1 MPG Sells Chevys (apparently)

[roflwaffle]

Gasoline will just evaporate, diesel otoh will get in there real good cuz it's oily. It took me a few wash cycles with all sorts of baking soda, vinegar, etc... soaking and whatnot to get it out of my shorts.

[RH77]

Diesel just likes to hang around -- exhaust smell in clothes, especially.

I had a spewing gas problem with a Cobalt a couple years ago (seems to connect well with the gas smell and mention of the car...)

The fuel rail started spewing fuel out of the rail endcap about 15 miles from the rental lot. After about passing-out from the fumes, I stopped at home and called for a swap. They brought a replacement Saturn Ion with a really bad BO smell. BBO! It took a whole bottle of Febreeze to get that even tolerable. That was a great trip to Tulsa. Yeah.

Only 2 cars ever crapped-out on me when renting: that Cobalt, and a Grand Am in a torrential Florida rainstorm circa 2002.

I really want to like the Cobalt, but many I've have had problems from major to minor. I did enjoy an SS coupe in Memphis/Oxford/Tupelo once -- fun car.

The rental fleet is a great place to experience "accelerated aging". They're not abused as much as the past, but they're also keeping them beyond the 30K mark. More reliable perhaps.

The 1 mPG observation is straight from Howie and that same announcer guy in the Cobalt vs. Civic and others. All manufacturers tout their highway mileage -- but what good is it when the city figure stinks? The fair comparison is the combined value from the raw excel data sheet (attached).

RH77

[jamesqf]

Building my dream car? Well, Lotus already did that :-) Building a car I'd like to buy/drive? Take the Honda CRX as a starting point.

And since someone mentioned Ford: Was visiting friends this afternoon, and they had the TV on when up comes a commercial for the 2010 Mustang. They have some sort of satellite network where they can download interactive infomercials, and did so with this. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry: you know what Ford thinks is the top new feature on the 2010 Mustang? "A new, more deeply-chiseled badge...". Second is the fact that the hood's got a bulge in the middle...

[jkp1187]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

Gasoline will just evaporate, diesel otoh will get in there real good cuz it's oily. It took me a few wash cycles with all sorts of baking soda, vinegar, etc... soaking and whatnot to get it out of my shorts.

Ugh. Didn't know that. Guess there's no such thing as a free lunch....

[dcb]

I don't mean this as a major selling point for diesel, but low volatility is also something of a safety feature in the event of a leak or rupture. It is hard to ignite diesel compared to gasoline.

[Old Tele man]

...work at an airport and you'll breathe/smell "JP" fumes (not far removed from Diesel) all day long.

[dcb]

So run them on WVO and it will smell like french fries

[MetroMPG]

Do they engineer this extra mile-per-gallon for the purposes of marketing only? Apparently there's always 1 more mPG to squeeze out. I say keep going and check back later when you have 10-15 more.

Replace "MPG" with "horsepower" in that quote, and I'm sure there are threads on other forums about how disappointed people were with the incremental increases in power. THEY WANT MORE! NOW!

Incremental change is the status quo (usually). You have to give people a reason to become dissatisfied with their latest purchase so you can sell them the next model when it comes out.

Whatever the marketing department decides is the best bait to use at the moment is what they'll put on the hook and cast into the pond.

I'm happy to see that MPG is the flavour of the month... hopefully it'll become an engrained criteria one day.

[Old Tele man]

GM: Don't let'em know we can get +2mpg today, just announce +1mpg and hold the technology for that second-mpg in reserve for tomorrow's megaphone sales pitch de jour.

[RH77]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...work at an airport and you'll breathe/smell "JP" fumes (not far removed from Diesel) all day long.

I can agree that even occasional exposure of Jet-A exhaust "sticks with ya". Aside from breathing it as passenger in everything from a Beech 1900 up to a 747-400, KMCI (Kansas City Intl) has a unique parking arrangement for flyers to get that aroma.

Each of the 3 terminals are shaped like a semi-circle and connected by parking lots and bridges over the lot connectors called "Circle Parking". If you park in the right spot, your car can be subject to the push-back and startup of a variety of aircraft from the ends of each terminal (also, there's a sidewalk between terminals where you can personally experience that blast of jet fumes). Teggy's the dustiest when I park by Southwest -- they have both engines running before the towbar's removed and show no mercy on the throttle to get going. The advantage of the design is that you can virtually park near your gate and walk right up.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Replace "MPG" with "horsepower" in that quote, and I'm sure there are threads on other forums about how disappointed people were with the incremental increases in power. THEY WANT MORE! NOW!

Incremental change is the status quo (usually). You have to give people a reason to become dissatisfied with their latest purchase so you can sell them the next model when it comes out.

Whatever the marketing department decides is the best bait to use at the moment is what they'll put on the hook and cast into the pond.

I'm happy to see that MPG is the flavour of the month... hopefully it'll become an engrained criteria one day.

Excellent perception. For one, the importance of fuel economy is retained in the media angle (albeit skewed in the overall picture). I guess it takes quite a bit of time to get a engine/vehicle combination from idea to production, so perhaps we'll see the competition answer with a slightly higher figure until enough time passes to persuade the buyer who's ready to trade.

RH77