Driving reflections

Driving reflections

• I don't understand why Pinoy drivers have to stick their front bumpers to an inch of my rear at high speed. Common sense will tell you this is the stupidest thing you can do while driving. If you're tailgating like this and the driver in front of you brakes suddenly, you have nowhere to go but headlong into the other party's rear end...and you can't talk your way out of paying for the damages either.

• A few weeks into driving my Jazz, it's become plainly apparent to me that I will never be able to duplicate the millimeter-precise parking maneuvers I once used to do with the old City. The shorter rear end fools you into thinking that it's easy to park, but the truth is the bottom steel area of the rear hatch is a huge blind spot that's very hard to measure with. I managed to nudge a low bench at Matthew's place gently enough to avoid a dent, but there's no guarantee of that avoidance happening again. The airiness inside is deceptive as well. Caveat emptor! A set of parking sensors might be a good investment at this point.
  

• I got to drive the City again after a couple weeks with the Jazz and it took me all of a minute to realize how much I missed the old car. The visibility is still as perfect as ever, the heavier hydraulic-assisted steering more organic and natural in operation, and the D15B7 engine is still rather gutless off idle but echoes the same guttural, manic scream beginning at 4000 RPM. It's still the more satisfying car, the better hooligan's machine, with just the right amount of power to play with. Besides, the missing 25 BHP is evident when you push the Jazz to 5000 RPM, and it's evident the newer car is happier working at a less frenetic pace.

• One of my few gripes with the Jazz is its audio head unit that refuses to play any CDs. While my musical tastes have become more genteel, I can only take so much of jazz and easy listening music over the radio before I crave for rock or thumping house. Now I'm torn between buying the Nokia 5300 I've been blabbing about here, or a new head unit to replace my half-operational Kenwood one. Sony's Xplod line has good stuff, and I particularly like the CDX-GT450US model with USB port and auxiliary-input jack for iPods or whatnot. The problem is it's quite pricey at PhP10,000, but at least it gives you backup audio inputs in case the CD drive conks out, which are worth the extra expense. Decisions, decisions...and I wonder if someone's willing to buy my Kenwood unit for a price reduction?