If you said, "From the song No Particular Place to Go by Chuck Berry, 1957," you get 75 bonus points. We took the Equinox to Harlingen today, under the guise of needing to run a few errands. Mostly, I wanted to play with the various "safety features" of the Equinox. I think we may have learned more than my allotted "one item per day."
The Equinox is comfortable and well-mannered on the highway. The Lane Keep Assist does what it is supposed to do, in a subtle manner. The Blind Spot Alerts works. And, we messed with (um, learned) the navigation and audio options. In all, a successful outing... Rufus got stocked up on food that Chewy's was out of; we shopped at a bigger H.E.B. than what we have in town; first "lunch in the car," and yes I was very careful. We got to experience the "stop and start" that shuts the engine off when waiting at a red light. No, you can't turn that "feature" off. The speed limit sign reader works. Cruise control actually lists the speed where I set it, so if I "boost it by a couple miles per hour," it is right there on the dash for all to see.
The phone features all seem to work well... but, when I get out of the car, it seems that it turns the ringer down on my phone. Yes, I looked it up - I'm not the only one.
The cruise control buttons on the steering wheel have one button that looks like a car about to have an accident (the back end of a car/a star/your car)... I didn't want to push it to find out what it does.
Seems that it is Adaptive Cruise Control, where you set the gap you want between you and the car in front of you, and the car speeds up or slows down to maintain that gap. How did I live without all this stuff?
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Nothing to do with the car - just another pretty start to the morning as I was getting my bike out...
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I forgot to mention... we got our Moderna booster shots this morning. We generally use Walgreens for our flu shots, and did the mass vaccination events for first two Covid shots (5 to 6 hours waiting in line in the car; fortunately, it was in February, so the weather was pleasant while we waited). This was: call 15 minutes ahead to the nearby clinic; show up; get the shot; wait a few minutes to make sure we don't spontaneously combust; then bye-bye. Fast and easy.
This booster is a half dose of what a single shot was in February. A couple neighbors told us they had minor short-lasting effects, and then all good. I'll let you know how we fare.
4 comments:
We really like the adaptive cruise control. On the freeway we set it for 5 mph over the posted speed limit and it keeps us spaced adequately (the following distance is adjustable). The one down side is when traffic in front of you slows down gradually enough, your car will too - until you finally notice that you are only going 55 mph on the freeway and change lanes to one that is moving at the limit.
The start/stop feature really annoys me. I used to drive old beaters that would stall at the traffic light unless you revved them slightly, or played with the choke (!) and this "feature" reminds me of that. On our Subaru, there is a button on the lower panel beside the steering wheel that lets you temporarily defeat that function, but only until you next start the car. There is no way to permanently disable it. I let the feature do its thing for our first tank of gas driving around town as an experiment. On a full 14 gallon tank, the idling shutdowns saved about a cup (yes - a whole 8 ounces) of gasoline. I would be more tolerant of the feature if Subaru had an automatic no-questions-asked lifetime warranty on the starter. Given the hundreds or perhaps thousands of extra cycles this "feature" creates, I'm sure the starter will die prematurely.
These new cars have many useful options and features, but some of them are too smart by half for our own good. Just because you CAN do something.....
On the Equinox we have, with the towing package, it has a tow/haul mode. We had something similar in the diesel pickup we had before the Honda. With that t/h, you can shift into "L" and let the transmission know what gear you want it to shift into as the highest (it's a 9 speed). In "Low," the stop/start is overridden. Not sure I'll use it that way, but it is an option.
Of course, to try out all the stuff, I let the car drift towards the right line in the lane, and watched as the "blind spot" stuff did it's thing when we were on the Expressway. Dude, this video game has wheels! ;-)
This car looks like a "guys" fun toy. I'm getting new car fever and drooling. We drive a 2007 Lincoln MKZ, which for its day had lots of stuff, but now, compared to your new car it is "stripped".
Hi Jeff. Well, to be frank (but, I'm Jim), if I were going for a guy's fun toy, I'd be driving a Miata. But, the Equinox is more practical for our use; more room for people and stuff; and certainly easier for getting in and out; I have the seat memory to lower and move back for getting in and out. We hadn't been in the market for another vehicle, until Mother Nature and Progressive pushed the point... from what I saw in looking around, a lot of the newer vehicles have these safety features. The learning curve has been easy so far: drive like normal and say, "What the hell was that?" when one of the warnings chime. LOL
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