Driver's Ed
So we test drove a couple of cars today. Ok, I say cars. One of them felt like a car. The other like a luxury sedan/truck. Kinda like what you'd expect if you took a Volvo turbo and crossed it with a small pickup.
We drove a Honda Element, and a Honda Pilot. You guess which was which from the above descriptions...
Not too difficult, now was it? The Element felt like someone said, "I want a car, kinda like a Civic, that will hold a bunch of stuff. I still want it to accelerate pretty well, and I want it to corner confidently as well as have a good turning radius. I don't want the rollover problems of those fake SUV's like the CRV or the Toyota RAV4." In other words, Christi and I both liked it. It was nice to roll my bike in without even removing the front wheel, and the only significant difference we noticed was that we actually looked other drivers in the eye.
The Pilot felt like someone asked for a luxury sedan(not a lumbering beast like a Lincoln or Caddy, but more like a four door coupe) and added a truck element to it. Sadly, it was an automatic, so the feeling of being isolated from the road was even more noticeable to us luddites. The extra heft made it feel a bit soft on easy stops, but hard braking was still solid. It would make a really nice long-distance vehicle where you needed an adult in the back seat. It also had a "least favorite child" third row seat, which was a joke. It had one of the best turning radii I've ever driven in a vehicle that large. Front wheels would have to come off, but carrying bikes would not be too much of a hassle.
I'm cheap. Wonder which one I like better? Wonder how little chance I have of getting even that one in the near future?(Remember, I earn squat) Oh well. It was fun to go driving...
We drove a Honda Element, and a Honda Pilot. You guess which was which from the above descriptions...
Not too difficult, now was it? The Element felt like someone said, "I want a car, kinda like a Civic, that will hold a bunch of stuff. I still want it to accelerate pretty well, and I want it to corner confidently as well as have a good turning radius. I don't want the rollover problems of those fake SUV's like the CRV or the Toyota RAV4." In other words, Christi and I both liked it. It was nice to roll my bike in without even removing the front wheel, and the only significant difference we noticed was that we actually looked other drivers in the eye.
The Pilot felt like someone asked for a luxury sedan(not a lumbering beast like a Lincoln or Caddy, but more like a four door coupe) and added a truck element to it. Sadly, it was an automatic, so the feeling of being isolated from the road was even more noticeable to us luddites. The extra heft made it feel a bit soft on easy stops, but hard braking was still solid. It would make a really nice long-distance vehicle where you needed an adult in the back seat. It also had a "least favorite child" third row seat, which was a joke. It had one of the best turning radii I've ever driven in a vehicle that large. Front wheels would have to come off, but carrying bikes would not be too much of a hassle.
I'm cheap. Wonder which one I like better? Wonder how little chance I have of getting even that one in the near future?(Remember, I earn squat) Oh well. It was fun to go driving...