Voltage Report
Technology is constantly changing our cars. We went from points and condenser to electronic ignition to distributorless ignition systems. We have gone from carburetors to fuel injectors and now we are looking at going from gasoline to electricity to power our driving.
I recently had the chance to see (not drive…..sigh) the all new Chevrolet Volt at Lone Star Chevrolet on it's first visit to a dealership in the country.
The writing has been on the wall for years that electric powered cars are coming, and after a few very expensive lessons they are now here (actually Fall 2010). The Chevrolet Volt will go on sale later this year. The Volt has a battery pack that will get you 40 miles of driving on a full charge. I know, I know 40 miles is nothing; you can't even drive across town with it so why bother. Have no fear G.M. has your "range anxiety" under control. While studies show that most people drive less than 40 miles a day G.M. knows that it is easy to exceed that. So they have paired the electric car with an on-board gasoline generator to make the Volt a long distance capable car.
According to the G.M. reps present at this event the range of the vehicle with 8 gallons of fuel for the generator is 340 miles. The generator only runs after the battery power has been depleted and is used solely for charging the battery so you can keep going. G.M. had people from all corporate divisions at this unveiling to answer questions and let us know about the features of this remarkable entry into the electric car market, unfortunately I only have the space to share a few of them with you.
The battery pack is comprised of 265 individual lithium-ion cells. These cells are in groups of 3 so that if something goes wrong with one of them the whole battery isn't out of service, you will still be able to get to your destination with reduced power. The battery pack will be under warranty for 8 years or 100,000 miles.
Volt comes with a standard subscription to On-Star for 5 years included in its purchase price. G.M. has also developed "apps" for the I-Phone and Android phones so that you can communicate with your car to check on charge state, mileage, fuel economy, lock or unlock doors and to warm up or cool off the cabin before you get in the car.
The Volt will recharge from a 120 volt regular household outlet in 8 hours and in only 4 hours using the 240 volt charging station. At the estimated cost per recharge of less than $1.00 the Volt will not add very much to your electric bill and can save you thousands of dollars in gasoline.
Also coming later this year is the Nissan Leaf. I have not had the chance to see or learn anything on Nissan's Leaf other than it has a 100 mile range and uses absolutely no gasoline, just plug it into the charging station while you sleep and let it charge up. Wow, now your car is even more like your cell phone.
Jim Miller |
Oh The Trials Of Being In Business!
As every small business owner or manager knows all too well there is more to being the boss than sitting around counting the money.
There are taxes and technology, employees and insurance, advertising and budgeting, along with countless other things that require daily attention. Then one Monday morning you check your bank account online and find out that someone has been counterfeiting checks on your account!
This happened to us the beginning of August. Thankfully Jim makes a habit of checking our accounts daily. That is a lesson learned the first time someone wrote fraudulent checks on our business about 8 years ago. This time around it was a lesson in the value of good business partners. Good business partners that were develope
In an era of internet we have been sort of the dinosaurs of the business age and stuck to doing the majority of our transactions the old way, by calling and talking to someone, by going into the bank to make deposits, and by spending time with vendors when they came by. I am so glad that we did. EVERYONE of our business partners and vendors worked with us to make it through the challenge of having to close accounts and open new ones.
Many vendors and suppliers held invoices until new checks could be printed. Several offered to use credit cards, costing them 2 to 4 percent of the sale to make it easier for us. Many were willing to wait for new checks to be issued so that we could close out the old account faster and more accurately. Like many businesses we have a lot of ACH drafts on our accounts, both in and out. Our insurance agents, credit card processors and fleet accounts all offered excellent cooperation making the change.
Most of all, the bank was fabulous! Unlike the last time this happened when the bank ( a huge national bank) only made things worse, The State Bank of Texas stepped up and helped us mitigate the damage and prevent more checks from clearing our account. Nikki Black, the president of the Stafford branch of The State Bank of Texas, and her able assistant Desire Campos, took steps to insure that legitimate payments would be made and questionable ones would be examined by her and by us. She helped expedite the change of accounts without returning a single check to one of our valued partners. Thank you Nikki and all the staff at The State Bank of Texas!
So why did I take your time to tell this story? One of the things that Freedom Automotive preaches is the value of having a personal relationship with your mechanic. That can't be easily developed at a franchise, national chain or dealership. It doesn't come from buying all your parts over the internet, or dealing with a monstrous Multi-National bank. It is however, the specialty of most good independent repair shops. Freedom takes pride in these personal relationships and considers it the basis of our success. That lesson was driven home by being on the other side of the coin. Because of our personal relationships a terrible experience was only bad, not devastating.
We invite you to stop by and get to know the folks at Freedom!
John Miller
Did You Know...
Did you know that the tax rate in the UK is;
Income tax 50% VAT tax 17.5%
In France it is;
Income tax 40% VAT tax 19.6% |
