Cars

[ase]

Saturday I roadtripped with hourglasscreate and her daughter to get Der Kid to Pennsic. According to google maps, this was 280-ish miles one-way. My excuse for coming along was simple: highway practice time! Der K. has her learner's, so drove about an hour in the lightest traffic. hourglasscreate took over until I wore her down outside the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and I let go the wheel just after the I-76/I-79 interchange. Three women, one Prius; it was long, but doable, with frequent breaks. The afternoon was complicated by an exasperating and inexplicable hot dog shortage and some nerve-wracking Jersey barriers - seriously, people, shoulders and margins are good things - but went fine until hourglasscreate declared herself sufficiently comfortable with my driving she could relax and stop watching the road. Five minutes later, the clouds rolled in on a mission, and ten minutes after that we were driving the I-68/I-70 region in a driving thunderstorm. So hourglasscreate did not get her nap, and I learned that it is entirely possible to drive through a thunderstorm while wearing sunglasses, if you're paying more attention to the road than your headache. We rolled into her driveway sometime before 8 PM and after 7 PM, twin shades of wiped out.

It's worth noting that, unlike the people on the northbound side of I-70 in the evening, we hit no traffic, even in construction zones. Extraordinary.

I have been completely spoiled by my auto experiences. I drove a Ford Windstar twice in my teen years. However the real formative driving experiences were norabombay's Mazda Millenna, a Toyota Prius, and a Saab 900. Then I drove a Ford Focus, and learned that my abstract musings that I was completely screwed for the "less thank $25k new" car market were an excellent extrapolation from concrete experience. (Seriously: the Focus I drove explained why people don't like driving. If I had to drive an economy car every day, I'd hate driving too.) So this summer I measure my grocery runs by how much I can carry on a bicycle, gauge my plans by how long it'll take to get me there on public transit - thanks, WMATA, for running that track maintenance, what, every weekend? Or just most of them? - sweat on buses with broken air conditioners - thanks, Ride On, two out of three times today, thanks so much - and count every mile I'm not driving in a $1,000 clunker as another fraction of gas, insurance, maintenance, repair, and car loan payments I'm not making until I can afford something pre-owned (complete with "oh, was that a support beam?" dents) and zippy. With working A/C.

(The first person to say, "why don't you get Zipcar?" will be bludgeoned with a my c.Jan 2008 driver's license, strapped around a handy brick, and the eligiblity requirements until January 2009 or they get the hint, whichever comes first.)

Our last Saturday stretch-and-bathroom break was the Hagerstown outlet mall, where I wandered into the Bose store and lusted after the $300 noise-cancelling headphones. The problem is that 1.) I do not have $300 for headphones, and 2.) I have a bad feeling they're tuned for the wrong frequencies. It's all booming jet engines, and I'm not sure that's going to work on the lower-midrange machine and fans-for-machines racket I'm really trying to filter out. There's also 3.) a tangent to be written on the social messages of bulky headsets vs earbuds, but you can probably unpack that yourselves.

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Seriously: the Focus I drove explained why people don't like driving. If I had to drive an economy car every day, I'd hate driving too.

Ouch. Speaking as the Focus owner, I like my car just fine, and I don't think the car is the reason I don't get a visceral pleasure out of driving.

[ase.livejournal.com]

NYC as formative driving experience probably didn't help. But - seriously, good cars = good times! Someday I hope to own a good car, with a good engine and an excellent driving mix in the noisemaker so I can prove this fact to you empirically.

(Granted, the other reason I love driving is because the other options are 1,000 times worse - would you say that public transit was really a good idea to get to, say, the job you recently quit? and the grocery store afterward? And the party on Friday night? - but that V6 engine and engineering design that makes the car feel like it's got road traction and isn't a leaf on the wind elevate the experience from "not the red line" to something giddy-making. Or a V4 with, you know, actual pickup. hourglasscreate's Prius has more kick than a Focus.)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Someday I hope to own a good car, with a good engine and an excellent driving mix in the noisemaker so I can prove this fact to you empirically.

I'll hold you to that. *smirk*

would you say that public transit was really a good idea to get to, say, the job you recently quit? and the grocery store afterward? And the party on Friday night?

Granted--well, the job anyway. The grocery store you build around, and I try never to go to a party in a car, for security reasons. *grin* But your point is well taken, yeah.

[asciilifeform.livejournal.com]

> ...they're tuned for the wrong frequencies. It's all booming jet engines, and I'm not sure that's going to work on the lower-midrange machine and fans-for-machines racket

As someone with a lifetime cumulative war-on-fan-noise tab running firmly into the four figures, I feel qualified to comment on this one. Noise-canceling headphones work exceptionally well on mid-range computer and lab equipment noise. The problem is that, given how they rely on destructive interference, they cannot cancel any sound which is out of their own speaker elements' range. The infra- and ultra- components of the noise still get through, and sum to an agonizing headache over time. Your mileage may vary.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. The real problem, of course, is that I don't have $300 to blow if I'm dead wrong and can't hear my boss yelling "and don't mess with the heating block, I'm using it" from across the lab.

[ashcomp.livejournal.com]

The working A/C is a non-negotiable item for me, at least in the DC area. Especially if you like getting to work before your deoderant fails.

Also, re the Bose phones--I've never tried them either, but do know that they have a "slimline" model that isn't the massive original. Same price, though.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Also, CNET make "meh" noises on the bass. At those prices, I think I ought to feel like I'm in the symphony hall or the concert arena.

As economy cars go...

[many-faces.livejournal.com]

They weren't exactly designed for the visceral, primal thrill of a good drive, with the exception of Mazdas. A good, used Miata will run you about $10k, as new as 2001, with relatively low mileage. A brand-spankin' new Mazda3 is still well under your $25k mark, fully loaded, and designed to, well, Zoom-Zoom. Even a decently equipped Mazda5 or Mazda6 is in your price range, if you can negotiate worth your salt (or can walk into a dealership with an internet price off the dealer website, they're often just barely above invoice).

Re: As economy cars go...

[ase.livejournal.com]

Miatas are all zip and no cargo space, alas. That's a little more engine than I think I need. My sister loves her Mazda 3; I've still got questions about repair costs. At this point, my goal is to get an older car with a little pep; something that goes when you hit the gas pedal and doesn't spend several long seconds sort of considering the issue. I'd much rather put my dents on top of someone else's damage.

Re: As economy cars go...

[many-faces.livejournal.com]

That's a good plan - older car with a little pep. I'd vote for a 2001-2003 Protege LX or ES. 2.0 L 4-cylinder engine, reliable as can be, low repair costs, generous trunk.

My Miata has plenty of cargo space for two violins, an amp, and a full rack of pirate gear, plus two people. It's also held a month's worth of groceries, and a weekend's worth of camping gear. Still, if 140 horsepower is too much zip in a 2200 lb body...

Yeah, cars are my thing. a bit.

Re: As economy cars go...

[ase.livejournal.com]

That's one of the cars on my list. I'll be revising that right until I sign the paperwork; any car could get struck if I sit down in the driver's seat and have that moment of instant ergonomic/design revulsion. But I've heard pretty good things about not-'90s Mazdas, have inherited goodwill toward the Volkswagen Jetta (which would kill me in repair costs), and haven't heard much nice about anything American.

My limited experience with a Miata involved a lot of evenings losing passenger-side footspace to a six-pack and a friend's occasionally-repeated story about how a Miata couldn't accommodate her suitcase. How you fit that much stuff in passeth my comprehension!