In three cars I've driven, I get about 300 miles per tank of gas. But with all three cars, I can get up to 200 miles by the time I hit 1/2 tank. But invariably, by the time I near the 300 mile mark, I'm on E. Am I nuts or do gas seem to burn faster in the lower 1/2 of my tank? Is this mental or by design? [more inside]
posted on Apr 7, 2007 - 22 answers

How do I get a bird to stop sitting on my side mirrors and shitting all over my car? [more inside]
posted on Apr 6, 2006 - 31 answers

From cycling I'm aware that rotational weight is the best to cut for efficiency, and when I think about my new car and ways to coax more mileage out of it, I wonder if getting a lighter set of wheels would improve that measurably? I can't tell if anyone has ever looked at gas savings vs. wheel weight before in my google searching. [+]
posted on Feb 3, 2005 - 31 answers

Whenever I see people post photos of their car online, they almost always blur the license plate, which seems an obvious protection, but then I thought: Who on earth besides DMV employees can ever figure anything out from a license plate number? Are there scary public apps that will pull my home address up if my license plate ever shows up in public? I ask because people with custom plates never seem to mind sharing them in photos, and only people running 3HJK23D seem to always protect their identity. Is it much ado about nothing?
posted on Dec 17, 2004 - 13 answers

I'm going to get rid of my old car and I'd like to donate it, but google searches for anything remotely related seem to be gamed by just a couple organizations. If anyone knows of a Portland or Oregon based charity picking up and accepting cars, care to share them with me? I'm leaning towards charities that deal with health issues, animals, and teens (being areligious, I would lean toward secular charities).
posted on Dec 6, 2004 - 14 answers

Remember in the late 80s/early 90s when every car in the US (mostly imports, IIRC) had a motorized seat belt for the front seats? Why did that feature go away? Was it due to them breaking down? Being unsafe in accidents? Being annoying in general? I never really heard why they went away, I just sort of noticed they don't exist anymore.
posted on May 19, 2004 - 22 answers