Friday, August 6, 2010

“How Have I Displeased You, Oh Car Gods?”

or the alternative title, "My New Car Is A Piece Of Crap"

Okay, so the title alternative title isn't very creative but it conveys what I feel better than any other clever play on words that I could imagine. I hate my new Toyota Camry. But I'm trying to get my bitching over with and just live with it until I can trade it in for a proper German car.

So to be succinct (at least as much as I can be), I'm simply going to list my reasons (and a little commentary) for hating that hunk of junk:

1. It's wimpy and has zero power.  I redlined it getting on the freeway on an onramp that's really short. It's an automatic!!!

2. It's an automatic!!!  I use to have a connection with my cars; we worked together in a quiet synchronicity that only those with manual transmissions would understand.  That's gone now...sigh.

3. The suspension is mushy and the handling is like trying to swim in pea soup.  The last 5 miles of my commute are on a windy road through the Oakland hills and I LOVED driving it in my Passat. Now it’s a chore; I’d almost prefer sitting in the freeway traffic but that would prolong sitting in the piece of crap by about 15-20 minutes.

4. The brakes are scary and if you apply the slightest amount of pressure to them the seatbelt locks up. If you push the gas in too much too fast, the seatbelts lock up.  The accelerating thing wouldn't be a problem except the windows are tinted and I have to turn my head a little more to merge but I can't lean forward because the seatbelt has locked up! 

(And as a side note, I had to return it to the dealership after having it for a whole week because the steering column was shaking when you applied pressure to the brakes. I already knew the problem was the rotors but I didn’t tell them I knew that. They said they replaced the brakes and rotors even though they told me that they didn’t find anything wrong. Bullshit.)

4. The antenna is useless.  Some of the San Francisco radio stations don’t come in very well WHEN I’M IN SAN FRANCISCO! Now don’t start with the whole it-depends-on-where-the-transmission-tower-is-thing (yeah, I saw that episode of WKRP in Cincinnati too!) because I don’t care. It was never a problem in my VWs so what’s the problem with this car?

5. The seats are uncomfortable and the headrest is tilted so far forward that I can’t wear a ponytail with a plastic clip; I can only wear a rubberband type ponytail holder otherwise I get a stiff neck.  Yes, it’s adjustable, but I’ve adjusted it as far as it’ll go. I’ll bet you money that the group of Toyota designers didn’t include any women.

Yes, I could continue. But I’ll spare everyone the pain since most have heard me bitch since the day I picked up the car. So this post will be the last time I complain about it. Given that, did I mention that I hate this car? Allow me to repeat: I HATE MY NEW CAR!

I have to admit that I’m also a little tired of people asking “well then why did you buy it?” I bought it because I was tired of hearing the noises in the front-end of my Passat getting louder and louder. And while it may not be an issue for most, I was completely done worrying about breaking down and the realization that I don’t have that one person who I can call and know that they’ll drop everything to pick me up. I know that I could call either of my two brothers, or my Mom or a variety of friends, but I don’t know if they’re at work, in a meeting, at home or away on vacation or whatever. While yes I have people I can call, I don’t know if it’ll take one call or ten calls to various folks to see who is able to come and get me. And unfortunately, that’s a long way from the security of knowing exactly who to call and that they’re in their car at a moment’s notice.

There, I admitted it. Stop asking.

Bottomline is that I wish I could love this car, but the cons completely outweigh the pros. And the bummer is that I used to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to drive but now my Camry is just a vehicle that can get me from point A to point B.

I can’t wait to trade in this piece of crap…

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Monday, August 2, 2010

"Ponder This"

or, the alternative title "Whoa, That's Way Deep.  Cool.  Wait...What?"

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I were sitting on my couch imbibing in wine (and stuff) and our conversation took a very deep, philosophical turn. Yeah, it surprised the hell out a me too.  But I decided to put this out there for all to ponder.

The question I pose to the four people who actually read this is: if we as humans abide by certain moral and/or ethical rules, prohibitions, standards, or whatever you'd like to call them, does the reason you abide by a particular rule matter, or does the reason not matter so long as you abide by the rule? Allow me to provide an example.

It's well established that murder is wrong. I think we can all agree on that setting aside any of the outlying arguments about abortion, capital punishment, justifiable homicide in self-defense, etc. But why don't we murder?  I would argue that most people would respond by saying that the taking of another human's life is morally and ethically wrong and contrary to acceptable societal rules. But what if the sole reason we don't kill others is solely because of the consequences; we're afraid of getting caught?

The question then is if it's morally wrong to kill a person, does it matter the reason?  Is it wrong that we don't kill someone because the reason doesn't follow moral guidelines?  Or, does the reason not matter; only the result or lack of a result in this case?  I argue that the reason doesn't matter if the end result is the same. 

My friend was surprised that I took the position that so long as people abide by basic human moral and/or ethical rules then why they abide by those rules is irrelevant.  I didn't think there was anything about which to be surprised.  The bottom line is that no matter the reason, the outcome is the same: a human being doesn't die.  To the potential dead  guy, I don't think the reason would matter either so long as that person gets to remain alive.

So there you have it folks, the outcome of a bizarre conversation is an open-ended question of what I would consider moral philosophy.  Hopefully I've finally given y'all a post that gives food for thought instead of posts about dead salamanders and decades old paper clips.  Just don't expect this kind of deep thought will happen too often...it would start hurting my brain if I had to think that much.

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