75 MPH, that's nothing!
I found this poster at Denver International Airport amusing. 75 MPH is not that fast. In California, if you’re doing 75 MPH, you’re going to be passed! Not sure if trolling or just stupid.
It’s not just clouds, people can’t drive in the dark
Are you for reals?
Last month I made a post about how people drive super cautiously when there is a dark cloud inferring that rain might happen. Well after Daylights Savings, my afternoon commute has switch from driving home during the daytime to driving home during the night time and now I think it’s just people can’t deal with non-sunny weather.
My afternoon commute is now worse and it drags on for much longer because people are driving slower because of the night time. I don’t understand it. We’re in the damn city, there are street lights on the freeway, and wildlife is not going to just jump out at you. Get a grip and think rationally people!
Check your other side when you’re pulling out
This isn't a queue!
My apartment complex has this circular driveway with two gates to the left and right to go to different parts of the complex. In the middle of the circle is the gate access box where someone can dial the phone number to page a tenant. The driveway is wide enough to accommodate two vehicles so tenants can drive around those who are at the access box (tenants have a remote to open both gates). I was coming home tonight and someone stopped at the box presumably to page someone to open the gate. I’m headed for the left gate so I need to drive around the center island. Well here I come and I open the gate and proceed to drive around them when they suddenly started to move and proceeded to turn towards the right gate. Are you stupid? Do you not understand the basics of driving? You don’t blindly pull out from a stop! He is lucky I gassed it to speed up my traversal around the circle. I shouldn’t be surprised though since this wasn’t the first occurrence of this happening.
Reunited
Awww man, this one tugs at the heartstrings. I know the feeling of having to let go of a car. Unfortunately, the car that I miss is gone forever. I found it in the junkyard a few months after I sold it. It was my first car and you never forget your first. It took me through the second half of high school and the first half of college, which is an impressionable time in anyone’s life. While I have gained even better memories and experiences since then, I have not found an emotional attachment to any car since. If one day in the future someone gave me a mint condition replica of my first car I will just break down right there and cry.
Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems
Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) are an evil of the modern automobile. This is partly to blame by lazy people. In the old days one would measure the tire pressure with a 99 cent tire pressure gauge from the auto parts counter. It was a simple device that was the size of a pen. You would put this device on the tire valve and hold it there for a reading. Then you would add air, remeasure, and repeat until the air pressure was within specs. You were suppose to do this periodically. Unfortunately people got lazy and just stopped checking leading to a series of events.
In the late ’90s SUVs because the choice of the masses for no rational reason other than vanity. Now a car with low tire pressure is going to handle a little sloppy, but it’s not a big concern until the tire is visibly under-inflated. An SUV with low tire pressure, however, makes it easy to flip over in the smallest of turns. Given the way people drive, Explorers were flipping over left and right and the government had to step in to blame the manufactures and make them install TPMS as standard equipment within the next decade. So here we are.
Why are TPMS evil when they monitor tire pressure in real time and prevents people from getting “dirty”? They are expensive, fragile, and annoying. One sensor can easily cost more than $100 because it is a wireless electronic device that interacts with the car’s computer and has to deal with harsh temperature differences. They are fragile so when a tire gets changed out, the technician cannot be rough with it. They are annoying because they need to be calibrated and have to be matched with the wheel and go off incessantly when there are altitude changes (like driving on a mountain).
My car was built before TPMS became mandatory, but I have my own tire pressure monitoring system. It involves paying attention to the signs: low gas mileage and sloppy handling. Over the course of a couple of months I notice that my gas mileage drops 2 or 3 miles per gallon. The car also brakes and handles like the wheels were made of jelly. This is the sign that the tire pressure is low and I’m usually right, all the tires are about 3 PSI under spec. Add about 5 PSI to each tire and everything is right in the world.
I’m sorry, but this is another electronic nanny to protect lazy people from themselves. Those who aren’t lazy have to deal with the lowest common denominator sucking the fun out of life.
Illuminated dash gauges
The recent trend of illuminated dash gauges is rather dumb. Sure it looks striking, but there’s no point. It’s even more idiotic that there needs to be a lit indicator to indicate if the headlights are actually on or not. At what point did people just think that this was the best, must-have feature in the world? There was nothing wrong, nor could be improved, from high contrast numbers and needles. At worst, coupled with daytime running lights (DRLs), the driver forgets to turn on the headlights. I was driving home last night and there was a Ford Edge with no taillights on. Of course they have DRLs semi-illuminating the roads (which was fine because we were in the city and the street lights lit up everything), but the driver was oblivious to the fact that the nighttime illumination on their vehicle was not on. Now, coupled with automatic headlights, illuminated dash gauges would make sense, but very few other makes besides General Motors have standard automatic headlights. Honestly, I don’t see why my dash gauges need to be lit up ALL the time. Stupid marketing machine.
Surprising Win: 2012 Hyundai Sonata
2012 Hyundai Sonata in red
Arriving at the airport, I had a choice of a Chevy HHR (which I had already driven) or a Chrysler 200 (puke!) in my class. Fortunately for me, this red Sonata was parked near the Chrysler so I decided to upgrade to this for my weekend ride. It already looks like a much higher quality car than the marque suggests and it certainly couldn’t be worse than the Chevys I’ve had. Color me impressed because I’ve never considered owning a Hyundai, but this car just go bumped up my list of new cars I’d buy.
The thing that impressed me the most was that this car is a 4 cylinder, but you’d never know it! For most of the trip the car was loaded with five adults, luggage, with the A/C on. Driving in southern California requires a lot of quick maneuvers and this car took it like a champ! It accelerated like a bat out of hell without any lag or buzzy-ness that you’d normally get with a 4 cylinder. It handled real well during lane changes without much body roll. Cruising at speed was extremely smooth. Sometimes I’d get up to 80 MPH, but it felt like I was going a lot slower. There was virtually no wind or road noise. We were able to maintain a nice conversation without having to shout.
What’s interesting is that it looks like a small car from the outside, drives like a small car from the driver’s seat, and inside it kind of feels like a small car from the waist up, but there was gobs of legroom for all passengers. I was able to stretch out my legs without putting the seat all the way back! The trunk was very spacious as well, but the trunk opening was short resulting in a small opening. The interior trim and materials felt top-notch especially with the subtle details like the brushed texture on the dash and door panels. The dash had a very cool multi-colored LCD info center in the gauge cluster adding to the luxurious aura. The projector headlights had a nice sharp cut-off for the bright-as-sun beams. The headlights turned off with the engine so it was hard to remember to turn off the lights in the day time (because it made the radio and cluster dim). I was also surprised to see a foot-pedal parking brake since import cars typically have handbrakes. It felt like a higher class car than it should be.
One thing I did not like was the stereo. The display was incredibly hard to read at night since it had a dark blue backlight with black LCD text. I did not test the sound, but getting to the sound settings was not as intuitive as it should have been. The bass/treble settings were buried in a menu where other radios allow access from a button. It did have XM radio, which was pretty convenient. I’m also not a fan of how the Asian carmakers put the headlight switch on the turn signal stick, but now I’m just nitpicking.
The positives clearly outweigh the negatives here. It’s an underdog as Hyundai has been winning awards and gaining consumer confidence with their products, but it’s still got the stigma of being crappy from past decades. I can definitely see and feel the Honda-like quality in this Sonata and while I would have never considered looking at it before, I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
Crown Vic vs Impala
There is nothing more fun than ganging up on a FWD Chevy with two classic police cruisers. I am too obsessed with making videos of Driver: San Francisco because this game is so damn fun for car film aficionados.
Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs
Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs
Blocking up the scenery, breaking up my mind
Do this don’t do that can’t you read the sign?
