ELECTRIC CAR - 1905? SEE BELOW

The other day I received this picture from a friend of mine who regales himself with reminders of this sort about how things were when I was "younger."  I have to admit that this one really got me going.  I was feeling OK about the picture and the insinuation about my age until about 9:00 AM this morning when I got a telephone call from my favorite auto mechanic.  The "Maint Req'd" light went on yesterday, so I decided to do something about it before things got worse.  That was a good decision because as it turns out things were already "worse enough!"  They are 15 years old, 262,000 miles "worse enough!"  I'll spare you the shock of the bottom line "worse enough!"

Now that was this morning.  The other day I was shaking my head at the thought that here was a 115 year old picture of an electric car.  How old was Elon Musk in 1905?  I mean, really??  This was 35 or 40 years after the Europeans had invented the internal combustion engine.  We were still messing around trying to figure out how to have a long enough extension cord to be able to drive to the corner grocery store and back.  Boy! What a bummer!

Now, come back this way a couple of steps and listen to this.  15 years ago we bought this neat little Japanese hybrid Honda.  Four cylinders and 50 MPG's.  Really, but only in certain directions.  San Francisco to San Diego = 50 MPG.  No lie.  San Diego to San Francisco = 42 MPG.  It's the lay of the land.  No refill going south.  One refill going north at the same cruise control setting of 70 MPH.
Interesting, right?  OK.  Now here's something more interesting for those of you who might think that you know something about cars, internal combustion engines and a combination electric and gasoline engines and the number of cylinders (4) that they have. I found out this morning that our little four cylinder Japanese car needs eight, yes, 8 spark plugs all for the king's ransom price of  11,290 Japanese yen ( $105.00 ).  Yes, it is somehow true that our little four cylinder Honda Civic Hybrid requires two spark plugs for each cylinder.  Once again, Elon Musk, where are you?  Better yet, if you have a battery to help the internal combustion engine you have to add an extra spark plug for each cylinder?  Is that the battery's fault?  Now, I ask, Is progress by any other name still progress?  Wouldn't it be easier to just produce a 600 mile long extension cord?

Tesla Roadster 0 cylinders
0 extension cord