November 2011 Archives

Well, I seem to have been mistaken.

Guess what I saw the other day ... a Chevy Volt.

What's the big deal, you ask?

It's the first one I've seen that appears to be owned by a consumer.

I saw one months ago parked outside Autodie that was owned by a company from the east side of the state, something related to the car business. I have driven Volts myself, but they were demos.

This one had a regular license plate on it, just sitting at the light at Michigan Street and Fuller Avenue.

Once again, the Michigan State Police are participating in a multi-state program to encourage use of seat belts over the Thanksgiving weekend, beginning Wednesday evening.

Called the Combined Accident Reduction Effort (CARE) initiative, police in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota will be "stepping up" enforcement of seat belt laws.

A release from MSP said that 10 people died in nine separate fatal crashes over the holiday weekend in 2010.

Of course, troopers will be watching for more than just unused seat belts. They'll be on watch for speeding and drunk driving.

Here is the MSP public service announcement posted last year:

Read all about it!

Volkswagen is on the inside track to be the biggest car maker on the planet.

Volkswagen?!?

Volkswagen.

"As a third-generation auto dealer, all I can say is--It's about time!

"In 2008, when gas prices skyrocketed to historic highs, I couldn't GIVE away some of the gas-guzzling vehicles on my lots. Federal fuel economy standards and California emissions standards will drive the production of more efficient vehicles so that my industry won't have to experience that same kind of gut punch again."

Have you noticed?

(Berger Chevrolet let me drive a Chevrolet Volt for a week, no obligations. I am posting here because, judging from the response of people who have seen me with the car, people are curious. Though this post is November 12, Day 4 was actually November 3.)

My first encounter with anything odd with the Volt (aside from its awesome quiet when running on battery power) came within moments of taking the car from the dealer. It was a noise I first thought might be a suspension problem, an unsettling scrape.

It turned out to be exactly that.

The car's air dam scraped the pavement.

It took me until Day 4 to figure it out, and only because I read the thin booklet in the glove compartment. The booklet pointed out one of the aerodynamic features of the Volt, an air dam that drops closer to the pavement than your ordinary car (pictured).

I assume GM designed the car that way do decrease drag, because an electric car needs to have as little resistance built into it as possible.

Every time I encountered a driveway, I scraped the air dam. I didn't inflict any damage, but I did adjust my driving to avoid scraping bottom. I didn't find it inconvenient, but I wondered if I should have been forewarned.





FOX 17 Home

(Berger Chevrolet let me drive a Chevrolet Volt for a week, no obligations. I am posting here because, judging from the response of people who have seen me with the car, people are curious. Though this post is November 8, Day 3 was actually November 2.)

Among the cool displays on the Chevy Volt is the Power Flow.

Instead of writing an explanation, I took a video:





FOX 17 Home

We in the news business are frequently accused of making too much of small things.

Sometimes, we're guilty.

News coverage of road traffic frequently goes a little overboard. An MLive article posted Monday is a case in point.

It begins by using stereotypes of troublesome traffic:

"A season of happy memories - all the traffic delays, the honked horns, the missed appointments! - is coming to a close, as most of the area's major road projects have wrapped up or are in their final stages."

The article goes on to competently, and without sensationalism, review road construction projects in 2011 and whether they are completed or not.

The implication is that the projects caused "traffic delays, the honked horns, the missed appointments!" From what I can tell, most delays and missed appointments were caused by crashes, not construction --  at least in the morning.

I watch speed data and MDOT cameras, and while some construction projects slow traffic somewhat -- the 36th Street bridge replacement consistently slowed traffic most mornings on northbound US-131 -- the majority of backups I was aware of were caused by crashes.

I'm just sayin'.

Let Robb Drive The Volt, Day 2

The battery range on the Volt is 40 miles, so the car needed a charge after the first day of driving. (Hey, Brian Isch from Berger Chevrolet had to show me the ropes, then it was running errands and picking up a kid.)

But I couldn't get it completely charged overnight.

Here's why.

The Volt can be charged off your household current on a regular three-prong plug. But it takes seven to nine hours. If I had a charging station, it would shoot current at twice the rate, so the car would be charged in half the time. So, not having a charging station, I plugged it into an outlet in the garage.

The problem was that I got to bed late and I get up really early. The battery could not be fully charged in the time the Volt spent in the garage.

But, have no fear!

When I pushed the Power On button, the Volt's generator easily provided enough charge. I could have gone the entire day without plugging in, but I wanted to see how much charge I could get if I plugged in at work. So, the Volt was tethered to FOX 17 from 6 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. The result: a range of 32 miles.

The car made it the entire day on that charge.

And I hit my head only twice.

My wife, by the way, likes this car very much. And she is a person who doesn't much care about cars; just get her where she wants to go comfortably and economically.