Cars

I didn't read car magazines for a long time. I picked up an issue of Sports Car International to read on a flight somewhere. Thereafter, it became my reading material of choice for plane rides. I even picked it up a few times when I wasn't taking a trip, since I had come to like it a lot.

I came across another car magazine, a free ad supported online one that is very much like a print magazine. In exchange for your email address, you get an account which enables you to download issues in PDF format, or using their proprietary reader. Since it's a PDF, the layout is fixed very much like a print magazine, but unlike a normal print magazine, the layout is done in landscape, which makes it idea for reading on wide screen laptops.

Ads are embedded in the same way as they are in print magazines, but they take advantage of being a digital document by linking to movies and other content elsewhere. Their movies are obviously not their focus, but the photography and writing is quite good.

If you like cars and want something else to read, check it out: Winding Road.

The RSS feed is also good, if you like spy shots and up to the minute live-blogging autoshow coverage.

Tamara and I went over to Sunridge Mazda today to get her a test drive in a Mazda6. Unfortunately, they don't have any of the ones we want on the lot, so she had to drive a touring edition sedan, with all it's luxury appointments. We aren't impressed with the power seat. Manually sliding it back and forth is much faster, and we have to slide it around a lot, due to our height difference. This was Tamara's first test drive (I have been doing all the ones up to now), but we are seriously considering the 6 so she finally drove it.

It turns out that I suck at navigating. Mazda has a test drive route picked out, which we decided to follow even though the sales guy wasn't with us. I was doing well at first, but then I kept missing turns and making her turn around, which pissed her off. A lot. Ultimately, she more or less liked the car, or at least can live with it. She liked that the front passenger seat slides very far forward, so it is possible to get one of the giant three-in-one baby seats in the back. We were a bit concerned about that.

We even did a bit of talk on price with the sales guy, but I couldn't get him to budge very much. It was an interesting experience in a way, dealing with a professional negotiator. He spoke quickly and lumped things together, and it was tough to get him to separate things out. Shell games. I think he answered some of my questions with fibs, so it might be possible to get him to move some more. Unfortunate they don't have the car we want on the lot, so it is harder to get a deal. Maybe we'll have to wait for the 07's. But then we definitely won't get a deal.

Tamara says she likes the part of car buying with the test drives and talking about cars, but the negotiating a price part sucks. I'm inclined to agree.

Tamara and I have a little boy (90% sure) due to arrive in October, so I've started to think about all kinds of parent related things that I've never worried about before. There's the big philosophical things that are always in the back of my mind, and practical day to day things to deal with now. One of these things is a certain amount of concern over safe and reliable transportation.

My car, a '96 Saturn SL1 that I've owned for about 8 years is starting to show it's age. There are a few relatively minor things, like a wire that broke and prevented the driver's seat from moving (fixed with some wire Dad had in his garage) and the little pull tab the releases the seat back so the rear seat folds down. There are strange electrical things, like the (almost new) battery dieing last on New Years Eve. It was trickle charged over-night and it hasn't been a problem since, but I wonder if there are other electrical gremlins lurking within. Many electrical connections could probably do with a good cleaning.

Well, what have I been up to lately? I've been watching a rather lot of TV: Laurie hooked me on NCIS several weeks ago, which is a bit of a cartoon show, but it's very entertaining anyway. Laurie also showed me clips of Fifth Gear, and then I started watching Top Gear, which isn't politically correct or environmentally friendly, but which is highly entertaining. They have silly challenges, like a Range Rover Sport vs. a Challenger 2 tank, and a race between a Bugatti Veyron and a Cessna 182 from Italy to London. They also play soccer with two teams of Toyota Aygos (Yaris in Canada?), all highly silly and highly entertaining.

Jeremy Clarkson's review of the RX-8 even convinced Tamara that I'm not completely mad; I think she liked the suicide doors, and the fact that it feels like it isn't running on anything as coarse and vulgar as petrol, but that it feels like it's running on double cream! Realistically though, were we to get a new car, I have a feeling it would be some kind of family sedan or wagon... probably a used one at that.

Since I got back from Victoria, I've been bouldering with Ryan quite a bit. Finally, after two and a half months, my balance is coming back, and my finger tips are getting calloused. Yay! Maybe I'll actually be able to climb something outside this spring. Heart Creak in the spring fellows? Maybe we'll wait until the snow melts this time?

I have fallen off the cycling wagon though. I got sick and figured it would be a bad idea to ride in cold weather with bronchitis, so I started taking the bus, since both the 72/73 and the 20 go right by my house to Brentwood Station which is very close to work. Now that the roads are clear, I could ride my bike again, but somehow I haven't gotten around to it. On other hand, riding the bus gives me time to read a bit. I've been working though The Philosophy Gym, which are short philosophical problems that I can get though in a day, but which are a lot of food for thought. Does God exit? Should I be eating that (meat)? What is knowledge? The problems in the book are very short introductions, with references to larger discussions.

Watching the English "debate" Tamara taped last night. Someone in Edmonton asked why the Liberals and NDP and Bloc are pursuing a child care program and wouldn't it be better if Canadians had choice? Paul Martin's response reminded me of Henry Ford. "You can have any colour you want, as long as it's black." Martin said something like "sure, Canadians need choice, and that means making more spaces available in day care..." Yes, that gives so much more choice. Especially if one parent stays home with the kids. Or if your a single parent who works nights. A 8 to 5 daycare is so helpful then. And then he goes and says, when asked about personal income tax reductions vs. GST reductions, that the liberals "believe in putting money into your hands and letting you decide how to spend it is the way to go." Except they don't actually believe that. Or something.

I've lots to discuss, but until next time, Merry Christmas...

With an August road trip to Calgary in the works, I've been trying to get my car fixed up and ready to go. Basic stuff, oil change, tire pressure, etc. I'm sad to say that I've been particularilly negligent about tire pressure. My bad; that's poor fuel economy, increased wear, and increased squeek! They should also be rotated probably....

Today I changed the spark plugs. I don't even know when the last this they were changed was. They probably have over 80,000 km on them now. That's about 30,000 km over the recommened change interval of 50,000 km.

Since the car stumbles a bit at certian RPM ranges, and ocassionally knocks, and burns oil, I was curious as to what the plugs look like. They all had excessive gap. Two were oil fouled, indicating worn piston rings or valve seals, so it's especially no surpirse that it burns oil. The other two were just old. So hopefully new plugs will help a bit. I should probably also measure the wire resistance...

Other things on the list are fuel filter and battery. The guy who changes my oil recommended these, saying that the fuel filter looked like the origional equipment. I have records indicating that it was changed at about 100,000 km, so it's probably ok. The battery will need to be replaced before winter though.

Other than that it is running ok. It should be able to get us around until we get real jobs!

I was at school this evening to work on some of the presentations, projects, and papers I'm supposed to be doing, and instead I was looking around on the internet. I came across a thread on a board about mirror adjustment.

Most people, including myself, apparently have the side mirrors aligned such that a bit of the side of the car can be seen in the mirror when the driver is sitting normally. I think this is the conventional wisdom, and I think this is what I was taught in drivers ed, but that was a long time ago and my memory is rusty. This message I came across suggested that the better way was to adjust them so that the field of view in the side mirrors barely overlaps that of the rear-view mirror.

This has the effect of pretty much eliminating the blind spot. Side mirrors which once showed pretty much the same thing as the rear-view mirror now show what would have been the blind-spot. I've often watched people come up behind me and then proceed to sit in my blind spot, so maybe this will help me keep track of such folk.

This should help reduce the need to do shoulder checks during lane changes, but that's probably still a good idea anyway, unless your driving skills are similar to my atrocious bike riding skills: look behind for other riders, almost swerve off trail. A flick of the eye is also faster than cranking the head around.

I went and got in my car, and sure enough, the side and rear-view mirrors field of view pretty much completely overlapped. So I adjusted them as above. The driver's side mirror can be adjusted by putting your head against the window and adjusting until you can just see the side of the car in the mirror. The passenger side one can be done by similar adjustment with your head centered (left to right) in the car.

As I drove home I realized another benefit: people in trucks or with hi-beams on can no longer shine their headlights directly in your eyes via the side mirrors, which is nice once the rear-view mirror has been dimmed.