Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

I succumbed - to Facebook

Well, I did it - I set myself up on Facebook.

Or "FaceTube" as Top Gear calls it.

I really have no clue how it all works yet - and may never.

And it's not like I need more distractions to keep me from meeting my deadlines.

But it seems Facebook, despite the recent and various concerns about security of personal data, is now a bigger 'search engine' - at least for certain types of data - than Google.

I am, as you might well guess, 'Jim Kenzie'.

But like my Twitter account ('jim_kenzie') you're not going to see a mention on Facebook every time I drive to the store for a carton of milk, or what I had for lunch (to save you the wondering, probably toasted tomato sandwiches).

That said, I'm not certain yet exactly what you ARE going to see on there.

A Work in Progress, as they say, and you're welcome to join me in it.

www.facebook.com, as if you didn't know.

Fast Hondas, behaving - not too badly

Is there a new 'Fast and Furious' movie being shot in Toronto?

Or did I just run into a meeting of the Toronto Chapter of the 'Honda Go-Faster' Club?

I was tootling along the 401 today in my nice 'new' little Miata - great day for a convertible - when behind me to my right I heard what sounded like a pack of vuvuzelas (another reason, as if more are needed, why The World Cup is so awful).

Turns out it was a heavily decked-out Honda Civic / Acura whatever-three-letter-designation-they're-calling-the-Integra-these-days (hard to tell which it was, with all the badges pulled off).

Bright white paint job; white wheels, the rears decambered to within a centimetre of their lives (wonder what it'll cost to replace those tires after about 10,000 km?); huge coffee-can exhaust system, hence the droning noise; 'aerodynamic' body kit - actually not a bad-looking set-up, given the genre.

He was looking like he wanted to pass me on the right.

As if.

He deeked to the right-most lane, but of course it wasn't open (if it had been, needless to say, I would have been in it), then moved back.

I pulled over, and let him pass.

He was soon joined by a couple other slammed Civics, a Honda S2000, and a particularly wild-looking NSX.

Would have taken a photo, but the e-mails I would have got...

Quite clearly, these guys knew each other.

They were more-or-less behaving themselves - maybe tailgating just a bit too close on occasion.

But they signalled all their lane changes, and weren't going noticeably faster than the flow of traffic.

No real point here - it was just nice to see young people enjoying their cars in a reasonably socially-responsible way.

Calm before the storm

After maybe the busiest four to five months for travel in my entire career - the car industry may be going through a tough time lately, but the new products keep rolling out and the car makers have to tell us about them - it's been a bit slow for the past week or so. Time to catch my breath, do some of that 'family' thing.

Starts right up again in July, with Buick Regal in Vancouver and Kelowna next week, VW Jetta (San Francisco) two weeks after that, then Kia Sportage (Whitehorse Yukon - again??) followed by a week of vacation.

This week we had a farewell lunch for the retiring president of Nissan Canada, Mark Grimm, a nice guy who's had a long and distinguished career. He noted that his predecessor in Nissan Canada's corner office, Brad Bradshaw, and his replacement therein, Allen Childs, all were office mates at Ford's North Carolina regional headquarters earlier in their careers.

Coincidence, or did someone at Nissan just steal Ford's Human Resources battle plan?

In any event, best wishes to Mark. He's heading back to his native upstate New Jersey, but the betting is his phone will be ringing, and he won't stay 'retired' for long.

The lunch was held in a restaurant on Eglinton Avenue just east of Dixie, whose parking lot might be one of the most dangerous in the region - it is shared with the Driver Examination Centre. All those newby drivers coming in to take their driving tests, nervous as heck, and all trying to (properly, it must be said) back into their parking spots.

I was in our 'new' Miata, and chose - for the sake of the paint job on its doors - to park a long LONG way away. Let them practice their parking on somebody else's car...