From the Passenger's Seat

It is an exciting day for me! As the title says, my family bought a new car! We haven't done that since 10 years ago when we bought our 2006 Nissan Sentra.  There it is, parked on the driveway right after we drove home from the dealership. Isn't the color so nice? The interior is beige, too! It's the perfect color combination.  Getting that car to be on our driveway, though, was a laborious and drawn-out task. We started car-shopping yesterday morning, when my dad and I test drove the Camry and Accord.  At first, we headed for the Ford dealer intending to test drive the Taurus and Fusion, but it shunned us by saying that it was "too busy for test drives." There were maybe two other people at the dealership then. Whatever.  We then headed to a semi-rural Honda dealership in search of an Accord. I was expecting it to be loud and firm-riding in traditional Honda fashion. Instead, it impressed me with its solidity. Unfortunately, the specific Accord we test

Happy belated 4th of July to everyone in America! Hopefully, you all had an excellent time grilling some meat or watching fireworks.  I had the opportunity to ride in a friend's Infiniti G37 to and from the Houston Symphony performance and fireworks show, and I thought I'd share some of the impressions I had in the hour or so I spent in his car. Keep in mind that the G37 has been rebadged as the Q40 for the 2015 model year, and will be discontinued after this year. 

Being a car geek, it's almost obligatory for me to visit some automobile assembly line. It just so happened that the Bowling Green, KY Corvette factory was right on our route to Niagara Falls, so Daddy-o and I decided to take an inside look.  GM really makes a show of their prized Corvette. From the Interstate 65, the National Corvette Museum with its colorful roof and giant sign is unmissable. Across the street from the museum are some signs guiding plant visitors down a small road to where Corvettes are born. Once you approach the buildings, you're greeted by a parked Corvette and a painted water dome. 

June 2015 in Acadia NP What an exciting time! The Odyssey has surpassed its 200k birthday!  Okay, it actually hit 200,000 miles in May. I "didn't have the time" to write about it. Now, though, I'm home in Texas on summer vacation just back from a trip to Maine with Daddy-o driving the Odyssey. I literally have all day to write this review.  I'm going to split it up in four sections. First comes how the van drives and rides. Then follows an examination of the interior, what we've done with the car, and finally how the car has held up over the 70,000+ miles my family has driven it.  I've actually already reviewed this car back when we bought it in 2012. For that review, click the link right  here .

This past weekend was the Dallas Auto Show again! Even though I've since moved to Houston in the past year, I still attended this Dallas show because ... I forgot about the Houston show. It was a full day of cars: 4 hours of driving in the morning, 4 hours of being around cars, and then 4 cars of driving back.  What are some of the trends I'm noticing? Interior quality has shot up from what I can remember. Nearly every car had soft touch materials on all the upper door panels. Plus, the newly-redesigned cars all had "stitched" panels to match more intricate shapes and lines. It really makes me want a new car even though I know that my parents are likely the same heaps until forever ... I have to say, I did not enjoy this year's show as much as I did in the past. For whatever reason, auto show attendance multiplied by, like, 500 percent; there was not a single car without some guy poking around in it. Much of my time was wasted standing next to cars waiting for

It's finally happened. I'm starting to drive a car.  After weeks of drivers' ed and hours waiting in the lobby of the local drivers' license center, I finally have my permit! At last, I can experience a car from behind the steering wheel instead of just sitting in the passenger's seat.  What do I feel about driving thus far? It's nerve-wracking. Familiarizing myself with the sensitivities of the steering wheel, brakes and gas pedal was very challenging. Once I turned onto the neighborhood streets from the parking lot, there was the added element of dealing with other cars. Am I going to hit this car on this turn? Is that woman judging my driving? What if I can't brake in time at that stop sign?  I've only been driving for one day, so it's hard to say what it's really like. However, stay tuned for future driving impressions! In the meantime, enjoy this picture I took of the sky in the parking lot of my high school where I was prac