Car-y Truck or Truck-y Car?

We have been tossing around the idea that we need a different vehicle to take advantage of the outdoor activities that abound in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The lowered Miata is a no-go on anything but a nice smooth road and the Mini has a bit more ground clearance, literally like maybe an inch or so more than the Miata’s three.

We don’t want to do serious off-roading like rock crawling or anything, but we do want the ability to turn down a forest service road and drive a few miles to a trailhead without poking a hole in some vital bit of our car.

Our first thought was Wrangler. We had a real nice experience with a Rubicon we borrowed from Crazy Dave’s Car Rental. So much so, that we currently have a ginormous 5-gallon water jug in the living room we have been tossing change into labeled “Jeep Jar.”

But the Jeep is probably more hardcore than we need. A mid level SUV is not the most desirable vehicle on my list, but would be a good compromise. Donna has always wanted a small pickup for its utility, but today’s small pickups are anything but small.

An intriguing option is a couple of new vehicles that are just appearing on the market that are a mashup of a small SUV and a pickup truck, AKA Trucklets1. They are the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz. Below is a video from my new favorite car guys comparing them both:

The Everyday Driver guys did separate reviews of the two crucks2, so here are their takes on the Santa Cruz and then the Maverick.

17.8 mile drive take a walk at the Running Y Ranch.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 13

 

And I’m James™

While I’m still a big fan of Everyday Driver and enjoy their YouTube video car reviews along with occasionally listening to their podcast, my latest car review obsession is Throttle House. I hate to give credit to a computer algorithm, but I have to thank the the YouTube version for the discovery of this channel.

It all started with one guy, a Canadian named Thomas Holland, who bought an E46 BMW in 2016 and started posting videos about it. This progressed from “How To” videos to comparing the BMW to friends cars, to reviewing new cars for a Canadian car magazine to reviewing cars as a YouTube business. As the videos move forward they become better and better, but still just a guy talking about cars. They really became something else when a recently emigrated English fellow named James Engelsman joined him in 2018.

Now, the two of them (along with 3 other full time employees) produce a professional grade video of 15 to 20 minutes in length each week. There is typically a brief 2 to 3 minute scripted humorous intro “skit” inspired by the car or locale. This is then followed by both of them driving the car along with discussion of the design of the interior and exterior. There are also track tests and comparisons of old and new versions of the same auto.

Plus they have an “Extra” channel that includes unscripted quick car reviews and other random stuff. All of their content is made with their unique humorous interplay of good friends really enjoying what they do (or they are better actors than car reviewers.)

Today’s post title comes from their “patented” lead in to the driving portion of the videos and they sell a t-shirt in their store with this phrase on it. I considered buying one, but hesitate because people who see me in it will think that is what my name is, unless of course they are one of their nearly 2 million subscribers. I really like the hoodie, so much so, that I’ve actually considered dropping $55 on one. Maybe for my birthday.

If you would like to see an overview of how it started and then over time transformed to its current iteration, I’ve got a playlist of 6 YouTube videos for you or just go straight to the Throttle House channel and enjoy.

7.5 mile round trip to to take a walk in the park this past Monday.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 12

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Erin go Bragh Edition of SORT
As of Monday, March 14, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2013 BMW
M3 Coupe		 2004 Jeep
Wrangler Rubicon		 1955 Chevrolet
Apache Pickup
I got two out of three of the GOAT cars returning, but that is just by coincidence
because they happened to be some of the brightest green vehicles I could find.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to, if the reserve was not met.
Sports: 2004 BMW M3 Sold for $83,000 on 3/14/22
Off-Road: 2008 Jeep Wrangler Bid to $23,500 on 3/13/22
Touring: 2016 Porsche Cayman Sold for $61,500 on 3/11/22

Seasonal Tires

A couple of widely spaces days in the 60’s and I decided to go ahead and take the Mini’s all-season tires off the Miata and put the summer Toyo R1R’s back on. It is still going to be a while before the temperatures are reliably above 50’s in the afternoon for the Miata to get more constant use, but it was nice to have the proper tires and wheels back on the car for todays drive. No more scraping the plastic fender liners with tires on the sharper corners.

The all-seasons are stacked under the workbench in the garage for now. The winter tires remain on the Mini because it may still randomly drop some snow on us for the next few weeks. And we have a trip, that may be taken in the Mini, coming up at the end of the month that requires some high altitude mountain passes that have a higher probability snow chances than here.

10.9 mile errand trip to the Post Office.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 12

 

Potpourri

Jigsaw Puzzles – We are still doing the jigsaw puzzle thing and enjoying it, mostly. This last puzzle looked like it could have been a nightmare judging by the cover if it was one of those with all the same shaped pieces, but it had a bunch of really weird shaped pieces. This did help a lot in spite of numerous times the piece that did go in a spot looked nothing like they’d fit when you picked them up to try them. When we finished this puzzle there was one piece missing. While we would usually shrug, circle the spot where the missing piece was on the box cover photo and re donate it, this time we opted to stop spreading disappointment and chucked it in the recycle bin.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – We are three quarters of the way through with Season 4 with only two more episodes to go on this coming Friday (its really Thursday ’cause time zones, but whatever.) While we are enjoying it, we are not nearly enjoying it as much as the previous seasons. So it was with not a lot of excitement that I learned they’ll be doing a Season 5. I’ll probably watch it, because, what the heck and I still read Beatle Baily in the comics and it hasn’t been funny for decades.

Jack Reacher – Back a month ago after I had watched the Amazon’s Jack Reacher TV series I mentioned that they had introduced a character from the book that really wasn’t in the first book that this series was based on. It is a U.S. Army Master Sergeant from the 110th MP Special Investigations Unit that Reacher was in charge of. Her name is Frances Neagley, but through out the series whenever Reacher says her name it sounds like he is saying Nealy. I wondered if they changed the name of the character for TV, but they didn’t, on the IMDB page it is listed as Neagly.

Miata – The below listed Miata miles comes from yesterday and because it was only 6 days from the last time it was driven, it started right up on the first try. This means that somewhere between 6 and 11 days is the point where the battery voltage drops below the point where the car will start.

7.3 mile round trip to the dentist.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 11

 

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

GOAT Edition of SORT
As of Monday, March 7, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2004 BMW M3 2008 Jeep Wrangler 2016 Porsche Cayman
This week is pretty much my “Greatest Of All Time” SORT Bring A Trailer picks,
a BMW M3, a Jeep Wrangler and a Porsche Cayman.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to, if the reserve was not met.
Sports: 1994 Toyota MR2 Turbo Bid to $24,000 on 3/5/22
Off-Road: 1981 Nissan Patrol LG-61 Sold for $29,500 on 3/1/22
Touring: 1961 Volkswagen Type 2 Sold for $32,500 on 3/3/22

Plug-In Hybrid Miata?

The current rumors surrounding the next generation Miata is that it will be a plug-in hybrid or all electric. This post is not about that car, it is about the 2002 that we currently have.

We were going to take the Miata to Moore Park yesterday for our afternoon walk, but took the Mini instead. The Miata wouldn’t start, its battery didn’t have enough juice to even turn it over once. Just a click and nothing else.

I know I vowed to take it out once a week, but I looked back and the last time it was driven was 11 days prior. It has been too cold and we had a couple days of a light dusting of snow, so that we hardly left the house. A mere week and a half and the battery was, for all intensive purposes, dead. So I plugged in the battery charger and for this afternoon’s drive to go walking it started right up.

There must a fairly decent dark current somewhere…

16.5 mile round trip to walk 1.8 miles.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 10