New car (for the Mrs.)

[tommystinson]

Kim's Celica died the other day, as the oil pan filled with coolant which was then whipped into a meringue, Martha Stewart style. The irony of having an OEM head gasket kit sitting in the garage... But who am I kidding? It's 11 degrees below zero as I write this, and I have no intention of lifting a wrench in my unheated garage! A 1994 with 110,000 miles, It doesn't owe us anything, but it still seems to be an early demise for a Toyota. All that being said, we bought a new Scion tC. It's very inexpensive, looks great, moves along well, has just about everything, and it is made by Toyota, in Japan. We don't fit the targeted demographic, so the ads and such seem a little "trendy", to say the least. Getting older, I guess...
Here is an interesting bit: In the owners manual, it describes the EDR, or event data recorder. In the case of an accident (or near accident!?!?!?) it stores engine speed, gear selection, throttle position, brake pressure, ABS activation, etc. All this info is tied up in the airbag module. Toyota then describes who they will give the information to and under what circumstances. No mention of a warrant or court order, of course. Am I paranoid? Yes. But imagine if your XS had a monitoring system like this. Would you like it? What the hell is a "near accident" anyway?

[don07tncav]

Hope it's not a cop checking it when you are pulled over.

"You almost had a near accident so I need to hook my laptop into your cars computer!" This kind of stuff scares me!

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Tom,

On modes of public transportation, like buses, planes, trains, etc., I'm all for the "black boxes", but not on my personal vehicle. I saw a report on TV about this kind of technology, and who or what it could be used for, like assigning blame at accident scenes, etc.. But, yeah, big brother creeps me out!!

As for your car, I had similar situation happen with our Corsica, had a small head gasket leak to the outside of the engine, was the middle of summer, wife's car, only one with A/C, would have required at least a week to tear it down, machine head, valve job, etc. while replacing the head gasket, so I put it off wanting to wait until cooler fall weather. The excessive summer heat caused the head to warp more, sprung a coolant leak inwards into the cylinders, developed hyrdalock when she tried to turn it over after driving to work, bent a connecting rod, trashed engine, had to shell out $3K for a replacement engine!!

[tommystinson]

I fail to see a true need for the data recorder, and I really, really don't like being watched. I'm sure the justification for it is to enable "smarter" airbag deployment, but you can monitor data without recording it. What gets me is the "near accident" recording. Pretty much means anytime it feels like recording. I'll buy the service manual, but I doubt it gives any details on downloading. I wonder if the "fast and furious" crowd that the tC is marketed to finds the concept as objectionable as I do. Another thing I'm curious to hear are owners comments when they have to replace the tires on it. Bear in mind that it is a $17k car, well below the average new car price in 2005. It comes standard with 17" alloys and 215/45 ZR 17 Bridgestone tires. Pretty hard-core stuff for a Camry-engined entry level 2 door. I checked The Tire Rack on-line, just for kicks. $170 each. Add shipping, tax, then mounting and balancing and you're looking at over $800. LOL!

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Tom,

The replacement vehicle we got for the wife first was a Hyundai SanteFe, so I could drive the rebuilt Corsica, got rid of the old junker 83 Firebird(don't cry, was a real junker!) The gimmick they(dealer) promoted with it was "Tires for Life", thought that was a good deal, seeing they were 225/70R-16, close to $100 each! Then after getting it, finding out that the program required me to get a FRONT END ALIGNMENT every 15K miles at over $90 a pop, tires life rated at 60K, so I would have paid for them by that time, not to mention all the time out of my schedule for getting service, had to be done during work week, dealer is some 30 miles away, etc. The owner's manual states only needs alignment checked ONCE every 60K, so they are bilking me 3 more times than necessary to cover the cost of the "FREE" tires! B**LSH*T ! ! !

I'm no longer conforming to the Tires For Life program, will just pay for them when I need them!!!! It's true, you don't get something for nothing.....most of the time!!!
T.C.

[macnut xj]

TANSTAAFL!
(There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.......)

[Leon]

data recorder in cages

just read not to long ago about a guy getting screwed by the data recorder in his car .seems they can hold info on several minutes driving time .he had an accident wich injured someone in another car their laywer was up on the fact his car had a data recorder in it and supeoned the info it showed he was speeding prior to the accident not at the time of impact though .based on previous recorded info they nailed him to the wall saying it proved he was a wreckless driver driving to endanger etc .that data recorder didnt say if he came into a slower speed zone or anything like that just what his speed was 5 minutes before the crash this was in a newspaper article and one of my car mags .they have systems in place right now where they can control some aspects of your car from the side of the road if they were alowed to go over your emishions test date and a key stroke could kill your car from a central office !many auto watchdog groups have prevented this so far but the ability is now there ,most newer cars have built in govenors hit say 90 and it kills the ignition till the car slows .

[mitch]

REV AND SPEED LIMITERS

All new cars now have rev and speed limiters ,unless they are high performance . So i spouse the next step will be motorcycles, i think it BS but what the public thinks dosent matter Canada and the USA are spouse to be free countries but sometimes i wonder!!.................MITCH