Archive for July, 2012
My Love Affair (With Cars)
My love affair with automobiles began at an early age, maybe even prenatally. Maybe I was conceived in the backseat of a ’36 Ford. I asked my mother that one time, but her response was to hit me with her cane.
I grew up at a time when automobiles were much simpler, but not nearly as safe as they are today. Many of my childhood friends fell victim to their “need-for-speed” or their lack of understanding that alcohol and gasoline don’t mix very well. It was quite common for fenders to be customized by collision in our neck of the woods and there were no padded dashboards, airbags, seatbelts and collapsible frame members to lessen the impact with an oak tree or concrete abutment.
Despite the dangers, I couldn’t wait to drive, in fact I began sneaking my father’s car out of the driveway at night when I was fifteen and not licensed to drive. I had “borrowed” his keys one time and had about ten copies made that I hid in various places in my room, closet and the attic. I would wait until my parents had retired for the evening and I would climb down a ladder conveniently left beside my bedroom window. With the parking brake released and the gear lever in neutral, I would gently push the car down the long sloping driveway. When it was rolling, I would leap into the driver’s seat, engage first gear, turn on the key and pop the clutch to start that Ford.
On the roll, I would cruise by a couple of friends’ houses and we would then drive around doing nothing. We would pool our pocket change and put in gas before I took the car home, but we were never quite sure how much we had burned. This was brought to light when I my father said to my mother at the dinner table, “Es, I don’t know what’s the matter with that Ford. On some fill-ups I calculate that I get 20 miles-per-gallon and on others I may get as much as twenty-five or as little as fifteen.”
To ally any suspicions, I took to disconnecting the speedometer cable from the back of the speedo during our cruises. One night at dinner my father told my mother that he had noticed the speedometer on his Ford wasn’t working. He was early for work and had time to stop at the Ford dealer service department. The mechanic stuck his head under the instrument panel and said to my father, “Andy, do you have a kid old enough to drive?” My dad said “Yes.” The mechanic said, “That’s your problem,” as he reconnected the cable.
I think he was secretly pleased that I had an adventuresome spirit. I was, in fact, just acting out some of the tales he had told of his youthful escapades. With this in the back of my mind, I made sure that I never told my growing children of any of my adventures until long after they were adults. I also never left my car keys around for them to “borrow.” Even so, two of them developed the same feeling about cars that I have.
Two Eerie Test Drives
Two fully electric cars are now available on the Australian market, The Mitsibishi i-MiEV and the Nissan Leaf.
We’ve just come back from a test drive in each of them, and it’s an experience we’ll remember for a very long time.
As soon as you start the engine you know it’s different! The press of a button or the turn of a key and it’s ready to go, but the only way you’ll know is a light on the dashboard. No starter motor, no engine revs, just an eerie silence.
Press your foot on the accelerator, though, and Whoosh, you’re off, though still in eerie silence, but somehow, now that you are moving, the silence seems more comforting. Apart from quietness, both cars perform almost like normal cars. There’s no gear shift, so no jerkiness whatsoever, and the electric motor packs a pretty fair punch, and, once it’s got away from a standstill, you can certainly feel a push in the back as you depress the pedal. So much so, in fact, that they give much more torque than the vast majority of small cars on the road.
They are certainly not for everyone, and command a significant price premium, particularly as our government, unlike others, offers no assistance or incentives to purchase these zero emission cars.
The i-MiEV (which stands for Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) is the smaller of the two, though is still a four-door, four seater. Its recommended retail price before on-road costs is $48,800.
It can be plugged in at home using a 15 amp power point and will take 7 hours to charge up for a range of 150kms. Alternatively it can be plugged in to a dedicated charging station (of which there are very few around) and you’ll get an 80 percent charge (good for around 120kms) in 30 minutes.
The Nissan Leaf is slightly larger and is $51,000 plus on road costs, but these on road extras can be quite substantial, and can lift the car to well over $60,000 before you leave the showroom, particularly if you purchase the recommended $2750 fast charging system. The Leaf seems quicker away from the lights, and has more storage space, is not so distinctive on the road and is ultra smooth.
So what do we think?
Right now it’s a quirky purchase and won’t suit every motorist. Want to drive to Canberra from Sydney or Melbourne? Sorry, you just can’t with either of these vehicles as there are no charging stations in between. Hopefully that will improve in time, and the local shopping centres will offer free charging stations, as they do in the USA. But if you are happy to pay the premium, want to make a statement on zero emissions, and restrict your driving to commuting distances, then go ahead- you’ll enjoy it.
Making a Big Splash
What about a car that can travel across water? An amphibious vehicle is the sort of machine that really captures my imagination and sends it spinning from one daydream to another. But will it really be a dream for so many, or will it become a vehicle that everyone will want and everyone will be able to afford?
Across the ditch in September 2009, a few young entrepreneurs (whose daytime jobs were aeronautic engineers) managed to cross the Cook Strait in a van which they bought for $2500. After a few essential modifications, Adam Turnbull and Dan Melling took it across the sea from Picton to Wellington. On the open road, the van could easily travel at 100 km/h. But on the water, its top speed was around 9 km/h. So it’s possible. Now where’s that arc welder? Maybe I could do that to my Nissan Navara ute.
Now to something a little more upmarket; not a van this time, but a vehicle made in Australia and one that looks more 4×4 in its shape. With a top speed of 100 km/h on the road, the Australian built Platypus has serious 4×4 ability and is capable of seven knots on the water. What this machine has going for it is that it can withstand heavy seas. The Platypus would have to be the amphibious vehicle I would prefer to be in if I was to head out to sea off the coast at Freemantle. Boyd Wyatt, the Australian designer/builder of the Platypus amphibious 4×4, said, “I love what others have done with their amphibious concepts, but I decided to make a vehicle that was affordable to the people who would really use them. I figure there’s a vast market of people who live in coastal regions who want a genuine, working amphibious 4×4, not a high speed US$200,000 sportscar. So I set out to build such a vehicle under US$50,000, and I’ve done that with room to spare”. This is a real cool vehicle, so Boyd can be contacted at boyd@ecn.net.au should this machine tickle your fancy.
So what’s left? The Aquada and Rinspeed. Let’s take a look at the Saleen Aquada amphibious vehicle first. The Saleen Aquada is a land and water vehicle that is capable of reaching 64 km/h on the water. The Saleen Aquada drives like a sports car on the road, and then once you hit the water, the vehicle will become like a speedboat on water. Only a very calm Sydney Harbour sea will do, however. A lake, calm sea, meandering river or estuary is more like the place you’ll take the Saleen Aquada. Very cool is the simple press of a button and drive into the water fun factor. The wheels automatically rise. Entry to the water is via beach, boat ramp, slipway or directly from the water’s edge.
The Rinspeed “Splash” is another very ingenious amphibious vehicle. Again at the push of a button, a cleverly thought-out hydraulic mechanism transforms the sports car into an amphibious vehicle. Frank M. Rinderknecht designed the machine, and clever it is. A highly complex integrated hydrofoil system enables the “Splash” to ‘fly’ at an altitude of about 60 cm above the water. On smooth water, the “Splash” is capable of reaching a top speed of about 80 km/h.
Surely we are going to see more of these types of vehicle on the road. Maybe the Chinese will catch on, and we’ll see a mass production of cheap amphibious vehicles suddenly burst onto the market. People are going to love driving these vehicles to work if it is going to cut their commute by 30 mins or more by venturing, via the direct route, across the water to the office.
All Records Broken!
June 2012 was the best ever month for vehicle sales – 112,566 vehicles sold. Whilst June is usually a pretty good sales month this is exceptional, and shows a massive increase of 17.1 percent over last June. Whilst we can expect some improvements over a year ago (after effects of supply difficultues) the strength of these improvements come as a big surprise.
The big winners were hybrid vehicles (petrol/ electric cars such as the Toyota Prius), up 84 percent on a year ago, and SUV’s, up 33 per cent.
For the third month in a row the biggest selling individual vehicle was the Toyota Hi Lux, followed by the ever-popular Mazda3.
The Toyota HiLux commands the top spot due to very strong sales into the mining industry in Queensland and Western Australia.
The biggest selling brand was (as usual) Toyota, followed by Mazda.
The most notable loser was probably the iconic Holden Commodore that has gradually lost favour over the past few years and now languishes in eighth place (the lowliest ever) in the popularity stakes.
Level 2, 9 Help Street