Test drive a gasoline car

From a translator: I came across an interesting fictional story of a man from the future who only drove electric cars and decided to buy an inexpensive gasoline car. For simplicity, I decided to write “gasoline cars” everywhere, although, of course, it implies a car powered by liquid fuel.

Having heard a lot of good reviews about gasoline cars, we decided to take one of these for a test drive. They say that they combine a low price, high autonomy and fast charging. On paper, everything is just great - but let's see how it looks in reality.

We get in the car at the sales office. By the way, a gasoline car cannot be bought directly by the automaker; it is imperative to contact dealers at a repair shop, the so-called official dealers. For me it’s a bad sign to buy a car in a repair shop, which, in theory, you want to visit as little as possible. But as I said, you cannot buy a car directly from the manufacturer. By the way, the seller was very persistent and literally "forced" us to buy a car.

So, we got into the car, press the "Start" button. The engine starts to run. In the passenger compartment, the engine rumbles and the car body vibrates significantly, as if something is malfunctioning, but the seller assures us that everything should be so. Funnily, the car has both an electric motor and a battery, but they are used only to start the internal combustion engine - not for movement. ICE uses gasoline, fossil fuels, to propel a car, exploding inside its droplets. It is clear that these microexplosions are heard and felt while the engine is running.

ICE literally consists of hundreds of moving parts that have manufacturing accuracy in thousandths of a millimeter. We are starting to guess why the sales offices are located in repair shops - they hope that something breaks down to fix it.

So, I turn on the gear and start the movement with a jerk. The jerk does not come from sharp acceleration, it just seems that gasoline cars cannot drive as smoothly as electric ones. And I did not feel acceleration at all, simply because I could not accelerate the car above 40 km / h! Then the car began to howl and twitch. Assuming something is broken, I stopped the car. Later, the seller explained that while driving, you must constantly “shift gears”. The drive from the engine to the wheels is not straight - there is a gearbox between them. ICE can only work effectively in a narrow speed range, so you need to shift gears to continue to accelerate. The gearbox has 5 different positions that need to be changed as the car accelerates. As we already understood, it’s very important to change gears on time, otherwise the engine may stall or be seriously damaged. In order to learn how to do it right, you need a lot of time, although there are models with automatic transmission. In a car with a manual gearbox, you must constantly monitor the transmission so as not to damage the engine. Very annoying.

We asked if it was possible to turn off the sound of the engine, which constantly interfered with listening to music. No we can not. Very annoying.

After we managed to disperse the car, having dealt with gear shifting, we drove up to the traffic light. Releasing the gas pedal does not lead to a noticeable slowdown, you must constantly use the brake pedal to brake the car. In addition, we were surprised that the brakes are completely mechanical! The only thing they do is heat up, that is, they do not return fuel back to the tank! It sounds very wasteful, but this is only the beginning, then worse.

We stopped, but the engine continued to run and shake the car! He continued to burn fuel, although we did not move anywhere. Is that really true? Yes, the seller explained to us that this is the case with gasoline cars: the engine runs and burns fuel always - even when the car is standing. Some models, however, are able to jam when stopping at a traffic light, the seller explained to us. Well, that definitely makes sense.

Later we went to the gas station where you can charge the car. Although the fuel level sensor reported at least another half of the tank, we wanted to try out the famous super-fast charging.

Well, we arrived at the gas station and opened the fuel tank cap. The refueling gun is very similar to a charging cable, but gas is flowing from it, not electric current. Gasoline, by the way, is a carcinogenic, smelly, highly toxic liquid that is also highly flammable. Gasoline is pumped into the tank of the car, which then rolls about 50 liters of this fluid.

I stuck a refueling gun into the neck of the fuel tank, but nothing happened. The seller explained that you have to pay for fuel! Just like at these high speed charging stations. After payment, you can finally start refueling. Yeah, it's really fast! In about two minutes we filled the tank completely! But there were two meters on the gas station: the first is liters, the second is price. And they also turned very fast! So we filled the tank in two minutes, but it cost an incredible 30 euros! A full tank would cost as much as sixty! We cursed luck, because, probably, a terribly expensive gas station turned up for us, and asked the seller about alternatives. How much, for example, does it cost to refuel a car at home, how many free refueling are there?
The seller looked very puzzled and explained thatit’s impossible to refuel a car at home, and there are no free refills . We tried to rephrase the questions, in case he misunderstood, but he insisted. Apparently, you need to go to a gas station several times a month to refuel your gasoline car at unrealistic prices - no options ! We decided that it was very strange that not a single automaker had established a network of free gas stations.

Also, there are no gas stations where you could refuel a little slower, but cheaper. Having counted, it turned out that 100 kilometers cost about 12 euros. Of course, on an electric car you can achieve such numbers if you constantly charge on the most expensive charging station - but on a gasoline car you simply have no choice! An electric car can be conveniently charged at home at night, and 100 kilometers will cost about 2 euros, and a gasoline car must be taken to a gas station to refuel at huge prices! Monthly spending on gas alone easily exceeds a hundred euros! An understanding has begun to come of why gasoline cars are so cheap — driving them is very expensive.

We also began to understand why you need so many gas stations around - after all, you can only go to gas stations. Imagine that you can charge your electric car only at specialized charging stations - and nowhere else !

With all these thoughts, we got stuck in traffic, and I was horrified that the ICE continues to work, and gasoline burns, although we hardly moved. It seemed that it was not gasoline that was burning, but my money. No refueling at home, no regeneration of gasoline back to the tank - it’s just a brain explosion!

We returned the car to the dealer, put it on the handbrake and got out of it. The engine continued to run! It seems like you need to manually turn off the combustion of the precious fluid. But I wanted to look at the internal combustion engine itself, so we asked the seller to open the hood. The entire engine compartment was filled with pipes, fittings, tanks with liquids around a huge trembling piece of cast iron. There is no room for luggage under the hood! Despite its enormous size, noise and vibration, its power is only about a hundred horsepower. The engine also got very hot, so I got burned when I touched it. Although it was a hot summer outside and he didn’t have to heat the salon.

We were also worried about what would happen if an accident happened. A piece of cast iron, which occupies almost the entire engine compartment, is just in the collision zone! Wherever he goes, he will still be in the way. The seller convinced us that the engine would somehow fit under the car, but somehow it all did not match the reality that the engine was located in front, right in the place of a possible collision. Moving it from the front makes it easier to make safe cars. And we also saw a lot of videos on the Internet with burning gasoline cars after the accident. It seems that gas is leaking from the tank and igniting.

From the engine on the bottom of the car there is an exhaust system, something like a chimney for exhaust. When carcinogenic gasoline burns out, a lot of harmful gases remain. The catalyst eliminates the most dangerous, but all that remains is released into the atmosphere behind the car. They are still dangerous to health, but also smell unpleasant! And what, gasoline cars are allowed to throw them in the city center?
We thanked the seller for the test drive, shook hands and returned the ignition key to him (yes, it is called that). He realized that he could not sell us anything.

On the way home on an electric car, we looked at our “gasoline” brothers with a different look. They are still tormented with gasoline. But their turn will come.