2005 Lotus EliseA friend has an Elise, and I spent about two hours in it. It is a very nice sports car. It is mid-engined, and the 'trunk' is located behind the engine. It is pretty small, with the official size being 112 liters (which is just under 4 cubic feet). I found it quite amusing to have a glow in the dark interior release latch. The seats are very thin pseudo racing buckets. They aren't real racing buckets, like the Kevlar honeycomb seat I used to have in my Shelby CSX, but they are reasonably comfortable, and offer significant side support. The interior is quite spartan. There isn't a glove box, but rather an open shelf where you might put small items. The car is left hand drive, and on the far right is a blank panel where controls would go in a right hand drive vehicle. Lotus could have put a small glove box there. This car has a single cup-holder, which was a Lotus option. It telescopes out from under the dash. The door sill is quite wide and high. I found it impossible to get in the car with the top on. After removing the top, it took a bit of effort to get inside the car. Once inside, it took a bit of arm strength to lift myself up out of the seat, before being able to get in the car. The top is a pretty basic cloth top, which I am told is only available in black. It looks nice, but the color isn't very practical in warm climates. On the road, the Elise was quite quick. The car came with an adjustable sport suspension. It was fine over most roads, but on one freeway it was so bouncy that I literally couldn't see straight. I have been in some cars with stiff suspensions, but this was significantly stiffer than any car I had ever been in. The car is a great toy, but not very practical for every day use. |
A friend has a 2007 BMW 328. I have been in it for many thousand miles. It is a nice car combining luxury with sportiness. It is reasonably quick, but not a rocket ship. Recently, I noticed a tire was low. It turns out the tire wasn't low, it was completely out of air. It was a run-flat tire, so it just looked low. Not only was the tire low, but so was another. What was worse, there was no display in the car indicating that two tires were out of air. The car did turn to the right when driven (as both tires without air were on the right). When we filled up the tires, the car drove straight. It is currently in the shop and BMW is in the process of fixing it. It took It took about 10 days to fix.
The dealer was basically unable to repair the low pressure sensors. They claim that this was a new feature for BMW (which might be true, but it is an old feature for other cars), and that there is no way to make the system work. As the car's lease expires in 6 months, the owner wasn't too worried. I think this seriously tarnished BMW's reputation about having fine German engineering.
This is a BMW 'courtesy car', from the dealer, while the 2007 BMW 328 gets repaired. It features the new 'i-drive' from BMW which controls almost everything inside the car. There have been many complaints about it, as it takes several operations to change a setting. I think it is great, as long as there is a knowledgeable passenger in the car to use it. I would hate to use it while driving. It does have a nice wide screen LCD display that is well shaded. The GPS looks very nice. It drives quite like the 2007 BMW, which isn't surprising.
The GPS doesn't have a touch screen, rather it uses the i-control to get input. The user interface isn't too bad for entering cities or street names, but not as good as a touch screen keyboard. The routing software is seriously flawed. This is a 2008 product, and GPS costs $2000. There is no excuse for second rate routing software. My Garmin Nuvi 200, 1450 and mio c310 do a better job at routing, and are 10 to 20 times cheaper. This also tarnishes BMW's reputation about having fine German engineering.
I was in a rental Chevy Cobolt for 2 days. It is a pretty basic car. Crank windows. Manual door locks. No remote trunk release. It did have a pretty nifty digital display on the dash which would display air temperature, coolant temperature, trip computer, tire pressure and the like. It seemed like a decently built car with no frills.
A friend has a Lexus GS-350, and I got to drive it for about 25 miles. This is the base model, which retails for $45,000. It does have the nav package, which raised the retail price to $50,000. It has a 303hp 3.5 liter engine, (which is 0.1 liter bigger than my Tacoma V6, but has 113 more horsepower), and a 6 speed automatic transmission. (The top end GS-350 has a V8 and a 8 speed automatic transmission.) It is pretty similar in size compared to my 2002 Camry, but much more luxurious. The GPS is much better in routing than them 2009 BMW 328, and has a touch screen. It isn't nearly as well shaded as the BMW's, so sometimes it is hard to see. By default they 'keyboard' on the GPS is an ABCDEF keyboard, which is pretty silly, however there is a setting to change it to a QUERTY keyboard. My friend tells me the Bluetooth works but doesn't transfer phone directories seamlessly from an iPhone, unlike the BMW.
The car has a much firmer ride than my Camry, but not nearly as firm as the 2009 BMW 328. The ride is still a bit choppy over a bumpy freeway. The engine is quite quiet, but the tires have quite a bit of road noise. The transmission shifts very quickly and seamlessly. It was very fast going from 70 to 100mph. The mirrors have a slight color tint. I think there is a LCD behind the mirrors, and my friend tells me that they dim and turn bluish at night. The steering wheel tilts and telescopes. I found it hard to find the controls for the side mirrors. It turns out there is a mirror symbol, which doesn't look much like a mirror symbol to me. If you press the nearby button, cleverly labeled 'Press', a small control panel rotates out, and there are mirror and windshield wiper controls on it. It rotates back, and becomes unobtrusive. I would like it if the suspension was better at absorbing bumps. Other than that, I really liked the car.
I was in a rental Chevy Cruze for 5 days. It is a pretty basic car. It has an odd dash with fabric rather than plastic for a majority of the dash. There is a high central LCD display which displays temperature, fan settings, and radio information. Pretty handy, but it makes it quite difficult to change the radio for an aftermarket unit. I didn't really like the radio buttons much. They were either misaligned, or oddly designed. Not sure which, but neither is excusable. The most noteworthy feature is an automatic transmission that really sucks. I have driven many cars with automatic transmissions and the Cruze's transmission is the worst one I can recall. It hunts for a gear, it is slow to shift. It does things that are beyond description in a bad way. Other than the transmission which is a deal-breaker, I didn't like the key with buttons to lock and unlock the car. Perhaps it is possible to unlock the door with the key without the alarm going off, but I didn't figure out how to do it. I think the Chevy engineers need to drive a Toyota, VW or pretty much any other civilized car to see how transmissions should work.
I did not drive this car, but I was a passenger. This was the fastest production car ever made, when it debuted in 2021, doing 0-60 in 1.98 seconds. Excluding cars that cost over one million dollars, here is a list of faster cars. The Lucid Air Sapphire does 1.89 seconds (0-60mph), and costs about $250k. In the last quarter, Lucid lost $433,081 per car sold. The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 does 1.66 seconds (0-60mph). Most or all of these numbers include a '1 foot rollout' so they are not true 0-60 times. In any event, the Model S Plaid is quite fast, and claims a top speed of 203 mph with the track package.
The car I was in had the 'yoke' steering wheel which I never thought was a good idea. It is such a bad idea that you now need to special order it, and the car comes with a round steering wheel by default. The entire Model S is refreshed. The 17" screen is now horizontally oriented, there is a rear screen for the backseat, and there are many other changes. The plaid gets wider tires front and back and new bodywork for the wider tires. Another 'feature' is the removal of the turn signal stalk and the right side stalk which controls the gear selection (park, drive and reverse) as well as autopilot and full self driving mode. The steering wheel doesn't have any physical buttons, but rather has touch sensitive areas. These include things like the horn and the turn signals. I also think this is a bad idea. I really think having two stalks greatly reduces driver confusion and allows for much better feedback.
The car is really quite fast. I won't say the top speed I reached, but it was good that no law enforcement was nearby. The acceleration was unlike any car I have ever been in. The Plaid now costs $90k without the track package and the track package costs $20k including carbon ceramic brakes and new wheels and tires. Just the brakes are $15k. I personally wouldn't get the tires and wheels. So for $110k or less, you will get a car faster than anything you will encounter on the street. Lucid says they will start shipping the Air Sapphire in 2024. As of October 17 2023, Lucid has shipped 8,761 cars. I hope they stay in business, as they are the only real competition to Tesla.
The bad news is I didn't get to drive the Tesla, but I was only a passenger. The good news is I was in the Tesla for about 180 miles. The center 17 inch display is monstrously big and works quite well. There is a smaller display in front of the driver which is also easy to read. The voice control works much better than the voice control on my Prius. You can select from many options what you want to see on either display. There are some buttons on the steering wheel and you can select what they do. All of these driver selectable options are the opposite of my Prius which has dedicated displays (except for a few you can cycle through on the center display) and dedicated buttons. The exterior lights are nice and bright, but the interior passenger lights are a bit dim for my tastes. Perhaps their brightness is programmable. The interior is quite nice, a bit more like a luxury European car rather than a typical luxury american car. The seats are comfortable and reasonably supportive, but not designed for hard cornering. It is a bit difficult to get in and out of the front seats. However, it is significantly more difficult to get in or out of the rear seats. The rear seats have less headroom than the front seats, and I often hit my head on the headliner. The rear seatbelts are also much tighter than the front seat belts. Perhaps the car is designed for smaller people to sit in the rear. The car is reasonably quiet inside, though some exterior road noise seeps in.
The acceleration of the car is simply stupendous. There is zero delay due to the very wide torque band. I have been in cars that accelerated more strongly (a souped up 427 AC Cobra), but never in a car that had such instant response. There brakes work quite well. Cornering is surprisingly good considering the cars weight of 4,647 lbs. For the Tesla, the center of gravity is quite low, which helps handling. The biggest downside I have heard is the Tesla is a quick wearing on tires.
I got a short ride in a Tesla Model X. It was likely a 2019 or 2020 car. It is much higher than a Model S, which makes sense because it is a SUV. The doors open themselves when you pull the door handle. It is much roomier than a Model S. The particular car I was in was a P90D. It only has a range of 250 miles, which is less than a comparable Model S. The front windscreen is quite large. The sun visor folds out of the way on the side of the interior. It also folds in half horizontally, to make it smaller. It isn't very big to begin with, being smaller than a Model S or Model 3 sun visor. Other than that, and the falcon doors, it is very similar to a Model S. The rear hatch opened by itself, though it didn't open fully. It also closes when you press a button on the rear of the hatch.
I didn't get to drive this, but I was a passenger instead. This is a 4 door car, unlike the Continental, which is a 2 door. It features a W-12 twin turbo engine, which has 616 hp and 479 ft-lbs of torque. It has an 8 speed automatic transmission. It has full time 4 wheel drive. 0-60 time is 4.3 seconds, and the top speed is 200 mph. It quickly got up to 110 mph allegedly effortlessly. The car is very very quiet inside, but not as quite as the Rolls Royce I have been in. The suspension isolates you from the road more than any car I recall being in. The interior is quite luxurious, but not quite as crazy as the Rolls I have been in. There is a small joystick on either side of the dash, that adjusts the air vents. It looks incongruous, compared to the rest of the dash. The doors are quite heavy. They are easy to close, because you just have to get the door mostly closed, and the car will do the rest. This car had an issue with the trunk not opening fully, but I am told fixing it will be covered under warranty. It gets really poor gas mileage, but I suspect the people who own this car won't care. The interior has a ton of very nice, soft leather, including a leather headliner.
I rented this for 4 days. This is a 'sport utility' vehicle from Ford. It isn't clear why it is a sport utility vehicle. It isn't very sporty. It doesn't have 4 wheel drive. It is basically a sedan with a higher seating position than a standard sedan. It has a clever big LCD display where much of the dashboard should be. It has a nice centrally mounted speedometer. I was unable to find a tachometer. The gas gauge is an electronic display to the left of the speedometer. It wasn't obvious what it was for the first few days I drove it. The large LCD controls far too much of the car. Most of the radio controls are on it. The heating and cooling controls are on it. Of course, you have to look at the display in order to use it. Somehow I managed to switch on the seat heater. The only sign I had was that there was 3 dots under the seats, and one of them was highlighted. I was unsure how to turn off the seat heater, but I was able to totally turn off the temperature controls which seemed to turn off the seat heater. Controls should be usable by touch. Touchscreen displays require you to look at them. A big fail. The radio seemed decent enough. The GPS was not present. Since GPS chips cost about $10, there is no excuse for a new car not to have a GPS. I found out why the vehicle is called the 'edge'. From the drivers seat, the center console has a metal looking trim piece on either side of it. It sticks out in an abrupt way so that a sharp edge digs into your leg. The door has a similar metal looking trim piece that also digs into your leg. These look cool, but feel terrible. I don't recall ever being in a car with such sharp edges around my legs. Mercifully, the defroster control is not on the touchscreen, and I was able to use it when it was raining.
I drove a Fiat 500e. This is the electric version of the Fiat 500. This is a very small car. I suspect the 500e is a compliance car, that is a car that is made in order to comply with laws mandating a certain number of cars be electric. The base price is around $31,800 and the range is 100 miles. I have heard that few get sold, and most are leased for roughly $115 a month (which meets the letter of the law to consider the car sold). When off lease, the cars sell for roughly 6 - 8 thousand. Though it has a backseat, it is usable only for people who have no legs - there is that little leg room. Unlike the Fiat 500 Abarth, the 500e has quite unexceptional handling. Acceleration is unexceptional. Car & Driver measured 0-60mph at 8.4 seconds. There is minimal regenerative braking (which is not adjustable), similar to my Plug in Prius. I would have hoped for far more regenerative braking. The interior is a bit on the cute side. One problem with the interior is it is pretty narrow. In the passenger seat, my knee hits the center console, which is quite hard plastic and hits my knee at an unpleasant angle, as well as the door which is not annoying. In the driver seat, my knees hit the center console and the door, however the center console is very unpleasant against my knee. It would prevent me from owning the car. The seats have poor lateral support, but are reasonably comfortable. Charging is reasonably quick, as long as it is at 220v. I think the car is quite overpriced when new, but a reasonable car to lease or buy used, as long as the range meets your needs, and as long as you consider the rear seats for storage only.
Fiat called my friend who is leasing the car. It is a 3 year lease where he has to pay for mileage over 30k. The car has about 20k on it, and the lease runs out in about 3 months. Fiat offered to sell him the car for the low price of $19,000. This is a great deal - for Fiat. These cars are selling off lease for roughly $6,000. If Fiat cared at all about their customers, they would offer something reasonable to purchase the car after the lease.
A friend bought a Prius Prime Plus. This is the base trim Plug in Prius. Here are some comparisons with my 2012 Plug in Prius. It has a range of 25 miles on electricity (vs @12 miles). It has a 8.8 kWh battery (vs a 4.4 kWh). It can go up to 84 mph in electric mode (vs 63 mph). Overall it is much more advanced than my 2012 Plug in Prius. The car is lighter. There is more sound dampening material on the floor. The electric range is twice as far. The seats are vastly better and have more lateral support. There are 4 LED headlights (the 2012 has halogen bulbs which I replaced with HID). The radio display is 7 inches rather than 6 inches. The crappy center display is still crappy but it is LCD and not vacuum fluorescent. It also has colors. I am still mystified why there is a central display and not a dash display like a real car. The controls around the 7 inch display are less than ideal, but they suck less than the 2012 with a horde of almost identical buttons. At least the entertainment system has 2 knobs (rather than 1 knob). The fan control goes up and down. (The 2012 has a button that if pressed to the right increases the fan and if pressed to the left decreases the fan. Another button turns the fan off). The interior lights look like incandescent bulbs (I replaced all of mine with LEDs). The flying buttress design between the front seats is now gone. The goofy electronic 'shifter' is still present. And best of all, the price is much less than I paid in 2012.
The rear hatch is made out of carbon fiber and is left unpainted inside to show off the carbon fiber. I have read that the 2017 standard Prius has the battery under the rear seat. I am not sure where the battery is in the Prime, but the hatch area is about 3 or 4 inches higher than the bumper, so I suspect that most if not all of the batteries are in the rear hatch area. I wonder if the 2017 Entune (radio software) sucks as much as the 2012 version).
I needed a rental car, and the rental company laughed when I asked for the for the Mercedes g-class (as the retail price is around $140k). So I selected a mini cooper. The mini is build by BMW, and I assumed it would be a decent ride. It was not. The automatic transmission hunted between gears. Worse, the visibility of the convertible was terrible in the rear. The car was underpowered. The user interface looked quite colorful, but was very hard to use. I was very disappointed, and got rid of it a few days later. It is interesting that when I turned it in, the driver lowered the top in order to have decent visibility.
I rented the Corolla for 4 days. It is a really boring inexpensive car. The previous driver had raised the seat, and it took me a minute to figure out how to lower the seat, but the manual controls were where I expected them to be, and easy to operate. It was a bit cold, and I needed to use the front and rear defrosters. Again, they were easy to find and use. The materials in the car were inexpensive, but that is what I expect from a low budget car. The car was pretty underpowered, but no worse than the mini cooper I recently drove. At least the transmission worked smoothly, unlike the mini cooper. The car isn't luxurious, but all the controls were easy to find and operate. I would rent one again.
I rented the Model S for a bit over two weeks. As it is a rental, it has no options. It has the basic interior, stereo, and no auto-pilot. The 75D (which is the cheapest Model S) has dual motors, as all Model-S's now do, and goes from 0-60 in 4.1 seconds, has a top speed of 155, and a range of 310 miles. It clearly was designed before the Model 3. The interior is more luxurious overall than the Model 3. It has more controls than the model 3, including physical controls to adjust the mirrors, the windshield wipers, the steering wheel, and a button to open the glove box. On the Model 3, all of these controls are accessed through the big screen. I have yet to figure out how to keep the mirrors from pointing downward when in reverse. With the Model 3, there is a simple control on the main screen.
The Model S was the first mainstream car to have a 17 inch main display, as well as a display in front of the driver. This revolutionized modern car interiors, with most automakers copying a large center screen. The base car has an adjustable suspension, which I am pretty sure is an air suspension. There is more interior room than the Model 3. The seats are more supportive than the Model 3 (even the performance version), even though the base Model S has cloth in the central part of the seats. The worst feature of the rental car is that the cruise control is not adaptive. If you set it for 60mph, it will go at that speed, until it comes close to crashing into a car in front of it (I am pretty sure it has emergency braking, but I have not tested it). It is bigger and heavier than the Model 3. It is less sporty, even though it is faster. Of course, there is the Performance version (0-60 in 3.0 seconds), which can be had with ludicrous mode (0-60 in 2.4 seconds), which is supercar fast. The only production car which is faster than the P100D with ludicrous mode is the Porsche 918 cost one million dollars, and does 0-60 in 2.2 seconds.
If you have comments or suggestions, Email me at turbo-www@weasel.com
Created with gnu emacs and template-toolkit, not some sissy HTML editor.
No Java or javascript needed to view my web pages. They
both have significant security issues.