Published by Jason July 5th, 2007
in 5 stars and BMW.
There are days when your life is bad, when your friends don’t call and it rains and you are so broke McDonald’s Value Meal sounds expensive. I’ve been there. But then there are days when you can drive a BMW Z4 3.0 through winding roads, sun shining through the summer trees, top down and feeling the 85 degree air whip hair into a tangled mess. Those are the days I feel like I’m in a commercial, and that I truly am blessed, and a bastard.
In fact, that’s 94% of everything wrong with this car. When people see a young, 31-year-old guy driving a BMW Z4 on a summer day with his young wife sitting shotgun, you immediately gain their disdain. I had so many people NOT let me merge, NOT let me into traffic, and generally NOT look at me with nice expressions. I can understand, driving this car, I must look like a guy who has it all, and probably hasn’t had to work that hard for it. Whether or not that’s true is not up for debate. When people see you in this car, that’s what they’ll assume.
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Published by Jason June 20th, 2007
in 4.5 Stars and BMW.
The BMW X3 is exactly what you’d hope from a small, yet very sporty, SUV. While definitely playing kid brother to the larger X5, and possibly missing out on some of those big-brother good looks, it’s still an incredibly strong offering all around. From the moment you walk up the vehicle, slide in, and start it up, you’re presented with several luxuries that just aren’t found in other vehicles in the small SUV class. And once you take it through some corners, or sprint past a fellow-commuter on the freeway with a flick of the throttle, you’re convinced you’ve made a wise investment getting the X3.
Recently having driven a Ford Explorer (priced at $39k versus the X3’s $44k), this car offered improvements in almost every area of driving, except a third-row of seating. Cornering in this car was about as good as any SUV I’ve ever driven, and the feel of the leather wrapped steering wheel to the elegant control panel, consistently reminded me that I was driving what many in the world consider the most amazingly engineered cars in the world. It isn’t a tough sell.
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Published by Jason June 19th, 2007
in 3.5 Stars and Ford.
First impression is that this is one interesting color for a car. A very strong orange color that got everyone to wrinkle their nose and ask, “What’s with the color on that car?” It can’t be ignored. This color was weird, and I regardless of my personal thoughts on the aesthetic, I don’t think it made a good color for a car. I certainly would be a little embarrassed to have paid $40,000 for such a color, and constantly be explaining myself and my choices. Big elephant in the room, and I had to address it.
The vehicle itself was the IronMan package, created in honor of the unbelievably intense IronMan Triathlon which they sponsor. It came with special floor mats, special bodyside cladding, special big bumpers, wheels, etc. With all of the ‘extras’, this car went from $28,800 to $39,325. That’s 33% of the original price just in add-ons. I’m not sure if I’ve seen a car go from affordable to over-priced that fast. In itself, it was a nice ride. Pretty smooth, decent power, good handling, and above average visibility for a mid-sized truck. However, there were also some small, nagging issues. The turn signal indicator (the audible click-click-click) was so loud that I turned it off at long stop lights. It was painfully louder than it needed to be. And I found the seats to be somewhat uncomfortable, very stiff and unforgiving during long drives.
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Published by Jason June 6th, 2007
in 4 Stars and Dodge.
Behold the Dodge Nitro. NITRO EVERYBODY!!!
The strongest fact about this car to me, was the interest it got from people who saw it. Men, women, older, younger… They all asked me about it. I was at my Realtor’s office and when I walked in the receptionist immediately asked “Did you get a new car? What is that?” She was smitten. At a small get-together with friends, the tall, kilt-wearing friend wanted to know all about it, while the mom-rocker was asking for a rerun of my story. Everyone wanted to know about it, which I thought was really odd. I like the car, it’s unique-ish, but I just did not expect the level of interest from those around me.
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Published by Jason June 6th, 2007
in 5 stars and Volvo.
Volvo makes one of those beautiful, elegant SUVs that you see driving along, happily, without a care in the world. It isn’t getting hell from the environmentalists like a Hummer would, and it isn’t anemic and underpowered like a Hyundai or other small SUV. Finally, it’s not “fancy” like a BMW X5 or an Mercedes-Benz R Class. It’s just right in that sweet zone, where all of its attention seems to be positive, and nobody really has anything but praise for it. Even in road tests it just keeps getting the thumbs up from those that review it.
And that’s pretty much exactly what driving it is like. People aren’t staring at you with a glare as you roll past in a mighty dominator, they smile and wave, and let you into traffic. You, in return, smile back as you turn up the radio from the steering wheel mounted controls. You use the extremely well designed dash controls to dial in that perfect temperature, and swing past slower motorists in the fast lane with a swiftness that would keep your grandmother from guessing you were driving faster than you should. The pedal is ready to take you into ‘ticket-land’, but it’ll do it so gently that you have to watch that creeping speedometer or you’ll be explaining to the officer how it’s really not your fault that Volvo makes such a smooth ride.
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