Car and Driver - USA (2019-10)

flapped” must give

one a sense of flight

and freedom [Long-

Te r m Te s t , J u l y 2 01 9].

It would also be fun

to own a vehicle with

“harsh” auto shifts for

the first 15,000 miles

and to appreciate the

nice lived-in look of

worn leather seats

after just one year.

—Russ Bellico

Feeding Hills, MA

Are the oil-change

intervals listed in

your long-term tests

dictated by the vehi-

cle’s oil-life-monitor-

ing system? If so, do

you change it at 10

percent or when the

vehicle says “change

oil soon”? And if the

vehicle doesn’t have

such a system, what is

your policy for deter-

mining the oil-change

interval?

—J e ff H e b e r t

Franklin, WI

We go by the guide-

lines in the owner’s

manual. When a car’s

services are deter-

mined by an oil-life

monitor, we change

its oil at as close to

1 percent of oil life

remaining as

possible. Sometimes

we do have to

advance the

schedule but never

before the 10

percent mark—Ed.

I found it very inter-

esting to see what Ms.

Larson read into Rich

Ceppos’s, Alexander

Stoklosa’s, and K.C.

Colwell’s handwriting

in the “In Logbook

Veritas” sidebar of

the long-term test.

But you left out what

I was most curious

about: How accurate

was she?

—Brad Snow

Bluffton, IN

Eerily accurate—Ed.

IN 5-D

It may surprise you to

receive a letter com-

plaining about some-

thing in Car and Driver,

but I have to express

my dissatisfaction

over a drawing in the

July edition. [Please

continue—Ed.] In your

article about the new

McLaren GT [“Pack

It Up, Pack It In”],

you included a three-

dimensional red-and-

blue rendering of the

vehicle at the bottom

of page 12. Although I

applaud your attempt

at trying something

different, it was a total

bust. When I donned

my 3-D glasses and

peered at the drawing,

it was no clearer and

certainly did not “pop”

off the page. I just

thought you might

want to know.

—Bill Craft

Fort Russell, IL

Next time try the

two-dimensional

glasses—Ed.

FINISH LINE

In his July column,

John Phillips made

his point about

NASCAR racing’s

decline rather ironi-

cally: After scorching

SI’s coverage of the

latest Daytona 500

for failing to mention

the winner’s name, he

does that very thing

himself.

—Mike Hanson

Sierra Vista, AZ

And so will I—Ed.

NASCAR’s contin-

ued use of cookie-

cutter cars seems

even more pathetic

now that some of

the current crop of

production Camaros

and Mustangs would

run almost wheel to

wheel with a typical

modern “stock” car. I

put “stock” in quotes

Explained:

Rocky Mountain Low

The July Car and Driver article “Should You Be Buying

Premium?” by Eric Tingwall was well done and offered great

information. At an elevation of 6000 feet in Colorado Springs,

gasoline comes in three flavors: 85 octane (regular), 87

octane (intermediate), and 91 octane (premium). Is there any

harm in using 85-octane gasoline at this elevation when the

manufacturer recommends 87?

—Al Ziegler, Colorado Springs, CO

A modern gas-powered vehicle should always run the

fuel that meets the manufacturer’s minimum

required octane, regardless of altitude. We haven’t

found a single manufacturer that condones the use

of any gasoline below 87 octane at higher altitudes in

its current products. Many explicitly warn against

the practice. Regular 85-octane gas is a relic best

suited to vehicles built between 1971 (when auto-

makers started engineering for unleaded gas) and

1984 (when fuel injection became common). Lower

atmospheric pressure at elevation reduces the

density of the air-fuel mixture and makes it less likely

to knock. Today’s engines—computer controlled,

fuel injected, and often turbocharged—compensate

for ambient conditions by adjusting fuel deliver y,

ignition timing, and boost pressure, when applicable.

Using 85-octane gas risks a situation where the

engine cannot retard timing enough to eliminate

sustained knocking, which can cause serious damage

LION’S SHARE
Had a great laugh
reading about Peu-
geot’s plan to return
to the U.S. [“Lion on
Our Streets,” July
2019]. There’s a
reason why the brand
fled in the ’90s with
its tail between its
legs. Reliability. It’s
the same reason why
Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and
Renault left. Peu-
geot’s offerings aren’t
any different. When
you can buy a Toyota
or a Hyundai and get
rock-solid reliability,
why waste the money
on a disappointment
from France?
—Mike Markovitch
Marina, CA

Group will use a

Columbo look-alike

to pitch Peugeots in

the U.S.

—Al Lampe

Washington, MO

Just one more

thing—Ed.

Thank you for the PSA

on Peugeot. I ain’t

lion; I would like to see

them here.

—Randy Zussman

Las Vegas, NV

DISCORDANT

I can see why the

Accord consistently

makes your 10Best

list. Driving at highway

speeds with a hood

that “fluttered and

Sic your dogs on us at: [email protected] or join: backfires.caranddriver.com 9