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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

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  • Is a block heater a must-have in extremely cold climates?

     Dear Tom and Ray: I live in interior Alaska, and it gets cold. How cold, you ask? It's been -40 F (that's negative 40) for the past week or so. My husband and I go back and forth as to whether to keep the car's block heater plugged in all the time, or whether to use a timer and run it only some of the time. I've heard that too much heat is bad for the oil. This morning I used the timer, and my car decided it was too cold for the transmission to engage. I was stuck. At -45 F, I don' t have to go to work. At -40 F, I do (administrative policy). I want to use this as leverage to get my husband to let me keep my car plugged in more of the time. What do you think? -- Christie

  • Today: the case of the misaligned hub covers.

     Dear Tom and Ray: I live in New Hampshire, and have a 2002 Saab 9-5 Aero. About 10 weeks ago, after putting on the snow tires, I personally put the little blue "hub covers" with the Saab logo on the center of each wheel. Just for kicks, I put on the covers so they all were facing exactly the same way. The other day, I was walking up to the car and noticed that all the covers are now misaligned. I'm thinking to myself: "How did that happen? Did someone sneak into my garage at night and purposely reposition the hub covers?" This is really baffling me, and I've come up with several possible explanations: (1) Remember the movie "My Cousin Vinny" when Marisa Tomei gives her courtroom explanation of Positraction? I am thinking that maybe there's a similar system in my Saab that's causing this phenomenon. (2) Maybe the front wheels spun unequally on ice. (3) When taking a corner to the left, maybe the left wheel spins less than the right one does. In any case, please provide an explanation for this. I know it doesn't really matter how the hub covers are positioned, but it's driving me nuts. Thanks! -- Phil

  • Should John the valet be warming up cars?

     Dear Tom and Ray: I am a valet at a local country club in Wisconsin. As you well know, it gets very cold here in the winter months, and that leads to my question. As a favor to the members who choose to valet park with me, I like to warm up their cars before they leave. I let the cars run anywhere from two to 15 minutes, depending on how long they take to get ready to leave, get their coats, finish conversations, etc. So my question is: Am I doing any damage to these automobiles? Would they be better off next winter driving away in ice-cold cars? -- John

  • Today: Technical Service Bulletins, explained.

     Dear Tom and Ray: I've heard you refer to "bulletins" ("maybe there's a bulletin on it") in addressing repair problems. My question is this: If there is, in fact, a bulletin out on a repair, does that mean the dealership cannot (or ought not) charge full price for the repair? My Saturn wagon just had a transmission pressure-control solenoid replaced, to the tune of $800. As I was writing out the check, I noticed a bulletin that the technician had clipped to the bill, and I asked the serviceman if I could see it. He was hesitant, especially when I asked him for a copy of it. Is the bulletin just an aid for the technician to follow, or is it a correction of a defect, and therefore something that should be covered under warranty? -- Bill

  • today: How would you price car sharing?

     Dear Tom and Ray: I'm living with a bunch of poor, just-out-of-college/sometimes-in-grad-school folks who are planning to share my car. I don't want to sell it. I'd like to come up with a way to let everyone contribute based on how much they use the car and how they use it. How does highway driving compare with city traffic for wear and tear on the car? It obviously has an effect on gas, but what about the engine and other parts? -- Dan

  • Today: an airbag answer that's "no charge."

     Dear Tom and Ray: I recently purchased a 2009 Chevy Traverse. My wife, who is a vertically challenged 5 feet 1 inch, likes to sit on a cushion to gain greater visibility. However, when she sits in the front passenger seat with a fabric material cushion, the warning light indicates that her seat's air bag is off. So, currently, in order to ride as safely as possible, she does not use the cushion. Is the air bag really turned off when she sits on the cushion? If it is, please explain to this non-automotive engineer how her sitting on a cushion is compromising the system. -- Calvin

  • Can kids really wear out power window switches?

     Dear Tom and Ray: When I was a kid, my siblings and I loved to play with the power windows -- up a little, down a little, up some more, down some more, all the way up. Our elders always told us to cut it out because we'd wear out the switches. Now that I have kids of my own who love to do the same thing, I find it annoying, so I tell them to cut it out because they'll wear out the switches. But it makes me wonder -- can you really wear out power-window switches, or were my elders fibbing, just the way I am? -- John

  • Which is better for the frozen north: an SUV or a lower-riding car?

     Dear Tom and Ray: I am a doctor living in an area that typically can get 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground at some point in the winter. Snow plows are not always out on the roads when I drive. For this reason, I need a four-wheel-drive vehicle; however, I don't know if SUVs, like the Honda CR-V or BMW X3 or X5, are superior in snow to lower-riding all-wheel-drive cars, like Audis or Subarus. Do I really need to be higher up in an SUV, or could I get through snowdrifts in a sedan? I get concerned about it because I have to be at the hospital no matter what the conditions are outside. This dictates what I drive, even if gas mileage is poor. -- Claire

  • Why do European cars get better MPG than their US equivalents?

     Dear Tom and Ray: Can you explain why equivalent cars sold in Europe get much better fuel economy, compared with those sold in the U.S.? As an example, I was looking -- I suppose out of boredom -- at the Honda U.K. Web site. It shows the mileage for the Honda Jazz (which is called the Honda Fit here) at around 50 mpg, just as is, off the showroom floor. It's not a hybrid version, just the regular car! The equivalent base model in the U.S. comes in somewhere in the 30s for mpg. What's up? And yes, I know that an Imperial gallon is slightly bigger than a U.S. gallon. But the 10 percent difference in volume alone cannot explain the discrepancy in mileage. -- Lawrence
Dear Tom and Ray - Cartalk Newspaper Column 

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