With Ford Motor Co's Escape hybrid sport utility vehicle due out this summer, the automaker is training thousands of mechanics at dealerships around the country how to service them.
The fuel-efficient vehicle, which has both a traditional gas-powered motor and an electric motor, isn't vastly different from its standard Escape counterpart.
But while service stations can rotate the tires, fix the brakes and change the oil, owners need to visit the dealerships for anything that requires mechanics to analyze or fix problems under the hood. And in many cases, independent auto mechanics don't want to touch hybrid vehicles.
For now, it's not an issue for most owners because warranties protect the cars for many years. But some owners fear the end of the warranty because they won't have the option of taking their car to independent auto repair shops, which typically offer lower prices for repairs than the dealerships.
Dean Rudie of Minneapolis has more than 129,000km on his Toyota Prius and hasn't had any problems with his car other than a bad accelerator pedal assembly. But he is eyeing the end of his 160,000km battery warranty with some trepidation.
"I called the dealer and found out it will cost US$6,320 to replace the huge, 110 pound [49.5km] battery," Rudie said. "This has given me pause."
The dealership mechanics "are the only people I know that know anything about working on" the hybrids, said Henry Lister, a Chapel Hill, North Carolina, resident who owns a 2001 Toyota Prius.
"My mechanic said, `It looks like fun, but I'm not working on it.'"
Bill Oddo, a Toyota technician, said the main difference between working on a Prius and a standard sedan is working around the high-voltage cables. A regular car battery carries 12 volts. A Prius battery sends out more than 270 volts, enough to stop a heart.
There are various reasons why independent mechanics aren't venturing into the hybrid repair business. While instructions are available via the Internet or through written materials, training is being offered only to Ford, Toyota and Honda dealership technicians and fleet partners.
Even so, being trained to work on one car wouldn't necessarily translate to the others. Honda uses an entirely different hybrid system than Ford and Toyota. Moreover, the systems feature unique software running more than a dozen computers -- the heart of the hybrids' operation.
The limited number of hybrid owners also makes the investment in research and time to train not worthwhile, said Ray Romayo, part owner of Auto Laboratory in Troy, Michigan.
Despite rapid growth of hybrid owners and more than a dozen models in the works, the number of hybrid owners is a tiny fraction of the total car market. US registrations for hybrid vehicles rose to 43,435 last year, a 25.8 percent increase from 2002, according to figures from R.L. Polk & Co, the Michigan-based firm that collects and interprets automotive information. Overall, 16.7 million vehicles were sold last year.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique