Also known as Fall Equinox, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon and a host of other names, Mabon is celebrated in our Northern Hemisphere on September 22nd, while the Southern Hemisphere is enjoying Spring Equinox.
Mabon (MAY-bone), named for the Welsh God, is a Harvest Festival (second Harvest, if you are keeping close track) and celebrates the Aging Deities as they turn once more into the Earth to be reborn again on Winter Solstice. For this reason, the Wine Gods and Gods of Harvest are celebrated for the bounty they have brought to their people.  Colors of celebration are Brown, Orange, Russet and Maroon.

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Car sharing began in Europe in 1987 and has been starting up in larger American cities over the past eight years. FunRide is a new car sharing service in San Luis Obispo, featuring exclusively hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles to rent by the hour. The service allows businesses, individuals and visitors to save money by driving without the high cost of owning a vehicle. Funride has three vehicles available to drive now and two more vehicles will arrive in the next two weeks. FunRide’s alternative fuel vehicles will use natural gas, biodiesel, electricity, and ethanol. This green car sharing service will allow FunRide members an opportunity to try all the new alternative fuel vehicles.

Anyone can join FunRide and have easy access to its’ fleet of green cars and trucks twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. To join FunRide, go to their website: www.myfunride.com and click on the “Join Now” button. Individuals can join for $30 a year with a one-time processing fee of $25. Driving records are checked and upon approval members receive a FunRide “fob” that goes on their key chain. The fob allows easy access to all the FunRide vehicles by swiping it over a sensor on the front windshield of each vehicle. The fob opens the door and activates the ignition. The key to the vehicle is located in the glove box.

Funride members receive a login name and password that allows access to the scheduling program at the website. Simply select the date and times you want to use a FunRide vehicle and the software will show the vehicles that are available for the request and the approximate cost for the time used. The two rates are $6/hour and 40 cents/mile or $5/hour and 30 cents/mile, depending on the plan selected. The rate includes fuel; FunRide provides insurance at no additional cost if you do not have your own insurance. Click “Reserve” and print out the confirmation.

FunRide is designed for the transportation needs for many groups. For businesses and governmental agencies, FunRide provides vehicles to reduce their fleet costs. Commuters are using FunRide to run errands or go out to lunch. Visitors can use the service to rent vehicles for just the hours they need to visit sites in our county. Individuals are giving up their cars and using FunRide for the times they need a vehicle. The truck is popular for moving days or picking up larger items from the store.

Each FunRide vehicle has a designated location or “pod” and the locations are scattered throughout the community. Plans to expand the service to all communities in San Luis Obispo County are underway. Visit the website at www.myfunride.com and support this new company by joining FunRide.  For more information, give call 547-2225.

The combined influences of high fuel prices and tighter emission standards are forcing automobile manufacturers to new technological heights, with several of them vying for builder of the most fuel efficient car or truck sold in America. The new Audi A4 Dle sedan tops the Toyota Prius in Europe with a combined city/highway driving economy of 51 MPG but it may not be available stateside for some time.

The Audi uses stop/start technology, which is now ubiquitous among fuel sippers and even larger hybrid guzzlers. The engine management computer shuts off the engine at stops and immediately restarts it (if the battery is in the ‘charge’ mode) when the gas is pushed. I have only driven the Prius and Honda Civics with this feature but it is almost spooky to be sitting at a light in complete silence, only to have the engine fire up on its’ own as you pull away. The A4 also uses regenerative braking to charge the cars battery. This feature has been exclusive to hybrids in the past, but apparently the engineers thought that the small fuel economy gain derived from using the car’s weight as you brake to charge the battery was worth the additional cost.

Here in the States a close cousin of the Audi, the new Volkswagen Jetta TDI direct injection turbo diesel, is EPA rated at 29MPG city and 40 MPG highway. Unlike most cars, which usually get worse fuel economy than the ratings in real world driving, owner reports suggest that real world economy will be more like 44MPG average with up to 54 MPG on the highway. The Prius still beats up the Volkswagen around town, but on the highway they are neck and neck. We have one Prius customer at Morin Brothers that regularly commutes to San Diego and back; he reports that his typical trip average is up to 55MPG. Pretty phenomenal considering he is driving on the freeways in Los Angeles!

Fuel economy is only one of the considerations when looking at buying a car. Another, of course, is style. Do you like the way the car looks and drives? Yet, another consideration is the difference in cost between regular unleaded gasoline and diesel. The diesel is always more expensive and often not as available. And then there is power. The Jetta not only accelerates like a car with a small V8, but it handles like a sports car, neither of which can be said of the Prius.

Other manufacturers are hard at work trying to increase fuel economy and decrease carbon dioxide emissions. Volvo has a diesel/electric hybrid in the works that can be charged overnight from conventional household current, allowing the car to travel up to 31 miles on its lithium-ion battery pack alone. This technology in a midsize car will allow Volvo to leapfrog over its competitors in a single bound, with dramatic improvements in fuel economy and reductions in carbon emissions. Fiat/Chrysler (well, actually, Fiat) is working on a “Multi Air Valve Control” gasoline engine that can open and close intake and exhaust valves with precise control. Current valve control technology can advance and retard cam timing; even, in the case of Honda’s Vtech, increase valve lift, but none can vary the valve timing and lift to suit the conflicting demands of economy, power, and low emissions simultaneously. Fiat claims that this technology, since it is confined to the cylinder head and computer software, is readily adaptable to a variety of engine and drive train configurations, so it may appear on some of the smaller Chryslers in the not-too-distant future.

For more information:
Prius vs. VW Jetta: http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4284188.html 
Fuel economy comparisons: www.fueleconomy.gov/
Google “Volvo diesel/electric” or “Fiat multi air valve control” for more info.