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Comments
That'll certainly be an easy car to live with, 4 or 6 cyl. Perhaps you can keep your Subie around for weekend kicks.
-mike
Bob
Thanks all, it's going to be a learning curve, but it will be fun and ought to put me on a path for better earnings down the road a little. I think I'm going to keep the GF4 for now. It's paid for, and I know what I have in it, ya know?
And I have a sense of humor about my cars, the trade in was an Aztek!
-mike
That's just your typical bait & switch tactics that the manufacturers use. In order to advertise the lowest list price possible for a given model, they'll configure one on paper with a 5MT but really have no intention of ever offering it to the consumer
-Frank
It's the one on the right. Flatter than their own V8's curve.
The 4 banger will give you plenty of range, though, fine for a fleet car.
yea the 4 gets very good mileage, which is the primary corporate concern. At least it's new from the bottom up, so it will be fresh for a couple of years. Edmunds seems to think the car's driving dynamics are much improved, so we'll see. Not much to be done about 215/60/16 all seasons though.
Think of the good side: Potholes are no problem.
My how times have changed. I'm old enough to remember that size was considered a performace tire, as "mainstream tires" had an aspect ratio of 75, 78 or 80.
Bob
I drove both on the same day and really liked them both. The Toyota V6 can get a little bit raspy (it's chain driven, but so it the H6), but it's a little more powerful and efficient, so that's a fair trade off.
215/60R16 - try a Falken summer tire, I think they come in that size. Azenis I think is the name.
I respectfully disagree. I had a 4 cylinder LE as a rental for 4 weeks recently. Thank goodness the car knew the way home because it put me to sleep!!
If he's gonna have a Bluetooth ear piece linked to his phone, and conduct business, that car will make more sense than a WRX.
I'd take an Altima 2.5S in the FWD mainstream class, but I wouldn't complain about a company car.
-Frank
Dad had one in Suriname, and it was OK. Pretty quick, actually, though the steering was numb and the ride was definitely towards comfort over sport, i.e. body roll was so bad you thought you'd roll over.
Again, though, for fleet use, a comfortable long-haul ride with good highway range is more important than apex carving prowess.
The Miata is 1000 times better in the curves, but on a long, straight, flat highway at high speeds, the Miata rides nervously, is obnoxiously loud, and just isn't comfortable.
The Camry will be better in those circumstances, i.e. covering a broad sales territory with mostly highway driving.
That thing's a beast!
What about a diesel HD pickup? 250 or 2500?
I can't imagine what that monster would cost.
Or...
If you're feeling lazy...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.pl.himowitz06sep06,0,7391970.column
Bob
I was a print-out-the-online-maps guy until that Colorado trip. The ability for the GPS to recalculate on the fly is an awesome feature.
-Brian
ateixeira, "Navigation GPS Systems" #259, 4 Aug 2005 1:08 pm
I'll give Dennis (blue subie) the credit for the referral. He had a c330 at the time, and showed me how it worked. I was simply impressed by how easy it was to use. That planted the seed in my head that made me want a GPS.
As I progressed from the novice GPS user stage to the intermediate, I figured out how to load points-of-interest databases. I found a free one that points out all the speed traps, red light and traffic cameras in MD, DC, and VA, and loaded them all up for free. The warning beeps can get annoying but it might save you from a few tickets:
ateixeira, "Navigation GPS Systems" #723, 12 Sep 2006 10:29 am
My wife got a ticket (at a location my POI database would have warned her about - DOH!) and that was the final straw, so we bought a 2nd GPS. We disputed the ticket and won in court. :shades:
Any how, our 2nd model was for the van. We got tired of sharing, pulling it out of one car and putting it in the other. The c series is not as small as the Nuvi series, so if you want better portability get a Nuvi (or a Tom Tom One).
By the time I bought the 2nd GPS, the c320 had been discontinued. Even the c330 (faster hard drive replaces SD memory) was dropped. Their most affordable model was the c340, which added TTS (text-to-speech), so basically it reads out the street names which is nice.
Funny side note: the Australian voice pronounces "battery" like Eddie Murphy did: BAT-tree.
The c500 series has quicker satellite reception, I believe.
The Nuvi series is smaller, fits in a shirt pocket. That may be best if you plan on sharing it with Q often, moving it from car to car.
Basically, decide what features you want. If you spend a lot of time on the road it might be worth upgrading to one that has XM traffic capability, bluetooth so you can wear a headset, and maybe even an MP3 player. Also, 3.5" screens are pretty much industry standard, but the 4.3" screens are sweet (higher up Nuvi models or Tom Tom One XL for example).
That thread I linked to talks about GPS specifically, and is so-so on activity. GPS Passion boards are busier, but you almost get TOO much information there.
Here's a link to the c340, the 2nd one we bought:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=&pID=290
I'll be envious if you get the Nuvi 600 big screen:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134&pID=8673
Beware of some off brands. Costco carried a cheap Korean model with a big 7" screen for $700 but it turned out to be crappy (poor resolution, lost favorites, no support). At least read up on them on GPS Passion dot com.
Do not get less than the 650 because anything below 650 just says "turn right in 50 feet" whereas the 650 and above says "Turn right on Maple street in 50 feet" it's very helpful when it reads the street name to you.
The Garmin also lets you put in an addy w/o the town and then pops up all the possibilities in a particular state. Same for intersections you can search by intersection which is helpful too.
The 660 gives you traffic for $60/year and that is also very helpful in urban areas.
As for the truck, amazingly the C4500 2wd w/5k miles runs about 50K which is less than a decked out 2500HD.
I did however go to my Nissan dealer yesterday cause a friend was picking up a Frontier and the dealer tossed me the keys to a blown out 08 Armada and it's pretty hot. Notable features above my 04 include:
20" rims std w/Michelin tires v. Conti-crap
GPS/Traffic/XM/Bluetooth/9.5GB HD/memory-stick slot/Stereo
Heated steering wheel
Power folding mirrors w/turn signals
Power folding 3rd Row with 60/40 split
8" screen and 8" DVD drop down for 2nd row
Front parking sensors
Rear parking sensors w/camera
Fit and finish is amazing
Better dash and interior
I told my dealer for $75/mo more if he can get me in one I'd be game.
-mike
-mike
Agree on the Text-to-Speech feature (often referred to as just TTS). Lucien should look for that when he shops.
My c340 has it, my c320 does not. To be honest it's not a big deal to me, but it is useful, especially in unfamiliar areas. You rely less on the map image.
The biggest upgrade from the c340 to the c320 is in the route calculation, it's just smarter. Same maps, by the way, v8 on both. The current maps from Garmin is the 2007, just came out this summer, which I do not have.
Also, the c340 is better than the c320 at detours. I avoided Rt. 113 in Deleware for 7 whole miles of bumper to bumper traffic, all back roads. Save my life! :shades:
Just wanted to post an FYI that I'll be moving around a few topics to organize a little more. I apologize if it causes anyone headaches in their tracked topics.
My suggestion is to check the dates before you re-read a bunch of posts.
-Frank
To help move the individual topics into the broader posts topics it makes the older dates show new and in front of the new posts.
I'll try to get it all done in the next two days so bear with me, until then the suggestion to check dates is a good one. Just ignore the older dates posts.
Seems like whatever photo depository I choose to use will fail. I'm afraid to even try a new one. I probably won't bother.
First it was homepage.com, then a photo site (forget the name), now Imagestation. 0 for 3.
Don't worry, I won't join Photobucket or Shutterfly because that would seal their ultimate demise as well. :sick:
looks like you can move photos to shutterfly, not sure how they're intending on doing that. I've been using imageshack.us for a bit now as well.
-Brian
Oops, I have images on CarSpace, advanced warning folks!
I interpret that to mean a vehicle must be included in the photo.
http://Pbase.com/paisan
-mike
http://www.imageshack.us/