stretch MINI @ Sydney Esquisse
stretch MINI @ Sydney Esquisse
Originally uploaded by superlocal.
How do I get this option? Looks mostly photoshopped.
Link of the Day [12.19.08]
I don't know if I had already wrote about this experience, but it's
amusing enough to generate two posts about, if I did.Awhile back, I was getting out of Itsuki-chan in the parking lot of
HomeDepot. A middle aged lady was driving by and she was rolling down
her window."Where do you plug that in?""Excuse, me?""Where do you plug that in electric car in?""Oh. Sorry. It's just a normal car." A regular combustible gas
engine, but fun all the same. She had mistaken my car as one of those
fancy electric cars. Perhaps she's never seen a Mini Cooper. They are
rather rare in the area, and they do not look like other cars. In the US, mini's have plain old gas-guzzling engines, not that they are
gas-guzzling, but they run on plain old unleaded. In other countries,
there's a diesel version. Now, they're constructing an electric mini
which is interesting. Perhaps if there's enough interest, you can buy
one of these in the near future.http://www.miniusa.com/minie-usa/
Link of the Day [12.03.08]
My cousin, Bob, has gone car free. He's riding a bike. That's the way
to commute. Who needs the hassle of owning a car? Who wants to save
money? Be more healthy? Fossile fuels are for sucks.Someone in Hawaii is pushing for electric cars. That's an even crazier
idea. He should be pushing for more bikes. I can't imagine a more
perfect place for a cycle culture. Sunny and warm every day. The
islands are pretty small: you can take a bus around Oahu, so the
distances are not very far. You can always hop off and go for a swim if
you're sweating too much. A more casual attitude. Frick. That's
pretty awesome now that I come to think about it.Hmm. This link of the day post went off on a tangent. I guess it
happens when you're scrambling for posts in the morning over coffee.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/technology/start-ups/03hawaii.html?par
tner=permalink&exprod=permalink
“Britches?”
Link of the Day [9.07.08]
For all you car junkies out there. Top Gear does plenty of testing of cars. Nice fast cars, and they’re not afraid to push the limit. In with a British feel.
Car Detailing MFer!
Yesterday, I washed both my cars. And it kind of sucked because just washing feels somewhat lame.
Late last century with my Mk II VW Jetta, I could have cared less about washing it. It was a light green almost aqua color that hardly showed any dirt. I think I washed it every quarter even less so when I was feeling less than satisfied with her.
When I bought my Mk IV VW Jetta, I barely thought about keeping it clean. Until the second year. Then I was a detailing fiend. I was washing the car once a week. I waxed and polished it twice that year (and the following two years). I even new why and how to use a clay bar. It was perfect for the first four years.
Then it became tough to find time to wash the car. In my new house, I don’t get any shade until the late afternoon around 3. It makes it tough to spend the four hours to really detail the car. That’s just a wash, polish and a wax. It gets too late in the evening to finish it off.
Now with the Mini Cooper, the detailing bug is back. I want to keep the Cooper a nice shiny red. I also want to get the Jetta back to being a beautiful blue. When will I have time to keep this up? What are you doing later?
Going smaller
Consumers buying smaller, but more expensive cars? I can attest to
that. My MCS's base price is $22k. After the options I added to that
the car was $28k. And I probably could've gone higher if I wanted to
keep it a reasonable price after the addition of taxes, tags and fees.Funny thing about that article is reading people getting leather in a
Ford Focus. It's not known to be a luxury car, but you make it so with
the addition of leather. Insane thinking, but I also can't go without
the leather. I wish I got the red though. And more color in the
interior. It would've been cool to have, but it would've busted my
budget.
That New Car Smell
It’s killing me. Way overpowering.
Things I’ve learned buying a new car.
Purchasing options a la carte makes it fun. It can also be expensive.
Taxes suck and makes your car more pricier than you imagined it to be. They also reduce the number of options you can choose as you want to keep the car on budget and affordable.
Owning a car has many hidden costs. The tires. The maintenance. Not to mention gas and insurance. Owning two cars, the costs aren’t so hidden. Twice the gas. Twice the insurance. Half as fun to own.
Watch for extensive hard sell at the close for extended warranty. Or life time tires. Or extra road side assistance. You feel that your pressing your luck when ignoring those options. Especially, that damn lifetime of tires!
Watching really does make the pot not boil. I can’t believe how slow the last few weeks went. Really slow. Down payment on May 31. The days crawled by. On board a ship on June 18. The days inch forward. In the States on June 28. In the dealership on July 4. In my hands on the 11th. Those days in between were interminably long.
Am I going to be Senor Detailer again?
Why won’t that new car smell go away!?
Itsuki-chan
Itsuki-chan
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
Tyranny of autos
Tyranny of autos
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
Learning to drive
I’ve posted about the problems with my car in the past month. The problem has been diagnosed and a solution had been implemented, but I hesitate to drive it. I have a feeling at any moment it’s going to experience the same issues. It’s not that she has become unreliable, but that the trust between us has broken. So in order to regain that trust again, I have to learn how to drive all once more.
Before my driving style was slightly aggressive: 80 mph on the highway, living in the left lane, shooting the gaps when needed, taking her to the redline on occasion. This was just the trust I felt with my car. She can do it, and I won’t let anything bad happen to her.
Well, she can’t always do it. She’s showing her age and probably needed to be treated a little bit more gently.
So I’ve slowed down, and it is strange. I keep up with the traffic, but I don’t like hanging out in the left lane anymore. The RPMS barely make it past 3750. No quick starts off the line. No boost. It’s all caution from here on out.
Being slower makes it some what safer, but I am still not confident about her. She’ll do. I wonder what this will do for my gas mileage?