I'll post pics soon...It's going to be about a week or so as I'm traveling. The nature of my work has me with the car only part of the time, as I'm out of the state quite a bit.
I spent four days total with the car, driving around San Francisco. Unfortunately, I'm not a sports car expert, as this is my first... so the difficult part is giving anyone opinions of comparison.
First off, there is nothing crazier than looking down at your new car dashboard and seeing a tac that goes to 15,000 and a speedometer that goes to 150mph. That, I think, freaked me out a little bit...in a good way.
Essentially, I feel like I am piloting a rocket ship. I think about being a place down the road, and suddenly (and without warning) my car is there. 0-60 in the 1.5 just *feels smooth* in comparison to my test drives of the VP-13. I can't say I can tell the subtle increase of performance in terms of time of 0-60 (I'm not standing next to it with a stop watch), but clearly I'm getting a smooth, consistent acceleration and well beyond what any safe driver would ever really need in 95% of situations.
Also as compared to the VP-13 test drive, the car sounds and feels more like a well oiled machine (irony intentional). It's less clunky, though I doubt this is due to the 1.5, it's just a finished product. It feels right and is a better overall experience.
I've smoked anyone who gave me a nod at a stop light. That's fun. I can tell I needed about one day of "douchebaggery" before my ego was satisfied and I avoided such things. I feel bad for them, though, just a little.
In terms of other performance, once I got used to the un-powered steering, I found handing of the car to be absolutely excellent. I've never driven this low to the ground before, but making turns felt like something out of Tron... I felt bad for my passengers as they weren't expecting me to take turns at quite that speed (neither was I, at first).
One little San Francisco characteristic: Going up hills doesn't seem to play any factor in acceleration that I can tell. In fact, other than perhaps using more power (which I haven't really noticed in terms of overall consumption), I'm going up steep hills without breaking a sweat. Further acceleration is available if I wanted it. In the city, I was afraid someone was going to jump out from behind a parked car, so I didn't go to crazy.
Regenerative braking was awkward for me for the first half hour of my driving... [Editor's note: I was mistaken in calling it "regenerative braking." What I should have said that in "coast" mode, that is, when you take your foot off the accelerator but do not press the brake down, the car slows down faster than you might expect a car to do without brakes. During that time, the brake lights turn on.] I began to realize that any time my foot was off the accelerator the brake lights were on, as the regenerative brakes were rolling. Once I got used to that, I actually learned to love it, as it seemed very natural, particularly in city driving. Braking was very efficient and you could tell there wasn't added drag after you take your foot off the brakes...Immediate release.
As far as the features of the car, I've put everything through the test. Let's start with the most common feedback: The radio. I have to be honest, I'm an audiophile and techy, and I'm big on feature optimization... I think this is a great device. As far as interfaces go for the size, I have no complaints. The nav (in 3D front view) is now my default screen. My only beef with the radio is that the iPod support is a little challenging... If I set my playlist before attaching it I'm fine, but I haven't been able to figure out how to navigate playlists yet through the JVC (I can bring up the menu item "Playlists," but I can't seem to traverse to the list itself). The sound of the system was a little tinny by default but I adjusted the EQ and was satisfied with the seven speaker setup. For a car this low to the ground, and often with the top off, I think this is a great system.
The heated seats work great, I used those a little bit. Defrost and air is fine. You have to remember to select AC or Heat or it won't work, but you get used to that. No complaints here on the HVAC capabilities.
The seats have lumbar support! That was a surprise...little inflation squeeze things you squeeze and it inflates. Bonus! I was happy to have that, because I'm tall and I was sure my back was going to suffer.
Regarding fans and pumps and what not, everything operated as I expected it to. Yes, after driving it for a while, you'll park it and you'll hear the fans roaring and pumps pumping, but I'm fine with that. It doesn't spoil the experience at all. On one occasion, after driving it a lot one day, I heard a rumble like sound with a fan up front that sounded a bit scary. I turned the car off, turned it back on, and it never returned.
I've tested charging in various modes. I personally set it to charge at 1AM and leave the car in "Standard"mode. I can elaborate on the options here if anyone is interested, but the bottom line is that most of the time I'm going to leave it in "Storage" mode (when I'm away) and when I'm in town "Standard" mode. I've also inflated the tires for "Comfort" driving (lower pressure) versus "Standard" which is much harder a ride at higher pressure.
Key fobs work great, you get to program your third button to do whatever you want (trunk, garage door, whatever). I got HomeLink working so I open my garage with my touch screen (great feature, because where the heck would you put a garage opener). I like the various status screens available to you, all fun to play with and learn about your electricity consumption. Kudos to the team who designed the interface, I'm really picky about it and it seems to make intuitive sense. I could spend hours writing about their interface, and the elements to it...but over all I think they did a fantastic job with limited real estate.
As for the soft top, after some practice, I can get it on and off in a minute or two. It's pretty simple, and I don't feel particularly like I would want an automatic one...just one more thing to break. I'm learning convertible etiquette (I've never owned one) so I find myself putting the top back on a lot because of some illusion I have of added security... It's probably worse to park it in the city with a soft top, inviting vandals, but somehow it made me feel better. I'd take my radio with me, as well. If folks on this forum are old-school convertible drivers in cities and want to offer some tips, I'd sure appreciate it.
Anyway, for four days of driving that's a start. Look for pics in a bout a week or so.
I spent four days total with the car, driving around San Francisco. Unfortunately, I'm not a sports car expert, as this is my first... so the difficult part is giving anyone opinions of comparison.
First off, there is nothing crazier than looking down at your new car dashboard and seeing a tac that goes to 15,000 and a speedometer that goes to 150mph. That, I think, freaked me out a little bit...in a good way.
Essentially, I feel like I am piloting a rocket ship. I think about being a place down the road, and suddenly (and without warning) my car is there. 0-60 in the 1.5 just *feels smooth* in comparison to my test drives of the VP-13. I can't say I can tell the subtle increase of performance in terms of time of 0-60 (I'm not standing next to it with a stop watch), but clearly I'm getting a smooth, consistent acceleration and well beyond what any safe driver would ever really need in 95% of situations.
Also as compared to the VP-13 test drive, the car sounds and feels more like a well oiled machine (irony intentional). It's less clunky, though I doubt this is due to the 1.5, it's just a finished product. It feels right and is a better overall experience.
I've smoked anyone who gave me a nod at a stop light. That's fun. I can tell I needed about one day of "douchebaggery" before my ego was satisfied and I avoided such things. I feel bad for them, though, just a little.
In terms of other performance, once I got used to the un-powered steering, I found handing of the car to be absolutely excellent. I've never driven this low to the ground before, but making turns felt like something out of Tron... I felt bad for my passengers as they weren't expecting me to take turns at quite that speed (neither was I, at first).
One little San Francisco characteristic: Going up hills doesn't seem to play any factor in acceleration that I can tell. In fact, other than perhaps using more power (which I haven't really noticed in terms of overall consumption), I'm going up steep hills without breaking a sweat. Further acceleration is available if I wanted it. In the city, I was afraid someone was going to jump out from behind a parked car, so I didn't go to crazy.
Regenerative braking was awkward for me for the first half hour of my driving... [Editor's note: I was mistaken in calling it "regenerative braking." What I should have said that in "coast" mode, that is, when you take your foot off the accelerator but do not press the brake down, the car slows down faster than you might expect a car to do without brakes. During that time, the brake lights turn on.] I began to realize that any time my foot was off the accelerator the brake lights were on, as the regenerative brakes were rolling. Once I got used to that, I actually learned to love it, as it seemed very natural, particularly in city driving. Braking was very efficient and you could tell there wasn't added drag after you take your foot off the brakes...Immediate release.
As far as the features of the car, I've put everything through the test. Let's start with the most common feedback: The radio. I have to be honest, I'm an audiophile and techy, and I'm big on feature optimization... I think this is a great device. As far as interfaces go for the size, I have no complaints. The nav (in 3D front view) is now my default screen. My only beef with the radio is that the iPod support is a little challenging... If I set my playlist before attaching it I'm fine, but I haven't been able to figure out how to navigate playlists yet through the JVC (I can bring up the menu item "Playlists," but I can't seem to traverse to the list itself). The sound of the system was a little tinny by default but I adjusted the EQ and was satisfied with the seven speaker setup. For a car this low to the ground, and often with the top off, I think this is a great system.
The heated seats work great, I used those a little bit. Defrost and air is fine. You have to remember to select AC or Heat or it won't work, but you get used to that. No complaints here on the HVAC capabilities.
The seats have lumbar support! That was a surprise...little inflation squeeze things you squeeze and it inflates. Bonus! I was happy to have that, because I'm tall and I was sure my back was going to suffer.
Regarding fans and pumps and what not, everything operated as I expected it to. Yes, after driving it for a while, you'll park it and you'll hear the fans roaring and pumps pumping, but I'm fine with that. It doesn't spoil the experience at all. On one occasion, after driving it a lot one day, I heard a rumble like sound with a fan up front that sounded a bit scary. I turned the car off, turned it back on, and it never returned.
I've tested charging in various modes. I personally set it to charge at 1AM and leave the car in "Standard"mode. I can elaborate on the options here if anyone is interested, but the bottom line is that most of the time I'm going to leave it in "Storage" mode (when I'm away) and when I'm in town "Standard" mode. I've also inflated the tires for "Comfort" driving (lower pressure) versus "Standard" which is much harder a ride at higher pressure.
Key fobs work great, you get to program your third button to do whatever you want (trunk, garage door, whatever). I got HomeLink working so I open my garage with my touch screen (great feature, because where the heck would you put a garage opener). I like the various status screens available to you, all fun to play with and learn about your electricity consumption. Kudos to the team who designed the interface, I'm really picky about it and it seems to make intuitive sense. I could spend hours writing about their interface, and the elements to it...but over all I think they did a fantastic job with limited real estate.
As for the soft top, after some practice, I can get it on and off in a minute or two. It's pretty simple, and I don't feel particularly like I would want an automatic one...just one more thing to break. I'm learning convertible etiquette (I've never owned one) so I find myself putting the top back on a lot because of some illusion I have of added security... It's probably worse to park it in the city with a soft top, inviting vandals, but somehow it made me feel better. I'd take my radio with me, as well. If folks on this forum are old-school convertible drivers in cities and want to offer some tips, I'd sure appreciate it.
Anyway, for four days of driving that's a start. Look for pics in a bout a week or so.
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