Feature Review: Adaptive Cruise Control and Blind Spot Detection

My Subaru BRZ was in the shop for its last bit of work on the driver side wind noise issue as well as the 30,000 mile service so the dealership gave me a loaner. This time with EyeSight and all the fancy driver assistance technologies. This review is not about the Outback itself though, but rather just about my experience with the driver assistance technologies (for a full review of a less fancily equipped 2016 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited click here).

2016 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited

When your car is in and out of the dealership for repairs you end up with a lot of dealership rentals. As I own a Subaru this means a lot of Subaru rentals. I have a wind noise / door seal issue that should soon hopefully be resolved. This last time around I was given a 2016 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited for the day.

I have previously reviewed the Subaru Outback.

Moving with 2015 Ford E-350 16' Truck

Last in the current large vehicles related to moving series.

Unfortunately no snubbed or slanting nose here so visibility over the front was rather limited and it was rather hard to tell where the passenger side of the vehicle was from the driver's seat.

2003 Dodge RAM 1500 4x4 SLT

A first for me. This is certainly the first pickup truck I have reviewed and quite possibly the first that I have driven. If I recall correctly all that I have driven in the truck / van category is moving vans and moving trucks.

Cagalli Yula, Line-X of Cumberland County, Krown Rust Proofing

Krown provides a rust proofing treatment that is applied annually. The reviews on it are very good, they have been in a business for a long time, if it is something you are interested in it is worth looking up. I use it on my daily driven Subaru BRZ because I would like the chassis and body to last a good long time rust free.

If you get the car treated early enough, i.e. within 6 months of purchase, Krown will guarantee the car to be rust free for life.

Cagalli Yula (Subaru BRZ), ProClip Angled Mount & Adjustable Holder Install and Review

Waze is a wonderful application for navigation, knowing where traffic, accidents, and knowing where cops are. My wife and I use it a lot on road trips. But, being cell phone based it is negligent to use when it is not mounted somewhere that allows you to keep your eyes on the road. To this end I installed a cell phone holder.

In terms of places to put a phone the (more or less) stock interior of a BRZ does not have a lot of good places to put a phone and see the screen while looking out the windshield.

2016 Subaru Legacy 2.5i

My BRZ was in the dealer for some warranty service regarding the door seal so I got a rental from the dealership, a 2016 Subaru Legacy 2.5i.

The car is styled in an any car style. As opposed to the older Subaru's which were more distinguished if also more polarizing. Gone is the aviator style grill.

Test Drive, 2013+ Ford Transit 250

Sometimes owning small cars you need to rent larger cars. This is especially true when you are moving a significant amount of your possessions into storage.

And the van holds a lot of stuff quite well.

Test Drive, 2016 Subaru Forester 2.5i

Got a 2016 Subaru Forester as a dealership loaner as my 2014 BRZ is having some driver side wind noise issues following that crash and repair so many months ago.

So I got to drive a 2016 Forester for around 45-50 miles.

Cagalli Yula (Subaru BRZ), On-Site Detail, Ultimate Detail

I had the car detailed by On-Site Detailing.
James Church took care of the detailing for me and was both very quick and extremely thorough and did a great job. I would use them again.

My wife took the car on a trip and parked it in a rather wet and muddy place.

From a British perspective...

I love driving; ever since I passed my test I've enjoyed the freedom it brings, the feeling of being in control of such an amazing piece of engineering. My first car was a very well-worn Vauxhall Corsa, previously driven by my mum and my older brother and now in my younger sister's possession. However, I was always on the lookout for something more. My dream car was an Audi TT, but I presumed with my budget it would be far too costly both to buy and to insure.

With the gorgeous Betty on the day I bought her...

2016 24 Hours of Le Mans

I follow some auto racing at a tertiary level. I do not watch every race. I vaguely follow reporting on F1 and some of the various GT classifications. The big race I try to watch every year though is what I think of as the second toughest (maybe third toughest) auto race all year. The 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The LMP1 prototypes are these fantastic vehicles with all sorts of interesting regulations put upon them which require amazing innovations. Essentially in the most recent races the cars have this category have been limited by total amount of energy they are allowed to use to complete each lap which is regulated by how much fuel they can have on board and how much energy they are allowed to recapture into hybrid systems and use throughout a lap.

Extended Test Drive, 2016 Ford Fusion (Memorial Day Camping)

Another one for the A to B but not driver cars.
My wife and I were going camping with members of our running group for Memorial Day again. As opposed to last time where we used my Subaru BRZ which was a tight fit we decided to rent something bigger that we could fit our stuff in more easily and that I wound not feel like I was risking the paint on by mounting the bike carrier.
So we rented a Ford Fusion from Budget and actually got the car / size of car we prepaid for this time! (Much rejoicing!)

Update: Skywater, 2014 Subaru Outback Premium, 1.75 Year Review

My wife and I traveled to see my parents for a holiday. We've been in town a week, and rather than renting a car they were kind enough to let us use their 2014 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium, named Skywater (after this book, which is a good book) as our errand car and for visiting our friends in the city and surrounding suburbs of Chicago.

Marking Your Oil Filter

As I have likely stated in a previous post where my wife and I currently live doing car repairs is heavily frowned upon and can get us a fine. So, for the time being, this means we take our cars elsewhere for all major and minor servicing.
One thing which is both fun and silly to do is to mark your oil filter so that you know it gets replaces (or at least the mechanics spend the time to wipe off your marking). This way you can ask to see the old filter / check the filter the next time you get an oil change to make sure you in fact had the oil filter changed as you paid for.

To my knowledge I have not had a problem with this. But, as you can see, you can have fun with it.
Others certainly have had trouble with it and there all kinds of alarming investigative news reports out there and clips on YouTube.

Cagalli Yula (Subaru BRZ), JPM Coachworks Dash Panel Install

The Subaru BRZ is not exactly a very expensive car. Like most cars in its price range it comes with a fair amount of plastic as material in panels and so on. Personally I am not a big fan of the silver plastic in a lot of the places it is used especially on the two piece dash panel with the seam.

To alleviate / correct this I got a One Piece Dash Panel from JPM Coachworks (same company that made my knee pads).

Random Gift(?) From Subaru

Doorbell rings.
I have to sign for a box.
It is kind of heavy and says Subaru all over it... I am not expecting any parts, so what is this?

Box is decently heavy.
Could this be parts like the lip kit I have been eyeing for Cagalli Yula (2014 Subaru BRZ)? The lip kit that became available with the BRZ Series.Blue. Could it be someone got me the shop manuals for the car (something I plan on doing)? I have no idea. I have not ordered anything from Subaru recently.

Making It Yours, So Long As It Isn't A Manual

As a Subaru owner I get "Drive: the magazine from Subaru"

It often includes articles about what Subaru is doing as a corporate citizen, hype about new models, and reviews of certain things.

This most recent issue (Spring 2016) included an article titled "Making It Yours". The article discussed the accessory installation department of Subaru's Lafayette, IN plant. It is a nice article about the people and process behind having your factory options installed on your new Subaru. But, to me, this also reminds me of one of my chief frustrations with Subaru, which if you follow this blog or have had a conversation with me about cars you have heard (possible ad nauseam), in that if you want nice options with your new Subaru you cannot have them if you also want that new Subaru with a manual transmission. Having tried to get through to Subaru through dealerships, auto show representatives, and Subaru of North America via email and phone I figured I would try with the following email to insider@subaru.com. If you share my frustrations, it would be great if you were to write such an email as well.

Hello Drive Magazine Staff,

[Section as possible letter from reader]

Making It Yours, So Long As It Isn't A Manual

By MooncallerCars

In the Spring 2016 issue of Drive Magazine there was an article title “Making It Yours” on page 17. It was a nice article about options and customizations performed for your Subaru as factory installed options.

The “Making It Yours” article niggles me because at Subaru I am a second class car buyer in terms of options and amenities available if I insist I want to have a manual transmission.

Considering the ever decreasing availability of manual transmission cars in the US market, not just by Subaru but by all automakers, it means that the manual transmission buyer is generally a very discerning buyer who is picky and is likely to tick the option boxes they want on their purchase. It does not make sense to limit the availability of options to this would be buyer based on their transmission choice.

My wife and I currently own a 2014 Subaru BRZ (love it!) and a 1994 Honda Prelude. We’ve been looking to replace the Prelude with something a bit more practical in terms of family room but are frustrated by Subaru’s lack of option availability with manual transmissions.

[End section as possible letter from reader?]

Lyrical Silliness

All around the world cars crashing into me
Who knows how long I've driven you
Everywhere I go people smashing into me
Two years old my Prelude God rest her soul

I just want to drive

(Adapted from Sugar Ray's "Fly" in regards to my BRZ and two accidents and a cracked windshield so far)

Extended Test Drive, 2015 Toyota Corolla

I'll start this one very simply: this Corolla did not make me hate life like the 2013 I had as a rental and reviewed previously.
Was it as fun as the one I drove from age 16 to 19? No, I do not like this as much as I liked that 1995, but this one was much better than the 2013.

Starting with handling. I like to do a steering rack test. Basically I test the steering by starting from a stop and doing a left or right turn to see how many turns of the steering wheel are required, and another test at low speed, not from a stop.

Short Test Drive, 1996 Honda Accord

I was in Florida over the weekend, was down for memorial service for my grandmother and spreading her and my grandfather's (previously deceased) ashes in the Everglades. My cousin was down from Maine and borrowed this car from my uncle (his dad). So, I figured I would take it for a drive and write out my thoughts.

This is a 1996 Honda Accord DX. It is the fifth generation of the Accord.

Geico / Cavallo Auto Body (Chadds Ford) Repair Experience

My car was in need of repair due to the accident on 01/12/2016.
I had a good experience with Cavallo Auto Body (Chadds Ford) before when I had paint chips repaired, so I decided I would have this repair done there as well.
I dropped the car off on 01/15/2016 and got this rental. I got the car back on 02/17/2016. The repair took a while.

What I missed most about my car was the steering. If you hold the wheel at 9 and 3 or 10 and 2 and you make a 90 degree turn it takes ~180 degrees of turning from a dead stop and ~90 degrees of turning pretty well anywhere above 5-10 MPH. This is so much nicer than all rentals I've driven recently where right and left turns, especially low speed ones, require lots of steering wheel cranking.

These photos were taken with my new circular polarizing filter.

Extended Test Drive, 2015 Hyundai Sonata

If you own or lease a 2015 Hyundai Sonata it is not because you love cars.

Auto Show Philadelphia 2016

I attended Auto Show Philadelphia 2016 over the course of two days.

For this post I thought I would do something different. Rather than presenting the viewer with a wall of text I thought I would use a show/hide feature for all the manufacturers and cars. This should allow for easier reading and easier to find just the cars / manufacturers you are actually interested in viewing.

Camera Hardware: Circular Polarizing Filter

I recently purchased a  77mm Kaesemann XS-ProCircular Polarizer MRC Nano Filter from B&H.
One of the things a Circular Polarizer Filter (CPF) does for you is it gives a filter with adjustable polarization via rotation. This means you can eliminate a lot of glare and reflections off a surface you are photographing.
This is supposed to help a lot with photographing water, the sky, and more pertinent to this blog, automobiles.
So I decided to test the filter today in the run up to my going to the Auto Show Philadelphia 2016.
I would say the results clearly show it is functional.

There will be a more in depth post on the car I photographed later, and a story as to why I have the rental.
This first photo is with little to no polarization:

Cagalli Yula (Subaru BRZ) and Toyota RAV4 Meet

Was running a bunch of errands. Got hit by someone making a right turn.
Images of my car (taken at the accident scene):

Going to need a new door.