Car thoughts

Then there is the engine. Saturn engines of that vintage are know to burn a certain amount of oil, but a liter per 600 Km is a little silly. Either some piston rings are shot, or it's a problem with the valves, which tend to clatter under load when it's low on oil. It would be fun to take the engine apart and overhaul it myself, but given the tool, time and garage space investments that would be required, this isn't a practical solution. If I want to play with something mechanical, I'll have to get an old motorbike or something that we can afford to have spread all over the garage rather than on the road. But like I need another project.

Aside from the New Year's Eve incident, the car had been totally reliable and has never left us stranded. Tamara wants something that is less likely to die at random, as she fears getting stranded somewhere in the dead of winter with an infant in the car. She'd also like a car with child seat anchors, but those could probably be installed in our existing car...

So what this boils down to is that we are looking for a new car. And here is the part where we find out which half of the couple is more mature and responsible. Tamara's requirements: good warranty and reliability, a back seat that can accommodate child seats in any position, and where it is possible to get two adults in beside a child seat, and a little more room than what we have right now. My requirements can be described this way: I like driving, but I hate traffic. I like cars because of their looks and handling characteristics. I want something that is somewhat sporty and fun to drive, with a manual transmission, but which I can sit in without being too cramped. Anti-lock breaks are also a requirement for me. And of course I don't want it breaking down at random and I want the kid to be safe. Fuel economy, cost to insure, and overall cost of ownership are among the other factors on our minds.

Since Tamara's warranty requirements pretty much mean "new car", we started our car search by going to the Calgary Auto Show. We sat in all the reasonably priced mid-sized sedans we could find. The Nissan Altima was the first. We hadn't considered the Altima before, and were impressed by the interior room. We also sat in the Toyota Camry, the Honda Accord, the Mazda6, the Volkswagen Jetta (Tamara was very excited about the tilt telescope steering wheel, which all cars in this class have), the Ford Fusion, the Subaru Legacy, and a couple of others. We came away with more options than when we went in, so after some more web research, we decided to start test driving.

I think the first car we test drove was the Honda Accord. The interior was very nice, probably the best of all the cars we drove. The back seats however, were quite heavily bolstered on the side, most likely making it difficult to put the car seat anywhere other than the middle. With a car seat in the middle, passengers sitting beside it would end up sitting on the bolstered part of the seat, at quite an angle. On the driving side of things, the engine was very quite and the drive was not particularly fun. The quietness of the engine made it difficult to tell when to shift, and I found myself doing 90 or 100 in 3rd gear several times. It's also not particularly big.

We drove a Nissan Altima, but since they didn't have any new manual cars in stock, they put us in a 2002 or 2003... maybe 2004... one instead. It had a lot of miles on it, but the condition of the interior didn't inspire any confidence about how well it would hold up. I found the stupid door over the couple holders to be particularly annoying. The drive was ok, but the sound of the turn signal drove Tamara crazy, and the position of the centre armrest was such that I kept bumping my elbow on it. The little things.

At some point we test drove was a Mazda6, my personal favorite. Mazda cars seem to have a lot of enthusiast support; there are quite a few forums devoted to Mazda cars. Actually, there's probably at least one forum for almost every model of car out there (AMC Gremlin!), but the Mazda people seem to be among the most enthusiastic. The RX-8 forums have threads like the little things, where people put down all the things they love about the car. The Mazda6 forums have a whole forum devoted to Mazda6 love, and web sites devoted to DIY technical info. Information about commonly reported problems has also been catalogued, so it's clear from the start what people's real world experiences have been with this car, and what can be done when problems do arise. I really like that there are a large number of people out there that are enthusiastic about this car, but not necessarily to the point that they want to do all kinds of modifications to it. i.e. my level of enthusiasm.

The 6 was fun to drive, I could hear the engine and knew when to shift, and it cornered nicely. The back seat is wide and barely bolstered at all, making it easy to put a child seat in any seating position and fit in beside it if it was in the middle. The headroom in the back is not that great, but not worse than any Ford Tarus I've ever sat in. I did bump my head on the room when I adjusted myself in the seat at one point, my tilting the seat back slightly helped make more space. Everything is exactly where it should be; I could reach the radio controls and the shifter without stretching, the arm rest was perfect, and it just generally felt like a nice place to be.

The 2007 Toyota Camry was also a nice car to drive. Excellent interior. The downsides are three. While at the Autoshow, Tamara was talking with a gentleman who had bought a previous Camry in the first year after a redesign, and had nothing but problems with it. Prevailing wisdom seems to be that it is a bad idea to buy a car that it is it's first year, since there are still problems to be ironed out. Secondly, the only Camry available with a standard transmission is the SE version, which doesn't have 60/40 split folding read seats, only a very small pass through. Fold down seats are a must have item for bringing home Ikea furniture. Third, the engine is a bit sluggish with three people in the car. Compared to other 4 cylinder cars in it's class, it seems to be a little under powered, even with a manual transmission.

Despite quality and reliability concerns, we decided to test drive the VW Jetta. We were impressed with the room when we were at the auto show, but while there was a lot of head room, the leg room in the back seat wasn't that great. This is not really surprising I guess, since I think the Jetta falls into the 'compact' class, not the 'mid-size'. The one we test drove had automatic climate control, which annoyed me a bit. I like simple climate controls, three big dials, or sliders. Lots of little buttons put me off. The drive was pretty good. Unremarkable mostly. Overall, we weren't that impressed with it, and I've been reading stories of transmissions breaking down and leaking oil within 24 hours. Ah yes, German reliability.

We also drove a Pontiac Vibe, twin to the Toyota Matrix. Very little is different between these two cars, and the difference is mostly in the body panels, and possibly where they are assembled. I like the look of the Vibe better, so that's what we tested. Lots of headroom, but with the seat back, I felt a bit stretched out to reach the steering wheel, shifter, and audio controls. It doesn't drive like a car of course, but it's passable. The rear space is probably quite a bit shorter than in the other cars, but I don't think it would have any problems accommodating skis and snowboards if they went in on an angle. With the seats folded down, the floor is completely flat, and it has rails in it that brackets can slide into, so for example one could take the front tire off of a bike and mount the bike in securely in there with the fork attached to a bracket sitting in the rail.

At this point we are leaning toward a Mazda6 Sport (hatchback). There is slightly less head room in the Sport than in the sedan, but since our passengers for the foreseeable future are going to be less than three feet tall, this shouldn't be a problem. The larger opening afforded by the hatchback will make it easier to get a bike or ski equipment in there, and the Sport comes with ABS and other little things, but those are a separate package on the sedan.

We are still considering other options, such as the cheaper, more fuel efficient Vibe. Considering that Tamara will be doing the majority of the driving in a 5 Km circle around our house, and I will probably only drive for trips and on weekends when we go to Black Diamond and Longview, a tight turning circle and something that is easy for Tamara to drive is probably the better choice. We should probably make up our minds soon though, since 2006 stock will become cheaper but also more scarce as the new 2007 models start to roll in.