Category Archives: Cars

Jul 14 2012

Honda CRV – a quick drive around the block


The nice people at Honda let me have a new Honda CRV for an hour today. They let me have, not surprisingly, the top of the range CRV-Sport,a  ”luxury” 2.4-litre, 4WD Sport  no less.

It’s a Honda. It has that over engineered for people Honda-ness going for it. Everything in it’s place, everything for a purpose. It’s a very pretty car, lois of nice rounded edges and curves. and a little shark fin on the roof!

Climb inside – there are a bazillion seat settings, I know that once you get it right it’s right, but faffing and fiddling when you’re in motion isn’t the best way to start a drive. eventually I figured it out to lower the seat, tip the front of if it down, move it back, adjust the lumbar setting, and then move the steering wheel down and out. It’s how I like it, the next person in will hate it. MrsPdubyah would have a mild panic every time she got in, it might do Honda well to have a memory system if they’re going to invest in electrickery of this sort for seats.

First order of the day – It doesn’t have a sat-nav. This appears to be a cost save, since the display  is used for showing you how loud the stereo is, and then doubles as a reversing camera screen. And whilst I am on reversing camera it’s a camera with some grid lines on it but no audible warning just to let you know that what you’re seeing is right. My Current car has no camera but an audible warning, it is possible. Perhaps someone had switched it off. I’d be keen to have it switched back on again.

And whilst we’re on the radio and the “premium” sound system I turned up the volume to maximum. Loud enough without making your ears bleed. Then I had to stop and get out to do something. I got back in and of course the volume was set to ears bleeding now, I would have thought that Honda would have a reset to default volume option on their “premium” stereo’s. (again my current car has this it’s a magnificent feature)

English: Honda CRZ Hybrid at the 2010 Washingt...

English: Honda CRZ Hybrid at the 2010 Washington Auto Show (D.C.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It has the same trick steering wheel that is in the CRZ, little buttons to push here and there, some obvious some not so. And it has a flappy paddle gear-box. But oddly only 5 gears. And I loved the seamless way that the gearbox works. I was intrigued that in the “sports” mode that I could go from 1-though-5 at the speed I was driving, I’d be hoping that there is some failsafe in the system that prevented you driving everywhere in 1st for instance, or trying to pull away in 5th.

It has, currently, keyless entry and keyless ignition, but the salesman tells me that as they move to a new factory overseas this might disappear. As an older generation driver things like keyless ignition are still smoke and mirrors, and it’s a feature that should be there, just to show that the car is leading edge of something.

There is an “eco” mode button that lights up a green leaf thing on the dashboard. This makes the transmission mode softer, and assists in economical driving. And you can tell the economy by the way the green ring appears around the speedo when you drive, Green is good, white for a fright? There didn’t appear to be a red ring to indicated lead-footery. Then again the green ring of confidence seemed to be in attendance most of the time I drove it.

And on demand 4WD, as if you’re likely every to take this more than curb parking. Off-road as in parked in my garage perhaps. or for parking on the grass verge at the sunday farmers market.

It accelerates to warp speed maximum (And a bit) really quickly, smoothly and without drama when entering the motorway, and has really good mid-range acceleration. I love the acceleration and the response I got, good stuff.

It’s also very very quiet and comfortable, I couldn’t pick up any road noise inside the car. Then again I did have the sunroof open :-) but when it wasn’t it was a comfortable quiet cockpit.

What do I not like so much? Stereo, Lack of sat-nav, lack of audible reversing proximity sensor. I didn’t understand the drama of the “eco” mode, I didn’t really get the green-ring of confidence around the speedo, and the drivers wheel buttons are a bit faffing and fiddly.

What do I like? It’s easy to get into, it has new fangled keyless start and a flappy paddle gearbox. It has great acceleration.

However this is a much much better car than the current CRV, by any measure. At 10 liters per 100 kms that I drove it’s not too thirsty for something of it’s size.

Could it get me in trouble? It could, it drives to the maximum speed limit quickly and then it’ll keep going.

To the chase then, would I own one? at just under NZ$50k there is a lot of competition for the money. I don’t think I’d be a comfortable Honda car driver, I’d be disappointed that I’d turned into Captain Slow.

The CRV is good at what it’s good at, but it doesn’t bring anything but “safe” to the game, which you might like or you might despair of. It’s not quirky in any sense that I could define, and although you don’t necessarily want a car that challenges you, you might want one that let’s you be in a bit of command over it and not the other way around. It’s a driving pleasure not a driving experience.

Drive one at the first opportunity you can, it really is remarkable how different and how much nicer this is then the car you have, just how quiet, how smooth and balanced it is, and how much thought Honda have given to getting you from A to B in comfort.

You won’t be disappointed. Having driven one I’m not.

Jun 7 2012

As I get older I get different – the birthday gift from Holden – the update


Holden in Australia rang me today, well a spokesperson did, to talk about my 2009 Holden Cruze, someone in their PR department, who knows, I didn’t write his name down. Anyway…

According to the person I spoke to, and you’ll get that this is my version of his words paraphrased;

  • It’s normal for modern cars to have rotors replaced at 60,000 kms
  • The brake pads are in constant contact with the disks constantly wearing them down to keep them from warping. (for real)
  • Of course it uses rotors quicker than an older car, they’re modern, its a modern braking system. (for real)
  • Advised that the Mitsubishi Airtrek (which he’d never heard of as a model) has never had rotors and has 160,000 on the clock was because it’s older! And regardless must be lighter on the brakes because it’s a 4wd SUV
  • “Having worked for VW and other manufacturers I can assure you that this isn’t unusual” a pitiful plea from authority.
  • “You brought you car second hand, what can you expect?” (I’ve had it 2 years and done 40,000 kms, it been serviced 3 times at the same dealership, he tried to convince me that I’d only done 17,000kms nothing like research)
  • He did concede that he’d never heard of this problem, that it sounded unusual, but it was expected.
I did point out that it was a 1.8 litre, mid-sized car, not some V8 performance car. It’s a town car, a commuter car, it’s a shopping basket.

He did offer to pay 50% of the costs of the Rotors/Discs, on condition that I remove my FB wall post. I told him to email me and I’d consider it. I told him how miffed I was, and resentful that a new in-warranty vehicle was supplied from the factory with items that clearly were never going to make a warranty period. I told him that I wasn’t happy and that it was a poor excuse that he was offering up.

I will consider his email should it ever arrive. I’m happy to remove the Facebook wall post to their wall.

Really I’m ok with Tyres wearing out, I get spark plugs, oil filters, air filters, transmission oils. They’re what you expect to have changed. I’m even ok with brake pad wear at 60,000 km (although there was no indication that they were low), but I’m not ok with having to replace the rotors/discs because the man at Holden says that “it’s normal, and it’s the modern way”

Oh and Giltrap Holden North Shore are a super dealership, they really set a benchmark in customer service and go far beyond what you expect from a car dealer. Can’t recommend them enough.

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Jun 5 2012

As I get older I get different – the birthday gift from Holden


Today is my birthday, it should be a day to smile and indulge.

Last year we went to Queenstown for a visit, this year on the weekend we went to the beach house, where the weather was fine and dandy and I ate too much, drank too much and did too little. Had a great time of much relaxation, did some Gentleman fishing, and went to a party, had a BBQ breakfast and sat around.

But today I’m at home, taken a day off work to be communing with myself.

I also put the philmobile  into the Holden  garage for a service. Doing the right thing, keep the service plan unto date. It’s not an old car, November 2009 was when it was first registered, and I brought it in August of 2010. It’s now got 60K on the clock. And i presume it’s still under a manufacturer warranty. Like I said not old by any definition of old cars.

Things to do on your birthday include then not putting your car in for a service, since they rang me shortly after with the news that it needs about $600 dollars worth of brakes and rotors. It seems they rotors are made from tin foil or something, and of course are “wear and tear” and not faulty and therefore not warrantable parts. Farcical. Added to the other “parts” that you need for a service and I was in for $1,302 today.

I looked up the trade in value, and it’s worth between $18,000 and $23,995 depending on if it’s an auction or from a dealer. $600 would be about then 3% of the value of the car.

Quandary is to keep it, and be frustrated at the expense, or trade it  in a fit of pique for a whole new bunch of expenses, or having spend the money wait a year to get some of the value from the expenses. I’m not sure MrsPdubyah is going to be best pleased when she looks at the Visa card bill later.

You know I’ll still be driving it in a year.

Tempered with this is that I just brought lamb shanks and they’re in the slow cooker and about 8 hours away from being ready to eat. I might be in a better mood by then. Might. If not at least I’ll be tasty.

Apr 7 2012

Parenting disaster – an ongoing series


Well I have to confess to really making a hash of this one.

Daughter has a car with a Mongoose Alarm system and a two button remote. We have two, just in case.

The remote button to the car  she uses needed the battery replacing, so she said, which you’d think would be within the capability of most parents with a small screwdriver and no fear of taking a small object apart. So here we go. Captain Dad;

  1. Find Small Screwdriver
  2. Took remote apart, a bit fell out.
  3. Ignore small bit, she’ll be right mate
  4. Go back to garage get remote control for garage door, battery is the same as for the garage remote control as the car one.
  5. Change the battery
  6. Reassemble car remote, noting that it appears to need the small bit that fell out to make the screw work,never mind she’ll be right mate
  7. Try out newly powered car remote
  8. Doesn’t work
  9. Disassemble car remote, no more bits fall out
  10. Turn battery around it’s now in the right way
  11. Go to tool box, find an unopened super glue packet
  12. Find tweezers
  13. Stick fingers together
  14. Stick bit that had fallen out back in again
  15. Reassemble remote
  16. Test

It doesn’t work though.

Now in Pdubyahland this means that the remote has forgotten it’s code, right and has to be re-learnt, so I get on the interwebtubes and find out how to learn the remote the code to the alarm.

Print that off, go to car, go through  the process, and I can’t get it to work.

And this is where it’s gone wrong.

I’ve managed to arm the alarm, but neither of the remote buttons now work. The car is disabled, the remotes don’t work. The engine is immobilized. It won’t start.

It’s a holiday weekend, anyone that can fix it is on holiday. I’d disconnect the battery to see if that resets the alarm and there are thee outcomes

  1. It won’t matter, the car will still be immobilized
  2. The alarm will go off as it thinks it’s being tampered with
  3. it’ll reset itself

I’m not really a fan of 1-3 odds, and I can’t see disconnecting the battery option working as when we got the car the battery had been flat for a couple of months.

lesson: Don’t. Just don’t.

Mar 28 2012

It’s not what they say it’s how you read them – Personalised Plates – The Follow Up


I recently saw a couple of personalised plates on my travel in Albany. http://pdubyah.com/2012/02/16/its-not-what-they-say-its-how-you-read-them-personalised-plates/ These are those;

And being the curmudgeon I am I paused to think about the good taste and decency that these showed. I contacted the people at Plates.co.nz but they are only the issuing agency and not arbiters of taste and decency and I was referred to the NZTA a chap by the name of Alan Montgomery who job title wasn’t “registrar” as I’d thought but rather  “Manager Customer Access”

So I wrote a real letter, and used a real envelope and stamp and sent away a missive. This is in part the reply;

So my letter was a question and not a complaint, but it doesn’t go on to tell me how to complain about something that I’ve taken offense to (and remember that you can only take offence it’s not something you can give). So armed with a new sense of righteousness I of course hopped on to the plates.co.nz web site again and of course tried my own variations

You can’t have SHIT, URSHIT, SHITTY or SHITTR, but you can have SHITTNG and SHITSU

You can’t have GDCUNT,  MINGE,  or COCK (but HEN has been taken) and I know people who use those words all the time. Munter is ok.  NONCE is allowed which is a slag term for is a slang word used to refer to a sex offender or child  sexual abuser, or paedophile. Spell it with a C or an S – still available.

I did not that you can have PDUBYA perhaps I can get that with a word surround that say he’s a good cunt that Pdubya, perhaps.

My original musings are here http://pdubyah.com/2012/02/16/its-not-what-they-say-its-how-you-read-them-personalised-plates/
Mar 10 2012

Trying Teen Times – the grown up one – A New Car redux


This time though…. Well we still do have the big red garden ornament, its outside gathering a cobweb and surrounded by road cones as the road works goes on around it. It’ll be like the H.G.Wells time machine it sits there much longer. It’s innards and stowed in the boot, for someone braver or richer than I to put back together and it’ll be off to the crusher shortly. The same way car #1 went, the trust Mazda Famillia.

Today though I announce a new new new car, a Nissan Sunny in Blue. It’s 12 years old and has a stately 185K on the clock, and being totally mechanically minded I can tell you it drives ok.

B14型日産・サニー

Image via Wikipedia

It’s an ex-rental and will come delivered with a new Windscreen as the old one has a big stone chip, it’ll have a full valet and service, WOF and reggo. plus it’ll have a basic break and bring it back warranty for a month.

And it didn’t cost the earth.

So second time lucky and third time a charm on this one. Boy child should get a bit more use out of it than the 10 or so days from the last one.

Or not.

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Feb 16 2012

It’s not what they say it’s how you read them – Personalised Plates


I’m curmudgeonly at best, according to MrsPdubyah, but as age and reason take over youth and exuberance I find myself questioning a few things. So then  Personalised Plates

I was driving home recently and was driving behind a Black Kia Cerrato what had the number plate “SHITOT” I know it’s a Black Kia because I looked it up on carjam.co.nz :-)

The next day I cruised up behind a blinged up Honda Civic

Being a bit of a curmudgeon I thought I’d look to see what constituted offensive and inappropriate in terms of what you can and can’t have as a number plate. Seems you can’t have a number plate starting with  ARS, BUM, CUN, DUM, FAK, FAT and FUZ which are among 25 of those that the NZTA has banned already.

Stuff.co.nz reports :

From July 2010 till August 2011 the agency blocked six plates from being made after it was contacted by Personalised Plates Ltd. The agency also recalled a further six after complaints from the public.

Of the dozen plates, three used the c-word, including one in Afrikaans, which was recalled after it was issued. A Broadcasting Standards Authority survey last year found the c-word to be the most offensive swear word in New Zealand.

Two featuring the f-word were banned, and three with racist references to black people were recalled, as was CTKLR (cat killer).

A plate referring to the Hiroshima bombing in 1945 was blocked from being made.

Message plates allow smaller lines of text to be written above and below the central word, so the plate would have read “The Big Bang Theory ENOLA Gay”.

Enola Gay was the name of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which killed about 140,000 people. After a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed about 74,000, the Japanese surrendered and World War II came to an end.

The plate was blocked before it was produced because it was “likely to offend”, Transport Agency spokesman Andy Knackstedt said. A plate that said only Enola was allowed.

Also reported elsewhere Personalised plates which have not been allowed include FNC0LD and OHCOCK, while RDY24Q and DARKIE are among those which have been recalled.

But it seems SHITOT is ok, as is BOLX. In an email exchange with the Plates.co.nz people they said that SHYTOT was still on a vehicle and  that  B0LX could be B naught Fity TEN  maybe a dairy farmer.  – who knew that B0Lx was a dairy term.

I’ll concede that SHYTOT could be just that a SHY TOT – tot of course being a slang for a young child, I did check and SHYBOY isn’t issued but that SHYGAL is (i’ve done research!).

Like I stated with I get the desire to have an expression that in anarchic, a finger to the establishment, and fair play if you can get one past them, but  I’ve now contacted the NZTA and have to write to them with a complaint, this will calm the inner crank in me.

Jan 17 2012

Trying Teen Times – the grown up one – Part the Sixth – A New Car


Well we found a car, a very low mileage two owner Mazda Astina 1994 – which makes it only slightly younger that the #Boychild, and so we brought it.  It comes as standard including the steel wheels, factory stereo and an aerial that goes up and down when you put the radio on – it even has a cassette tape  player!

It’s not that we didn’t want to but as I may have mentioned it was about continued independence and freedom. I can almost hear the sighs and see the eye-rolling exasperation from some of you :- “How spoilt and unnecessary is that?” you may be thinking (about the car not the sighs and eyes).

We’re not proud, we are definitely not rich, and this puts us even further away from any goal of savings we might have. It’s not about those things, it’s about family and it’s about getting on. We’re lucky to be able to, as I’m sure many of you are not as lucky, or fortunate.

It’s insured against crashing into someone else and from being stolen, as are all the cars we variously own, and is good to go. How mad is insurance pricing though? 3rd Party, Fire and Theft $80 per Quarter, or Fully Comp at $80 per month. It’s a car not the crown jewels, he hasn’t been in an accident in three years, may that continue.

I don’t know if it’s as economical, sadly #Boychild isn’t in the least bit connected with the finer nuances of ownership of cars, such as, oh, checking the water in the washer bottle, or the fuel mileage he can expect from a litre of go-juice

I’ll feel better about him travelling to and fro in this one over the last one he had/has which really was, in the local parlance “a bomb” and is for sale to someone who might wish to buy it – really cheap.

 

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Jan 12 2012

Trying Teen Times – the grown up one – Part the Fifth – Cars


A couple of years ago #Boychild wanted a car, and we made him save his hard-earned cash for one. It was only a ‘bomb’, and was never going to last the distance. To be honest we paid half the cost and insisted that he have at least 3rd party insurance, and undertake a defensive driving course.

As an aside you get no discount whatsoever for doing a defensive driving course, which seems wrong. He’s had one accident where he bumped into someone and we settled for cash.

We’ve had to buy tires, and a battery, and some rust work fixed up a bit, oh and he’s had the brakes fixed.

Owning a boat would be cheaper!

Today it died. It appears to my un-mechanical eye that the head gasket has failed and that’ll be terminal, since the cost of fixing that would be more than the car costs, or owes us. Madness.

The difficult part of this as a parent is that #Boychild is currently in-between gigs, i.e. he’s unemployed at this present moment in time (and that’s a whole other story). And he does have some of a social life, friends he visits and a long time girlfriend who lives way way over the other side of town.

Public transport is a bit of a joke and would add multiple hours of travel time onto a simple journey. Sure he can walk locally and get the bus where he knows he has to be where he has to be, but the trauma of going to self-reliant to public transport is a big ask.

The dilemma then, as a parent, is that we need to encourage said #Boychild his independence, and to encourage him to fly the nest and venture on his own two feet. Not having his own self-reliance and looking for a job is a bit of a handicap.

So once again I find my laser-eye surgery slipping further from my grasp as we (MrsPdubyah and me) are sort of resigned to furnishing a replacement set of wheels.

It just never ends.

Jul 5 2011

Build a Bridge – get over it.


 

Toll roads are contentious. Nobody want to pay to drive. Driving is a right. Unalienable, god-given right. I can drive anywhere at any time. I can even use my cell phone and speed, if I’m not caught, which I’m often not. (Well never actually, very cautious driver am I)

I’ll start straight up and say that I cross the bridge on average 10 times a week, there and back 5 days a week.  I have a passing interest in this, I travel around 18-20,000 kms a year, just commuting to my workplace and home. I have a passing interest in this.

Anyway.  A toll on using the current harbour bridge. Daft.

 Daft for some reason that I instantly came up with, and there are more, and these are probably not very good but; 

  1. Why only on traffic that crosses the bridge? Why no toll the whole motorway, or have a toll for the on-ramps that you use, so pay as you enter.
  2. Who doesn’t benefit from the harbour bridge? How do things get from markets to shops? Everyone in Auckland benefits from the motorway system and the bridge, everyone.
  3. The CBD. A catchment area of workers that would encompass many of the northern suburbs, adding $60 – $80 a week of tolls to a journey isn’t fair, democratic or right just because I live ‘north of the bridge’
  4. The University at Takapuna. That’s north of the bridge. I’d like to see student allowances stretch to include toll fees
  5. There is no public transport. Sure there is a busway.
    1. Have you ever tried to get on a bus in rush hour?
    2. Have you ever tried to park at the park n ride?
    3. Does the bus go anywhere near where you need to be?
    4. Does it get there in a reasonable time?
    5. How long is the Journey and how much does that cost?
    6. How many exclusions will there be?
  6. Administration costs. Our most successful toll road already has ‘admin’ fees of 0.74 cents per transaction. A one way toll is $2.

I’m in favour of user pays, that seems to fair thing to suggest, but you can’t carve out the current harbour bridge as a “nice to use” feature without taking a wider view of its economic and social benefits.

Do we need a new bridge, eventually we do yes. Badly. Do we need more roads, yes, how else to get goods from markets to shops, workers to offices, students to schools. Do we need better public transport? Yes if it went from where I was to where I needed to be in a reasonable time.  Would I get the bus to work?, Sure perhaps but I can imagine my 45 minute journey being  over 2 hours each way.

Well I looked it up, 1 hour 59 minutes, and $14.20 one way. So I’de leave home at 6am and I’d get home at 9pm $28.40 per day, that could happen.  Oh and I still have to walk to the bus stop on top of that time. Rain or shine, and if the bus/train/bus turns up. Bit of a lottery