On Mon, 7 Feb 2011 04:50:59 -0800 (PST), Bob Villa
wrote:

Well Tim,

Hello ;-)

now I know what "estate" means (station wagon)

We used to have styles we called 'Countryman' I would more typically
associate with what would come to mind when you said 'station wagon.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...countryman.jpg
http://www.seriouswheels.com/1960-19...aveller-RA.htm
http://mmoc.org.uk/mbimage.php?src=1282950349_12800

As opposed to an estate which is more like this:

http://www.naturalburialgrounds.com/...ily_Estate.jpg
Or even this!
http://classic-car.y2u.co.uk/Photo_c...Estate_Car.jpg

but I'm probably thinking about The Waltons. ;-)


and the
"Sierra" and "Cierra" names belong to GM in the States.

Ah.

We have 2 cars...a Buick LaSabre (considered an old man's car) it's
large with excellent mileage (35mi/gal).

I have what sounds like the equivalent, a Rover 218SD. Nearer 50 UKmpg
though.

The other is a 16 yr old
Saturn (the beater).

K.

With the Buick, and its electronic readouts I realize how much gas we
waste "getting up to speed". If everyone "actually" knew how much gas
they were wasting "with a heavy foot" we would save an immense amount
of "petrol"!

;-)

Our company had a basic Ford Escort 1.1 (hatchback) that had 'economy'
lights. Basically they were just connected to sensors on the inlet
manifold and measured the vacuum. Green was good, amber you were
pushing a bit and red, well. If you were bothered it was actually
quite revealing (as you say) with even a slight headwind or incline
seeing the lights go from green to amber as you automatically
compensated with your right foot to keep the road speed constant (and
noting you couldn't do with a vacuum gauge of course). ;-)

And as they say 'you can manage what you can measure'.

Getting back on topic I guess that's partly why I got into electronics
at a fairly early age (17). For most people 'electricity' is invisible
but with the right tools (scopes, DMM, magnetic pickups, frequency
counters and spectrum analysers etc etc) it often becomes very visual.
Add to that Ohms law and an understanding of basic components and you
are away.

Not quite the same for digital I don't think. Plug in diagnostic
interface and click on 'Run'. ;-(

Cheers, T i m