Cars

Photo Fun

Three pictures are worth 3,000 words…

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1146

Who?

While I was standing around waiting to talk to someone before being allowed to drive BMWs and its competitors, I got into a little conversation with a gentleman who was standing there. He was casually well dressed and I assumed a salesman just standing around waiting for the low hanging fruit of customers falling out of the new 3 Series after the drive.

We chatted a bit about cars with their rapidly expanding use of technology, especially BMWs. We then traded push button start/proximity key fob stories. Mine was about getting out of the car and “locking” it by pushing the button on the door handle, being greeted by a long loud chime and not being bothered by it. It wasn’t until a couple of days later that I learned that the sound was indicating that the car was *not* locked. Turns out that you can not lock the car with a fob inside the vehicle. Mine was in my pocket, but Donna’s was in her purse which we were trying to lock in the trunk.

His story involved a friend who showed him how easy it was to start his new car, just get in and push the button. His friend then let him get in the car and push the button. Of course it wouldn’t start, his friend was standing outside a few feet from the car. Ha, ha.

After driving all the cars I had to fill out a little survey. I thought it was going to be about which car I preferred and why, but it was mostly about my satisfaction on how the event was run. Every question got high marks except the last, it asked did I enjoy meeting the Olympic athlete? I had to respond that he wasn’t there when we were there. So I asked the girl giving me the survey who was our athlete, she said, “Larry Myricks, former Olympic long jumper.” I was too embarrassed to tell her I had no clue who that was.

This morning while reading a the paper I noticed a small photo and article about the BMW event. There in the photo was the guy I was chatting with and, you guessed it, he was identified as one Larry Myricks.

Knowing what I know now, I kind of wish I could get another chance at that conversation…

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1138

BMW Drive For Team USA

Today we took the afternoon off from work to help support our Olympic Team. By driving in the new BMW 3 Series, and a couple of its competitors, a Lexus IS250 and a Mercedes-Benz C250* BMW donated $10 for each of us to the US Olympic Team. Now, all these cars were optioned out so that their list price was about 190% of the cost of our much larger Purple Whale, so the fit, finish and interior quietness of them were also nearly twice as fine. Even though they were still more the size we would have liked to have bought when we were shopping last year, their cost kept them off the list.

*The Audi A4 was missing because they didn’t get enough pre-registered drivers to bring out every car.

The driving course was an abbreviation of the Susan Komen loop we used to drive and at only 6 miles long didn’t give a chance to wring the cars out and get real familiar with them, so all I have are little snippets of positives and/or negatives about each.

We first drove the IS250 and as it turned out it was the car we liked the most. We both loved the seats, very comfortable. The navigation screen was large and where it should be, right in the upper portion of the center stack. Nit picks were window, mirror and lock switches were placed awkwardly forward on down on the driver’s door. Back seat legroom was the smallest of the group.

Next we drove the MB C250. This was our least favorite of the group. The seats were hard and flat and Donna never did feel comfortable. Very Teutonic styling inside and out, so not really to our tastes. The only real plus was the turbo motor kicked butt when pushed, but the lag made it show up long after you wanted the giddy-up.

Lastly we drove the 3 Series and this was the Momma Bear of the group. Driver ergonomics were top notch and this is the one I would pick for driving (the IS250 would be the cruising choice.) The exterior is traditional BMW, pleasing, but the interior is not to our liking really (the faux wood interior accents were cheap and had an unnatural waviness.) Plus, I have complained about this in previous BMW drives, but today it seems worse than I remember, the linearity of the electronic throttle was awful, it almost felt like the Mercedes’s turbo lag.

All in all it was a pleasant way to kill a couple hours and we each got a nice little BMW ball cap (well, really I got two caps, because Donna doesn’t wear hats.)

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1137

A Night At The Spa

The Purple Whale is spending the night at Taylor Hyundai getting his 15,000 mile beauty treatment. Because we learned our lesson last time (call and schedule in advance a couple weeks) we have a loaner car from the dealer.

It is a 2011 Hyundai Azera with 2,222 miles on the clock. I don’t have the greatest relationship with loner cars (examples: 1 & 2) and this one is no exception.

Or maybe it is just me, because I’m sure this is a very fine automobile, but it is severely lacking in quite a few categories compared to its cousin the 2011 Sonata. The styling leaves a lot to be desired, both internally and externally, the front leg room is less than an Elantra we tried, the leather seats are rock hard, uncomfortable and slippery, and it wallows down the road like a mid-seventies GM sedan.

On the plus side it has a bigger engine, a V-6, that puts out about 30% more HP than the Sonata (but the gas mileage is 20% less.) The only other thing that is nicer than the Purple Whale is that it has Dual Climate Control.

The sticker was in the glove box and the MSRP was over $4,000 more than the Sonata. To be fair, I’m sure the esthetics, both inside and out are much better in the newly redesigned 2012 Azera. But it is no wonder they had to turn this into the Service Dept Loaner, they would never get want they wanted for this wallflower with all the new Fluidic Sculptured, larger and cheaper Sonatas on the lot.

All Hail The Saloon!

This a picture of the first 4-door automobile the Bogarduses ever owned. It is a 1981 Honda Civic all fitted out with our bikes on the roof rack. If you look carefully you can see Donna in the driver’s seat waiting patiently for me to get back in the car so we can go somewhere, possibly New Orleans. The building in the left background was the apartment building where we lived in Meridian, MS while I was assigned to the Naval Air Station there.

I was working second shift and Donna was going to school during the day so we needed two cars. The four door joined a similarly colored 1980 Civic 3-door hatchback in our stable*. The 4-door only stayed with us for a year and a half before being traded in on a 1983 Honda Prelude in, you guessed it, maroon. I could never really get comfortable in the 4-door because the seat didn’t go back far enough for me, while in the hatchback it did.

*I would have said garage, but that would have been incorrect because we just had spots in the apartment complex LOT and not even assigned ones.

It is also the last 4-door car we owned for 30 years. Until the Purple Whale came along, who by the way, got a nice little bath this afternoon.

This Is An Improvement?

Two years ago when I first started working on a short list of new cars for us to buy, one of those under consideration was a Genesis Coupe. Overall I liked the car, but I had a couple of concerns, see #4 on the second list.

This picture, which shows the front of the car, shows what my concern was in the first part of that statement (the second part is for another post.) This year Hyundai released pictures of the mid-cycle refresh that will be the 2013 Genesis Coupe.

I don’t know about you, but the original face is looking pretty good about now.

Cruze-N


Our rental car for the past nine days was a Chevy Cruze and it was a pleasant surprise. The seats were leather covered with built in heaters (nice in the cool northwest, but we only used them once to test them), were very comfortable and reasonably supportive. The steering was weighted nicely, plus the wheel was fat and also leather covered. Response was peppy enough and the automatic transmission was geared pretty well, seldom left hunting for just the right one. The trunk swallowed our large suitcase, two carry-ons and a laptop bag with plenty of room for any impulse souvenir purchases. I noticed only a couple of short comings, limited rear legroom with tall front seat occupants and the interior could be noisy at speed, but nothing more than expected at this size and price point.

In almost all two lane driving, with plenty of ups and downs, twisty road coast roads and slow small town driving the car returned a very nice 32.9 MPG. We drove 1624 miles and spent a total of $191, using 49.3 gallons of gas. The cheapest regular gas was $3.719 in Florence, OR and the most expensive was $4.049 in Smith River, CA. The average cost per gallon for the trip was $3.875.