When I made the profile picture for the CTBNL I was so proud of it I used it nearly everywhere. I used it on Fuelly to replace a Miata photo. So over on the left there was one “icon” representing a Miata and one picture representing the Sonata. The Purple Whale was crying for its own icon. I hated to see him so sad, so…
Issac Asmimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:
The other week Donna had a late afternoon, after work doctor’s appointment. I drove over with her and rather than wait in the doctor’s waiting room full of sick people and uncomfortable chairs, I waited out in the Sonata with a book and my own music. With the sun shade covering the windshield, both front windows open and sitting in the passenger seat I was quite comfortable. About an hour into the wait, all of a sudden the music stopped. I looked over at the radio display and it was blank. Oh, crap, I killed the battery.
I hit the illuminated start button again and everything came back to life. Phew.
Had the car just invoked the Third Law?
The Emperor got to come out from under his cover on Saturday for the first time in 10 days as the MMC met for breakfast at a Steak & Shake in Augusta. On the drive over to breakfast it was misty or sprinkling or just road spray the whole way. Our 1990 Miata didn’t have intermittent wipers, just off – low – high, but the 1995 and this one, additionally have a one speed intermittent setting. For most of the trip to Augusta the wipers were set on intermittent.
The Purple Whale has an intermittent setting with about 8 variations of intermittentness. Invariably when driving the Sonata in the same conditions as Saturday’s trip in the Miata I will find myself playing with the settings, trying to get just the right amount of wipage per windshield wetness, yet in the Miata I was perfectly happy with the one speed intermittent setting. Another example of more choices not necessarily being a good thing I suppose.
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…
Our 2011 Sonata is EPA rated at 22MPG City, 35MPG Highway and 26MPG combined. For the first nine months I haven’t really paid too close attention if it was meeting those expectations.
The Sonata has this little button on the dash that says ECO. When we first got it I kept in ECO Mode because I figured it would increase the gas mileage of the car. Then I ran a couple of totally unscientific tests by emptying a tank full of gas with the button on and then a tank with it off, it really didn’t seem to make much of a difference.
My non-calibrated butt-dyno did seem to feel that the shift points were changed while in ECO to keep it in a lower gear longer. With ECO off the shifting felt a bit sportier. When the Purple Whale had his 7500 mile check up, there was some sort of bulletin about the transmission and they reflashed the ECU. It totally changed the feeling in the ECO mode to something such that I can no longer tell the difference between the shifting characteristics of the two modes.
Neither of these two issues aren’t the real reason I have abandoned using the ECO mode entirely though. My biggest issue was that when the ECO mode was on, it displayed 1/8″ high letters reading ECO in bright green in between the speedo and tach. And if that wasn’t annoying enough the button on the dash to the lower left of the steering wheel had a super bright blue LED that glowed steady, it was noticeably in the day, but at night it was almost searing.
Anyway, where am I going with all this? Well, I keep track of the top transitions for the Miata, so I thought I’d keep track of something for the Sonata, its gas mileage. I signed up for an account on fuelly.com that would take care of all that higher math stuff for me. They have a couple of badges for web sites or internet forums and I’ll probably add the little one over on the right somewhere.
We have driven the Miata to work the last couple of days and it is all because of the weather. No, it has not been warm enough to ride with the top down, just the opposite, it has been in the 20’s for morning lows. We took the Emperor because he spent the night in the heated garage so it was nice and warm inside to start the drive, unlike the Purple Popsicle would have been.
In today’s mail:
The above photo, circa mid 80’s*, was taken in New Orleans. I immediately recognized Donna, but it took me a while to figure out who she was holding on to. Yikes, it’s me! Donna looks just about like she does now, but that person she is standing next to looks nothing like the old guy I see in the mirror every morning.
Try as I might, I couldn’t conclusively make out what is embroidered on the shirt, best guess is Louisiana State University.
*Photo dating clues were Donna’s big glasses, my positive amount of hair, the bicycle helmet I am holding onto and the shortness of my shorts.