Hybrid vehicle maintenance
Twinkle VanWinkle, producer, List-en Up!))



Phone Interview 11/07/2008 between
Twinkle VanWinkle: Podcast Producer, Angie’s List “List-en Up!”
and
Craig Van Batenburg operating the Automotive Career Development Center in Worcester, Massachusetts

Twinkle VanWinkle:
What are the most common service calls or problems you find with hybrid vehicles?

Craig Van Batenburg:
Depends on whether you are talking about collision shops or repair shops. On the collision side, after a car has been in an accident, the calls I get are from technicians that just aren’t that familiar with hybrid technology yet, and they can get electrocuted. So I help them disarm the car, so it is safe to work on without having to worry about high voltage.
On the repair end, the car typically comes in with a check engine light or not running properly. Then it’s very traditional type of problem call with any other shop but we are working on systems we have not seen before. With hybrids there is a lot more communication between the computer and systems than regular cars. If your computer isn’t happy then you won’t run at all or properly.

VanWinkle:
Are there any safety issues or concerns when servicing a hybrid vehicle?

Van Batenburg:
There are a lot of concerns usually due to a lack of education which breeds fear. So what ACDC does, which is our acronym, is a lot of safety related classes in the beginning. Technicians and even consumers can feel they are a little more comfortable with the technology. From there, of course, whoever needs the information, whether it be insurance companies or technicians or whomever, they can start to learn how it actually functions and operates to whatever it is they are supposed to do with it.

VanWinkle:
How often should you have your hybrid serviced?

Van Batenburg:
I tell everybody, treat it like any other car you have ever driven. So maybe you drive a Toyota Corolla and then maybe you got a raise and you get a Prius. If you brought your car in every 5,000 miles for an oil change, do the same thing. If you brought your car in every 30,000 miles for major servicing, do the same thing. There is really nothing on a hybrid car that requires any shorter [maintenance schedule] and I wouldn’t suggest any longer service intervals.
I’ve run a repair shop for 27 years and our customers have some [repairs] every 3,000-5,000 miles for service, which I call minor service that include an oil change, just like our new president-elect said, “Get a tire gauge.” If you are checking the tire pressure, or you are just making sure the air filter is clean, that is just the same on any car as it is a hybrid. Then finding a technician, you would consider your technician a doctor.

VanWinkle:
So what happens at a regularly scheduled hybrid servicing? What’s replaced or cleaned? Where should you take it?

Van Batenburg:
Let’s say you buy a Toyota Prius and at around 5’000 miles you change the oil and check your tire pressure and your air filter and make sure everything is fine. Then you go in at around 30,000 miles and it gets a little serious. You check all the fluid levels, making sure the brakes are still good.
By the way, the brakes on hybrid systems last about 300,000 miles because you have two braking systems on hybrids. One is a big electric motor that is water cooled and it never wears out then the exclusional brakes like on any other car that do very little work on a hybrid so they hardly wear out. So you have your brakes checked, your levels checked, your tires checked. You may have a wheel alignment checked depending on what kind of road you live on and, of course, the filters — oil filter, air filter and typical things, even a filter inside most all vehicles called a cabin air filter that is replaced by removing your glove box. This is on hybrids and non-hybrids. This filter cleans the air before it gets into your car. So if you are driving on dusty conditions or polluted conditions, you can put a little filter in that cleans the air you are breathing. Lots of people don’t even know that filter exists, but a professional would. So you want to find a professional shop, be faithful, be loyal, bring them coffee and doughnuts in the morning if they are really good — they always like that — and bring your car in for service like anything else.

VanWinkle:
Why and how did you get involved with hybrid vehicle repair?

Van Batenburg:
It starts probably back when I was a teenager working at a local motorcycle shop in 1968, and I started hearing about this little company in Japan called Honda and heard about this man named Soichiro Honda. Then I found out that he was our first environmentalist. He ran a company where he required, and he still does, that they are more concerned about the environment than they are about profit and they still are. So I am a huge Honda fan. I worked with Honda motorcycles, automobiles as a technician, started my own Honda independent repair shop and in 1999 I bought the first Honda Insight, the first hybrid car sold in Massachusetts, serial number 157. I still drive the car around. By the time the year 2000 rolled around I was already well on my way as a business owner, had my repair shop, had some resources. I loved the environment, I was teaching for the State of Massachusetts Emissions Program. And after I bought the Insight I fell head over heels in love with hybrid technology, I knew a lot of people would. I wrote an article for a magazine called Auto, Inc. and they made the cover with my Insight and me. There was an article I wrote in June of 2000 and all of a sudden I became the industry expert. I was no expert at the time obviously, I just knew a lot. I sold my repair shop five years ago and all I do is work on and deliver training around the country and internationally — I just returned from Europe, doing some classes in Holland and Germany. So it’s exciting business and it’s fun and if you can [educate] everybody on the road, then our little planet has a much better chance of surviving.

VanWinkle:
Are there any disadvantages owning a hybrid?

Van Batenburg:
Absolutely. Your Republican friends won’t like you — no, just kidding. The disadvantages of owning a hybrid aren’t many, but I like to look at both sides. They are a little bit more money up front. But the good news is that when you trade them in, their resale tends to be a little higher than a conventional car because they are more in demand. You cannot get deals on hybrids, typically if you pay retail.

VanWinkle:
Is there anything you would like to add that you think is important to our listeners?

Van Batenburg:
I think there is one thing that is very important to know about hybrids. People are afraid to buy a hybrid because they have heard that the battery packs won’t last and they cost like $10,000 to buy. I think that it is important for consumers to know that the battery packs have a warranty of 100,000 miles and, secondly, the oldest battery pack we have is the 1999 Toyota Prius and it’s still in the car. The battery packs are even better than the manufacturers thought they would be; so don’t worry about the battery. It will last as long as the car will.

Phone Interview 11/07/2008 between
Twinkle VanWinkle: Podcast Producer, Angie’s List “List-enUp!”
and
Todd Weedman – Owner of Todd’s Import Auto – Lake Oswego, Ore.
Twinkle VanWinkle:
What are the most common service calls or problems you find with hybrid vehicles?

Todd Weedman:
Well the hybrids themselves don’t [have] a whole lot of problems. We see some lack of instruction with new owners who really don’t know how to operate the vehicles, which is kind of interesting teaching them how to operate the vehicles. A lot of shops don’t know the special protocols to place the vehicle in the service mode, just so they can work on it. We are seeing a lack of service on the secondary cooling systems in the vehicles, models such at the Ford and Toyota vehicles that have an another cooling system in them that is specific for some of the hybrid components. Likewise, transmissions seem to need fluid servicing more than other vehicles, and brake calipers need to be looked at because they don’t get a lot of operation. Not anything terrible but things that need to be checked periodically.

VanWinkle:
Are there any safety issues or concerns when servicing a hybrid vehicle?

Weedman:
You have to understand what you are working with, and as far the manufacturing is concerned, they built a lot of safety into these vehicles. Obviously, they don’t want to see anybody get injured. But when you put the vehicle into service mode, that’s the critical thing to avoid injury. When you put the thing in service mode, you have shut down the high voltage system, isolate that and you can go ahead and work with the vehicle.

VanWinkle:
How often should you have your hybrid serviced?

Weedman:
Still, oil changes that need to be done. Most of the vehicle doesn’t require any special considerations. Just a few things we check on those vehicles that we don’t check on other cars, or at least with less frequency or less specific focus. But oil changes we press those out to about 5,000 miles and feel quite comfortable with that. As they start using the hybrid system – the electric portion of the drive system –more frequently, we may push out the oil change intervals more frequently, but that is more to be seen in the near future.

The other servicing protocols are pretty standard because all cars have some servicing that needs to be done about every 15,000 miles and those will vary slightly depending on the manufacturer.

VanWinkle:
So what happens at a regularly scheduled hybrid servicing? What’s replaced or cleaned?

Weedman:
The hybrid system itself does not require so much service, but it can influence how much service is required by the non-hybrid components, such as the brakes. We are seeing that the brake systems are being used quite as much, consequently, some of those components get sticky, maybe get some corrosion, especially vehicles in the Midwest or East Coast in a salty environment, where they don’t get exercised as we say. We go in there and clean and lubricate them so they do work properly all the time. That is the No.1 reason we see hybrids lose mileage – the brakes aren’t getting used enough and they’re making the vehicle drag. But if they are leaned periodically, then everything is great.

VanWinkle:
Why and how did you get involved with hybrid vehicle repair?

Weedman:
We are a Honda and Toyota specialty shop, so really we had no choice in the matter. We have always welcomed the new technologies that these forward-thinking companies have developed the new hybrid system. We’ve been working with these for 10 years now, and found these systems are pretty trouble-free. There were a couple of quirks in the first couple of years, but other than that, really rock-solid.

I was actually on the verge of buying one, and then energy-crisis came along and the cars were carrying a premium price tag, like I knew they would, and that has now subsided. But I am likely to get a Prius. I found that the Prius has really become the icon, and a lot of little nuances that I want to work out. I like those cars. I have had the opportunity to drive those cars for an extended period of time, and they are very roomy and very practical.
Very nice.

VanWinkle:
What are the advantages of owning a hybrid?

Weedman:
As far as advantages, mileage is one factor, and fewer green house emissions is another. There is also the low operation cost. People find that when you own a hybrid that things you don’t tend to think about don’t tend to be an issue. One of the great examples I use is about the brakes — you will see brakes last 60,000 to 70,000 miles. We had someone here at 100,00 miles putting on their first set of brakes. The hybrid system does not necessitate the application of brakes as much as a normal vehicle, therefore they have very little wear. That’s very good.

Vanwinkle:
How much of your business deals with hybrid vehicle servicing?

Weedman:
At this point less than 5 percent of our business deals with hybrid repair, seeing as how there aren’t very many of them out there. I think we are seeing more than the average shop, albeit that is a small number, but it is steadily increasing. One thing we didn’t touch on, to make sure we mention, a lot of people have concerns about is the batteries. The batteries have been found to last the lifetime of the vehicle. So actually a recent report on these from the taxi cabs that have been using the hybrids found that they have been getting 250,000 to 300,000 miles on these taxis and that’s just to date. They still have had very few battery issues and they can pinpoint those issues to human error. They are found to be very trouble free.

I encourage everyone to seriously consider hybrid vehicles or other alternative fuel source vehicles because we do need to diversify what energy sources we are using to get ourselves around town. I say be proactive z –– it’s always better when you have a say in what your future is. Be proactive and you can have more of a say in what you are going to be driving in the next 10 years.

Also, some people are interested in shops that are certified, there are shops that are certified, and there are places that offer certified mechanics.

Homestead history 2008
Twinkle VanWinkle, producer, List-en Up!))

Twinkle VanWinkle: Please state your name and where you live for the record.

Carol Vaughn:
My name is Carol Vaughn. I am originally from Biloxi, MS. When I found this home in Long Beach, I relocated here, which is about 16 miles from where I was raised.

TVW:
Tell me about the structure. You said you couldn’t drive a nail through it. Is it petrified?

CV:
It seems to be. The good part about that is that it’s very sturdy as we found out during Katrina. In several subsequent storms before that we stayed. What is the negative about it is that it’s like kindling, that if you put a match to it would go up quick because it is so old. From what I understand, the minister that built the home cut the wood and planed it himself. And it looks hand-planed. It’s a new house.

TVW:
Did you feel safe?

CV:
Yes we felt very safe. I had my 73 year-old mother here with us. We thought, “We’ll be safe here, it wont be that bad.” We could hear the wind, but the house wasn’t swaying. We didn’t think it was that serious until we saw water rising outside front. To the south is the Gulf, and then to the north, is a creek, Bear Creek that runs through Long Beach. I really believe that it was overflowing. It was a combination of that and white caps coming up the side street.

My husband wouldn’t let me see this. He boarded up the house like a little saltbox.  He only had the door with an opening he could see out of. He told my older son, “Don’t let your mother see this.” So my mother and I were actually having a Bloody Mary. I think he did that on purpose. And just said, “HERE have a Bloody Mary.” And we were drinking a Bloody Mary, saying things like, “It’s not going to be that bad… it’s just a bad wind,” until we heard a lot of noise on the front porch. Our front porch faces north. We were like, “What was that?” And it was our neighbors who had just swam over from their home. Not funny at all. They had their twins that were probably 8 years old, 9 years old at the time and swam over to our house because theirs was totally under water. So they found refuge here and were sopping wet and freezing, scared and hysterical. Then we realized it was a lot more serious. We really didn’t realize how bad it was until it subsided, about 4 o’clock that afternoon and we were able to go outside. The gentleman who bought this house and redid it, Frank Ginzer was the architect, and they bought this house and redid as an investment. The man’s name was Carl Pagent that redid this house. A very talented man that redid a lot of homes on the coast. He also owned Dogwood Nursery, and he had the intelligence to put bamboo along the fence line of the south side of the house, which was very small when I bought it in the 80s, but now it’s like 30-40 foot high, and very dense. We don’t even need a fence back there it is so dense. We believe that is what broke the waves and saved us. I don’t think the water could really get through much at all because of that. We were very lucky, because we lost 12 big oak trees, and they all fell away from the house, so we were very lucky there.

TVW:
How many storms have you been through?

CV:
Only one we evacuated for, and that was the mildest one of all. So we thought, “Well we aren’t going to evacuate anymore, we’re just going to stay here in our safe little house.” I would say four or five. You know we average two or three a year. Sometimes we go longer stretches without one, but you know, it’s becoming more and more frequent.

TVW:
You say your house has good vibes?
Why?

CV:
I don’t know, I just think it has, for several reasons. It has style. I lived in my first marriage a more conventional ranch style home that we remodeled and tried to give it character. When I divorced and was searching for a new home, trying to raise my boys in, and I was going to take a big hit financially and I knew I couldn’t afford the spread we had before, as many acres. I was looking for something more my personality, because I had started to grow up and become my own person. I was really young when I married the first time. I wanted to have a house that had more of my personality in it. My realtor,  Sherri Owens, she is huge now. She was just a realtor then. She owns a huge brokerage now. She was barely speaking to me, because I had looked at 47 houses before I bought this one. I was like the realtor’s nightmare. I kept looking on 2nd street in Gulfport, which is a quaint little street. I just could not find what I wanted. And finally when she was just about to give up on me, she called me one morning at my business and said, “Can you meet me this afternoon and meet me in Long Beach?” I was like..”Long Beach??”… She was like, “Well they have excellent schools. I just want you to see this house. It just came available.”
They had just finished the house, and a friend of theirs was living in it until they got it sold. They didn’t want to leave it abandoned. And I walked in the front door…I was just in the front door when I said I’d take it. I just fell in love with it. Of course then it was the 80s. It had khaki walls and navy wool carpet over all the wood floors, and a freestanding fireplace. I don’t know how the pictures came out from the photographer for the article, but I hope he took some of those. But there is a freestanding double fireplace in the center of the room of course was not here when it was a church that the guy that redid it put in. It was just a neat house, lots of windows, lots of glass, and the original doors where you came into the sanctuary. He just built rooms on the exterior of those to preserve them. Those with the lights above it and the wood and the “Y” and the beveled glass and the old wavy glass are still there. It just has character. And then he took it further and put glass all the way across the back of the house that overlooks the backyard. When you wash dishes you don’t even mind washing dishes you have such a nice view. Then he put in a spiral staircase that went upstairs to the loft and made a loft bedroom with a bath and full closet very roomy up there with skylights. It has that uniqueness of being old but it also has been updated. It just has style. Lots of style. It feels good. It’s not a big house, and as I get older I don’t need a big house. I came from a much larger house, and at times when I serve 40 people dinner I think, “Oh my gosh I need a bigger house,” because we have a big family, but I wouldn’t change anything. Even with the devastation around us and our town completely gone. We’ll stay put, I have entertained the idea of leaving. I can’t leave this house. My kids love this house. Their friends love this house. They all love to come here. I think it’s just open and warm and cozy and has style. You feel good when you wake up in the morning and walk out of your bedroom.

TVW:
Do you know the history of the house?

CV:
I understood it dates back to 1879. I have a little plaque on the outside that states that, the historical society had put. You know you could contact the Long Beach Historical Society.

The gentleman that built, the minister actually built the house well a church then. He built it down the street, on the opposite end of the street, the opposite end, opposite side, where the new sanctuary is now. That is basically what I know. At some point they wanted a new sanctuary, which is the old sanctuary now that is still attached to the new building now. They moved the church to this end of the street and made it in to a residence.

Not long after the storm we had to leave. We were under the impression that we would not be coming back to our home, and I was really upset. We had to move out to our family home, in Biloxi. The rumor was they were going to destroy everything south of the tracks, south of the railroad tracks. It runs about a half of a mile off the beach. This is what we were told. We stayed here until five days after the storm. Of course there was no infrastructure. Everything was destroyed. The sewage was coming up, I was worried about my younger children getting Infantigo or something terrible. And we were functioning, and we were feeding the neighbors. We have a lot of food. We have an outdoor freezer too out in the shop and we were feeding all the neighbors and we had two grills going in the evenings and everybody was coming here to eat. But we realized we had to leave because it was becoming unsanitary. And we were running out of supplies. It was pretty scary. It was as close I imagine a to a war zone, because we were just living off of what we had. Everything was like a bomb had gone off. It was devastating. It was hot at Hades. At one point I was bathing my mother on the deck with the hot tub water. That was a real low point. I was giving her a full bath. We had no water for bathing or anything. We just used the hot tub water, and we had it filled up. And we had plenty of supplies; we’d been through it before, but not for long. It was getting rough. Jus the smell of death. You could smell dead things. And the helicopters going over. I always thought I would live in a gated community and feel safe. But not one with men with whatever those guns are. They had put barbed wire all the way down the railroad track. And you couldn’t get in and out unless you had your ID and you had to go to the City Hall and get a special badge. And you couldn’t get through to this side of the road unless you had them. Those men, the National Guard was all along there and you could not get through. They just put rolls of barbed wire. It was just like war I assume.  But they told us there would be nothing left. They put a big x on my house with red paint and told us that it would not be safe. They never asked us structurally how it was, they just put a big X and a zero that meant there were no bodies found inside. Just put the big X and left it. That meant destroy. Though we had very little damage. I was so upset; our lives just became so uncertain, our jobs. I owned a spa in Gulfport. I owned Escape For a Day in an old building. It had been through all these hurricanes over by Courthouse Road in Gulfport. Not as old as this building in any sense. It was an old Victorian. We made our way down there. I have found two pieces of slate from the roof and that is it.
So we had no jobs. My husband is a contractor and that looked good, but not for a long time. It was a just a terrible time, yet we felt fortunate. I still had my possessions. I didn’t know where I was going to take my possessions at the time. This house gave us hope. We got to come back in November. We went down and talked to them several times. We said, “Send inspectors, whatever you have to do, but the house is in good shape.” They just couldn’t believe it. But they did. They came and inspected it and we were able to move back in. They had sewage above the ground. There were pipes going above the ground. So we ended up starting to make small repairs to the house. We did have some roof damage, minimal things compared to everyone else. We got back in here by Thanksgiving. It hit August 29, and we were back in by Thanksgiving. Our yard was just destroyed. We built the pergola, there used to be shade, little chandeliers hanging from the oak trees over the tables. We spent a lot of time outside. Then there was just the glaring sun. We just started making our own little oasis here. We just started making where we could just live here and be happy. We just pretended like all that destruction around us was not happening. We got our son back in school here. We just tried to get back to some normality. Our other son was in college. He took a semester off to help us get back on our feet.

TVW:
How are you surviving now with employment?

CV:
I went in with a dermatologist and started her aesthetic department for her. But my husband became busy during that time and had 32 employees. He was giving all his bookwork to the accountant. He was paying a fortune for that. I was like, ”Wait a minute. We can’t continue like this, we will have nothing.” I just had to really give up my career for a while and take care of the business end and get it situated. I have just about got it where I need it to be so I can go do what I want to do, whatever that may be. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.  I don’t think I will rebuild (the spa) because insurance costs are so high.

TVW:
How did you hear about Angie’s List?

CV:
I have the guy coming here today from Angie’s List to fix my toilet.
Maybe the last 7 or 8 months (when she joined). I think I came across it at South Mississippi Procurement Center, so we could start doing more commercial work. I went to classes for it, and I think that’s where I heard about Angie’s List and I looked online and joined.
Then I saw the article, what do you love about your house and I wrote my little thing and she called me. Here I am.

TVW:
Is there anything you would like to add?

CV:
I was a great house before the hurricane. It just gave us a more secure feeling afterwards after going through that.

I guess the thing to look forward to is our downtown. It was in the paper this morning, that it will start the rebuilding. I am really excited about the future. To have a little jewel like this so close to a downtown area is going to be just wonderful. I could put a business here. We have a big lot. I don’t know where the future is going to take me, but I really believe this house will be a part of this future. I think my whole family thinks that way. Just to have a little house, its only 1900 sq feet. I know it’s just a house, but it gives us that, it’s as much as a home as I have ever lived in.