One of my guilty pleasure shows is “How Stuff Works,” a documentary-style program that delves into America’s factories to show us how a number of different products are made. The narrator’s voice is far from energetic, and the movements of the machines assembling the products are undeniably hypnotic, but it’s truly educational stuff. I often find myself saying, out loud, things like, “So that’s how tape measures are made!” or “So that’s how they get the cream inside the Twinkies!”

It’s a great show, but one thing it never has been able to show me is exactly how hybrid cars work. The average American has a general sense that hybrid cars have an electric battery inside them that allows the car to occasionally run on electricity instead of fuel. The end result, naturally, is that less gasoline is consumed. But how exactly does it all work?

There are a lot of ways, actually, but when it comes to the Hyundai Sonata, 2011 models are going to be integrating start-stop technology, which is a genius little bit of human invention. What happens is that when a car comes to a stoplight or a traffic jam, or any instance in which the automobile would be idling, the start-stop system will turn off the combustion engine. When you get moving again, the engine kicks back up. Through this simple and convenient gas-saving measure, automobiles can improve their mileage by an average of 5-10%.

In Delray Beach, used Hyundai Sonatas haven’t been able to do such a thing in the past because no previous hybrid version of the car exists. However, over the course of the next two years we’ll start seeing this enhanced model hit dealerships across the world. While they’ve included other gas-saving measures such as improved aerodynamics, it’s this start-stop innovation that’s really creating a buzz around this new hybrid offering from Hyundai. The expectation is that this be actually more fuel efficient than the 35mpg Elantra Blue that has been so successful. The hybrid Sonata could get somewhere in the range of 38-40mpg, clearly an improvement and something that Hyundai drivers are going to want to get their paws all over.

It may even be so popular that it gets a cameo on “How Stuff Works.” One can only hope.

Labels: Delray Beach used Hyundai, Sonata 2011