It's been a long time since I've updated this blog - things have been pretty good but I just left my job at Sony a few weeks ago for a change of pace. I'm a bit sick of Vancouver... not gonna go into detail on a public blog but let's just say I'll probably be single for a good long while. I needed change, and put in my resignation early this year.
With the resignation, I'd planned to move somewhere with a lower cost of living, then bam. Covid 19 came along. Boo hoo hoo. Given that I can't really drive anywhere fun with the restrictions in place, I wasn't going to be paying 400 a month on insurance on my NC (N driver lyfe), and the money from the car can be used to pay rent for over a year. Easy choice, though the first few days after selling the car, neighbours could find me staring at the empty parking lot. Thankfully, no one saw me do that.
With Covid 19, two car share companies shut down; Car2Go and Zipcar. I'm really sorry for the folks employed there, I hope you all found jobs, ideally before the CERB payments run out. I'm going to miss seeing smart 4 twos running around Vancouver. *I* miss taking them out for shit and giggles.
Thankfully, Modo is still kicking and alive, and I've been mostly driving a Prius. Oh god, the more I drive it the more I consider it an appliance. The steering feel is non existent, the engine lethargic, and the worse thing, I can never get the side view mirrors to be adjusted right. It feels like I'm driving a large SUV when I can't accurately tell where I am on the road. I still use it very often, as it's only a few minutes away from where I live, so yay to being a slacker :P
The other cars are similarly quite boring, but the Hyundai Kona EV was a welcome surprise! It's pretty big, but doesn't feel all that huge, and I thought the steering feel was pretty solid for an electric steering rack. It feels pretty nimble as well, and with its EV PAWAH, accelerating off from a stop is actually quite fun. I definitely understand the appeal of EVs after driving it, and also the fact that they are likely only feasible for rich kids that have the ability to charge an EV at home. Ain't no such spots in my apartment!
Today though, I needed a car so I pulled up the Modo app. I came across.... a ND MX5. I was like...no. That can't be right. wtf is that car doing on Modo. I needed to pick up some computer parts (building a desktop after almost 2 decades without one wooo) and the prius was in use, and the ND was probably too small to take a case home. But after some waffling I was like... let's just do it. I wanna drive the ND.
First impressions. It's small. Really small. It's such a refreshing car to drive after driving the big ass prius and kona. I had the biggest grin on my face when I put the top down. OH MY GOD. Convertible life again. Unlike the powered hardtop on my NC, the ND's cloth top went up and down in maybe 3-4 seconds. Super easy to operate.
The steering is, unfortunately, electric, and just doesn't have the good feedback of the hydraulic rack on my old car. The steering wheel itself was some kind of slick material, feels like a game controller or one of those smooth phone cases. To be honest, after driving the car for a few minutes, the electric rack didn't bother me at all. The experience of driving a small car coupled with the open air experience is what Miata Life is to me. The quality of the indicator/wiper stalks though, felt really good.
The next thing that I really noticed is how soft the suspension was. Driving on the same roads I've driven upteen times in my NC, the ND is significantly softer. Rougher, less maintained roads felt smoothed over, no longer the bumpy ride on my NC. Even so, I think this car has bloody alot of grip. I took some of my usual corners with gusto, and this car *grips* like nobody's business. I'll bet these are the tires that came with the car too. I was like... damn. The rear end is on rails.
Now many people have mentioned how much body roll there is in the ND, and for the street driving I did I could not feel it, whatever corners I took hard felt fine. And to be sure, when I take corners "hard" it's a joke compared to people who really take corners hard. I've sat in with people driving hard and yeah, when I'm driving "hard" i doubt I'm at even half or a quarter of what they're pushing. I like driving spiritedly, not taking it to the ragged edge of the envelope, especially on the street.
Now I'm assembling a ryzen system, so needed to transport all the parts. The 24in lcd I bought would not fit in the empty boot at all, it had to sit beside me up front. I got a Noctua D15 for my cooler, that took up basically a fifth of the usable space! The boot of my NC was far, far more spacious, there is no chance the camping gear that I jammed into the NC would ever fit in ND. So usability on that end.... yeah not very good.
Speaking of storage, there were no side pockets, no glove compartment, and I had to look up on youtube where to find the 12v plug for my dashcam lol.
One aspect I need to talk about is the transmission. Given Modo is a carshare, the ND was an automatic. It'd likely a base model as well, as it didn't have flappy paddles, only the +- automanual shift on the transmission lever.
For most of the drive I left it in automatic mode, the +- shifts using the transmission lever felt wierd and I didn't want to get distracted by it in traffic. I honestly don't have any complaints with it. Sure, a manual would be more fun, but today's traffic was pretty heavy, and it was nice to just lift off the brake to inch forward.
During some empty stretches where I saw a red light coming up, I did try manually shifting down to engine brake, but it doesn't seem to do all that much compared to my NC. When I shift down on my NC, I can feel a definite slow down. Not on this car, the revs jump up as expected but even on second gear it didn't slow down all that much. Eh, minor detail.
So what do I think about the ND? I think it's a brilliant car, and even better, I get to take it out :) I really want a private vehicle of my own, and I may do that once I get my shit together with life. I've actually been checking out vehicles to buy, cars less than 5k. Just looking, honestly! No way am I paying 3-400 a month for insurance. Cars in that price range I'd like include Smart's 4 two.... but then I realize it's a mercedes and probably cost a bomb to maintain. Similarly with a mini cooper... been eyeing the 2006 Cooper S as they fall in my budget. But icbc insurance and they're bmws. Argh.
An NA MX5 would be a logical "budget" choice for a car. Another one that I'd want... an 80s corolla. Yeah. Boxy, square, boring. But they're iconic in an age where cars look so damned similar. I mean, tear of the bloody stupid fat ass grille of a modern audi. Looks like every other design on the road. BORING. And given I live along a stretch of vancouver where supercars abound (got a few in my apt lol), I'm like meh. Still attracted to the old wedge shaped cars of yesterday, where pop ups abound and manufacturers still dare to experiment. Four wheel steering Prelude, anyone?
Update: 14th June 2020
Took the ND out for a drive up the Sea To Sky highway, and I'm just beyond impressed by how well it handles. It has a ton of grip, and just keeps to the line I choose. The responsiveness of the car is bonkers, must be the super light weight. I also had more time to get a better feel for the transmission. In fully automatic mode on twisty roads, ergh, it is boring AF. The logic just wants to shift to a higher gear, presumably for fuel economy. If you jam the throttle down, sure it downshifts and zooms but you can tell the transmission wants to keep the engine at low revs when you let off.
Now using the manual override is a different story, it shifts really fast, probably faster than what I can do. The engine is surprisingly linear (probably the 2L skyactiv, given we're in canada), I don't remember getting a mild kick around 3.5k like on my NC with the MZR engine. In some sense this makes the ND a bit tamer to me, but from what few pulls I did it is smooth from low all the way high.
One other point. I took the car out in the early evening when it was still light and relatively warm. I had to put the top down. On the way back home though, traffic was getting heavy and I did not care for the open air experience then. The top comes up in barely a few seconds, and latches easily. Did that at a red light with no drama. On my NC with its mechanical hard top, I'd be like. Nope, need 13 seconds.
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