Welcome to Roadologist!

A profile picture of Fabio

Hey! I’m Fabio, nice to meet you!
I’m the Chief Editor here, and I’d like to give you a warm welcome to the Roadologist website.
We’re happy you’re here!

Our Mission

Roadologist started with a simple goal. We want to make the world of automotive a little easier to understand and empower everyday people living everyday lives with the ability to make the right choices and take control of their vehicle maintenance.

Why

Automotive is one of the biggest industries in the world. Since 1986 – what is considered the birth year of the modern car – personal vehicles have skyrocketed in numbers. And today it is fairly common for a person to have even more than one or two vehicles for personal transportation.

Be them bikes, cars, or more modern electric scooters and unicycles, personal transportation vehicles are all around us.

And we rely on them each and every day. Maybe even too much. So much that in many cities public transportation is generally ignored, and it is common practice to take the car to move even from one block to the next.

Strangely though, considering the widespread adoption of automotive vehicles, the knowledge about them – the automotive IQ if you want – has plummeted through the years.

What were once commonplace tasks like changing the oil, or fixing a flat tire, are nowadays very esoteric subjects that less than 1 in 10 people really know how to deal with.

And the problem is especially severe in younger generations.

Automotive literacy, in other words, has been steadily decreasing over the years.

And that’s a dangerous and costly problem.

Let me tell you a story…

Fabio with his girlfriend on a Mustang near Muscle Beach

Nice pic, uh?! A bit ostentatious, I know. But if you had a convertible Mustang in your hands and you were driving along sunny Muscle Beach in Santa Monica… Wouldn’t you get a couple of pictures too?!

It was a couple of years ago. I was having a vacation with my girlfriend in Los Angeles. We were having a blast.

Rented car by the way. Absolutely outstanding vehicle!

When I rented it, however, I noticed a strange light was on on the dashboard.

The engine oil warning light

I promptly asked the attendant about it but he shrugged it off, telling me it was normal and that most of the cars had it.

I found it quite strange actually. I had a vague idea about what that light meant. Or at least I knew that it wasn’t supposed to be on in normal conditions.

But the guy shrugged it off so easily, the weather was so nice, and time was of the essence… so off we went on a road trip of the gorgeous bay area.

mustang-beach-front

Towards the end of the day, we were driving in the Beachwood Canyon residential area, to get a picture of the Hollywood sign in the distance. I loved driving up and down the winding roads, and the automatic transmission made it so easy and effortless.

I was driving up a particularly steep avenue when all of a sudden some of the most ominous noises I have ever heard started coming from the engine. The car started shaking. Forcefully. There were some moments of panic. The shaking and the noises were growing stronger.

I quickly pulled over and tried turning off the engine and turning it on again. The old IT trick. The shaking continued and the noises were getting even louder.

Coming directly from the engine, I knew I couldn’t just shrug it off now. So I turned off the engine and called the rental company for assistance.

Long story short, the light that was on was the motor oil light. The car had been running with a dangerously low amount of oil for God knows how long till parts started rubbing together, metal to metal.

Luckily, except for some tense moments of fear, and some inconveniences, there were no real consequences.

Except for the car. A tow truck had to remove it. The engine was completely ruined.

After a fair bit of discussion and explanation with the rental company, everything was solved. They apologized profusely and were even kind enough to give us a spare car for an additional day.

However, the whole affair could have been easily avoided. And that beautiful car could have been spared from such an ugly fate. With just a tiny bit of knowledge. Both from me and from the rental company guy.

Since then I’ve learned to pay a lot more attention to unexpected lights on a vehicle dashboard. And a couple more things…

Cars, bikes, and generally all engines have always fascinated me. But that episode showed me how little I knew about them from a practical standpoint. And how little I knew about proper vehicle maintenance.

So I decided to invest a lot more into my automotive education.

After several years I can definitely say that I’m a lot more confident in my automotive knowledge and skills. And I’ve even gotten into the habit of performing most maintenance tasks and operations by myself completely.

It wasn’t easy, however. Far from it.

I had an engineering background and the support of many mechanics and mechanical engineer friends. And it was still quite challenging to understand some of the various aspects related to the automotive industry. And there’s probably still a lot of stuff I don’t even know I don’t know.

But I’ve gotten a lot better. And you can too.

And that’s precisely what this site is all about.

It’s the resource I wish I had when I was learning about all this stuff.

Consider it your shortcut to practical automotive knowledge.

Your shortcut to greater confidence when dealing with all things engine-powered.

Your shortcut to enjoy the road.