Ideal Bite

When my dad taught me to drive, he drew out a full diagram of the engine to show me why pressing the accelerator made the car go. He also showed me how to change the oil, change a tire, check fluids, and of course test tire pressure (oh, and how to call AAA when I forgot how to change a tire). His thoroughness later helped me kick ass on a flight-school mechanical test, but at the time, the reason for teaching me all this maintenance stuff was so I could help my $800 Dodge Colt trot along until another summer's wages rolled in (alas, no Mercedes Benz for Christmas for this little pioneer girl...)

Anyway, it never occurred to me - or I was in snooze mode when he told me - that inflated tires also meant saving gas money (not to mention gas). But I did hear rumors (albeit from incredibly unreliable sources) that playing the radio and driving a dirty car lowered gas mileage. I always wondered, and at last I know, courtesy of my favorite NPR guys and yours, Tom and Ray Magliozzi of Car Talk, that those are just mileage myths. That is, unless, as Ray replied to one caller, "...you're cleaning off some enormous, mutant, three-dimensional bird dropping in the shape of airplane flaps."

-Jenifer Morgan... off to make like Icarus, minus the plunging-into-the-sea-to-my-death part...