New Car, French Driving

I’ve finally fixed the wheels situation and ended up with something that hopefully doesn’t cause headaches for years to come – essentially the same model of SUV I drove before, but 13 years of change too.  It’s weird not having the ability to transport yourself at will for a while – wand when I say “weird”, I probably mean it feels like a royal pain in the ass.

It’s close but not quite the color pictured here in some promo photograph where no SUV outside a photo shoot has ever been driven, nor likely ever will be.  I liked the first M class SUV, so thought it’d fit the bill decently well again just to repeat the experience.  After a day or so, I can easily say it’s the nicest vehicle I’ve ever owned, which probably doesn’t say too much, but it’s still true.  It does car things well enough – going, stopping, feeling not like a piece of junk, etc.  It does modern things well – folding side mirrors in to wedge into my parking spot, doing music well (ipods, Sirius, normal radio), navigation stuff, phone calls hands free, all that.  It does pampering decently well with buttons that make cold parts hot in the winter, headlights that actually let me see pretty far ahead, wipers with a funny travel path that actually work to clear the entire window, and all kinds of other temperature magic.

I had intended to get a lightly used leaseback, say 2008 or so.  The liquidity on them isn’t super high in Calgary, and Canada wide there’s plenty that crop up, but delivery times range across the country.  Blowing up the M Coupe didn’t really facilitate having the time to take this task on, and I didn’t desire to over-stay my welcome on the little Acura RSX loaner… so I ended up with a 2011 model that just got delivered to Calgary and was sitting on the lot – available for pickup at my convenience.  Sometimes path of least resistance wins and frugalism takes a hit.

Most importantly, new bike rack is being picked up this weekend!

Below is an entirely awesome use of petrol, in France no less.  Relative to me, this proves:


a) There are people more likely to catastrophically blow an engine sooner/faster.
b) There are people Tori would be even less amused handing over the keys to her French rental car to.
c) There are people who can shorten the life of expensive tire sets faster!