Dear Tom and Ray:
Please settle a long-running debate between me and my husband. I say it will stress and hurt the engine of our car to "floor" the accelerator every day. He says it's OK and may even benefit the engine by "clearing the pipes." Who's right? Our car is a 1986 Honda Civic hatchback, with little power for hills, passing, etc. My husband wants something more powerful, but we can't afford it just yet. What do you think? - LauraTOM: I think it's interesting how people give their cars human characteristics. Your husband says he's "clearing the pipes," as if the car has some peanut butter stuck in its throat.
RAY: But cars don't have "throats" and don't work that way. While driving the car at highway speed once in a while does help keep carbon from building up inside the engine, flooring the gas pedal every day doesn't help it at all.
TOM: Flooring it is equivalent to kicking the TV set to improve the reception. It may make you feel better, but you're not fixing anything. In fact, all you're doing is shortening the life of the car.
RAY: And I think that's what your husband is trying to do. He wants a more powerful car right now, so he's trying to croak his Civic. In fact, one of our operatives spotted him down at the Chevy dealer last Saturday drooling over a red Camaro with a V-8 engine.
TOM: I think my brother's right. Your husband hates this car, and he's taking out his anger by slamming the gas pedal to the floor.
RAY: If he's really bent on destroying the Civic, tell him not to waste his time flooring it while the engine is warm. Tell him, for his purposes, it's much more efficient to rev the heck out of it when the engine is cold. That'll have him signing papers for the Camaro by next weekend.
Dear Tom and Ray:
I have an '84 Cadillac Seville which has been anything but reliable. Now I've heard that there's a brand-new Cadillac Seville, and that it's much improved. The problem is, I've heard that line before, and I don't want to get stuck with another lemon. Please tell me, is the new Seville really any better than the old one? - Murray
TOM: Gee, Murray, we'd love to be able to tell you that the new Cadillac Seville STS is head and shoulders above the old one. Unfortunately, we've only seen one of them, and that one was driving by at 30 mph.
RAY: Some guy named Fred, who represents Cadillac, tells us there are only three Sevilles available for testing in this entire region of the country, and that one was crashed into a brick wall, and the other two are somewhere else - like in orbit around Pluto.
TOM: So unfortunately, as much as we'd love to have another American car to recommend, we can't recommend this one. It's been out for six months already, and if Cadillac really thought it was that good, I'm sure they'd be much more anxious to get it out to us and show it off.
RAY: If you're ready to buy a car now, Murray, there are several luxury cars in the class you're interested in that we have driven, and do highly recommend. They are the Lincoln Continental, the Buick Park Avenue Ultra, the Infiniti Q-45, the Lexus LS 400 and the Mazda 929. I'm sure one of those will fill the bill.
The Magliozzi brothers' radio show "Car Talk" can be heard each Saturday at 10 a.m. on KUER FM 90.1 If you have a question about cars, write to Click and Clack Talk Cars c/o King Features Syndicate, 235 E. 45th St., New York, NY 10017.