You're hitting on an important difference, the highway speeds. But there is another, the relative amount of public transportation and private vehicle commuting.

If I only need the car for the weekend, then I really don't need an efficient, low-speed vehicle that handles stop-and-go traffic. My weekend miles are generally faster than the weekday miles. But I still work for a living, five of seven days, and that drives my choice of vehicle and driving style.

But now that I have an efficient vehicle, I want to keep it rolling and maximize my return on investment. I want to avoid major componet failures and keep the vehicle operating in a fuel efficient range. The GH database has helped on the fuel efficiency. The only thing lacking are hard data, maintenance metrics, to keep our hybrids working.

Bob Wilson

 

A maintance database where people could log the maintance and cost done on their vehicles over time would be excellent. It would be a great way for buyer to really see what the cost of ownership is for a hybrid vehicle, rather than hearing all the unsubstantiated claims, like battery replacement every 3 years, etc. etc.

 

I like the maintenance database idea, too. I've talked to two people over the holiday weekend who were under the impression that hybrid cars were really expensive ($50k plus) and when I told them that mine was only $19,600 (base price) they each flipped, before falling back on the old standby-- 'but I'd be too afraid to take a chance on the repair costs skyrocketing.' Mentioning the battery warranty didn't completely do it- I need data. Numbers. Statistics on maintenance at my fingertips. Proof that hybrids stack up incredibly well against 'regular' cars in all cost categories, not just FE. Please help!

 

I'm having a bit of a slack day and was pondering the repair / maintenance topic again so I decided to map out what the DB might look like for comments (and maybe a tiny bit of encouragement to have it done).





Vehicle Information Master (combine with Mileage DB master?)

• Vehicle Type<
• Starting Mileage<
• Extended Warranty Coverage (Y/N)<
• Price Paid for Extended Warranty<

Service Record Table

• Current Mileage<
• Type of Service (see service category listing)<
• Covered under Factory Warranty (Y/N)<
• Covered under Extended Warranty (Y/N)<
• Cost of Service<
• Approx. value of service if received under Extended Warranty<
• Comment / Description<

Service Category Table



Maintenance

• Oil Filter Reg
• Oil Filter Syn
• Brakes
• Transmission / Transaxle Fluid / Service
• Coolant / Rad Flush
• Belts
• Tires (worn or failed only)

Repair

• Hybrid Specific (Battery, Electric Motor, CPU, generator, CVT)
• Engine / Transmission component
• Body Electrical (lights, dash, power assessories, audio, etc.)
• Body (latches, doors, panels, trim, squeeks, rattles, rust, etc.)
• Breakdown Costs (towing, rentals, hotels, etc.)

Accident Repair

• Glass Replacement
• Bodywork

Basic Queries / Reports by Vehicle Type

• Total Maintenance Costs per 1000 mi<
• Individual subcategory Maintenance Costs per 1000 mi<
• Total Repair Costs per 1000 mi<
• Individual subcategory Repair Costs per 1000mi<
• Top 5 Count of Repair Types<
• Top 5 Count of Factory Warranty Covered Repairs<
• Top 5 Count of Extended Warranty Covered Services.<
• Percentage of Vehicles with Extended Warranty Coverage<
• Average price paid for Extended Warranty<
• Average total value of services received from Extended Warranty Coverage<

So... Ready next week?

 

You might take a look at the Dept. of Energy maintenance records and go more for a spreadsheet layout. Without trying to organize anything, I'd be interested in:

vehicle, Make, Model, Year of Mfg., date bought, miles when bought, price (vehicle only), country, state/provence, [city]

Maintenance records would be fairly brief:

vehicle, date, miles, cost, lost days, <repair or action>

A separate area would have oil testing results:

vehicle, date, miles on oil, months on oil, oil company, weight or type, viscosity 40 ( C), viscosity 100 ( C), [wear metals], [contaminant metals], [additive metals], [non-metalic content],[particulate counts], [filter changed, dropped pan, e.t.c.]

The vehicle would be the same as the current mileage database uses. However, the cumulative records would be available under each of the different groups of vehicles . . . with summaries at the top. Those with an interest in detailed analysis could cut-and-paste the data into spreadsheets to their hearts content. Meanwhile, the 'fleet managers' could work from the summaries at the top.

Since there are two types of oil, engine and transaxle, they may need to separate summaries BUT the columns and the rest of the logic would be the same.

Bob Wilson

 

I would like to have the ability to input both actual and ECU calculated mpg. I think this would be beneficial to us for manufacturer comparison uses and to the manufacturers for improving their ECU software that calculates mpg.