Obama: 'Inflate your tires'

[lowbridescape]

The one absolute thing that donks and gops have in common is that they both illustrate the crying need for term limits. Works for the president. Let's try it in congress and the courts.

[theholycow]

I don't want to get involved in the political side of this, but...

Originally Posted by Greyg

Democrats or Republicans, it doesn't matter, they are all too self serving to care about the common guy. I will give Obama credit for mentioning tire pressure. I have customers regularly come in complaining about fuel economy, I check their tire pressure and they're running at 25 lbs. I ask them when the last time they checked and often the answer is whatever previous season (spring, winter, whatever) when they had it in for an oil change. Regardless of which loser we "elect" this fall we as a nation need to lose our sense of self-entitlement and take personal responsibility for our own actions. This can be as small as checking our tire pressure everytime we fill up (which we are really supposed to do anyway along with checking the oil and other fluids) and it will start us on the right path to becoming a nation of adults instead of whiny petulant children who perceive themselves as victims with "the other guy" always at fault.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Quoted in entirety for wisdom.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Personally, I respect him for more or less coming out and saying "HELLO AMERICA, stop being part of the problem and become part of the solution dammit."

It wasn't an absurdly out of touch comment like "Let them drive Priuses" it was practical, doable and responsible thing for everyone to do.

If the media is gonna rag on politicians for such common sense suggestions, and we might assume common sense, unspectacular policies, then we need to line the damn media up against the wall before we get round to shooting the politicians.

[R.I.D.E.]

Of all the useless crap they put in cars today, you would think a simple transponder to tell you you need to check your tires would probably save more lives in a year than we have lost in Iraq soo far.

regards
gary

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

There's some tire monitoring systems in some models, but I don't know how sensitive they are. Like whether they will tell you it's 2 psi under, or wait until it's 5 or so.

[theholycow]

All new cars sold in the US are required to have TPMS as of September 1, 2007.

[collegekid01]

what? where are they then? maybe I'm behind the times but I haven't seen any...

[theholycow]

Go to any new car dealer. Try to find a car without a TPMS.

From http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/ruli...dFinalRule.htm

Compliance Date: Consistent with the phase-in commencing October 5,
2005, all new light vehicles must be equipped with a TPMS that meets
the requirements of the standard by September 1, 2007

Some cheap cars showing TPMS as features:
http://www.hyundaiusa.com/vehicle/ac...m/gs3door.aspx
http://www.chevrolet.com/aveo/features/
http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/focus/
http://automobiles.honda.com/fit/safety.aspx
http://www.suzukiauto.com/reno/specs_and_pricing/#top
...etc...

Want another surprise? Electronic stability control is also required, but the requirement is phased in more slowly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro...bility_Control

The United States was next, mandating ESC for all passenger vehicles under 10,000 pounds (4536 kg), phasing in the regulation starting with 55% of 2009 models (effective September 1, 2008), 75% of 2010 models, 95% of 2011 models, and 100% of 2012 models.

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Want another surprise? Electronic stability control is also required, but the requirement is phased in more slowly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro...bility_Control

Gah, I hope it turns off, ABS has tried to kill me just about every time I've driven a vehicle with it. Then winter comes, first I was avoiding the idiots in 4x4s that thought they were invincible, then it was AWD, then ABS, then traction control... now there's a complete new lot of cotton wool wrapped snowflakes that are gonna drive out of control most of the time.

Best safety car in the world would have a row of 6 inch spikes on the dashboard, gas tank outside the frame, hard, thin tires, and a bottle of nitro-glycerine at every corner.

[theholycow]

ABS has worked great for me and I wouldn't want to drive in snowy conditions without it. I never did acquire the reflex to pump the brake. Stability control, OTOH...I'm not interested.

I've never seen stability control that can't be turned off, but I hope no car I buy turns off ABS at the same time. If I want them both off I'll just pull the appropriate fuse or disconnect the ABS sensors..