Cold morning; -4F at home. And I still haven't replaced the heater in the Voyager. Saturday is supposed to be sunny and 28F, maybe if it is I will take a few hours and do it. I'm fairly certain that it will take at least 4 hours to tear down the dash, remove the AC, remove and replace the heater core and rebuild the dash.
Of course, by the time I do that I won't need the new heater. But if I don't do it now I won't think of it until next fall when the temp drops.
Put new spark plugs in the Voyager last week. Now I get 23 mpg. I'm shooting for 30. But 23 is a whole bunch better than the 15 I would have gotten with the Gladiator, especially at $2.45/gal.
Rant time.
I don't quite understand the Oil companies, other than the fact that they are just plain greedy. Yesterday the price of a gallon Unleaded went from 2.35 to 2.45. That is nearly a 5% jump. After a jump from 2.25 to 2.35 last week. I just hope that American grassroots ingenuity can quickly find a way to not use gasoline to run a car. I know that there are quite a few electric/fuel cell/solar concepts out there. We just need one that is reliable and that people like me can afford. That is the tough part. Would I buy a more economical vehicle? You bet. Do I have the money to do it? No, I have to buy gas for the car and fuel oil for the house. Could I heat the house more economically? Sure, if I could front $25,000 for a ground source heat pump. At the price of fuel oil right now I could pay for the heat pump in less than 12 years, which I don't think is too bad. To buy a car like the Prius would cost $22,000 and that would take 20+ years for payback, which is ridiculous. The Venturi Fetish would do nicely, but the payback on $660,000 isn't worth it either. What I need is a good $500 solar powered car. ha.
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