Digital Dad

The End of the Mini Cooper

Well, at least the end of my Mini Cooper.

I started driving my Mini back in the spring of 2002, fresh off the boat. In fact the door panel states it was manufacturered in February, 2002, a month before the US introduction.

Heck, I wasn't driving version 1.0 - I was driving a beta!

It certainly felt like a beta. The windshield suffered five separate cracking incidents (I believe due to a severe angle to the road). It suffered a complete transmission failure at 25,000, a cracked exhaust valve that required a significant engine overhaul at 40,000 miles, and a disconnected fuel line/fuel pump that left me stranded on 680 south during the morning rush hour recently with cars furiously attempting to avoid running into me at 70 mph - 10 gallons of gasoline spilling out onto the road beneath me.

So it was time.

Fortunately the lease was up. I was also the first at the dealership to turn in a leased Mini. Three years ago I figured that by now the novelty would have worn off, however I did not forecast that my Mini would transform itself into a "rolling bomb" (as the fire department so eloquently put it).

I did wire in an AUX line into the stock head unit for a high quality iPod hook up, but other than that I left it as is. I gave the Mini dealer that AUX hook up - hopefully someone else will benefit from it.

It was a fun car to drive, but it did lack the ability take all three kids around, as well as very limited Costco/Home Depot capabilities.

I'm ready for the next Digital Dad vehicle. Any guesses?

Waiting for version 2

This article sounds a bit like my 2004 Nissan Quest, although I'd have to say after that first day-long "tweak" it's been running really well.

Link: The New York Times > Automobiles > What's Bugging the High-Tech Car?.

Whew . . .

We just completed a 10 day road trip that encompassed two sets of grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and three full days at Disneyland.

The most crucial gear was of course the Roadship, our 2004 Nissan Quest. We put on about 1200 miles with ease, at about 5 hours between overnight stops. We averaged about 20 MPG. Now that we are at over 10k miles I've assembled a wish list for a few more improvements:

• I mentioned the DVD audio issue - the rear speakers seems to act as surrounds, so you need to crank up the front speakers for the kids in the third row to hear. I'd rather default to use the rear speakers as more of a combination of center/left/right so I dont get blasted with "Chim Chim Cheree" as I drive down the freeway at 70 mph.
• The headphones are uncomfortable. At least according to my five year old "they need more padding". Also, the headphones are driven off of the IR emitter in the pull down screen and it's basically line of sight - keep that in mind when you test them - it won't work if you are not in front of the screen!
• The headphones are also too easy to turn off. Kids will put the headphones on and inadvertently turn them off, then complain that they don't work. The volume dial is also too easy to turn.
• The volume for the headphones are actually driven off the second row seat audio controls, NOT from the dashboard audio control - weird. You need to set the Rear Controls ON then go the second row and crank the volume. Turn down the dashboard volume unless you want to listen along. Net net, you will not be able to get the headphones to work without reading the manual, which as we know is not a common activity for Dads.
• Enough with the headphones, how about cup holders that heat or cool a beverage? Put a coil in the bottom of the cup holder and drive the current to heat or cool the beverage. Hey it works for heated seats! There might be a safety issue for heat so just keep it to the front seats, with scoend and third row cups wired for cooling only. Patent application in process.
• The car nav system should tell you what the weather is for your upcoming destination. It has a data link so this should not be a major deal to implement.
• I'd like to "push" my current location up to the system that can then be accessed via a web site or have that action generate an SMS message to a set group of recipients. This way I can notify folks where we are on the trip and how long it will be before we show up. It also solves the privacy issues since I am the one notifying my location. Again, patent application in process!
• I've mentioned this before but let's show the car nav map on the rear two screens. Kids love maps. Right now the Quest is wired so that the rear two screen are driven off a completely separate system (the DVD player under the passenger seat). It should all be integrated off the dash controls.
• The Quick Stop feature is great - check out nearby restaurants, gas stations, ATMs and set a temporary waypoint. But why not other points of interest, such as the Cabazon Dinosaurs, Alien Fresh Jerky, etc?
• In general the Quest needs some sensors in the sides to keep me from scraping the running boards into curbs. This thing is just really wide. Whatever happened to curb feelers?

The "Roadship" rides again

We just finished a three day stint in Tahoe. It's our annual "Hanukah in the Mountains" trip.  This year we added the new baby, now at 5 months.

It was also the first time we brought our Nissan Quest up to Tahoe in the snow. We bought it back in March and I like to think of it as a "Roadship". It's huge and has a dazzling array of electronics, glass, LCD panels and other high techology road-worthy details.

In our Roadship we had the following configuration: My wife and I up front, the baby in the second row, the other second row seat folded flat with a dog bed on it, and our 3 year old and 5 year old in the third row.  The area behind the third row was packed with food, diaper supplies and "accesible ready" items. I used a roof mounted storage device to hold the Hanukah gifts, clothing and other inert items. I like the roof bag we're using as it's easy to put up there and when we get to our destination I can just take it off and fold it up.

I was a bit concerned about the snow, as the Quest is front wheel drive only, and I did pick up some chains (cables actually). These innovative things can be put on without having to drive over them first. To be honest I've owned two pair of these, the last one for my old Saab wagon, and I've never had to use them. However, if it's snowing in Tahoe you need to have them in the car. I just sold my Saab tire cables on eBay for $35, so all was not lost on that venture. And of course, I practiced putting them on and off in my garage in the dark a few dozen times just in case. I'm kidding. Net net, since it was early in the season, the snow was not a big deal.

The DVD system worked well, although we forgot the IR headphones. I was blasted with "Ice Age" on the way up (and "Totoro" on the way back). Although there are rear speakers on the Quest, it seems like the sound is primarily driven off the front speakers, reflecting off the windshield to the back rows. Hmmm. Also, ideally the audio system is two zone so they can get the movie back there and I can listen to NPR up front. Fixes for next year's model?

The navigation system worked well although it didn't have the tiny road that our cabin was on in its database. Close enough, though. One thing I did notice was that due to the enormous surface area, the thing gets awfully dirty up there. It also took a while to defrost the massive windshield one morning.

Other than that it was a huge success. Driving it down the freeway you feel like you are piloting a 747 over the Atlantic.

Minivan scam

Here something interesting I heard recently.

Couple is expecting new baby so they decide to trade in the sports car for a Minivan (I think we've all been there).

Wife brings in sports car, which was purchased brand new a few years ago, for a trade-in assesment.

Dealer takes a cursory look at the car and says that it looks like it has been in an accident - bolts don't match, hood looks funny, etc. He says that she needs to go get it certified first by somebody before they will even touch it.

Dealer later comes back and says that she can avoid the "certification process" if she takes a lower amount for the trade-in.

This happened recently to some friends of mine so caveat emptor, as they say. I'll leave to them to post the name of the local dealer, if they desire.

My technique on trading in the sports car for the Minivan is to go to Edmunds to find the blue book trade-in and invoice values, find the difference, and then just negotiate that. Forget negotiating two numbers, what you get for the trade and what the new vehicle costs you, just negotiate the delta between the two since that is your real out of pocket $$$.

Nissan Quest in the shop

Our massive futuristic 2004 Nissan Quest rolled into the shop yesterday.

There were a collection of issues, one major, some minor. This is what you get from buying the version 1.0 model. It's a bleeeding edge for a reason!

One issue that was nagging was the slow leak in the fron left tire. I chronicled that and the associated Nissan service bulletin a while back. That was checked with the expectation of fixing the sensor but lo and behold they said they found a nail in the inner sidewall. A very low-tech problem.

There was a service bulletin to fix rattles in the side doors, a process that required them to spend five hours removing the doors and fixing the problem (installing a washer I suppose?)

Finally the Nav system was flaking on me. Sometimes I would start the car and get a "Disc Error" or "Incorrect DVD ROM version" error message on the dashboard screen. Ugh. This would happen about 50% of the time. They had to install a brand new unit under the passenger seat (and I lost my darned address book of locations that was saved in the old unit!).

Even though they needed the Quest all day they said that the Nissan factory would not pay to give me a minivan loaner, just a full size car loaner. What a rip! I pushed and the local dealer, Dirito Brothers in Walnut Creek, covered the extra rental costs themselves - they did the right thing.

Hey Nissan, change your "loaner" reimbursement policy. If I spend $40,000 on a minivan that has flaws, you pick up the $40 rental tab, OK?

Alpine jumps into the iPOD fray

Sounds like Alpine's solution for bringing your digital music player into your car is step up from the hyper-hyped BMW/Apple extravaganza.

They will sell an adapter for their Alpine car stereo head units that enables you to connect an iPOD (and I assume other brands) and fully control the device from the head unit or remote. Plus, it will show track names on the head unit - something the BMW/Apple cable will not do.

Savvy car manufacturers and car stereo companies will provide these types of controls and connectors as options within the year.

Who knows, maybe we'll see a Chevy branded Dell Digital Music Player that comes with your new Corvette?

Nissan service bulletins

The web is certainly good at passing information around.

Remember that post recently about the tire presure sensor in my 2004 Nissan Quest? It was indicating a slow leak from the front left tire.

I brought it in for a general service check and the Nissan service folks at the dealer said they pulled a nail from the tire. However, after a few days the leak returned and the pressure sensor went off again.

Weird!

I subscribe to the Nissan Quest Van Club Yahoo! Group and someone posted a link to all of the 2004 Nissan Quest service bulletins - the ones tha the dealers get.

I took a look for kicks and saw this entry - TIRE HAS SLOW AIR LEAK.

Hmmm...so I called my dealer and told him about the bulletin. I'll bring it in next week for him to take a look.

Knowledge is power, I guess.

iPOD in the Nissan Quest

I recently wrote about how I hooked up my iPOD in my Mini Cooper, hard wiring it into the head unit and create a very clean, single cable set up in the dashboard cup holder. I use that every day to and from work.

However, I've also found an easy and very inexpensive way to hook up an iPOD into a 2004 Nissan Quest, our family vehicle (choose the Automotive categy in the left column to see all related posts).

The Quest has several ways of hooking up a digital music player. You could use all of these methods to alternatively hook up an old casette walkman which can be helpful on trips if you have books on tape. The Quest has no built-in cassette player (the Quest is an all digital vehicle!).

Getting back to the iPOD, you have a few options:

Add on an FM transmitter like from Griffin; downside is that you might get some static and fuzz depending on your geography and the signal will be compressed (less dynamic range).

Hard wire it into the dash in place of the optional satellitte radio input.

Run it through the aux audio input of the DVD player

In all of these options you will still navigate the iPOD using the iPOD itself. There are some kits out there from folks like Denison that allow you to use your car stereo's control buttons to control the iPOD with some cars (not the Nissans), but frankly I think that feature is a bit overrated. There is no way to use your car controls to navigate playlists, browse for albums or songs, etc. (which you should never do when driving anyway), so all your left with is volume and play/pause, forward/back. The volume control on your stereo will always control iPOD volume in all of these install options anyway, and the play/pause fwd/back are easy buttons on the iPOD as well. Yes it would be nice to use the steering wheel controls for play/pause etc. but I'm not sure it would be worth the extra $$$.

I decided to route the iPOD through the aux audio input of the DVD player. It's cheap, clean and sounds great. All you need for a basic installation is a headphone to RCA cable - about $4 at Radio Shack!

If you want to upgrade the sound and add power, go for the Belkin iPOD auto adpater - $40 or so.

The aux audio jacks on the DVD player are right on the front (see photo). However, I must warn you that you need to get "L" adapters at Radio Shack as well to keep the plugs from sticking out between the front seats. If they are sticking out then inevitably someone is going to step on one and that will damage the input plugs! Happened to me.

I keep the iPOD in either the second cup holder in the Quest driver seat or put the whole thing in the center console cabinet, whidch conveniently has a power plug in it as well! You can set the iPOD to shuffle through 700 kids songs, put it in the cabinet and just hit the road. If I think I'll want access to it then I'll just leave it in the cup holder. In any case you only have one cable coming off the iPOD.

You will need to switch into the AUX mode of the DVD player, which means holding down the REAR A/V button to switch to DVD sourtce, and the hit the MODE button on the DVD player (hard to see from the driver seat). It will stay in that mode even after you power off the vehicle so you only need to do that once until you want to play audio from another source (radio or CD) or play a movie.

For this reason it would be nice to hard wire it right into the satellite radio option, but that's the only benefit I see of doing that.

Check out the photo album of the install here

BMW listens

I received a number of emails about Apple and BMW's announcement that they will be selling an iPOD adapter for all shapes of BMWs - including Mini Coopers:

Apple, BMW Partner on "Seamless" iPod Car Stereo Adapter
Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with automaker BMW to create the first "seamless" connection between an iPod digital music player and a car audio system. The $149 BMW iPod Adapter connects an iPod to a cable located in the glove compartment, which connects directly to the car's stereo, uses the car stereo's own stereo interface for control, and draws power from the car's battery. The device will be available beginning July 12 for 2002-2004 model BMW X3, X5, Z4 and 3 Series. A version for the MINI Cooper will also be released later this summer.
http://www.ipodyourbmw.com

It's good see that BMW is listening to its customers. The only hitch I have is why the glove box? My Mini dealer offerred to run a cable there as well when I inquired about wiring in an AUX line to my Mini's head unit in my quest for the ultimate Mini Cooper iPOD hook up. Is there something special in there I don't know about?

I suppose this will create a bit of a many-to-many problem - numerous non-standard digital music players connecting to numerous non-standard automotive head units. I certainly won't be shelling out $150 for every car stereo and/or player I want to use. If anything you'd want adapters on both ends to adapt the power/signal cable for different combos - now that's worth $150.

Speaking of, I'm working on a post with photos of my iPOD hook up for my Nissan Quest - coming soon.