Better Than expected

Well I finally got it!

First, Thank you to everyone here who had shared their experiences. Living vicariously through your experiences had helped prepare me for my own.

I picked up the car yesterday from the dealer. My sales rep actually knew a fair amount about the vehicle. One disappointment was that they said the smart key system wasn't working. I wasn't too upset since I have never had this feature anyway and didn't yet know what I was missing. Since the dealer knew so much about everything else I didn't mention, "Is it disabled?" I made an appointment to have it looked at next week. Anyway, I tried the disable button this morning and lo and behold it works!

The car is a dream to dive. I don't know where to start. Most of it has been said before, but here is a quick synopsis of my impressions. More will follow when I have more practical experience with the car.

Driving:

Take John1701a's advice and "just drive it" At first after reading everything here I thought I could adjust my expectations about responsiveness and footwork to make the car perform its best. I have retreated from that for now. I know my driving habits will change somewhat and with experience I will "get more" from the car based on how I drive it. However it seems those adjustments will be much smaller than I expected.

I have already seen the car perform well in stealth mode both while doing 35-42 MPH and in parking lots. The temps here yesterday was in the mid 30's to mid 40's.

Also, it makes so much sense for the engine to stop running when you let off the gas, and come to a stop at a traffic light. Not to mention seeing some of that energy go back in to charging the battery.

I have seen the mileage hover around 41 MPG. Not bad especially considering I live in a hilly area. I have a feeling I will be in the upper 30's as the winter gets cold again. I hope my mileage doesn't go too much under 40 for the winter, but it may not be possible as many of my trips will be short and cold in the next few months.


DVD NAV:

This is my first car with one of these, even though I have driven in friends' cars with them. Even though I love technology and especially the thought of GPS technology, I have always thought it would be a waste of money for this feature. Now that I no longer have possession of the money, I LOVE the GPS. Directions to my home and the couple of destinations I went to yesterday were right on.


In the interest of time that is all for now.

 

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions.

I will probably keep my appointment to make some minor adjustments.

1) The oil level is about 1/8 - 1/4 inch beyond full. I am amazed at that given the seemingly wide range of an acceptable level on the dip stick! I will have them drain some oil to hopefully get to 1/4 - 1/2 inch below max. Should I tell them exactly how much to drain in ounces?

2) Steering wheel lights are too dim at night. Given there is no traditional dash with an analog speedometer and guages, It takes some getting used to the dark expanse in front of you when you drive at night. I know I read a post on this setting before and will be ready to let the dealer know how to do it if necessary.

3) I haven't adjusted my tire pressure yet, but will do so shortly.

4) Will probably have a couple of other minor adjustments made to other preferences. Any suggestions?

More Notes:

I have not yet diabled the reverse beep yet because to my surprise I actually like having it on to remind and confirm to me I am in reverse while getting used to the joystick. I feel I will eventually disable it, but am in no rush right now. I would prefer an external reverse beep because I feel that the car is too quiet in parking lots as people are usually clueless both for their own safely and for common courtesy. I can't tell you how many times I have had to stop short after backing out more than 1/2 way out of a spot because someone thinks they do not have to stop because they are already in motion in their car.

Pulling in to traffic. LEAVE MORE ROOM THAN NORMAL. Especially if the streets are not dry and clean. I have had the dreaded big torque wheel spin->power loss when I have tried to accellerate hard from a stop sign. Steady increased accelleration seems a better approach along with added room for safety.

Peeves

How stupid do they thing we are? Some complex controls can be used in motion while others cannot.

1) The NAV agreement screen. The lawyer responsible for this should be shot. No offense to lawyers out there, but a lawyer must be responsible for this one.

2) Same culprit, The message screen that some radio stations use to identify song title and artist. It is unavailable when the car is in motion. My teenage daughter was psyched when she fist discovered the message feature only to be equally dissappointed when she tried it while moving to get a message that it has been disabled for our safety.

On some level I can see # 2 , but not on my life could I justify #1


Question?

For the NAV system background. When the lights are on, the background for the NAV map is black. There is a preference setting for background colors which seems to make a difference in the day setting, but doesn't seem to do anything for the night setting. It there a way to keep the day background, but maybe have it just be less bright for nighttime? Do you just get used to it, or am I missing something here.


Sorry for the rampling post.

Thanks - Still Loving it,