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12 Bonehead Basics of Car Maintenance
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You know, That Guy who thinks that the best way to keep a car from overheating is to roll down the window. That Guy who hires the neighborhood kid to wash his car 'cause he’s allergic to “going outside and doing things.” There are lots of ways to be That Guy, but only one way not

to be: by regaining your self-sufficiency and learning the basics about car care. Using STP® is a good first step. And while we can’t do the rest for you, we'll give you a few pointers. Check out the tutorials. Take a look at the videos. And get under your hood. Good luck, and Don't Be That Guy.

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  • Nov
    22
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    Car Urban Legends

    Posted in: This Guy Wisdom, Car Culture, Car Knowledge
    Shaq Diesel
    Trust us, this is not a Ford Pinto.

    My editor (like most of his species) heads south for the winter, and I awoke this morning to find a telegram cabled directly from his fortified beach house: “URBAN LEGENDS STOP 500 WORDS STOP ASAP.”

    What’s an urban legend? Urban legends are the modern myths we pass around through word of mouth — stories that illustrate a point, speak to our safety, or clue us in to something interesting. Interesting and, generally, not true. Consider the Chevy Nova, for example. If you’re not familiar with the oft-repeated story, it goes like this: when it was introduced in Mexico, the Chevrolet Nova sold extremely poorly. A bit of investigation turned up the reason: “no va” in Spanish means “doesn’t go.” You’re supposed to think: those wacky guys at Chevy were trying to sell a car that wouldn’t go!

    This is a story that still gets kicked around in business seminars as illustrating a fundamental point about understanding your target audience. Which it might do — except that it’s a complete fiction. In fact, the Nova sold very well in Mexico and Argentina — remember, we’re not talking about the square econobox they sold in the 80s (just a rebadged Toyota Sprinter), but the 1960s compact you could get with the 350 small-block V8. Of course it sold well.

    And, given that PEMEX, the Mexican oil monopoly, sold low-octane gas under the “Nova” mark, it shouldn’t really surprise us that the Nova’s poor sales figures were a myth (and an American one at that — the Spanish-language Wikipedia article on the Nova doesn’t even mention the story). It’s like suggesting that the Lincoln Town Car sold poorly because people thought it was illegal to drive it outside the city limits.

    That myth grew because it taught us a moral lesson (“understand what you’re getting yourself into”). Some myths spread because they put our safety on the line. The Ford Pinto was — as we all know — a fire-prone deathtrap, prone to exploding at the slightest touch. (Or so the story went.) In the list of possible car options, “blows up” tends to rank pretty low, and this made the Pinto unpopular.

    Now, I’m not saying the Pinto was anything special. I had the poor fortune of associating with a ’74 Pinto station wagon — the one with the wide headlights that always made it look vaguely surprised — and it was a truly wretched car. (It also, late in life, became infested with black widows — this was the last straw.)

    But how many deaths were attributable to the Pinto’s moonlighting as a tiki torch? Ten thousand? A thousand? Five hundred? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the correct answer is: 27. In fact, the Pinto was as safe as — or safer than — its competitors; the Datsun 1200 and the VW Beetle were both much more likely to kill you. So if you were planning on using a Pinto to start your next barbeque, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

    Nor can you use a cell phone to remotely unlock your car, as you might have heard. That’s fortunate, actually — if you could, that would mean that cell phones were capable of mimicking car remotes. Think about all the times you hear about websites being “hacked” — and be grateful they can’t get your car, too.

    With all this myth busting, you might be wondering if you can trust anything you get in your e-mail inbox. For instance, the other day I received a scary missive warning me against using cruise control in the rain, lest my car hydroplane. True? Not entirely — there’s nothing special about cruise control — but it’s good advice. As the weather starts to go south this year and rainy and snowy conditions become more common, you’re well advised to avoid anything that might lessen your concentration. Cruise control might make it more difficult to respond to a quickly changing condition—so turn it off, focus on the road, and get home safe.

    That’s no urban legend. It’s just common sense.

    —AO, STP® Blogger

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