Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

Union-made in the USA

At one point in time, I belonged to three different unions. Can't remember all of them, but I do remember there were three.

I may still be a member ('retired in good standing') of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 149 (long story).

But I wouldn't really call myself a 'union' man.

Still, when I see the abuse that's being heaped on the United Auto Workers (UAW) union by right-wing commentators over the UAW's failure to win an 'organization' vote at Volkswagen's Chattanooga Tennessee plant - saying that it means the South won't be dragged down like Detroit was - I marvel at these people who fail to study history.

It's as if the UAW was to blame for all of Detroit's faults.

I don't think it was a Union man who decided that all GM cars should look exactly the same back in the 1980s.

And I KNOW it wasn't a union man who designed the Edsel or the Pontiac Aztek.

In fact, if you look at the half-century starting in the mid-1930s when the auto workers unions began, the United States and Canada produced by far the most cars in the world.

They were also the best cars in the world, leaders in design, in technology, in safety, in efficiency.

Not to mention constituting by far the biggest component of the 'Arsenal of Democracy' which built the machinery that won World War II.

After the war, this system allowed legions of hourly workers to make decent wages, put their kids through school, and look forward to a comfortable retirement.

Sure, both sides made mistakes.

But the major flaw in the system was that in the States anyway, the unions forced the manufacturers to provide the benefits their own governments were too stupid to provide.

Geez; they're still fighting over universal medical care down there.

Because the cost of these social needs was forced onto the companies rather than onto society as a whole, companies with ageing work forces were penalized compared to newly-established companies, like the foreign-owned 'transplants' that began arriving in the 1980s.

The 'legacy' costs of supplying pension and medical benefits to their older work forces meant domestic manufacturers had something like $1,200 in every car before the first weld was made.

Toyota can compete even-up, thank you very much.

Give them a $1,200 head start - at cost, not at retail - and they'll eat your lunch.

Opposition by Neanderthal Republican politicians in Tennessee was the main factor that derailed the organization drive. They were claiming VW would move all the jobs to Mexico if the workers unionized.

What? And walk away from a multi-billion dollar three-year old plant?

Hardly.

VW was remarkably neutral in all this. It actually allowed the UAW access to its facilities to talk to the workers. VW is used to dealing with the gigantic and powerful IG Metall, the union in Germany. Relations aren't always pleasant, but Worker Councils are part of the way things are done over there.

Now, some of my best friends are Americans.

But sometimes, you have to wonder if they'll ever make it into the twenty-first century.

Dude - Where's Your Car?

When did 'cold snap' become 'polar vortex'?

Did I miss another meeting?

And what the heck is a 'frost quake'?

Is that like a 'frost heave'?

Whatever, this has been among the worst winters in living memory.

And among other things, it has made a mess of our roads.

Road crews have already patched more than 4,000 potholes this year, compared to about 1,500 at this time last year.

There are stretches of the 401 where metre-long chunks of pavement have just disappeared.

And I'm not even talking about the sinkhole (pictured) that opened up on Bayview south of Finch last weekend. That was the result of a broken water main which caused the supporting soil to be washed away.

It isn't just Toronto, of course. Chicago had a massive weather-related sinkhole last year that swallowed up three cars.

And eight valuable vintage Corvettes were devoured when the floor of the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky caved in. That apparently was caused by a previously unknown cavern beneath the building - natural caverns are common in that area.

The 'normal' potholes we are experiencing are caused by moisture seeping into cracks in the pavement. When the water freezes, it expands, breaking up the pavement.

So it's really the freeze/thaw/freeze cycle that does the damage.

Great - there would be an advantage if it just stayed ridiculously freezing cold all winter...

But I wonder - we've been paving roads in this part of the world for, oh, over a hundred years. Haven't paving companies figured out a way to stop this from happening?

The cars that drive on those roads are warranted for up to five years. Do our governments - do we citizens - who pay for this work get any such warranty for our roads? Do we not have some recourse?

You often see fairly recently re-surfaced roads where the pavement starts to break up after only a few years. Often, it's very localized, so surely there has been a flaw in the paving process?

Are paving contractors not duty-bound to fix them at no extra cost to the taxpayer?

The other major weather-related issue which initiates grave doubts about our transportation infrastructure is the ice storm over the holidays which literally broke our electrical grid. The massive blackouts lasted for up to eight days in some parts of our city.

I remember seeing a quote a while back from a senior official at Toronto Hydro, saying that if any significant proportion of our vehicles were electrics that needed to be re-charged overnight, our system couldn't handle it.

As if we needed further proof of the fragility of that system.

Have we built our entire system on the cheap?

And failed to look after it?

I am reminded of the old Fram oil filter commercial, where the mechanic says, 'You can pay me now, or you can pay me later.''

Maybe Rob Ford's Gravy Train has just fallen into a huge pothole.

***

E-mail me ([email protected]) a photo of your best pothole, and I'll see if I can find some car company swag to send you.

 

Really?

OK, so maybe you couldn't find a snow brush.

But you can't even push a button?

I know for a fact that all cars this new have rear window defrosters.

Westbound 401 approaching DVP, 10:48 a.m., Monday February 3, 2014.

And yes, my passenger took this shot.

Driving in Winter; Driving Luxury Car Sales

Another 25 cm of Global Warming fell on Kenzie World Headquarters over the weekend.

As I always say, it's been doing that in this part of the world for, oh, 15,000 years or so.

So, why does it come as such a shock to so many people?

My focus today is on the province of New Brunswick.

Not normally a focal point for those of us who live in TCotKU (The Centre of the Known Universe).

But they're fighting a battle down there which all Canadians should be following.

At the moment, it appears the Forces of Evil are prevailing - the provincial government seems to have decided not to follow the lead of its (and our) neighbours in Quebec, and will not make winter tires mandatory.

Regular readers surely know the advantages of winter tires.

In addition to better traction in snow and on ice provided by the 'blockier' tread pattern, winter tires have a softer tread compound which does not get as hard in the cold.

This means it can conform better to irregularities in the road surface, providing better grip even on clear, dry pavement.

This is why modern 'winter' tires are called just that - they're not just 'snow' tires any more.

Depending on tire and road conditions, winter tires can mean stopping distances up to forty pecent shorter. That could be three, four car lengths. In urban traffic, that is HUGE.

Rubber chemists who formulate these compounds say that 'all-season' tires have already lost a significant amount of their flexibility and grip when the temperature drops below 7 degrees C. That's still a pretty nice late fall/early spring day.

In other words, you don't need winters as severe as Quebec's to gain tremendous benefits from them.

'All-seasons' are a compromise for summer use too, which is why I call them 'no-seasons' - they're no good in summer, and they're no good in winter.

Heck, even Pirelli, exclusive tire supplier to the Formula One circus, announced today that they will be bringing 'winter' tires to the first test sessions in Jerez Spain, in case the ambient temperature gets too cold.

The New Brunswick government claims the local economy is poor, and requiring winter tires would be too much of a burden on the populace.

Try telling that to the families of the eight teen-aged basketball players who were killed in a crash on a snowy highway in 2009.

There's no proof that winter tires would have prevented that crash.

But they sure wouldn't have hurt.

And there are hundreds, thousands, of collisions every year that could be prevented by the adoption thereof.

Not to mention millions of dollars in lost productivity due to idiots who can't get up the slightest hill in a snowstorm.

There really isn't much of a cost penalty (if any) in running winter tires either, because your summer tires in effect last twice as long.

There can be an up-front cost if you do as recommended and put the winters on a set of 'sacrificial' steel rims. This reduces damage to the alloy wheels that so many new cars come with these days, due to kissing curbs and corrosion from road salt.

And when you compare that with the cost of even a minor fender-bender (and/or the increased insurance premium) - well, winter tires are just about the best automotive bargain out there.

I personally don't need legislation to make this happen; all of the 'Kenzie Fleet' run winter tires, and always have, including the cars my children drive.

It is downright irresponsible to let your kids drive cars without proper tires, in any season.

My third daughter noted the other day that people who don't run winter tires don't 'get' it until they drive a car that DOES have them - the difference is that significant.

Over this past weekend, we had our Jetta TDI wagon on brand-new Swedish Gislaveds, which Lady Leadfoot actually thinks may not be quite as good as the old Gislaveds that were on this car before.

Number One daughter had her gasoline-powered Jetta wagon on brand new Italian-made Marangoni winters, a brand I had never even heard of before but which VW dealers seem to be stocking and promoting.

The aforementioned third daughter was in our VW Passat TDI wagon on an older set of Goodyear winters.

We all navigated the deep, freshly-fallen snow with underlying ice with little drama.

The new Marangonis were particularly sensational. If the trees had enough snow on them, that car could climb them.

At one point, I had to 'rock' the Passat with the older Goodyears a little to get it rolling. Maybe the rubber was a bit worn, or maybe it is evidence of how much progress there has been in winter tire development in just a couple of years.

My hot rod du semaine is a 560 horsepower Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet. Its Pirelli SottoZero winters, combined with its four wheel drive, could have turned it into the world's fastest snowplow.

But that's me; if other people won't take proper precautions on their own, well, that's when government has to step in.

Because their un-equipped car might well run into mine, or that of one of my kids.

Incidentally, winter tires MUST be put on all four wheels.

At a Continental Tire test a couple of years ago in Montana, we were driving what might just be the worst possible winter car - a Ford Mustang GT.

High power, high torque, rear-wheel drive - a bad combination for snowy conditions.

We drove one on all-seasons through a slalom course, one with winters on the rear only, and one with winters all around.

Perhaps needless to say, the winters-all-around car handled it fine. Some wheelspin, sure - a Mustang GT can spin its wheels on dry pavement no problem, never mind on snow.

The all-season car could barely get going (nothing is safer than staying at home!) Could barely brake or steer either.

At least once it did get going, it was balanced and predictable.

The winters-rear-only car could accelerate decently. But once you had to brake or steer - disaster. The car just plowed straight ahead. Fortunately in that case, the only damage was to some orange plastic pylons.

So, it is MORE dangerous to put winters only on the driving wheels than leaving the 'no-seasons' on all around.

I wish New Brunswick's safety crusaders all the best in this fight, and wish other provincial governments would get on board too.

I doubt anything will happen, because it seems nobody in any Ministry of Transportation in this country really gives a damn about traffic safety.

Except in Quebec.

How's that for irony?

 

***

 

Infiniti announced today that Stephen McDonnell will become managing director for Infiniti Canada, starting February 15.

This appointment has a more personal connection than most car company executive appointments, because during his 18-year career with BMW/MINI Canada, he was among other things Chief Poobah of the MINI brand when that car was our mount in the Targa Newfoundland car rally.

Stephen, as usual for denizens of the British Isles, is a motorsport freak, and was a stalwart supporter of that project.

We managed three Divisional wins for MINI, two in the lovely Cooper S JCW that also protected me during a double-end-O when I threw it into the woods at a buck-sixty in 2008, and the third in the MINI Challenge race car that replaced the crushed JCW.

His motorsport enthusiasm should be a nice fit for Infiniti considering their sponsorship of the Red Bull Formula One team, headed by apparent World Champion for Life Sebastian Vettel.

McDonnell's challenge in making Infiniti a Top Tier brand in Canada won't be an easy one.

There has never been a lot wrong with the cars. From the start, the G35/G37/Q50 (despite the ridiculous new nomenclature...) was/is by far the best-driving, most BMW-like, of the Japanese 'near-lux' products.

But cars are just hardware, mere technology, engineering, science. You can either figure that out, or you can buy it.

Creating a brand image strong enough that people will essentially over-pay to be a part of it - well, that's the trick.

Few people know that business in Canada better than Stephen.

Should be an interesting fight.

 

“Whatever” of the Year

There are so many Car/Truck/Utility/Technology of the Year awards, it's not surprising that people get confused.

Various magazines and web sites have their own awards programs, each of which may have their specific - well, 'prejudices' may be too strong a word; 'emphasis', perhaps.

A sports car magazine will lean towards vehicles with outstanding acceleration and handling; a high-tech web site to what they perceive as advanced technology; a 'green' association to the electric hot rod du jour.

Recently, the North American Car / Truck of the Year jury, of which yours truly is one of five Canadian members, voted for the Chevrolet Corvette as Car of the Year, and the Chevrolet Silverado as Truck of the Year, a rare if not unprecedented Twin Win for a single brand.

Another failure of democracy.

I had my messages pre-typed and ready to send off into the twittersphere as the envelopes were being opened at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last Monday, announcing that the Cadillac CTS would be Car of the Year (it finished a distant third amongst the three finalists, with Mazda3 coming second) and Jeep Cherokee as Truck of the Year (it was second, with Acura MDX a distant third).

Am I somehow anti-Chevrolet?

Not at all. The obvious Car of the Year - obvious to me; apparently not to others - was a Chevrolet. More on that in a moment.

Given the three finalists, I just thought that Corvette, as brilliant a car as it is, is a relatively expensive, relatively low-volume car. OK, so is the Cadillac, but not to the same extent.

Maybe my colleagues felt that giving Cadillac the prize two years in a row (ATS won last year) was not on for some reason.

Dunno.

Likewise, the Silverado is a nice-enough truck, not that I know that much about pick-up trucks.

It just seemed to me that the new Cherokee really raised the bar in its class, and that's what any “of the Year'' vehicle should do.

In Canada, Graeme Fletcher in conjunction with Brad Diamond chooses the Car of the Year for TSN's Motoring TV show. I have been on that show for all but the first of our 27-year run, but never get a vote on this. At least partially as a result, Graeme almost always gets it wrong.

The 2014 show doesn't air until this coming weekend, so I shouldn't tell you what his choice is.

His track record doesn't give me confidence.

The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) conducts what is surely the most thorough, broadest-based evaluation process in the world. I have played a not insignificant role in the development thereof over the decades, and am fully committed to it.

But it is no more accurate - 'accuracy' here being defined as ”agreeing with me'' (ahem) - than the others.

Either there's something wrong with the process, or there's something wrong with my colleagues.

Any other possibility is simply beyond the pale...

In the AJAC system, vehicles are driven back-to-back and evaluated against others that are similar in design intent and price - e.g., 'Family Car over $30,000'. Voters chose winners in each category, and also choose which of those they believe should be overall Car or Utility Vehicle of the Year.

The Category winners are here on the AJAC web site as I type; the three finalists in each division will be revealed later this week, I believe.

But they/we collectively have already got it wrong.

Because the true Overall Car of the Year for 2104 didn't even win its category at the AJAC Test Fest last October.

That car?

Drum roll please...

The Chevrolet Impala.

See? I don't hate Chevrolet.

Here's a car that in one generational change went from essentially being a taxi - a big chunk of Impala sales in recent years have been to fleets, rather than in the harsher crucible of the retail market - to being the best mid-size sedan Consumer Reports magazine has ever tested.

And CR has hardly been favourable to domestic sedans over the years. If it wasn't a Toyota or a Honda, they didn't want to know.

Impala is by any definition a handsome piece.

Interesting though: At Detroit last week, I mentioned my choice (of Impala) to Ed Welburn, vice-president of global design for General Motors. You could forgive him for being not totally impartial, but you would also think that any such impartiality would be in the direction of its styling over anything else.

But Welburn told me, “I have one as my personal car now, and it drives even better than it looks.''

Jack Keebler is a former journalist colleague who went over the wall before the bankruptcy to become sort of GM's 'internal' auto journalist. He gives GM cars tough reviews while there is still time to correct flaws which he knows the rest of us would eventually complain about. He never did and still doesn't pull any punches. He told me in Detroit that he also has an Impala as his personal car, and really likes it.

These are people who can drive any GM car they like.

They choose a mid-size, popularly-priced sedan, which competes in the largest passenger car market segment in the USA, one which has been dominated by Japanese-branded cars for over two decades.

Did I mention Impala is assembled in Oshawa?

So, how did we collectively screw things up? On both sides of the border?

I have spoken with a few of my colleagues on the 55-strong North American jury. They too had assigned a big chunk of support to Impala, and were surprised it didn't make the Top Three.

There can be no understanding.

***

On a related note, AJAC's Best New Technology Awards were announced at the Montreal Auto Show last week. Yes, I am on that jury too.

There are two categories within this program, one specifically for safety-related technologies, one for innovation.

Again, a Twin Win for one brand - one individual model, as it happens: the Infiniti Q50.

The Safety award went to the Q50's collision prediction/prevention system, which can apparently 'see' a potential collision two cars ahead ofitself.

Several other car makers have something similar, but it's the 'two cars ahead' thing that stands out here.

Contrary to the impression that may be gleaned from the TV ads, it does not only spot oranges falling off a truck.

The Innovation award went to the Q50's available 'steer by wire' system, which eliminates a mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the front wheels. Substituting electronic signals and activators, this allows the car to change steering ratio and effort level, depending on driving conditions and/or driver preference, and even helps keep the car running straight and true on a cambered road.

For belt-and-suspenders types, there IS a potential mechanical connection - a clutch re-engages said connection in case the electronics should fail.

Perish the thought.

Despite a ten-year research project and input from four-time World Driving Champion Sebastian Vettel, I'm not convinced they really have the feel properly worked out yet.

But overall, this is an 'enabling' technology which really advances the science of suspension development.

And again, real advances are what 'of the Year'' awards should be all about.

This time I actually voted for the winners, as did my colleagues.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

 

 

Lincoln MKC Unveiled

ROUND KNOBS FOR RADIO VOLUME AND TUNING!

I know; type face that big is usually reserved for "Cure for Cancer Found'', or "Maple Leafs Win the Stanley Cup''.

But in the car game, this is huge.

And to me, it is the biggest and best news coming from the reveal of the Lincoln MKC 'premium' compact crossover.

Finally, some sanity is returning to automotive interior design.

Sure, Lincoln Design Director Max Wolff can and does wax lyrical over what he calls "our best execution yet'' of Lincoln's controversial 'split-wing' grille, and the wrap-around tailgate with full-width LED taillights which allowed his team to make the car look wider and more substantial.

It requires a huge hydroformed stamped steel panel, produced in AMINO's plant in St. Thomas Ontario (Canadian content!)

And yes, like the Ford Escape with which MKC shares its basic architecture, if you kick under the rear bumper, the tailgate opens.

Also sure, the MKC débuts a new 2.3 litre EcoBoost turbocharged direct injection engine, producing 275 horsepower and delivering what Lincoln claims is fifteen percent better fuel economy than V6 engines with comparable power.

It is the one-up option to the 240-horse 2.0 litre EcoBoost four - yes, an all-turbo engine line-up for MKC.

All that pales compared to round knobs on a car radio; the Nobel Prize Nominating Committee will be notified.

Wolff admitted that the touch screen and slider controls used on recent Fords have had heaps of abuse dumped on them, by the media (and no, not just me), by Consumers Reports, and even by customers, through J. D. Power reports and other streams of invective.

Ford's Corporate response has been that the 'Take Rate' and Customer Satisfaction scores for MyFord and MyLincoln and the associated SYNC systems have been high, sales are up across the board, so what's the problem?

The problem is, round knobs are simply better ergonomically.

This is science, people, not opinion; I don't really have to go through this all again, do I?

MyLincoln and SYNC are still here, but at least this is progress.

While the MKC is close enough to Escape to be built on the same line in Ford's Louisville Kentucky plant, the underpinnings are quite different.

For starters, chief engineer Lisa Drake notes that MKC's track is wider for a better stance on the road, both visually and handling-wise.

MKC also gets a Continuously Controlled Damping system, allowing the driver to choose from three damper settings, sport, comfort or 'normal' - I guess that last one splits the difference.

The gamut of electronic driving aids is run - Lane Keeping assist, the irrelevant and redundant Blind Spot Warning system, and a collision warning system which flashes and beeps, then brakes the car automatically if you continue to ignore it.

The 'Park Assist' system which steers your car into tight parking spots and is typically shown to your friends once then never used again, adds 'Park Out Assist' - it helps steer your way OUT of a parking space.

Really people...

MKC will be available in front-wheel drive in the US, but full-time four-wheel drive - optional down there - will be standard in Canada when the vehicle débuts in mid-year 2014.

Lincoln will also be introducing an all-new dealership look in the soon-to-be-dominant luxury market of China.

There, Lincoln is known as a 'presidential' vehicle, according to global brand director Matt VanDyk, but the actual product is barely known at all.

The dealerships will feature a 'boutique hotel' look, with warm, welcoming customer reception areas and service bays visible from the showroom through glass walls so prospects can see, says VanDyk, "...that they are not getting counterfeit parts.''

A problem in China, you say?

US dealers will be encouraged to upgrade as well, although VanDyk admits they have to sell more cars before they can convince these hard-headed business people to make the necessary investments.

He allowed that Canadian Lincoln dealers are generally in better shape that American ones; whether Lincoln's relatively better success in Canada is the chicken or the egg is a discussable point.

Lincoln is attempting to do what Cadillac has done in the past decade - rebuild a once-famous 'American' brand.

Cadillac has done it partly on the backs of existing vehicle architectures (Escalade / GMC Yukon Denali; XTS / Chevrolet Impala), and partly on unique platforms (CTS, ATS).

Lincoln so far is adapting existing Ford hardware (MKZ mid-size sedan / Ford Fusion; MKC / Escape).

But do customers care where the oily bits come from?

Will this even be a factor in whether Lincoln prospers or not?

It's among the many things that make this business so fascinating.

The answers should start to become apparent next summer.

 

Have we Lost the 'Connected' Battle?

The saddest piece of news I have heard since learning that the BMW X6 sells better than the 5 Series Touring Station Wagon did in its best year ever - the X6 is ugly and goes downhill from there - is the list of vehicles chosen as finalists for the Car of the Year by something called 'Connected World Magazine.'

You'll get my point when you read the opening paragraph of the press release:

"Distraction-free driving, remote access to vehicles, gesture-controlled infotainment systems, blind-spot detection, and remote-sensing technologies, are just a few of the features that the editors of Connected World magazine looked at when selecting the finalists for the annual Connected Car of the Year awards."

Dear me; do these people know NOTHING AT ALL about cars?

Distraction is a mental issue, not a dexterity issue. That is a fact, not an opinon. Having our cars enable all this stuff makes us more vulnerable, not less.

And anyone reading this blog already knows there are no blind spots to detect.

Again, a fact, not an opinion.

The finalists include the Dodge Dart with the 'Uconnect' system (hint: get into any Chrysler product with Uconnect, and use the voice activation system to try and find 'Dundas Street'); Chevrolet Impala with MyLink (try to do anything with any MyLink-equipped GM car driving east on a sunny afternoon - the fingerprints make it totally unreadable); and several Ford products with the speclal-place-in-hell SYNC with MyFord Touch system (I spent three hours screaming at this thing in a Lincoln MKZ Hybrid on a drive down to Detroit a couple of days ago, trying to find a particular hotel. It said "No entries for that destination." OK, so Detroit is in trouble. But are there NO HOTELS in Detroit? Not according to SYNC wth MyFord Touch.)

Talk about a Hall of Shame.

Steven Jobs has a lot more to answer for than setting computing back 30 years (do you still need two hands to 'Forward-Delete' on a Mac? Come on... ) and making the dumbest Smart Phone ever (how they sold one of those things, let alone millions, remains a mystery; wish I had his Kool Aid. Then again, Celine Dion sells a lot of records - maybe you CAN fool almost all of the people almost all of the time.)

But Jobs made the touch screen a 'thing'. And while you can get used to a touch screen on a phone when sitting at a desk, it simply has no place in an automobile.

I know this makes me sound like a grumpy old man.

Yes, I am grumpy. About this, anyway.

Yes, I am old - older than I was, which of course beats the only available alternative.

But ergonomics is NOT opinion; it is science.

And these systems simply cannot be made safe to work when you're careening down a highway at 100-plus km/h.

Any control which requires you to look away from the road is a bad control, especially when that same function can be done using the shape and feel of a physical knob or lever which does not require visual confirmation.

Yes, we do have more functions in our cars these days. We probably shouldn't, but we do.

But there has to be a better way.

Voice activation is supposed to be that 'better way'. But after at least ten years of intense development, they still are pretty awful, witness my Uconnect-Dundas Street thing.

And again, the distraction involved is mental, not physical.

Collectively, we managed to beat back 'talking cars' in the '80s.

But have we lost the 'connected' battle?

Probably.

But there has recently been one glimmer of hope.

On that previously-mentioned trip to Detroit to see an at-this-point-I-am-embargoed-from-telling-you-about-it vehicle, the chief designer for this automoible division pointed to two lovely shiny round chrome knobs on the centre stack.

They are for radio volume and station tuning.

Nobel Prize Committee, come and see!

He said all future products from this brand will follow this path, in response to massive negative feedback from the media (er, that would be me among others, athough presumably not 'Connected World Magazine') and, more importantly,  customers.

What's next? A slot in the dash where you can put the 'key fob' so you don't lose it when it falls down between the seat and the centre console? Geez; maybe you could even twist it to activate the ignition so you wouldn't need that extra push button...

One of the hardest things for me to learn in this game has been that the customer is always right, even when (s)he's wrong.

That (s)he seems to be recognizing - even if only in this one tiny radio knob example - that maybe (s)e HAS been wrong and is starting to come around, reaffirms my faith in humanity.

It's either that or we go for the Google driver-less car.

And if THAT doesn't scare you, nothing will.

Speaking of Driving with your Headlights On All The Time...

...whichever Ontario Provincial Police officer was driving westbound on the 401 near McCowan Road at 4 p.m. last Friday afternoon, come on!

I know police cars have their Daytime Running Lights (DRL) disabled because they might have to sneak up on the Bad Guys during a stake-out or whatever.

But you weren't sneaking up on anybody. It was broad daylight, and you didn't have your roof lights or anything on, so obviously you were not in a hurry.

But NO lights at all?

Like I said, come on.

Flick the little switch on the dashboard.

Earlier last week, I was driving in Tennessee on a Nissan event. It always feels a bit odd to drive in the USA because few cars have DRL, and up here we get used to seeing cars coming towards us with lights on.

The former editor of Car and Driver magazine seemed to think DRL was some sort of communist plot, but I digress...

It was raining for much of the time I was there, and during those times I actually saw far more cars with full headlights on there than I typically see here.

Tennessee is one of 27 of those United States of America which has a 'wipers on, lights on' law - if rain or fog requires the wipers to be operating, this law requires you to also switch on your full headlights.

While headlights on all the time regardless of time of day or weather is still the only truly sensible way to do it, maybe 'wipers on, lights on' is a bit more sensible than Daytime Running Lights.

As I have said many times, with DRL you do see light on the road ahead of you, and your dash is lit up, so there's no obvious indication that you have no taillights - which, in the vast majority of cars, you do not with DRL.

Especially on freeways where we do so much of our driving, and at higher speeds, it might be argued that taillights are even more important than headlights.

Since our federal government won't do the right thing and make DRL also work the taillights - or at least not allow the dash to be lit up under DRL, which might give brain-dead drivers half a clue - and since most car companies won't do the right thing and stop letting their customers drive around in poor weather conditions as sitting ducks for other drivers who can't see them, maybe our provincial governments have to step up with amendments to the individual Highway Traffic Acts (those being a Provincial/Territorial responsibility) to make 'wipers on, lights on' mandatory.

No, wait - those are the same people who paint the road markings so the right lane keeps disappearing, and who keep building stoplight-controlled intersections instead of roundabouts.

Geez - does nobody give a damn about traffic safety?

Two thousand five hundred deaths a year? September 11, every single year?

That's acceptable?

Like I said, come on.

 

Blue is the New Green

Many car makers are adopting the colour 'blue' to indicate that their cars are 'green'. 

Don't ask me why; ask their marketing departments.

The new Honda Accord plug-in Hybrid is one such.

It even introduces itself to you by having much of the chrome trim around the grille coloured blue.

Unfortunately this looks exactly like the protective tape that comes on the door handles of your refrigerator when it is delivered to your home.

I wonder how many Accord Hybrid buyers will try to peel this off when they get their cars home?

Not that there are likely to be many of them, based on my experience in the car - but that's a tale for another day...

Physicians - and Auto Journalists - Heal Thyselves

Again, I apologize for being pretty much incommunicado during the past week. I was at the AJAC Test Fest, evaluating all the new cars and trucks to determine the Car and Utility Vehicle of the Year, and I just never seemed to find the time.

And yes, I recognize I used that photo before...

I must have driven about 50 cars during the week. All my colleagues were doing the same thing. And in all except one of the vehicles I got into, the side-view mirrors were adjusted incorrectly.

As regular readers know, there is no such thing as a 'blind spot' if your side-view mirrors are adjusted far enough outwards.

But only one of all of the previous drivers of these vehicles had done this right.

This 'crank your mirrors out' thing isn't just something I made up. Virtually every advanced driver training program in the world teaches this technique.

It isn't merely 'opinion' either. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) produced a paper several years ago, proving geometrically that this is the only way to do it.

Yes, it takes some getting used to.

But so does driving a car.

This is a fundamental issue. There is no room for argument here.

So, why aren't my colleagues doing it correctly?

I have no idea.

Unless the car itself doesn't allow the mirrors to be adjusted far enough out. Several Mercedes-Benz models at Test Fest suffered from this. For a company which prides itself on safety, this is inexcusable.

While I'm on my soap-box, very few of the test cars I saw driving in and out of the parking lot had their full headlights on - they were relying only on Daytime Running Lights which, in the vast majority of cases, do not illuminate the taillights.

It was cloudy, gloomy and raining for much of this week, exactly the type of weather where taillights are perhaps even more critical for being visible than headlights.

Come on, people. Full lights on, all the time.

Be safe.

Nothing else makes sense.

And finally, every single car under review at Test Fest was backed into its parking space by the event's organizers, because it is unquestionably the safest way to do it.

Unless it's a 'pull-through' spot - and there were none here - you either have to back in to the spot when you arrive, or you have to back out when you leave. It takes anyone with half a functioning brain cell only about half a second to figure that backing IN is the only way to do it.

When you drive past the spot, you can see it's clear, and you can back in safely.

More important, when you have to pull out, you have full visibility of what's coming towards you - backing out into unknown traffic is obviously more dangerous.

So the test cars were all parked correctly.

And with only one exception I spotted - a red Range Rover Sport on Wednesday; you must know who you are - every test car was backed in to its spot when the journalist returned it.

But in the parking area where the journos parked their own cars, I'd say over half of them were driven frontwards into their spots.

At the end of the day, they had to back out into traffic, which often included the golf carts which were ferrying us around the property.

Major danger.

Even with the examples right in front of them all day long, most were STILL doing it wrong.

Come on, people.

Mirrors Out.

Headlights On.

Back In.

We know many of our readers/viewers have not learned these techniques, largely because they have never been properly taught how to drive.

But we automotive journalists are supposed to be the experts.

Why aren't we setting the best examples in all aspects of driving?