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.
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.
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.
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.
Level 2, 9 Help Street