Vehicle Inspection Report -- 2011 Style

15 April 2011; South King County WA --

About a month ago, Grumpy received a card from DOL that the license tabs on his trusty Red Rocket would expire --

Alas, it suddenly dawned on Grumpy this past weekend that maybe he better get into gear; now where did I put that card??

Well, nowadays you don't need a card or Registration; you just log onto the DOL website (WA State Licensing: Renew your vehicle tabs ) and type in the last four digits of the vehicle Identification Number, and voila! out pops the information on your automobile! Except my automobile, the Red Rocket, was due for a pollution check! 

On Friday, with the Grand Mother and Darrell in the car, we stopped by the local inspection station for a quick check. (Thank goodness, Grumpy had just changed the oil -- that usually makes a car burn cleaner for a few hundred miles, doesn't it?)

As I drove into the slot for inspection I was told to "put it in Park, and turn off the engine". Doing as I was instructed, I was about to get out to allow the operator to run the engine for the pollution check, when he motioned me to sit still; he connected a computer cable to something under the dash and then went back to his computer. After a few seconds he instructed me to start the car and let it idle for a few more seconds. He then extracted a printed Report sheet from his printer, handing it to me, with "your car passed!" And not more than a total of two minutes had passed.

No probe up the tail pipe, no running the front drive wheels on a dynamometer, no operations at 2500 RPM!! Just a readout from the vehicle's computer!! I was impressed. However, as I perused the Report sheet, I see no CO2/CO readings, no Unburned HC reading, no particulate readings -- none of the old familiar readouts. Instead, this check apparently determines that the engine system (including the Engine Control System) is functioning as designed; what a concept!! [It's very similar in ability to the EPCS that my colleague in Propulsion and I conjured up that eventually was certified on the 757 airplane!]

How Much is too Much to Pay for Economy?

Grumpy's Castle; Rainy Wednesday 13th of April --

The question of how much is too much to pay for economy entered Grumpy's mind recently. The occasion was his noting a used Toyota Camry (Hybrid!) offered for sale by another Senior Citizen -- or so the ad said. Grumpy has been pondering the situation of the Grand Mother and Grumpy travelling to the Midwest (and possibly beyond), and thought "how much more pleasant to ride in the relative quiet of a Rolls Royce -- or a Lexus -- or (more to our pocket-book) a Toyota Camry!"

When the ad for a 2008 Camry Hybrid with only 25,000 miles on its odometer was offered for a "mere" $18,900, Grumpy's automobile slobber-glands wet his shirt front. The ingenious way in which Toyota combines the electric motor drive with the gasoline engine had intrigued him since a friend from Oklahoma sent him a web-link that described the design. Grumpy recognized this as a clever mechanical (with computer controls commanding the mechanical ratios) gadget -- one that he wanted to have.

But the realities of economy emerged when the Grand Mother was brought into the equation. First of all, she did not want Grumpy to squander any of "our" money (our Grandkids' inheritance!) on -- " ... any more of your foolishness!", were approximately her exact words. Well, at least that was their understood meaning.

As Grumpy was assessing the economy equation thus brought into focus, he reckoned that the Toyota Camry Hybrid might achieve 45 miles per gallon, driven the typically-conservative way that Grumpy drives the Red Rocket. That figure would be about 50% more than the Red Rocket achieves. Assuming the Grand Mother and Grumpy drive the Toyota 6,000 miles per year (all of the cross-country, freeway driving now being conducted with the Red Rocket), and assuming gasoline at $4 per gallon, the annual savings would be 75 gallons x $4 = $300  per year. If I were to trade in the Red Rocket (what am I saying!!?) and drive the Toyota exclusively for the additional 6,000 miles of "town" driving, assuming it would get 40 mpg around town (compared to about 20 for Red Rocket), the Toyota would save us another 150 gallons x $4 = $600 per year.

Now, a total savings of $900 per year to drive an economy car (that costs about $3000 more than a non-Hybrid) does not equate to Grumpy as true "Economy".

So Grumpy just decided that the only real justification for the Toyota Camry Hybrid is for its quietness. And if the Grand Mother thinks that the road noise is something which we can put up with, then so be it. Red Rocket is safe!