CX-5 Wrap Up

As I said yesterday, “The rental CX-5, because it is a Mazda product, was a lot more engaging to drive than the last SUV we rented.” And while it is no Miata, it was pleasurable to drive along the backroads and its turbo engine made passing slow pokes a breeze. It is no wonder this thing is the most recommended SUV by nearly everyone who appreciates driving dynamics.

Because the CX-5 was the top of the line Grand Touring model it had all the bells and whistles. There was a Moon Roof, Navigation, Leather Seats (with 2 person memory for the driver’s), and a Powered Liftgate. The moon roof was barely used, because it was too noisy over anything over parking lots speeds. Navigation wasn’t needed because we had my phone and we brought the Garmin GPS. The leather seats were not the most comfortable because they felt hard and the bottom bolstering was a little narrow. I will admit the powered lift gate was nice, but not really necessary.

There was, of course, the usual suite of safety things, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert and radar cruise control. The blind spot monitoring was worthless because I know how to adjust the side mirrors so I don’t have a blind spot. The lane departure warning was just a rumble in the steering wheel, but it was doing a lot of that because I have a tendency to apex all the corners, so I’m glad it wasn’t the type to try and keep me in the lane. The cross traffic thing did give a warning once that was helpful, but there were 2 or 3 that were not needed because I saw what was going on before it did. The radar cruise kept messing with me, for the longest time I was wondering why the car was slowing down on its own, but by the end of the trip, I was finally getting used to having to keep my foot on it, as I approached a slower moving car that I was going to overtake.

It is a good looking vehicle from almost every angle, front, rear and the three quarters are really nice. But I’m not a fan of the straight on side view though, the nose looks too long. The black one we had was probably the best looking color IMHO on the CX-5 because it makes the black plastic cladding disappear1, but black is the absolute worst color because it shows any and all the dirt/dust, plus any minor scratches show up like they are backlit.

The CX-5 is 3 feet longer, a foot and a half taller and weights a 1,000 pounds more than the Miata, but it returned a respectable 30.4 MPG. The Miata has an overall MPG of almost 28, but on a trip like this were there is a lot of steady cruise, it would probably surpass the CX-5’s figure. The one road trip feature the Miata can’t touch is cargo capacity, with the back seats folded down the CX-5 has 59.3 cubic feet or 11-1/2 times the Miata’s 5.1 cubic feet of trunk space.

Would we buy one? Never say never, but if we are going the SUV way, maybe, just maybe Mazda’s new “activity” SUV the CX-50, a variation of the CX-5, would probably be a better choice. It is a little more rugged looking and it comes in a nice blue…

CX-50

How High is High?

When I first brought the rental CX-5 home, we went for a little drive around town to get familiar with it and to give Donna a chance behind the wheel.

After we had swapped drivers back to me, Donna said, “I really like being up high.” I replied, “I don’t like it all. I’m too high, I feel like I’m going to tip over. I like being low to the ground.” With a smile on my face I said, “I can barely stand the height of the Mini.” She countered with, “The Miata is too low.”

So when we got home I broke out the tape measure. These are plus or minus an inch or so because I was eyeballing from outside the car door. The Miata measured 8″ Butt To Ground, the Mini came in at 16″ and the CX-5 registered a whopping 25″ of BTG.

On Monday’s we took the Miata out for a drive around town to keep the battery fresh. Today, because it is 4/20, I used the Miata to run to the cannabis store and then later a trip to Jimmy Johns to quench the munchies (just kidding, I was not under the influence then.)

17.7 miles on those three drives.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 16

 

Just Another Road Trip Wrap Up

For this last road trip we stated on a Sunday and finished two Sundays later for a total of fifteen days. Of that, seven days were driving, one full day spent in Moab and the other seven were in Santa Fe.

Like our last trip we rented a “car2“, a 2021 Mazda CX-5. Unlike last time though it was by choice because this time the Mini didn’t have any issues preventing its use. That last trip we had a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport and the CX-5, because it is a Mazda product, was a lot more engaging to drive.

For the seven non La Casa de Sally overnights, four of them were at a Holiday Inn Express, the other three were independents. The least expensive was in the independent in Beatty, NV at a few cents over a hundred bucks and it was what it was worth. The most expensive was the other non HIE in Moab and at a few bucks under two hundred dollars it was definitely not worth it, but it was $60 cheaper than the Holiday Inn Express in town, so there’s that.

We bought gas eleven times. The cheapest we paid for gas, not counting the final fill up in Klamath Falls because we got 80¢ off from points, was $4.17 a little west of Albuquerque. The most expensive was in just outside Las Vegas at $5.56 a gallon. We used 103 gallons to go a total of 3,120 miles for an average MPG of 30.4, even though the trip info on the CX-5 said it 32.6. This MPH compares nicely to that Mitsubishi’s number of 30.5 MPG, especially considering how often my foot was into that turbo 🙂 .

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Tax Day Edition of SORT
As of Monday, April 18, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata
10th-Anniversary Edition		 1979 Ford Bronco Ranger
XLT Free Wheeling		 1954 Dodge Coronet
Suburban Wagon
There are a few other (1, 2 & 3) nice Miatas this week, but this is the one I’d pick. This is a big beast, but I chose it solely based on the cool 70’s vibe striping. The touring car winner, I can feel myself wallowing down the road in it now.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to, if the reserve was not met.
Sports: 2016 Lamborghini Aventador Bid to $480,000 on 4/12/22
Off-Road: 2021 Ford Bronco Sold for $67,500 on 4/16/22
Touring: 1956 Continental Mark II Sold for $53,000 on 4/13/22

Heaven on Their Minds

Listen, Jesus, I don’t like what I see
All I ask is that you listen to me
And remember
I’ve been your right hand man all along
You have set them all on fire
They think they’ve found the new Messiah
And they’ll hurt you when they find they’re wrong

Spring Snow

When we arrived back home last Sunday it was snowing or freezing raining. That type of weather kept up for literally the next three days. But the ground was already too warm for it to accumulate. The only place it did stick was on the grass and even there it didn’t stay around long because the daytime temps were above freezing.

The winds and temps kept us inside and shaking our heads. Talk to the folks who’ve lived here all their lives, or at least for more than the time we’ve been here, this is a pretty typical weather behavior for early April…

To the left is what the CX-5 looked like when we got up Monday morning. This was the day we needed to return it back to Enterprise, so during a brief respite from the snow/rain I went outside to clean it off. Donna was to follow me there in the Mini, but 2 weeks of sitting still in the garage sapped the battery just enough that it wouldn’t start. I guess I left the battery tender on the wrong car. Fortunately Enterprise’s slogan of “We’ll Pick You Up” applies on the other end as well, so I returned the car and a rep drove me back to our house.

Lottery Ticket Fun

We’ve been buying lottery tickets for a very long time. But just a ticket for each drawing of the big guys. We started playing Powerball, but switched to Mega Millions when the Powerball lottery went up to two bucks a ticket. When Mega Millions went to $2 a ticket we just stayed with it. We’ve never won anything more than say $10 at it, but hope springs eternal.

Currently we spend twenty dollars and that covers us for 5 weeks of drawings. I have also set up a reoccurring event on the fun to let me know when it is time to buy a ticket. When we were in Santa Fe my phone reminded me that it was time to buy a new five week Mega Millions ticket as the one at home expired after the Tuesday the fifth’s drawing. I can’t remember where we were, but the was a lottery dispenser machine there and I had a crisp $20 bill in my wallet. I slid the bill in and selected Mega Millions. I selected quick pick, but when I went to select the next 5 drawings that option wasn’t available. The vending machine didn’t have a cancel button anywhere, so there was no way to get the money back, so I ended up with 10 sets of numbers for the Friday the 8th’s drawing.

When we got home on Sunday afternoon and finished unpacking and doing some laundry, we went grocery shopping where I could buy a Mega Millions ticket good for 5 weeks, starting on Tuesday the 12th. Before going though I thought it would be smart to see how well we did in the Friday drawing with our 10 chances at winning. Turns out all we had was the Mega Ball in one of our sets of numbers. Hey, two bucks is two bucks. So, on entering Fred Meyers I hit the machine and bought our new ticket and for the heck of it I scanned the ticket we bought in New Mexico. “Invalid Ticket” was the machines response, so I went up to the Service Desk and asked them to cash it in. The counter person got the same response as I did.

Turns out that even though Mega Millions is played practically everywhere, if you buy a ticket and it hits you only get paid out in that state. I guess I could mail it to Sally in Santa Fe and she could mail the two dollars back, but if I paid for postage both ways (two 55¢ stamps) I’d net only ninety cents in winnings. And probably that 90¢ should go to her for schlepping to the store and standing in line to cash it in. If we hit the big money we’d probably pack a bag and head back to claim it, but not for two bucks. Donna suggested we just hold on to it because we’ll probably be going back in the fall. Let’s see if we remember to take it, if it doesn’t get misplaced in the interim.

I pulled our old expired Mega Millions ticket off where we hang it and hung up the new one. I figured I’d check to see if the old one was worth anything. That is when I noticed that the ticket was good all the way until the 12th… This meant that we didn’t even need to spend $20 on a ticket in New Mexico at all. And now that the new ticket starts on the 12th that meant we had two chances on hitting it big yesterday.

We hit nothing on Tuesday, but when I ran the old ticket we did have the Mega Ball back earlier in March, so I guess that takes a little sting on not being able to get the two dollars from New Mexico.