Good Morning! Or is it afternoon already?
I promised the Dogs Baker's Dozen for this morning (cardinal blogging rule: never, ever make promises), but I still need a little more time to finish it. I know that's going to frustrate some people, so I'll say a little more about it at the end of this.
Meanwhile, a more conventional Off-Topic Open Mike—
Under the category of "Signs That It's the Future," it is now possible for humans to complain that a car gets "only" 47 miles per gallon (5l/100km). Which made my small old-fashioned mind do a shock-jump.
I have a whole bunch of big purchases coming due, and I've been investigating how best to negotiate them. For one thing, the people who renovated this house didn't see fit to replace the furnace, air conditioner, or roof—I wish they had done all three—so those are going to fall in on me soon (not literally in the case of the roof, I hope). I just learned that my furnace and air conditioner are coming up on 30 years old! That's not good. Meanwhile, faithful chariot is at 11 years and 147,000 miles. I don't need a new car yet, or a new-to-me car—financial guru Dave Ramsey says no one should buy a new car unless and until they have a net worth of $1 million or more, and I already have a used car that I like—but I figured I'd better get started getting the lay of the land. So I've been watching a few videos. And I took a few test drives.
In one video, someone was complaining that they only get 47 MPG in a '25 Honda Civic Hybrid.
Well, I got my driver's license way back in the 1970s....
My father's 4th-gen (1971–1976) Buick Electra 225 could get below 10 MPG. That's 10 as in TEN. Thirteen was good. I never saw 16 when I drove it. Granted I never took long highway trips.
And not only that. My father's friend would give me the keys to his Porsche 911 Targa whenever they went on vacation. I did their yardwork. The guy's wife got the car for him for his birthday. I was 16! Damn near killed myself in that evil Porsche, which was wickedly tail-happy. You had to power through curves as if your life depended on it, because it did. Lay off the gas mid-curve and you were gonna get dizzy right quick, because the car would snap off a few high-G 360-degree spins. I speak from experience. When it happened I thought my heart was going to thump right out of my body through my mouth.
Scarred by youthful experience, I have never coveted Porsches!
However, there's this. In 1972–73, the Porsche 911 got a new, larger engine (the 2.4L, which despite its designation was 2.3 liters) and a beefed-up transmission derived from the one in the 908 race car. That vintage of 911 was called the E-series. The point I am trying to get to here is that the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid has a significantly lower 0–60 time than that 1973 Porsche 911E (6.2 sec. vs. 7.5 sec., 1.3 seconds faster).
Just sayin'. For some more perspective.
AI Overview says that Porsche got 15–18 MPG.
Our Volvo 145 station wagon daily driver back then, nominally my mother's car except that I happily did all her driving chores for her, had a 0–60 time of 13 seconds, and that was not considered slow for a family car at the time. The Honda Accord automatic my mother got in 1981 (the Accord's fourth model year in the U.S.) went from 0–60 in 13.1 seconds. My brother Scott and I dubbed it "Phred" and put a lot of miles on it. We remained a Honda family for some time thereafter. At least, my mother's side of our family did, although she briefly had a Peugeot 604 that my brother Charlie wrecked. My father had a Gremlin, an AMC Eagle, and a Checker among other quirky choices. He marched to the beat, as they say. You know the cliché.
Duke of Oil*
Another thing I just learned: oil change intervals are a hot topic online, much discussed and disputed. It turns out that by recommending long intervals, car manufacturers reap a side benefit in terms of carbon credits or something. So if you see a manufacturer-recommended interval of more than maybe 9,000 miles at the outside, it only means they're being nefarious scoundrels and lying to you. Next, the interval depends on the kind of driving you do—something I never knew. Lots of lazy highway miles and you can change the oil as infrequently as every 7,500 miles. Starts-and-stops as well as idling is harder on an IC engine, so if you do a lot of that you should use the classical recommendation to change the oil every 3,000 miles. Various people make various compromises to be safe but also economical: whether 4,000, 5,000, or 6,000 mile intervals is best is a subject hotly debated.
And, full synthetic motor oil and high-quality oil filters are best. Some of you already knew all this and more, some of you didn't. I didn't. Thought I'd pass it along. So there's that then.
Perfect car but with an Achilles' Heel
The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid is the perfect car. The ride is wonderful, the steering smooth and precise (steering, above all else, sets the personality of a car), and as a hybrid it's nicely responsive to the throttle since the slower speeds are powered by the electric motor(s). And Sarah 'n' Tuned (now she's a hybrid for ya—[example]—supermodel looks coupled with the wrenching skills of a veteran grease monkey) says she got nearly 60 MPG over a 100-mile test period. Yes, as a hybrid it does have a non-manual transmission, but here we are: it is the future, after all, and we have to live in it. The interior is sumptuous and high quality (much better than Corolla or even Camry, although Toyotas have stronger warranty coverage and it has to come from somewhere).
And it fits me just right...with one major problem. The center stack jabs me in the right knee in just the wrong spot. All three of Honda's sedans that I might be interested in do the same: Civic, Accord, and Acura Integra. It set me to wondering if I could get some hot-rodder around here (I go to all the local shows, where I meet those guys) to rig up a flat pad that projects further out and meets my leg further down. But that's academic, as I do not have a net worth of $1 million.
However if you are thinking of a Honda sedan, go sit in one before you get too far down the rabbit hole. Honda made a stupid mistake with that center stack, at least for some people.
To the dogs
The Dogs Baker's Dozen has proven to be the toughest one yet. There were more than 200 submissions, and two of the best ones came in too late (one was Chris Skarbon's, which I used in the Love of Dogs post). And as many as 90% of them concern subjects deeply personal to the person who sent it. How can I resist anyone's beloved dog, especially the ones now in the Great Dog Park in the clouds, where they happily congregate together? How can I get past my emotions, having recently had Butters ripped from my arms by death? How can I resist the adorable steeliness of the recently departed and deeply mourned Spike, for example, beloved of Nick and Christine? (He came to them with that name, and they didn't care for it, but I love it. Perfect name for a super-cute little tough guy if you ask me.) But I already had a head-and-shoulders dog portrait, Charlie Dunton's. I'll cheat just a little more:
Spike
Nick says, "This is one of my few pictures of Spike that convey the utter and effortless self-assurance of this 12-1/2-pound tyrant."
As an aside, I watched Nick, a good friend, search for years to find just the right outlet for his artistic creativity apart from photography, including a stint during which he attempted to learn to play classical piano. He finally landed: it's pottery. Once he found it he matured in the medium by leaps and bounds. I seriously and sincerely love his work, in which controlled and simple forms juxtapose against complex and free glazes which accept serendipity. The contrast really hits the spot for me, and I visit his work frequently, so I won't miss new stuff, yes, but mainly for pleasure if I'm honest. Some of it might be for sale—ask him. He doesn't do it for the money. Either way, I recommend a visit! There are more links at the link.
But I digress.
Over repeated passes I narrowed down the 200+ Dog picture submissions to only 48 selects, which didn't help very much. Then, I expected more time to help, which it didn't, this time. The truth is that I could make four portfolios of 13 pictures each, in each of four areas: dog portraits, like the one of Spike above; domestic scenes; dogs in action; and environments with dogs in them, not necessarily featured or rendered large. Merging all four broad areas into one set is not going to be as cohesive as any of those four would have been, but I reconciled to that, ginned up my fortitude, and forged ahead. I continue to think the "Yellow" Baker's Dozen is still the most coherent.
I'll keep plugging. It should be the next thing you see here. (Mike! Don't make promises!)
Cheers, in the non-alcoholic sense,
Mike
*The name of an oil-change place in West Chicagoland near where my brother lives.
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Featured Comments from:
JimR 'Longviewer': "I remember oil changes. I definitely don't miss them and won't argue about them. My Niro EV (55k) has like-new brake pads thanks to regenerative slowing, though it is now on its second set of tires. Fine driving."
Mike replies: I would love to have an EV. The luxury of having your own private "gas station" in your own garage sounds so appealing. I already have a 50-amp panel in the garage suitable for Level 2 charging. I'd also love to have solar panels on the roof of the garage to charge the car, and never pay for gas. It's all do-able; just not yet.
Andreas: "In the UK, oil changes are generally at yearly intervals which equates to about 10,000 miles, give or take a couple of thousand each way. So the frequency of oil changes in the US seems absurdly high, especially given that engines can run for well over 200,000 miles when serviced at the 'UK frequency.' I wonder what the situation is in other parts of the world under non-extreme usage or environmental conditions?"
Robert Roaldi: "It would be useful to keep track of an engine's hours of operation, but miles is not a bad proxy. And yes, different operating conditions warrant different oil change intervals; stands to reason. Leaving oil in there for a long time might not make any sense unless you're changing the oil filters a few times in between oil changes. Synthetic oil can last a long time but if the filter is going to bypass because it's clogged, that's not a good thing. I've known people to leave synthetic oil in for a long time, 25,000 km or so, without it breaking down (as judged by chemical analysis) but that's only recommended if you're changing the filter every 5,000 km. Trouble is, that only works if you do it yourself. Might be difficult to find a commercial lube shop that will do that.
"As for the high cost of body work [see John Camp's comment in the full Comment Section —Ed.], yup, that's real. And that was true before they put all those gizmos into the bumpers and other bits that get hit. Doesn't help that parking lots are filled with oversized vehicles now; perfect storm you might say. Lots of people miss passenger trains now. I used to like cars and was involved in amateur motorsports for years. Now I hate everything about our car-based environment. It seems like freedom at first glance, but when there is no alternative, it's a prison."
