Super Gas Saver » vehicles

What is a Hybrid Car?

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:04:35 +0000

What is a hybrid car? Even with the myriad new coverage and the copious advertising for hybrid vehicles, the fact is that many people are unsure what one really is or how hybrids work. As the name suggests a hybrid car (or any other hybrid vehicle) is one that uses a combination of two power plants to increase fuel economy and reduce emissions.

In the majority of cases hybrid vehicles use a gasoline engine and one or more electric motors. Some manufacturers are developing hybrids that use a small, high efficiency, turbo diesel engine in lieu of the gas engine. Using a turbo diesel as part of the hybrid power train will have advantages in efficiency, emissions, and the ability to use renewable biofuels. The manufacturers developing diesel / electric hybrids are principally European, which makes sense given the popularity of diesel vehicles in Europe. So far Citroen, VW, Opal, and Peugeot have all showed prototype vehicles that have strong production possibilities.

The hybrid’s electric motors draw their power from a large battery bank in the vehicle. This is recharged either from a generator connected to the gasoline engine, or by a process known as regenerative braking. The regenerative braking is merely recapturing the energy contained in the vehicle because it is moving. Any object that is moving required energy to get it moving at the speed that it’s traveling and maintain that speed. To slow it down, the energy must be removed.

With a normal vehicle, friction brakes are used for slowing and stopping. These transform the energy contained in the moving vehicle into heat, which is then dissipated into the air. If that seems like a complete waste, it is. The hybrid’s regenerative braking systems actually recapture that energy and store it in the batteries used to power the electric motors for later use. There are one or more generators that are coupled to the wheels under braking. The drag created by the generators when turning the car’s spinning wheels into electricity provide much of the stopping power. This has two benefits; greatly increased brake life, and capturing energy that would have been wasted as heat (and that you already paid for).

Because internal combustion engines such as gasoline and diesel engines exhibit increased efficiency during different operating conditions, the vehicle can be operated on the optimum power source for a given load condition. At times such as peak acceleration, both power sources can be used in combination. Electric power is typically used when starting out and at low speeds when electric motors are most efficient. The internal combustion engine takes over at higher speeds or when the batteries are discharged.

There are different types of hybrids. Pure hybrids can move completely on electric power. This can be kind of weird if you’re not expecting it. The first time I experienced this, a Ford Escape hybrid pulled away from a stop as I was standing next to it. It was eerie as the truck silently glided away from the curb, as if by magic. After it was moving about 10 mph, the gas engine kicked in and it motored (engined??) away.

The stored energy in the batteries let the hybrid’s engine be completely shut down when stopped. The engine is only restarted after the vehicle’s electronic control unit decides it would be better to let the gas engine handle things. More efficiency is gained by using this method. This is similar to the technique used by your internal combustion powered golf cart, but far more sophisticated.

In fact, the sophistication of engine and control electronics are one of the reasons that practical hybrid vehicles are on the road today. Juggling the optimum mix of power between the two power systems, and recapturing the heretofore lost energy from the moving vehicle would have been impossible to accomplish affordably and practically a few years ago.

So, that’s what a hybrid car is and kind of how it works. My favorite is the Honda Civic hybrid, followed by the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, but I’m waiting for someone to make a really cool sports car hybrid, which reportedly Toyota is doing as a replacement for the dear, departed Supra. Toyota probably has more experience than any other manufacturer with hybrids, so they should be well equipped to handle such a task.

Not to be outdone, Honda is reportedly releasing their CR-Z in about 2011. The CR-Z is a sports coupe in the same vein as the Honda CR-X of 15 years ago, but with a sexy, modern body, great handling, and the hybrid power train from the new Civic hybrid.

Until next time……..

Used Cars for Cheap – How to Buy a Good One

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:58:56 +0000

Buying a used car for cheap, especially one that saves gas, is at the forefront of many people’s minds. Well, let’s revise that a bit. People dream of buying a used car for cheap, but they are afraid of getting a total piece of crap. When you’re trying to buy a car it’s all too easy to get a cheap used car that’s, well, cheap. You may be driving one of those now! If you’re afraid of ending up with another, here’s how to get a used car for cheap that’s not a rust bucket pile of crap.

There are some important things to look at.

How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 1

Just what are your requirements in a vehicle? Driving yourself 40 miles a day to work? That will pile up the miles in a hurry. A Chevy Tahoe is probably not your best choice, unless you’ve got a hell of car pool and the weather really sucks where you live. On the other hand, if you take your extended family of on ski trips while towing your trailer, a Tahoe would be just the ticket. You can save a ton of money by getting what you really need in a vehicle, and foregoing what you really want. It bites, but you’ll save a pile of money, and that’s what buying cheap is all about.

After you decide what type of vehicle suits your needs, narrow down which vehicles in that category you’d actually be caught dead driving. Typically less picky equals more savings. If you’re the easily satisfied type here, that helps. If details such as colors, brand, and features, don’t matter to you all that much, the easier it will be to get a great used car, cheap.
How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 2

Think beyond how much money you’ll save today and consider total ownership cost. Getting nickel and dimed to death probably isn’t what you had in mind, is it? A few attributes you shouldn’t overlook are safety and reliability. You, and possibly your family, will depend on this car, your lives are at stake every time you ride in it, so cheap should not mean it’s a deathtrap. Just remember the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s report a few years back on the Ford F-150 before it was redone in 2005. Ouch!! The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does some very good tests to determine the vehicle safety in a variety of different collision situations, far beyond the required U.S. Government DOT crash tests. Check them out as well. Two more great resources to narrow down your shopping list are Consumer Reports and MSN autos. Both have great reliability reports for used vehicles. MSN even breaks it down so you can see where potential reliability areas lie in various vehicles.
How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 3

After you’ve determined what works for you in a used car, you can start actually looking for your new, used car (isn’t that an oxymoron?). A great tip about how to find a used car for cheap is to look for some of the less popular, but still functional, reliable, and safe brands. You’ll save some money for example, by foregoing a Honda for a Nissan, or skipping a Toyota and landing in the driver’s seat of a Mazda. Unlike in days gone by, today’s vehicles hold up remarkably well with far beyond 100,000 miles showing on the odometer. In fact, they can still look and run almost new at this figure. So, don’t let a few miles scare you. You’re buying the car for what it has left, not what it shows on the odometer.
How to Buy Used Cars for Cheap – Step 4

It’s finally time to check it out – what to check for. Once you found a car that seems to fit your requirements, there are some things you should check to make sure you are in fact getting a good, cheap car, not just a cheap car. Finding one that has been well taken care of is too important to ignore (or even gloss over a wee bit). Today’s cars are remarkably robust, but they do require regular maintenance. If that’s been neglected you can’t really be sure they’ll provide the years of service of that you’re hoping for.

Modern cars run like Swiss watches, with their highly engineered, internal parts spinning about in a fine, choreographed ballet. However, that example of modern engineering could turn into a pile of very expensive crapola if it doesn’t get the care that makes it feel warm and fuzzy inside. After all, ballerinas blow out their knees almost as often as NFL players. The component parts for modern cars are sit down, you’ve got to be freakin’ kidding, expensive. It’s pretty typical for a transmission to cost between $2,500 and $6,000. A new engine may cast close to $10,000 (an excellent argument for used engines, which are far cheaper, but can come with nice guarantees). The takeaway is that a bit of snooping now could save you a very expensive problem down the road. Be like a horse trader in the old west; look the horse in the teeth make sure you really want it sleeping in your barn.

You should definitely check the vehicle’s history. You could discover all manner of horrors hiding in it’s sordid past. There are all to many cars that sat out the last hurricane in 4 feet of water knocking around this great land of ours. Carfax works very well for this, with their vehicle history reports. Bring a laptop or mobile device to access the web while you’re shopping. You can get unlimited uses for a month for a pretty reasonable price, so you can check out a large number of prospective vehicles as you’re shopping.

When you’re actually looking at the car, kneel down and sight down the car’s body lines. If they are wavy or you can see obvious imperfections in the paint, chances are the car has been damaged and repaired at some point. Another trick is to bring a small magnet with you. If the car has metal body that’s been repaired with body filler putty, the magnet will not adhere to the repair as well as it does to the other parts of the body. The less it sticks, the thicker the Bondo. Crawl under the car and check the frame or unibody members for any signs of bending, corrosion or other damage. See if it looks like the car’s underside has been places you wouldn’t take a car you loved.

Pop open the hood. Pull out the dipstick to check the oil. See if the oil is between the “add” and “full markers, and if it’s black or a nice, golden brown. If it’s thick and black, the oil probably has been neglected. Check to see of there’s any white substance mixed with the oil. That’s usually engine coolant. It’s not supposed to be in there with the engine’s oil. If it is, there’s a blown gasket or an even more serious engine problem. That won’t be an inexpensive car, but it may be a cheap one.

Check the tires for uneven wear. If the tires need to be replaced soon, that may not be a trivial expense on many cars. You could spend $350 – $600 on a new set of Goodyears, mounted and balanced. The car’s tires are extremely important to vehicle safety, handling, braking and acceleration however, so don’t skimp if you do have to put on a new set. Be sure you use the fact in your negotiations.

Uneven tire wear may also be indicative of a greater problem, such as a suspension or alignment issue. It could also mean the car has been wrecked in the past and not repaired correctly. With unibody vehicles the quality of the repair is even more important than with traditional body on frame vehicles, and it’s much more difficult to do, especially without the proper equipment. You’re not going to correctly fix a badly damaged, unibody car outside Uncle Larry’s house, under his oak tree.

You need to decide where you want to look for your car. You can choose a private party. You can often get a great deal from a private party. Try to ascertain their reason for selling the car. Some insight here may determine if you have a highly motivated seller and give you the upper hand in the negotiation. Another benefit to a private party is that you’ll often get the car’s service records. These can boost the resale for you later and shed light on any past problems.

You can obviously buy from a dealer. There are hundreds of lots brimming with shiny used cars in most metro areas. You won’t get as good a deal from a dealer (?) in most cases, but you won’t have to meet 46 different sellers either. In addition, you can possibly get some kind of warranty of the dealer offers one. If you do elect to avail yourself of a warranty, read the entire contract like you’re an attorney (if you’re actually not one).

If you’re trading in your existing car, remember that in many states you’ll get to deduct the value of your trade from the sales tax and could realize substantial savings. If they’re giving you a good value for your trade in (I know, fat chance) that could add up big. For example, if you’re in an area with an 8% sales tax and they’re giving you $10,000 for your trade, that’s $800 less you’ll pay because you don’t pay taxes on the $10,000 of trade in value. So, if you’re buying a $15,000 used car, you’ll only pay taxes on the difference between your trade and the sales price. Instead of paying $1,200 in sales tax, you’ll only pay $400. Consider that when making your decision about where to buy your used car.

You can buy your cheap, used car from an auction. There are many different kinds of vehicle auctions. Many law enforcement agencies sell off vehicles confiscated according to property forfeiture laws. These laws allow the agencies to keep property of those arrested for a variety of crimes, particularly drug crimes. If the perp had pride in his ride, you can get a very nice vehicle. Other auctions are held to dispose of vehicles seized by customs officials, abandoned at towing yards, or to satisfy tax liens. You can also find fantastic deals at auctions held to liquidate vehicle fleets of large businesses, such as phone and utility companies. It’s not uncommon for vehicles to be sold for far lower than they would in any other marketplace, often at only pennies on the dollar..

The downside of auctions is, you guessed it, you know nothing, nada, zero, zip about these cars. To make matters worse, you can’t drive them in most cases. In the cases where you can drive them, you’ll only be permitted to take them for a slow spin around the auction yard. Another downside is inventory selection at many vehicle auctions. The selection can range form outstanding to very limited. You know what, though? Many used cars on dealer lots are found at auctions. The dealers keep this little secret tucked safely away inside their little book of tricks. If you could get your new car at an auction you could pay what the dealer’s pay, sometimes less.

Next time you need to buy a cheap, used car, remember there is one for you out there somewhere. You just need to find it and check it out before you get soaked. So, it’s true, you can find used cars for cheap!

A 100mpg Car Could Get You an Easy $10 Million

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:57:38 +0000

It’s true. Well, the easy part is a total fabrication, but if you can design and build a 100mpg car that people actually want to buy, you could win the $10 million automotive x-prize. It is the automotive version of the x-prize that got (well funded) private citizen groups everywhere scrambling to be the first into space in their own vehicle.

The Anasari Foundation what worked so well as a technology driver for space vehicles could spur innovation for those on terra firma as well. It’s not as easy as it sounds. You can’t just take a racing bike with a lightweight faring, put the most fuel efficient engine you can find on it, and go pick out your yacht. Anyone with half a brain could pull that off.

No, the foundation has much more difficult criteria one must meet before they get to make their banker’s day. There are actually 2 categories, but the one with the most dough requires that your car must carry 4 adults, meet federal safety and emissions standards, and (here’s the tough part) be a car that consumers would actually want to endure an afternoon at the dealership enough to purchase with their own money.

Consumers are a demanding bunch for the most part. They’ll want a car that goes and stops much like any other, although I’ll bet they’ll make a few concessions to reach the century mpg mark. If gas should go much past $5.00 a gallon, you’d probably find enough drivers willing to give up A/C and power windows that you could actually market about anything that got 100mpg.

One more thing – Performance is essential, because the $10 million prize will go to the fastest car that meets the specifications.

Here’s my plan for the 100mpg car:

100mpg Powertrain:

½ liter, common rail turbo diesel-electric hybrid.

When running, the tiny, high-pressure rail turbo diesel is always working at its most efficient rpm range. It only charges the batteries. The drive wheels are powered entirely by a high efficiency electric motor.

Regenerative braking to recapture energy
Advanced Li-Ion battery pack

100mpg Chassis:

Carbon fiber monocoque construction – lightweight and strong
Lightweight is of the essence to reach 100mpg and have good acceleration, so the design goals would be to keep weight as low as possible.
Target weight – 2,200lbs. wet, less passengers
Innovative technologies will be used to keep weight low, such as active noise cancelling to minimize interior noise, rather than using heavy sound deadening. No one will buy a vehicle without a sound system anyway, so it can serve two purposes.

Performance Targets:

0-60mph – <10 seconds
An 83 hp motor should be required to be less than 10 seconds to 60mph and equal the Toyota Prius ¼ mile ET and terminal velocity with a 2,200lb weight and a 150lb driver aboard.

I’ll leave it someone else to fill in the details. I’m sure greater minds than mine are hard at work on this project already.