I was at a farewell to bachelorhood party for a co-worker and someone bought up paying "$20/day in diesel" to commute into work. In Alabama, I pointed out that folks really need to have a weekday car that is separate from the work truck. But I was on the way out so I told the honoree to remember that when his future wife accuses him of being unfaithful, the instant answer should be, "Baby, why would I want two women mad at me?"
The next week it turned out the "$20/day" guy had been driving his horse trailer, dual-wheeled diesel into work. Unfortunately, he visited my least favorite car dealer in North Alabama to get a small, commuting car and they tried to jerk him around. I shared my similar, bad experience with the same dealer and suggested visiting the Decatur dealer or any dealer in a rural area. I explained that my engineering studies started with mechanical engineering before I went in the Marines.
Friday as I was coming into work I ran into a couple of fellow engineers and we started talking about car mileage. I started talking about things that work for anyone and later sent the team my 'top ten' list of things that save fuel for any car:
- tire pressure between max side wall and door jam with a graph showing the rolling drag effect
- oil level between "E" and "F" with 3/4 th being best but NEVER over the "F" and why
- 65 mph looks to be an efficient speed plateau and 70 mph the knee
- engine filter change now that "yellow season" is over
- wheel alignment and minimizing rear wheel toe and camber
- predictive braking, slowing before a red light so you can keep some rolling momentum and win if the light changes
- slow speed for first 1-2 miles to let engine warm-up before putting a load on it
- tune-up including PVC, linkages, throttle cleaning and Rain-X
- clean it out for neat freeks and wash it for clean queens
- nothing really since the above are the big ones
I am not too worried about how my fellow workers see my hybrid. My tag, "C-52MPG," and willingness to take anyone for a test drive has pretty well isolated me from the remaining skeptics. I don't doubt they are there but they don't seem interested in chatting about their fears out loud.
I have a good working relationship with the pony car owners, the dirty finger nails crowd, because we share a genuine interest in vehicle performance. The same things that make their cars go fast make our cars go cheap and I don't have to explain torque and specific fuel consumption. They tell me about their transmission ratios and I understand.
The price of gasoline is the most powerful corrosive of all skeptic claims. Furthermore, the hybrid community has the counter arguments at their finger tips so anyone who repeats old arguments gets buried in the accurate counter claims. Other than the blind trying to 'bell the cat,' there are no new arguments especially since GM has branded hybrids "a good thing." Ford had already lead the way. Now with diesel higher than gas, the diesel-only advocates are trapped.
The real problem is availability, getting manufacturing to catch up. Sure there will be more and better built small, gas-only cars, but the hybrid transmission systems have fundamental advantages that over the long term, are the way to go. Filling out the short-range gap with PHEV, this is the wave of the future.
Bob Wilson