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Comments
I agree that a wagon would have been a much more practical solution- not sure why Honda is trying to copy BMW. It's not the most attractive car, and even the Honda salesperson was saying he couldn't understand why Honda built it.
They did have a really good lease deal on the car- I don't think they're flying out of the showrooms!
I did end up buying a leftover '09 Civic for my son- they gave me a great deal on it and it's a well made little car. Noisy as heck on rough freeways though.
Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving (other than the traffic Bob!) still trying to recover back at work!
tom
Mark
There was that crazy GMC SUV where the whole back would open up- can't remember the name of it though.
Good luck!
tom
http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2009/12/2011-kia-sorento-debuts-at-2009- -los-angeles-auto-show.html
• Available 276 hp 3.5L V6
• 6-speed automatic
• 7-passenger seating
• Starting under $20K
• Built in the USA
The only thing I don't like is the small rear-quarter window, which impedes rear visibility.
Bob
This sounds interesting. I am going to check it out.
Our Ody is almost 10 years old. DW wants another 7 seater although I don't think we really need one. I want to go smaller and have been hinting at the CRV and Forester.
The Sorento with the 7 seat option just might fit the bill. We camp and ski and often haul around half a lacrosse team with gear so it just may be a good solution.
Is it related to the Hyundai Veracruz? I prefer the VC inside.
The outside profile looks like someone took an MDX and pressed a giant iron on top of it.
Dimension wise, it's almost the same as the Santa Fe - within 1" on exterior. The Santa Fe offers 3 row seating but it's a unicorn. The VC is 6" longer, 2" wider and the same height.
The problem with the VC is it's popularity - it and the Tribeca both lack any.
I think the front of the Sorento looks a bit like the Mitsubishi Outlander.
I doubt the Sorento will be sporty, so I think I'd be bargain shopping a VC, personally.
You gotta try those leather seats. They're extremely plush. It offered the first real sign that the Genesis would be a truly great car.
So they don't have any either!
But I know there aren't that many there and the even split of 7 ea is too coincindental.
They have 2 pre-owned in stock but both are FWD.
Plus, how things can change. On initial launch, VC sales outstripped predictions and production back in 2007.
http://www.autoobserver.com/2009/12/suzuki-reportedly-in-vws-hands-by-year-end.h- tml
If so, it could mean the end of Suzuki cars in the USA, as VW doesn't want Suzuki to compete with VW.
Bob
IMHO, Suzuki may become like SEAT - a less expensive brand than VW.
My guess is this would probably also hold true for other Subie NAVI units as well, as they're all pretty much the same.
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2009249
Voice recognition and real-time traffic are most popular features with factory NAVIs. Ford has 4 models ranked in top 10.
Bob
Oh, and the link is not valid....
Bob
Remember, this is an "owner's survey." JD Powers did not test them. So that could account for the somewhat weird results.
Bob
I wouldn't assume it would rank the same. It has a backup cam plus it accepts voice commands and support Bluetooth. Three things the 09 Forester didn't have.
Yes, the new Outback has a Kenwood unit. It and the Tribeca are listed in small type at the bottom of that chart, and Kenwood is mentioned for both models. They weren't ranked because the poll sampling was too small.
Bob
-Brian
Do the GPS units require a subscription to operate day-to-day, or just to update the map database?
Cheers!
Paul
GPS units are free to use. If they are traffic capable then sometimes you have to pay for the traffic service, although a lot of the Garmin GPS units come with lifetime traffic. You do have to pay for updated maps which can be pretty pricey on some cars!!! :mad:
Just hoping it doesn't snow here in Seattle and shut down the city for days again!
tom
-Brian
I have no idea what the pass temps are - I do know the summit temps at our ski area are well below zero, and we're single-digit overnights here. Needless to say, Christmas shopping is on hold!
It's dry here though... no snow on the ground at all, and only a slight threat through the weekend.
Thank goodness for 2 gas fireplaces!
Cheers!
Paul
I have very mixed emotions about GPS. In general the mapping is poor and routing an optimisation exercise that can be bettered by most intelligent chimpanzees.
I am one of those lucky people that can find their way, anywhere in the world, with a glance at a map. I have even managed Tokyo without dramas, which is a fascinating exercise, as street numbering is non-existent, relying on the age of buildings in a sector of a city.
After the Victorian bushfires in February 2009, we realised that all identifying road signs (and virtually everything else that might give some hint of location) had been destroyed in much of the area where we were working. We decided to buy TomTom GPS units which had proved reliable around the inner city area.
Unfortunately, the mapping for TomTom is just fine in inner urban areas, but drifts off badly once you hit the outer suburbs. I had a sinking feeling when I found that the TomTom maps did not have Gold Era (1850's) roads marked and the nannying voice repeatedly panicked that I was driving over verdant pastures (or so it thought!). New roads are a further problem and mas really do need to be updated a couple of times per years, usually at significant cost.
I am not sure if you are familiar with "The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy", a lovely English radio program, book, television series and film (probably a line of luxury drink coasters as well!)? This included Eddie, a rather overbearing computer, fitted to the Starship, Heart of Gold, the first spaceship fitted with the Infinite Improbability Drive.
Eddie was well intentioned, protective, eternally chipper but absolutely useless at anything. He is the sort of computer, fitted with an artificial people personality, who says useless things in cheery voices like "HI folks, I just want to tell you that there are a bunch of missiles coming at you. Impact 30 seconds and closing!" If you think of those dreadful synthesized voices fitted to 1980's British cars which tell you the distance until you run out of petrol or your left rear light bulb has blown, you get the general idea. (Haven't we all wanted to shoot up the lift voice that offers that cheery "34th floor, Have a nice day!"?)
In honour of the TomTom GPS's inadequacies, we have christened ours "Eddie". Eddie's great virtue is the very accurate speed reporting, a critical issue in a country where 3kmh over the limit costs you dearly in cash and demerit points. I am prepared to tolerate the frequently inaccurate directions.
However, we have just discovered that Eddie has other virtues. Mysteriously, Eddie switches languages from time to time, frequently reverting to Afrikaans, the alphabetically first listed, but a language indecipherable, except to Boer South Africans and those unfortunates who were forced to learn it in South African schools. It is hardly the most useful in suburban Melbourne, where Italian, Greek, Turkish, Vietnamese, Mandarin or Cantonese are more common. Plain English or Broad Aussie accented English are the lingua franca. Oddly, the Australian English accent is peculiarly hard for foreigners, especially Americans to master as the gross mouth movements common to other languages are not used in Australian English.
After Eddie's latest venture into Afrikaans, I switched back to a language, claimed to be Australian English, but got some very unfamiliar comments. Whilst the accent is not good (being an Englishman's try at Aussie pronunciation) the directions are subtly altered. "Merge left ahead" becomes "We are going to turn left" and so on. Some are good but others a bit obscure
Today, I found a particular favourite. The usual instruction when Eddie believes that you have become lost is "Turn around when convenient and go back the way you came". However this time, I got "Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!". I suspect that someone has listened to a lost Australian in London and transcribed accurately.
Cheers
Graham
Yes, that's right: "Mac," and not "PC." I think there is a similar program for the PC, but goes by a different name. I believe juice can help you here, as he has it (I think?).
Here's the link:
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4332
At any rate, you launch RoadTrip like any application, and start planning your route. It took me a little while, and some experimentation, to figure out as to how to use it; but once I figured it out—it's fantastic. You can literally plan your route via "Waypoints" and then save it. The software map looks like a Google Map, and can be zoomed in or out as much as you want or need.
Once done, I did have to go back—with the route somewhat zoomed in—to double-check it. This is necessary as, on this 553-mile route, it did make some silly errors, mostly at intersections, which I had to fix. I think there were maybe 5 or 6 cases of this occurring over 553 miles? All I had to do was either move slightly or delete the closet waypoint, and that fixed it.
You then plug your Garmin into the computer and export the saved route from the computer to the Garmin. It then saves the new route in your "My info" folder. When you access that folder, you can then "Import" that route, and it saves it to the "Routes" section of the Garmin. That's it. It works great.
Well, so far so good anyway. I have yet to actually "use" this new route, so I'm assuming it will work like any other route Garmin uses. I may play with it today? Maybe check out the first 10 or so miles (no, I'm not driving back to NH to "proof" the whole route), to see if it works as promised?
Bob
http://jalopnik.com/5421165/subaru-legacy-gt-specb-tows-f+150
Bob
It's a 2WD with an empty bed with NC plates in Maine. The kid didn't stand a chance.
Definitely true, that's been my strategy. It works as long as you're not buying high-end, pricey models.
2 years ago I sold my old c320 with maps from 2006 for $100 and bought a widescreen with 2008 maps for $199. Map update was $75 at the time, so for $25 I got a big screen.
Last month I sold my nuvi 200w with 2008 maps for $90 and got a Nuvi 265wt for $179 or so. Map update was $65, so I paid a little extra and added text-to-speech, bluetooth, traffic, etc.
The lifetime map updates now cost $119, Bob got those. And that makes sense - he has a high-end 5" 1490T model. Today that costs $350 at Costco, so with the maps it would be about $470 or so.
OEM Navi is $1800-2200 or so, and a single update is $230 from Subaru. Ouch.
Plus Garmin's map updates are at least quarterly. OEM takes at least a year or so.
I noticed a dramatic improvements when the v2008 maps came out. Demand increased to Navteq had a much bigger budget to work with.
Now they're up to 2010 and with quarterly updates, it's impressively current, and much more accurate than it was 4 years ago. Huge improvement.
Perhaps as the maps for Australia get to their 3rd and 4th generation, you'll note a similar improvement.
If that took place in Maine, I would assume that spec.B had winter tires. Even so, that's pretty impressive.
Bob
Three kilometers over the limit?! That is insane. Speedometers could be off by that just by changing out a set of tires. I tend to run 4-5 mph over the limit, which is what, 6-8 kph? I wonder how Canada views the issue; I run about 8 kph over the limit there, unless I am in an urban area.
I used to pull pickups/SUVs out of ditches rather regularly with my '96 Outback... and these were vehicles that were stuck (and not just without traction). Without fail, the drivers of those vehicles expressed amazement that my "little car" was able to get them out. It is all about the technique. I also pull my pickup up the driveway with my Subaru(s) whenever I use it in the winter time. It is a rare thing when that truck can make it up solo.
I agree, though, that this procedure is much easier with an automatic than a manual - especially so with a Subaru. Maybe it is just me, but I think the clutch material on them is very soft and tends to burn more easily than other makes.
-Brian