May there be update

Here's to a bunch of photo updates spanning the last few months.

The C43, Opoutere, Hunua, and so on.

Advert Wars!

From an email I've received today:

"In South Africa you are allowed to do competitive advertising, so here are some adverts that have been made in the newspapers...look in sequence."

Now, which make would you have out of these four?

Hybrid hype

I took an opportunity to drive a Toyota Prius (otherwise known as a favourite tank of the eco-warrior) around the streets of Christchurch today.

After a "place the key in the slot and push the Start button" ritual, I was greeted with... silence. And a "Ready" light on the dashboard.

Move the "gear lever" to D or R, let go of the foot brake, and it starts to move like a ninja. Disconcerting at first but rather fun, although one must wonder how many inattentive pedestrians will this Prius ambush during its lifetime...

The next challenge in an unfamiliar town is to plug in the Navman. I furtively searched every nook and cranny in the cabin for a cigarette lighter - only to find none. I can't believe I'm writing this, but I actually had to read the manual - for a car!

It turns out that to keep in line with its clean, green image, there is no cigarette lighter, but a "power socket" deep inside the centre console takes its place.

Now for some sounds. There's a factory CD player and radio integrated with the centre touch-screen, and there's supposed to be a line-in for your favourite MP3 player as well.

It's a competent enough around town. Accelerate properly, and the gasoline engine rasps to life. Wait at the traffic lights and all becomes quiet again. Never in my life have I feel so detached from the car I'm driving. The steering is electric, accelerator and brake behaviours are all completely controlled by the engine computer to manage the sophisticated hybrid system. As for suspension and tyres - just don't ask.

The electric motor with a hefty 400Nm torque helps with traffic light take-offs, and you get the warm fuzzies from watching a simplified diagram of the hybrid system with animated arrows showing energy flow.

Despite all its sci-fi charm, in my opinion it's just too much to pay for a Japanese car right now. Maybe wait a few years for the trickle of Jap imports to become a flood first...

Crazy things I'd like to do...

Here's some random crazy things I'd love to do sometime...
1. Getting outsourced to India and live there for awhile


2. Finish a Mongol Rally


3. Ride the Trans-Siberian (preferably during a honeymoon)


4. A prophetic theme camp at The Burning Man

All shiny and new again

The panelbeaters have finished with my ride on POETS day. The ten-year-old car now has a freshly painted bumper, new headlight, side indicator, and foglight.

Kinda weird and selfish to say this but it's the best accident that I've ever got myself into. Especially when it's prima facie the other party's fault, and insurance handled it all without any penalty against my no-claims bonus :)

Yay for the Yaris

After some unsolicited frontal modifications to my regular ride, I'm now driving around in a Toyota Yaris courtesy car.

"It's really quite clever", the slogan goes. Pockets and nooks and crannies galore, most of them being quite small. For example the center cup holder would barely fit a small McDonalds polystyrene cup, but would hold a ladies' cellphone rather well.

Being the gadget geek that I've gradually become, I'll have to note that the cigarette lighter socket is located quite low, so any accessories that you might want to plug in (e.g. a Navman) might be quite a stretch, if at all possible to do so. If you own an MP3 player, use a mini FM transmitter like an iTrip as the factory audio system does not come with a tape deck, but a single CD player capable of playing MP3 discs.

Thanks to the interior design the car feels more spacious than it really is. A tall seating position ensures proper posture (maybe...). The engine and auto gearbox's power delivery ensures that you blend in with urban traffic flows, but will struggle on the motorway.

Overall it is a cheap, competent, frugal and inoffensive town car.