Cars

Ice Ice Baby


I assume this is a statue of a little girl, but it could be a boy because it was so cold out here this morning that my junk had sought refuge internally too and I wasn’t even standing thigh deep in ice.

It was 24 degrees out when we left the house headed to Augusta for an MMC breakfast, but first we wanted to do some geocaching. Close to the breakfast joint was a huge baptist church that had 6 caches scattered around its very large grounds. It was Saturday morning at 7 AM, so we figured we’d have the place to ourselves…wrong. They must have had a Christian Men’s Breakfast because not long after we pulled into the parking lot several cars came zipping in after us. We ended up only getting 3 of the more far flung caches before leaving because we were getting eyeballed by the new arrivals.

The church also happened to be right next door to the Hyundai dealer, so we wandered over and eyeballed some vehicles. It was confirmed that the Genesis Coupe has too big a butt for our liking.The good news is Donna approves of the Sonata in Pacific Blue which is my first pick. We both like the looks of the Accent as well. Now it comes down to some test driving, waiting until the slush fund has enough money for a decent down payment and doing the bullshit car dealer price dicker dance. Their web site listed a blue SE at $23,450, but the two they had on the lot had stickers of 26 and change and then the dealer added paint protection scam for $800, so the price for the car ended up in the high twenty seven thousand range!

After breakfast we did a bit more geocaching at a park in Augusta and then a couple more in North Augusta along the Greenway. Ended up with an even dozen finds and no DNFs, although we were close to not finding the one entitled The Secret Garden where the above photo was taken.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 926

Usually Happens To Me Around 8:00 AM

This morning there came the sound of laughter from the cubical next door. A pause. More laughter. Then #9 read out loud. Laughter. Number 11 out loud. Now laughter in two cubicles.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

Another Hyundai Post

The North American Autoshow just finished up in Detroit and my new favorite car company debuted a new production car there, the Veloster. I have praised their recent designs, the Tucson, the Elantra and my love for the Sonata’s looks knows no bounds, but what were they thinking with this:

That is a face only a mother could live… Every picture I see of this thing does not make me like it any more, it just reaffirms the ugliness of it. Then I saw it in action:

Doesn’t look too bad in motion. Some folks have called it the CRX that Honda should have built, so maybe I should put it on the possible new car list, after all I was considering a CRX before I got sidetracked with this whole Miata thing. I’ll need a different color choice or two, then I will have to figure how to make it look like it is moving while parked…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

Still More Car Shopping

I’ve expanded the search for the new car. The list from last month is still in play:

I’ve hunted down every other two-door car I could find in our price range except for a Mustang and then tossed in the Sonata’s younger brother, the Elantra, just for giggles. Here is the spec chart for these cars:

Again, all numbers reflect the difference between the Emperor and the new car (except interior volume.)

Let’s take each one at a time and discuss their relative merits and demerits. They are priced typically using the base model with mats and an Ip-odd adapter.
New Miatas Known quantity. Not real enamored with the look and fairly expensive compared the rest of the list.
Mini Fun to drive, cute as a button and fits in the garage. Quirky interior.
Genesis Sporty, with love it or hate it styling.
Sonata Best looking car of the group. But four doors and will probably be a dime a dozen by the time we get around to getting one.
Accord Positively sinister looking in black, but it is huge and will be hard to find priced in the lower 20’s.
Civic I’ve always liked the looks of the Civic Coupes, but haven’t had any looking being comfortable driving one.
Mazda RX-8 Sporty look and the chops to back it up, so it would an engaging drive. Most expensive on the list, lousy gas mileage and no blue.
Altima Has a little Infinity G37 Coupe look, but not nearly enough, so it comes off sort of dowdy.
New Beetle They aren’t making anymore of this model and if the spyshots I’ve seen accurately reflect the new New Beetle, ick, it looks like a squashed bug
Elantra I like the looks of this car, but it has four doors. This is the stuffed model to get it equipped like the Sonata, but it ends up being just 3 grand less than the larger car.
tC It’s got 2 doors. It is unexciting looking. Hope it is hoot to drive…
Focus This is the last year for this model and the 2012 model looks awesome compared to this car, but it won’t come in a coupe. Who knows, by the time we actually buy a car, if the new one is out, it may warrant a look.
Forte As with all the Korean cars, you get a lot for your money. We saw one in person this past weekend and I liked it, Donna not so much. Points off for trying to be different with the spelling of the word coupe.
CR-Z I seriously considered the CRX back in ’89 before I knew of the Miata’s existence and we were Honda drivers for a dozen years before Mazda won us over. Trouble is, this is a hybrid with all its faults (battery replacement costs) and hardly any of the benefits (gas mileage.)

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 925

More Car Shopping

On the way back into town after our unsuccessful attempt to rent a Sonata yesterday, Donna posed the door question, i.e. “Why does the next car have to have four doors?” My answer was, “It doesn’t. The only reason I’m so hot for a Sonata is that of all the cars in our price range it is the best looking (IMHO) thing for a second car.” Her timing was just right, we were approaching the Honda dealer outside of town, so I pulled in and pointed out an Accord Coupe and said,” It has two doors.” Her reply was, “That’s big.” The sticker was too, $30k. How about the Civic Coupe she asked and I said, “I’ve never been comfortable in a Civic Sedan. We’d have to try that one out.”

I love shopping, even if it is just an exercise, so I rounded up 7 candidates on the short list for the next car in the Bogardus stable to compare size and cost. All in all, you watch, when we finally do pull the trigger on a new car, it’ll be another Miata. For now let’s play. I spec’d the cars the way I would like them, mostly base models with little content and some would probably be hard to come by that way, but hey, it’s my party. There are quite a few returnees from similar speculation of 10 months ago, a couple new ones and a few drops.

Mazda Miata #1 Sport M/T w/ Convenience Pkg & Cargo Net
Mazda Miata #2 Touring M/T w/Cargo Net
Mini Cooper M/T w/ Cloth Sport Seats, Center Arm Rest, Carpet Floor Mats & Grocery Bag Holder
Hyundai Genesis 2.0T M/T w/ IPOD Cable, Carpeted Floor Mats & Cargo Net
Hyundai Sonata SE A/T w/ IPOD Cable, Carpeted Floor Mats & Cargo Net
Honda Accord Coupe LX-S A/T
Honda Civic Coupe LX M/T w/ Sport Suspension & 16″ Alloy Wheels

Here is the chart:

All numbers reflect the difference between the Emperor and the new car (except interior volume.)

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 915

Mx, Sports Car #83

The Mazda Miata on Car and Drivers Periodic Table of Sports Cars.

We went Christmas shopping in the cold drizzle this morning and purchased several things off everyone’s list. Donna got a couple of pink shirts and I got a pair of khaki cargo pants. The futon got a new set of sheets and the dining room table got a new set of cloth Christmas napkins. The afternoon and evening was spent gathered around the dry warmth of a yule log that is the Panasonic Viera HDTV and plotting geocache stepping stones between here and St. Augustine, FL.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 915

Blue Movies

And I don’t mean the kind of movies those of you who are my age or older are thinking of, I’m talking about them blue ray movies. Last night as the MMC Christmas party was winding down our host brought out his copy of Bullit in blu-ray so we could watch the famous chase scene. As one person put it, “They had to round up an awful lot of vintage cars to film this.” The picture was so bright and crisp you could have sworn it was filmed earlier that day.

Donna and I were so impressed with the picture that we thought maybe we would get one of those new fangled blue movie players for ourselves. You can get them at Walmart for a less than a hundred bucks. Then I started thinking, if we are buying one, why not get one that includes Netflix so I can stop dragging out the laptop to to do the Instant Watch thing. Here is a Panasonic for about $130 at Amazon. It says wireless ready, so you have to spend an additional $80 on an adapter. Nah. A little further digging reveals a Panasonic with the wifi adapter included for $170. Alright, but now I have to do a little research because it mentions it is Wireless N, I’m still chugging along with G and I need to know if they are compatible. Turns out it is. In that research I also find that the player will also allow me access to several internet applications like Twitter, Skype, Picasa and Pandora that are worthless to me. Thanks anyway. What about getting all those torrented TV shows to my TV? Not possible the Panasonic Viera Cast. This morning’s paper had a Target flyer shows a wireless ready Samsung for $110. You of course need a $80 adapter for this one too, but Amazon has the player for the same price as Target and the adapter on sale for $60 making the combo the same price as the previous Panasonic unit. The Samsung player jumps into the lead with this little feature AllShare: Sync up your entire household. A wired or wireless DLNA connection lets you stream your PC audio and video files to your HDTV using your remote. But it is knocked right off the pedestal when internet searching turns up conflicting reports of it’s ability to stream any old file. Sigh.

Right now we are going to stick with what we have. I’m just not ready to spend the money on something that may or may not work, especially since dragging out the laptop and plugging in an HDMI cable a couple times a week is really no big deal, plus this had the potential to develop into a money pit. For one it is $3 a month more to rent Blu-Ray from Netflix. Then the wireless G might not of hacked it streaming HD data, so another $70-80 would be needed for a new Wireless N router. Next the 7 year-old PC would have trouble keeping up serving the media. $2,000 later we would realize that a 32″ LCD wasn’t big enough to really enjoy our new found high definition video and the cheap $200 surround sound system wouldn’t sound good enough…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 913