Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

You see the strangest things on our highways.

And I'm not just talking about what drivers DO - although I do indeed talk about that too.

How about this? It is a current-generation Toyota Camry with what appears to be 'roo bars' front and rear (trust me on the rear ones; we couldn't get a good shot of them. Trust me too that this pic was taken by my passenger, NOT by me. That'd be illegal, dontcha know...)

The bars appeared to be quite flimsy, not strong enough to actually deflect a fly, let alone a kangaroo - not that kangaroos are a serious issue in these parts.

I was in Australia a couple of weeks ago and boy, they ARE a serious issue down there...

So I couldn't figure out - what the heck were these bars used for here?

Does the guy herd sheep with his Camry? Use the car for crowd control at a G20 Summit meeting? Did he get a deal on it because it was used in the Bumper Car ride at the CNE?

Guesses welcome.

Or if the owner spots this blog, maybe he can fill us in?

Breakthrough in transmission technology

From the quality of the video, this doesn't appear to be all that new, but it's the first I've heard of it.

There also seem to be a couple of versions of it, but I think this one explains it best...

Thanks to Anthony for letting me know about this.

 

Are good habits contagious?

Are you seeing more cars these days parked with their windshield wipers sitting 'up' in the 'clean the windshield' position?

(Assuming the cars' wipers can in fact be extended that far up, and will stay there - we seem to have some car designers or wiper engineers who've never used a squeegee to clean a windshield. Lots of wipers these days can only be lifted a few cm off the glass, making cleaning the windshield a real pain.)

Maybe it's mere anecdotal evidence, but it seems to me I'm seeing more of this recently.

The point of doing this of course is that if it snows or - worse still - if there's freezing rain, your wiper blades don't stick to the windshield.

I mention the 'contagious' issue because on two or three occasions in different parking lots in different parts of the city, I've noticed clusters of several cars parked near each other doing this.

Are people learning from each other?

Reminds me of Russia some years ago - just about every car you'd see parked on the street had no wiper blades at all. Turns out - at that time, anyway - rubber was so valuable that the half-life of an unprotected wiper blade was about ten minutes, so cagey drivers would remove the blades and lock them in the glove box.

Which reminds me yet again of an old Russian car joke:

Dimitri says, "Comrade Ivan - I got a new pair of wiper blades for my Lada!"

Replies Ivan, "Comrade Dimitri - good trade!"

I digress...

Back to learning from others:

It's the same with backing in to parking spots, easily the safest way to do it (unless an even safer 'drive-through' spot is available). That too seems to have a bit of a 'pack mentality' to it, although I know some companies teach their employees to do this (General Motors used to; don't know if it still does).

I once complimented the Hugo Boss company for enforcing this procedure, only to find out subsequently that the motivation wasn't primarily safety, but to ensure that employees' windshield-mounted parking permits were easily visible - and yes, violators would be towed.

Hey - I'll accept the right result even if it's for the wrong reasons.

Now, if we could only get 'the pack' to correct its collective behaviour for my two major (and yes, on-going) pet peeves:

- Drive Right, Pass Left. This means YOU;

and,

- TURN ON YOUR FRICKIN' HEADLIGHTS, preferably all the time, but at the very least when it's cloudy, foggy, raining, snowing - any time really when visibility is compromised, and other drivers need to see your taillights as well as your front DRLs.

Like, well, at night?...

The Jim-Only Lane, a Snowy Day, and a Four-by...

Nothing brings out the brilliance of the Jim-Only lane (that'd be the right-most lane on a multi-lane freeway, the one which logic, courtesy and the law require us to use except when passing) better than a blizzard and a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Few people use 'my' lane at the best of times.

But if they can't see the lane markings because they're covered by a millimetre of snow?

It might as well have 'Here Be Dragons' painted on it.

So today, supposedly the blizzard of the century (heads better roll at the weather office over this one...) in a four-wheel drive like the Toyota 4Runner which happens to be my Hot Rod du Jour, man, it really WAS the Jim-Only lane.

Record time getting around in the GTA today.

C'mon people. There's a little snow on the road. We're Canadian, fer cryin' out loud.

But no; there were most commuters, crawling along nervously in the various other lanes, a-slippin' and a-slidin', apparently believing they were in mortal danger of crashing and heading to that Big Snow Drift in the Sky.

Sadly, all too many of them did crash, although I know of no Big Snow Drift casualties this time.

I wish I had SuperVision, and could have read what kind of tires these folks had on their vehicles. I'm betting the farm AND the Hornet that 99 percent of them had No-Season tires on.

Those are the ones billed as 'All-Season' but in fact aren't much good in any season.

It's easy to tell those folks in town - they're the ones who've understeered into the curb, doing $900 worth of damage to their front suspension.

"Who needs 'snow' tires?" they say. "It seldom snows in Toronto."

Looked outside today, buddy?

On the 401, you have to deduce the rubber of choice - but it isn't that hard.

I'm also betting there's a near-perfect three-way correlation between No-Season tires, improper (and, need I remind you, illegal) lane discipline, and 'Daytime Running Lights only' during a blizzard, which in most cases do not light up the taillights which are at least if not more important in inclement weather than headlights.

We have massive numbers of drivers on our roads who just don't get it.

Now, anyone reading this blog probably DOES get it.

How do we get through to the rest of them?

It's a question I've been asking - well, for decades.

Any suggestions?

What ever happened to...

...the Pontiac Fiero?

At the time (1984) this seemed like a pretty good idea. Take the front-wheel drive Chevrolet Citation compact car drive train, bolt it on the back of a platform, bolt the Chevrolet Chevette front suspension onto the front, clothe it in slinky rust-free plastic bodywork, and presto - an affordable mid-engined sports car.

The concept worked for the Fiat X 1/9.

The Fiero?

Not so much.

The old Iron Duke 2.5 litre four cylinder engine was a slug. Only four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmissions were available. No power steering.

And they had a disturbing tendency to catch on fire.

By the time they put a V6, a five-speed and P/S in the thing (they also sorted the suspension and introduced the fastback GT model) the reputation was too well-established, and the car was dead.

I was reminded of all this when I just happened to spot this nice example in mid-town Toronto the other day. Apparently, the Fiero has achieve some degree of cult-car status.

There's a 'Batman' symbol on the hood of this one. Not sure what that's about...