Zipcar Review: Prius Patrice

Earlier this week, I had a lunchtime appointment downtown, which was going to be a pain to get to by subway both ways. Rather than reschedule or take the day off work, I picked up Zipcar's Toyota Prius "Patrice" from First Canadian Place in the morning. It was near my appointment, and I thought I would save a bunch of time by driving one way in the Zipcar, dropping it off and taking transit back to work.

Prius Patrice
What: Toyota Prius hybrid sedan
Again, didn't check the year. I will have to make a note of this for future excursions, as I'm pretty bad at it.

Generally speaking, getting into and driving the Prius is (I imagine) like getting into and piloting a space shuttle. It is spacious and comfortable, like all Zipcars, but the touch-screen multi-function control and display panel is awkward to use while driving (which you shouldn't anyway) and the LCD gauge cluster has an 80's excess, "look-what-we-can-do" feel. A regular dial gauge would have been just fine. It's also sunk into the dash (likely because of glare) and quite far behind the steering wheel. Rather than a key, the car is powered on by a large fob that sticks into the dash, and starting the car is done by simultaneously pressing down on the brake and pushing the large POWER button on the dash.

The engine starts up after a few seconds, either to charge the battery or just to warm up for smoother starts, but shuts off after a few minutes of idling. This is one of the biggest things to get used to in this car: the engine turns off when you stop. The car is capable of mild acceleration and low speed driving entirely on electric power.

City: This car is fun to drive, no question. The car has an old-style push-click type parking brake, and the shifter is nothing more than a knob where you can select "drive" or "reverse". No bells and whistles here; more on the transmission later. It feels odd to step down on the "gas" and have the car start out without the engine running, but you get used to it pretty quick. Having the engine turn on when you're moving 20km/h through the city is surprising at first, too. Although the rear window is small and has some unfortunately placed supports running across, seeing around the car is no problem at all. It handles the streetcar tracks with no problem, and moves and handles like the best economy cars in the Zipcar fleet.

I found backing up in the parking lot a bit unnerving at first, for two reasons. First, the obvious: the large hatch and small window make it odd to look around the car at the back. Second, because of the low speed involved in backing up, the car does it entirely on battery power. That wasn't difficult, just, weird. More things to get used to with this high-tech vehicle.

Freeway: Ok, it may be a car firmly within the economy car segment, but this car hauls ass. Another thing to get used to that I didn't notice at all in the city was the continuously-variable transmission (CVT), another high-tech high-efficiency addition to this vehicle. Winding into the straight merging lane on the DVP and stomping on the throttle, the engine immediately kicks up to high revs, and stays there until you let off the gas. By keeping the engine in its optimum high-power range, acceleration is both smooth and fast. None of the rev-shift-rev-shift transition of conventional geared transmissions. One more thing that might turn off some drivers, but very cool if you ask me.

Generally speaking, I like this car, and I am excited any time I get to drive it. As added incentive, since it is a hybrid and uses far less gas than conventional cars in the city, Zipcar charges a significantly reduced hourly rate to use it, although as a consequence of its popularity there is no daily rate available. Although I haven't had back-seat passengers while driving it, it seems as though four adults would fit comfortably, and there is plenty of cargo room for a car this size. And the electronic touch-screen display and high-tech gadgetry under the hood make this car score very high in geek factor.

Click these links for more information on ZipCars and the Toyota Prius.

Note: this review is a matter of my own opinion, and is not endorsed by Zipcar or Toyota. Use at your own risk.

I am in computer hell

While waiting for more operating system reinstalls, I decided to chronicle what's going on in the blog, on the one computer (out of 4-ish) that is still working acceptably well. Acceptable, in this case, means able to connect to the internet. Although at various times this morning it's also meant "recognizes the DVD-ROM", "can set host name", and "can access the hard disk without requiring a hard reset". It's been a long morning so far.

Here's where I'm at. Last night, my mythbuntu box deteriorated to the point where I couldn't play a sound file without getting occasional memory errors. So right after watching Family Guy, I started installing openSUSE back on it, using the network install. I had used openSUSE originally for the PVR setup and it was reasonably stable. I decided to try with GNOME this time.

Big mistake.

On the very first boot, as I tried to figure out the interface and find the network settings, right after entering the root password for the setup applet, first system freeze. Not even seemingly precipitated by anything. So reboot, set up the network, fantastic. Try downloading some upgrades. Fail, DNS error, can't find host. Fantastic!

Now, I've found that every time I've done a linux install on any of my computers, it seems to come alive and have a personality and attitude all its own. This case is no different. For some reason, it will save my hostname and IP address with the wired connection but not the wireless. I don't particularly want to have my laptop sitting on top of the tower all the time to get a network connection, so this is no good. So, at the moment, I am reinstalling with KDE4, since that worked for me before and I should be able to get it to work again. Right?

We'll see.

As for the laptop, Windows decided somewhat randomly that it doesn't have a DVD drive. I know it's there, I took it apart myself, and I can see the little yellow light on it every time I turn the computer on, and I was watching movies LAST NIGHT. WTF?! So this might come down to a reinstall as well. It's about due, I've had WinXP on it for almost five weeks without major system problems.

What about the others? The one that works is slow as molasses most of the time, owing to Windows and background processes and all that. Maybe also due for a reinstall. And the fourth needs a new power supply, which I have, but I'm not getting into that right now.

Really I just want to watch TV and play movies and listen to music. I know there's gotta be some kind of magic combo so that I can turn the computer on and have it work without having to open a terminal, restart processes, load drivers, or do ritual sacrifice.

Ahh, looks like I'm being prompted for something. Back to work....

Zipcar Review: Jetta Joyner

Hey, two in a row! I was somewhat pleased with the idea of doing car reviews after my last review of Matrix Manford, so I had this in the back of my mind when Tay asked if we could get a car to take her costumes and equipment up to York University for a film shoot she is working on this weekend. So yesterday morning, in the midst of the first hailstorm of the season, I set out to pick up Zipcar's Volkswagen Jetta "Joyner" from a Leslieville parking lot.

Jetta Joyner
What: Volkswagen City Jetta sedan
I still didn't think to look at the year, but it only had about 20,000 km on it so it's pretty new.

I've driven one of the Zipcar Jettas before, so I had an idea of what to expect. In particular, I was looking forward to the auto tranny with the sport setting :) Fun in downtown traffic, but what about the freeway?

City: I set out on Lakeshore just as the downpour started, and hit the streetcar tracks on Queen just before it became impossible to see. Unlike the Matrix from the last review, driving along the tracks posed no challenge whatsoever. I didn't even know the car was on the tracks, really. A few quick curb-lane passes in sport mode got me back to the apartment just in time to watch the hailstorm from inside the building.

After a brief break, Tay & I loaded up the back seat with all of her gear, then set out for York. Our street has traffic control speed humps which were no challenge for the Jetta (at a reasonable speed of course) and the drive up the rough main roads to the Don Valley Parkway was smooth and comfortable. Like some other cars in the Zipcar arsenal, the Jetta has a transmission with a selectable shifter which allows you to "shift" between gears manually, although it's not a true manual. Unlike many, it also comes with a full-automatic "sport" mode, which keeps the tranny in a lower gear and the engine running at a higher RPM. This gives better acceleration and throttle response, at the expense of fuel economy, engine noise, and a jerky feel when coasting (from engine braking). On the other hand, normal mode seemed to hunt between gears more than it should. The compromise for me was to accelerate in sport mode, then shift back to normal mode for regular driving. I was impressed by the car's drive and handling in the city.

Freeway: Our route to York took us onto the Don Valley Parkway and later the 401. I put the car into sport mode on the onramp to the DVP, and realized halfway up the ramp I was doing 80 and hadn't noticed. Freeway merging and acceleration was no problem at all, and I made a few passes before hitting the Lawrence bottleneck, yeah, even at 9am on a Saturday. I had a hard time getting the side mirrors into the right spot, and with the side windows fogged, lane changes were a bit scary. Due to a large standing puddle on the freeway from the rainstorm and a tractor-trailer collision, the drive to York was quite slow.

After dropping Tay off at York, I learned that someone had booked the car right at the end of my time, so I wasn't able to extend my reservation. I wasn't sure that I would have enough time to get back to Leslieville (I had about 25 minutes left) so the ride back was pretty much all in sport mode. That fits my style of driving pretty well, as hitting 120 on the freeway was no problem at all, fast lane changes were a breeze, and I didn't really feel nervous weaving around the Saturday morning traffic. The car cruises like a breeze and takes turns with no difficulty. I had to brake on ramps for slower traffic quite a few times. Of course, I don't recommend or endorse this kind of driving in any situation, but the Jetta drives on the freeway like it's meant to be there.

Of course I really didn't have enough time since I also had to put gas in, and even with the time constraint I don't drive like an idiot (too much), and ended up returning the car 10 minutes late anyway and getting dinged with the $35 late return fee.

Interior: I lost a bit of time at the gas station because I couldn't find the fuel cap release, and had to read the manual to find it. It's not where you would expect it to be: on the center console beside the parking brake. Those crazy Germans ....

I liked the interior, it seemed well planned. I couldn't figure out how to change the display on the fuel computer from average speed though (it increased a lot over the time I was using the car). The gauges are easy to read but not imposing on the driver's view. Although I had problems aiming the mirrors, once I had them set they were good to go. I didn't play with the radio a lot, it was already set to 107.1, although Tay checked traffic on AM680 when we hit the wall of cars on the 401.

In general, this had been a car I was waiting to try out since my last short drive in a Jetta over the winter. Joyner didn't disappoint, and this will be a car I'll be looking to reserve again.

For more information, check out Zipcar and the Volkswagen Jetta City.

Note: this review is a matter of my own opinion, and is not endorsed by Zipcar or Volkswagen. Use at your own risk.

Zipcar Review: Matrix Manford

I've been a Zipcar member for a few months, after deciding it was about time to sell my Ford Focus rather than parking it in my building uptown and insuring it for $300 a month, which didn't include any actual cost of driving. Today, while running some errands in one of the Zipcars, I thought it might be a good idea to write down what I think of the cars that I've been driving. There are a wide variety of cars available to Zipcar members, and I like to try new things, so this has been working out well.

So, here is the first of what should be a series of auto reviews, based on my experience taking out Zipcars that are available around Toronto and driving them around the city. My review is intended to be a review of the model in general but is likely to be skewed by the realities of car sharing, good or bad. Plus I have plenty of biases when it comes to driving. But anyway, here's what I think.

Matrix Manford
What: Toyota Matrix wagon (exact year and trim unknown)

Tay's out of town working a gig in Ancaster this weekend, and I had a few things to do that I probably could have easily taken transit to get to, but I felt like taking out a car. Not too many are available on short notice on Saturday afternoon, and I wanted to avoid the Civic after last time, so I set out in the Matrix wagon.

City: It had just started raining when I got in the car, so I got to experience driving in the rain right away. I was headed out Gerrard east toward Victoria Park - a route with streetcar tracks - and right away noticed that I needed to hang on with both hands, or the steering wheel turned sharply as the front wheels fell into the streetcar rails. This is the first car I've driven where I've noticed that was a problem. Otherwise, the car drove very well in the neighbourhood.

Acceleration was very strong at city speed, as I expect from a Japanese car. Suspension felt very firm with little lean in turns, but was very forgiving over rough Toronto roads. I noticed the transmission seemed to be unsure which gear to choose in the turns, but was otherwise smooth without noticeable shifting delay. Overall, I was impressed with the drive on the city streets.

Freeway: On the way back from my shopping adventure I set out on the freeway, to see if the smooth ride kept up into freeway speeds. Acceleration from the ramp to merging speed was not impressive, in fact I was concerned the car would not get up to speed if not for the downhill ramp. I later realized that the car will not downshift unless the gas pedal is pushed all the way to the floor, most likely a fuel economy feature. I actually like this - one of my criticisms of automatic transmissions is that they downshift too easily. This car can't be expected to be speedy at freeway speeds, but it does well for a 4 cylinder. I found it hard to see around the wagon's body, and more than once was surprised by a car in my blind spot on either side. As in the city, cornering was fantastic and the ride was firm but smooth.

Interior: When I had more time to check it out, I found that the interior was well designed. The gauges were nice to look at but not oppressive to the eyes or distracting. The wiper selector was opposite to what I'm used to, but not illogical, and the rear wiper made a lot of noise so I switched it off fairly quickly. There are a few compartments in the dash which don't have any particular purpose, but at least the space doesn't go to waste. Cup holders fit a large coffee nicely, an extra large would be snug and a Big Gulp is just not an option in this car. One nice touch was a tray for about 6 quarters between the steering wheel and the driver's door, right where you'd need them for tolls (if that was an issue in Toronto).

Otherwise, the car lacks the bells and whistles of some of the other Zipcar models and seems more like an economy car, and for an economy car it seems like it would be good value. Of course, being a shared car I don't know what it's worth, but I don't need to, and I suppose that's one good feature about Zipcars.

See these links for more info on Zipcars and the Toyota Matrix.

Note: this review is a matter of my own opinion, and is not endorsed by Zipcar or Toyota. Use at your own risk.