Ask the Best and Brightest: Automotive Myths That Won't Die
As today’s post on Barack Obama’s Model T vs. SUV comparison indicates, there’s a lot of auto-related misinformation swirling around the court of public opinion. Seeing as you are the autoblogosphere’s Best and Brightest, it’s time to bust some myths. (Or at least engage in some of the usual punch-ups.) What are the automotive myths that simply won’t die? Our Ronnie Schreiber correctly flagged ye olde 100 mpg carburetor, which pairs nicely with the “GM killed the electric car” conspiracy. On the other side of that equation, PCH101 routinely confronts the idea that Japan manipulated its currency to kick Motown’s ass. There’s also this idea out there, somewhere, that a Chinese automaker is just itching to invade the U.S. market and kick some D2.8/Toyondissan ass with ridiculously inexpensive products. My [least] favorite myth: GM is the blameless victim of a bad economy. What auto-related mishegos stick in your craw?
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The drive I just did from Boston to NJ made me think of a new myth that is developing: Hypermiling in the fast lane saves gas. Perhaps for the driver of said car there is a modest gain in MPG's. However, when you trace the traffic ripple from the first car that has to brake hard to avoid rear-ending the hypermiler going 52mph in the fast lane all the way to the back of the line, you will find cars actually coming to a dead stop. This wastes far more gas than can be saved by one car in the best of conditions.
I'd like to put my 2 cents into the Lucas legend - As I mentioned, I worked on British bikes for a while. They were exclusively Lucas electrics. We had a complete inventory of new-old stock Lucas parts for original parts restorations. I often dealt with electrical problems on various Brit bikes, but you could chalk that up to them being old machines (corrosion does wonders for electrical connections). What you can't ignore is the horrible engineering of Lucas parts - for instance, turn signal bulbs were grounded THROUGH PLASTIC. Yep, instead of running a wire through to the bulb, the ground was (theoretically) transmitted through the "chrome" plated plastic. In reality this rarely worked, and I spent many hours making new ground wires for wonky turn signals. Then there were the horrible little bullet connectors that would fall apart if you sneezed on them, and the relays that sometimes didn't work right out of the package, and other fun stuff. I swore off British bikes by the time I finished my stint, and I still dread working on any electrical system.
Modern fiberglass and plastic, crush zone, type cars are safer. Because no one in a big truck or all-steel pre-1990 American car ever hits them. And it doesn't take the jaws of life to open a 2-week old 1999 Dodge Avenger that gets dinged in a parking lot.