On Fri, 01 Apr 2016 11:06:28 -0500, Califbill
wrote:

Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 4/1/2016 8:23 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:

...while waiting for routine service to be completed on my wife's car, I
test drove a 2016 Toyota Tacoma truck. What a sweet ride...made even
sweeter by the presence of its six speed manual transmission. The last
time I drove a pickup truck with a stick shift, it was back in the late
1950's, at my dad's boat store. I think it was a four speed, but you
started in second because first was there only to get the truck rolling
if you were pulling something really heavy.


I just bought a new ride. I've been thinking of getting a more
comfortable vehicle for a while and tried out several of the "mid-sized"
offerings. Ended up with a Nissan Altima SL. It's the four-banger with
the continuously variable transmission. Nissan also
offers a 3.5L six but I don't know why anyone would need the extra
horsepower. The 2.5L four moves the car along surprisingly well. After
almost two weeks of driving a mix of highway and around town it is
averaging between 32 and 33 mpg. Far cry from the 12 to 13 mpg with the
Ford Superduty. Gonna hold onto the truck though, at least for a while.
Sometimes only a truck will do.




Got to have a pickup. Even when I drove a Rabbit as a daily driver, had an
S10 pickup. Looking at an around town car. Rented a Kia Forte in Seattle
last fall. Nice car, great milage, not sure how much, but did not take a
lot of gas for the amount of running around. Went we pick d it up at the
Airport, was not sure of it, but drove nice, quiet, peppy.

We have rented quite a few SUV and crossover style vehicles over the
years. I had a Sorrento in New Zealand that was pretty nice. Too bad
the steering wheel was on the wrong side. ;-)
I had a Chrysler mini van in Michigan last month and that was OK too.
Lots of doodads. I left them with about 1000 songs on the sound system
hard drive. It took a couple of hours to load it but it was playing
the whole time so it was not an issue and it picked back up where I
left off when I stopped. I think all of them were getting in the mid
to high 20mpg range, except the V-8 Suburban we had in the Dakotas.
That thing really sucked when I tried a tank of E-85. You could see
the MPG drop on the instant read when that worked it's way to the
injectors.