Live & Direct from Nowhere in Particular...

I just realized, I’m considering a station wagon for my midlife crisis car. I’ll turn 35 in November, & life expectancy for people born in 1974 was 72 years, but I’m male, so it’s probably a bit lower. So this year is time for my midlife crisis. I suppose since my second car was a wagon (when I was 18) it almost makes sense.

I decided Friday that I would go look at some cars this weekend. Since the TT is getting a bit tired in its old age, I was considering getting something under warranty for a daily driver. So, in the past 27 hours I have visited 3 car dealerships. I drove 1 car. So, this is more a review of the dealerships than the cars. I do seem to have a talent for ending up with the good looking younger sales guys. I guess they kinda self segregate by age (or at least appearance of age, since I think the last 2 were pretty significantly younger than me - I did get carded last weekend, after all).

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I don’t tend to put a lot of stock in new age mumbo jumbo. But recently when I’ve been down or whatever, I’ve taken to checking my biorhythm. And somehow it always seems to line up. Peculiar.

I need to go out & track down some of this stuff. I got my little WoW BattleBot pet from them though. Now to win an Alienware laptop.

While my car was having a sensor replaced I ended up with a Chevrolet Aveo LT rental. I was a bit surprised to find out that it wasn’t actually the base model. I was also a bit surprised to find the one I had specs out to about $15,745. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a car without power windows or locks. Or ABS. Which brings me to the good. It has very responsive brakes. Of course without ABS, I’m not sure that counts as good.

The interior was bigger than I expected, but I never did find a good position for the seat & wheel. It was the 4 door & had almost useable back seats, I never got back there, but there was room for legs with the front seats in normal positions, so it might have been tolerable. It had the MP3 capable CD player, which thankfully had an Aux In jack. Though it sounded worse than my crackly 8 year old speakers in the TT. The sound was just sort of muffled and flat, no matter how it was adjusted.

The ride around town was ok. It absorbed big stuff pretty well, though I could still feel the small stuff. It was pretty floaty overall, lots of lean, lots of drift. I guess the softness is probably part of what made it seem like it had good brakes & probably also made it feel less slow than it was, since squat & dive was quite prominent. The little 1.6L Ecotec 4 cylinder sounded decent. Being paired with a 4 speed automatic didn’t help it deliver much in the way of acceleration, hence the school bus reference. I think I would have lost to one at a stoplight drag. I’m guessing that despite the 34mpg highway rating, I’m guessing I get better mileage in my TT than the Aveo, since I practically used the accelerator as an on/off switch.

This car is a product of GM’s absorption of Daewoo’s assets when they failed. Perhaps that should have been the first warning to those watching GM’s future.

Did I mention you can buy a Honda Fit for about this price? I haven’t driven one, but it can’t possibly be worse.

I forgot to do an update yesterday. Even though it started yesterday morning, I decided to flatbed it to the dealer just incase it died on the way. Well, I guess I should have called first. Even though no one ever answers. They don’t have the part & had no loaners.

So, I drove it back home, made it fine. But I’ve been avoiding driving it. Walked to KFC for lunch yesterday & made Ismael drive me to the party last night (which was fun, by the way). Though right now I’m hungry, so I’m not sure where I’m gonna walk to for lunch. I really need to go grocery-ing.

The lily bloomed, so I grabbed a shot. This is the first photo I’ve messed with (adjusted, cropped, etc) out of the new camera. The others, I just shot & uploaded.

Got back to the car after dinner & it wouldn’t start. It would just turn & turn but not catch, like it was getting no fuel. First thought, cam position sensor. I waited around for the flatbed, wandering Snider Plaza for a bit. When he got there, I was able to impress the driver with my mad tow hook skillz. ;^)

When we got the car back to my place I pulled out my Palm & pulled the codes with VAD VAGMobile. Also, for grins I tried to start it up (after the truck had left of course) & it fired right up. My guess was close, but not quite. There were 3 codes. 2 I already knew about, the 3rd is:
16706 P0322 035 Engine speed sender-G28: No signal

So, it looks like I’m getting up early tomorrow to hope it’ll start again & make it to the dealer. Otherwise, another flatbed ride is in my future. At the moment, I’m just not in the mood to try to fix it myself.

Link: http://maxhedrm.montebellopark.com/Galleries/v/Schtuff/1stRoll/

I got the new toy today and took a few shots before dark. The big lens is fun to play with. & the kit lens is way wider than I am used to. Which is good. These shots were just quickies for the most part, I need to play with it a lot more. I am really looking forward to fiddling with some HDR shots. Yeah, I know it’s gimmicky, but some of the results are pretty cool.