The mirror adjustment debate

So, how do you adjust your side mirrors?

Here’s how I do it: wide out. To adjust the drivers side, I lean up against the door and move it out until the door handle is in the lower right corner. Passenger side? Lean over to the middle of the vehicle, repeat (except the handle is in the lower left corner). Some refinement is usually necessary once you’re on the road, but the idea is to eliminate blind spots. When a vehicle exits the field of view of the rear view mirror, it’s already in the side mirror. This has worked for every car I’ve driven, except my mom’s old ‘86 New Yorker, which suffered from the double whammy of teeny side mirrors and not enough travel in the motor to move out far enough. It was easiest in my old Neon, but works mighty well in the PT too (better when you remove the rear headrests).

It works! I have no blind spots.

Obviously, if the view directly out the back is impeded by anything, that will affect your ability to see. But with no obstruction, you can eliminate any blind spots.

If you’re used to the ’see the side of the car’ method as I used to be, this will seem very weird at first. I was given the wise advice to be patient and give it a chance. It took a bit and I almost bailed on the idea a few times, and it was a long time before I fully trusted it. But now…if I can see out the back window I never turn around. Try it; you may like it! It’ll be weird, and you’ll either grow to love it or hate it - there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. But if it works for you, it gives you a wider view of what’s going on around you.

Boring is good

Auto journalists tend to like exciting things, and that’s no surprise; most only drive any particular car for a week, and in any case, they’ve made cars the center of their lives. What’s more, odd things are easier to write about. Give me a Jeep Wrangler, and I can write for hours. Give me a Toyota Camry, and I have a much harder time. True, most auto writers simply rewrite press releases or make up their own blather rather than actually driving the car, but the most fun loans are always the odd ones - the ones that make people stop and ask, what is that? Can I see the inside? You know, the PT Cruisers, VW Beetles, Chevy SSRs…the cars with wild styling as much as those with wild performance.

The enthusiasts always want more performance, usually in the form of higher horsepower numbers and lower sprint times (for some reason, the “highway pass” time - from, say, 50 to 70 mph while in top gear - is rarely mentioned, but 0-60 is always around, and usually treated as a racing 0-60 rather than a civilian 0-60 - that is, from idle).

But what really sells?

Let’s look at the top sellers. Ford and Chevy full-size trucks - no real driving excitement there, as huge horsepower figures are drowned out by weight, and let’s face it, they’re trucks. I’ve driven the Avalanche, Escalade, and H2, and they are all frankly duller than a base Corolla. These are vehicles designed to haul heavy cargo, though precious few buyers seem to use them for that.

Then for cars, we have another bevy of dullness - the Camry, Accord, Corolla, and Civic. (The Civic gave up being a real “pocket rocket” a long time ago, not that it was usually particularly fast in acceleration anyway, CRX Si aside).

Meanwhile, Detroit seems to have been chasing a dream of exciting, sporty cars. Let’s see what happened to them. Camaro - dead. GTO - dead, though one could argue that’s because it looks the same as a Grand Am. Mustang - doing well, largely on the name, one suspects; the previous generation also did well. But do any performance cars do as well as dull fleetmobiles?

Think of the exciting cars of the past - Cord, Reo, Jaguar, Bentley - and notice who the biggest sellers were. That’s right, it was Chevrolet, Plymouth, and Ford. Of the three, Chevy was probably sportiest, but none were really high performance back then.

Even in the same price range, sporty doesn’t often sell. You could get an SRT-4 for the same price as a Stratus, with roughly the same interior room, but the Stratus outsold the SRT-4 by perhaps 10:1.

The big secret of this industry, the secret “car guys” and the average journalist doesn’t want you to know, is that boring sells. Excitement only sells in the proper wrapping; the image has to be carefully established, burnished, and fully supported to work, and even then, the competition is massive, with BMW always there, along with all the SRT, AMG, SVT, SS, TMD, and other initial-outfits, and every manufacturer’s top-end pocket rocket.

It’s my guess that the best thing Chrysler could do to ensure a continued profit would be to take all the money that would go into any high-performance cars and stick it straight into re-contenting its minivans and, if anything is left over, putting boring ol’ Plymouth back onto wheels again; after all, it was Plymouth and the legions of flat-head sixes and low-powered fours that powered Chrysler Corporation into becoming the #2 and, later, #3 American automaker. It’s not a popular argument, but you know, once a company is successfully dominating the boring family cars, minivans, and pickups, it has a lot of money for performance - though some, like Toyota, seem to prefer to dabble now and then, but sit on the sidelines for most of the time. They don’t get many enthusiasts, but they sure seem to have a lot of customers.

My armchair CEO thought for the day

Here is my armchair CEO thought for DCX.

• GM and DCX will have hybrids for their trucks.  They should do this to promote the gas-mileage of their big trucks.  They should then take the Toyota approach and attach their hybrid technology to their smaller car line up, Caliber, Hornet, PT, Compass, and Patriot.  If it is just a PR stunt, as opposed to Diesels, DCX should heavily invest in this technology.

• Chrysler should get the Firepower ala Aston Martin.  A classic sports tourer with maximum refinement with a softer suspension. 
• The Dodge Viper would up the ante with power and torque.  The American benchmark for a sports car.
• The Dodge Challenger.  Bring back the American muscle car.  Big engine with maximum power at a reasonable price point.

• Chrysler Sebring Convertible hard top.  If Chrysler is going to move up the luxury scale then this would be a move.
• Should continue producing Viper and PT verts along with a convertible version of the Firepower. 
• I would also give Dodge some convertibles.  Since the Sebring would have a hard top, I would give the Avenger a soft top version for the fleets and for a more reasonable price.  I would also add a convertible version of the Caliber.  The Caliber is the type of car just itching for a vert version. 
• I would also add a Challenger convertible.

• Dodge should really have a Suburban fighter.  If the markets for these types of vehicles remain at a quarter of a million units, does could play in this arena.  This vehicle could be based off of the Ram or stretched Durango platform.  At least the SUV could help spread around the costs for the Durango. 

• Dodge Durango, Chrysler Aspen, and Jeep Commander.  I would stretch the Commanders platform even more to make sure that adults could truly site in the second row and make the third row a real third row. 

• Jeep Grand Cherokee would have larger cabin room for second row passengers. 
• Shorted Durango platform or make use of the Grand Cherokee platform to bring back the Dodge Ramcharger.  Ever since the Chevy Blazer went off of the market, there is no more two door SUVs. 
• 4 door Wrangler which would be called the Rescue

• Dodge Nitro, Jeep Liberty with a more masculine look to it. 
• Chrysler version of the Liberty.  As gas prices being to work their way up, this particular segment will become more popular.  An upscale version will spread costs and bring more cliental to the brand.
• 2 door Wrangler

• Right now we have the PT, Caliber, Compass, and Patriot. 
• I would add an additional crossover to the Chrysler brand to complete with the Lexus RX and soon to be Lincoln MKX.  Possibly built off of the new Sebring/Avenger platform
• The Pacifica fits nicely into the upscale minivan market. For people who don’t want a minivan but don’t want the gas milage of an SUV.

• The ME412 would have helped produce a halo effect for Chrysler saying that Chrysler wants to make inroads in the Luxury department.  Since the ME412 will never get produced, the Imperial will definitely fit the bill.  If it could be produced to even break-even the halo effect from the Imperial would help the brand charge more for other vehicles in the line up.

• Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum and Charger.  All rwd vehicles.  I would take the 2.7L out of the line up as soon as the new Avenger and Sebring hit the market.  I would possible keep the 2.7L in the Magnum to help prop up its sales.

• The new Avenger and Sebring will definitely keep the sales coming in.
• Coupe versions of each of the cars would soon follow.

• Dodge should really find a partner ASAP to build the masculine looking Hornet.  Style is defiantly missing in this particular category of cars, something this Hornet has.
• I would also add a PT roadster coupe.  How hot was that SEMA car that was shown a couple of years ago.

• Full Size trucks: Ram 1500 to 5500
• Mid Size trucks: Dodge Dakota and Jeep Gladiator based off of the Dakota or Rescue.
• Compact trucks: A Nitro based truck ala M80 and a Jeep Scramble based off of the Wrangler.

• Chrysler Town and Country and the Dodge Caravan in short and long base vehicles.

Any thoughts? Additions or Subtractions? Any thoughts for name of these new vehicles?

What will be powering our cars in the future?

I think that we can all agree that one day in the future, the world’s supply of oil will run out. We may however disagree on the actual day the oil runs dry. Some experts believe that this may happen in a couple of years from while others believe there is enough oil in the ground to supply the world’s needs for generations. Either way, oil is not a resource that is either renewable nor replenish-able.

I will give two pseudo-concrete reasons for the depletion of oil.

Saudi Arabia (one of the world’s largest suppliers of oil) has not made a major discovery of an oil field in at least a couple of decades. In order to keep the pressure of their current oil fields in check, the Saudis have resorted to pumping water into their oil fields (a common tool for depleted fields) and the rate of pumped water has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. However, they also admit that they have previously underestimated the amount of oil in each of their fields and have, year after year, increased their oil reserves. Their actual numbers and techniques for this may not be up to par with what the West may consider truly accurate and therefore we must take these numbers with a grain of salt.

Second, there is this famous gaussian curve or bell curve that was able to predict the decline in reserves in Texas. The author of this paper stated that there exists a second bell curve that relates production of oil from the wells. These two curves, one for the discovery of wells and the production from wells are separated by a couple of years. He was able to predict the exact year when oil production in Texas would begin to decline. This technique has been recently used on the world’s supply of oil and has been predicted that around 2010 that supply of oil would begin to drop.

So what will be the world’s next source of energy. Solar, wind, nuclear (fission), fusion, coal, etc.

One tool could be the use of coal. There is more coal in the state of Pennsylvania then oil in the Middle East. Nazi Germany constructed a way to make gasoline from coal. This technique is still in the early stages but is beginning to ramp up. Colorado is another state that has a lot of coal and is closely watching the research that is going on in Pennsylvania to see if it is profitable for them to invest in this “new” technology.

Solar power at this moment is an inefficient way of gathering energy. It takes more energy to produce the solar power cells than the cells themselves bring in. However, in the last decade new technologies have increased the efficiency of the cells for them to become more productive. Same goes for wind driven windmills. Lighter, more efficient materials are being created for windmills, which have driven up their efficiency.

Nuclear energy is extremely efficent, but the byproducts of the Uranium has very long lifetimes. These byproducts go through alpha decay (releasing helium atoms), beta decay (releasing electrons), and gamma-decay (releasing gamma-rays). These byproducts of the byproducts can cause cancer is exposed for a long enough time. And it is not just the byproducts of Uranium that is dangerous, disposal of the reactor core is a huge problem because it is extremely radioactive.

The only and real saviour will be cold fusion. I love just saying those words. So fusion is when you take two atoms and collide them together to form another atom. This is what fuels our sun. To make a long story short, the sun takes 4 hydrogen atoms to make 1 helium atom plus energy. Humans have been doing the same for years in particle accelerators FermiLab in Chicago and CERN in Switzerland to name a couple.

The problem is that we need to put so much energy into the process to get very little energy out (electromagnets etc). Hence the name “cold” part in cold fusion. Think of spider-man 2 if you will. How do we control the reaction without putting as much energy into the system while efficiently taking the heat out of the system?

Now I will go back to the original topic of the blog…What will be powering out cars in the future? The answer my friend is hydrogen.

The hydrogen in water or H2O is a chemical bond formed by the attraction between the electronegative region of an oxygen molecule and the electropositive region of a proton that is bonded to an oxygen. It is weaker than a covalent bond, having a binding energy of about 2-10 kcal/mol. So in order for us to power our cars with hydrogen we must put energy into breaking hydrogen from water.

Mixtures of hydrogen gas and air do not react unless ignited with a flame or spark, in which case the result is a fire or explosion with a characteristic reddish flame whose only products are water. 2H2 + O2 leads to 2H2O

So hydrogen isn’t the holy grail that we all think about. Oil is running out…don’t worry we will use hydrogen to power our cars. The problem is we get as much energy out as we put into the system. The holy grails are the forms of energy that we release the hydrogen from the water. It is the gasoline from coal that we may use or nuclear or fusion type reactors that will eventually “save” man-kind from a second dark ages.

And the Chrysler Sebring spy shots continue to flood in…

Christopher got the sharpest, clearest spy shots I think I’ve ever seen, capturing the 2007 Chrysler Sebring, albeit in camo. We posted them in our 2007 Chrysler Sebring / Dodge Avenger page at http://www.allpar.com/cars/dodge/avenger.html page, with our heartfelt thanks.

At the same time, more par-for-the-course spy shots have been posted at Ray Wert’s blog, but these are of the next generation Sebring Convertible, “with some clear Crossfire-styling that the pictures don’t do justice.” It’s a shame he didn’t tell us whether the ragtop will be, um, a ragtop or a hardtop.

The name changes for the Sebring and Avenger are interesting. We do expect the Sebring to continue, since Sebring is currently the top-selling convertible in the country, and we doubt even Chrysler would be crazy enough to let that go by the wayside (you know, like Plymouth Voyager, Dodge Spirit, Plymouth Valiant, or Dodge Dart…). As for Stratus, well, we were never especially fond of the name, though the first generation Stratus was a great car with many of the Neon’s fun characteristics but more room and a more family-oriented sitting position (oh, yes, and a nice big trunk). It’s the name we weren’t too happy with; they might as well have stuck with Spirit - the Dodge Spirit, by the way, sold better than the Stratus, and while we realize they wanted to distance themselves from the dated-when-created technology of the Spirit, they should probably have thought about those hundreds of thousands of existing Spirit owners. Not that Chrysler has thought about existing owners, at least since Walter P. died, but you know, they’re out there. Not for long in many cases, but they’re out there. Still, we digress.

Stratus is to be replaced, according to all rumors, by Avenger, altogether a more fun name and one which does go back in Chrylser history - to the Mitsubishi-designed-and-built coupe, and before that to the innovative Hillman cars. We do hope they go with Avenger, because if the Rebel/Caliber is any indication, it’ll end up being called Trigger or Wesson or Bullet or Gunpowder or something like that. (It’s the new Dodge Way. First there was the Colt, then the Magnum, then the Caliber.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new 2007 Chrysler Sebring spy shots, as well as the brother-car 2007 Dodge Avenger - those cars are shown rather nicely on the same page, with new semi-spy-shots. Happy viewing!

Who is Webb Wilder?

Not a bad credo at all, as credos go, eh?