The Daily Diversion Archive For January, 2005

Thursday January 20, 2005

Happy New Year.

I haven't posted in a while, obviously. I've really been tapped out. Gus being back in day-care has cut us in on all the crud that he brings home from the other kids. I've not been consistantly sick for the past month and a half, but I've been sick often enough to miss 4-odd days of work. Because of this constant physical drain, I've found it very hard to do the usual crap and chores around the house, let alone find the time to update this here thing. I shouldn't complain too much. The boy is enjoying his time at day-care and Sarah is getting much more work done not having Gus at the house. I'm just getting sick more often.

I've found a home for the big blue truck. I vowed to myself long ago that I'd get rid of it when I stopped using it. I've stopped using it, so it's gotta go. I've bartered it with our old nanny who is starting her own business and needs a truck.

We've been looking at new cars lately, as well. We're not sure which car we'll replace, but some of the cars we've looked at have made the decision rather obvious.

We've been looking at "3 compartment vehicles," or as other people call them, SUVs, Crossover Vehicles, SportWagons and various other monikers that mean "not an SUV, but not a station wagon, either." To date we've looked at 3 of these sort of vehicles and another couple of other ones.

Chrysler Pacifica. It's plush inside and huge outside, but completely let down by a rotten ride. I especially wanted to see the navigation system it has for an option. It sits right on top of the speedometer in the dash, but drat the luck, the one we test-drove didn't have it for an option. I liked the autostick, but the lag time between the time you tell it to shift and the time it actually shifts is really unacceptable. It took its sweet time to respond--up to a full second. That's not good.

On the inside, it was super-plush, but in the end, the one we drove seemed like a dark-blue, velvet cave. It just didn't seem to have the space the outer dimensions suggested it had. Combine all this with a load floor that doesn't go flat and handling that felt the body was mounted length-wise on a door hinge (think tippy) and you could say we were underwhelmed.

Chrysler 300. People tend to either love the look of this car or hate it. I'm more on the love end, but I'm starting to get sick of the type of people who drive it. It seems that the only people I see driving this car are old folks who drive less than the speed limit in the left lane, aggressive gangsta-bling types trolling for tickets and yuppie cell-phone yakkers. I liked the look of this car, but I don't really care much for the acre of dash before the base of the windshield.

I would say this: The one we took for a ride was not the Hemi-powered 300C. The salesthing swore up and down that the base 3.2L V-6 was going to have adequate punch for someone who was accustomed to having some power at hand. Don't you believe a word of it. It was anemic and wheezy. It had about the same pulling power as our old Camry. It had enough to get out of its own way, but barely. No, forget the base model and pop the extra 8Gs it's going to cost for the Hemi. You won't regret it and some of that value will still be there when you come to sell it. Plus, you'll have a great, stonking, hooting, hooligan machine in the meanwhile.

Volkswagon Jetta Wagon. Nice car. It did all the things you'd want a small wagon to do. The traction control was surprising--espeically since it was constantly hitting on the recently sanded streets. When it comes on when the wheel is turned, the car suddenly doesn't do what you expect it to do. If your front-wheel-drive car's steering gets light when one of your front tires starts to spin, you get ready for it and get ready for the wheel to pull a bit when you get traction back. The Jetta's traction control makes the wheel move around all over the place as it selectively applies brake to the spinning wheel to get it to regain traction. It made for some interesting swaying motions as the car grabbed and broke traction repeatedly on the sandy, icy pavement. I'll pass on that bit of technology, thanks.

Other than that, it was extremely well put-together. I realy liked the textured surfaces, the even panel seams in the body and the feel of the car. It was taught. Although this would seem to be the perfect match for us, the issue is that the suspension was just a bit too taught. We'd be using this as a road-trip car. We don't use the Maxima for this same reason. It would be hard on us to feel every seam and crack in the road for the 400 miles to Chicago.

The other issue here is price. The one we took for a spin was right around 26K. That's a lot of dough. I'd have to say that the Ford Focus Wagon does most of what the Jetta Wagon does for about 7 grand less. Sure, there's resale value and other issues, but I'd bet insurance is less on the Focus, too. I also think the Focus wagon I drove had more pickup than the 1.8L Turbo Jetta we drove. The Focus didn't need a turbo, either.

Ford Freestyle. Wow. I went into our driving test with pretty low expectations. After all, it's a Ford, right? Boy, was I blown away. This is one nice vehicle. Inside, it was huge--far larger than it looks from outside. All the seats fold flat for a flat load floor. The seats themselves are nice and have a nice, upright posture to them. It was kinda like driving my big pickup, only the ride was much better.

Speaking of ride, its ride reminded me of all the good things I like about the Grand Marquis. The steering was much better and it had that quality that assured me that this could be the new MDU (Mileage Disposal Unit). It didn't have a lot of whistles and bells, but one of the more odd things about the Freestyle is the CVT (Contiuously Variable Transmission). It doesn't shift once you have it in gear. It constantly varies the transfer rate so that you never feel it shifting. It was very strange not feeling the shift bumps. We tested a 2-wheel drive model, but if we did get one it would be an AWD model. I'd have to say that I really liked this one and that this would be the one if we decided to buy right now. We're not buying right now, but it's not out of the question within the next 6 months.

Mitsubishi Endeavor. For all the reasons the Freestyle reminded me of the Grand Marquis, the Endeavor reminded me of the Maxima. It was taught, steered nicely and felt almost like a sports car. It had some cool whistles and bells and I really liked the view from the driver's seat. Sarah brought something up during the test drive that I think is a good observation: Some cars are all about the driver and to a certain extent the front passenger. In these cars, the passengers didn't get a lot of attention from the designers. The Endeavor seems to be one of these cars. The driver has all the cool stuff, the front-seat passenger has it good, too. However, once you get behind the front seats, it's not so nice. Not bad, mind-you, but not nearly as nice as the front seat.

I really like the Endeavor. I think it has the nicest looking back end in the whole niche. The rest of the looks are okay, but the dash is really nice. It had good pickup, too. Compared to the Freestyle, it had a bit more punch, but much less room. It was a titch higher, but definately more narrow. All in all, I think I could be happy with this one as well, but really the only things it has on the Freestyle are the cool dash and the power.