I’m not getting how news of the third Tesla Model S has sent stocks plummeting and people skeptic about electric cars. I’m doing some math here to try and illustrate why this shouldn’t be such a big deal.
According to Tesla, there have been around 20,600 Telsas sold (including the Roadster; around 2,500 Roadsters were made). 3 Teslas have caught fire… So 1 out of 6,867 Teslas have caught fire.
According to the US Beureu of Transportation Statistics there are 254,212,610 registered passenger vehicles on the road as of 2009. According to the National Fire Protection Association, 152,300 vehicles catch fire per year… So 1 out of 1,669 cars catch fire each year.
I was attempting to find how many new cars catch fire per year but I wasn’t able to find that data as this may seem to some comparing apples to oranges.
I still feel safer in an electric than in a gasoline powered car. We shall see if the NHTSA launches an investigation and what they find.
Driving down the road last Sunday, I saw this…
If only the truck owner had someone to thank for having the ability to get parts to fix his truck. Chevy is still around producing trucks like his. You know, Romney was against the auto bailout… just sayin.
Not sure what it is about this week but something’s either pushing me out the door of my current job or else I’m having really REALLY bad luck.
Let’s start with the “bad things happen in threes” that happened to the Prius:
- Starting last week (around April 18th, when I gave my two week notice) I noticed that my tire pressure was low since the indicator light was on. No biggie, just put air in the tires. A day later it came on again. Come to find out there’s a hole in the tire. Okay. Luckily we went over Uncle George’s on Sunday where he was able to repair it.
- Monday morning, on my way to work, I get hit by a rock. I know because I heard it. It sounded like a big rock. Since it was raining I wasn’t able to see any cracks in the windshield. However Tuesday I noticed it. Called Geico Tuesday to fix it. They came yesterday (Wednesday) and repaired it.
- When I leave work yesterday (Wednesday), my car doesn’t start. WTF? The battery was dead. Called a tow truck since I didn’t think it was the battery. Bri arrived before the tow truck and we were able to jump it. I didn’t make it to yoga last night due to the dead Prius battery.
I forget to mention the fact that my scooter also decided to die. It too needed a new battery as it kept needing to be recharged.
The Camaro needs to be fixed again. Nothing out of the usual there.
Last night I accidentally poured hot wax all over my left hand. Worst pain ever.
My websites got hacked or something. When I go to any of them on any mobile device or in IE, I get redirected to sweepstakesandcontestsdo.com… I emailed Dreamhost but haven’t heard anything… I noticed this issue last night.
Then this morning my hair brush breaks! What are the odds?
Tell me, is this just bad luck?
My car is basically brand new. His name is Orion. He’s a Toyota Prius. I’ve had him about two years now. He has about 20,000 miles on him.
So I’m driving to work, like usual, I had just dropped Brian off, when all of a sudden my accelerator stopped working. I just thought, oh Prius! I tried to use it again and it wouldn’t accelerate. It then flashed warnings at me. Check engine as well as the big fat red triangle with an exclamation point (that means BAD). So I pulled over. I’m on 270 I thought I can’t break down here, I got to get to work.
I just restarted the car. The warnings were still there, but I tried to get it to work. I was like a mile away. I drove it as far as it would go then it stopped going. Oh joy! I’m in the middle of the frickin road! I call Brian and freak out on him cause he just changed the air filter last night, thinking he did something. He told me to call Geico, so I did.
They were really cool. They called a tow truck for me. For free. They said an hour, so I called Bri to let him know. He was on his way, he called a taxi.
I waited there, must have been like 20-30 minutes just sitting there in the middle of the road. A cop came by but didn’t offer any help. Got lots of honks. But I actually had a woman in a minivan stop to see if I needed help. Just thinking, man, people are not like what they used to be.
Anyway, Bri finally got there. Then a cop shows up. This time one who wanted to help. He said we should push the car over, out of the road, so we pushed it over to the side.
I hugged Brian and walked to work. All that’s left is waiting for the tow truck and then Toyota.
So Bri went to Toyota with the car. About an hour and a half later they diagnosed the problem… it was rat crap. Rat crap had gotten into my engine.
Apparently rats and mice like to live under cars at night. While they’re there they poop and sometimes chew through wires. No wires were chewed, luckily. Just the poop got sucked into the air filter and had a hole in that, then into the engine.
Weird, huh? The bill will be around $200. They had to replace the air filter (which Bri had JUST replaced the night before) and clean out the engine.
Crazy… Size_t will now be in charge of watching for mice at night.
Just a mini rant here, why don’t people wave anymore? I let people in all the time and none recently have given me a little wave. I feel so dissatisfied. Here I am slowing down to let a guy in and he can’t even take his stupid hand off the wheel for a second to give me any thanks.
Sometimes I really have to go out of my way and slow down a lot and force the people behind me to slow down. And they can’t even wave “thanks”. People suck sometimes.
I would probably add some rant about politics too, but I have the tumblr for notes to alleviate some political rage. Debunking and other rants will still remain on this blog.
I’m fairly certain this article is right leaning:
Five Reasons “Cash For Clunkers” Is A Joke
By now I’m sure you’ve heard Obama has passed a bill, Cash For Clunkers. I visited Yahoo news today like I usually do since Yahoo is my home page and I read this interesting, BS article.
- Not sure if the author of this article has ever traded in a car but you can’t get much for it. Nine out of ten times you’re better off trying to sell it on your own. Dealerships usually rip people off. In the article it even states that you’ll get MORE for it with the CFC bill than you would normally… Not really seeing why the bill won’t work if people are getting MORE MONEY from their cars.
- Yeah average price of a new car might be $24,000 but honestly, if you’re hurting for money and need a car, I’d go with a Rabbit or a Yaris. Even now with Ford and GM not doing so well, I’d go for a Focus. Much cheaper than the $24K this guy is saying a new car is. A Yaris costs $12,200 MSRP, negotiate a little, could get it down to $11,500 easy… CFC makes the car a whopping $8,000. Say you had to borrow $9K, that’s only $174 a month at 6%.
- Some people might not need their big SUV anymore, or their truck, or their minivan. And some trucks DO get better fuel efficiency than before. And if your truck is old and on its last leg, now could be the perfect opportunity. Furthermore, the bill states different qualifications for trucks.
- This argument is weak at best… and pretty funny. Don’t scrap your car because it MIGHT be a future classic? Pretty pathetic. Yeah, I’m going to hang on to my 1994 Chrysler cause it might be worth much more one day. And how do classic cars get value anyway? Because there are only A FEW LEFT. I honestly don’t think people are going to keep their junkers in hopes that one day (could be 20 years or 50 years down the road) it could be worth something. You know how much it costs to store a car? The guy who wrote this article certainly doesn’t.
- That’s a problem with Ford and GM, not with the CFC program. If they were hoping this bill provided a boost to the automotive business here, they would have put in the bill that the car must be traded in at a Ford or GM dealership.
Re People’s Participation: I actually know a few people that can benefit from this program. One of them is going to participate and trade his 1993 Mercedes in for either a Toyota Prius or a Toyota Yaris.
I’ve been meaning to blog more about my car. People don’t seem to understand that Codey was more than just a car to me. Since I was out of college I wasn’t reliant on my Dad anymore, I was financially independent.
When it came time to buy a car to replace Blue, hands down I wanted the Toyota Prius. I’ve been dreaming about this car since I first learned about hybrids. At this point I had been working for about 5 months and managed to save enough money to pay off the insurance violations my mother and I acquired when I was in high school and college. I also had enough for a down payment on the car. Brian and I called up his bank one night and got a loan.
I, of course, was doing all my homework on the Toyota Prius. I knew exactly what I wanted. The time came one Sunday (January 28, 2007, one of the happiest days of my life), Brian and I went to Toyota of Bowie. When our sales guy pulled up in that PRETTY BLUE PRIUS, I instantly fell in love, the first time I saw him. He was so perfect. He was everything I wanted.
The week prior to his death, I had cleaned his window whipers and inflated his tires. I also had bought a new CD of the Eagles Long Road Out Of Eden for the concert we went to that Thursday.
Then that horrible morning came about, November 22, 2008. Woken up, slightly by a car alarm but quickly went back to sleep. Car alarms are nothing new in my neighborhood. The fire marshal woke us up and, well, the car was no more.
He was officially claimed totaled and lost on December 1, 2008.
People are just questioning me why I loved that car so much saying “it was just a car” and “it can be replaced”. It will never just be replaced for me. It was my crowning achievement up to this point. It was my dream come true. It was my symbol of hardwork. My symbol of finally achieving financial independence since it was the first big purchase I made 100% on my own. It was a symbol of my beliefs and morals. A statement of self. It was my independence.
Anyway, to state some news, my insurance company will be contacting me to negotiate on a price for the car. Once that happens, they’ll give me a check which I will pay off the rest of the loan. Then, I guess I’ll buy a new Prius. However, I’ve made the decision to never park the Prius where I am living now. Brian and I are aggressively looking to get the hell out of Germantown forever. We’ll be buying a house hopefully soon. I don’t trust my neighborhood anymore. It used to be a nice, safe place to live.
Codey the Blue Toyota Prius, 2 (+/- 18,500 miles), a resident of Germantown for two years, died suddenly from a fire outside the home of his owner, Janis.
Codey was bought, brand new, January 28, 2007 at the Toyota of Bowie. He achieved around 48 miles per gallon in his life.
He routinely drove Brian and Janis to work everyday and was loved by all. He had a 6 CD changer MP3 enabled, smart key technology, backup camera, rear view dimming mirror, AUX (MP3 player), controls on the steering wheel, digital reads, high intensity headlights, and ABS.
A devoted car, he enjoyed driving above the speed limits, and blasting music throughout the parking lot of Safeway.
Survivors include his owners, Janis and Brian; one dog, Candi; one cat, size_t; and one brother, Brian’s car.
No memorial service will be held at this time.
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I can’t describe how much I loved this car. He was something I wanted since I first heard about hybrids in 1998. I had finally achieved the dream in January 2007. He was taken away from me so violently. I still can’t believe he’s gone.
The fire marshal said someone had put a candle under his left rear tire which started the fire. A neighbor saw the flames and tried to put it out. When it became too much for him to handle, he called 911. The fire marshal knocked on our door around 6:30 AM early Saturday morning.
The last time he was driven was Friday, November 21, 2008 from 4:35pm – 5:10pm from my work to pick up Brian to home.
I enjoyed driving that car everyday I had it. It was the best car I ever owned. He was very reliable.
I had had an accident last winter when Codey failed to stop on slippery ice and hit a car in front of him. Geico fixed him right away and everything was like the way it was before.
I loved him so much, he was my baby. He had a good life ahead of him but it was cut short by some vicious person with nothing better to do than to set an innocent Prius on fire.
Also lost in the flames was a stuffed animal that I had since I was a kid (Solvester), my late Dad’s hand made jumper cables, an air compresser my late Uncle gave me, my boogie board I had since childhood, my tackle box I had since childhood, some CD’s such as Alanis Moressette and the new Eagles album, a pair of sunglasses, my highschool and college tassles, and car mats.
I listed Dad’s Charger on Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290213861896
If you know anyone who’s interested…
Interesting facts about the Prius:
The word “prius”, in latin, means “to go before”.
The plural version of prius is “priora”.
Anyway, I’m awesome. Last night on Rockband, I tried “Don’t Fear The Reaper” doing vocals (on easy) AND guitar (on medium) at the same time. I got 100% on vocals and 93% on guitar. How awesome is that?
I’m also getting much better at guitar on hard. Rockband is way easier than Guitar Hero.
