And what it is: It is amateur. It is how I look at things. It is based on manufacturers’ numbers.

There have been quite a few of these comparisons in the past by various news outlets and bloggers and anyone that felt like it. Thing is I don’t recall ever seeing the detail that I wanted to see in them. So I made my own. What is it? It is a spreadsheet that compares various hybrid models to their base model mid-sized sedan counterparts. So Camry vs Camry Hybrid, Sonata vs Sonata Hybrid, etc.

I looked at only those that had both a basic model and a hybrid model (no Prius, no Insight, etc). And I also only compared the base model against the hybrid. Sure, when you look at specs, the hybrid probably has other features that the base model does not, but for the simplicity of the comparison, these things are ignored. I’m mostly focusing on the money. For the people that want to buy a hybrid for the sake of saving money on gas, what are they really getting into? Is there really any savings?

Of course there is! You’ll save money on fuel, but you will pay an average of about $7200 more for the car over MSRP of the base model between the 4 cars I looked at. Those four included the Hyundai Sonata, Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry, and Nissan Altima.

I also looked at 3 different driving scenarios: mostly city, mostly highway, and half and half. For the “mostly” ones, I considered 90% driving to be “mostly.” So “mostly highway” is 90% highway and 10% city for my calculations.

Let me start by saying that if you drive mostly highway and are looking at one of these particular hybrids… don’t. Just skip them all. You’d take a minimum of 32 years to recoup the extra MSRP in fuel savings (Sonata Hybrid)… and may take all the way up to 79 years for the Altima Hybrid. Ouch. Again, if you drive almost completely on the highway – do not buy one of these things.

If you drive about half and half, it still doesn’t look that great. The average time to recoup your “hybrid tax” between the 4 models is about 20 years. So what about mostly city driving? That has to be awesome, right? That’s mostly what these things are made for, isn’t it?

Sort of, ya. And they certainly do better in a mostly city environment. The Sonata comes out on top (as they did in all of the numbers) with a break even time of just over 10 years. The times just went up from there, all the way to the Altima at a little over 14 years. Based on math alone, the Altima Hybrid seems to make the least amount of sense between any of them. Clearly a case of “we need a Hybrid model – I don’t care if it sucks.”

Here’s a very simple breakdown of how the numbers worked out on the right… These specific numbers are assuming an average of 12k miles per year and at the current price of gas around $3.35 (that’s what it is near me anyway).

Another point worth mentioning is that if you drive much more than 12k/yr or if fuel prices were to skyrocket in the next year or two (which they probably will) these numbers work out MUCH better.

For example, if you drive 20k miles per year (mostly city), the extra cost of the Sonata Hybrid would break even in just over 6 years (vs over 10 years at 12k miles/year). Likewise for fuel. If prices were to go up to $4/gal, you’d get your money back on the Sonata Hybrid in about 8.5 yrs (vs the 10+ years at $3.35/gal). And if you drive a lot AND the price of gas goes up, things look even better… cutting most of the break even times in half. The Sonata Hybrid paying for itself in barely over 5 years.

What does this all mean? Not much… I was just bored. But it should really serve as a reminder that if you are shopping for a new car and considering a hybrid, you absolutely need to do a ton of research to figure out if one would be beneficial to your specific driving environment. Of course not everything is about saving money either… there may be some of you saying to yourselves “I don’t care if I spend a little more money, I just want to reduce my ‘carbon footprint’ or use less fuel.”

And to those people, I say, you STILL need to do a ton of research. But let’s jump back into the data… If you are concerned about fuel consumption and just want to use less and help the planet, between these four models, I’d say you should take a look at the Ford Fusion. Driving 12k miles per year, mostly city, the Fusion Hybrid can save you over 200 gallons of fuel per year vs its non-hybrid model. That’s quite significant, if you ask me. It translates to savings of about $700/yr in fuel costs (at current prices). The Sonata Hybrid doesn’t do too bad itself, saving just shy of 190 gallons of fuel per year in mostly city driving.

If I were to ONLY consider this data that I’ve been playing with, and was going to buy only one of these four (eight?) cars, my choice would be between the Sonata and Fusion Hybrids. Overall they do reasonably well in the math department and are both great cars. And I think if it weren’t for the Fusion’s higher “hybrid tax” (difference in Hybrid MSRP vs Base MSRP), I think it would come out on top in every category.

So take from this what you will… sorry it was long. I just felt like writing something today.  If you’re curious what the rest of my math looks like, you can download the Excel spreadsheet here. I may have totally screwed all of this up… but that’s OK, at least it got you reading something. And maybe now you’ll go do some more research and find what you’re looking for. Good luck.

EDIT: Uploaded a new version of the spreadsheet that includes the Jetta in a TDI vs reg gas comparison. Cliff’s Notes: It’s not as great as you’d expect.

It’s not hard. There are even lines on the ground for you to follow. Park between them. Try to keep the spaces even. And don’t be an asshole.

Unfortunately there are far too many people who are somehow unable to follow these simple concepts. So I thought I’d put together a little “slideshow” of parking tips.

Let’s start with the proper way to park…

Figure 1.0: Parking Properly

Notice both vehicles are evenly spaced within their relative parking spots. Notice no one is crooked or parked on a line. Notice one car is not 6″ from the other. These are the things you should be aware of and look for.

Let’s move to an example of how not to park…

Figure 1.1: The Crooked Parker

The Crooked Parker is notorious for improperly approaching the space as they park. If you enter at the wrong angle and don’t bother to straighten out, you screw everyone else over. What’s worse is these are the people who cannot take an extra 25-30 seconds to back out and straighten up in the space. You’re essentially taking up 2 spaces now by being lazy and everyone hates you. Good job.

This next example is something I fear every day. The Close Parker. I routinely check my doors for marks when I notice people like this near my car.

Figure 1.2: The Close Parker

The Close Parker has no concept of personal space and likely does not consider their vehicle anything more than an appliance to go from A to B. And while that is not necessarily a bad thing, whipping your door open into the side of my car because you have zero consideration for the property of others or an awareness of your surroundings IS a bad thing. I hope you DIAF.

Moving on…

Figure 1.3: The Perpendicular Parker

The Perpendicular Parker has some inner desire to park like a retard. Not because they’re retarded (who knows though) but because they think they’re cool. Or perhaps they think their car is cool. I don’t know. Either way, they’re retarded. Unless you are pulling a trailer and do not fit into a normal space and even then park WAY far away from everyone else, you’re a douche and I hate you.

There’s a common variation of the Perpendicular Parker as well…

Figure 1.4: The Straddler

The Straddler is another person who often likes to think their car is too cool to have others park near it – and while that concept is fine, the execution is very poor. They often will purposely take up 2 spaces by straddling the yellow line. And they are usually also douchebags.

There is one type of parker that bothers me more than any other though…

Figure 1.5: The Asshole

For some reason The Asshole thinks that they are being funny by parking right next to someone who obviously cares about their vehicle and purposely goes out of the way to avoid just such people when parking in a large area.

If I take the time to park farther away (min 5-7 empty spaces) from everyone else and walk the extra distance into the store, it is because I don’t want any other stupid people parking near me. And when someone is dumb enough to park right next to me when there are plenty of other open spaces available, I want to piss on their door handle.

So there you go. Remember, it is very simple. Pretend you’re coloring like when you were a kid. Stay within the lines. Try to keep the space even. The rest of us will thank you for it… trust me.

Someone wants to spend $28k at your car dealership and has money available.

Do you…

• a) Try to help out, but put forth no actual effort?
• b) Do everything possible to accommodate and inform the buyer of options?
• c) Just blow the buyer off. You didn’t need that sale anyway.

Let’s just say that if you pick A or C, I’m done doing business with you.

Yes this related to my new car shopping and a certain Ithaca dealership. As of this writing, I think I’m at the final point of my patience. Here’s the latest problem…

It has been nearly THREE WEEKS since I’ve heard a single word from my salesman. That’s three weeks that I’ve been waiting, with money in-hand to get a new car. The reason? “We don’t have the accessory pricing yet.”

Yes, that is exactly what I was last told as to why I could not yet order my car. I figured I’d try to be patient about it. I did start inquiring at other dealerships (which, if you followed my latest postings, you’d know that I have very limited success in that area as well). Nothing yet has panned out.

Of course I’m not just sitting around waiting for the salesman to call me back… this past Tuesday I left a voicemail for him since he was out for the day – totally expecting a call back the next day (why wouldn’t he?). Well here it is on Friday and I STILL have not heard anything from him. Tried to call again and the secretary there said he may be with a customer and offered to put me into his voicemail again. So I left yet another voicemail. Though knowing that he was in the office today, I’m essentially making this evening the cutoff. If I don’t hear back, it’s game over.

And now, thanks to a friend that is also interested in a similar car, we both have sort of compared notes and there may be light at the end of the tunnel. I hope. So if I don’t hear anything from the original dealer by later tonight, I’ll be taking a drive tomorrow to hopefully put in an order and put down a deposit.

It’s time to get this ball rolling. I’m tired of waiting.

Jen and I went up to Maguire in Ithaca after work today and I was able to get a few drives out of the way. For those that don’t know, Maguire is probably one of the largest dealers in the area. They have 5 brands just at the location that I went to – and another few down the road. This particular dealer is Toyota, Scion, VW, Audi, Kia, and Volvo. All under one (currently expanding) roof. Subaru and Hyundai are down the road.

Today I got to take a drive in 2 (sort of 3) of the cars on my list. They had each a 2010 VW GTI and 2010 Volvo C30. Sadly both were automatic – but at the very least the drive would offer a chance to see how they really felt… or how comfortable they were. And I don’t even mean physical comfort in sitting in them. I mean everything… perception, touch, sound… how does it really feel getting in and out of one? I was also able to test drive a VW Golf TDI. The salesman thought it might be a good one to try just b/c of the torque of the diesel and it was also a 6spd. Worth a shot… I figured. Keep on reading to see my initial thoughts and reactions to each…

I’m going to go in reverse order here… not for any particular reason other than I want to. I’m going to run through my thoughts on each of the cars and then at the end give some closing words and try to figure out where I’m going from here…

2010 Volvo C30

The last car I drove was the Volvo C30. This thing had two problems right away… it was not an R-Design and it was also an automatic. Two things that actually could be overlooked for sake of getting to know the car and how it feels.

2010 Volvo C30

Part of the reason I like the C30 is that it really does have some distinct styling. It’s different. It’s a hatch back, but a quirky one. In a fun way. And the lip kit that is part of the R-Design package plays that up a bit. The one I drove… not so awesome. It was a silver one and was just kind of “blah” in the looks department. I had a bad vibe to start with.

The interior was nice enough. I knew it was pretty minimal and had the floating center stack with radio and HVAC. It did have automatic climate control and heated seats… and integrated bluetooth… and some other things I didn’t care about. All of that was nice enough but there were some things that were seriously lacking. The seats… not that comfortable. I honestly expected nicer. They had very little bolstering and just didn’t feel good. The controls for the windows, mirrors and other odd things felt very… odd. They seemed to be all sort of miniature. Not really comfortable. Felt funny to try to put the window down. Like my finger didn’t quite fit in the switch. There were other little things too, but the ergonomics like that really stuck out.

The drive was decent. It wasn’t too hard but really wasn’t that comfortable either. It felt like it lacked a bit of refinement (and that’s coming from me driving on my lowered, stiff suspension daily). This is another point where it would have been nice to try the R-Design – it has some new suspension bits for a more sporty feel. Steering was OK but the wheel felt gigantic. I think that took away from some of the fun. Felt like I was driving a bus or something having to hurl around that huge wheel. Power delivery was decent – but without driving a manual, I couldn’t really gauge if it was where I wanted it to be or not.

2010 VW Golf TDI

2010 VW Golf TDI

The middle car I drove was the Golf TDI. This isn’t a bad car. I mean, it’s based on the Golf, has a torquey diesel under the hood, gets great gas mileage, and it was a manual! Have to say, for my first diesel drive, it was weird. It sounded weird, felt weird, everything. Not necessarily in a bad way – but in a “it would take me a little while to adjust to this” kind of way. I’d get used to it – just not immediately. Oh, and I stalled it once. Those engines rev funny.

The interior was very obviously all VW. Class all the way. Not totally upscale like the GTI or anything – but certainly nice in its own way. Even came with heated seats standard! It drove well I thought. The torque was good and you could hear the turbo spooling up so it was fun to lay some power down. I didn’t go crazy though. I knew from the start that I didn’t really want a TDI – this thing wasn’t really meant for autox and whatever I got would definitely have its share of cone killing. None-the-less, it was a fun drive.

2010 VW GTI

The first one I drove was actually the GTI. I have to be honest, for a while, this really wasn’t on my list. I don’t know what I was really thinking, but just had neglected to honestly consider it. Not for any particular reason, just didn’t have it there. I knew it was a good car and had already read tons of reviews… yet somehow just forgot it.

2010 VW GTI

That was dumb. Even though it lacks the distinctive styling of the C30 (not that it’s a bad looker or anything) and maybe lacks the eco-mindedness of the TDI, I can see why the GTI gets rave review after rave review. The thing is a killer. Sadly I only got to drive the DSG version but it was still quite fun (paddle shifters and all). The interior was fantastic. Love those plaid GTI seats (again, heated, standard). Everything just seemed comfortable and intuitive. It wasn’t difficult, nothing felt out of place, things just seemed right. Totally class all the way. Even the steering wheel in that thing is just awesome. Nice and beefy but not trucker-large or anything.

So what does it all mean?

I’m pretty sure the C30 has dropped a couple notches on my list. I could consider trying a manual C30 and see if I like it more – but the interior, the bits and pieces… something was missing. Just wasn’t feeling it.

The TDI was cool (and fun to drive) but I can’t see it being as “fun” daily as the GTI. And the overall driving refinement was a bit lacking compared to the GTI. It did not feel as composed. Then again, this wasn’t really on my list to begin with, so I’m not really missing out.

The GTI is hands down the winner of this round. The driving experience, the interior, the overall feel of the drive… it was all there. Just need to put it together with the 6spd version for one more test. I think I need to row some gears in it before I really decide.

What next then? Well, next week I leave for Salt Lake City… so nothing more on the car front for a while. At some point after I get back though, I’ll be heading down the road from that dealer to another one of their locations to hopefully try out a new WRX and maybe a Hyundai Genesis Coupe. Then the real comparisons begin…

I’m not sure when yet, but it will. It has been good to me and a lot of fun – but I need to move on. I need to upgrade. More power, more fun… just something different. Whatever I end up with, I may even keep it mostly stock. Maybe just some minor cosmetic stuff (wheels? tint?).

So far I’ve been working on a spreadsheet of possible options (as I’ve mentioned in the past). Many of my previous considerations are still in the game for the most part. I currently have 6 cars in the running – though some more than others. In no particular order, I’m currently considering

• Volvo C30 R-Design
• Mazdaspeed 3
• Mini Cooper S
• Subaru WRX (2011 body style)
• Hyundai Genesis 2.0 Track
• VW GTI

And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. I mean, I’ve gone through and priced them all with the options I’d want and have compared… but I’m still left scratching my head. I really don’t know what I want. I’ve compared warranty coverage (Volvo and Hyundai rock here). I’ve looked just at power (the WRX and Mazdaspeed 3 destroy everything else here). Even gas mileage is factored in (nothing is close to the Mini).

They have some negatives too… The C30 is kind of pricey – but am I paying for better warranty and stylish looks? The Mazdaspeed is quite small inside for it’s exterior appearance. The Mini tries too hard to be quirky on the interior and really pushes me away. The WRX is only a 5spd with not fantastic warranty coverage. The Hyundai is the RWD out of the lot and long term reliability is still up in the air. The VW may also have reliability questions.

I still have a little while until I REALLY get into this and start test drives – but even narrowing things down to that part is hard. I’m going to spending way more money this time than with my tC (possibly as much as $10k more) so I want to make sure I nail it.

It just might take me a while…

They say that if you try hard enough, you can have or be anything… I disagree. Not that someone should not be optimistic about things – because there are a lot of things people could do if they were to try. It’s just that the list is not infinite. Like I could never be a member of British Parliament. And if you try to say that I could be, you’re either lying to yourself (and me) or you’re an idiot. I could also never be a race car driver. At least not without a lot of help.

If you have been reading my site at all, you’ll know that driving/racing is a big part of my life. But I “race” around cones… in a parking lot… with my regular car. And while this is tons of fun as it is, it’s still hard to call it racing – especially when I explain it to people who don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s kind of like saying you’re a Chef – but you assemble cheeseburgers at McDonald’s. Just not quite the same thing. I’d love to be an actual race car driver – and I’m not even being picky here, I don’t need to shoot for Formula 1 or anything, I’d just like to drive an actual race car. Professionally. Continental Tire, Rolex, ALMS, World Challenge, any of this would be ideal.

I like to think I do well at autox… and that I have some skill. I would also like to think some of this would translate into driving on an actual track and that I wouldn’t be awful. Sure, there’s a LOT (even a “lot” is an understatement here, I realize that) that I would have to learn and would like to learn (hell, there’s a ton I still need to learn about autox)… but I would like to believe I have a tiny amount of talent and wouldn’t make a total ass of myself.

But how do I even get to that point? I don’t even have the budget I’d like to be able to prep for autox like I want to… let alone to build and field a race car in any sort of series. I also don’t have a racing/karting background like many of the drivers out there (note: I’m leaving NASCAR out of this b/c it would be a very cold day in hell for that to really be where I ended up). I’m just a regular guy who likes driving and would like to race for real. But what kind of chances do I have? None that I know of.

How about driving schools? Sure that would be awesome, but chalk it up as another thing I don’t have the $$ for. So is it just that I don’t have enough $$? Do only rich people race? Do you have to be rich, in order to get into racing to become more rich? Is that the only way? And yes, I realize that getting into racing to become rich isn’t how it works – that’s not why I want to do it – I’m just illustrating a point.

A couple years ago VW started their Jetta TDI Cup series and at one point I actually thought “hey, I could try to get in on that…” but then you need to front like $20k for the car and stuff. Not to mention go on the road with the series for all of the races. There is just no way… where do I get that money? How do I pay my bills on the road? Do they pay you to race in this series even if you don’t win? The questions go on and on…

Point is… unless someone can point out something obvious to me that I’m missing, I see no way for me to ever follow that dream… not at this rate anyway. Is it so much to ask?

Fuck this guy, I’m not letting him in! Find another place to merge buddy.

And various other issues when driving in traffic. NY drivers aren’t exactly what you would call “polite” in any sense of the word. It’s quite sad actually. I mean, most aren’t even nice enough to move over when you’re trying to merge from an on-ramp and no one is passing them – but that may just be ignorance.

Here in CA, it feels different. There is ALWAYS traffic here – but the merging seems to go rather well. I don’t really understand. When two busy lanes come together, most of what I’ve seen is very even – one from this side, one from that side, one from this side, etc.

Maybe it’s different in other parts of CA even. Maybe they’re assholes elsewhere, I don’t know. But in the route I’ve been taking to and from work, I don’t think I’ve had a single issue in getting where I’m going.

One piece I find helpful is having an in-state license plate. That way I’m not automatically badged a tourist that doesn’t know where he’s going. Though I have to say, even for a tourist, I think I did pretty good getting around – especially without a proper GPS. I had to refer to my phone once or twice – but that’s not so bad for being in such a big area.

It was about 40° today and sunny. Wasn’t going to pass that up. What did I have to do? Um… spark plugs, oil, transmission fluid… as a start anyway. I’m sure I could find more things to do on another day (clean the interior maybe?) but that was enough for one day.

Filled it up with some Redline MT-90 transmission fluid. Mobil 1 5W-30 oil… and some OEM Toyota spark plugs. Was actually the first time I’ve changed the spark plugs – but the OEM plugs theoretically should last some where around 100k miles. I just passed 80k.

Probably spent about $100 on everything (and had to order most of it online) but it should be worth it. I was about 100 miles overdue on the oil change and not sure when I last flushed the transmission. Should be good to go until sometime in late spring now. I haven’t been putting a ton of miles on or anything so everything should last a while – and I shouldn’t be changing spark plugs again while I own the car.

This bothers me for a few reasons. Mainly… it’s not 2011. And by that I really mean that it is not even CLOSE to 2011. It is still mid February of 2010. We’re barely into the first quarter! How can you even call that a 2011 model when it’s not even close to that year? And that also means that production of that model would have started some time last year – in 2009!

I can live with testing and concepts two years before your model debuts… but the actual production of it? Aren’t we a little ahead of ourselves here?

Another reason this bothers me… mileage. Take a second to think about it – the current average mileage for any vehicle is probably somewhere between 12k and 15k per year. This car will have that many miles before it even gets into its own model year! So look ahead to 2013 when this car now has about 40k miles on it. If you go by model year, that’s a 20k per year average – which kills resale. Comparatively, if you call this a 2010 with 40k miles in 2013, that’s only about a 13k per year average… which is way more “average.”

So what’s the deal? This is probably the largest model year to release year gap I’ve ever seen. Even Toyota really doesn’t start selling the next model year vehicles until around July of the year before. That seemed like a long gap before. Now it has just been shattered.

What can we do? Not much actually. In some situations I think they should just take a year off and push that design out another 6-10 months. But they won’t. This is the car industry and you always need to have your latest and greats out NOW! DO IT! MOVE! BUILD IT! SELL IT!

Eh hem.. sorry. So if you want to pick up a car super early to say you have the most recent one and don’t mind taking a kick to the balls on resale value – there’s a 2011 Hyundai for you just down the road from me.

First thing is first: Camber is not the devil.

When I put my adjustable camber bolts on the front of my car and requested alignment at -2° camber up front you could have sworn the guys at the shop (Kent Brown Toyota in this case) thought I was absolutely insane. “Are you sure?” Yes. “You’re going to get a lot of tire wear.” No, I’m not, just do it.

Look… a little camber never hurt anyone. Hell, even up to something like -3° is probably fine. As long as you’re not going crazy with it – your tires will be OK… one on condition.

The rest of your alignment needs to be in spec – and most importantly: toe.

Toe is which direction your wheel is pointing when the car is “straight” – towards the inside or outside of your car. Pointing to the inside is toe “in” – the outside is toe “out.” Any out of spec toe settings can destroy your tires in a relatively short period of time. This is ridiculously accelerated if you have some sort of “custom” camber setting.

Say you have -2° of camber and something like 1° of toe “in” (assuming spec is something like +/- .2°)… you will end up chewing up the inside of your tire pretty quick. Not in like a couple weeks or anything – but it will significantly shorten the life of your tires – especially along the inside edge – very uneven wear.

Your best friend in all of this is an alignment as close to factory specs as possible. Your tires will thank you. And if you’re into any sort of performance or modification – don’t be afraid of a little negative camber – no matter what the shop tells you.

If you want to know a bit more about alignment, check out this Tire Rack article.

Note: I’m not a mechanic. I just play one on the internet. I don’t guarantee this info is accurate – so you should also research stuff on your own. Hopefully it’s at least partially correct.