Mustangs, from appearance to powertrain, wheels to engine chips.


I don't have a Mustang, so I haven't ordered anything from them, and I can't speak to their quality. But from what I can tell they look like a solid outfit. They recently had a charity picnic where they raised $4230 for Homes For Our Troops, which is an organization which helps wounded veterans by upgrading their houses to be more accessible.

Video: Mechanical Binary Adder

This is really cool... a guy builds a binary adding machine out of wood which shows how base-2 arithmetic works. It is really basic, but it does a good job of showing how carry operations are done in binary, and what happens if you overflow.


Marble Based Calculator - Watch more free videos

Video: Motorcycle Texting

This sounds like it is from India or Pakistan. A guy is laying down on his motorbike, on the highway, texting.


Guy Lays Down To Text On Motorcycle - Watch more free videos

Video: How Not To Drive Thru

This guy's camper is too tall, and he knocks the roof of the bank drive through down with it. I hope he wasn't hurt, it looks like the roof sheared the side of his door as it came down.


How Not To Use The Drive Through ATM - Watch more free videos

The Hijab And The Muffin Top

Today I took my family to the Detroit Zoo. At the excellent kids playground (near the Penguinarium), I saw a sight common to Metro Detroit: a young Muslim family. The mom was wearing a hijab dress, which covered her hair, arms, and legs, but kept her face open, similar to the photo below. Muslim Mom had a playful side to her otherwise very conservative outfit, she had fancy checkerboard shoes.

Exhibit A: Example of Hijab

From FLICKR

If you pause to think about it, there is some wisdom to this style of dress, even if it is very alien and threatening to us Americans. By being so explicitly modest, the Muslim woman forces you to look at her face--you can't talk to her chest, or any other physical part of her. In other words, you are forced to consider her as an individual, not as a sexual object. I don't think this is the case, by they way, with the more restrictive forms of muslim garb, like the burqa, which by hiding the face of the woman seems to me to nearly dehumanize her.

The Muslim woman, in her modest dress, really stood out because she was surrounded by average blue collar Americans, on a sunny 80 degree day. That means women in flip flops, tight shorts, tank tops, many of which were too large to pull off such revealing clothing gracefully. Not to mention all sorts of tattoos, muffin tops, whale tails, butt cleavage, and so on. What does the sloppy, revealing clothing say about the women who wear it? Doesn't it say, "I don't care what I look like as long as I am comfortable", or maybe "go ahead and look, this is my best asset"?

And what about the competition this sets up? The thin, pretty women in revealing clothes will be compared, by men and by women, to the not-so-thin and not-so-pretty women. But the modest women are competing on a higher playing field, they have to be judged more by what they say and do, not by their physical shape.

Exhibit B: (mild examples)

From FLICKR

Given the choice between seeing hijab and décolletage at the Zoo, I would pick hijab. And I'm not a Muslim!*

Update: I am not saying that women should be required by law to adhere to some dress code, as some of the commenters seem to assume. I am saying people should be more thoughtful about what their mode of dress portrays.

*In fact, the rulers of Iran would like to "purge" some of my "Zionist" relatives.

Video: Brutal Accident Caught On Traffic Camera

This is painful to watch. An SUV runs a red light and side impacts a pickup truck. I would expect that some people were seriously injured or killed in this accident.


Jeep Ignores Red Light - Watch more free videos

Video: Dangerous Business

Motorcycle racing is a dangerous business, just watch this short video.


Biker Barely Misses Wrecked Biker - Watch more free videos

Roku Soundbridge Rocks

I recently got a Roku Soundbridge. This is a wireless MP3 player with a large, easy to read text display that plugs into your audio/home theater system. It is a very well executed gadget, worked right right out of the box. It is one of the best gadgets I have ever owned, and has nicely replaced my CD changer.


The way the system works is that you run a streaming server on your Windows, MacOS, or Linux PC which indexes your MP3 collection and streams it on demand to the SoundBridge. iTunes and Windows Media Player already have the capability, or you can install a third party free server. The Soundbridge has a simple remote and an easy to navigate menu system, which you use to browse or search for music. It has a built in display, so you don't have to use your TV to see what you are doing, unlike some competor products. It talks wi-fi, so you don't have to run an ethernet cable to it.

The other really cool thing about the SoundBridge is that it can receive internet radio stations, without going through your computer. I use it to lisen to my local AM radio stations in static free digital glory.

I'm not shilling for Roku, just a satisfied customer.

Segways Of Doom

Buy a Segway. Paint it black. Now it's a S.W.A.T. Tactical Segway! (From Telegraph.uk web site, Chinese SWAT team training... on Segways?)

I'm not sure a real SWAT sniper would be shooting from a Segway...

Saleen's Answer To A Silly Question

Question: How can I make my Ford Expedition/Navigator go fast?
Answer (Saleen): Put our supercharger on it.
Answer (Me): Buy a used Mustang.

I saw this item on Edmunds Inside Line, about a new supercharger kit that Saleen will be selling for the 5.4L-3V V8 engines used by the Expedition, which are closely related to the 5.4L-3V V8 used in the Mustang GT. Pushing 2200cc of air per revolution, the supercharger kit claims a horsepower boost of 100HP over stock, and 0-60 times of around 7s.

I think this really cool, in an exhibitionist automotive-pornographic sort of way. If you are rich, or if your funds exceed your humility*.

But if you are an average guy with a family to haul, and maybe a jet ski, this is just silly.

Saleen also makes the claim that "this supercharger delivers with minimal effect on fuel economy". I think they need to rewrite that press release, out of embarrasment.

It is physically not possible to add 100HP to an engine with a given displacement without burning more fuel. The whole purpose of the supercharger is to burn more fuel by stuffing more air into the cylinder.

And, if you install this thing, you will have to run more expensive 91 octane (premium) fuel, or risk destroying your engine, according to Saleen's installation manual (here).

I think what Saleen was really saying is that the supercharger kit does not have a big impact on the EPA fuel economy number--which is calculated using a relatively mild speed trace.

But we all know that in the real world, if people are given an extra 100HP to play with, they will, and they will burn a lot of gas doing it. Or, as the EPA likes to say, "Your mileage may vary".

To add 100HP to your Expedition will set you back around $6,000, not including installation. If you upgrade your suspension, brakes, wheels, and maybe glue on some body kit so everyone knows you are packing, you will easily blow through $15,000 or $20,000. Add to that the increased cost of ownership from burning premium gas at an increased rate.

Hence my answer to the silly question: leave the Expedition alone and buy a used Mustang. Quick 0-60, eats regular gas, looks great doing it.

*As soon as I win the lottery, I am going to buy an Expedition, and bolt one on. Hell yeah. Just for the political statement alone.

The Six Cycle Engine (Gas + Steam)

I accidentally stumbled on this article at Autoweek about a racing engine builder named Bruce Crower who is tinkering with a six-cycle engine idea.

What Crower proposes to do is to add an additional compression and power stroke to a standard 4 cycle IC engine. Water is injected, which turns to steam, expands, and drives the piston down again, while also cooling the cylinder. Crower proposes that by alternately hitting the piston with gas and water, he can improve fuel efficiency (as long as you don't count the water as fuel) and eliminate the need for a liquid cooling system.

One big problem is that water is heavy, and according to the article,the engine consumes water at about the same rate as fuel. In order to be truly efficient, a vapor recovery system would have to be installed that wold recondense the wastewater so it could be recycled into the engine.

Another issue is the problem of lubrication--how to keep the oil dry and the metal oily.

Also, the question of power balance--how much torque does a steam shot generate compared with a gasoline or diesel combustion?

Still, it seems like such a simple and ingenious idea, it would be interesting to see if it goes anywhere.

Video: Wild Racetrack Wreck

From Autoblog. Beware of flying Porsches!



It looked to me like he was trying to move towards the inside on the turn, and was either bumped by or bumped into another car to his inside, tripping him over.

I Sample The Lincoln MKS

Today my local Lincoln dealer had a reception to show off the 2009 MKS. For some reason, they sent me an invitation, even though I am not a Lincoln customer (though I did fill out a survey on the web once...) It was a modestly upscale affair, with a live jazz band, real plates, and lots of good quality refreshments.

They were showing off two pre-production samples, a dark red car with a charcoal interior and a light blue car with a tan interior. I sat in them pushed buttons, twisted knobs, and munched.

(I didn't bring a camera, so the photos are stolen from Edmunds)



Stuff I liked:

• Exterior styling is much better than any large car Lincoln has sold in a long time. The last large Lincoln sedan I liked was the poor selling LS, and before that, the Mark VII (but that was a coupe).
  
• The interior is sharp, with a good balance between style and ergonomics. The leather-like material (maybe it is real?) covering the dash is soft and has a pronounced grain. The wood grain and chrome look trim is tasteful and restrained, not too much of it.
• The middle front arm rest is split, and the driver and passenger can adjust their two halves independently. Silly but neat.
• Rear seats are heated and cooled.
• The UI on the nav touch screen is sharply designed, with a black/blue color scheme, much better looking than the square grey "Windows 2000" look of the previous generation Ford nav systems.
  
• There is lots of room in the 2nd row, and I was easily able to sit behind the driver seat adjusted to my size, which is demanding because I am taller than average.
• The steering wheel is thick and substantial.
• The trunk is huge. Very long, so long that golf bags may fit in the long way as well as sideways. Probably more golf bags than passengers.
  
• Capless fuel filler neck.
• Standard stability control.
• Push button start.
• Almost hidden light-up keypad
  

Stuff I didn't like:

• Because of the up-swept rear styling, the rear passenger is enveloped by a rising belt line and a sloping roof line. I like the visibility from the second row of the much more blandly designed 500/Montego/Taurus/Sable cars.
• AWD is optional.
• The name. Would this car be any less sharp if it was called "Continental"? Why is the Lincoln F150 called "Mark LT" but the other cars called Em-Kay-whatever? "Continental" has a long heritage.
  
• Keyless ignition is part of the optional "technology package".
  
• Where is the turbo direct injection "Ecoboost" engine?
• The trunk opening is comically small, compared with the inside depth and width of the trunk, and has a very tall lower edge. This is a side effect of having swoopy rear glass combined with a rising rear end. What were they thinking? How do you get full sized suitcases in and out? And while the huge trunk will easily swallow 5 sets of golf clubs, by my guess, I would hate to have to wrestle them through the high and short opening.
  
• The price. Opt for a few electronic goodies and you are soon looking at a $45,000 vehicle.
• The hidden keypad on the door pillar was not completely hidden--it has a slightly different color to it which gives away its location. It would have been much cooler to have it be truly hidden.
  

Overall, from what I have seen so far, I like it, though I wouldn't buy a car this expensive at this point in my career. Like the Zephyr/MKZ, this is more proof that Ford has figured out how to build solid, well rounded Lincoln cars. Ford badly needs Lincoln to take off, and having a credible portfolio of cars is key. They can't rely on anachronisms like the Navigator or abominations like the Mark LT.

Lincoln is using the "Starships Don't Need Keys" tagline in their marketing for MKS, I hope that this one is more like the starship Enterprise, and less like the band Starship.*

*The last vestige of Jefferson Airplane, "We built this city, we built this city on rock-and-roll..."

+1 for Sierra Trading Post

I don't accept advertising for specific businesses (and I don't get enough readers to make much money from Google's ads) but I do like to post reviews when someone provdies good service.

I recently wanted to buy a pair of shoes, and I found that Sierra Trading Post (www.siearratradingpost.com) had them on clearance for a very good price. After I ordered the shoes, the next day, I realized I wanted to add another pair to my order. I used the customer service chat function to ask if I could do that, and the rep told me that the order had already printed and was being packed, so I couldn't. However, she offered to give me a shipping discount for a second order, so it would be as if I had combined the two.

So here's a big +1 for Sierra Trading Post. If you need shoes, clothes, or outdoor gear, give them a look, they have very good prices because they focus on overstock and closeouts.

New Tires On The Rear!

Hat tip to TrollhattanSaab for this neat video which clearly demonstrates why you should put your better (newer) tires on the rear wheels of your car--to preserve understeer bias.



So what's so important about keeping the car understeering?

Most drivers aren't skilled enough to correct an oversteer condition (you typically need to apply more throttle and countersteer quickly). Getting sideways means you have a higher chance of rollover due to tripping, or side impact. Most drivers will do the wrong thing for oversteer, they will brake, lifting the rear end further and giving away even more traction, making their problem worse.

But in an understeer condition, the instinct to jam on the brakes is the right one, because it gives more grip to the front wheels, which gives them a chance to regain steering ability. And if you must crash, it is much better to crash head-on because that's where you have the most protection from your crumple zones and seatbelts.

Goodbye Trollhattan

I saw the sad news on Autoblog that Trollhattan Saab is hanging up his keyboard and letting his blog go quiet. He decided that it was taking too much time to do a good job saabblogging, and not as much fun as it once was, with a shortened temper due to nicotine withdrawal. It's a shame because he wrote persistently on the highest-volume Saab blog that I know of. (Though I am more of a Volvo man myself.)

I'm hoisting a beer in your honor, Swade, best of luck.

Amusing Aveo Commercial

You should drive an Aveo because... it's not a dancing Transformer?

Engineer Feeding Experiment

After Passover, I had a few boxes of matzah left over. Matzah is that hard, dry, unleavened bread which the Haggadah calls "the bread of affliction". It has a texture and taste similar to stiff cardboard.

I decided to perform the following experiment.

Hypothesis: Engineers will eat anything, even leftover Passover matzah.
Equipment: 1 box of matzah, clock, coffee room, sheet of paper, pen.
Procedure: Box of matzah was opened and placed in the coffee room, near the community coffee maker. The words "Free Food" were written on the sheet of paper, which was placed next to the box of matzah.
Observations:

• 5 minutes: a coworker was spotted munching on a matza cracker walking down the hall.
• 15 minutes: a second coworker was seen trying to pull a piece of matzah out of the box while balancing a cup of coffee in the other hand.
• 30 minutes: half of the matzah was missing.
• 60 minutes: all matzah is gone, and the box and sign are found in the trash bin. A fan of matzah crumbs can be seen on the carpet around the door of the coffee room.

Conclusions: Engineers will eat anything.

Interesting CAFE Implication

Part of the new proposed CAFE rules is that they will be applied on a scale that varies with a vehicle's "footprint", which is defined as its wheelbase x track. Vehicles with larger footprints will be allowed to have lower fuel economy than vehicles with smaller footprints; this is a way to (sort of) account for vehicle size. The NHTSA decided to use a sort of s-shaped curve called a constrained logistic curve, to map the footprint to the fuel economy target.

For cars, here is the proposed set of curves for 2011-2015 (copied from here, the NHTSA Notice For Proposed Rulemaking, p. 278). To get some idea of what this curve does to actual vehicles, I calculated the footprint of four vehicles and put them on the chart.























I think a possible side effect of this regulatory pressure could be that carmakers will increase the wheelbase and track of their vehicles, particularly vehicles with poor inherent fuel economy such as sports cars.

For example, if the BMW added added about 1.5" to its track and 2" to the wheelbase of the 328, it would go from a footprint of 44.8 ft^2 to 47 ft^2, and therefore from a 2015 CAFE requirement of about 37MPG to about 33MPG, or about a 10% reduction.

Matzah!

A little somethin' for my peeps.

Matzah! | Funny Jokes at JibJab

2010 Taurus Spy Photo

This photo is making the rounds on the net as a purported spy shot of the 2010 Taurus redesign.
Assuming it is, this a sharp looking car, and portends for a much livelier Ford in the future. From this view it looks like very little sheet metal is carry-over from the current Five Hundred/Taurus, although the pronounced arch of the roof line is still there.

It also signals that the tightly packed vertical grilles with large amounts of chrome are going away, and that Ford will go more towards its European design style, which is not a bad thing.
I do see a bit of Honda in the front end, and also, and maybe some Lexus. The shape is sharp, but somewhat generic. One good thing about the current 3-bar chrome grille that Ford is using is that it is a unique design.

It is amazing, to compare the 2010 with the 2008, how bland the 2008 looks.

Update: Someone pointed out to me, that this is probably not a concept car, but is probably a clay styling model. That is, a life size model of a proposed design made from clay and painted to look like a car. One hint is the "glass", which is painted glossy black. Also notice what appears to be another clay model, still clay colored, in the distance.

The point is, this car may be nothing more than a proposal by one group of designers, competing with other proposals. The final car may look very much like this, or it may look not much like it at all!

The next Taurus? (Courtesy of Edmunds.com)
















The Current Taurus


















The Ford (Europe) Mondeo



















Honda Accord


















Lexus IS

















Styling dead end? The Interceptor concept

Tasting 3.5 Year Old Budweiser

So Passover is coming up and my wife says to me, "Are you finally going to get rid of the old cans of Budweiser you keep saving for beer-can chicken? They must be stale by now". As I am sure you know, beer is chametz, and as such, must be consumed, destroyed, or sold to a non-Jew before Passover.

In the past, I had "sold" the Budweiser ceremonially by putting it in with our other non-discarded grain products. I could never drink the stuff, being a certified Beer Snob, and somehow I kept forgetting to use it to make beer-can chicken. Every time I needed beer for chicken, I reached for whatever I was drinking at the time.

So, as a zymurgilogical* experiment, I decided to crack open and consume one of my Budweiser cans, which according to the handy "born-on date" stamp, was 3.5 years old. It had been stored on the floor of my basement, in a plastic crate, at a near constant temperature of about 70 degrees.

Here are my observations:

The pour:
Fizzy, lots of head. Good straw color, perfectly clear. Fierce bubble formation (dirty glass?)
Nose:
Hardly any smell at all. Slight notes of rice. Surprisingly, no metallic odor.
Taste:
Hardly any. The good news is that the can did not impart any noticeable flavor to the beer (I think the cans are plastic coated these days). Any trace of hops that was in the original beer, which would have been very little, is now completely gone. The stuff tasted just a little bit more beer-like than Zima. There is a hint of malt, some sweet rice, and a bunch of carbonation. Lots of mouth fizz.
Finish:
Slight rice sweetness. Very little aftertaste.

Overall, I was surprised and pleased with the results of my experiment, and I can offer this conclusion: if you don't like beer that tastes too much like beer, cellar some Bud for a few years to take the edge off. Serve cold, with a slice of lemon.

The other can was used to make beer-bread.

*Zymurgy is the science of beer.

Video: Dumb Bronco Tricks

Another low-effort post on my part. Snarky comment: maybe better to clean off windshield before ramming your way out of your parking space. Watch to the end for the money shot, radiator fluid bleeding out onto the garage floor.


Why You Should Always Defrost Your Windshield - Watch more free videos

Video: Insane Motorcycle Guy

Effing nuts.


Insane Motorcycle Dash Cam Footage - Watch more free videos

Video: Robot Big Dog

This is a video of the "Big Dog" robot project, from Boston Dynamics. This is very impressive, especially how they programmed the robot to have reflexes, so that if it thinks it is falling or slipping, it splays out the appropriate leg and catches itself. The buzzing noise is from a small gasoline engine that they are using to generate self contained hydraulic power.


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Volvo Wagon VS Renault Sub-Compact

Amazing video clip from 5th Gear. In a brutal 40mph (80mph closing speed) offset frontal crash, a newer Renault sub-compact just mauls an old Volvo wagon. Not the result I expected. This shows that maybe mass isn't everything, maybe it is better to buy a newer car with more modern design than an old "tank"!