repairs
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The federal gas tax, which was supposed to pay for repairs and expansion to roads maintained or funded by the national government, now does nothing of the kind. Congress last raised the U.S. federal gas tax a quarter of a century ago in 1993, to the 18.5-cents-per-gallon level it remains at today. Diesel fuel is taxed at 24.4 cents per gallon. Every state in the U.S. now receives more road funding from the federal government than it sends to D.C. in gasoline taxes, but the cumulative deficit in road-repair funds has risen to several hundred billion dollars. DON'T MISS: Gas tax should rise 25...
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Life with Tesla Model S: replacing the drive unit (aka 'the funny noise')Back in 2014, Tesla had a spate of problems with the drive units in early-production versions of its Model S electric sedan. (The drive unit is essentially the car’s power train: electric motor, inverter, and gear box.) High-profile multiple failures occurred in long-term test cars driven by...
David Noland -
Hybrid Car Repairs Getting Cheaper, But Not For Regular Cars
Hybrid repair costs have dropped over the past five years, a survey of costs finds.
Stephen Edelstein -
Toyota Camry Hybrid Battery: Electrician Spent $10, Not $4,000, To Fix
A Toyota Camry Hybrid owner repairs the car's battery pack.
Stephen Edelstein -
Consumer Reports Rates Tesla Service Tops Among Carmakers
Tesla service was ranked top among carmakers in Consumer Reports' annual survey.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla Model S Aluminum Body: Why Repair Costs Are Higher
As more and more Tesla Model S electric sport sedans hit the road—50,000-plus at last count—some of their drivers are naturally starting to have accidents. They are bumping into other cars, colliding with deer, scraping telephone poles, and backing up into poles and trees. Their cars...
David Noland -
Two facts sit in opposition to each other in Washington, D.C., and have for many years. First, raising taxes--in any way, for any purpose, under any circumstances--is virtually impossible. Second, the U.S. Highway Trust Fund is broke, because the Federal gasoline tax hasn't been raised in two decades and continually improving fuel economy means new cars use less gas to cover the same miles--meaning lower revenues. DON'T MISS: All Taxes Are Automatically Always Bad; Are Potholes Worse? Now, two senators have introduced a bill that would raise the Federal tax on both gasoline and diesel fuel by...
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Buying An Electric 'Compliance Car'? Think Hard About Servicing First
There are now more than a dozen plug-in electric cars for sale in the U.S., but not all electric cars are created equal. And a pair of recent articles about service challenges experienced by owners of the Toyota RAV4 EV underscores that buyers should be fully aware of the context in which their...
John Voelcker -
Hybrid Repair Costs Drop, Especially In The Northeast
We have good news and bad news for hybrid car owners. First the bad news: basic car repairs are more expensive than they used to be. According to a CarMD survey of repair costs across the U.S., problems associated with the "check engine" light cost $367.84 to repair in 2012. That's 10% higher than...
Richard Read -
Car Repair Costs Rising--Apart From Hybrids, Which Get Cheaper
There was a time when the average vehicle could be expected to go wrong on a fairly regular basis. That's not the case these days, and in general cars are more reliable than ever--even if repair costs are increasing. Well, they are for regular vehicles anyway, as a study by CarMD suggests the cost...
Antony Ingram -
Mechanic's Worry: Electric Car Brakes Will Ruin My Business
Talk to any independent auto-repair mechanic, and you'll learn that the single most important item that keeps a shop in business is brakes. But hybrids and electric cars use their friction brakes far less aggressively than regular cars. That's because when the driver presses the pedal, some or all...
John Voelcker -
GE WattStation Vindicated, Leaf Blamed In Charging Station Woes
It isn’t a good time to be Nissan right now. For a start, its first all-electric car, the 2012 Leaf, is suffering from poor sales. Then there’s the matter of Leafs in hot states like Arizona exhibiting premature battery capacity loss to attend to. Then, over the weekend, more bad news...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
The 2012 Chevrolet Volt might cost nearly $5,000 cheaper more than the 2012 Nissan Leaf, but over the next five years, it might cost you less to run. At least, that’s the verdict of Kelley Blue Book (KBB) which crowned the 2012 Chevy Volt the electric choice in its inaugral Total Cost of Ownership awards. Over the course of five years, it said, the total cost of ownership for a base level 2012 Volt would work out at $40,629, while the expected ownership costs for a base level 2012 Nissan Leaf for the same period total would be $42,089. The 2012 Nissan Leaf is cheaper to buy and...
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All Taxes Are Automatically Always Bad; Are Potholes Worse?
We've written before about the growing shortfall in gasoline tax revenues versus the highway and bridge repairs those taxes are supposed to fund. The Federal Highway Trust Fund now has an estimated backlog of $400 billion in repairs between now and 2015 just to bring the complete national highway...
John Voelcker -
Do Battery-Pack Failures Reduce the Life of Hybrid Cars? A Reader Asks
Our reader Jonathan P asks: I have a 1997 Saturn that, remarkably, is still running. It probably has the book value of a large watermelon, so if anything major goes wrong with it, that's the end of that. If that Saturn were a hybrid, I'm guessing the battery pack would have died about four years...
John Voelcker -
Hybrids Don't Cost More To Repair or Run, But Payback Debatable
It's a concern that comes up over and over: If I buy a hybrid car, won't I have to spend thousands of dollars to replace the battery pack in a few years? The answer is, No. Not only are automakers required to warranty the high-voltage battery packs in hybrid-electric vehicles for 8 years/100,000...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Plays Cautiously, Recalls 439 Roadsters Over Potential Fire Risk
Tesla Motors, manufacturers of the all-electric Tesla Roadster and Tesla Roadster Sport has decided to recall 439 of its sexy sports car, over a potential fire risk. The Palo-Alto based automaker has often been in the news this year, from its roller coaster initial public offering back in June...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
California Steps Up Gross-Polluter Vehicle Retirement Program
Not only do old cars pollute more than new ones, they pollute a lot more. According to a rule proposed by the California Bureau of Automotive Repair, fully “75 percent of vehicular pollution is caused by just 25 percent of the vehicle fleet" in the state. Those vehicles were built before 1995...
John Voelcker -
Sometimes a "new" green idea is actually just the way we used to do things, before disposability and convenience became primary consumer values. Consider the "cartridge filter" that GM touts on the Ecotec engines fitted to its new 2011 Chevrolet Cruze. Instead of a one-piece metal cannister that's removed and tossed out every time the oil is changed, Chevrolet has built the filter housing into the engine block itself. This allows just the pleated paper element to be replaced, which is undeniably less wasteful: no metal tossed in the garbage can, just oily paper (and some rubber). GM has used...
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Yet Another Reason To Buy a Toyota Prius: Cheap Insurance!
There are many excellent reasons to buy a Toyota Prius, new or used, leading off with the hybrid's superb fuel economy: 50 miles per gallon for the new 2010 Toyota Prius. Now you can add to that list another justification. It turns out that the Toyota Prius will save you money on insurance. The...
John Voelcker
