Walter's Cars

Kids, especially boys, are very often interested in cars from an extremely young age.  I think after the word ball, it was my son’s second word.  From as young as one, he was fascinated with wheels and would do anything to touch them.  Of course we bought him every toy car on the market but that didn’t suffice for all that long.  He wanted more. He wanted the real thing.  One day when he was around 3 and a half years old, he had gotten up before us (not such a surprise or anything new) and for some reason the front door had been left unlocked.  He had managed therefore to open the door, get out the house and by the time we found him, he was sitting at the edge of the sidewalk with his little feet dangling nonchalantly in the road, playing with the tires of a car.  It looked like he was examining them like a pro, but our boy was just engaging his fascination with anything car-related.  It was then I realized I had to take his interest seriously otherwise it could end up in danger (with him sneaking around trying to get close to cars).  I bought books for him; I took him to car shows (from the age of 4 actually); I let him sit in the driver’s seat while I was next to him and explained to him how important it was to never do this without me or his mom by his side; I encouraged him to help me change a tire (pass me the spanner, etc.) and answered any questions he had.  I never tried to dissuade him from loving cars (why shouldn’t he love them?  I do), but always emphasized that safety comes first.  Today, he practices safe driving on the roads and also collects hard-to-acquiesce parts for those with antique cars as a business.  I’m glad I responded to his love of cars at a very young age as that is probably what helped him enjoy the motors in a safe and productive way.

Everyone is getting excited about the Leaf car from Nissan.  In fact, the company can’t keep up with the pre-orders!  But a new report is giving less than favorable expectancies for this electric car.  While Nissan claims their car will be “the first mass-produced electric car” on the market, a counter report is  indicating that rather than the company’s anticipated 100 mile range on battery power, this isn’t accurate at all. Apparently it all depends on environmental and driving conditions and this differs tremendously from place to place.  Studies found for example:
“* 138 miles while cruising at 38 miles an hour with an outside temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit
* 105 miles at a fairly steady 24 mph in city traffic with the air conditioner off and an ambient temperature of 77
* 70 miles at a steady 55 mph on the highway on a hot 95-degree day with the air conditioning on
* 62 miles in the winter – 14 degrees outdoors – with heater on and stop-and-go traffic reduced to an average 15 mph crawl.”
That’s not exactly what Nissan has promised.  So only time will tell what is about to happen with this car.