Locate an Auto Repair Shop in West Charleston, Vermont

West Charleston, VT Car Consumer Discussions

Rock

by anthonyp on Thu Sep 25 19:22:45 PDT 2008

I know the wait is hard, as I went through that three years ago....Keep a sharp eye out for when it is supposed to come, as my car was tested out for twenty miles before I got it.....I feel that when you order a car , and pay for it, it is not the dealers to keep and show for a few days before they tell you it has come.....As I have said in the past, the dealer experience is very important to the enjoyment of the car, so don`t let that happen to you....Annoyes me even to remember it....The car has been fine, and I am going to have another `bonding` experience with it in a day or so...At least I won`t be driving from Key West...That was a killer...Tony

Re: Do hybrids cause cancer? [dewey]

by anthonyp on Sun Apr 27 19:31:43 PDT 2008

Although there were no bargain priced houses in Key West, the ones that I looked at a number of years ago, that were near high powered lines--I rejected--just for this reason.....In a nutshell, do you , or any other posters, think this is a valid fear about hy-bred cars? For sure it is enough to make me pause...Tony PS Had some product from Canada today--fish-- It comes in a frozen container, and cost four dollars plus for two nice pieces and very tasty...

Re: EPA estimates [stalnaker]

by wvgasguy on Thu Jan 17 09:31:13 PST 2008

Where in WV do you live? I live in Jane Lew. I have several normal trips I take and they are of various lengths. I do garage my car, not heated but probably stays 40F to 50F in the winter depending on how cold it is outside. I don't have to use the car for work. From my house into Weston on 2 lane Rt 19 is about 4 miles. I do this one often. It is pretty level and I have no problems getting 40+ with a cold car. From my house to my church in Lost Creek is about 13 to 15 miles. If I go up Rt 19 and the back way (2 lane / 45 mph) I can get 47 in summer and 39+ in winter on that trip. If I get on the interstate at Jane Lew and get off at Lost Creek (driving a little under the limit) I get 38 to 40 and it doesn't seem to vary much due to the cold. Snow and rain / wind does hurt hard. Driving from Weston to Hurricane on I79 (hilly) and I64 (relatively flat) I have gotten as much as 42 and as little as 35. The 35mpg trip was done at about 80 mph with little reguard to economy. The 42 mpg trip was allowing the car to slow on steep grades and on steep downhills I did not brake and exceeded the limit significantly (this thing rolls easy). Driving to Buckhannon is an experience. It is 4 lane but there is a steep grade going east. Going to Buckhannon (about 12 - 15 miles) I will get between 36 to 37, but by the time I do my return trip I'm back at 39 overall. You can pretty much coast half the way back to Weston. My most frequent trip is to Clarksburg (50 miles round trip). Depending on driving style I get no lower than 35 (fast old style driving), seldom lower than 36 (cold or rain) and 90% of the time better than 37 (with just a little thought about what I'm doing). With a little thought and effort I can always get 38 to 39 round trip. I experimented once on the backroads and made a couple of laps around the Weston-jackson Mill_Jane Lew Loop and drove almost 50 miles and had 48mpg. Remember thought that this is a 25 / 35 /45 mph road loop. In Nags Head (all flat) I drove 300 miles at 45 mpg in mild to heavy traffic However I know that somone new to the hybrid will do differently. My son took the car to Charleston and got 32 mpg. Thought he had done something great and was surprised when I chewed him out ;o) One time for an experiment I drove up Rt 19 to jane Lew, took the back road past Davis Station to Lost Creek and went up Mt Clair Road to Clarksburg. With no traffic and doing really stupid slow driving I got 57 mpg. Just had to see what it was capable of. I have found that the sweet spot for my car is driving on rolling slopes at about 50 mph. The engine running keeps the battery charged and for every up there is a down. The rolling resistance on this is incredible and it appears if you're going fast enough to use the momentum uphill that the battery boost helps significantly if you don't push it hard, yet going down the small slopes the gage drops to 60 and the overall is excellent. I know my driving style and the effort I give is not for everyone. However I enjoy the challenge and find it entertaining to see just how I can do. I don't think I lose much time by driving just under the limit. I find that driving under the limit keeps me from getting packed up with clusters of cars, which is why I normally drove fast. Now instead of catching up with them and slowing down, I simply let them pass. On a trip to Charleston it probably only cost me 10 minutes. I still find myself sitting behind the folks that passed me on the exit ramps. DISCLAIMER: My wife averages about 2 mpg lower than me. Overall FE after 39,000 miles is 37.6 and that includes several trips to Charleston and Ohio by her. Even then she would get 36 to 37 mpg. But her long milage trips add a lot of weight to the overall FE numbers. I keep a lot of records to track this including calculating a corrected FE based on odometer error and computer error. My lifetime average based on the computer is about 38.2 My lifetime calculation based on manual calculations (miles and gallons) is just over 37. If you use your computer to track FE you're probably not doing as well as you think and if you crank it out long hand you actually doing better than you think. Spent a lot of time and blogging on GreenHybrid to develop this. Not sure why oter than I wanted to see if I could come close to driving this for free after all the tax credits. By the way I hope you took the $3750 WV tax credit last year (it ran out though on June 1, 2006 which is why I insisted my dealer give me the first one). My total tax credit is $6350 and on top of that my dealer gives me free tires ;o)

Re: Somebody tell me not to worry [sgoodman]

by wvgasguy on Tue Nov 13 07:04:14 PST 2007

Don't worry, life's too short. However that milage does stink ;) I've always wished I was in the position to drive one of these "lemons" or to have my car in the same situatuion just to really see the effect of different drivers, location or cars. I don't use my car for commuting but have found that interstate driving is not my cars best feature. At less than 70mph I can get 38 to 40mpg, but at "speed" keeping it at 70 to 75 mph I'll usually be between 36.5 and 37.5mpg. Most of my trips are between 5 to 15 miles but mostly rural. After 35,500 miles I'm still at a 37.6 mpg lifetime average. It used to be 38.5 but for the last several months I've quit being obsessed and my milage has dropped to 37's. I can understand the 34's and 35's but the absolute worst tank I've ever had was 31.5mpg and that trip was in the cold, on the interstate mostly at 85+mph in traffic and with wind and rain. Under normal circumstances, even when driving in Baltimore and Pittsburgh I've been able to get 36. In smaller cities like Charleston WV and that size I've been able to get in the high 39's. At Nags Head I had a300+ mile tank where I was getting 45mpg. Where the car really shines though are on rural 2 lane roads (even in the hills of WV) and I can easily get 40. In a rural setting on short trips I've found that even with a cold engine, accelerating fairly briskly to achieve speed and then lifting off the throttle and then maintaining speed I can easly get 38+ without the engine kicking off until I get into town. I can then coast pretty much around town until the battery discharges and the ICE kicks back on.

From NJ to Charleston WV 8 1/2 hours drives

by sildra9on on Thu Nov 08 00:09:12 PST 2007

i traveled with my fit from nj to west charleston wv. appx 8 1/2 rides. it was just me and my wife. pros: nice and comfortable rides, a lot rooms inside for seats and storage. we took a break every 2 hours, and folded down back seat with naps. btw. i carried a camping bag with me. cons: not enough power from going up hills, u have to step on the gas so hard to get it moving. and so noisy. btw. my all highway mpg from that trip was 29mpg,( i have bad mpg with my car, i only got average 22/mpg combine city and highway :confuse:

Re: What have I done? [jcoby]

by anthonyp on Wed Sep 05 14:11:27 PDT 2007

If you remember, Infinity had an ad campaign that was just very attractive pictures of different outdoor scenes...Lexux had a brocure with the details....The Allante just beat you to death, and I was relatively young back then....I went to the Lexus dealership, and the car ls400 was so superior to everything I had driven in the last few years, that it was an easy decision...I didn`t even drive the Infinity...So I was lucky.. The next Lexus had something wrong with the acelerator and conked out down in Key West...They trucked it to Miami, where the spare tire departed, and even offered to pay for lodging, although I owned a house there..Brought it back replaced the tire....The next one had something go wrong with the gas gauge and they replaced the innards although I had to run the gas out...The breaks also had something wrong with them, and the Rx had the gauges go bad after around seventy thousand miles (my daughter driving it, and still is) The next ls430 electrical linkage to fuel injection system went bad ..This may sound bad, but these events took place over many years, so I give Lexus the highest marks...I was never inconvenienced, and today recommended the dealership to a friend who wants a Lexus, and also the Lexus, although I personally think the bmw is the better value....Remember I am writing from my memory from a long time ago---and the previous cars were all very problimatic and would desert you in a moment, and the dealership just didn`t care, and I mean none of them cared...I give Lexus the credit for changing that entire industry...I see loaners today from Chevvie even...Tony