Day After Yesterday

So we just rolled past 7,500 miles on our 2008 Mazda5 Touring. It goes to the dealer tomorrow for the maintenance. Just last night, my brother in law was in town and took his first ride in it and it got me thinking I should answer the few questions from the comments here and here and make another post.

If you missed the pre-purchase post or the couple month followup, check them out.

So do we still like it now that it is full of kids’ toys and isn’t as clean as it once was? Now that it no longer smells brand new?

Yes.

It is still the perfect car for our family of 4 in the city. One question in the comments was about life with 3 kids and some gear…. I would say it is not optimal. The 3rd row is really the trunk, you get one or the other. Sure, you can fold down one of the seats and split the difference, but really, it won’t be enough. If you have a child small enough to live comfortably in the 3rd row, you are likely still carrying more gear for that child that one would like, so it becomes a space issue. With 3 kids, it could be a good second car, but as a primary car it might be tight.

That being said, I personally feel that people should purchase the smallest car they can deal with on a daily basis, and for the few road trips or big trips to home depot or what not, one should rent a car. If you are subscribing to that concept, then the Mazda5 might be a great car for a family of 5, especially if not all 5 are in the car all the time. For our family of 4, the Mazda5 could do a cross country road trip without issue. If we had 3 kids, I would just rent a minivan for the trip, put the miles on someone else’s car, and not drive a giant mostly empty car for the remaining 350 days of the year, sucking down fuel and moving an extra 1,000 pounds around that you aren’t using. (Assuming the Mazda5 weighs 3400, and the Honda Odyssey weights 4550).

The other question was about high speed stability and the lack of traction control/stability control. Short answer, in my humble opinion, the Mazda5 will out-handle a Honda Odyssey in high speed emergency maneuvers without question, regardless of the lack of electronic driver aids.

Long answer.

A little background, I am an instructor with the Audi Car Club of North America and call the Chicagoland Chapter my home. As an instructor, we take students out on area tracks and teach them high performance driving. We provide classroom instruction, a slalom exercise, a threshold braking exercise, and a lane toss exercise. Then we take the student out on the track and teach them how to deal with the car at speed.

My Audi does have ESP, which in the case of Audi uses a yaw sensor to determine the movements of the car, compares that to the steering input, and if they are not in line, the system will apply the brakes on the corner of the car necessary to bring the 2 lines back together. If is amazing in the snow and the rain. If the Mazda5 had such an option, I would have purchased it without question. It can do amazing things, and it is a nice safety net. But I am of the thought that a properly trained driver can do a lot.

Traction control is usually only in play at low speeds, IE when you floor it from a stop sign and the wheels spin. Many systems are not involved in a high speed emergency lane change or anything so I am not worried about that. Would I like traction control? Not really. I would like a proper differential on the front axle, but hey, it isn’t necessary. If I induce wheel spin, I just lift a hair until traction is regained and that is that. Would it be nice in the snow? Sure, but I have found a set of snow tires makes a far bigger improvement, and it works in all aspects, driving, stopping, turning, etc. Buy snow tires if you live in a snowy area, and this applies to all cars. But that isn’t the point here.

So comparing the high speed maneuvering abilities of a Mazda5 and a Honda Odyssey. Disclaimer: I have not had a pucker moment in the Mazda5. I have in other cars, but not the Mazda5. I am ok with that. I have tossed the Mazda around the occasional Chicago pothole at 40-50 mph without drama. I also have never driven a Honda Odyssey. That being said, I still feel confident saying the Mazda5 will win hands down.

First off, the Mazda5 is over 1,000 lbs lighter (3400 vs 4500). I also have a 1985 VW Jetta, and that car is ~2,300lbs. Trust me, you can feel the weight difference. The difference in weight is insane when you talk about handling, braking, and acceleration. Less weight means less work for the engine on acceleration, so you don’t need as much HP. Less weight means less work for the brakes, which convert energy to heat and will have a limit. Less weight means less work for the tires, as they are the only things touching the ground. When you slam on the brakes at speed, you are putting a LOT of weight on the front tires. Then you try to steer, and the tires just can’t do it. This holds true for all cars. Tires can’t do multiple things at once very well. And the more weight you put on the tires, the less likely they are to do what they are asked. So the weight of the Mazda5 will inherently make it a better handling car. Don’t get me wrong, engineers do amazing things in suspension tuning to make a big car feel nimble, but you can’t engineer around physics.

Second, the size of the Mazda5 compared to the Odyssey is significant. Obviously that is the reason the people get the Honda over the Mazda. But that very size is going to be a liability when you need to toss the car around the debris that just fell off the truck in front of you at 70 mph. The size combined with the weight will, again, in my humble opinion, give the Mazda5 the edge.

Third, suspension tuning. As I said, I have not driven a Honda Odyssey, but EVERYONE I have ever met that has one loves it. So I am sure it is good. But I am confident in saying the Mazda5 drives like a car. It drives NOTHING like a Toyota Sienna, a vehicle I have put a few miles on in the past. So if the Honda is anything like the Toyota, I feel comfortable saying the Mazda5 suspension tuning is more agile and performance oriented when compared to a full size minivan. This again will give the edge to the Mazda5. The lower profile tires on the Mazda5 also help.

So handling wise, I am confident the Mazda will out handle the Odyssey in nearly all situations.

I also thing that every driver on the road would benefit from driver training, like at a driving school put on by the Audi Club, Skip Barber, etc. The driver is the best place to start when it comes to improving a car. All the modifications in the world can not make a poor driver good. But a good driver can make a poor car perform. The average driver has never done FULL threshold braking intentionally. They haven’t learned how to best avoid an accident like in the lane toss. They haven’t felt the weight transfer as they move the car through a slalom course. And knowing how the car is going to feel and how to control it will make all the difference, regardless of the car.

Other issues with the car? None. It has been great. I would still like 35mpg, but that isn’t happening in this market segment, so I am ok. We have had no problems to note, and I actually still enjoy driving it.

So I read daring fireball by John Gruber and enjoy the little snide comments about the current tech item of the minute. So the current news item is the new photos of this previously unphotographed tribe living in the amazon.

John’s Comment:

Someone needs to let these people know about the upcoming new iPhone.

Funny funny shit. Nice to see that he can recognize the frivolity of the same industry that he works in. Good job.

I like the green party. I would like them to win someday, although I am not sure they have their act together yet. And as I was reading Rodney’s post about the candidates that are in the running for the green party nomination, I went to all their sites.

As you may know, I am a web developer by trade, so I am often more critical of sites than the average bear. That being said, the Green Party will never get ANYWHERE at this rate.

Number one, Jesse Johnson. Not sure about his logo from a design point of view, but I AM sure that it should not be that pixelated. Header and footer design are a bit lacking in terms of style. Not liking the font either. But I REALLY don’t like how the navigation is present only on the home page, and is gone on every other page (although there is a ‘back to the home page’ link). Seriously, dead end every click? And needless to say, it doesn’t pass validation.

Number two, Kent Mesplay. Not sure what year it is, but is isn’t 2008. Those buttons are nice and smooth. The header takes up the entire ‘above the scroll’ area. Awesome. Table layout. No doctype? You can imagine how validation went.

Number three, Kat Swift. oooookkkkkk really? This is your bid for the president of the united states? Really? Your index page doesn’t even have your full name on it. Perfect for SEO. The blog link is first and foremost, but it is off site. And written by someone else. Design wise, I won’t even start. Again, tables (surprised?). And Doctype is also missing. Serisouly. It is tabbed nicely, so that is a plus. White and yellow text on a black box with a green background is not a plus. My eyes are still adjusting. I’ll stop here.

Number four, Cynthia McKinney. This one actually looks like they used photoshop, so that is cool. Not sure on the middle hump top shadow thing, not sure what light source could actually create that. I guess I am supposed to think the green box is coming TOWARDS me. But the other buttons on the page have lighting effects that don’t support that. Glowing text is a good use of a filter in the aforementioned photoshop. ALMOST had the heavy header thing working, but for some reason stopped shy of full width. The even have a gradient in the background. Would have been cooler if the background and the content box worked better together. They are the only one with an RSS feed, which is good. Not updated too often, but hey, they have one. Table layout. And this is the ONLY site I have ever seen were w3c couldn’t complete the validation. Oddly enough, this seems to be due to a comment in some script. The calendar link takes you to another site, with a totally different look and feel. I wish they had done some more styling of the text in the site. But really, this is the best (?) site of the bunch.

So this is the current state of the Green Party’s candidates.

Getting all my tax stuff together and over to my accountant and I was reviewing everything. Being that my father is a CPA he sold some of my apple stock off this year to diversify my IRA a bit.

I bought Apple stock on 10/24/2000 at $10.44/share. I sold it this year at $190.28/share. Nice.

Now if I had only bought more than the few shares I did, as I bought under 100 shares. Oh well.

Harper shared this today, and it is really interesting not only based on the role of religion in Japan, but that the United States of America was lowest on the ‘Atheist’ front.

Awesome.

So I have had this iPhone for a little while now, and I have gotten pretty used to it.

I also have had this MacBook for a while now.

On the MacBook, you can use 2 fingers on the track pad to scroll. Obviously, 2 fingers going down on the trackpad scrolls down. Two fingers up scrolls up. Amazing. I use it all the time. Love it.

Recently though, I have noticed myself thinking ‘lets scroll down’ and my fingers 2 finger scroll up. My mind says ‘wth’ and my fingers do it right. You know how it is, it happens quickly and you you think nothing of it. It just now dawned on my it is a result of the fact that the MacBook and the iPhone do OPPOSITE motions for scrolling.

It is kinda frustrating. Opposite paradigms for the same thing. Both make sense.

I have long wondered why we haven’t seen a restaurant where I order from a touch screen and the foot is brought out to me. I think part of the reason is personally I don’t like being ’served’ all that much, being waited on. Not that I can’t handle it, but I just don’t care. Not to say that I don’t have positive experiences with wait staff, but I could do without it.

So I always thought that a place where you place your order via a touch screen or something would be dope. Then have a runner bring the food out. Still have a staff to refill water and bus tables. And a call button would be good, but that would be it. Then I can do what I wanted to do all along at the resturant: eat and hang out with the person/people I came with.

When I would propose this idea to friends/family, I was always presented with the ‘but where is the social interaction?’ and ‘but that seems so cold and lonely’, etc. The same response I used to get to the concept of peapod, netflix, etc. Am I to understand than that people are willing to be more inconvenienced doing mundane albeit necessary tasks so they can revel in the social interaction with the cashier at the grocery store? The blockbuster employee?

Having been a grocery store employee, I am not sure I agree with that. While I tried to be friendly, primarily because it would make my day go faster, it was hardly the interaction that I would get excited for. And I have known blockbuster employees. They rarely liked their job, and they were rarely over 20.

My retort was always that the time savings from eliminating the time suck of many ‘low quality’ social interaction level tasks, like grocery shopping, movie rentals, brick and mortar shopping, etc would free up time to create ‘high quality’ social interaction, like dinner parties, play dates, hanging out with friends, etc.

Of course my parents still scoffed at the concept, but I maintain it is true. And with that time savings, some friends and I could go to this new automated resturant: Baggers restaurant in Nuremberg. While it is kind of a hike from chicago, it is the kind of place I would be all about. He even has an automated track system to deliver the food. I am not sure that is necessary, but I am sure that will be a draw for customers, so I am sure it will make people more inclined to visit.

I am not sure that I see the design/implementation of the track system to be cheaper the cost of food runners alá my idea anytime in the first few years of operation, but I am sure that wasn’t his plan. I would like to see his place take off and do quite well. I would like to see more resturants like this. I will admit I always kinda thought that japan already had such restaurants, although I don’t recall seeing any when I was there or reading of any however I haven’t looked too hard.

So while I don’t wish that every resturant goes the way of Bangers, I would like to see some here. I would give it a shot. Anyone know of any here in Chicago?

So we have had our 2008 Mazda5 Touring for a few months now and we have put about 3,000 miles on it. Is it still the car we were so excited about? What new things have popped up? What do we love? Overall, we are still very happy with our purchase and it is everything we were looking for in a car. There are a few minor things, but nothing that is not manageable and overall, as a package, it is still a perfect car for our family of 4.

For those who didn’t read this post, we decided a while ago that the Mazda5 was the perfect car for our family. We live in the city of chicago, and thus a small car was a big need. We had a 2002 Toyota Camry and while nice, it was a problem with 2 car seats and a friend: we had to squeeze someone in between the car seats, which is not really comfortable by any means or we had to take 2 cars. Not great, especially in the city. So our needs were small car, seating for 6 albeit only short term, and decent gas mileage. And Rebecca wanted it in blue.

The only cars that really fit the niche in the US market were the Mazda5 and the Kia Rondo. Honestly, we didn’t drive the Kia. I decided I didn’t want a Kia. I know that their quality has improved and everything, but I wasn’t ready for that. Not to mention the Rondo is not that attractive. Not that we are so vain, but I wasn’t feeling the Kia.

So onto the Mazda5. We test drove a 2007 and decided we would wait for the 2008s with the new transmission being the primary thing. We told our dealer we wanted a Stormy Blue Touring with the homelink/dimming mirror, the cargo cover, the all season mats, and the rear bumper cover. Sure I could have perhaps got those on my own for cheaper, it wasn’t much cheaper if at all and it wasn’t worth the hassle.

On January 16th, we picked up our car. We loaded up the car seats and went back to living our normal life.

Fast forward a few months to today…. There are a lot of things we really like. The Mazda5 handles like a car, especially compared to the full size minivan crowd. But it feels much sportier than our Camry did too, which I much prefer. Mind you, my 2 other cars are both modified and have stiffer suspensions and I am an instructor for the Audi Car Club, so I know the difference between ’sports car’ and ‘touring car’, but I can honestly say the Mazda5 is not a slouch. While I haven’t taken it to the track or autox’ed the car (yet?), I have found that sudden steering inputs like that pop up pothole are actually doable and not scary. Much better than the Camry. WAY better than the Toyota Sienna we rented over the holidays. There have been some complaints that it is a bit firm, but it is by no means offensive. But those complaints come from the crowd coming from the Camry or the Buick scene. You’ll know in a 10 min ride if you can’t handle it.

The space is great for us. The Mazda5 is smaller than the Camry was, so city driving is great. We fit in places the Camry wouldn’t, and we feel more nimble doing so. The interior space is great for our family of 4. We can load up the kids, all their associated gear, and go on our way. We haven’t really filled the back yet. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a cave back there, but it is fine for our needs and the wagon form factor allows up to stack up if needed. We have used the 3rd row more than a few times, and while putting 2 adults back there is a bit of a challenge with the 2 car seats in place, it is doable and my in-laws have both ridden back there without complaint. We wouldn’t want to put them back there and start a 500 mile road trip, but a jaunt around town is fine, and that is exactly what we wanted. There are also reports in the press that the front seat space is though on taller people, but I haven’t found it to be a problem. I am 6-1 and I haven’t had a problem with the seating position.

Surprises… The sliding doors. They are VERY nice with the kids. We have a 1 car garage, which is marginally larger than the car. Having the sliders allows us to load the kids in the car in the garage without a problem. We don’t worry about how close the idiot parked next to us got. They are great. The taillights… I am all for technology, and I am really happy with the light output of the LEDs. Nice and bright. And they look pretty good too. I am still surprised at how it is actually fun to drive in the handling department. I was told by Rebecca that I was not to do any suspension mods, so I’ll have to be happy with the stock setup, and I am ok with it.

Minor dislikes… I would like a little better gas mileage. I haven’t actually calculated our real life mileage yet, so I am going off the EPA MPG rating, but I would always like to see a car in the 30s over the high 20s. So that complaint isn’t really based on ownership per se. Sound level in the car is a tiny bit nosier than I would like on the highway. It isn’t intrusive, but it is present, which is surprising given the low cd of the Mazda5 (0.29). It could be the tires. I can tell the engine isn’t as refined as that of my Audi, not that I am surprised, I am in a different price point, but it is still something I notice. It isn’t super fast, but it is more than adequate for driving with the kids. I leave the aggressive driving for life sans kids anyway, so it is not a problem. We can merge without issue and cruise at traffic +10mph without issue.

Major dislike: I had to get the grand touring to get HIDs. Grr. Bluetooth would have been nice too, but not a major point. But heated seats would have been nice. Being a vegetarian, I refuse to get a leather interior, so that ruled out the Grand Touring package. But heated seats and xenons would have been very nice touches.

I would like to see map lights for the 2nd row. I would like to see a pocket on the back of the driver seat. I would like to see a floor mat retainer clip on the passenger floor mat to match the driver side. Having the sunroof go INTO the roof vs. over it would have been nice, but I imagine that is a concession to head room, of which there is a lot and I would be hard pressed to give that up. Again, HIDs as a standalone option would be nice. The center console seems inefficienetly designed, but I have no idea what is in there, so maybe it isn’t. The door cards have no storage, which is odd, but again, I don’t know what is in there, but I would think that the window motor isn’t that large. Factory tint on the rear would be nice (I’ll add that soon as summer sets in). But those are all minor things that are not a big deal and shouldn’t preclude anyone from considering this car.

So overall… in the few months we have really gotten to know the car and I still enjoy it. It looks great. It performs great. It is a great size for us. I am very happy with the purchase and I have no regrets. Would a turbo MazdaSpeed5 be better? Sure. Would I have bought one for an extra $7,000 or so? Would have been a hard sell, especially with the MPG hit I am sure we would have endured. I already have a turbo car, I don’t need one for the family hauler.

The Mazda5 is a great car in a great size for a great price. It should be considered for any family of 3-4 that thinks they need more space but doesn’t want the size of an SUV or a minivan.

so I have a few people that follow me on twitter. I know who they are. It is fine. Every once in a while, I will be notified that a new person is following me… and I am all wth? who? So I go check… only to realize it is basically spam. That is kinda lame. The most recent one was for a conference that I won’t be attending. So it could be considered targeted I guess… but the conference could be targeted to anyone using twitter as a communication tool if you want to step far enough back.

I also have people following me… and I don’t know who they are or what their angle is. One of them appears to be a journalist angle… like following people will be a ‘finger on the pulse’ of the scene or something. My tweets are rarely that topical, but there are obviously some people who have such content that would be worth following. Seems fine by me, but it also seems there would be better ways than monitoring a bunch of random peoples’ tweets, but hey, what do I know.

I am still not sure how I feel about twitter. On one hand, it is nice enough to keep tabs on people. Obviously some people have a higher signal to noise ratio than others, and that will certainly vary from user to user. I feel like I have enough going on. Enough RSS feeds, todo lists, emails, IMs, etc to keep an eye on. I am looking to reduce the inflow of information while still trying to keep up to date with things. And that is one of the great things about twitter, it forces a small form factor. And that very form factor that makes it nice encourages people to post things they wouldn’t post to a blog since it isn’t often very important. Obviously controls are in place to limit the flow and how it reaches me, which is great.

But sometimes I wonder if I care enough. Currently, I am sticking with it.

wordpress 2.5 just came out and I’ll agree with everyone else, it is quite nice. And the instantupgrade plugin worked perfect. 2.5 also offers atuo plugin updates, which is good for lazy people like me.

win win win.