Car Talk Archives - Page 13 of 149

Trying to Define What Makes a Luxury Vehicle

Sep 21 2015

At what point does a regular vehicle become a luxury one?

It’s tough to pin down! In trying to find one defining element, instead I came up with a bunch of what it’s not –

it’s not price,
nor number of units sold,
it’s not the type of gas it uses,
it’s not the number of features it’s equipped with,
nor the type of materials it’s finished with.

Plus! People’s benchmark of luxury can vary greatly.. what’s really nice to one may not to another, like – they’re happy with jewelry from People’s, I prefer Piaget.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

The only argument that seems to hold is in regards to the one thing that can’t be held or touched – perception. Perhaps that’s it, then – luxury is defined by whoever’s advertising dollars are better at convincing us that something is high-end.

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Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

It’s Hay Bale Art, Guys

Sep 17 2015

And maybe the first time a Mustang GT has posed with some.

I Feel Bad for Steel

Sep 17 2015

I’m suspicious when a fad takes off quickly. So it’s with a raised eyebrow when reading about the shift in manufacturing from steel to aluminum.

To learn more I speak with Dr. Jody Hall, Vice President of the automotive market at the Steel Market Development Institute.

Short answer – steel will win.

It’s not the first time aluminum has tried a takeover? “This isn’t the first cycle Keri, it’s just the latest,” she says.

It’s not as environmentally-friendly as you may think, it’s expensive to convert a factory from steel to aluminum, and maybe most shocking is that the two types of materials cannot be serviced by the same tools, or in the same service bay. What body shop can afford to duplicate everything?

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line

Hall explains that it takes more energy to produce aluminum than steel, and it produces an abundance of CO2 and emissions. “You’ve contributed to global warming before you even turn the key,” she says.

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Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

Your Car’s Computer runs on the CAN bus Network

Sep 14 2015

(photo credit: Wikipedia and author EE JRW)

The computer in your car runs on a network called CAN bus.

The Controller Area Network (CAN) is the standard for all vehicles. More specifically, inside your car there are almost 100 computers (called ECUs – Electronic Control Units) which use CAN bus to talk to one another.

There’s 2 problems with CAN bus:

1

Everything on the bus – big and small – is considered equal, so steering is equal to say, the fuel door latch. Moreover, the system never wonders where the message came from or who sent it, it just accepts and executes it.

Example: the fuel door button is pulled, sending a message that says, “open now!” and the fuel door says “okay got it, opening!”

That’s how car hacking works – because there’s no checks or balances, the system just accepts it and executes the command.

2

CAN bus was developed by Bosch in the 1980s, built when there was no outside world.

But then along came the Internet, and the connected car, and that’s why vehicles today are vulernable – they’re built on a system that isn’t ready to be secured for the internet because it never even imagined the internet would exist.