G. David Felt

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Sand into Fuel, Reality or Fiction? We have all dreamed of the ultimate dream, how to drive the auto's we love without having to pay through the nose for fuel. Especially for performance, premium fuel can really hit the wallet and many of us have been forced to decide, our dream auto, or commuter car? Lately, I have noticed many Motley Fool stories about unlimited free fuel from sand. There have been other web sites and like the Motley, they are all long speeches without getting to what this new fuel is or how to make money on them. Most people today want you to get to the point so these monotone 15 min speeches loose interest after 3 minutes. Dr. Peter Plichta, a German who studied and received degrees in chemistry, physics and nuclear chemistry in Cologne Germany. This interesting man looked at how we could use long change silanes which uses hydrogen and oxygen to burn and produce energy. He released a book in 2001 Benzin aus Sand. The amazing thing is how he says we need to revolutionize our thinking of how we power things. This fuel is more stable and better for use in Space Exploration as well as in autos that would benefit from using turbine or Wankel motors. The Doctors web site is in German here. His paper on converting Sand into Fuel is found here if you can read German. Lucky for us, another individual Sepp Hasslberger who has a passion for technology has written a much more detailed overview here. He gets into the chemestry of burning silanes and how this can be done. Check it out, then sound off. Does this seem feasible? Should we be looking at making a radical change that could bankrupt the existing oil companies and OPEC moving to a cleaner, much less expensive fuel? I will say people mention that this would be free, but there is always a cost to converting a substance into fuel.

One Percent

Yea, flames to reduce bagpipes to ashes is a good thing. Saves the screech on the ears.

But Gullwing doors were the rage in Demolition man. All the Cop cars had them!

Europeans

Biking only makes sense if you do not live in an area with constant rain, snow, etc. Bike riding is mostly a warm weather or at least dry weather area. Not one to have to get soaked riding to work, then need to take a shower before I can work and have to take one when I get home. PASS, rather drive an auto or sleep on a bus while someone else drive me to work.

Idiots

This does not surprise me. With the amount of torque one can get from electric motors, the future is going to Hybrids and pure electric.

I will say it is a nice looking car, it looks massive in size and the interior is pretty sweet to boot. I do wonder how easy those floating rear screen will pop off.

^, without ANC you can really hear the sausage being made Thanks I needed a good laugh!

Trump?

^ Good to know, so it is an add on module to their CUE system.

Public Transportation will only work if Politicians stop playing games of wasting on pie in the sky projects and takes a common sense approach to mass transit. Right now that is not happening and we have the worst mass transit in the world compared to Europe or Asian rim.

The video at the bottom of this story about the Honda Jet to go into productions in 2016 is a rough assessment about Honda and their product lines. Honda only earned 2.6% profit last year on their product lines especially their autos. It is worth watching as he really rips Honda. http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/faa-approval-near-hondas-business-jet-is-about-to-hit-the-market/ar-AAgaIFl

Zombies

It is interesting to see how many people from various states and countries have gone to the climate change meeting in France and are jumping in with little knowledge. Over all I think we should have hybrids and EVs that can easily cover 200-300 miles by 2050 so banning all petrol autos for the citizens is understandable. I question if this can be done for police, fire, businesses, etc.

I thought the new system for Android and apple phones would replace CUE next year. So is this the 2017 models sold in 2016 or what?

GM should look at if the hardware can plug in and work with older auto's I am sure many people would love to buy a new NAV system for their older auto's. If I could figure out how to put in the current NAV that is in the SRX into my Trailblazer I would as it is a very nice system. Then again, that is what the 3rd party manufactures are for. http://www.radio-upgrade.com http://www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_i466_factory-radio-improvement.html http://www.oemautopartsco.com/collections/ram-navigation Thanks for the pointers, sadly they do not offer any 2008 Trailblazer nav upgrades. Will have to see what Car Toys has or keep looking around.

Interesting as you have totally also described MB and BMW with all their crazy cross over of models and packages. So based on this, Cadillac has nailed the German Driving Machine of Luxury.

GM should look at if the hardware can plug in and work with older auto's I am sure many people would love to buy a new NAV system for their older auto's. If I could figure out how to put in the current NAV that is in the SRX into my Trailblazer I would as it is a very nice system. Then again, that is what the 3rd party manufactures are for.

Well 95% of the GMC dealers are Buick dealers with a new short wheel base Envision. I think my GMC dealer here is one of the very few that is stand alone. Note they also are one of the most productive with an average transaction price around $62,000. I know... but you and I are smarter than the average consumer. GM has noticed there are still generally strong feelings one way or the other over GMC and Buick as brands. Drew is right, amazing how many people still have strong feelings especially about Buick as an old persons auto. I have changed many when they went and test drove the Encore and ended up buying it. I have had more people buy the Encore trading in old Subarus. Clearly the car clicks with the 20-30 age crowd.

I have always found it interesting that sales tends to fail to train the basics of successful selling. 1) Great the customer, be friendly and open. If they tell you they just want to look, let them look and back off, but watch them. 2) Inquire what they are interested in. LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER! 3) Trial Close to see if they are interested in moving to a solid buy. 4) Overcome objections, enough facts to satisfy them but not to much to drown them. 5) Take them to the bank with a solid closing deal. I have found when you listen to the customer and address their few needs, you end up moving very close to a closing deal. This allows you to skip or minimize the overcome objections stage.

I understand some rag on others more than everyone, but I will say that I think Motor Trend and most auto magazines rag on them all equally. Ford and GM engines when hit hard and put away wet give crap fuel economy. Especially for turbo engines.

240V 40 A or even 440V 3 phase 30A is not that big a deal if an electrician comes in and installs it properly for you. No reason NOT to have a proper quick charge charger at your house.

Funniest experience from my point of view when my wife asked me to help a friend of hers buy a new auto. We went to a Toyota dealership to check out the car she was interested in. The sales lady came out and I asked politely about interest rates on financing, any rebates from Toyota, etc. Trying to get my ducks in a row before if needed sitting down to negotiate a buy for this lady. The sales lady left crying and her manager came out demanding to know why I made her cry, I asked him the same questions and he tried the How much can you afford per month pitch. I ignored his question and asked mine again and he just got angrier that I did not answer his question which he kept asking over and over. I finally asked him how he made money in which he stated that it was obvious by selling cars. My response to him was you need to then listen to the customer and service the customer as the customer is clearly how he makes money, but not from this potential customer. My wife's friend then says lets leave, I need place that has service not pressure. We walked off and left. She ended up buying that day a very nice Contour that she liked from the Ford Dealership who did listen to my questions, answered them all and took care of us. She still has the car to this day and goes in for service from the Ford dealership. Clearly some dealerships know how to listen and service the customer, yet many do not.