I thought this was an interesting idea – an aftermarket system from Accendo to disable testing and talking while the car is in motion. It’s designed to be installed to keep your young drivers safe – an important problem with more than 330,000 people injured every year on phone related accidents.
It’s not commercialized yet but hopefully I can get a discount on our car insurance if I install it – although i have seven years until i will need this (thankfully!).
Story at MSNBC.
I spent a few days in Palo Alto recently with our new Danger friends. I rented a car for a few of us. My options from Avis were 1) a 12 seater van or 2) a Ford Edge.
I'm not a Ford guy. I'm a GM guy. Therefore, I approached the Edge with trepidation. I did have my Zune with me as well as my trusty headphone adapter. I figured I might score and get the Ford SYNC stuff in there or at least an AUX/IN.
The card was pretty darn nice. You sit up a bit but it's very car-like. The handling was very good and the interior was not crappy. The back seat occupants commented on how comfy and roomy it was back there. It had a bit of pep under the hood, not like my Big Green Machine but still decent.
I did find the AUX/IN in the center armrest. No SYNC but it worked and the sound system was much better than expected. I'm still not a Ford guy, but the Edge doesn't suck.
I took the Roadship in for another dead battery. Apparently they found a crack in the positive terminal that was causing the current to leak excessively, so it was covered under warranty.
However, the mechanic noted that he found rodent dropping on the engine block. I've seen these on the Big Green Machine as well and thought nothing of it. Apparently, though, these guys can cause some serious damage to your wiring.
Here's a post where they go through a bunch of remedies to keep them out - moth balls, Bounce fabric softener sheets, even essence of peppermint oil. I'll try the moth balls and see what happens.
Putting aside the absurd Southwest Rapid Rewards policy, there was a logistical bright spot in this trip.
I noted recently that National Car Rental's Emerald Club is now free if you register from their web site (rather than pay the usual $50).
That means that when you make a reservation you should just go right to your car when you land. This is nirvana when traveling with kids and just convenient anytime.
As I was arriving Friday night in Hartford I was sure that this was going to be messed up. My name wasn't going to be on the sign, or the sign wasn't working or installed, or something. I was actually composing this post in my head at the time.
I got off the shuttle and asked the drive where the Emerald Club sign is (nudge nudge, wink wink, waiting for the punch line). He said, "we don't have a sign, just get into any car in the Emerald row and drive off."
What? I walk up to this Monte Carlo SS, hopped in, showed my ID to the gate person and drove off. That's it. When I dropped off the car I didn't have to wait for the guy to print out a little piece of paper, either - I was just emailed a PDF of the receipt as I sat here.
Totally seamless and a great price. Looking forward to the family trip in July.
We're about to embark on a 10 day road trip from Bellevue, WA all the way down to Arizona and back. The Roadship, as I like to call our 2004 Nissan Quest, is ready, although I had an interesting electrical challenge recently.
The Roadship battery had been draining for some time, generally due to overhead lights being left on after it was parked. Last Sunday it refused to turn over and I had to jump it from the Big Green Machine.
I drove it around Sunday and went to start it Monday morning. It did not turn over. It wasn't a battery issue - there was plenty of charge, but it just wasn't igniting. Weird. We called AAA and had the car towed to our local friendly dealer.
The dealer called later on that afternoon and said that the power loss on the battery had tripped a security mechanism that resets the codes on the Roadship keys. Therefore, those keys will never start that car until they get re-programmed. Oh joy!
I brought all the keys down and $140 later I was all set. I still don't understand the security issue here - this prevents someone from changing the battery and stealing the car at the same time? More weird.
As for the trip, we're set with a good Streets and Trips printout, the Roadship nav system, dual DVD screens, visor mounted bluetooth speakerphone and a Coleman 40qt Powerchill cooler hooked up to the rear hatch power adapter. Plenty of SD cards for the camera and the HandyCam to boot, plus a good supply of books, snacks, puzzles, and other goodies. I'll use my Zune piped into the AUX audio system for music, or just enjoy local radio.
Here we go!
Back in March I picked up the "Big Green Machine" - a Saturn Vue Redline in lime green (Xbox360 green?). Great car, and I upped the sound system with some serious amplification, speakers, and an Alpine 9847 head unit.
That was back in sunny California, and I 'm now in the dead of winter up here in Bellevue, Washington.
The other morning I went out to the car and started it up. I went to poke through the radio stations and the Alpine power-cycled on me! Everytime I hit a preset, or the source button, it would power off, then power on again. Aargh.
A few minutes later, after the car warmed up, i tried it again and everything was fine. Weird.
I figured that since metal expands with heat, it contracts as well, and perhaps there's a connection in there that contracts just enough to be faulty in cold weather. Nice quality job there Alpine!
I am working this theory through my head as I drive my son to school the other day. It was cold in the car again and sure enough pushing buttons power-cycled it, but jiggling the head unit from the corners kept it running. Once again, weird.
Then I remembered that the head unit has a detachable faceplate. I popped it out and breathed hard on the connector in the back, popped it back into the dash . . . and it worked like a charm.
McGyver strikes again.
As reported here, I took a LONG drive from Walnut Creek, CA all the way up to the Seattle area last week. Thanks to a creative detour to the Oregon coast, the whole trip took a whopping 17 hours! Thanks to my Alpine 9847 and iPod I was covered with about 400 hours of music, just in case.
Since moblogging from Verizon's VX7000 doesn't seem to work, I emailed the pix from my phone to my email account and then posted them manually to this photo album.
OnStar came in handy. I was told that OnStar has about 6x the coverage range of a typical cell phone - understandable given the big attenna on the car and the extra wattage on the radio. Sure enough I took a call on my cell phone in the north california mountains and was promptly disconnected. I called them back using the OnStar calling system - and it worked great!
Next time, no detours, but at least the OnStar will work.
Today I drove north to Washington to start my new job - about 800 miles. Actually, the job starts April 4 but I will rendezvous with my family up there this week first for some house-hunting and general assimilation.
Driving enables me to haul a bunch of stuff up there (luggage, guitar, etc.) and also drive my Big Green Machine all the way up the 5. I will try a detour to the coast once I get into Oregon. Yes, I have my iPod playlists ready!
I did plan on creating a moblog of the whole process but it turns out that you cannot moblog using a Verizon phone. Emailing of pictures to TypePad or Flickr both result in just the text part of the message.
Doh!
I'm digging the Big Green Machine - my 2004 Saturn Vue Redline with the Electric Lime paint job.
As I mentioned I did some after-market stereo work to bring it up to a respectable sound system with iPod control. However, there was a bit of snag in the installation that I only recently resolved.
The Saturn came with OnStar, a voice activated system for notifying authorities in case of an accident (triggered by airbag deployment), or to use for navigation directions, oreven get general information and book reservations at a restuarant, etc. You hit a button on the rear-view mirror and live person comes on the speaker. It's an odd combination of technology and good ol' fashioned human beings.
The car has a GPS system embedded so they know here you are (how comforting). You can also use the system as a speakerphone, which can be handy, and although you can also accept incoming calls, you obviously get a new phone number. You can also set it up on the web to check stock quotes, weather and other info. You can even use it to open your doors if you lock yourself out (except on Saabs, oddly). It's a nifty system that I will dig into more.
Clearly OnStar is tied to the sound system, and when you install an aftermarket head unit there is typically an adapter, or wiring harness, to maintain OnStar functionality with the new rig. Your local installer has them or you can buy them from places like Peripheral Electronics.
However, it turns out that the 2004 Saturn Vue has changed the OnStar wiring a bit and the existing wiring harnesses don't work. That left me with a great sound system but no OnStar.
The solution, logically, is to reinstall the original factory head unit just for OnStar functionality. I had this done and installed under the driver's seat. It has it's own dedicated speaker (although I'd rather it be routed through the main sound system), but all the same it now works just fine. It cost me about $70 in labor.
So if you have a new GM car and are upgrading the sound system, keep this in mind and keep that orginal head unit!
I recently mentioned turning in my Mini Cooper at lease-end. That left me with an opportunity to take a look out there for a new vehicle.
There's no shortage of choices. As DadTalk mentions, Consumer Reports has recently listed the reliability of many new vehicles. I was a bit surpised to see my Nissan Quest up there for poor reliability numbers. We had a few initial issues but all in all the RoadShip has been excellent.
But now I wanted a car for me. Sure, it would need to accomodate my wife and three small kids in a pinch, and yes it needed to have some storage room in the back for Home Depot/Costco runs, but I wanted a car that had some cool to it.
I think Dads can get into a bit of a functional rut. Everything has to be so practical, so multi-use, so sanitary. Dads need to keep their style, their fun, and they need to inspire these things in their kids.
I took a look at the following vehicles that had some style, some storage and some value:
Pontiac Vibe - hatchback, interesting layout, but maybe too small this time
Honda Element - funkier, cool storage capabilties, but it can't seat three in the back
LandRover Freelander - liked the two-door, but very small inside and pricey for what you get
Subaru Forrester 2.5TX - small-SUV, great engine, high ratings . . . but it bored me.
I was getting a bit down on the whole search when my brother, a long time GM guy, suggested something different - a Saturn Vue Redline.
A Saturn? How lame. Don't they make dorky plastic cars? I drove to the dealer to check them out anyway. The Redline is an all-wheel drive, V6, 250 hp, ground effects, souped up version of the Vue. They had a 2004 Electric Lime one on the floor, loaded. 18" wheels, sun roof, OnStar, leather seats. The rear seats fold down 60/40 and even the front seat folds flat.
Since it was a 2004 there was a heavy discount off the already low price (Saturns don't cost much). The Redline uses the same engine and transmission as the Honda Pilot and Acura MDX, although the Saturn is lighter.
This was the first thing I'd seen that I really liked. That weekend I did more research on-line and took my three year old daughter on a test drive. She loved it. Sold.
After a few days I drove it into my local car stereo shop and had them rip out the stock audio system and install an upgrade. I put an Alpine 9847 head unit in place with the iPod adapter. This allows me to completely control the iPod (plugged in and charging in the glove box) from the head unit - playlists, artist, song, album, etc. That was routed into a 4x100 amp under the passenger seat and then wired into four 6" JL Audio speakers. I also added a Bazooka powered sub in the way back.
I'll use the OnStar system for navigation. They give you turn by turn directions. I may augment that with a Tom Tom or some handheld I can pop into a cradle on the dash.
The Big Green Machine is ready.
