Thunderbeast! no More

A little over a month ago I bade farewell to Thunderbeast!, my 1996 Ford Thunderbird.  I knew it wouldn't handle the pace of 1000 kilometres a week forever, but I had hoped for 52 more weeks, plus or minus.

Truth is I could have put another couple of hundred bucks into it, after all it had been at least a month since the last repair, and again a month since the one before it.

Truth is, my ego aside, I owe it to my employer to drive a reliable vehicle that gets me to work on time.

And now the fuel economy of my Honda Civic is paying for the bi-weekly payments of ownership.  I am no more money out of pocket weekly than I was when I drove a gas thirsty beater.  Now I have air conditioning that works, a door that closes and windows that open.

And finally, FINALLY I am driving a Canadian made car.

Goodbye Saab

Months later I can finally write about it.

From the first time I ever drove a Saab and announced to my boss that I would be the top Saab salesperson in my town (and was, for awhile), to buying my dream Saab second-hand, to buying my wife a Saab I have considered it to be the finest automobile ever built (for a guy of my social status).

But by the time I drove to Toronto to trade in the 9-3, I was ready to wake up.  As my local Saab dealership said as they disavowed all knowledge of having ever sold me the car, "you're on your own now."  The dream, while nice, was over.  Life goes on.  It was a machine.  A very cool machine.  The machine of a dream. 

• A very safe machine, one of the safest cars ever designed
• A beautiful machine, one of the most stylish vehicles I've ever owned
• A functional machine, with seats down one of the largest cargo spaces in it's class
• A well built machine, with not a squeak or a rattle 9 years after first rolling off the line
• A quirky machine, with strange and different design that made perfect sense...I can't explain it.
• A bit of a status symbol, I admit.  Not everyone "gets" Saab.  I will having miss the nameplate in my driveway and on my key chain.

And so I bid adieu and move on.  We shall speak of it no more.  Watch my goodbye video here:  

http://youtu.be/VRqbdYFzSEI 

Road Test - 2011 Kia Soul

Some people might think it unfair to judge a vehicle strictly from the driver's seat after only a couple of days of rental driving, but look at how we buy them.  We can do all the market research we want, but in the end, for most us it comes down to a 20 minute test drive and a 2 hour negotiation.

My opinion of the 2011 Kia Soul is not a good one, with all due respect to those who design and build them. Look, no one's NOT buying a car because of anything I say, except me.  I won't be buying a Kia Soul.  Here's what I thought.

Great - It's got a GREAT turning radius, so if you're into u-turns and mall parking, this is the vehicle for you.  Hello soccer moms, I'm talking to you.  Pick up your child from school, make the u-turn and drive three blocks back home before you load up and head another few blocks to the soccer field.

Good - Funky interior design with all the knobs and buttons in all the right places.  I think the ladies could use a place for their purse.

Room to Grow - Look, this is a pure chick-mobile, but I don't think the average mom-driver is going to like the fuel economy.  It's not good for a car this size.  The combined city/highway mileage on this drive was 11 litres per 100 km.  Heck, my 1996 Thunderbird with a massive 8-cylinder under the hood gets the same on the highway.

Would I buy one?  I don't know how it is in the snow, so I can't promise I'd buy one even if hell froze over.  Not for me, not for my wife.  Next time I'm offered one at the rental counter I'll be asking what's the second choice.   Sorry Kia.  I'm not a Soul-man (who didn't see that coming?)

Watch my One-Minute Review here:

Road Test - the 2011 Chevy Cruze

I've been wanting to drive one of these since those catchy TV commercials hit the air.  The 2011 Chevy Cruze is a good-looking small car, and I wondered if it really could live up to the implied promise that this was the future of the new GM.

It did.  I enjoyed my day with the car, and while I confess I didn't drive it under very demanding circumstances, renting a car for 24 hours gives you a much better test drive than the 30 minutes I'd expect from the dealership.  For the money, I'd recommend it.  Here's what I thought:

GREAT:  The car is zippy, if not a bit buzzy.  It has plenty of go, and none of that air conditioning lag that used to plague smaller engined cars.  It's tight, fast, handles well and feels great at any speed.

GOOD:  It's well laid out, with lots of thoughtful touches like the handle inside the suprisingly very large trunk, 60/40 split folding rear seats, easy to read radio and console control centre, and a comfortable firm seating.

ROOM for GROWTH:  Heated seats, baby.  That should be standard on any car sold in Canada.  Heated seats are as much about safety as they are about comfort, in fact the two go together.

WOULD I BUY ONE?  Sure, if we were a young couple with a few little kids starting out, this would be a great car because of the roominess of the interior and the trunk.  It's a great commuter car, great on gas and not bad looking.  Maybe as an old retired geezer with a penchant for golfing, this car would do as well.    As a highway vehicle, I'm sure it's fine but I'd really want to pimp it up with leather seats and a sunroof - taking it into a price range I'd prefer not to pay for a compact North American made vehicle.

Here's my 60 second video review:

Road Test - the 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe

Once upon a time our family owned a Saturn Vue.  It was a sport-cute, and my wife was the main driver.  Apart from a lot of road noise, a nagging gearshift issue that the mechanics couldn't recognize (but we did), and how very badly it handled in the snow, we kind of liked it.  But we've actively avoided all Sport-Utes since we got that out of our system and went back to driving a sedan.

I've boycotted all Hyundai products out of protest because of the Pony.  I won't even rent them.  Back in the eighties we had just enough means to buy one of only three cars in our meager price range - a Pony, a Pontiac Sunbird, or the Renault Alliance.  Thankfully we chose the Renault, because the Pony had a useful life of exactly three years, and the Sunbird was a blue smoke belching excuse for a small car.  I had a friend who owned a Hyundai Pony and got not one hour more than 1080 days out of it.  Last payment and a dead car (back in the day when you could afford to buy a car over three years).

So when the rental guys try to offer me a Hyundai, I always decline, but this week I caved and took the Santa Fe.  What a great vehicle!  It's got me rethinking my aversion to Sport-Utilities, and I have discovered a new respect for Hyundai.  Here's what I thought:

Great:  The design.  This is a good sized vehicle that doesn't feel cumbersome.  It's easy to handle, has plenty of zip even with the air conditioning on full blast, it's quiet on the highway and comfortable to drive. It feels like a whole lot more car than what you probably pay for it.  Quality - it just feels like quality.  Somebody who cares designed and built this vehicle.

Good:  Fuel economy is surprisingly good for a big Sport Ute.  It's larger than a number of it's competitors, and even in mostly city driving I was surprised at how little fuel it used.   Still, if I didn't have to commute in this vehicle, I would probably prefer something a little smaller.  But for soccer moms and hockey dads, the flexibility and size doesn't have to come with an excessive trade-off in operating costs.

Room for Growth?  It feels like they intentionally built blind spots into the design.  Backing up with the high back seats and headrests combined with tinted windows was uncomfortable in a parking garage.  I always felt like I was guessing.  I wouldn't even attempt to back up out of the family driveway without knowing where every little kid in the neighbourhood was for fear of running over someone I couldn't see. Maybe a back-up camera is needed?  So an excellent family oriented design on the inside of the vehicle and wonderful performance under the hood fails a little, in my opinion, in the lack of consideration of all that's happening outside and around the vehicle.

Would I Buy One?  Frankly, I'd like to test drive it in the snow first.  But if it was as great as it looks like it might be, and if we were back in the days of three young active kids, and if we could afford more than we could back then, we most definitely would have put this vehicle on the list.

Even today, maybe a hybrid Santa Fe could be on the list of future vehicles.


Here's my One Minute Review of the 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe

Road Test - 1996 Ford Thunderbird LX

This picture on the right isn't a Thunderbird.  It's a 1996 Saab 900S.  I'm a Saab guy.  I don't mind admitting it.  I own two of them, but not for much longer.  One of them is off to Saab heaven, which is located somewhere between "GM doesn't own us anymore" and "people are buying our cars faster than we can make them."  Sadly, this heaven doesn't exist.

When I took the Mighty Saab off life support (I cut off access to my credit card and my mechanic had to take a night job as a bartender), finding it's replacement was destined to be a challenge.  It had to be cool, it had to be versatile, it had to be fun to drive, and if possible, upscale but not ostentatious.

The 1996 Ford Thunderbird is all of that except the versatile part (my Saab's glove box was wider that the T-Bird's trunk).  It's built to drive, and to drive hard.  It's fun.  I'm glad I bought it.  Here's why:

GREAT:  This car has power!  I haven't felt the surge of 8 cylinders and rear wheel drive in so long I had forgotten what it was like.  I felt like a guy again; I actually felt 'em growing back after 32 years of front wheel drive.  I had so much testosterone flowing after the first time I opened it up on the highway I had to shave twice that day.  It's nickname?  THUNDERBEAST!

GOOD:  Suprisingly not bad gas mileage on the highway.  18 mpg (hey, it could be a lot worse).  Comfortable, well laid out, very masculine cockpit.

Room for GROWTH:  (as if Ford's designers are headed back to the design board after they read this).  That trunk is not very deep.  Seriously, the cargo room in my hatchback Saab with the seats down was enough to bring home from Ikea an entire living room set, to whit:  one couch, one love seat, two armchairs, one coffee table and two side tables; mind you that's what both Ikea and Saab were designed for.  If I go to Ikea with the T-Bird I will be bringing home in the trunk, at most, a catalogue, a Boomjaga cutlery tray and Flimsgaard magazine rack.

Overall recommendation:  If you can find a 1996 Thunderbird with only 200,000 kilometres in mint condition, buy it.  I'm glad I did.

Road Test - 2011 Chevy Malibu

My first car was a 1973 Malibu.  Picture this car (above) in a light blue, with a white vinyl roof that started at the B pillar (driver's door) and went all they way to the trunk line.  Swivel bucket seats.  Big engine, big power, thirsty.  I sincerely regret ever selling that car, although I do recall that the rusted hole in the floorboards was causing the interior windows to fog because the carpets were always wet from road spray, the swivel seat was broken so it kept rotating when I turned corners, and the damned car disliked wet weather so much that it stalled BEFORE it came to a puddle.

I hated what GM did to the 'bu after that year.  Squared it up (notice the round tail lights on the '73) made it a family car (Mal-boo!) and took the guts out of it. The model died, came back, died and then came back again like a cheap whore in an afternoon soap.

This week I rented the 2011 Malibu, something I've been wanting to do for some time.  It's got it's looks back, though nowhere near as dangerous looking as it used to be.  It's got some guts.  It doesn't come in a two-door anymore, but there aren't many models in both a 2 and 4 door.  Yeah, it's a family car, but a young man in his early fifties can get into it, too.

Here's what I thought of it:

GREAT:  It was great on fuel.  I did mostly city driving and was very pleased on how little gas it used.  That's a very big deal to me, and even back in the day I never liked the idea of transferring money from my wallet to the big oil companies' bank accounts simply because of the inefficiency of my automobile's engine.  It's never been the prime motivation for choosing one car over another, but it can be a deal breaker.

GOOD:  Comfortable layout, easy to use controls, tight steering and handling, lots of zip, easy to park, handle inside the trunk lid so you don't get your fingers dirty (yeah!) and most importantly - not BORING.  I rented a competing sedan, the Camry, on my last trip and found it all of the above but BORING as hell.  I aged 20 years just taking a two-hour drive down the highway in the Toyota. Kind of like the Volvo S-10; I think it's against the law to listen to rock music when you drive a Volvo, it's just so boring.

Room for GROWTH:  Where's the heated seats?  I'm not being a luxury hound - this is a safety issue!  A comfortable driver is an alert and responsive driver, but a driver who is hunched over the steering wheel drawing his extremities in and avoiding movement as much as possible in order to conserve body heat on a snow-crunching dark January morning is not going to be as ready for evasive action, at least until the car and the driver warm up.  Heated seats should not be an option in Canada.  Oh, and the seatbelt kept getting stuck between the door and the seat on the driver's side - small but annoying design flaw.

Would I buy one?  Already pricing 'em.

Road Test - 2011 Dodge Charger

My first car was a 1973 Malibu. I bought it used in 1978. It was a two-door with vinyl roof, swivel bucket seats, and and 8-cylinder engine that spit out 350 hp. I often lie and say it was a four-barrel engine, when in fact it was only two. I have no clue what that means.

Driving the Charger brought me back to the heady days of big power, rear wheel drive, and high fuel consumption. This muscular car made me feel like a guy. I could almost feel 'em growing back after 3 decades of driving emasculating front-wheel drive cars.

My rental car place gave me a "complimentary" upgrade to the Charger, but actually what they did was push me into a perceived gas guzzler at a time when everyone is asking for a fuel sipper (like I was born yesterday). I was however, born at a time when I can appreciate some old school muscle driving. Here's what I liked about the Charger:

Good - you feel like a guy again. It feels a little dangerous. It has a serious, almost a "mean" face to it (as opposed to happy-faced mini-vans and compact cars). The rear wheel drive feels powerful and tough. You strut when you walk towards the car.

Great - all of the above, and more. The car is smooth on the highway, and reasonable on gas considering... It's roomy, simple, and the controls are easy to read, understand and use. There are no distractions and it's far from boring to drive.

Room for Growth? It's pretty basic at the level I was driving, but that is also it's strength. It's a throwback to the 70s in its simplicity, and yes I know it's loaded with computers and gadgets that hadn't been invented in the 70s. They're out of the way, and the cockpit is simple and a very cool no-frills experience. If I could add one thing, it would be a trip computer that showed fuel consumption, a compass, upscale sound system controls...but I can live without all that.

But Would I Buy One? If I did a LOT of highway driving, this would be a very cool car to do it in.

Test Drive - the Ford Fiesta

On my final business trip of 2010 with over 90 days on the road this year, and the longest stretch at 6 nights away, I arrived at the airport rental car counter and felt a little like Clooney in Up in the Air. "We have an Impala for you, Mr. Tyrrell" chirped the young 'un with a tie. Yeah, I'm not quite ready for the old folks home. "Ummm, what else is available?" I asked. "Only a Ford Fiesta," he sympathized, fully in sync with my frequent traveler need to have my ego and fat-ass upgraded. Wrong.

"Sweet, a Fiesta!" I enthused. "Like in the commercials, I'll take it!" "Mm," he replied, hoping to get his back fully turned before he rolled his eyes. I don't care, it was sweet.

And so I found myself in a four-door Fiesta sedan, of the 2010 variety. White. No hatchback. Automatic. Satellite radio. Cool blue mood lighting inside. Incomprehensible driver info centre. No cruise control, no heated seats (don't judge me - heated seats are a safety feature).

And after a six day test drive, here's what I think.

Great: Zippy little car, great for buzzing around town. It accelerates quickly, responds nimbly, parks well, has minimal blind spots, great visibility out of the back window when reversing.

Good: It's pretty good on gas. Actually, it's pretty great on gas on the highway, but it's quite noisy. That may have been the snow tires, but no way was all that noise coming from the tires. So it's a catch-22. The best, and I mean an incredible 6.9 litres per 100 km on the highway gas mileage (kilometrage?) is where you least enjoy the vehicle. In the city it's OK on gas, not bad, but nothing to write about.

Room for Growth: OK, it's stupid and it seems to be a trend in cars this year, but where am I supposed to hang my suit jacket or my dry-cleaning if they aren't going to build those little hooks or even the "holy-sh*t" bars in the back? And if there's an interior release for the trunk I couldn't find it, and neither could my enterprising rent-a-car executive in training. And one thing that's standard on my old beater SAAB that the rest of the automakers could learn from the Swedes is to put a handle on the inside of the trunk so I can close it without getting my hands dirty on the outside lid, and without leaving those stupid finger marks that Customs guys are trained to look for.

Note to Customs guys: make the SAAB owners open their trunks for inspection even if you don't see finger marks. They've been shopping too, even if there's no obvious indication of them ever having opened the trunk.

But would I buy a Ford Fiesta? Well, yeah, but not the sedan. Gotta have my hatch. The trunk room and opening isn't good for very much of anything on the sedan, so I have to hope the hatchback is bigger. And at a pretty low MSRP I'd say it's got to be one of the better deals on the road.

Congratulations Ford.

Test Drive - the Lincoln MKS

Last week I traveled to Ottawa and took a few friends golfing at an annual tournament for charity. I golf so badly that the only way I can get through the game is to pick and choose those who will either golf as badly, or politely tolerate my incompetence. I was fortunate to find three such friends, who also accepted my offer of a ride to Montebello in my rented Lincoln MKS. It was a beautiful day on a beautiful course, and we arrived in style in a beautiful car.

The Lincoln MKS is a luxurious sedan that is thoughtfully appointed. The ride is smooth, the handling superior, and the whole look of the machine is impressive.

Good? The handling, the pick up, the smooth ride, and the tightness you'd expect in a vehicle of that calibre. It had great trunk room, and lots of room for back seat passengers. I loved the automatic seat settings and the way-cool interior lighting. It's a fine automobile.

Great? I really loved the safety features like the air conditioned / heated seats, the front and rear warning when you get too close to another object or person, the automatic high beams and I think there were rain-sensing wipers, but I might be confusing the car with son's entry level Saturn.

Room for Growth? It's a small thing, but I'm always astounded when I don't find a handle inside the trunk to close it. Saab was one of the first to add this thoughtful touch, and even the Nissan Versa I rented this week has it. Driving the Lincoln MKS you'd end up with dirty fingers and dusty fingerprints on the trunk lid, something that people who live in Windsor know equals certain secondary inspection at the border.

Would I buy it? Yeah sure, but I'd miss my wife's 7 year old 9-3. The Saab may have retailed for half the price of what this Lincoln sells for, but the drive, the handling and the acceleration blow this brand new Lincoln out of the water even still.

Road Test - Nissan Versa

I recently rented a Nissan Versa at the airport when I landed for a sales trip to Ottawa. This was going to be a 3 day supertrip with lots of around-town appointments, and with no plans for long distance driving at all. I chose to rent a smaller car because I was trying to keep fuel costs down, and because the parking garage at my favourite Gatineau hotel is extremely tight. Hard to believe we were all driving gas guzzling boats back when this hotel was built - not sure how anyone made the corners. That, of course, was before Al Gore invented global warming (damn you Al Gore!)

Great - gas mileage of course. Beyond that, though, is the thoughtful design, including really very large squared off rear doors. It looks quite comfortable back there, with lots of leg room. That extra door space would be appreciated by young parents hoisting little ones in and out of car seats, although this might not be the right car for them - read on...

Good - climate control system. This thing chilled down in some pretty intense heat very quickly, although the smallness of the car contributed to that. The visibility all around is very good - and I especially appreciate the little triangle shaped window in the A-Pillar. Parallel parking gets easier when you're not guessing where the end of his bumper is, you can actually see it past your own side view mirror.

Room for Growth: Well, it's a commuter car so it's great around town and it handles well, but rapid acceleration for a quick merge onto the 417 when the air conditioner is blasting - not gonna happen. Trunk space is practically non-existent with the rear seats up, enough room for a bag or two of groceries or a set of golf clubs. This is definitely not a car for a single-car family with a couple of small kids, even if the price is right.

Overall - I really liked it, fun to drive, economical, well made and well designed. The car competes with and holds it's own against the Toyota Yaris, the Honda Civic, the Chevy Aveo, the Mazda 3 - but it's a limited use vehicle best for those who must drive to work everyday in the big city, with limited highway driving and very limited cargo needs.