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Everybody ought to have a … beetle.  A VW beetle, that is.

I am currently driving a 2006 Volkswagen Beetle Package 2, manual transmission, moonroof, heated seats — the works.  This car is a room with a view.  Surrounded by glass, moonroof overhead, no appreciable blind spots, you can really see where you are going.  The Beetle is extremely nimble as it skips around other cars on the highway and the clutch and transmission are smooth as glass.  This would be a perfect car on which to teach a novice how to drive standard shift.

The 2006 Beetle is full of surprises.  It’s a delightful little car that accommodates tall people.  There’s plenty of headroom and a lot of legroom when the front seat is moved back.  Actually, the amount of headroom and the spaciousness of the interior astound me, as the Beetle is a very compact creature observed from the outside.

The interior is practical lux — spare but not cold.  The Bug reflects its German heritage with easy to handle dials for heat, air, and lights highly reminiscent of the Mercedes SLK when it first arrived.  Turn signals and wipers are on paired stalks on the steering column, and the coup de grâce is the heated seats with dial up dash controls.  The leather interior is refined but understated, and the entire effect is clean and crisp like the Mini Cooper, but warmer and more inviting than its rival.  The Mini, however, has a much roomier rear seat compartment, and anyone prone to claustrophobia should never climb into the rear of the Bug.  It’s a very tight fit.

There isn’t a lot of trunk space in this VW, but with folding rear seats, it will accommodate golf clubs or big luggage.  The Monsoon radio/CD player is easy to handle, too.  One thing I found irksome was the fact that the CD skipped to the next track whenever the car encountered a bump while turning.  This glitch never happened when crossing railroad tracks or other bumps as long as I was driving straight forward.

Surprisingly, for the entire week I have been driving the Beetle, an indicator light never once went on.  VWs are known in the remarketing world for being highly sensitive beasts whose airbag and seatbelt lights click on frequently to keep you from getting too comfortable.  There is almost never anything wrong with these features when the alerts activate, but the number and frequency of popup alert lights have earned VWs the nickname “christmas trees” in the remarketing world. 

Other crowd-pleasers of this hardworking car include vanity mirrors on both driver and passenger visors that automatically activate a complementary light when opened.  The driver also has a side visor to block out sun or light.  Gas and trunk releases are at hand on the driver’s door, and the dual window controls are there as well.  Finally, it is economical.  $15 (at $2.28/gallon) filled the empty gas tank to about 70% full, a welcome relief to the budget-conscious.

All in all, a great car with lots of extras for the money.

Attributes

• 2006 VW Beetle Package 2
• cream (officially “harvest moon”) out/black leather in
• 5 cyl/2.5L gas engine
• 5 speed manual transmission
• frontwheel drive
• moonroof
• heated seats
• radio/CD player
• outside temperature indicator
• 8,500 miles

“… February had eaten Harvey Swick alive.  Here he was, buried in the belly of that smothering month, wondering if he would ever find his way out through the cold coils that lay between here and Easter.”  Barker, C. (1992). The Thief of Always.  New York:  HarperCollins.

In the middle of the month, I felt eaten alive by the unrelenting snow that made traveling, even short distances, a dangerous endeavor in a 2001 Jaguar S-Type.

At the risk of having everyone think I am a terrible driver, I found myself driving cautiously down an eight lane highway.  At first, things were fine, the roads were clear at my starting point.  As I worked into my destination, however, things deteriorated rapidly.  Snow began coming down in swirls, the road became increasingly think with accumulated snow, and I felt the unpleasant free-fall effect of the steering wheel when you know your tires have lost any contact with the pavement and the rest of the trip will be an adventure.  After spinning 360 degrees across four lanes of traffic, recovering only to have it slip again, then scudding up against a (thankfully) snow-laden guard rail, and a few additional non-damaging mishaps, I decided that the best course of action was to exit the highway as soon as possible, find a safe place to leave the car, and spend the rest of the afternoon in the nearest bar.

You might wonder why any of this is relevant, other than to point out you might not want to drive with me in a rear-wheel-drive vehicle in a sudden snow storm.  Well, it points up an issue to which I think car makers should give real thought.  Why are they insistently designing rear-wheel-drive cars without the option of all-wheel-drive?

Last year, I wrote about how the all-wheel-drive X-Type Jaguar deposited me safely at work after a blizzard, while other vehicles littered the banks and median of the highway.  The X-Type is a wonderful car to drive, and my only objection to it is that it looks like a Buick rather than a true Jaguar.  On the other hand, the S-Type looks like a genuine Jaguar and is a delight to drive in dry conditions.  Give it any bad weather, however, and you’re in a whole different territory.

Jaguar (well, Ford) doesn’t manufacture the S-Type with AWD.  How silly.  They make the X-Type in AWD, but not the S.  While I understand about concerns for fuel efficiency and weight that are often behind some design considerations, I would be happy if we had the option for more AWD luxury vehicles. 

At a time when we have an entirely new generation of drivers that didn’t grow up driving and haven’t been trained to deal with rear-wheel-drive, the auto makers are returning to rear-wheel-drive in droves.  I haven’t been caught in a snow storm in a rear-wheel drive, automatic, sedan in decades and can tell you that I had some moments when I felt the Jag. slip, thinking, “Now you turn into the spin because that points the drive wheels. . .”  It was like doing Algebra at the most inopportune moment, and I’m still not sure I came up with the right answer for X.  Suffice it to say, it wasn’t the type of surreal, time-suspending thought process I wanted to be having at a moment when I could end up killing myself or someone else.  Luckily, that didn’t happen, but it easily could have.

Attributes:  

• 2001 Jaguar S-Type 3.0
• Navy blue out/beige leather in
• 3.0L, V6 engine
• sport package
• power package
• heated seats
• moonroof
• 32,600 miles

Right off the top, I have to say how much I like driving vehicles that have 4-wheel or all-wheel drive.  Why?  I suppose it’s because the weather in Ohio is always unpredictable.  It snows when it’s not supposed to.  It’s 50 degrees in January.  You just never know.  Last year, I fought a 3 inch dump of snow in the first week of May while driving a Corvette Z06.  There I was trying to make it down Route 77 with everyone mincing along at 30 mph; I’m fuming and spluttering, “Don’t you people know this car has to keep up momentum if I’m ever going to get to where I’m going?  I can’t drive 30!”  Then, once off the freeway, I got to take it up a nice, steep grade — slipping, sliding, big fat tires cha-cha-ing their way ’round the snow.  It was NOT a pretty sight.  I redefined the “slippery slope” that day.   Any sane person would think that snow was nigh impossible in Ohio in May, but no.  Our weather Goddess got the idea that her daughter had gone back to the underworld, so she punished us some more.

 But I’m off track.  The 2006 Mercedes C280 is a very nice vehicle.  It’s sleek, most things are right at hand, it’s easy to figure out how to work the CD player.  Even the seat belts are comfortable.  That’s something I’ve noticed in different vehicles lately.  Sometimes the seatbelts imprison you or cut across too high toward the neck area and are just downright uncomfortable.  It is spacious without being huge or ungainly, fits in parking places without too much worry about door dings, and has back seat amenities including an adapter port for kids’ games or co-workers’ cell phone chargers.  No, this Mercedes is very comfortable, and the all-wheel drive action is smooth.  Sometimes, an AWD can chunk when you switch from rear to drive making you think you’ve got a terrible transmission problem.  The C280 does not have this issue.

However, it has two issues that drive me absolutely crazy.  Although the C280 I am driving has a power lumbar support and seat back direction for the driver’s chair, you have to manually adjust the seat closer or farther from the steering wheel, and there is a separate hand wheel for for cranking the seat portion up or down, which is hard to operate and can’t realistically be operated without the driver’s door being open.  The other thing I find completely unforgiveable is the placement of the cruise control.  On the lower left side of the steering column is the turn signal indicator/windwhield wiper stalk.  Immediately above that on the left side of the column is the cruise control stalk.  Although thinner and not as long as the signal indicator, it is almost impossible to activate the turn signal without bumping the cruise control on, and I have yet to put on my turn signal without engaging cruise.  It’s so annoying I want to rip the cruise stalk off of the steering column.  Of course, there is nothing on the right of the steering column at all.  Go figure.

Now, I understand that cars are complicated things with wiring, structural, body design considerations, etc. and I am willing to accept that there may be a perfectly good reason for the placement of the cruise control stalk where it is.  But until DCC explains it to me, I’m going to complain about that darned thing and malign the unnamed idiot who put it there.Š

Attributes:

• Dark blue out/Beige leather in
• Automatic
• Moon roof
• sunshade package
• power windows, doors, partial seats
• heated seats (front and back)
• Radio/CD player
• glove box CD changer
• 18,200 miles
• all-wheel drive 

Instead of building the Maybach 57, which invariably makes me think of a hearse for the soon-to-be-but-not-yet dead, why not build the Excelero? A car that absolutely makes me pant every time I see it.

Courtesy of the ever-vigilant (and I suspect caped with pointy ears but non-growing incisors) Editor ‘n’ Chief of the Blawg Review, here is the link to the AutoWeek Excelero slide show. AutoWeek.com Photo Gallery

I am in love with this car’s brake lights and rear end. Eat your heart out Bangle!

I can’t even express how much I wish I were posting this entry in the “currently driving” catagory.

Against all of my moral inclinations, I like this truck. It is square and solid, and I feel perfectly in control as I lumber down the road in my urban assault vehicle. Sorry, AM General, that’s what it is, particularly as the one I am driving is olive green. OK, so it has the pearlized metallic finish paint – it’s still olive green, which makes it an army vehicle in my book.

Which, of course, was what the original Hummer was built to be. Just like so many other products that are designed for the army or use in space, they become cool when we bring them to the mainstream. I remember the introduction of Tang – a product my Mom would never let us drink because she saw no reason to substitute good old orange juice for some chemically created stuff. I figured, if it was good enough for the astronauts, it was good enough for me. After all, look at Velcro. Where would we be without that amazing stuff?

But the H2 carries its own mystique. Part armored car, part James Bond mystery machine, this thing just looks like it’s carrying state secrets to some rendezvous. Yet, the real appeal for drivers is the surprising roominess inside. After driving this vehicle, you understand why football and basketball players favor them. I’m tall, but in the H2 with the seat lowered, I had a good six inches of headroom to spare, to say nothing of the abundant leg room.

The seats are square, padded command posts from which you can survey the landscape. Everything about this UAV is square – from the external styling to the interior. The shift is a right-angle handle which feels like you are powering up an airplane when you put it in gear, and it corresponds to the, albeit flimsy plastic, door handles.

The H2 has the smoothest, most stable ride of any of the larger SUVs I have driven. Better than the Escalade, Navigator, Yukon, you name it. Its visibility is also surprisingly good, because, from the outside, it looks like you have the equivalent of a machine gunner’s slit to see through. The H2 also comes with a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty that even covers the tires.

I cringed over the oxymoronic “fuel efficiency” reading of 11.5 miles per gallon, did some quick math (OK, I got out the calculator to check), and choked when I realized that this vehicle had already consumed 1,000 gallons of gas in its young life. (It reminds me of the way a teenage boy can suck down a gallon of milk directly from the jug while pondering the “what to consume next” contents of the refrigerator.) For those lucky enough to be the Governor of California, you can drive the experimental H2H. The hydrogen Hummer is GM’s poster child for the environmentally conscious, and His Royal Schwarzeneggerness is the lucky guy who gets to buzz along in the laser blue specialty vehicle.

This truck has no appreciable pick-up, which is fine considering that acceleration would probably send the fuel efficiency to 4 mpg. So, don’t go championing the highway unless you expect your size to intimidate the would-be road hoarders. It also has a good bit of pedal travel in both the accelerator and brake before you feel them engage.

As I’ve said, the H2 is a big vehicle. It squeaked into my garage with about an inch of clearance. I held my breath while easing it in, as if that might really help. I think the most inconvenient feature of the H2 (besides needing a step ladder to get into it) is the location of the rearview mirror. Your arms have to be about eight feet long to adjust it – which is fine if you are a ball player with a wingspan that wide – but not when you are my 5’6” mother. She actually had to pull over and unsnap the seat belt to get close enough to reset the mirror.

I typically try to have Mom test drive whatever it is that I am currently driving, because it gives me a different perspective on features of the vehicle. It’s always entertaining watching her climb into a truck like she’s scaling Everest. But once inside, Mom’s all business. Good news for you, AM General, Mom likes the H2. Although hating the lack of fuel efficiency as much as I do, she admires the stability and fluid ride the H2 has to offer. Her exact comment was, “I could get used to this one.”

A definite thumbs up from Mom, which is something Tang never managed to achieve.

Attributes:

Olive green out
Cream leather in
Navigation
OnStar
XM radio
Luxury package
Adventure package
Moon roof
Leather package
Outside spare
Air ride suspension
Load leveler
Heated seats
Roof rack
11,500 miles

Currently, I’m driving an all wheel drive 2003 Saturn Vue with a V6 engine, leather interior and (thanks to the person who invented them) heated seats.

The Vue is well named. I love the visibility of this unit and the huge moon roof that keeps you from feeling boxed in. This is a good vehicle for anyone with claustrophobia. The driver seat positioning has sensible placement and provides a vantage point for seeing the road. Some SUVs can be ponderous and give you a dark, weighted-down feeling. Not the Saturn Vue. It is a light-driving vehicle with a comfy interior and well-placed cupholders. Yes, cup holders. I am tired of searching every vehicle I drive for the darned cup holders. Sometimes I feel like a game show contestant when I finally hunt them down.

However, I am not fond of having the power window controls located in the center console around the gear shift. That’s where the front seat heat controls are, too, and it feels like there is an abundance of activity in the center just begging for someone to accidentally knock the transmission out of gear. The power door locks are located on the doors — right where you would expect to find them. So, why can’t the power window buttons be there, too? Putting the window controls in the center seems like an affectation of a much more expensive car. I expect to find my window controls on the center console of a Mercedes roadster, not a Saturn SUV.

This vehicle still looks good and drives very nicely after 16,000 miles. However, despite being equipped with a 6-cylinder engine, the response on the Vue feels sluggish — so much so, that I had to check the paperwork to be certain that the one I am driving does have a V6 engine. It does. Ironically, the leather interior on the Vue seems out of place. I drove an identical Vue yesterday equipped with cloth interior and the cloth strikes me as the better fit. Again, I have that same sense of trying too hard to be something it’s not.

Love the compact disc combined cassette radio. I have lots of music I still listen to that simply cannot be CD replaced. The radio is compact and smooth with all the necessary buttons and no fluff. I also like the fact that the lights and windshield wipers are in their obvious places. If you think I’m being stodgy about things being where I expect them to be, wait until I tell you about BMW’s iDrive — where absolutely nothing is remotely where you think it should be. Grrr.

Attributes:
All wheel drive
Silver out
Grey (Gray) leather in
V6
Moon Roof
Heated seats
CD/cassette radio
16,000 miles

It started snowing late Tuesday (the 21st) and it hasn’t stopped yet. There is snow everywhere, and the drive to work this morning was like walking through a battlefield with cars and trucks littering the berms, shoulders, and even blocking the highways. But I was tucked snuggly and safely inside a 2003 X-Type Jaguar — all wheel drive — and uneventfully landed at work.

I have always liked driving the X-Type and, even if it does look like a Buick, at least the ride is all Jaguar. Today, however, I got the opportunity to find out just how great the X-Type is in monster snow. Let me just say that I haven’t driven a car as roadworthy as this one since my 1998 Audi A4 Quattro — and considering how much I loved that car, the X-Type is in very good company.

The last time I got caught in an absolute blizzard I was driving a Mercedes-Benz SLK, affectionately termed the “sled car”. I battled that car for 30 miles while my sister sat white-knuckled in the passenger seat feeling the car slip and skid the whole way.

Needless to say, the Jaguar X-Type brought me safely to work with nary a thought. As I said, I have always liked driving this car. Now I love it.

That’s what Vapor Systems Technology President, David Steckling, says is within your grasp. No more panic at the gas pump. No more diverting college fund savings to pay for the outrageous price of fuel. And guess what? According to Steckling, this technology has existed since before the 1930s.

So, why hasn’t it been incorporated into modern cars and trucks? Money, that’s why, and lots of it. Based on Steckling’s calculations, the U.S., state, and local governments receive over $6 in taxes every time you fill up your tank. Then there are the obvious economic interests of the gas companies that want to sell us as much of their product as possible — to say nothing of the automobile manufacturers that benefit from the wear and tear less efficient fuel systems cause. If our vehicles operated more cleanly and efficiently, they would not deteriorate quickly or need frequent repairs.

After decades of his own experience and research, Steckling’s company has produced a CD with hundreds of expired patents — many of which were originated or owned by car makers, automotive suppliers, oil companies, and the U.S. government — detailing vapor systems that can dramatically increase fuel efficiency. How dramatically? Steckling says that, with the right technology, he intends to publicly demonstrate what vapor technology can do by driving a 1997 Toyota Camry, “From San Diego to New York City on a single tank of gas.”

The beauty of many patents available on the Vapor Systems Technology CD is that they are expired which means that anyone can build and use the technology. Plus, the CD contains patents for a variety of different fuel systems, including fuel injected and carbureted systems, to name a few. This is not just ancient technology, however. Many patents identified on the CD are recent and portions of it reference patent applications that are currently pending.

Environmental advocates will be thrilled with the release of the CD, as it presents a viable tool for urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to significantly increase the corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards. As I commented in the New Technology: Progress and New Problems post, during its 2003 fiscal reporting period, NHTSA fined BMW a whopping $42 million for the company’s failure to meet CAFE standards on its 2001 and 2002 model year vehicles. If CAFE limits were significantly increased, BMW and the other auto makers, who now view the penalties for failing to comply with CAFE requirements as a cost of doing business, would probably scramble to design vehicles using vapor fuel systems. Besides simply increasing fuel efficiency, these vapor fuel systems have the added bonus of reducing harmful emissions at the same time. Using fewer fossil fuels, reducing emissions, eradicating the need to drill in protected areas — what’s not to love about mandating the incorporation of vapor fuel technology into vehicle design?

So, is there a conspiracy to keep the need for gasoline and gas prices artificially inflated, or are we just stupid for developing great technology and then failing to use it? I, for one, would like to know the answer to that question.

This is one big vehicle. It just barely fits in my garage and I have to think strategically about where I can park it at strip malls and public garages. As with most sport utilities built on a truck chassis, it drives like a truck. The Hummer H2 has a significantly better ride and handling capabilities than the Escalade EXT. I find it to be top-heavy and I feel like I will be taking out a whole series of mail boxes before I can get to a major highway.

I also wonder just what the charm of the EXT version of the Escalade is. After all, I have never seen anyone hauling furniture or firewood in the back of one. In fact, I have never seen anyone hauling anything in the open bed portion of one. Unlike the Ford Explorer Sport Trac or the Suburu Baja, the Escalade EXT is not a working vehicle. Let’s face it; it’s a glamour vehicle — and how many glamorous people haul their own stuff in pick-up trucks?

Attributes:
Automatic
White out
Grey leather in
Moonroof
XM Radio
Navigation
Heated seats (my favorite)

I’m currently driving a 2005 Scion XB. When it first showed up, I took one look, and said, “What is that?” One of my co-workers calls it The Toaster, because, well frankly, it looks like a toaster on wheels.

It’s very spare inside, which I never mind. The Scion XB has great visibility as a result of its square glass surround. It’s quite comfortable and easy to maneuver. I’m still trying to adjust to the fact that the speedometer et al. is located at the bottom center of the windshield, rather than in direct line with the steering wheel, and it is an odd feeling to see darkness if you look down at the steering wheel when driving at night. Also, because of its boxy design, this is not a great car in high winds.

Attributes:
Automatic
Silver out
Black cloth in
Moonroof