America is undoubtedly a car culture. But, even with cars an everyday part of our lives, many of us are blissfully ignorant about how they work. This is okay most of the time, because we can entrust experts to help us fix our cars when we need an auto repair at our local auto shop, but it is always interesting to learn a bit more about a part of your life that you don’t understand, so we decided to come up with a few factoids about cars that you probably weren’t aware of. There are a number of interesting things about how your car works, and what it does that we are pretty sure you may not know. So, without further ado here are 5 interesting car facts that (we’re pretty sure) you don’t know.
Cars are everywhere, but many people know shockingly little about them.
- Your 200 horsepower car doesn’t actually have the power of 200 horses, it’s more like the power of 285 horses, since the average horse only actually can pull about as much as 70% of the measure of one horsepower unit. But, don’t go around telling people that your little sedan has 250 (real) horsepower now because you’ll just confuse everyone.
- Your car has a computer, and not only can technicians at your local auto shop hook into it to diagnose issues, but if you have a newer car, it can probably connect wirelessly to download updates and contact the manufacturer or dealership in the case of an issue.
- Airbags can be very deadly. That’s why there are usually safety mechanisms that are built into a car to detect if a small child is riding in the front seat and deactivate the airbag. If these systems weren’t in place there would be far more automobile fatalities in the country than there are now (and many would undoubtedly and tragically be children). In fact, airbags, even with all the safety technology, still kill 1 person for every 22 that they save (not a bad ratio, however).
- Gasoline in America is really really cheap. Seriously. We’re not kidding. Yeah, we know that complaining about the cost of gas is as fashionable and banal as remarking on the weather. But, most of that complaining is really not justified. In most other parts of the world, gas prices are significantly higher (twice as much per gallon or more). Plus, you pay way more for other staples like coffee. A gallon of Starbucks coffee would run you almost ten times what a gallon of gas costs. If you wanna trade a gallon of gas for a gallon of good coffee, head on down to your local auto shop. We’re certain they’ll take that deal in a heartbeat.
- Automobiles are a serious hazard to animals in America today. They also pose hazards to cars and drivers, causing accidents that require expensive auto repair and injuries (to both parties). That’s why you see (or more likely never even notice) those deer crossing signs all over the countryside. In fact, car drivers kill more deer every year than hunters do, by quite a lot. So, next time somebody complains about you hunting, ask them if they have driven a car lately…