Talking cars are long gone and that's a good thing. Who needs the nagging?
But some cars are capable of teaching without saying a word. A case in point: The Mercedes-Benz B200 my wife and I bought eight months ago has changed my thinking, altered my style of driving and reduced the family gasoline bills.
Back in the 1980s, owners of Chrysler vehicles routinely turned a deaf ear to the likes of "A door is a ajar" (enunciated by an authoritative male voice within the dash as "A door is a jar"), familiarity having led to contempt.
I know from my test drives in that era, whenever a Chrysler New Yorker or whatever thanked me for fastening my seat belt, not once did I say thank you.
The B20 displays the car’s rate of fuel consumption for that specific day, since the initial startup. (DAN PROUDFOOT FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
The B200, on the other hand, catches your attention every time you drive with a display visible through the steering wheel indicating the car's rate of fuel consumption for that specific day, since the initial startup. The consequences of how you're driving are displayed in bright, red digital numerals.
Now, the computers in many, many other cars provide instantaneous fuel consumption readouts, or averages since the driver last set the trip function, but the B200's automatic daily tally is what grabs my attention and has changed my outlook forever.
The ever-changing number reflects stop-and-go traffic, stoplights, rates of acceleration and so on, but very soon you come to realize the driver's responses to these factors is of paramount significance.
Come for a commute downtown from Kingston Road and Warden. See what I mean.
At startup, the display shows zero kilometres travelled, no duration of time and 7.0 litres/100 km as a starting point. (This fresh start is triggered whenever the B200 hasn't run for some four hours, effectively providing a new record each day; we tend to make outings five or six times daily so the scorecard continues mounting.) Drive aggressively, as I used to from my early years in Volkswagen Beetles, reacting to every red light's switch to green as though the starter's flag had fallen, and within a very short time the consumption is 11 L/100 km. With several lights one after another, 12 L/100 km.
But I don't drive like that any more. Maturity blunts the urge for pointless competition. More than that, the readout remains below 10 L/100 km if I drive with a light right foot — and that's the goal every day.
It's our choice, paying $45 or $35.60 for each week's gasoline, based on Mercedes-Benz specifying premium fuel, selling at $1.25 as this was written, and our averaging 300 km weekly. The $45 corresponds to 12 L/100 km, the $35.60 to 9.5 L/100 km.
Unnecessary haste isn't limited to stoplights. Behaviour in between contributes as well. Steady, rather than startling, acceleration naturally becomes the modus operandi in a B200 because it is not a powerful car.
Be that as it may, its 134 horsepower is complemented by 136 lb-ft of torque with pulling power sufficient for effortless, quiet progress that leaves many vehicles in its wake on the way downtown. (Not that I'm being competitive, oh no, it's simply worth noting that fuel-efficient driving doesn't necessarily mean being passed by everything on the road.) Those vehicles that do speed past or rocket away from lights often are pickup trucks, delivery vans or premium SUVs. Why, I find myself wondering, is this the case?
These are gas-guzzlers even when driven intelligently. Have their owners internalized the notion that their monthly credit card payment is going to be huge anyhow, so why try for 20 L/100 km when 25 L/100 km is a ton of tire-burning fun? Or are they thinking time is money, no matter how high the price a litre?
Speeding toward a red light is particularly wasteful. It uses more fuel and saves no time. On the other hand, the B200's readout often drops a tenth or more while slowing well ahead of a red light. And if the light goes green before the car has come to a complete stop, so much the better. Maintaining momentum is a key to minimizing consumption.
Stop-and-go traffic increases thirst in any vehicle, proportionate to its size. We're consuming fuel at the average rate of 7.3 L/100 km in our commute as we take the York exit from the Gardiner Expressway. By Queen's Park — a mere four kilometres but 11 stoplights later — soaring consumption has increased the average for the total drive to that point to 8.3 L/100 km as we repeatedly stop, then accelerate. This at 1 p.m.; consumption would be higher in rush hour.
After stopping at Queen's Park to make a quick complaint to our member of provincial parliament — let's imagine — we return south on University, east on Adelaide and down Jarvis to St. Lawrence Market. This additional traffic jockeying results in an overall rate of 9.6 L/100 km as we're getting back on the Gardiner, but the easy driving over the final 12 km home drops the average for the day to 8.9 L/100 km.
The family goal is less than 10 L/100 km every day. As regular readers of my Eco Driver column know, only vehicles with EnerGuide city ratings of 10 L/100 km or less are featured; the decision to purchase this vehicle followed a road test in April, 2007.
As for overall consumption, another page of the digital display indicates consumption since the car was purchased. That readout is 9.6 L/100 km over eight months and 8,000 km — satisfying, but not as instructive as the daily report.
The outstanding solidity of the B200's structure is high among factors contributing to satisfaction to date. The purchase price was $34,640, but this car feels as sound as a Benz that sells for three times as much. The comfort and support of the seats, the outstanding vision and bright interior and the useful cargo space are other personal pluses.
What don't we like? The huge turning circle means the B200 is not adept at U-turns or angling into parking spots. Its handling is somewhat less than athletic due to a high centre of gravity. A diesel motor would improve both throttle response and fuel efficiency, but is not available in Canada.
Its silent coaching remains the one feature that most surprises and delights me, to use the term favoured by auto sales types. Developing communication of many kinds is a coming thing — between vehicles, or drivers and other vehicles, or even drivers, vehicles and roads — under development by the likes of Honda, BMW and IBM and will play a role in accident prevention.
Fiat and Microsoft last fall introduced technology that utilizes accumulated data from a car plugged into a computer loaded with their EcoDrive program to produce tips for that vehicle's drivers for improving its fuel efficiency.
As for a voice from deep within the dash announcing, "You're driving like an idiot, again," or even "Please attempt to proceed with a smooth application of the throttle," no, thank you very much.
