Good News!

OK, I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two days looking for some morsel from the auto world that is not completely depressing. It hasn’t been easy, but hey, I’m working for you, loyal readers, so I don’t mind the drudgery. So here’s what I came up with:

1. The impending failure of the Big 3 in Detroit means our society, our way of life, and all of our cars will be consigned to oblivion in the near future. Prepare to eat a diet of coarsely ground grain, fend off large mammalian predators, and drag a sledge behind you …

… um, er, haha, little joke. Moving right along …

1. (for real this time) if you live in Europe and have a hankering for really big luxury cars that get good economy (who doesn’t?), then you might like the new BMW 730Ld. Kidding aside, this car really points out why diesel engines, in my mind, play a really important niche. The 730Ld (which is a huge car, by the way, at 205” long and weighs close to 6,000 lbs) will get 32 MPG on the European combined cycle test. I don’t think it will break any speed records, but diesels are getting a lot better. And for folks that want their cake and don’t want to have to fill up the tank while they’re eating it, the idea of a huge luxury sedan that gets Toyota Yaris fuel economy might be just what the doctor ordered. [Source: BMW via Autoblog Green]

2. Plus, if you get a 730Ld, in the near future you might be able to fill it up with fuel derived from algae. Seriously. There are still a ton of economic obstacles to making this a really competitive fuel source, but the advantages are numerous: high productivity, noncompetition with human food sources, ability to grow in ponds on unutilized land, etc. As long as it doesn’t spur the rise of a super-advanced sentient algae species that we will have to fight in order to survive, it should work out well. [Source: Nevada News]

3. Finally, Ford, the healthiest of the Detroit 3 automakers, has announced that if you actually want to buy one of their 2010 Fusion hybrids, you’ll get the full $3,400 tax credit. It does get impressive economy, at 41 MPG in the city. The hitch? In April, the credit gets halved, and in October it gets halved again. Nevertheless, if you absolutely crave a midsize hybrid that gets the best fuel economy, the Fusion is the way to go. It’s significantly more efficient than any other hybrid in its class. [Source: Ford]

Best Car Ad Ever

Dear lord. The scene at the very end. Priceless.

OK, Jalopnik gets a huge shout out here for reminding me of this brilliant ad. Why they didn't rank it number one, I'll never know. Check out their "Top 11 Best Superbowl Car Commercials" post.

RIP: Isuzu departs our shores Jan. 31

I guess it’s a morbid day here around Sparkblog. Earlier I was circling, vulture-style, over the bloated corpse of Saturn. While honestly, there isn’t much levity in chronicling the demise of nameplates, with Isuzu we can at least hold one of those “the survivors should celebrate” type of funerals, looking back at some of the cool stuff Isuzu did before they went to the big junkyard in the sky. First of all, in the interest of telling it how it is, Isuzu hasn’t really been here in a while anyways. They stopped selling cars they designed themselves in 2004, and have been selling rebadged GM trucks ever since. The I-series truck is a Chevy Colorado, and the Ascender is a Trailblazer. And they sell like crap as Isuzus, let me tell you. So the guys from Tokyo are packing up and going home.

Some highlights to throw on the funeral pyre:

The Isuzu 117: OK, so it was never sold in the US, but the 117 was a sporty DOHC coupe styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Giugiaro also penned lots of gorgeous cars (like the Delorean DMC-12, which for all its faults was a pretty car), but in my opinion the 117 was one of his best designs.

The Bellet GT-R: also never sold in the US, this was a sporty sedan was designed by Tom Tjaarda, who was another well known designer. It used the engine from the 117 in a smaller package.

The Chevy LUV: god, this is one of the best names ever to grace a car. The LUV was a Isuzu KB-series truck that Chevy imported while they were developing the S-10, to compete with the Ford Courier (which was a Mazda B-series pickup). You could call it the war of the tiny Japanese captive import trucks.

Joe Isuzu: ok, it’s not a car, it’s a marketing phenomenon. Played by David Leisure, Joe Isuzu would make clearly absurd claims about Isuzu cars. The campaign had serious gall, and it worked. They’re hilarious. Check it out.









Pretty much everything after Joe Isuzu, including the cars, really aren’t worth the space to talk about them. Sorry Isuzu, you just weren’t that cool.

Pull the Plug Already! Saturn wheezes on until at least 2012

It’s going to sound cliché, but bear with me. Imagine a company’s finest hope, a scrappy contender with a unique style and inspiring philosophy, poised to take on the complacent and omnipresent foreign thugs. Launched with great fanfare and a lot of optimism, Saturn moved an impressive amount of cars early on. (Let us ignore the fact that they were kind of tinny and, without some really impressive marketing to gather up a loyal fanbase, probably would have shuffled off to oblivion.) They were scrappy, and managed to convey a lot of messages into a rather pedestrian package. But hey, the attitude was there, the hype was there, lots of fans wanted to buy more Saturns, and they wanted to tell all their friends about it.

And … (insert a foreshadowing, dejected look or sound) … GM completely, totally screwed it up.

Talk about resting on your laurels. GM sat on them so long they were implanted in GM’s butt. GM sat on their product (the SL1 and its derivatives) for ELEVEN years with no real significant changes. Dear lord, how can I convey how long that is in car terms? That’s like, everyone starts out as an amoeba in a primordial mud puddle, and while Saturn was waving their flagella around aimlessly, Honda, Toyota, even Hyundai were striding about on land, inventing advanced rockets and string theory. They also formed a club that Saturn wasn’t invited to, and made fun of it. (No Saturns Allowed!)

When someone at GM (I’m imagining a Rip Van Winkle character popping up from a drafting table suddenly, looking around, and crying “oh no! I’ve slept too long!!!!”) finally woke up and wiped the drool from their design table, Saturn was totally screwed. It was too late to catch up by developing their own products, so they started shopping around the GM portfolio and grabbing vehicle platforms from other companies (mostly Opel, GM’s German brand). In doing so, they lost their character completely despite (finally) having good cars in the lineup. With no unique character or philosophy, it was just another GM brand selling a mismatched hodgepodge of cars.

So there has been a lot of speculation about Saturn going the way of the passenger pigeon. Or the marsupial tiger (which were totally RAD, too bad they’re extinct). But anyways, GM has announced that it will linger on in painful agony until at least 2012. Tellingly, they leave it open-ended whether it will survive past that. They might just be buying time to pull the plug.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Cool Idea: Mini-ATV/RVs

Whoa, hold on a sec. Cool ATVs or RVs? No, I haven’t been lapping up antifreeze from beneath my cinder-block-residing Camaro. Jalopnik is reporting that Yamaha is doing some market research about small ATV-like vehicles that have the ability to turn into mini-RVs. I think that’s a neat idea.

Well, neat up to a point. I think ultimately it’s going to be used mainly by hunters, who I am guessing already form the majority of side-by-side-seating ATV buyers. Scratch that, all ATV buyers. But I dunno, this might be a good idea for people who work in extreme areas. I have friends who do geology in remote parts of Alaska, and I bet you could helicopter a few of these in and be a lot more self-sufficient than just an ATV/tent combo.

Anyhow, check out the article at Jalopnik.

In the News: Obama, California, tailpipes, and seals

There are a lot of great news articles about this, including the New York Times one - by the way, I’ll admit my bias here and now and say that I get most of my news from the NYT – but I’ll do my super-quick summary for you here.

Basically, California wants to more strictly regulate tailpipe emissions, which is currently the domain of the federal government for all states, unless they have a waiver. The waiver allows the state regulations to be stronger than the federal regulations. California has had a waiver for a long time, but they want to increase their standards again. Of course, this is bringing up a lot of the same, tired, arguments about how this will kill the industry and cause Detroit to explode and set Canada on fire. Or that there will be some sort of evil mutant hodgepodge of state regulations, and the automakers will be really confused. So confused, in fact, that they claim they will explode and set baby seals on fire. And go out of business. But mostly incinerate seals.

This is a pretty stupid argument, in my opinion. Business, as those type-A personalities who become businesspeople will be happy to tell you, is about natural selection. Adapt or die! Corporate raiders! Hostile takeover!!!! It’s a rough business, business. And it has become abundantly clear that the big three need to get their ducks (not the Catera ducks!) in a row and shape up. All of them make small, efficient cars in Europe, and sell them like crazy. Ford is working on turbocharging smaller engines so that power-hungry Americans can still pass big trucks on the freeway while getting ok fuel economy when off-boost. Great! That’s fantastic. It’s been proven that you can make cars that burn less gas and emit less pollutants. Start building them!

In any event, Obama is ordering his minions to make sure they reconsider granting California’s proposed waiver, which is a shift away from the Bush policy. In case you can’t guess, I’m all in favor of it.

On Top of the Pile: Toyota is now world’s largest automaker.

[insert: "I for one welcome our new ____ overlords" meme here ...]

I can’t believe I didn’t post to mention this. It’s pretty simple. GM, the world’s largest carmaker since the 1930s, was outsold in 2008. GM sold 8.35 million vehicles to Toyota’s 8.97 million.

It’s not surprising in the least. Toyota has been expected to pull ahead of GM for a long time, considering that GM has subsisted for at least 50 years on lazy and regressive business practices, marketing flops, and convincing Americans to buy huge cars and trucks. Toyota, meanwhile, has a business model that is widely emulated in the corporate world. And they sell darn good cars. (OK, they’re a little boring, but the Corolla is the best selling car nameplate in history, and they sell most of their cars like hotcakes. Or at least they did before the economy went in the drink.)

(Source: New York Times)

Engine Basics: that mess o' hoses

Most folks blanch when they peek under the hood. Modern cars have enough wires and hoses to tap into people's instinctual fear of snakes and spiders (that's my pop-psychology theory at least). In any event, it's usually a mess. At some point in the last couple of years, car designers got wise to this crazy situation and decided, "let's just cover the whole shebang up!"

And they did. Most brand new cars have a nice, obfuscating plastic cover that tidies up all that unsightly junk. In case you can't tell, I think this cover-up trend sucks. But if it prevents some of the more sensitive among us from having visceral reactions involving jumping up on a chair and shrieking, then good on 'em.

So what do you need to know about all these hoses and wires? Well, the wires are pretty simple - look for frays. Sometimes mice and other small animals decide your engine looks like a wonderful nesting area. They chew on this, and rip at that, gathering up your underhood insulation and such to make a cozy little nest. It's not very smart, but neither are rodents. So chewed up wiring is definitely something to be watchful for. Also, some underhood liquids are corrosive (like brake fluid, nasty stuff) so a spill on wiring could eat through the insulation. Chafing and heat can play a role, too. But if you notice something suspicious, let your mechanic know.

Hoses are also pretty simple. They usually get checked up on when you bring a car in for scheduled maintenance. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't look at them occasionally. There are two types - hoses that carry your coolant/antifreeze ("water"), and air hoses. Look for cracking, bulges, and anything like that. A gentle squeeze on a cool hose (don't burn yourself!) can also tell you if it's getting brittle and might break. A broken water hose can strand you, and some air hose leaks can keep a car from running. Let your mechanic know ASAP if you think there is a chance a hose might break.

That's about it. Shoot me an email or comment if you have any questions.

Out sick ...

I've been sick the past couple of days, so posting has been on the nonexistent end. I'm currently pouring massive quantities of juice and vitamins into my body so I can get back to posting cool stuff about cars ASAP.

Bear with me.

Alfas in Detroit? Fiat takes 35% stake in Chrysler

Only independent from the DaimlerChrysler partnership for a year and a half, the smallest of the big three has given a 35% stake to the Turin-based conglomerate Fiat. Basically, the deal is that Fiat will pay for retooling Chrysler factories to build Fiat-based small cars and efficient engines. However, Fiat won’t actually put any cash into the automaker. As the New York Times points out, “[t]he speed and terms of the Chrysler-Fiat talks illustrated the emergency facing Chrysler, which was willing to give away more than a third of the company essentially for free.”

Fiat also has an option of increasing their stake to 55%. While that would mean Chrysler would be foreign-owned again, I’m not sure that they had any choice. They were majority-owned by New York-based Cerberus Capital (80% stake), so I assume that their stake was simply reduced and given to Fiat.

What does this mean for Chrysler? Well, despite Fiat and their related brands leaving US shores in disgrace in the 80s and early 90s, they’ve apparently gotten their act together and are now putting together a decent car. The new (nuova) Fiat 500 is a MINI competitor, and the Alfa Romeo line looks really sharp (especially the Brera and 8C Competizione). Are we going to get Fiat (or Alfa, Lancia, etc) branded cars, or are we simply going to get new Dodge and Chrysler small cars based on Italian platforms? It’s probably too early to tell.

The bottom line? Chrysler needs a partner. Why not Fiat?

Engine Basics: the CEL (Check Engine Light)

Depending on what type of car you drive, the check engine light can either be a continual (comforting?) presence on your gauge cluster, or an ominous herald of doom whose orange light illuminates your deepest car-related fears. It’s not either, and there are a few things that you should know about this often misunderstood warning light. First of all, it comes in a couple of varieties. Some cars have a light that literally spells out “Check Engine,” others have an icon that looks like an engine. Usually they are yellow or orange. If you’re unsure of what to look for, your owner’s manual will have an illustration of the icon.



So what does it mean? The CEL means that some system on the engine is working improperly. The computer on your car monitors the engine through a number of sensors, with the most having to do with the cars exhaust (emissions control) system. There are sensors that measure the composition of the exhaust, for example, to make sure the engine is complying with emissions requirements for state and federal laws. Some of the sensors look at aspects of how the engine is actually running. In any event, when one of these sensors detects a condition that is outside its acceptable range, it will send a coded signal to the computer, which will in turn display a CEL.

In some cars, the CEL will flash on and off if a really serious error is detected. If you see a flashing CEL, I would recommend safely stopping the car and consulting your owner’s manual. When in doubt, or if the car feels unsafe to drive, please use common sense and don’t drive it. Call a tow truck or your mechanic.

Usually, the CEL stays on in a steady glow. It’s really just there to say that “something is wrong! It could be one of many things! Get it looked at!” The CEL tells you almost nothing about what is actually going on, unless you can read the code that the sensor sent to the computer. This is exactly what happens if you have a car built after 1996, and you take it to the mechanic. Starting with the 1996 model year, all cars were required to have an OBD-II (On Board Diagnostic [System] – II) plug, which is a universal code that is standardized among all brands. So whether it’s a Mazda or a Jaguar, an OBD-II reader device will be able to download the error code from the computer. (Older cars may have non-universal readers for them, but in any event, your mechanic should be able to read any CEL code.)

For example, let’s say you have a Mazda Miata from 1996. If you had an OBD-II reader, and you plugged it in, imagine it displayed the code “P0126.” You’d have to refer then to the list of codes, and you’d find out the code meant “thermostat stuck open.” That is not necessarily a serious fault, but it could affect the way your car ran in cold weather, so it would be a really good idea to take it in to a shop and have them look at the car.

Of course, without a code reader, all you see is the light. And the point I want to make is, the light doesn’t tell you very much. With our hypothetical Mazda code above, you could in all likelihood drive your car to a mechanic to have them look at it. But the light isn’t there to tell you whether to drive it or not. I wish I had better advice, but again, I would say to exercise your best judgment, and if you see the light, bring it to a mechanic in a safe and responsible manner. (That might mean towing it!)

The one thing I CAN tell you without a doubt is that the wrong way to respond to a CEL is to tape a piece of paper over it! I know folks who have done that. The CEL means business, so respect it!

Jalopnik: 11 Most Depressing Moments At Detroit Auto Show

Link to the Jalopnik Article

I found this to be pretty hilarious. THIS didn't make it into the list, but it should have. I guess they included it with the "Chrysler" entry in the list.

Forgive me if I've been sucked into the lazy blogger's "blogging about other blogs" disease. I'm just a bit busy. I'll be back on my game soon.

Until then, read this article. And if you don't already, you need to check out Jay Leno's Garage website, that'll kill some time and let me pound out some real blog posts.

Interesting NYT blog: cheap gas, efficient cars?

How to Sell Fuel Sipping Cars Despite Cheap Gas - NYT

This was a pretty interesting piece. It proposes to tax larger and less fuel efficient vehicles and give a proportional tax break to folks buying smaller cars. It would supposedly be tax-neutral in sum.

If you're a libertarian, this is your cue to freak out!

Engine Basics: Turbos and Superchargers

One major component that makes a big difference when considering an engine is whether or not it has some form of forced induction. That's a fancy term for "blowing more air in." I think the best way to think about it is to imagine those old-fashioned bellows that folks used in fireplaces.



When you pushed air into the fire with the bellows, the fire was able to burn more, and it flared up. If you replace the bellows with a fan (technically a turbine, which is really just a fan with a ton of thin blades), then you get the idea. Induction simply refers to how much air gets to the fire. So forced induction can be thought of as "force-fed air into the motor."

There are two types of forced induction: turbochargers and superchargers. Both of these cause an engine to make more power by mechanically (basically, using a fan) to force more air into the engine than it can suck normally. The car also adds more fuel, and the result is more combustion. Combustion, after all, is a controlled explosion of gas mixed with air. Combine more gas with more air and you get more power. By using some of the engine's energy, you can turn the basically make the fire work its own bellows. This creates more power than the engine could make initially. I know that sounds kind of like a perpetual motion machine, but there are some limits on it, and so it's not really "free energy." It's just more energy.

So remember that there are two types. The first is a "turbo," or more properly, a turbosupercharger. Turbo refers to turbine, the fans that power the system. Charge is another name for the air that the system forces into the engine. Hence, turbocharger. This system gets the power it uses to turn the turbine (that forces more air into the motor) from the exhaust system. If you were to ever put your hand near your exhaust pipe while the car was running, you'd feel some pressure against your hand. This is normally "wasted energy" in a regular car. In a turbocharged car, one fan blade in the flow of the exhaust, which spins it like a windmill. The other side of the turbo has another turbine, which uses it's fan to compress ("boost") the fresh air and push it into the engine.


You can see the two halves of the turbo here. One side spins in the exhaust, one side spins to pull in fresh air. They are connected by a shaft.

Turbochargers are in many ways a very efficient way to tap into some extra energy. They tend to be more efficient that simply making a bigger motor to get the same power. But they only work when there is enough exhaust flow, so they don't make much power when at idle ("off-boost" or not working). That increases the fuel economy though. When you don't need the extra power, the turbo isn't working, and that means it's not sucking more gas along with all that air. The disadvantage is that it takes a second for the turbo to catch up with the exhaust flow. So if you floor the throttle, the exhaust starts shooting out immediately, but the turbocharger needs to get it's fan up to speed. That lag, which in modern cars is very small, is called (not very creatively) "turbo lag."

Superchargers are not really that different, but instead of dipping one side of the turbine into the exhaust flow, they simply get that rotational power from the motion of the engine itself. If you look at the front (sometimes, the side) of your car's engine, you'll see some belts that power certain accessories on your car. They spin, and they cause the accessories to function. A supercharger runs off of one of these belts, and uses it to do the same job as a turbocharger. As you can imagine, because the belt is always spinning while the car is on, the supercharger is always adding power, and it adds more proportionately to the speed of the engine. The disadvantage is that the engine is always making that power! So it always needs more gas. But there's no turbo lag, so you get that power whenever you want it.


You can see the supercharger on the front of the engine. On the left side is the pulley the belt attaches to.

I've tried to make it simple, but these are some pretty complicated systems. If you have a turbo or supercharger on your car and you want to learn more about it, or you're hopelessly lost, just write me an email and I'd be happy to answer your questions. Email contact AT sparkautoconsulting DOT com.

Partying while the house burns down? The 2009 Detroit Auto Show, round 2

Ever heard of Fisker before?



I really don't blame you if you hadn't. They're brand new, a collaboration between Fisker's design studio and Quantum Technologies, which designs alternative energy systems. Their main product is the Fisker Karma hybrid sedan, and the Fisker Karma S "Sunset" convertible.

It looks good, in my opinion. And it's unique in how it operates - it uses a gas motor (the delicious GM Ecotec 2.0L supercharged engine) ONLY to charge the batteries. The engine is not directly connected to the wheels. It relies on a powerful electric motor to actually move the car. This is called a series hybrid. Diesel-electric locomotives have used this for a long time. It lets you maximize the gas or diesel motor for efficiency rather than forcing it to operate over a wide range of conditions (i.e., changing the engine RPMs a bunch as in normal driving).

So it has style, practicality (it seats 4), a pretty efficient powertrain, and it's not vaporware. Henrik Fisker seems to run a tight ship, winning the lawsuit with Tesla that I mentioned in an earlier post, and avoiding a lot of the negative publicity that Tesla got.

Will it succeed? It's going to be a lot more expensive than the Volt, but maybe it'll be Hollywood's new fashion accessory. It's a lot more stylish than the Prius!

Engine Basics: V-what?

What do all those names and numbers associated with my engine mean? This is a pretty common question, and I’ll do my best to succinctly answer it. First of all, there is the configuration of your engine. For example, there is the “V8.” The letter “V” describes the layout of the engine. With only one exception (the Mazda ‘Wankel’ motor, which is probably a good subject for its own entry), all modern gas and diesel cars have pistons that move within cylinders to generate power.


This is a V-8 engine. You can see the two banks of cylinders, 4 in each, arranged in a V and connected at the bottom.

In a V8, there are two banks of 4 cylinders, which attach at the bottom to form a “V.” The most common configuration is an “I4,” which means “inline 4 cylinder.” Think half of a V8 and you get the picture. V6 engines are two banks of 3 cylinders, and I6 motors are one long bank of 6 cylinders. So far, so good.



In this image, looking down from the top, you can see the 6 cylinders in a row - this is an inline-6 engine.


Then there is the displacement, which is measured (at least with modern cars) metrically. That is, in liters. It is a basic measure of the size of the motor – the larger the displacement, the more power you theoretically can make. So a 1.8 liter I4 engine probably makes less power than a 4.5 liter V8. It’s a quick way to compare engine power. It also affects fuel economy – bigger engines drink more gas.

How do they measure displacement? There's a mathematical formula that I won't pretend to understand, but the concept is kind of simple. Imagine you filled the cylinders of the engine with a liquid, and then poured it into a big container and measured it. That gives you a pretty good sense of the size of the engine. And as I mentioned, size and power are usually directly related.

More on Engine Basics to come!

Partying while the house burns down? The 2009 Detroit Auto Show

Despite all the negative attention that Detroit has gotten in recent months, most automakers (with the notable exception of Nissan) have gathered at the Cabo Center to show off their latest wares. Most auto sites are offering complete and detailed coverage (see New York Times, Jalopnik, Autoblog) and I won’t replicate that here. I did want to cover a few of the notable 2009 concepts and new cars.



I think the most interesting concept at Detroit is the new VW Bluesport roadster. The big news is that it’s a convertible sportscar with a DIESEL powerplant that promises to deliver 42 MPG (European mileage testing) and have decent performance. Sixty miles per hour is said to come in 6.2 seconds, which is pretty respectable for a sportscar with such an unconventional engine. That breaks down all sorts of conventions. I mean, I think the only comparable car made before this is the Audi TT diesel (which is very similar to this from an engineering standpoint).



The other interesting tidbit, from my perspective, is the new Honda Insight hybrid. It has the same name as the old, tiny two-seater that never quite caught on, but it’s grown to become pretty close in size and shape to the Toyota Prius. It actually looks shockingly familiar, copying the basic profile almost perfectly, but I think it’s forgivable because it’s a pretty good car all things considered. It will undercut the Prius by a couple thousand dollars, and gets close to its MPG. (Will the 43 MPG estimated rating be justified by the lower price, compared to the 50 MPG Prius? Good question. We’ll see.) It should be $18,500 MSRP.

So you might notice something here. The new Insight hybrid should get 43 MPG, and the Bluesport concept gets approximately 42 MPG (probably 40 MPG for US ratings). But the Bluesport isn’t a hybrid, it’s just a diesel! Another chapter in the never-ending (but very interesting) diesel-hybrid debate unfolds …

More commentary on Detroit to come. Stay tuned!

It's 2009, has your car been serviced?

Now that it’s the new year, this is a pretty good time to take a step back and think about if your car needs any service. Most people know that their cars need service at certain intervals (usually every 30k miles), but there are other periodic things that really need to be taken care of.

Let’s put it like this: doing the maintenance on time can save you thousands of dollars down the road.

So how do you know what to do and what not to? The best place to look is in the owner’s manual. Almost every manual has a schedule about what maintenance needs to be done, and at what interval. (Usually it’s listed in miles.)

Don’t have your manual? Some websites (Edmunds, for example, http://www.edmunds.com/maintenance/select.html) will let you look up a car’s schedule and figure out what you need to do. Edmunds’ site will even give you a price estimate. For example, let’s say you have a 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan EX with 46,000 miles. It turns out that your engine air filter, cabin air filter, and oil should be changed, at an approximate cost of $93 in parts and labor. Your parts and labor costs will probably vary from a website’s estimate, but it gives you a ballpark.

For our example Dodge, there’s not anything critical or expensive on the list. Changing the oil at the recommended interval is very important, of course, for the long-term health of your car. But it’s not difficult or expensive. Keep in mind that some of these scheduled maintenance costs can be a lot. For example, at around 60,000 miles the service for a 1999 BMW 530i will run around $430.

That doesn’t mean you should skimp! Just be aware of these periodic costs. Trust me, having to replace an engine is going to be a lot more than $430.

Hope that helps!

Post-New-Year's Hangover - the Worst Cars of 2008

In the last blog (a few days back … sorry!), I picked out my choices for some of the best cars of last year. This time I’m picking some bad ones. So bad, in fact, that I couldn’t even think of clever titles for the categories.

Worst overall: Chrysler Sebring / Dodge Avenger. These heinous twins of darkness represent, to my mind, the worst of what modern manufacturers have to offer. They really have no redeeming qualities, other than that they are very attractive to rental outfits. Other than possibly inducing nostalgia for cars from the former USSR, I’d avoid these two like the plague.

Most in need of redesign: Ford Focus. Introduced in 1999 as a 2000 model, this dinosaur has thus been around for NINE model years without a significant mechanical redesign. It was a nifty car when it was new, especially in terms of styling. The current model, on the other hand, is sort of like that infamous lipstick on a pig. Why do I care? American auto manufacturers need to realize that we Americans don’t deserve to be treated so badly. The small car segment is really hot, and instead of investing in the product to make it fresh (like they did with the European-market Focus, which shares a platform with the cool Mazda3 and Volvo C30), they’ve let it linger on in a sort of pathetic Marlon Brando situation. The competition is better, so don’t waste your time on the old news Focus.

Most disappointing: BMW 1 / Smart ForTwo (tie). I had high hopes for both of these cars, but they are flops. The BMW 1 was supposed to be a resurrection of the classic BMW 2002 coupe: light, fun, sporty. Instead it is expensive, and almost as heavy as the larger 3-series. Why give up the back seat room? Get a 3-series. And the Smart! Don’t get me started. With a painful ride and the herky-jerkiest drivetrain since the Yugo graced these shores, it’s really a bad car. Sure, it’ll park lengthwise against the curb, but you’ll never want to get in it to move it.

Least Sexy: Buick Lucerne. It kind of looks like a lungfish with four eyes, and it probably appeals to your Great Aunt Lucy. Trust me, if you’re south of 60 years old, your date is going to bail. Sure, you can say that it isn’t too bad for a GM car, it’s quiet and well-built. But honestly, a coffin is quiet and well-built, but save it for when you’re dead.

New Year's List - Best of 2008

Happy New Years! As is the trend at this time of year, I decided to take a semi-serious look back at some of the best and worst cars of 2008. Let me start with the the serious ones.

Best Cars of 2008
Best domestic: Chevy Malibu / Saturn Aura. Even though GM is in desperate trouble and has had difficulty competing with the Accord and Camry, the Malibu/Aura twins are leaps forward that can only be measured in astronomical units. Attractive, well-featured, and interesting (unusual for a midsize), they should be the inspiration for a resurgent American car industry. Will it happen ... ?

Best foreign: Honda Fit / Hyundai Genesis (tie). At opposite ends of the spectrum, these two cars represent class-busters. They do their job as advertised and better than anything else in their category. Innovative and good values.

Most surprising: Hyundai Genesis coupe. Another Hyundai on the top cars list? Give credit where credit is due. This rear-wheel drive coupe will give the Inifiniti G37 coupe a run for its money (while still underselling it for thousands, and with an available V8). Hyundai might start shaking off the budget-car image if they keep making interesting cars like this.

Best Car to Show Off In: BMW 335i coupe. Need to make a statement, but not overdo it? With a nearly perfect motor, good looks, and BMW handling, you can flaunt it without being a pretentious jerk.

Best Car to Shamelessly Show Off In: Bentley Flying Spur. BMW too subtle for you? This Bentley is going to take care of that. And if you have to ask you can't afford it.

The "Anime Fan Boy Fantasy" Award: Nissan GTR. The hometown hero in Japan comes to the US and elicits drools from every 14-26 year old guy who ever owned a Playstation.

Sexiest Car: Maserati Granturismo. Just look at it. Don't really have to elaborate with this one.