So Long Old Friend

This will be my last entry here at the Sparky ‘n Me blog. Our company car rotations last 6 months and I’ve picked up a new CTS wagon today. I’ve had fun writing the posts, trying to educate, pointing out some different locations in my travels. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing.

As I wrote in my first posting when I started this adventure, my automotive tastes are more in tune with say a CTS-V than an Escalade. But after 6 months and nearly 19,000 miles, I have enjoyed my time with Sparky. Recently we had to visit all of our dealership in as short amount of time as possible to conduct sales meetings about the recently announced price reduction for the 2010 CTS. The first week I drove over 1100 miles and spent 22 hours staring at the inside of Sparky’s windshield. I pounded the pavement with a smooth, quiet, enjoyable ride and in an economical manner.

The trick now will be to convince management that in order to maximize the exposure of the new CTS-V Coupe that we should all receive one as a company car. A real sports car equipped properly of course with a manual transmission. No slush box for me.

Not Your Ordinary Snowmobile

If any of you have had the opportunity to ride a snowmobile you know how much fun they can be. They are use a very simple drive train to get the power to the ground by using a transmission called a Constant Velocity Transmission or CVT. The basic principal of a CVT uses opposing cone shaped “wheels” for the engine output and another for the drive wheels. The driving force uses a belt or a chain between these cones. The cones move in or out to make the belt travel slow or fast depending on the needs of the driver. By using this system it allows the engine to reach the engine’s peak torque and stay there to get the sled moving.

While we all associate fast cars with high horsepower, it is an engine’s torque that we feel leaving the line. If you see an engine’s torque plotted on a graph it typically builds as the engine RPMs rise, reaching its maximum levels somewhere around 4,000 to 5,000 RPM. If you want to pick up your pace and do it quickly, your transmission selects a proper gear and you have to wait to build to the maximum torque to get to where you want to go.

The Escalade Hybrid uses slight variation on the CVT transmission concept. It is called Electronically Variable Transmission with Four Fixed Gears. Under normal driving conditions the transmission shifts up and down through the four gears as needed. When additional torque is needed, the electric motors will come on line to assist. However, if you need to get to a higher speed and do it quickly then the transmission does what you may not expect.

This is where the Escalade Hybrid separates itself. If you floor the accelerator on the Escalade Hybrid the electric motors come on-line and get the engine up to its maximum torque levels. The transmissions shifts as your speed builds, but the engine RPMs remain at the peak torque RPM levels to take full advantage of what the engine has to offer. This drive train not only takes full advantage of what the engine has to offer, but performs in a much more efficient manner.

So while the four wheel drive Escalade Hybrid will handle all sorts of hazardous road conditions, it’s not your average snowmobile.

Crashes Don't Have To Be Shocking

One of Walt Disney’s most revered full length animated films has to be Bambi. This is a wonderful story of innocence and tragedy about some of the cutest animals of the forest. We smiled and laughed at the antics of Bambi and Thumper and we cried at the loss during the forest fire.

Real life can also take on a tragic tale as well. One of my co-workers is driving a twin to Sparky. Every year during the Christmas holidays, he and the family make their way to Michigan to spend time with family. This year however, their trip was interrupted when a deer suddenly ran out onto the highway. It was night as they were traveling through Virginia. Bill said the first time he saw the deer was when it was about two feet in front of the car.

Sadly the deer was killed, while causing considerable damage to the Escalade Hybrid. Bill and his family learned first-hand about one of the safety features built into the Hybrid. You can imagine the force of hitting a 200 plus pound animal at highway speeds. The crash sensors automatically disconnected the hybrid drive system from the battery.

The electric motors of the hybrid drive system operate using the 300 volt battery stored inside the vehicle. This sort of power is not something that you would want to escape outside of a controlled environment. For these sort of situations General Motors made available training to fire and rescue personnel across the country on how to handle a hybrid in the event of a crash.

This system did however deactivate the entire drive system, which meant the hybrid had to be towed to the nearest dealer. OnStar assisted in sending a tow truck and finding a hotel nearby that would accept dogs. The next day the dealer was able to reactivate the system allowing Bill and his family to finish their trip.

It’s comforting to know that in a crash situation the Escalade Hybrid has safety measures built in to protect you from the electrical system.

This Baby Really Hauls

One of the advantages of the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid is that it can carry up to eight passengers in luxury. In the case of Sparky with the Platinum Edition it can do this with ultimate luxury. But if you as George Carlin used to speak of – have more stuff. The Escalade Hybrid is just not another pretty face.

If you need more room to carry more stuff, the third row seats can be removed. The third row seating is divided into to two seats. If you have just a little extra stuff to take along you can remove one seat. Need more room for you stuff? Remove both seats. Want to take along your favorite horse? We’ve got that covered as well.

The Escalade Hybrid with rear wheel drive has a payload capacity of 1369 pounds and can tow up to 5800 pounds. The four wheel drive version can handle a 1339 payload capacity and tow up to 5600 pounds.

That’s enough to haul your horses to your hacienda or to take the family to far away places.

Sparky's Favorite Place To Shop

One of the areas in my territory I cover is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It is a very eclectic area with dotted with everything from t-shirt shops to Vegas style dinner shows. If you are into water slide parks and miniature golf, then Myrtle Beach is your kind of place. If full size golf is more your style, you have your pick of 76 different courses.

But what is a tourist town without a few hundred souvenir shops. It can be so confusing to the casual visitor as to where exactly to go to get the best deal on a snow glob or fudge. That’s why our favorite place to shop of course is – Sparky’s!

Sparky’s is actually located in Marion, SC on US 501 about 45 miles outside of Myrtle Beach. The best part is you pass right by if you are coming off Interstate 95. You can get your shopping done before you blow your budget in Myrtle Beach or grab that last minute trinket before heading home.

So if you are looking for boots or beads, moccasins or magnets, shark’s teeth or sand castles – then Sparky's is for you. If you don’t want a car load of kids on a sugar high for that long trip home, don’t forget the sugar free/low carb fudge.

Just be careful as you walk around inside, the floors are not real even.

How Sweet It Is!

We often hear the term "The Sweet Spot” when it comes to sports. When Arod connects on the sweet spot of the bat can send a baseball over the Green Monster in Fenway Park. You can hear when Tiger hits the sweet spot of his driver, sending that little white orb down the middle of finely manicured fairway at Pebble Beach.

After driving Sparky now for 3 months, he too has a sweet spot when it comes to saving fuel. Most of my driving is on the highway and it looks like 65-67 miles per hour is the sweet spot for getting the most out of a gallon of gasoline. Creep up close to 70 and beyond and the fuel savings begin to drop. The picture above was taken with the cruise control set driving on a level stretch of road and is typical of what I see all the time. Who would have ever imagined you could get 25 MPG from a large luxury SUV that seats eight.

So want does that extra 5 mph mean? For a 165 mile trip from Charlotte to Raleigh, it’s an extra 20 minutes. To go from Charlotte to visit Daytona Beach will take less than a full tank of gas and will add less than extra hour to your trip.

What’s the rush? Enjoy the scenery.

Anybody Here Seen a Hybrid?

For decades the area from Charlotte, NC to Greenville, SC thrived with many mills spinning cotton into everything from towels to underwear. Because of competition from abroad these companies one by one closed and shifted production overseas, taking those jobs with them. As you travel down interstate 85 just outside Spartanburg, SC you can see a sprawling manufacturing facility owned by BMW. They are celebrating their 15th year in this facility, and it has brought needed jobs to the area hard hit when the clothing industry closed shop.

BMW manufactures the Z4 sports car as well as the X5 and X6 sport utility vehicles at this facility. I was visiting our Cadillac dealers in the area this week and thought I’d stop by to take a look at the BMW X5 Hybrid, after all BMW and other European manufacturers are known for building state of the art vehicles using the latest technology.

Guess what, BMW doesn’t offer a Hybrid!

The BMW X5 is offered with a 6 Cylinder, a V8 and a diesel. I went to the BMW website to collect some information about these vehicles. The X5 48i power plant is a 4.8L V8 that puts out 350 hp. They point out on the website the vehicles gets 19 mpg on the highway. To get the rest of the story, you have to go to the EPA website. According to the www.fueleconomy.com website and what BMW doesn’t tell you on their website is that the X5 requires premium fuel. The Escalade Hybrid requires regular unleaded.

The BMW X5’s combined fuel economy rating is only 16 while the Hybrid 2WD is 20 mpg. Scroll down to another post and you will see I achieved 21.9 mpg with mixed city/highway driving. A new feature of the fuelecononmy.gov website is they list the cost to drive 25 miles. For the X5 48i it will cost you $4.41. To take that same 25 mile trip in the Escalade Hybrid would cost you $3.32.


Sorry BMW, the best car wins - Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.