I’m looking forward hearing more from owners/drivers of the new Chevrolet Cruze diesel that will be available in the U.S. It will primarily compete with the Volkswagen TDI diesel line when it comes to price, performance and economy … and according to a USAToday article, may beat them at all three. (I’m withholding judgment)
The Cruze diesel went on sale this month, starting at $25,695 including shipping. Until now, Volkswagen has had the mainstream diesel car market to itself in the U.S. The Cruze diesel is first to challenge it.
Cruze diesel comes only with a six-speed automatic transmission and is lower-price than the VW Jetta diesel with automatic transmission. The VW so-equipped is $26,325.
VW sells a manual transmission version of the Jetta diesel, and it’s less-expensive than the Cruze.
Location: Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Townsend, GA, USA Photographer: Mary Ellen Urbanski was at Bluebill Pond when she saw what she thought was an alligator sunning itself on a stump.
On a side note and as an interest to aviation history buffs, the “now” Harris Neck NWR was once a WW2 Army airfield for P-39 and P-40 fighter planes… and according to reports used by the Navy anti-sub blimps for touch and go landings – link.
In keeping with a slow once-over on the new to me 1982 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel, it looked as if the previous oil change was not a diesel specific oil … meaning that it wasn’t designed for the additional soot carrying and lubricating characteristics often associated with compression ignition engines. Along with needing EIGHT quarts of oil, I changed the filter which is quite substantial compared to previous diesel or gas vehicles I have owned – our ‘87 560SEL Mercedes included.
I was really just anxious just to get the old oil changed and wasn’t necessarily focused on oil brand, etc. – that will come after a conversation with my brother-in-law Gary Gerber who’s in the lubrication business. He sells diesel oils and has all the resources and contacts that will help me find an oil (and maybe a fuel additive) for an old 5-cylinder diesel. (previous posts)
I love reading stories about bright young inventors exploring the world of science and remember with fondness the days of science fair projects. One that recently caught my eye was a scholarship winner from California who worked with super capacitors and is finding ways to improve electrical energy storage devices (as well as charging and discharging them). LINK and video clip below
The future is bright so long as we have a next generation like Eesha Khare.
What Khare has designed and created is a supercapacitor with a “special nanostructure” allowing it to store significantly more energy while charging incredibly quickly. It also remains viable for 10,000 charges compared to the more typical 1,000 charges of today’s batteries.
Her experiment used the supercapacitor to power an LED, but both Khare and Intel believe the same tech can be used to similar effect on a smartphone. There’s also potential uses for car batteries, too, which could make electric cars more viable if their recharge time can be cut to a few minutes or even seconds.
Hmm, perhaps we are alone in having to make significant changes in our health care coverage this year … not to mention paying more for less?
“If you already have health insurance through your job … nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change your coverage or your doctor. Let me repeat: Nothing in this plan will require you to change your coverage or your doctor.” — spoken by President Obama in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15, 2009.
I’m sure that I’m not the only one hesitant to voice my thoughts about the IRS targeting conservative groups like the Tea Party and pondering the wisdom of even chiming in. Normally I favor the “keep quiet” approach and avoid even the thought of commenting on an agency with the power of the Internal Revenue Service. There is no denying that they have extraordinary power over every American and can make life pretty miserable.
I admit that initially I was skeptical of the alleged “targeting” of conservatives, but after hearing the admission from IRS officials and the many stories coming to light, it is pretty obvious that this is a big deal. How high it will go, who knows … but administration officials wouldn’t be the first to try to cover things up. Having dealt with an IRS audit of my company 20 years ago, I can’t imagine having to deal with the continued harassment True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrecht had to deal with — video above (17 incidents from government agencies).
Today I also watched Senator Rob Portman’s clip in reading the letters from citizens in Ohio who were targeted because they were advocates for political change when it came to the size of government and its leadership. The intricacies of the questioning is shocking. Sadly the evidence points to a planned approach by at least the department in charge of approving the non-profit status of organizations … but targeting only those organizations and donors that were conservative.
Learning, learning, learning. After spending the weekend putting a few things back together on the old Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel, after taking too much off, it is back on the road again with four new rotors, brakes and both bearing and races pressed into the hubs. I’m waiting for a few new AC parts and have been reading about the hard shifting automatic transmission as well as playing with the “never before adjusted” ALDA setting after cleaning out the somewhat dirty (not too bad)intake manifold banjo bolt. I might just remove the ALDA to see how much power/smoke I get?
It is possible that I have a transmission issue, but more than likely it might be a vacuum modulator valve adjustment comparing my symptoms with what I’ve read. We’ll see, but unfortunately there is multi-step approach to diagnosing and fixing this and according the the guru Kent Bergsma, it is not as simple as just “adjusting” or replacing a part.
