Can I borrow you (sub)-compact?

Last Saturday, I had a few hours to burn and was getting that itch to go out and look at cars. My first stop was obviously the local Ford Dealership (where I found a 2009 Focus SE Coupe to my liking (well, everything except for the moon roof). Even though I already have a huge Ford bias, I'm actually still amazed at the quality of the products that they have on their lots at the moment. There are a few little niggles, like the new Focus' emergency brake handles that have a cheap plasticky look to them, but aside from that, the whole line-up is classy and high quality.

After browsing through the Focus's and Fusion's, I decided to swing by the Volkswagen/Toyota dealership. I'll admit that I have a soft spot for any GTI, even though my favorites are the first two generations. The dealership doesn't ever seem to have a lot of GTIs in stock, mostly because there are generally a lot more practical cars (read:larger, better people movers) for the money, but they did have a delightful White 5-door with DSG. I think it had the leather interior, instead of the plaid Recaros, but I could probably live with that...The other car that kind of snuck up on me was the Volkswagen CC Sedan. I always thought that CC stood for Coupe Cabriolet, but this was definitely neither a coupe, nor a cabbie. Its a mid-size (that actually seems larger than a Passat) sedan with a very sleek, upscale look.

I went over to the Toyota portion of the dealership after being at the Volkswagen portion. My primary interest was to look at a Yaris. It should be obvious to most readers at this point that I'm a huge sub-compact car fan. I think the thing that appeals to me most about sub-compacts is the aura of youth and exuberence (way to anthropomorphize a chunk of steel, Seth) that they exude. The fact is that there is a replacement for displacement.

Anyhow, I should probably stop extolling the virtues of sub-compacts and focus on the Yaris...Aside from the upcoming Fiesta, the Yaris is probably the most appealing segment car at the moment. Granted, I haven't driven any of these cars, so I'm basing this soley on faulty pretenses, but the Yaris appeals to my sensibilities as a sporting, juvenile fun machine. The first generation (USDM) Honda Fit reminds me too much of an Odyssey mini-van, and the revamped Fit seems to be a little bit porky. There's nothing inherently wrong with mini-vans, they're excellent people movers, but they don't exude youthful exuberance (I'm alliterating my ex-words intentionally, I promise). Likewise with the Versa, it kind of looks like Nissan put a Maxima in the copying machine and did a 66% reduction.

For some reason, the Yaris is just a unique car, that is pretty much unlike anything else that Toyota is selling. The only thing I didn't really like about it was the fact that an automatic transmission is standard; sub-compacts are not blessed with large, high output engines, and as a result, a more efficient drivetrain should be provided in order to allow the driver to maximize the potential of the vehicle.

While I was looking at Yaris', the tree-hugger in me got the better of me, so I just had to see what was going on with the Prius. I still don't get it...I'm all for saving the environment, but there were Prius' that cost over $30K and the least expensive was over $25K!

Even with just a quick glance over the car, it doesn't not seem ergonomic at all. The gear shift is mounted on the dash (like an EK Civic SI, and a Porsche Carrera GT), but it looked more like a weird mole or cyst than an gear shift lever (okay, its not really a gear shift, since its for a CVT, but some sort of drivetrain initiation manipulator). Its almost as though the engineers kind of just tacked it on, because they knew that drivers wouldn't know how to operate the vehicle without it (I'm pretty sure Toyota is going to be the first manufacturer to build personal spaceships...which may or may not exit the atmosphere). It looks like there is a package option that includes a rear-facing camera that integrates into the navigation system. That's probably a good thing, because it didn't look like you could see anything in the rear view mirror. That explains why they don't move over on the highway...

I think that the most prudent way to save the environment is to pick up a good little sub-compact to commute to work in, and consider other aspects of our lives where we can reduce our material consumption.

Spring!

I'm getting older. Winter never used to affect me until I went to college. The first year or two of college, I refused to acknowledge that winter was hard on me. However, my grades generally told otherwise; I could easily lose a letter in certain classes, which would rebound for Spring Quarter (where the concepts were even more advanced). Now that I'm out of college, I don't have to worry about my grades, but I can still get crabby and I definitely get very cold!

I like the concept of Groundhog's day. Its a harbinger of Spring, even though it has no bearing on the duration of the winter months. Growing up, I kind of came up with my own series of events that heralded the coming Spring. Crocuses, robins, and my birthday were all very real symbols that winter was melting away. My birthday is March 21st, so its either the day of, or the day after the first day of Spring (that's a pretty good indicator, eh?). Even though robins typically winter over in Ohio, it seems as though they become more vocal the closer we get to Spring.

This winter has been pretty tough on me. I get cold really easily and have been bordering on exhaustion almost every night for the past 2 months. Its interesting, because work was much more stressful in the summer and fall, but for some reason, I just haven't had the energy that I did 6 months ago. The nights have seemed darker and colder than I ever remember. However, I have noticed the last few weeks that the drive to work isn't quite as dark as it had been. I've also noticed that there is a little more green peeking through the brown and the snow. This evening, as I was walking our trash to the curb (of which there was almost as much recycling as there was trash...go us!), I heard a couple of robins chirping in the nearby trees.

I've got to say, I'm really looking forward to this summer. When I was in college, Rachel and I used to travel to regional Focus meets on a fairly regular basis. For the last few summers, I haven't able to get out of the state for any meets, and even a lot of the local meets were hard to get to. This summer, I'm fairly optimistic that we're going to have the opportunity to attend a few regional meets and make a few new friends. There seems to be a pretty intense interest in the Focus community to resume the regional meets, so I'm hoping to make it a priority to get up to Michigan and over to Pennsylvania for a few meets.

For Love of Money

This one ought to be good, eh? I've long held the notion (and oft shared with others in a self-depreciating manner) that I'm the "dumb one in the Miller family". Most people laugh and generally don't know what to say (that's the funny thing about self-depreciation, no one will ever agree with you, unless they truly hate you...or truly love you).

Granted, its not so much about intelligence; us Millers are all quite deft in our cognitive capabilities. However, its more of an issue of motivation. Where my parents and brother pursue courses of study and careers that they are able to wholly engross themselves in and ponder the subtle minutae, I'm more of a big picture person. I'm fairly content to bobble along at a job that seems to no escape ladders (except for the one that drops into the fiery pits of Hades), doing work that even I am pretty sure is below my skillset (yet sometimes I struggle with it, due to less than intuitive procedures which I have no control over). However, I receive a good paycheck as a result, and manage to find other ways of more or less justifying my existence.

Somehow we came upon discussing the topic of purchasing a winning lottery ticket at work this past week (a fine time to discuss random occurences of good fortune). One of my co-workers has a friend who had won tens of millions of dollars at some lottery a few years back and who had wisely set up a trust with someone other than himself being able to disburse funds. He had done his homework on how to make out well with lottery winnings, and hadn't claimed the prize immediately until he had received counsel. As a result, his attorneys somehow finagled an additional $30K out of the state, claiming accrued interest. I delve too deeply...the result was a single man, who received $13,000 a month and had yet to touch the principle. The disccusion amongst colleagues ranged from how could you spend $13,000 a month?, to how a wife could spend $13,000 a month and that he was lucky he was single.

My comments on the topic were that the majority of my $13,000 a month would probably be spent on tires, speeding tickets, and paying for car insurance. I figured with that kind of money, I could considerably abbreviate just about any commute. To these comments, I was accosted by several co-workers about why I would still hold a job. I figure I'd work as a service technician at a Lamborghini dealership. The most vocal co-worker ranted about how any person who won the lottery and decided to work afterwards should be required to return the money. He was quite keen on jet-setting to all the top-end restaraunts in the world; visiting a different one each night and fully intending on requiring someone to roll him around [like an oversized beach ball] by the time he was of retirement age.

I understand where he was coming from; the joy of winning the lottery is the financial freedom it affords and the ability to pursue your interests entirely. What it made me realize is that a lot of my generation (at least my peers) are so narrow-minded in their view of careers and jobs that they perceive them as drudgery and something to be freed of as soon as possible. I'll concede to being lured into this trap upon occasion; sometimes I'm utterly confused by [primarily] college professors who seemingly teach until the day they die (and some that retire, only to go elsewhere to teach until they die). But then I realize that these people have found interests that coincide with their career aspirations.

For that...I'm jealous.

Mid-winter Blues

I'm really starting to consider picking up a nice camera and taking some pictures. The rest of my family is doing it, so I should too. I have issues with composition, which is what I've been using for my excuse, but there's really no way to improve it without starting to shoot.

Anyhow, I cleaned up the Focus this morning and took it for an extended spin to find a cool setting for some pictures. I actually found some great rock outcrops just outside of Winesburg towards Dundee, but there wasn't really a good spot to stage the Focus in the middle. If I had a decent camera, I might have stopped and taken some pictures.

I finally found a cool little Volkswagen graveyard between Clark and Killbuck along Rt. 60 and Coshocton Co Rd 19. There were 3 VWs, an old school bus and a bunch of smashed TVs near a couple of seemingly abandoned buildings. It kind of made me wonder if it might have been a hippy camping trip gone bad...Oh well, it made for some interesting pictures.






The more that I've delved into the Focus, the more fascination and appreciation I have for the older VWs. They have developed a sub-culture around them that is probably unlike anything else in the automotive world. The typical VW trend is low, with wide wheels, stretched tires and crazy paint...all paired up with powerful turbocharged engines. It seemingly combines all of the best elements of classic hot-rodding with Sport Compact enthusiasm. Rachel was laughing at me yesterday because I was drooling over a couple of slammed VDubs...she's just lucky I didn't try to drag one of this unfortunate trio home with me this afternoon.

Chevy Corvette vs Ford Fiesta

Ford Fiesta Beach Assault

Technology, Industry, and the Economy

I'm sure people are going to start giving me flak, the more they start reading my blog. After all, I bring up lots of problems, but never really have a good solution for them. I just have a lot of time to wonder, but not a lot of time to think.

I was wondering today whether industry has gotten too efficient to be sufficient. All the talk about just-in-time inventories, out-sourcing, mechanization makes me wonder what the people who are removed from the picture are going to do? Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but the flow of money starts when someone produces a physical good for someone else's consumption. From there, money exchanges hands when the person who consumes the good needs advice about said good, or the producer of said good needs opinions on how to improve it. I think I understand what it means to be a service-based economy, but what good is a service based economy without a manufacturing base? To say nothing of the fact that we've decided to start out-sourcing our service jobs to India.

Essentially what is happening is our ever "improving" manufacturing processes are reducing the number of man-hours (and in turn, people) required to convert raw materials into a consumable product. As a result, we're effectively reducing our workforce, which in turn increases unemployment. Unemployment is fun; it leaves more time to do the things that you really enjoy...until you run out of money.

As a capitalist society, we love to see cheap stuff. The less that we pay for stuff, the more money we have for more stuff. The more stuff we have, the cooler we are...at least that's what we're told. Unfortunately, I would argue that there becomes a point where things are too cheap. Have you ever stopped to wonder how its cheaper to manufacture something in China, put it on a boat, ship it 7000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, put it on a truck, drive it all around the country and sell it than it is to make it in the US, put it on a truck and drive it all around the country and sell it? Have you every thought about it? The money that companies save on not using domestic labor STILL offsets the cost of shipping their product as far as most Americans drive in 6 months. Another perspective I found (I looked all over for cargo ship fuel consumption and didn't find a whole lot) stated that for a typical 28 day round trip across the Pacific ocean, the fuel bill alone is $3.3 million dollars for a ship, not including the cost of maintence and crewing the vessel.

I also understand economy of scale, so you divide that $3.3 million dollars out over 33 million pairs of Nike sneakers, you're only adding 10 cents to the cost of manufacturing per pair of shoes. Still $3.3 million dollars is not chump change.

I think somewhere I got waylaid from the intent of this post. My overriding point is that the responsible way to get out of our current recession (without sounding like an Isolationist) is to be willing to pay a higher price for our products in return for some of them being manufactured in the United States. Maybe we should consider some less efficient production strategies, such as reducing the amount of automation to keep folks employed.

Its a good thing that I'm not a business person...I'd be a failure for sure. Speaking of which, sometime I want to write a book or a blog about lousy business plans that actually worked. There have to be a few counter-intuitive companies out there making a name for themselves.

They don't take them like they used to...

I've been thinking about picking up some automotive themed prints to hang out in the garage, so I did a little browsing around for some pictures of GT cars and Prototypes. As much as technology has improved the machines, its certainly hurt spectating and the photography. You can't find a picture like this anymore.

Photo borrowed from: www.carlosghys.be/html/biography_ahrens.html

Photo borrowed from: www.peugot.com

Commuting

I get the impression that most people view their commute to work as an opportunity to get work done, or at least use the time somehow to "increase their productivity". A lot of folks are talking on their cell phones, playing with their navigation or whatever else you can put in a car. I think most of the folks I encounter during my morning commute are working on catching a few extra minutes of shut eye before they have to start work.

To me, driving is an experience to be enjoyed, and I think a lot of people have lost sight of that. The past 20 years have introduced a lot of boring, safe cars (think Taurus, Camry, Accord) and also a lot of new, neat gadgets, like cellphones, GPS, and satellite radio. I see these cars every day, like a bunch of ants, not really controlled by the individual ant, but controlled by society. I'm guessing that most of those people would rather not be commuting (since they're doing something else while in the car), but they do it because that's what the group says that they should do.

I tried using cruise control again this past week. I've used it off and on, but I find that its harder to focus on driving if you don't have to have your foot on the gas. It was pretty much miserable just as I expected. I found myself considering making faces at other commuters as they went by, or throwing up my hands as though I were completely out of control (which who knows, maybe I'm losing it). I turned it off. I realized that my car is a bit of an odd paradox. It has no carpeting in it, fiberglass shells that pass for bucket seats, requires 3 feet on the floor and has no radio. Yet it still has air conditioning, power windows and locks, and cruise control. Do you realize how much weight that is? Its got to be at least 6 pounds worth of controllers, wiring and actuators, to say nothing of the A/C condenser (and its parasitic drag on the crank).

I'm not really done commenting (I'll add a part II later), but the time has come for me to make my daily commute into work. We'll see how this one goes...

Stats, Sports and Bench Racing

I just can't get into the ball and stick sports...basketball, baseball, football, golf, etc. For one thing, I'm not coordinated enough to play any of them at any competitive level. But the biggest thing is that I just can not get into spectating at any of them. People think that I'm nuts that I can sit and watch a Grand Am or ALMS race for hours, but I think they're nuts for sitting and watching 2 hours of basketball or Football.

I think the reason is that I don't really care about player stats. At every stage of my life, I've had a friend or co-worker who can spout off the RBIs or ERAs of 50% of the players in the MLB, or who had a Triple Double in last nights basketball game, who's getting X million dollars over so many years, excluding their endorsement deals, etc. The interesting thing to me is that the people who are most knowledgeable about player statistics are generally the least apt to play a particular sport (this doesn't always hold true, but in most cases, it does).

A similar form of statistical nonsense is played out in the automotive world as well. Now, granted, I've picked up a number of different stats on cars, but I've also learned that the stats don't say a darned thing about performance. I'm kind of thinking in terms of my Fiesta Movement application at the moment; I was doubting my efficacy as an advocate for Ford's newest small car because I don't know all the stats on it. I know there's going to be a 1.6L that puts out around 115 HP, there's going to be a standard transmission, and also it sounds like there will be a dual clutch semi-automatic flappy paddle shifter as well. I know that its a relative lightweight in comparison to the BMW MINI, and is probably comparable to the Fit, Versa, Yaris, etc. I don't know fuel economy numbers, I've heard mid-40s, but I think thats one of those things that is best discovered in real life.

The point that I'm trying make is that you can spout off all the statistics you want, but in the end, its your personal experience that tells the true story about something. In regard to my Focus build project, I could have probably bolted on a turbo or supercharger setup for what I'm putting into my engine build, and had 40+ horsepower more than what I'm probably going to end up with. But there is a different level of satisfaction and enjoyment that comes from building a car that does well as an underdog.