Static Shocks?
 

Maybe slightly OT here, but why do some cars generate static shocks and others don't. I never get static shocks from either my 911 or my Cayenne. I'm using a rental car for a few days right now (an 04 Chevy Impala .... oh boy .....) and everytime I get out of this thing I get poked! Same thing happens on my wife's Pontiac Montana and other GM trucks I've owned in the past. What's the story? -- Curt

Hmm, weird, I've been shocked by my late, great Carrera. Maybe you're just lucky.

strange huh. the steering wheel on my 67' bug seems to have shocking power on tap all the time if you touch the center spokes. It actually hurts if you have an open wound and you put it right against the aluminum.

I always suspected it was from the interior material. My porsche never shocks me and it has leather seats, while my honda shocks me occasionally (mostly depending on the weather) and it has fuzzy cloth seats.

I had some crappy chevy rental car a while back that zapped the hell out of me too, nearly every time I got out.

Dan :)

I seem to remember that when electronic dash boards first came out this was a big problem. Part of it had to do with the rubber composition of the tires, (conducting versus non-conducting). Don't know what it could be these days. Have you heard the thing about touching your car to ground you before you start refueling? They say don't get back in the car while refueling, but if you do, touch the vehicle to dissipate the static electricity before touching the fuel nozzle. Out here they have warning signs to that effect.

It's supposed to be ungrounded-through-the-wet-tires static electricity that is seperate from the AC/DC recharging circuit, but this is a guess.
Some high powered stereo systems use a hanging ground strap that touches ground when parked.