auto.md

"NASCAR sucks"? "Country and western is rubbish"? Guess what, you're in a hick town, man.

• According to Car and Driver, electric power steering saves about 1 MPG of mileage compared to hydraulic power steering.
• Tesla wants the government to boost fuel economy penalties because they are the clean ones, giving them an advantage.
• Used car companies are actually loan companies that use cars to get you in the door. Sometimes they don't let you buy a car out with cash.
• The Mini was born due to the 1956 Suez crisis (a war).
• Hybrids use 2/3 as much fuel as conventional cars. Electric cars use roughly 30% of fuel equivalent as conventional cars.
• "There is a bit of a rational argument to actually not sell any full battery electric vehicles until you can hybridize every new vehicle sold in North America. When you calculate the numbers, the amount of batteries required to make a full battery electric vehicle (...) it honestly would make a bit more environmental sense, holistically, to just make about 100 (see notes) hybrids versus one full battery electric vehicle (...). The trouble is, full battery electric vehicles appear to be a little bit sexier. It's that question of, should I mitigate my gasoline use, or should I just stop cold turkey? and Americans love cold turkey thinking." - Alex, on autos. Actually the ratio is more 150 cells in hybrids vs 3000 in EVs, but the point still stands quite well.
• Compared to washing tires with detergents before storage, it is better to just store them dirty because at least you don't strip away the protective chemicals from the tires.
• If a car manufacturer makes 95 gasoline cars for every 5 electric ones sold... spending R&D money on improving gasoline engine efficiency by 10% brings more environmental improvement than spending that money on new electric cars.
• Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles don't give you just water as emissions. Since air contains more than just oxygen, other stuff also burns while in the combustion chamber, resulting in nitrogen-oxygen compounds, as well as CO2 as the engine oil burns.
• Topping off the gas tank is bad for the car. "Overfilling the gas tank can cause liquid gas to enter the charcoal canister, or carbon filter, which is designed only for vapor.".
• A dealer is someone who sells cars, or deals cards. A dealership is where the dealers are.
• High-pressure fuel engines are more likely to have unintended engine knocks. Naturally-aspirated engines don't have that problem.
• The best time to get an oil change is probably the spring. Something about changing out the weather-battered winter oil. The reverse (changing in the fall to prepare for battering winter weather) might also apply if you live somewhere that is particularly cold.
• As long as it is not too cold, a colder climate is better for lead-acid batteries, apparently. Canada is too cold.
• You can put too much oil into an engine. I don't know how much you should be putting in. Check your manual.
• Hertz is known to (according to /u/Admirable_Nothing, anyway) sell rental cars that have gone through more wear and tear than Budget and Enterprise. Hertz makes more from car sales than from rentals.
• Only Volvo cars aren't complete shit when they get a crash in real world (rather than the IIHS / NHTSA ones they are designed for).
• When you can't make payments for your car and need to go through voluntary repossession (or just sell the car privately), the dealer is required to give you "a commercially reasonable price" for the car that you give up.
• Always squeeze a radiator hose before opening the cap. (It can explode)
• The Honda CR-V's cargo floor could be used as a picnic table.
• Tesla owners love their brand so much, they volunteered to be orientation helpers to help Tesla for free.
• Don't listen to your service advisor because: "when you are a service advisor, you are a salesperson. This is how you make your living, you have to upsell them."
• E-85 fuel is 85% ETHANOL, not 85% gasoline or 85 octane.
• High-octane fuel is the same in every way as low-octane fuel except the resistance to knocking. Same energy content. Same fuel economy. Same purity. Occasionally different additives.
• There isn't an issue with traditional metal wipers "not hugging the windscreen" per se (it is only a problem during icy winters), but water passes through in between the wiper element and the frame, which means the water goes right back onto the windscreen.
• The VW Beetle began as Hitler's Kraft-durch-Fruede Wagen ("Strength Through Joy" Car), rather than the Käfer ("beetle").
• Get a VW salesperson to jump on the car door. It is a standard worldwide selling technique. (It's how they put the doors on in the first place, so it does nothing to the doors, or speak of their quality.)
• Fog lights do have visibility benefits in fog, other than letting other cars know that you exist.
• Flip-up car handles are cheaper, but are worse in icy climates.
• According to an unsourced reddit comment, drum brakes can brake stronger than disc brakes if ventilation is excellent, which is rarely the case.
• If you charge the Tesla 3 (75 kWh for 500km) at $0.10/kWh and 50% efficiency, that is still $15, or 2.7L/100km, not "free" like the media makes it seem. Tesla superchargers cost about $33 per full charge on a model X. If you buy an electric car for fuel costs (instead of the environment), you are going to have to drive a lot to offset the initial cost.
• Tesla paint jobs are shit.
• Put socks over your wipers to prevent them from sticking to your windscreen. Some idiot says the springs might weaken if you lift the wiper arms up, while another idiot says the arms are designed to be lifted up.
• Those "damage reported to police" stickers are for proving to the insurance that the police saw the dent, and sometimes helping the police spot unreported hit and runs, so they can be removed as soon as you finish filing a claim with your insurance.
• The Honda Element was known for having its catalytic converter stolen because it has more platinum than usual, and it's an SUV so you can crawl right underneath with no tools.
• People waiting at a mechanic for their cars to be fixed are also called waiters.
• Electric vehicles still need wheel alignments. The things EVs don't need: gas, muffler, spark plugs, engine oil, transmission fluid, radiator fluid.
• Going in for maintenance, don't go on an empty tank unless the mechanic tells you to (for tank swaps and such).
• If you buy a broken car battery from the scrapyard and trade it in under warranty, you get a cheap new car battery.
• You can download a car, Strati... and 3D print it yourself.
• Driving costs per km is a real metric, given how CAA does it. $/km varies wildly, mostly by how much you drive. But you should always drive as little as possible, because money doesn't care how much per km you drove at. Confused by how much you should drive? Don't drive.
• In a manual transmission, the stick really connects directly to the control sleeves (which change gears).
• Some truck cabs can be quite luxurious. Imagine: hotel.
• Trucks usually have bed lights.
• It is possible to configure a Toyota sienna that is more expensive than a Porsche (718 Cayman).
• In the 1980s, speedometers were capped at 85mph (about 140km/h) in America because of a law that passed there. It was repealed because it was dumb.
• The average vehicle in Canada does 15Mm per year, which means each needs 20 years to reach the 300Mm mark.
• If you anticipate an event where your new vehicle might get totalled, get GAP insurance. GAP insurance pays off the difference between (how much you still need to pay off the car) and (how much your insurance says your car is worth, which is less). For example, if you buy a $50000 car, and you drive it off the lot (which makes it worth $30000) but totalled it right outside the dealership, GAP insurance pays you that $20000, and you end up with no car and no debt.
• If you have a prop shaft, you need to balance it.
• The 2019 Toyota Tundra uses the same airvents as a specific 2013 vehicle.
• It goes without saying that it takes energy to make your tires spin. The smaller/fewer wheels you have, the less energy you need.
• There is no good evidence for the legend that Henry Ford directed his suppliers to build packing crates in such a way that the boards could be reused as floorboards in the Model T.
• Unless you live in the valley, where the temperature is constant, any primarily electric vehicle with air-cooled batteries is not worth buying.
• Tesla SEXY is not a rumour. Elon Musk said it himself. He also said, "Ford killed SEX."
• The Australian vehicle type called a "Ute" (YOOT) is short for "Utility".
• Japanese cars actually have higher tolerances (i.e. parts are worse). "U.S. car manufacturers have traditionally tended to spec tight tolerances at the component level, with the assumption that everything will fit when assembled... Japanese auto manufacturers however, ... paid more attention to assembly tolerances (functional build). They understood what tolerances needed to be tight and those that mattered less in the final build. They embraced natural imperfections, and made sure the rest of the system accepted the lower part tolerances. It turns out this led to higher overall quality at lower cost."
• The 2018 Camry uses 0W-16 oil. That thread suggests they have been testing 0W-16 oil in Japan for (two) decades now. 0W-8 oil... further lowers parasitic drag, which increases fuel efficiency, but also reduces protection to larger engines when working hard.
• The shitshow that is Toyota (Corolla) Matrix, the collaboration between Toyota and GM, was also called the Pontian Vibe in America. Well that in itself isn't a shitshow, but GM decided in sell the Vibe in Japan, which, still isn't the shitshow per se, but they've decided to sell the Vibe in Japan, which is a fuckin' Corolla made by GM, as the Toyota Voltz??? WTF?
• Bryan Nesbitt, having worked at Chrysler and GM, personally designed the PT Cruiser and HHR, the two ugliest panel vans of all time.
• Whether or not the car creeps forward on idle, as with most cars with an automatic transmission, is configurable in the Tesla 3.
• Using your wiper fluid for more than 10 seconds at a time may burn the pump.
• Mechanics may charge you extra if you decide to patch your tire with tire foam.
• Tire swaps have nothing to do with wheel alignment.
• The Lug Nut Rule: The vehicle that uses the most lug nuts to hold its wheels on will win the collision. (/u/anotherkeebler)
• Toyota waited until 2020 to implement Android Auto because Android Auto has a lot of privacy concerns, giving Google basically all vehicular information, like vehicle speed, throttle position, coolant and oil temp, and engine revs.
• Engines with long strokes typically make higher torque at lower RPMs, while engines with shorter strokes need to be at higher RPMs to achieve the same torque.
• The first generation Chevy Cruze came with an underbody cover for better aerodynamics, but also had an oil leak issue that made the covers flammable.
• Breakaway valves found in gas gumpsare not reusable.
• There exists Zero Emission Vehicles, Partial zero-emissions vehicles, Ultra-low-emission vehicles, and, get a load of this, Super ultra-low emission vehicles.
• The EcoSport is pronounced Echo-sport, because who knows.
• Proximity key fobs are even worse than button fobs. They transmit unlock instructions all the time, so the only safe way to keep it is in the fridge or microwave.
• Arnold Schwarzenneger was the first civilian to own a Hummer.
• Two-stroke engines need to burn oil to run. They also need to expel waste exhaust the same way/time fresh air came in, so it is hard for that design (except direct injection two-strokes) to pass emissions tests.
• Porsche SE owns Volkswagen AG owns Porsche AG. Therefore, while "Volkswagan owns Porsche", Porsche (SE) has 51% of VW's voting rights, and hence, ownership.
• The original Acura logo did not contain the small horizontal bar joining the two vertical pillars. Not forming the letter "H". Soichiro Honda ordered the 5,000 badges already produced to be destroyed.
• Mixing diesel gas with regular gasoline is worse for diesel engines (timing) than it is for gasoline engines (smoke/poor performance).
• "Compound" is more abrasive than "polish", which is more abrasive than wax. Always wax after doing either one.
• In the world of automotive repairs, "economy part" means the part is meant for cars that are to be sold shortly. "premium part" is something you would get for any other kind of car.
• NASCAR stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It is no longer the case.
• The surfaces of some camshafts are intentionally slightly rough, so engine oil would cling to them. See also: NASCAR engines
• Back when chickens were cheap in the US and expensive in Europe, the Chicken tax was a tariff on light truck imports, to protect the American auto industry, because Europe was imposing a tariff on American chickens. As a result of that useless repeat of history, auto manufacturers export "passenger cars" to the US, where the American people of Ford tear them down and rebuild light trucks out of them.
• The taller a car is, the more likely it is for it to kill because of the inability to roll over. Apparently going from 20km/h to 30km/h increases probability of death from 5% to 45%, and if you strike someone at 60km/h, they are 85% going to die. The take-away is, if you don't want to be sued for death, buy a bike. Why do you even have an SUV? You don't even touch gravel.
• The 五菱宏光 badges you see everywhere are just, as mainland dudes described it, 一番恶搞.
• Camrys get dents. The theory goes that three factors come into play: their drivers' ability ("camry drivers can't drive"), their cosmetic nature ("not worth it to fix"), and their drivers' tendency to not give a crap ("camry drivers don't care about driving").
• Tesla Model 3s are built in what Bernstein & Co.'s Max Warburton describes as a "tent". "It's preposterous," Bernstein's Warburton said. "I don't think anyone's seen anything like this outside of the military trying to service vehicles in a war zone. I pity any customer taking delivery of one of these cars. The quality will be shocking."
• All new cars in China will have RFID chips to track its location, 但是中国现在是一个很文明的国家嘛，咱们可以为社会和谐前进一大步, something like that
• Never use diff locks on paved roads. They are meant for roads on which you slip.
• "That will do 206 miles per hour with the roof down. But. If a bluebottle flies over the top of the windscreen at that speed, and hits you in the middle of your forehead, it'll go straight through. Its own arse." - Top Gear S10E06
• Ford renames "MKX" to "Nautilus". "MKX was too confusing," they said.
• The car is never in neutral in any driving situation.
• 豊田 is Toyoda with a D, but they changed to トヨタ (Toyota) anyway, because トヨタ has 8 strokes in it, and apparently that's good luck.
• A cold engine should never be red-lined. (It sounds obvious when it is phrased this way)
• Soft suspensions result in more body roll, thus more roll-over accidents. Instead, harder suspensions break your spine on a day-to-day basis, saving you from potential accidents.
• Never buy a VW in September (because Oktoberfest)
• Never buy a car designed during a recession or depression. They have massive per-car margins and are built like shit.
• "If you see a car with the two wipers facing each other—this is known as the opposed-arm pattern—that probably wasn't the result of an aesthetic choice or a marketing consideration. It more likely had to do with a packaging issue. The tandem pattern is more cost-effective, but sometimes it doesn't fit, so if you see that opposed-arm configuration, it usually means there was no room for the motor in the middle area."
• Intuitively speaking, wheels must be at least twice as tall as what you want the car's ground clearance to be. 20cm clearance requires 16-inch wheels (including tires).
• European cars sold in 2018 have to have an always-listening microphone installed for emergency purposes.
• London taxi cabs have their fuel caps on the same side as your car.
• If you know tires last 6 to 8 years, and you know how much you typically drive per year, then shouldn't you be buying tires based on combined kilometres over 6 years, instead of wasting money on tires that are a lot better, but cannot possibly be used to its full potential before rotting away? (Remember to also split that number by summer/winter seasons.)
• 80% of all registered cars in Albania are, or at least were, Mercedes.
• You can trivially hack a car. "Many of the standard things we would do on a PC to make the software secure, none of that was being done. (...) From a Darwinian standpoint, they had never had to face adversaries, and so the code never had to be hardened against that."
• Removable seats apparently make a vehicle target for theft: "The [new generation Chevy Suburban] is expected to address the issues regarding the constant thefts of the vehicles, especially with the previous generation's removable seats and items left in the cargo space, which has become a target for carjackers who see the third row seats as valuable on the black market."
• The 2019 Avalon does not have a front bumper. It has a grille that completely envelops what we consider the front bumper area.
• The footprint method in the regulation called CAFE means companies muck around with their vehicles in order to go into different segments by size: "the PT Cruiser was designed to meet NHTSA standards for classification as a light truck, for the express purpose of raising Chrysler's light truck average fuel economy."
• Unless you can plug it in in some (way shape form), hybrids aren't the answer to an oil crisis. Using half the gas is still using gas. Plug-in hybrids ("PHEVs") can travel 20~80km without gasoline, about 25% the distance of pure electric vehicles, and should have the total cost of ownership if you plan to own the vehicle forever.
• People who listen to techno ran through twice as many red lights as people who didn't listen to anything.
• Olive oil might dissolve tree sap.
• All of Toyota's brands (including Scion and Lexus) have the lowest maintenance cost over 10 years among the 30 brands sampled. A Honda can cost, on average, $200 more to maintain per year; a BMW, $1200 more per year.
• The pulse and glide hypermiling method, alternating between 40 and 60km/h on a 50km/h road, requires that you disengage the engine when you coast from 60 to 40 (so it doesn't engine brake).
• When you lost control in the snow (not before you lose it), you are supposed to hit the gas into the intended direction, not brake. Braking does nothing in that particular situation.
• This guy on reddit said that it is worth the money to upgrade the engine air filter to a higher grade one that blocks finer dust, despite google showing nothing about it.
• Power steering noise came from low fluid levels, or, rather, air in the pump caused by low fluid levels. Checking for leaks requires a pump; if a leak exists, pressure will promptly return to normal once applied. 1
• Winter tires do worse than summer tires in the summer in stop tests, grip and handling tests, fuel economy, and tire wear itself. All-season tires are just rubbish at everything.
• Moisture in engine oil is nothing to worry about if the moisture is from infrequent use, says one source, or make things rust and clog up filters, says a different source.
• There is a scam for anything that requires credit inquiry (but particularly when you try to buy a car) that the seller says your score is too low, which means you will have to borrow at a higher rate. The solution is to bring your own copy of the credit report.
• Operating a soft-top in freezing temperatures will weaken or even break it.
• (Pure speculation) Cars with longer wheelbases can handle rough roads better because "they have more time to settle", in principle actually because the platform does not change in angle as much as a car with a short wheelbase in the event of say a pothole. It is also expected that the car exerts more moment onto the suspensions, making them easier to wear out.
• According to this page, some traffic poles are designed to snap off when crashed into, so fewer drivers die from "wrapped around a pole"-type accidents.
• Rubber tires don't insulate you from electricity as much as you think. Even in the demonstration the vehicle is seen as the path of least resistance to the ground.
• The Rolls Royce Phantom looked like a phantom in 1925.
• "IPDE" (identify, predict, decide, execute)... you keep saying it like it's a word. It just means "be careful when you drive".
• "If you are clinically insane, by which I mean you wake up in the morning, and you think you are an onion, this is your car." - Jeremy Clarkson on the BMW X3
• Cruise control reduces fuel efficiency in hilly terrains.
• Grooved brakes are a sign that they are worn, said Chris fix. Bring your OBD scanner with you [when buying a used car], he said.
• "Spares" are meant to be full-size, you know, tires that you keep as spares. A donut is just something you use to get you to the closest tire shop.
• Backup cameras don't clean themselves.
• By the time you are done using your car by driving 200Mm on it, you will have spent at least $20k in fuel alone. Driving is not cheap. At least, in that scale, the L/100km figure will correspond to actual cash saved, i.e. 6L/100km saves you $8000 compared to 10L/100km over the vehicle's lifetime.
• Turbocharged cars have different gearings. You don't just turbocharge a car without changing other parts.
• Alex Lowell Dykes operates a car reviews youtube channel, and a ceramic microscopy lab.
• You want an engine that delivers the max horsepower at the lowest torque. That's how an engine can be useful for propelling you forward.
• The "double" part of double-declutch involves you rev-matching while in neutral: clutch pressed, neutral position on stick, clutch released, clutch pressed, shift to gear, clutch released (now you're in gear). "rev matching is something you should do regardless when dropping gears low enough."
• "You see what they've done here, this is organic tofu (toffu), dressed up as a juicy steak." - Clarkson on a CR-V hybrid
• There is a site for car appearances on the Internet, ranked by what the car did in the clip (part of the movie, used a lot, used by a character or in a car chase, background vehicle, ...)
• You can expect 7 out of 100 cars to get into a collision every year. Most are non lethal, of course.
• To check if a car is too big or too small [for you], adjust the seat and look at the B pillar (the middle one). If you can see the pillar next to you, the car is too small. If you cannot see the pillar next to you, it is big enough. (but maybe too big.)
• "Mercedes-Benz" Sounds more like "Mare-SEE-dus Bens" in German.
• When you replace two of the four tires, regardless of front wheel drive or rear wheel drive, however bald the remaining two are, the new tires go to the rear. Oversteer is much worse than understeer.
• The 2016 civic was upgraded to be 100% hard touch plastic on the rear doors.
• The Camry shared the same temperature knobs with the corolla at around the same time the corolla shared the same temperature knobs with the matrix. Rav4 also had the same knobs at some point. These cars also shared the same power door buttons, inside door handles, and possibly even the steering wheels.
• To clean your engine bay, vacuum away the dust before you wash it with water. Disconnect the battery. Don't get any water on the electricals. Actually, just scrap the whole idea of cleaning the engine bay.
• The Veloster... the driver's side has one big door, but the passenger side has two doors. Hatch opens right over the rear passengers. Horsepower of a Corolla, with fuel economy worse than a Corolla. Less passenger space than a Corolla. Less trunk space than a Corolla. No spare tire. What the heck?
• VW has a VR engine (Vmotorreihenmotor) that is a V engine, except a bit more stacked, closer to inline.
• Car engines have mounts. Otherwise, they pop out.
• Mechanics change your oil by first pumping pressurised gas into the "oil bins", emptying them.
• When buying a car, remember to take into account the outrageous warranty that you will want to buy.
• If your car's clearcoat is coming off, just take off both the base and the clearcoat, and repaint the whole thing. No other method, such as clearcoating over broken base coat, is really worth the savings. Clearcoating over old paint will never come out right.

• An unspecified Cheiracanthium species is attracted to the smell of petroleum and has caused problems by weaving webs inside the canister vent of particular models of Mazda vehicles, resulting in blockages and build-up of pressure that could potentially cause fuel leakage from the fuel tank and an increased risk of fire. Mazda issued a voluntary recall of Mazda 6 models...

• The right turn signal is meant to be used in a roundabout once you pass the exit before the one you intend to exit. This is consistent with other right hand turns.
• Fiat 500 is called Fiat 500 because it had a 479cc engine, and because Fiat are Italian and round up willy nilly.
• It is possible to over-tighten the bolts for the wheel nuts. Use a torque wrench to (do something...?)
• Car commercials often never feature the real car.
• To tell if a mechanic is honest, take your car in for an unnecessary repair.
• Both Tom and Max Chilton are racers. However, only Max's website was SEOed to say "CHILTON'S BAD LUCK CONTINUES AT THE KOHLER GRAND PRIX AT ROAD ..."
• Herr Hitler sagte (SAAG te), "mein Auto sollte (SOY-te) wie ein Käfer (KAY-fer) aussehen (OW-seen, to appear)." Mister Hitler said, "my car should look like a beetle."
• The first beetle was built by Dr. Porsche.
• It is probably wise to buy cars based on its insurance cost, which is apparently available in the form of a spreadsheet.
• Cheaper gasoline is sold to active farmers. It is called dyed diesel (because it is dyed, to...), or purple gas if it is actually gasoline.
• Adding automatic transmission fluid does not clean your engine; not sure why it must be said.
• Buy Lexus, Toyota, or Subaru (in that order). Hondas made in Japan are also acceptable.
• The ugly "Prius design" is called the kammback exterior.
• Winter and all-season tires cannot be mixed
• The car colours that retain the most value are white, black, and grey. Birds love pooping on red, blue, and black cars. Bright colours also correlate to higher insurance premiums. To add on to the insult, black cars get into accidents most often because no one can see them, while silver cars are the safest.
• The "prop shaft" is the propeller shaft (read: stick) that transfer energy from the engine to the wheel.
• Pumping car tires with a bike pump actually works pretty well to top off the pressure but it'll take a good while to pump it up from flat. It won't be hard to pump though. 35 psi is really low for a bike tire.
• The parking pawl locks your transmission in place when it is in "P". It is a weak mechanism. Never park a car on a hill with just the parking pawl, and always apply the hand brake before putting the car into park.
• "Rear-end gearing" describes the gear ratio of the top gear. The lower it is, the fewer rotations per second the engine does, and the quieter the car is (on a highway).
• It is impossible to engine brake on a CVT. In fact, CVTs are programmed to automatically apply the brake when no gas is given to it, simulating the ol' braking effect.
• L/100km is better than MPG because L/100km is displayed in proportion to fuel used, not distance travelled (which appears to get larger in value as return deminishes).
• Laser > LED > HID > Halogen
• Boxer engines aren't called boxer engines because they look like boxes... they are called boxer engines because the pistons move relative to each other like boxers' hands.
• When European cars claim to have 60 mpg, remember that is in Imperial gallons, which are 120% of a US gallon, making the car "only" 50 mpg.
• The mass air flow sensor optimises the amount of fuel to inject into the engine by detecting the fuel-air ratio.
• Normal car wheels expose the brakes to provide better air cooling for the brakes. EVs and hybrids often hide the brakes instead, to provide better aerodynamics for the car.
• Over 90% of the world drives on the right.
• That is the say, even in the middle of England, the Savoy Hotel has right-hand drive, for some reason.
• (Local law) Your car's insurance is tied to you. Lending it to a friend who crashes it means an increase in your premium.
• Foglights are not so much designed to assist the driver's vision in the car which has them on, but rather to make that car more visible to other road users. They are only to be used in adverse weather conditions, such as heavy rain or fog, and presumably, snow.
• They are called "semi trucks" because it is a shortened version of "semi-trailer truck." A "semi-trailer" is actually just the trailer, but it is a trailer that only has wheels on one end...otherwise it would be a wagon. So the thing you call a semi, is actually a tractor, but refers to a trailer.
  • Truck = tractor.
  • Trailer = Wagon = wheels on both ends.
  • Semi-Trailer = wheels on one end.
  • Semi-Truck = tractor that pulls semi-trailers. Just like how Fire Trucks have ladders, but Fire Engines do not.
• Development mules are cars that are camouflaged for hiding details while on their way to test centres.
• In the event of a crash where the crash is captured by a dashcam, read out the licence plate of the other car. Also do the same for when you communicate with 911, which allows them to quickly identify the information when they replay the recording.
• British licence plates are white in front and yellow at the back, to help people identify which way the car is going (it is hard to be sure, particularly when the Brits drive so slowly.)
• Propan-2-ol can remove most things from your car, as long as you understand that it won't be the most effective.
• With great ride comes with terrible handling; softening the suspension makes the car turn like a boat. This is also why sports cars have stiff suspensions (and horrible for your back).
• Almost all modern cars have synchromesh, if you don't have it fitted you will need to 'double declutch' ("to change to a lower gear in a motor vehicle by first placing the gear lever into the neutral position before engaging the desired gear, at the same time releasing the clutch pedal and increasing the engine speed")
• Diesel fuel systems cannot contain air. If a diesel car runs empty, the system needs to be "bled" of air before refuelling.
• All countries, except USA and Canada, follow UNECE standards (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) for cars. This is why we get so few car models.
• Manual cars don't have park.. Automatic cars don't have a clutch per se, but they may have torque converters that lock up, also known as torque converter clutches.
• Diesel engines somehow need to be made from steel (except when VW makes them, in which case they are made in aluminium)
• The higher the tire's aspect ratio number, the smoother the ride you can expect the car to be. For example, 100/90R15 would be smoother than 100/50R15.
• It is also true that the lower the aspect ratio is, the less likely the tire would distort, improving handling.
• Car bumpers are designed to withstand impact speeds up to 10mph.
• "Widening a road makes more cars drive on it" is called induced demand.
• Car bumpers don't work if they don't bump into each other, obviously. The consequence is very costly collisions, which benefit the auto makers.
• Scion is a branch to be grafted into/onto another tree, hence the name of the car brand, which was branched off Toyota.
• The DeLorean was not painted. Its colour comes from stainless steel.
• Not only is bird poo acidic, the fact that they expand and contract on top of the paint contributes to paint damage over time.
• Do not sign blank auto mechanic authorisation forms. Also, do not tell your mechanic what another mechanic thinks it is, and how much it think it costs to fix it., and ask for your old parts back, so you know they changed them. Despite the name, CPO cars are rarely certified, so don't bother with those, either.
• An AWD vehicle like the Ford Fusion requires all tires to be the same radius, even taking tire wear into account. Failure to do so will break the differential. Some AWD/4WD systems don't even engage. It is often better to just buy a F/F car.
• You are supposed to return to the auto shop and retorque your wheels, especially if the wheel and hub are made of different materials. Otherwise, this can happen.
• "Performing a burnout in a front wheel drive vehicle is likely to result in damage to the drivetrain."
• In the case of an emergency radiator leak (in which case, you won't be reading this), pinch the places where it is leaking.
• Also, eggs in the radiator will not work. The only thing you can put in is egg whites, and even that works terribly.
• Deer whistles don't work, either.
• If the battery is dead, every light except the battery light comes on.
• "Trail braking" is releasing the brake when you are half-way into a turn, whose point is called the apex.
• Chicanes are two 90-degree turns designed to slow you down.
• Underdrive pulleys turn at a slower speed than stock. They increase horsepower by removing power from accessories like the AC.
• The Ford Excursion, no longer made, was apparently criticised for being too large of an SUV. At 5.7m long, it is the same length as the Chevrolet Suburban, which is still on sale today.
• The longer your vehicle is, the more it feels, when you tow a trailer, that you are towing, rather than the trailer towing you. This is unfortunately not something a car can compensate by any other dimension.
• Having more exhausts can potentially raise horsepower, but really not by much (1, maybe 2). See Dodge Durango.
• Double parking means occupying a lane with hazards on, not occupying two parking spots.
• Canada is not the only commonwealth country to drive on the right.
• In Europe, only four countries still drive on the left: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus, all of which are islands.
• Don't own a Tesla out of warranty. "The only place you can get them repaired is at the dealership for whatever price they feel like", "you've got to wait months for parts to come in".
• Car designs are patented piecewise.
• On the page for top 10 stolen cars, the results are mostly trucks.
• In 2016, only four cars from 2013 have below-average insurance costs: Buick Verano, Chevy Impala, Honda Fit, and Subaru Outback (just average).
• Traction control can be quite fun to turn off before you kill yourself. Traction control became a EU requirement in 2014.
• Overinflation, dropping trunk junk, throwing away your spare tire, change tires to low resistance tires... none of these are useful for increasing fuel economy. What does, however, is simply driving carefully. (Video claims that to make a single low-resistance tire worth it, you have to drive 45Mm.)
• That old bloke on Fifth Gear is Tiff Needell, a racing driver.
• Cars with soft tops don't get automatic car washes.
• "Paying more than what the car is worth" for repairs is fine, as long as you don't do more repairs per year than your year's worth of monthly payments for a new(er) car, which is a bit hard to beat. For example: even if you spend $4000 on old car repairs every year, which is hardly ever possible, it is still cheaper than financing a car that goes for $400 a month, until it's done, anyway.
• At least one car out there has been named Patricia before. According to the theory of infinite parallel universes, there ought to be a car out there named Scarlet, as well.
• You named your own car Scarlet. Scarlet reminds you of Snowball, whose fur is pretty and white.
• H and V-rated tires don't last as long (but stop better). Consider getting S or T-rated tires instead, if you can bloody find them.
• When a road's speed limit changes, the people driving on it are slow to go to that speed, whether faster or slower. Accident rates are also weakly correlated to road speed, but does increase dramatically "when some cars drive 55 mph and others drive 85 mph".
• Apparently, trucks make a loud noise when they engine brake. They can also go out of control if engine braked.
• Scion xB owners embrace their toasters so much, they actually convert their cars into toasters.
• If you get a quote from a car repair shop (in Ontario), the max amount they can overcharge for other repairs is 10% IF you respond in time (i.e. before they put the car back together). Parts and labour also have a mandatory 90-day/5000-km warranty, whichever one comes first.
• And if you don't pay for a repair, the shop can just seize and sell your car. So the trick is to buy a car that is worthless when sold.
• Depending on the trim, the 2017 Tacoma has either the badge on the front (normal ones) or T O Y O T A (TRD pro). In other news, "oh yeah, the 2015 Yaris is so ugly, they can't possibly make it wors-well what do you know."
• Clutches are in their resting position when down.
• On fuel octane rating: Most countries use MON, US uses RON/MON average, which results in a lower number. MON 91 is the US 87.
• Turbochargers force air into the engine using waste exhaust air pressure, which is why it has a lag. Superchargers force air into the engine using pulleys (or fans) that are always pumping air into the engine, which is why it has no lag, but has a base performance penalty.
• The automative "blind spots" exist no matter how you adjust your mirrors because even though you follow this guide, you can still kill motor cyclists close to you.
• Typical chip repair kits work by first creating a vacuum in the presence of a resin, then applying air pressure once the resin fills the space where the air once was.
• Buy only the kind of car you can afford to lose.
• Kelly Blue Book is operated by a AutoTrader, a used car dealer.
• In addition to gear changes, big trucks also brake the engine by limiting fuel intake and exhaust.
• You can buy back your own car after it is written off, and drive it, as long as it was never deemed "irreparable". Otherwise, your insurance will either be very high, or impossible to get for a salvage car.
• Volkswagan made currywurst, and it looks like they are still making it.
• Tesla cars' screens can fucking crash while driving.
• Kia calls its grille design the "tiger nose". Peter Schreyer said he designed it.
• Something known as "10mm" is car mechanics' favourite lost item.
• Do not buy Honda Fits made before 2014-06-06.
• "A classic car is like a pet dog. One day it's gonna let you down and die." - Clarkson on pet dogs
• It is possible to sleep in a Prius C.
• The black piece of plastic between the hood and the windscreen is called the wiper cowl, not the taint.
• Red to positive, red to positive, black to negative, BLACK TO GROUND.
• It is possible to fill tires with foam so they never go flat, but the tires will be heavy and the ride will be hard.
• Tesla Model 3's pricing is rubbish. starts at 35k, but replacing the battery with a long-range ("proper") one is another 9k, and enabling autopilot is another 1k, even though all the sensors are installed on every car.
• Harley Davidson tried to patent its engine sound. It did not work.
• Clay bar exposes paint to the elements. It is necessary to clay bar something only if it cannot be polished.
• The total amount of money you spend on a car over its lifetime can be 10x what you spend on the price of the car.