My first car was a ’68 Mustang, navy blue with a black vinyl top and a classic 289 engine. Everyone who saw it nodded knowingly, bestowing on me instant cool-car status (a critical antidote to teenage angst). It was in pretty good condition, too, previously owned by a little old lady (my grandma, who gave me the car when she stopped driving) and, as far as I was concerned, a whole lot hipper than the richer kids’ shiny new Trans Ams with those gaudy, behemoth eagles on the hood.

Yet despite my Detroit roots, that’s about all I could tell you about the thing. (When I open the hood of a vehicle I see what amounts to a small Jackson Pollack.) I did know how to change the oil, though. It was a simple, cheap and necessary operation, setting me back a few bucks for a couple cans of Penzoil.

But oil changes, like most car care, changed for me at some point after entering adulthood. Mainly this was because I stopped wanting to do anything resembling maintenance myself. Unfortunately, this leaves me at the mercy of The Man, who, for today’s purposes is my auto dealer/mechanic and, and a little further off in the background, the Oil Industry. (For the record, The Man can take many forms, such as my bank or my cell phone provider.)

With each new car I own, The Man (He/She/It) consistently tells me I should – nay, must – change my oil every 3,000-5,000 miles. (That’s more often than the old ‘Stang!) And that’s not all. At those intervals, which show up on my odometer every time I look at it, I also need all kinds of related fluid changes, new filters and other critical what not that sets me back a hundred-plus every time I even think about “regular” service. Jiffy Lubes et al aren’t much better, and in all cases I drive away with that gummy pseudo-sticker inside my windshield that makes sure that (literally in my face) I have a logo, a phone number and an admonition that evil things will happen to me if I don’t show up again at, say, 11,142 miles. (And not a mile later!) What it really says is “We’re really looking forward to seeing your checkbook again soon!”

Well, I get weird when I think I’m getting ripped off – especially by The Man – and I always suspected this oil game was a rip off. And Lo! And behold!: “Debunked: The 3000 Mile Oil Change Is a Myth.” This from CalRecycle, and noticed last week by the NYT, which cites Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor at car care site Edmunds.com, as saying that a good average for oil changes these days would be somewhere between 7,500 and 10,000 miles – or more.

Turns out that it’s been years since any car has come off the line with an engine that requires an oil change every 3,000-5,000 miles. And it’s not that automakers are telling you go out and grease your skids so often. In fact, most manufacturers tell it like it is in your vehicle’s how-to book. However, your dealer and lube specialist are likely doing nothing to dispel you from coming in to their garages as often as possible. In fact, you know what? Let’s dispense with the diplo-talk and just say it: They tell you to come in more often than you need to so they can steal your money.

Take California for example, where, according to the CalRecycle site (www.3000milemyth.org), “research conducted by the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) shows that nearly three-quarters of Californian drivers change their motor oil more often than automaker recommendations,” adding that “following the 3,000 mile myth generates millions of gallons of waste oil every year.”

Ah, The Man and his myths. Sad thing is, after a while we believe what we’re told. Says Reed (again from the NYT article): “3,000 miles strikes a deep chord with the consumer. It feels good to get an oil change. If you fill up the car with gas, wash it and change the oil, it runs better. Of course, it doesn’t. But it’s the perception.”

In traffic this morning, I gave this whole thing some thought. After revisiting my old Ford and its powerful but dirty old 1968 engine (man, for a moment there I was cool as could be), I looked around at all the shiny new post millennium cars screaming too fast down highway 101 heading into S.F. for the work day. Thousands of ’em. Thousands and thousands – and most all of them being bathed in, at best, twice the amount oil they need. Think about it in times-a-million-times-a-billion terms. Then follow the stream of used oil going into our waste systems. And then follow the money – right to The Man.

Image: therichbrooks

The post Not So Fast, Slick: Rethinking How Often to Change Your Oil appeared first on EcoSalon.

Marketing 101: When it comes to auto racing, telling jokes, and launching a new product, there is one truism: Timing is everything.

Ladies and gentlemen, Lexus presents the HS250h.

The HS250h rolled into showrooms in fall 2009 and car buyers who love the Earth and luxury accoutrements like heated/cooled seats in equal measure, finally had a dedicated hybrid to call their very own.

Marketing 102: If an auto company becomes a national punchline because its cars won’t slow DOOOOWWWWNNNN, then it’s probably not the right time for delivering a new vehicle aimed at the same drivers currently stuck in recall hell at their local Toyota dealership.

The last five months were a glorious time to be luxuriously green, but all good things must come to an end. (For example, a sedan with sketchy brakes headed toward a brick wall.) Yes, sales of the HS250h are on hold until the kinks can be worked out, but it’s no biggie. There’s nothing to see here, keep moving. As Toyota president Aiko Toyoda said of the recall, “Quality is our lifeline for Toyota.”

Marketing 103: Never use the word lifeline when speaking of cars with the troubling habit of not reducing speed on Dead Man’s Curve.

I kid Toyota because they demand consumers make hard choices: “I’d rather not perish in a fiery crash, but I would save a ton on gas expenses while reducing our dependency on foreign oil”¦” But the truth is, I kind of liked the HS250h, and think it could play an important role in the yet-to-be-determined world of everyday hybrid driving.

As a part-time car reviewer, I’ve been behind the wheels of a number of hybrids and have generally felt better about the reasons to drive them than the actual driving experience itself.

Take the Prius, for example. Setting aside the holy-shit-this-hybrid-has-become-the-bus-in-Speed issue, it has bigger problems. They’re hideous. And in these here United States, they’re movement cars, huge in Santa Monica and Marin County and not so much everywhere else. Behavioral marketing expert Dr. Clotaire Rapaille goes so far as to say it’s sex that sells the Prius, not loyalty to Mother Earth. In a 2004 interview he told me,  “Right now the Prius will get you laid, just like when VW Beetles invaded college campuses in the ’60s.”

Only 1.6 million Priuses have been sold worldwide since 1997. (To put that in perspective, Ford sold 414,000 F-Series trucks in the recessionary year of 2009 alone.) It will always be a tiny fraction of car buyers who purchase what’s healthy over what tastes good, which is why the HS250h has a (rapidly diminishing) chance of making an explosion in the marketplace. Poor word choice, my bad.

The exterior of the HS250h isn’t dazzling – it’s more Camry than Lexus – but it’s no crime to be bland, at least not in comparison to the Prius’s metallic slug shell. At 24/35 mpg, the HS250h gas mileage is good for its class and the solid 4-cylinder 187hp engine has four drive-modes: Normal, Power, Eco and EV that helps increase efficiency and lower emissions. In five days of driving, the HS250h never had any of the hiccups or acceleration problems I’ve experienced in other hybrids like the Ford Escape. It has a kick to it and had no problem holding steady at 75 mph on the New Jersey Turnpike.

For the record, the brakes were a bit stiff, but not ineffective and I never noticed a sticky go-go pedal. Then again, I’m far from petite, so the G-forces of my driving boots may have overwhelmed the software issues.

Marketing 104: There’s no such thing as bad publicity…unless it includes the phrase “individual lawsuits claiming deaths or injuries caused by unwanted acceleration of vehicles.”

Where the HS250h shines is in all the creature comforts that could attract drivers who want to brag about going green over backyard Chardonnay without sacrificing a tool that lets drivers know of the location and length of upcoming traffic jams.

Starting at $34,000, the HS250h features the sex toy-sounding “Remote Touch,” which is basically a combo mouse/joystick that operates all the technology. It takes a minute to adjust to manipulating the cursor around the navigation screen, but it’s so intuitive to our techy lives that I quickly found it a vast improvement over the old button-centric dashboard. There are other fun design notes, like the gauge that keeps tabs on green driving, adjustable leather seats, key fob settings that automatically adjust to a driver’s preferred A/C setting, and an ability to upload GPS destinations from a home computer.

Personal maps, bioplastic material in the interior upholstery and satellite radio? It would be an honor to have the brakes go out. Besides, the HS250h has a collision system that automatically dials 911. It’s Mother Earth’s Indy car!

It’s hard to imagine that the HS250h will overcome this and be a player in the eco-conscious auto world, which is too bad because its luxury features could entice more mainstream suburban drivers and help get hybrids out of the “good-for-you” garage. It’s a fun ride and could have crashed the hybrid party. Whoops. Sorry.

Marketing 105: On second thought, timing isn’t everything. Braking is.

The post Marketing School and the Lexus HS250h Reviewed appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you count yourself among those who consider driving a necessary evil, I have some advice for you: put your car club dollars where your values are. Have you heard that AAA, America’s favorite car club, has green competition?

Enter Better World Car Club, the only car club in the country that offers bicycle roadside assistance along with the usual car program. They also donate 1% of gross sales to environmental cleanup programs, offer discounts for hybrids, buy carbon offsets, and charge a gas-guzzler surcharge for high emitting vehicles. (Although I’d be surprised if they have many Hummer-driving members.)

Here’s what they don’t do – they don’t use your membership dues to fight against environmentally smart transportation initiatives. I always thought of AAA as an innocuous, if stodgy, brand. I had no idea that AAA has opposed bike lanes, has denied that air pollution causes smog and basically uses the power of its purse and lobbying to influence car-first government policies.

If you join Better World, maybe you won’t get the Via anymore, which may leave your bathroom reading wanting, but you will get a hilarious and environmentally friendly e-newsletter called Kicking Asphalt that will keep you updated on goings-on in the world of driving.

Better World also offers the usual travel discounts (including eco-travel and discounts for hybrid car rentals), car insurance, travel debit cards, free maps and more.
Maybe joining Better World Car Club won’t make you feel better about driving, but at least you’ll know you’re part of an organization that cares about the same things you do.

Image: ktylerkonk

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I’m one of those people who quickly tidy up my car before handing it over at the car wash, disposing of the banana peels jammed into paper cups and cookie crumbs taking up residence in the carpet and upholstery. Such treasures are routinely left behind by my daughters who view my Volvo as their waste can on wheels.

It occurred to me this morning that I should create a car compost system with a portable bin to chase those necessary after-school car treats.  Instead of grinding the granola bar remains into my wagon’s cup holders, certain passengers could simply toss the food scraps into the small compost container.

While no one has invented a car compost bin per se, small kitchen composters could do the trick. I found a few options with lids at Composters.

The car wash guys will be impressed!

Image: Werwin15

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