Hey fellas! I realize this is a performance forums, but I figured at least 1 of the people on here might find this a little interesting. This week in school we've been learning about LEV, ULEV, and Zero Emission Vehicles. What do most people care about when buying a new car? Power, performance, and looks. When you think of a hybrid or an electric car, those are three things that do not pop into your mind, much like myself.

The Sacramento Fuel Cell Development team brought down two zero emission fuel cell powered Mercedes Benz A-Class cars to show to our class, and demonstrate the potential and technology of these cars. These were making 87 HP with 156 ft. lbs. TQ. They are limited to 87 MPH for some reason, we didn't get to see an example of that though.

On first impression, seeing the car was an absolute eyesore. It automatically linked that combination of ugly and low performance. The interior was actually somewhat of a surprise, as the size on the inside isn't what you would think by looking on the outside. Cargo space was pretty nice, the size of a small trunk. I even got bundled up in the back for a nice little picture. The driver's seat slides back to comfortably seat a 6'3" person (tallest in our class), with enough room behind that I still had a good amount of legroom (im only 5'4").

Test ride: this car had a surprising amount of pull to it. The power comes immediately (since it runs on an electric motor, there is no power or torque curve). I would say that it would easily give my Lancer a run for its money, and saying that makes me pretty sad.







Anyway, just thought I'd share a little something with the guys here at EvoM. I thought it was pretty interesting thinking that these things are the way of the future, and I even had doubts about the power it would be able to produce, but I was proven wrong today. Although it isn't a Hemi or a turbo 4G63, my interest was peaked. It was pretty cool. There is a B-Class that has 136 HP with 215 ft-lbs TQ, but we didn't get to see that. Just the thought of having 215 ft-lbs readily available in a little car like that makes me think of all the weird things that are to come in the automotive industry.

Sorry for picture quality, only had my cell phone on me.

 

Nice man. What are you studying?

 

Automotive technology at UTI. This school gets such a bad rep though, mainly because they graduate 45 idiots for every 1 person that actually takes it seriously. The worse part is it's the idiots that get the jobs, and ruin it for the people that took it seriously. That and alot of the teachers just want to teach you what is on the tests, and not go into detail about anything else. Just pass the class because they get paid weither or not we succeed after school.

 

Oh man thats not good. What are you hoping to get into once done with school?

 

Yeah, kinda sucks, can't really do anything about it though. I eventually want to own my own shop back in Vegas. Immediately after I graduate though, I just want to find any job I can, work to get some debt out, build up my tool collection, and keep looking for a job at either an independant shop or possibly hourly at a dealership. Since I wouldn't have any ASE certifications, I doubt I would be given flatrate, and I probably wouldn't be very good at it to start.

 

Thats a pretty cool plan though. One of my options is to go to one of those schools that offer dealer specific training and then go work for a nissan or infinity dealer.

 

They do that at UTI. They are opening up Nissan factory training as an elective out here right around the time I graduate. I may have to add it. They have a UTI campus in a suburb of Chicago, forgot which one though. They have Ford at our campus already, Toyota and Nissan are supposed to be coming within the next year.

 

Yes I think thats the school I was looking at. I believe they also have an audi and mercedes program.

 

They have Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, and Porsche among others, the difference being you pay for the Toyota, Nissan, and Ford. The others are manufacturer training that they choose you for, and they pay for it.

 

I didnt know that part. I would much rather go into the high-end makes like audi, mercedes, or bmw.

 

You gotta be the top of your class and not miss any days. They only take people with very good grades and attendance. My grades are awesome.. attendance not so much haha. If I hadn't missed the days I chose to miss, I'd be up for VW right now. They called me in, but they said my attendance wasn't up to par.

 

oh man. thats almost like a kick in the nuts. "yeah we will take you...wait a minute...nevermind no we wont"

 

no you wouldnt they may be nice cars but if your not in the business you just dont know how it is. especially german cars are a pain in the *** for technicians, i went to honda school and worked at Acura for 2 years then moved to mercedes cause they pay more but in the end i just wasnt making enough money just cause of their stupid polices. Now i work at Mazda i dont like it but hey i do make money.

put it this way my snapon tool box cost me $10k (no tools included) and Mercedes didnt let me bring my own tool box... cause they wanted every bay to look the same and to get a car i had to cross the street to get to the parking lot and also you get introuble if you get dirty and the uniform is WHITE.

I did an oil change on a Mercedes McLaren and wow its retarded cause you have to drop the engine to change the oil lol atleast it paid 16hours though.

now on BMW you will hate it since all services are included with the price of the car you cant make money cause they charge it as warranty and warranty pays ****.

now Audi thats just VW just more fancy so there are less out there so again they might say oh you get paid this much and you say wow hell yea but then you realize there are more techs then there is work so the older guys usually get the work.. ya not fair but they do it

i plan on going back to honda just because i like working on them and i know how to make money on them and they are just simple to work on.

 

oh ya toyota pays good i would recommend Toyota there are alot of them out there and that means more work also the Toyota company pays good

 

Wow I didnt know what. Or what you said in the other post. I guess I got some asking around to do. I would go work for mitsu but the techs there might feel their skills are endangered by me even as of right now(well that goes to MY local mitsu tech guys anyway).