On a slightly-less sad-boy-hours note (and shorter to boot): Driving my 5G around in the Olympian-esque slop today... have come to find a few more things I really don't understand why they exist in a Toyota, or any marque. Fair warning: whinging involved. Caveat: I'l try not to repeat a flaw simply because I hate it so much and whinging's the only healthy outlet for me size of ICE air filter: this thing has to be replaced about twice a year here (high amts of damaging Fe₂O₃ whipped into the air by prevailing winds) and even earlier when driven in rain, due to moisture finding that dirt and moulds / mildews growing and blocking flow). And old Local adage says if you stick a broom handle in the ground here it'll sprout branches... so moulds esp go off during rain, making even expat Seattleites miserable and coughing. Some of this can always be mitigated by just using more filter media; may not even cause the OEM filter diameter to increase, just the size of its pleats. Nope -- $35 every time... which used to be the cost for two NAPA filters when I'd first moved back. Don't want to ask what the price of OEM cabin air filters are non-quickness of steering rack: My old jalopy Honda's was just under 2.5 turns LTL, but then bought the 10th-gen Honda which had a fully-electric and much quicker rack with a 2.2:1 ratio -- loved that. Parking wheels on a dime where I wanted them (marked on my parking space) was intuitive and consistent. But this 5G seems to have a slower ratio than the old Honda (2.7 LTL)... which makes parking pretty labour-intensive as I need often 2 tries to put wheels exactly where desired. Combo of the hi-pro but narrow-width 60-series tires, which also don't exert as much turning force against the ground at parking speeds. Seriously dislike taking two tries to park my own car in my own space, when in the last Honda could pull in & hit marks first-try every time what, the rear door switches again...?: Toyota's inability to resolve 5G rear door switch circuit problems, is not only uncharacteristic of the company ime... but expensive as well. Apparently the body shop didn't procure the recall part (an extra piece of loom) to install whilst new door were being assembled / installed... so have to schedule a separate appt, on my time, to both get the 20K svc and this recall done, meaning some kid has to disassemble the door again to put it in. Gonna wait until the paint's fully cured and hardened first, which means both these svcs have to wait another week at least who designed this wiper system?: Very much dislike that at my height... the Lamborghini windshield rake puts the top of the A-pillar very close to my head -- which of course increases its perceived size. Then Toyota greenlights a wiper mechanism that stops the L wiper, 1.5" away from the edge of the windshield, increasing width of said A-pillar by not being able to clear an area that wiper shoves all its grit and debris to. Not a problem on a more formally-angled screen. Of course wasn't until had to use wipers everyday for the whole drive this became obvious... but probably has something to do w/ Akio's desire to put design and sporting hard parts above milquetoast competence and user-friendliness. You want easy-to-see-out-of, futurist...? Buy a Camry or RAV4 so we can profit too, then. I tried, Toyota... but you made the new HEV Camry nearly as big as a '07 Avalon... and the lightest ICE-only RAV4 (ehhht) is just as wide and exactly as heavy as the most optioned-out 5G AWD (both ~3400 lbs). No could do, gentlemen -- 5G LE FWD is 3100 lbs, a class down in size and weight and much-better-handling than either HEV Camry and defo RAV4 HEV, the only one I'd even consider /whinge OFF /sulk ON
Kinda weird if calm sloppy morning today. saw a Hyundai Kona, brand-new one, with 'O N A' on the rear hatch. Now, I d unno if these are still dealer-installed prep things for K-cars (SK, not Chrysler, for you fogey gearheads)... but rather embarrassing to see that, on a '25 or '26 model, in the rain. If there's any one of those letters I'd not want falling off as a devotee to Korean cars... it's that one full disclosure, have nothing against SK culture or exports like K-pop, K-dramas and K-beauty -- am even a subscriber to a few of their variety shows and learning Korean in prep for a possible holiday there -- which 15y ago wasn't going to happen vs. J- alternatives... plus prior to doing some research, was even considering a Soul EV. But SK cars are just not made to quite the std top JDM ones are, re: reliability / durability. At least not Toyota, tho SK's burying us feature- & EV-wise. Don't plan to shop K-car stores until they care more about stranding, as their ICEs still get recalled for stuff like preemie bearing wear and galling in VVT actuators and other non-babbit, machined bearing surfaces. Even their EVs have detractors for lack of transparency about svc life of their batteries and why older models don't get s/w updates new ones have OEM. Then there're factors grueling SK workplace culture enforces that causes problems for the customer, like making line workers work to near-exhaustion, where they make more mistakes. Love K-stuff but indefinite hold on autos I need to depend on, from that otherwise magical place. usually Tues are the rush-around day of the week (along w/ Thu), but today was oddly serene. Very light traffic from upcountry, which is where a bunch of the traffic comes from -- could be from flooding still affecting those comm'ys. Man, compared to living on the Kitsap Peninsula in WA... I'd literally be thumping 50 mph betw a half-mile of 40m trees in the backroads to the highway, then 60 mph in an inch of water, raining so hard the noise of drops hitting my visor'd hurt my ears thru earplugs. And nothing washing away, just torrential flooding on the day then 2d of draining. Here, things don't have bedrock to flow thru, only a loosely-bound jumble of volcano-thrown basalt boulders -- takes millions of years to metamorphose into bedrock -- so every layer the water cuts through, eventually ends up in the ocean, or begins to roll like a stack of marbles. What a mess... do love the lack of splatter on the car, not having washed several weeks now. Detail at the body shop and being inside did help... but am surrounded by Altimas and Sonatas on this commute, looking like they just qualified for a WRC Safari Rally stage How about you tweakers just slow down and stop tailgating and pounding through puddles w/o thinking maybe? Splashing thru mud, guess you'll FAFO why you shouldn't do that -- mud likes to harden into adhesive clay, when exposed to 210F radiator vanes have been doing the 'tap brakes whenever I see a yellow light turn up ahead' and 'tap brakes when I see a red at the faraway light once I crest the hill blocking it', at least 4y now... and seems more and more people are also doing same, which is nice. Caveat, they're doing it in rainy conditions, which should be all the time... but'll take the win. Just makes sense and drops the temp on red mist quite a bit, when people can stop driving like kids and save bother stopping and accelerating again. Just need to lead by example and yes, the team at the window at the corporate SB, I'm forced to go sans Target kiosk, has finally figured out how to make my drink as desired, good job team Guess the longer line every morning served the memo? That's what I'm hoping
