I haven’t posted much in the ‘Cars and Driving’ category. Certainly not as much as I thought I would when I started this blog. I think about cars and driving a lot. I’m what might be called a driving geek, that is I love to drive and have spent a lot of time thinking about how to be the best driver I can. Not in the racing sense as most car enthusiasts would, but simply in the everyday sense. I’ve come to a simple conclusion in recent years. I am as good a driver as I am a person.
A good friend of mine in college described himself before becoming a Christian that he had the attitude that “People were stupid, and I ought to tell them.” I laughed at his arrogance, and could relate to his attitude pre-disciple, but what I failed to see was that was my attitude in driving. It wasn’t until years later when traveling with my wife and seeing her fear at my driving habits that I began to see my sin. I asked her about it and she said that she felt that I saw my self as a right and good driver and that everyone else was wrong and furthermore it was my responsibility to show them. Wow, that hurt but it was true. While I was knowledgable about good driving practices, I was also uncaring, unforgiving and arrogant.
The irony was that because I was blinded by my pride, I wasn’t really as good a driver as I thought. I would do the very things the made me angry in others. If someone would tailgate me, I would let them around a tailgate them to ‘show them how it felt’. I let the behavior of others stir up my emotions and lead me into bad driving practices. It’s actually pretty comical thinking back on it how foolish I was.
What I’ve come to realize is that good driving, like good discipleship, is not a matter of following all the rules but of what kind of man I am. As I drive, am I looking out only for my interests or other’s too? All of the things that irritate me about driving I find are selfish acts. I’m not going to get over after I pass this car and before I pass the next because I might not get back in. I know it might mean that one or two of you who want to go faster could get by, but I don’t want to take the risk of getting stuck over there. I’m not going to let you in because I technically don’t have too and besides I might miss that light. I’m not in any hurry so I don’t need to keep close to the car in front going through this short left turn arrow, even though my hesitation might mean a couple of you back there will have to wait through another light cycle. All of these things are not so much violations of the law or good manners but a lack of character. It speaks to who I am.
Expounding on this I came to the realization that driving, particularly driving alone, is a profoundly spiritually revealing experience. Why is it that I turn into this whole other person behind the wheel? Who is this angry man who desires to do these mean things (I’ve got to close the gap or someone might take advantage of me!)? Why do I have an aversion to acts of kindness (speeding up so that guy doesn’t beat me!) when there’s no one to criticize me for being mean? Who is that guy yelling at total strangers, looking down on them for their driving skills? I really think that driving alone gives a glimpse into our unchecked, unrestrained sinful selves – at least it does for me. (Perhaps there’s an activity for you that does the same thing.) There’s been so many times that I just want to get out of the car and go apologize to that other driver. Oh how I wish I could tell them that I am a fool, please forgive me. But in a car you can’t do that. Your sin just hangs out there, damage done and no way to undo it, to make it right. I wonder how many times this happens in other parts of my life that I don’t see so clearly.
I’ve com a long way since my early marriage in my driving. My wife is not scared to ride with me anymore and I’ve learned to let things slide. There’s nothing I can do, I cannot teach anyone anything and besides, the probably aren’t interested in learning anyway. But that desire and arrogance is still there and every now and then it slips out and I’ll say or do something scary. It’s then that I am grateful for Jesus and fearful of what I would be without Him. I guess this wasn’t much about Cars and Driving either.
Category: Cars and Driving
Name this car
A new Mazda sedan you say? Nope. Is it a new Audi? Not even close. Perhaps an Acura?
No, what you’re looking at is the new 2006 Hyundai Sonata. The little Korean company is growing up. Get ’em while they’re still cheap folks, these guys are going the way of Honda through the 1970’s.
Via Autoblog.
A New Car!
I got a new car! OK, I really didn’t, but based on the short test drive of my old one it feels a little like it. I spent the weekend putting 4 new struts, rear springs, rear strut mount plates, spark plugs and plug wires on the old Escort (1993, 159,000 miles and still going!). I had it about together on Sunday evening and noticed that the front brakes were shot too. So before taking her down off the jack stands, I picked up new pads and hardware and put brakes on the front too. Add it all up, plus he new tires back in January, and I’ve put about $500 into her this year. I’ve got to get an alignment and tie rods tomorrow too, so it’ll be about $700 when I’m done. Not bad considering the estimate I got from the local muffler shop for the struts and rear springs alone was over $800. I figure I saved about $700 between the struts, springs and brakes (not inlcuding the $180 I spent on new tools! 🙂 ).
If all goes acording to plan, it’ll buy me time until the van is paid off in about two and a half years. That also means I should be very close to 200,000 miles on this car. My Dad beat his Dad in putting over 100,000 miles on a car, and I think I’m going to beat him to 200K (about 175K will actually be mine).
Speaking of putting brakes on a car, this is something that anyone with any kind of mechanical ability ought to learn to do. I spent $16 on doing my front brakes for the Escort. Yep, you read that right $16, $10 for pads and $6 for the hardware kit. Sure, I bought the cheap parts (it’s a beater after all), but even buying top notch stuff is real cheap. (I bought the parts to do my Odyessy brakes from Honda and it was still less than $60.) Consider you’d easily spend 10 times what I did to have it done by someone else, it’s a no brainer as far as I’m concerned. You’ll need:
- Jack stands (about $25 for a pair)
- A floor jack ($30-$40 for a basic one) You can use the jack that came with your car, but they’re usually not that good.
- A basic mechanic’s tool set (about $75 and up for Craftsman, cheaper if you buy off brands)
- A shop manuals made by Haynes or Chiltons for your car. Mine for the Escort was $12 at Autozone. If you want the best, go to the dealer and get the ‘Official’ one which wil set you back about $75 or more. The aftermarket manuals are generally pretty good, though.
Add all that stuff up and you’ll about break even the first time. After that you’ll save a bunch. I figure it this way – I saved at least $140 by putting in 2 hours of dirty labor, so I got paid $75 an hour. That’s more than I make at work!
CR Reliability Study
There was a lot in the news today about the Consumer Report article showing that US autos have surpassed the Europeans in reliability. For year old vehicles, there were 18 problems per 100 cars for the US and 20 for Europe. Last year they were tied at 21.
More interesting to me was how the Asians continue to kick every one else’s behind with only 12 problems per 100 cars thisyear. And look at the chart to the right. It shows that the average 8 year old Asian car has the same number of problems as a 4 year old domestic or a 3 1/2 year old European. Makes it hard not to keep buying Hondas and Toyotas.
More interesting tidbits from the breakout by manufacturer:
- You were more likely to have a problem with your ’03 Mini (25), Cadillac (25), Hummer (26), Jaguar (30) or Lincoln (31) that with a ’99 Infiniti (24)
- The ’03 Hyundai’s had only 14 per 100, nearly tieing Acura and Mazda at 13
- Buick was the top US brand at 13 for ’03 and 48 for ’01. Yep, Buick.
- The top ’99 US car was Lincoln at 72, but they were the last of all for ’03 with 31.
- If you’ve got a VW you’re headed for trouble with 19 per 100 for ’03, 78 for ’01 and a dead last 138 for ’99. Ouch.
Honk if you don’t love traffic jams.
Car and Driver’s Csaba Csere (say “Chubba Chedda” I think) had a great collumn in the February 2004 issue on driving. Here’s a quote:
The reaction to this frustrating semi-mobilization falls into two camps. The first … are so frustrated they boil over at any perceived slight or inconvenience. They are so primed to explode that they can no longer concentrate on driving with any useful efficiency or cleverness. I call these drivers seethers.
The other group no longer cares. These drivers view traffic as a problem beyond any individual’s control, so they resolve not to worry about it and simply allow extra time for each trip. This attitude is healthy to some extent, but it is frequently accompanied by a mental disconnection from the task of driving. I call these drivers soothers, and although none of them will likely curse you or flip you off, their utter lack of urgency won’t help the flow of traffic, either.
My solution: Neither a seether nor a soother be. Instead, be a doer. Try to do the little things that can help traffic move, particularly when the roads are packed, because that’s when a little proactive thinking can make the biggest difference.
He advocates an active participation in driving that looks for opportunities to improve traffic flow. Get moving when the light turns, get out of the way, think about how your actions effect other drivers, etc.
Drivers who do this are more likely to move shortly after a traffic light turns green. They will notice traffic has cleared enough to make a right turn on red. They will change into the correct lane sooner than 50 feet before their intended turn. They will deploy their turn signal before they apply the brakes for a corner rather than after they have already started twisting the steering wheel into the turn. In other words, they will drive as if they had a destination in mind, knew where it was, and actually cared about getting there in a timely fashion.
Excellent piece, go read it.
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