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Felix Kramer, Hybrid Magnate

Every cause needs its champion, and for plug-in hybrids, that person is Felix Kramer.  Founder and lead strategist for Calcars, Felix is a master of sythesis, taking technical complexity and minutia and producing a clear and crucial movement for our transportation future.

Felix’s own plug-in hybrid, an 04 Prius converted by EnergyCS, needed The Vitals last week, and what an honor it was to provide. The Prius usually goes to the dealer, to demystify the technology and spread the word among Toyota’s own, but it took a break to support our new business.  Great conversation and 4 quarts of rerefined oil later, Felix has been kind enough to endorse us on the Calcars website:

Calcars’ Photos: Groups and Converters

For more from Felix, I highly recommend the Calcars’ news group.  Sign up here...

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Did you receive our card?

One of the uglier parts of business, I find, is asking for business.  Some people have no problem with this: advertising is just another way of exchanging information, awareness even.  But I hate to bother. I hate to monetize information, let alone my passions.

That said, we are now “open for business” and most people have no idea.  So we are faced the challenge of letting people know.  The best approach has been an initial guerilla effort where we leave some kind of notice on hybrid cars around town.  It’s obvious, but it’s also polite and appropriate: people can absorb the information without an audience, in the context of their car.

The exact kind of “notice” has been a subject of debate.  At first I thought flyer, like a concert notice.  But a piece of xerox paper feels disposable, like impending waste, an obvious insult to our environmental goals.  So the flyer gave way to postcard with some kind of technical tip, something glove box caliber.  That gave way to a business card.  A business card, something tangible but still managable, can be saved without too much imposition.  If it is disposed, it is small.  FYI, our cards are 100% post consumer recycled product printed with soy based ink.  Great job Bacchus Press.

To our recipients, I apologize for interrupting your life with an advertisement.  Your car is an important part of your life, your contribution, including your environmental impact.  LG exists to support this part for the better.  Hopefully you’re excited about the prospect of a hybrid-focused garage.  I met a woman today, in the course of leaving cards, and during our conversation I said of LG, “It’s time.”

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Hybrid class fills, educates

My thanks to Jack Rosebro and Dominic Felix for their purposeful training yesterday evening. I consider them friends, collegues, and, above all, professionals.  Perfect Sky offers premier hybrid training with the most informed instructors in the business.  We look forward to hosting another class the next time they come to town.

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Heather Gold Show 9.21.07

Heather Gold is blessed by adjectives: intelligent, progressive, funny.  We’d like to add “luscious” to that list.  After a serendipitious (and now famous) exchange of voicemail, HG has chosen LG to be the new home for her avant-garde talk show, with the first on September 21st, 2007 (to follow on every second Friday of the month). 

For information on tickets and the show, check out HeatherGold.com.

For everything else, visit her aptly-named blog subvert.com.

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Perfect Sky Training, 8.20.07

Luscious Garage is proud to host its first hybrid training class this Monday, August 20th from 6:30 to 10pm.  Jack Rosebro of Perfect Sky will present for collision technicians on the proper procedures for coolant and brake service and accessing inspection modes for Toyota, Lexus, Honda, and Ford hybrids. The class also includes hands-on practice of these techniques in our shop. 

Indeed auto body shops have seen the most challenging mechanical repairs on hybrids to date and need the appropriate training to make sure these cars are not harmed further in putting them back together.  Cooking the battery in the paint booth is one often-cited example; in fact, the potential for trouble is everywhere, even in seemingly basic systems like cooling and brakes. Jack Rosebro (pictured with a wrecked Prius) is outstanding in his work and this class promises to be another gem.

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