Review: An Obvious High School Assignment Being Sold as a Kindlebook
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2012
This school assignment does have a few common sense elements to it which may be useful if a student is about to undergo their learners and hasn't driven a car before, but I would imagine most people would already know those things such as tyre pressure, don't floor it when the light goes green, turn off your air conditioner, park in the first parking space rather than driving around and common stuff like this that I'd find hard to believe most motorists wouldn't know.The first couple of tips are pretty much just telling you to walk when you can.  I don't really see why you have to let a car idle for five or ten minutes to warm up when you're going to the grocery store, this sort of ridiculous out of nowhere stuff the author brings up from time to time in this document leads me to believe the author is a student and doesn't or hasn't been driving a car for long.  Seriously if your car won't go when you turn the key you need a new car as there is something seriously wrong with it and not thereby likely to be real fuel efficient either.Turn your car off when you run into the convenience store the author tells us.  Who would ever leave their car running and expect it to be there when you get back?  Take the Bus it will save you money.  Maybe as a student as this guy obviously is, but in the real world an adult fare that subsidises his student fares, catching a bus or train to work actually costs more than driving your car.  Maybe if you don't have free parking when you get there the combined cost may be more, but on just driving, there is no way public transport is cheaper.  Not to mention you've probably got to drive somewhere to park before getting on the bus in the first place unless you live on the bus route.Carpool, move closer to work, yeah a student choosing where to live in relation to his school/university might have these options, and people in the real world who can obviously would do these things, but most people don't work in the same area that their family, roommates or neighbours do.  The author claims you use up the same amount of gas starting a car as idling for 30 seconds in the drive thru, at the lights or wherever.  If this is true it's a good point but he didn't back that up with any sources or evidence.  So more than likely this is just one of the urban legends he has heard and is parroting in this document (which by the way is about the equivalent of ten Microsoft Word pages long). No doubt there is a period of idling time that equates to starting a car engine but who knows what that timeframe is.Another absurd claim is he reckons you spend a month (at least a month he says) of your pay on gas and upkeep of your car.  Again maybe if you're a student who only works a couple of hours a week but in the real world I'd spend the equivalent about three or four hours pay a month at the most on these things.  These sort of ridiculous statements throughout this report just reinforce the picture of this being a PowerPoint type presentation he is giving to fellow students.Apparently filling up slightly more after the bowser cuts out means extra gas will evaporate.  Surely a car with 50 litres will evaporate the same amount as one 51 and a half.  If somehow his statement is true he needed to prove it but he doesn't even attempt to, he just makes the statement.  He points out manual cars are much more fuel efficient than automatics but shows he is probably not old enough to drive (or a teenager who thinks he's immortal and couldn't care less about anyone else) by saying a negative of manual car ownership is you can't hold your cell phone while driving. You can't hold a cell phone while driving an automatic either, it is illegal you'll get a ticket if you're lucky, kill someone if you're not! This is ironic as he likes to lecture people on dangerous driving throughout this whole document but endorses talking on a mobile phone which prohibits driving ability more than being over the limit with alcohol. Just completely ridiculous.Apparently if you fill up when it's cooler you get more gas for your money because the molecules are further apart when it is hotter. Again some evidence or reliable source is need here.  But then his next tip is to heat up the fuel (sounds pretty unsafe to me but according to the author apparently there is some device that does this) as you'll use less fuel because the molecules are further apart. Make up your mind mate, which one are you trying to fob off as the truth?As a school assignment it maybe would have got a C if the teacher was lenient to allow him to give him an updated paper with references the next day, but as a Kindlebook to buy, give it a miss!