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Did you know that Jack Baruth had a blog? I didn't until he commented on Facebook page of Rob Finfrock, a fellow renter of N28GX. But he does, and uses it to get back at butthurt commenters, over a rental car review. It's the kind of car review that everybody does, only Jack's was amplified by it published by TTAC. Here's something I hope comforts him, always: at least they comment.

Tags: cars

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Attending this kind of event comes with certain constraints: basically it's an exhausting exercise of fit check after fit check, and a car beauty pageant. So, as a way to know cars, it's quite lopsided. But it's fun. With that in mind, a few highlights...

Mercedes C-class was a disappointment, made bigger by the surprise. It's not quite as bad inside as a rental Camry, but comes close, and nowhere in the class of, say, Lexus IS and ES. Not even in the class of BMW 3xx, which is quite nice. If BMW did something about their ghastly run-flats, I would be really interested. Unfortunately, BMW didn't bring the 1-series to the show.

A number of other interesting cars was missing, too. Nissan missed the show completely. Too bad, I meant to check out the Z. Toyota didn't bring Yaris. What's up with that? I love junk cars, and 3-door Yaris is one of the cutest. Sure, I looked at Prius C, but it's not the same.

Speaking of junk cars, GM Spark is outstanding. Of course, it's not warming the weaboo heart like Yaris, but the fake panels on the inside were amazing. Almost makes me forgive how GM assembly workers forgot to install brake pads on Spark.

Ford Fiesta and Mazda 2 turned out to be somewhat tight inside. Nothing impossible, sort of like Neon was. Of course back then Neon was surprisingly roomy, but this is 2013.

Even stranger, then, is how I simply cannot fit into Scion iQ. Headoom must be around 36 inches. The car does not look low, but I suppose the seat is too tall, and there's nothing to be done about it, absolutely nothing. Very disappointing, because I like the concept. Fitting into Mazda MX-5 is impossible too, but at least there it makes sense. It's a small sporty car and all that

In the end, Honda Fit is still the king. I hear some commenters call it "dated", which just makes no sense. In my world, there's "good" and "bad" and there's no "dated". What the heck is that, anyway? Fit is simply the best.

The cutest car at the show was actually a pickup: a Toyota Tacoma. "Cute as a button" may begin to describe it, but I am just a sucker for this kind of thing. It's a mistakenly conceived truck for the poor people: 2WD, manual, bench seating. I say mistakenly because the poor buy used full-sizers instead. Stole the show for me, really it did. See, I knew the merits of Fit beforehand, but this was a fun discovery.

To be sure, I learned a few other tidbits, too. Honda Civic retained the independent rear suspension in the age of decontenting. Honda Ridgeline has an amazingly long bed (and a clever gate). Silly commenters made me think that its bed was too short, but they knew nothing. It's a couple of feet longer than SportTrac's, possibly even longer than the bed of Crew Cab Tundra.

Oh, and finally - the Toyobaru FT86 twins: Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ. Very nice. Low seating makes getting and out somewhat of a problem for less sporty people, but provides me with the vital headroom. Sadly the "new hachiroku" is a car that really must be driven, so there's no point in blogging it. Maybe when I crash the jeep, I'll get one. Unless I get a used BMW 135i, G37, or a Z. What a good time to be a car enthusiast.

UPDATE: Here's how Autoblog explains Fit:

Some six years later, the plucky little five-door continues to be a packaging wonder. Its flat load floor helps deliver a surprising amount of cargo area with the rear bench folded – up to 57.3 cubic feet. That number is more than twice what the Fiesta delivers, bests the Sonic by 10 cubes and the Versa hatchback by nearly seven. In fact, it's more space than class-above competitors like the Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra GT and Mazda3 hatchbacks. And it's not just maximum cargo space where the Fit still wins, but also how those cubes are reconfigurable to accept objects of various shape and size.

Frankly this makes me concerned. Remember the original Scion xB? Remember how Toyota screwed up the redesign?

Tags: cars

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 04:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I heard they are as common as Priuses around San Francisco, but it's the first time here. Local plates.

Tags: cars

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I skipped a few "Rental Car Review" instances mostly for not being relevant, such as Chevy Impala: The Worst Rental Ever that Almost Killed My Family (a wheel bearing was on its last miles). This Ford thing is pretty cute though.

First, the good: gosh this thing is sporty. Driving it helps one understand the appeal of the "hot hatch" in the minds of people. Personally, I was in hotter sedans before, but Focus does have its charms. Secondly, the CVT works great. Cannot say anything about its durability, but it wasn't clunking as much as Fiesta's.

Now, the bad.

The throttle requires exquisite management, and I'm not joking. It's easier to launch Focus with a manual without jerking your passenger around than with the CVT. The throttle is fully programmable and there was plenty of underutilized travel, so why did Ford choose this?

Visibility to the rear is nil. Now, I heard a lot of complaints from my family about various cars on this score over the years. Some even thought JK lacked visibility, but it never was an issue for me. Well, this is the time for me to suffer their suffering. Backing up was a crazy excercise. And there's no camera.

Finally, the thing is just plain too wide for what it is. Ford tends to go whole hog on width in general, which I noticed with the prev-gen Fusion. But man, that one was a car fighting for retirees with Buick. This one is different. Why so wide? Yeah, it helps cornering, but there must be limits.

Tags: cars

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 01:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Check this out: a DIY hoist for a jeep hardtop:

Now I can pop the top off for a quick trip to a local off-road area. Before it was too much trouble, so I only did it when my wife was out of town. It was not feasible to reconfigure it back as family SUV quickly.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is going to be even more capsule than usual:

* Just as good as Hyundai Fanbois at TTAC say, but

* The visibility to the left is impaired by the A-pillar even worse than usual, atrocious.

Tags: cars

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Capsule review:

* Very nice engine; CVT is nowhere as offensive as whatever is used in Fiesta.

* Very little to distinguish from Versa. {Update 2012/01/06: Alex L. Dykes had the same idea.}

Tags: cars

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I got a Lexus HS loaner again, and noticed something that I missed previously. The Lexmouse includes a force feedback. But it does not merely vibrate. Instead, it has resistance programmed into it so that the user can navigate the UI items without the need to point precisely as with computer mouse. This is somewhat similar to edge resistence in Linux window managers, such as Metacity. The precise pointing remains available, too. I didn't know about it when I addressed J's complaints, but this is even more awesome.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:13 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I had access for Fusion for longer than in case of Lexus HS, and a good thing too, because it took me a long time to figure out how to lower the seat. But once I did, it became rather comfortable (as we know, the headroom is of paramount importance to me). There were a few things to nitpick. The biggest problem is the excess width. The car feels grotesquely obese, even if I suspect it may not be much wider than any other car. The inboard position of seats may have something to do with it. The other problems were insignificant: the key tag kept biting me in the knee, for instance. It seems like a competent car.

Ford did away with a column-mounted shifter, which I thought added character to their products. If I remember right, the previous Fusion I drove in 2007 still had it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the new shifter, but I'm a little sad. On the other hand, I wish they adopted Toyota's stalks. If you don't like "nostalgic" controls and swap them in for "conventional" ones, please go the whole way. I have a Jeep that uses Toyota layout for crying out loud. Continuting the same theme, Fusion uses the retarded red rear blinkers. I can understand Jeep doing that, they even sell red blinkers in Europe (I thought it was prohibited, actually, so imagine my surprise). But Fusion is a normal car.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 04:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have an online friend who's a total curmudgeon. Last time he griped about the awesome bar (the thing about it is how after the same initial rejection I loved it). This time it is the Lexus mouse, which we mentioned recently. The main complaint is that to use the mouse, the driver has to take eyes off the road. But it is true to any other interface too! The fallacy J. is pushing is that adding buttons would allow one to count clicks or whatnot. And it's false. Of course, some functions work without looking, for example radio on/off and scan. But the lexmouse does not dispose with them! All it does is replacing the touch-screen or tab-tab-tab-like-crazy UI, the one-touch buttons are still there.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I scouted the websites a little bit, configuring an off-road platform that would be livable on the street, and found something curious: they all cost about the same, a shade above $30k (not considering incentives, because I hate them).

Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is the only Wrangler with lockers (front and rear). It's kind of amazing that Chrysler would even build Jeeps without them, but there you have it. Since Wrangler does not take a roof rack, and is short, I added a hitch. MSRP: $31,355.

Toyota FJ Cruiser only gets "off road" (OF) package if "convenience" (CQ) package is selected. There go $3600 for the shit like backup camera (I test-drove it and the camera is not needed. Also, it's mounted on the spare wheel.) With roof rack, MSRP: $30,779.

Nissan Xterra Off Road MSRP: $30,700. BTW, a Pathfinder 4x4 is $30,340 - you trade a rear axle and a locker for bling to end with the same price.

Jeep is surprisingly expensive in Rubicon trim, I have to say. It's possible to knock some dough off by speccing a manual tranny and a softtop, but it does not change the bigger picture. And if it's not Rubicon, it is not that much better than RAV4 (it climbs better thanks to the low gear, but that's about it).

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I ran a comparison of the several headroom specifications, and it looks like the number is not as meaningless as I thought... Behold (inches):

Toyota FJ Cruiser : 41.3: - I fit comfortably
Toyota RAV4 (3Gen) : 40.8 - I fit ok
Toyota Yaris (3D) : 39.4 - I fit barely
Lexus IS : 37.2 - I am unable to fit no matter what I try, and I tried hard and long (moonroof is mandatory on IS).
Lexus HS : 38.0 - I am unable to fit.

What we see here is that in general these figures give us a rough idea of what to expect, although the number for the HS is a lie, according to my experience: it is not easier on my neck than IS at all. Perhaps some creative accounting was involved.

Just for kicks I went and checked the spec for Mercedes C300: 37.1, BMW 128i: 37.9, Infinity G37: 37.7. The is no hope. I am destined to be confined to SUVs forever. On the other hand, Yaris?

UPDATE: Kazriko pointed me to the database at theautochannel.com that permits to sort by headroom (within a body style, but sedans include Fit). If we discard the cars in which I would not want to be caught dead and too freaking expensive ones, we get:

Honda Accord : 41.4
Infinity G37 sedan : 40.5
Infinity G37 coupe : 39.4
Mitsu Lancer Evo : 40.6
Nissan Sentra : 40.6
Nissan Altima : 40.6
Honda Fit : 40.4
MINI (no sunroof) : 38.8

The winner is clearly G37, because it seems like they make one without a sunroof (unlike Lexus, Benz, and BMW -- for shame, guys). The one I listed above is probably a sunroof model. That is of course only if we discard Accord for being HUEG, which appears to be the right kind of big. I remember testing them and being suitably impressed. I tested Fit too, and it's really nice, terrific actually.

Now, Nissan also has a few consumer cars that I forgot about. Poor Nissan, nobody likes you. Although strange, where is the Z? Or non-Evo Lancer, for that matter. And finally, MINI's number is suspiciously low, but I know that I can fit in it, although as tight as in Yaris. But perhaps it was my sheer willpower and self-delusion.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 05:09 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Today I drove a loaner HS400h, the Prius-based Lexus. The main impression is, everything is crazily electronic. Also, driving it is what I imagine driving a Yurikamome train would be like (except that of course Yurikamome is computer-controlled and has no engineer). Especially the whine when braking really is cute. Did I say that Yaris was a car for weaboos? Well, this is the car for weaboos with too much money. Unfortunately, I am so used to a real car, that driving Prixus leaves me unimpressed.

The biggest issue for me is the same as usual: despite being taller than the IS, HS miraclously remains equally constrained in the headroom. I had to drive it while tilting my head or bending like an earthworm all the time. This is all the more galling givin how it's not just taller than IS, but also wider. It is a massive car.

That aside, the computer UI offers an amazing innovation: mouse cursor. That's right, things we take for granted since 1984 Mac finally were recognized by automakers (well, an automaker). In every car I tested this far -- BMW, Lexus, Infinity, etc. -- they went to crazy lengths to design a UI that was different from the computer one. I suspect the influence of PhDs who spent their baren careers in futile attempts to improve upon the cursor. Well, no more: HS offers a mouse, at freaking last.

The controller is similar to Thinkpad's nipple, but it's so much easier to use, there's just no comparison. I hate the blasted nipple, because I cannot control it precisely enough to point. But HS' "nipple" is big and has a long travel at each axis, so it's convenient and pleasant.

But there must always be a fly in the honey. Computers being computers (or underpaid programming monkeys to whom Toyota outsourced the programming being what they are), I stepped on a bug within 10 minutes of taking the keys. The Miku Hatsune MP3s that I downloaded from Amazon won't play. The system shows the filename, but cannot read the tag and skips them. Brilliant, Toyota. My $110 radio in RAV4 plays them just fine!

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:09 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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