Out with the old, in with the new

Engine oil, that is. Not the nicest day for an oil change, but appropriate nonetheless.

From all of us me at Scotch Tape & Duct Whisky, happy 2012. May it kick 2011 in the ass.

On optimism

Christian Annyas provides a chronological survey of Chevrolet speedometers.

Chevrolet Cruze (2008)

Related: The top speed of a 2011 Chevy Cruze LTZ was 124 mph in Car & Driver testing.

It’s got a NASA motor

A 440 cubic inch plant. It's got NASA tires, NASA suspensions, NASA shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on liquid hydrogen.

The NASA Dryden police-issue Dodge Charger HEMI ER-2 (civvie U-2) chase car. Not sold in stores.

Decepticons: Vehicular longevity

Seen at a Subaru dealer:

95% of Subaru vehicles built in the last 10 years are still on the road.

Consider these similar-sounding statements:

• 95% of 10-year-old Subaru vehicles are still on the road
• If you buy a new Subaru, there’s a 95% chance it will still be on the road in 10 years

The marketers would love for you to misinterpret their statement as one of my two statements.

The “fleet” under consideration in Subaru’s claim is all the cars built in the last 10 years. Some are 1 year old, some are 7 years old, and some are 10 years old. The median age is somewhere around 5 years. Probably less, if Subaru’s sales are improving.

The percentage of 10-year-old cars that are still on the road is, therefore, less than 95%. Probably much less. If they wanted to make a clear statement about 10-year longevity, they could tell us what that number is. But it wouldn’t look as impressive.

The Occasional WTF #5

This is Amazon’s product photo for the Optima 34 RedTop car battery:

Optima makes a similar battery, the Optima 34R. It’s the same size and shape as the Optima 34, but the polarity is reversed; that is, the red and black terminals are switched. Here’s Amazon’s product photo for the 34R: