Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

Category Archives: Driving it Today

VW’S DIESEL SCAM

THERE IS technical interest in Volkwagen’s scamming of government and customers. According to Bloomberg Business, almost 500,000 VW and Audi diesels, beginning in Model Year 2009, are involved in the … Continue reading

September 20, 2015 · 8 Comments

ON THE VIRTUES OF (HIGHLY SELECTIVE) CONNECTIVITY

WE LIVE in a highly connected world. (Otherwise, of course, SimanaitisSays wouldn’t exist.) But a couple of happenings suggest we have reached a tipping point. The two I have in … Continue reading

August 1, 2015 · Leave a comment

“POINTLESS” CARS?

BACK IN the 1980s when most cars still had traditional breaker-point ignitions, one carmaker’s innovative state-of-the-art electronic system was heralded with a wonderful press release: “New Rapidfire has a pointless … Continue reading

July 8, 2015 · 1 Comment

TOYOTA MIRAI TIDBITS

HERE ARE 10 tidbits about the 2016 Mirai FCV, Toyota’s production fuel-cell car appearing in California showrooms this October. These tidbits are gleaned from my taking part in what amounted … Continue reading

June 27, 2015 · 2 Comments

KISS OFF EVS??

THE PROMISE of electric vehicles was fun while it lasted, but several recent articles in Automotive News are anything but promising. EVs are glued to dealership floors. Government EV subsidies … Continue reading

June 23, 2015 · 2 Comments

MYSTERIOUS DODGE MINIVAN ROAMING SOCAL

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is finally catching up to northern California and the New York City area. Yesterday in a local mini mall parking lot, a dark hued Dodge minivan mingled with … Continue reading

June 16, 2015 · Leave a comment

E2F2 AND OTHER COMPUTERIZED FUN

A READER with an evidently good memory asks about E2F2, the Engineering Editor’s Fun Factor. This assessment of enthusiast car goodness originally appeared in Road & Track, August 1984. Its … Continue reading

March 18, 2015 · 9 Comments

CHANGING TIMES

HOW TIMES have changed. Sometimes for the better, sometimes…. Here’s a collection of trends that I certainly wouldn’t have expected at the beginning of my (40!) years of monitoring the … Continue reading

March 1, 2015 · Leave a comment

THE PHILOSOPHY OF AUTO SAFETY

MARK ROSEKIND is the new administrator at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sworn in December 22, 2014. And, as Keith Crain of Automotive News observed in his column on … Continue reading

February 21, 2015 · 1 Comment

CAR STYLING: KATSURA OR NIKKO?

THE FASHION of automotive styling is an evolving thing, and I sense we were in the midst of a swing from Nikko to Katsura and are now heading back to … Continue reading

February 17, 2015 · 1 Comment