No More Horsepower for You!
Well, GM has decided it’s time to stop touting horsepower and displacement – it’s so internal combustion. Instead, Cadillac will tout Newton meters – the metric version of foot-pounds – to tout torque. Which is so very EV. It is a change of verbiage intended to nudge people a bit farther down the electrification highway. Get them to use the new terminology. […]
Ramosaurs Rex
In thirty years — from 1989 to 2019 — the horsepower produced by the Dodge Ram 3500’s optional Cummins turbo-diesel engine has almost tripled, to 400 from 160 and its torque output more than doubled, from 400 ft.-lbs. to 1,000 ft.-lbs. this year. That, as the saying goes, is not small potatoes. Actually, you could […]
How Saving Gas Costs a Fortune
If the government’s fuel economy edicts “save” Americans so much money, how come it’s costing them billions? FiatChrysler just made the latest payment — $77 million — which was actually a fine for failing to make its cars “save” enough fuel . . . for Uncle’s tastes. Irrespective of FCA customers’ tastes. FiatChrysler’s model lineup […]
The Last Buick?
It hasn’t been announced yet, but Buick won’t be around much longer. It’s already mostly gone. GM just announced the cashiering of the Cascada convertible — after less than three years on the market. This follows on the heels of the cancellation of the LaCrosse sedan, which leaves the Regal as the last Buick standing. […]
Why No Safety Exemption for the “Little People”?
You may have caught my article about the brand-new 1960s Mustangs you can legally buy — upgraded in all the right places but left alone everywhere else. They have modern, fuel-injected engines, high-capacity four-wheel-disc brakes and modern suspensions that make them the equal — or better — of a brand-new (2019) Mustang not only in […]
From Canada, With Love
One thing inevitably follows the next — if the first thing is tolerated. When the Supreme Court, America’s unelected legislative body, created an exception (several, actually) to the Fourth Amendment’s clear and definite prohibition of searches without having first established probable cause and without a specific warrant, the Fourth Amendment became a functional nullity — […]
Gearing Matters!
Weight — and gearing — have a huge effect on fuel economy. Even to the extent of almost eliminating 40 years of “advanced” technology, including computer-controlled electronic fuel injection. To make the case, I offer the following comparison: I own one relatively modern vehicle — a 2002 Nissan Frontier pickup — and one extremely not-modern […]
Waiting for a Tesla Model 3
Three years is a long time to wait for a new car. It makes you want to buy another car — which is exactly what a large number of frustrated Teslians are doing as they lose hope of ever getting behind the wheel of the Model 3 they put thousand dollar deposits on as far […]
The Turbo Tax
You’ve heard the saying, your mileage may vary? Well, there’s a new variable you ought to take into account when you go shopping for a new car. You might call it the Turbo Tax. It’s paid two ways — up front and down the road. And it’s becoming harder to avoid either tax, because about […]
1987 Again . . . Briefly: Thoughts on a Traffic Stop Encounter
Yesterday, I had an encounter with an armed government worker on a motorcycle, running a speed trap. And running laser, which is kryptonite to even the best radar detector because you get no warning. If the detector detects laser, you are already detected. Which is just what happened to me. Bingo! You “win.” I was […]