2008 CY4A Mitsubishi Lancer GT: Shotgun impressions

Lately I've had the chance to sample my dad's new Lancer as a shotgun passenger.

The interior is a gaping black hole, but with nicely supportive seats. Interior fit and finish isn't quite a patch on the FD Civic just yet, due to a few cheap, hard plastics, but what is there works quite well. The folding grab handle doesn't feel comfortable to hold after half an hour though.

In-car entertainment consists of a 6-CD multichanger that can read MP3 files. ID3 tag information displays on the narrow LCD screen, but doesn't seem to display more than 60 characters. The head unit (HU) then powers what seems like a 6-speaker setup, with a pair of tweeters hidden in the front mirror mounts. Audio quality is okay, with nice imaging, but I'm sure it can be improved with the fitment of an aftermarket HU. How that will fit in place of the integrated HU will be a big headache, though.

My dad was stoking the 2.0L 4B11 engine along the length of NLEX. The engine has impressive overtaking punch and grunt, and it did not want for smoothness either. According to the instant fuel consumption gauge it could do 10 km/L. How reliable these gauges are remains to be seen, though.

The best part about the CY4A, however, has to be the suspension and chassis. Tuning of the springs and dampers hovers on the stiff side, but the ride quality does not suffer and the car handles road acne quite well on its 45-profile tires and 18-inch wheels. One has to force clumsiness to make the Lancer pitch and roll.

Color me impressed.

Things to save up for

Ever since Mav and I have been friends we've always told each other about our little "projects"---things that we wanted to buy for ourselves and stuff to keep us busy. Since she already posted her Christmas wishlist, she invited me to do the same.

I'm not sure if any of these things will come my way by Christmas this year, though, but this is the list of things I'm slowly but steadily saving up for. To cut on my verbosity I'll let the list speak for itself.

• Bride's Digo reclining sport seat and the requisite YO-Type seat rails for my Jazz.
• New tires in the 205/45 R16 size. I'm still deciding between the Bridgestone RE001 Adrenalin, Yokohama S.Drive, or the Toyo Proxes 4.
• Better speakers for the computer. I'm choosing between the Creative GigaWorks T20 or something from Altec Lansing. No more throwaway speakers, please.
  
• ATI's Radeon HD4850 or HD4870 video cards.
• Corsair's much-lauded 620HX power supply.
  
• A new compressor for the Jazz's air conditioner---mine is starting to show early signs of reliability going out the window.
• The dreaded 40,000-kilometer periodic maintenance service for the Jazz.
  
• V-Kool "Meteorite" tint.
• Hertz DSK165 component speakers.
  
• A helmet for trackday use.
• Tanabe brake pads.
• Speedlab's "power package" for the Jazz: K&N's cone air filter and Speedlab's custom headers, with tuning via Dastek's Unichip.
• Tickets for a trip to Boracay with Mav.
  

I wonder when I'll finally take that lotto jackpot...because after a few months of saving I've had to pull from the "project funds" due to unexpected dues and expenses. Sigh.

Birth of an audiophile, part deux: Return to HCP!

Over the final days of December 2007, I decided to revisit the Honda Club of the Philippines forums after an absence of more than 18 months---purely on a whim. I had planned to just drop in and say hi to the few friends I made there in my years of being an active member.

Little did I know that I would end up staying again. I was surprised how warmly I was welcomed back into the fold, even by some people whom I didn't know very well. With the sheer number of newbies since I left, though, I felt like a newbie myself---having to start off from a clean-slate reputation.

Fast forward almost a month later and I end up going to the HCP Audio Get-Together (GT) for January at Automoville along Ortigas Ave.

Now a confession: In my previous three years in HCP I paid almost no attention to audio. I had my sights squarely on engine performance (but spent not one penny on it). Nowadays, however, I realize there's not much point in spending to raise your car's power output because of how clogged our streets are and how expensive fuel is. It would make much more sense to enjoy your stay in the gridlocked streets, so off I turned my attention to sonics.

I know next to nothing about car audio, though. This is why I found myself in Ortigas last night. I wanted to hear different brands of speakers and amps, and perhaps learn a thing or two about what I should look for in a high-quality setup.

I auditioned five cars, with varying amounts of expense and component brands. Two cars had Focal setups from different price levels, while Hertz, DLS and Polk Audio had one representative each. All of them blew me away, to be honest, but to my ears the Hertz units offered maximum bang for my meager buck, so that's what I'll likely save up for. Thanks to fellow KotseAudioClub members Pooch and Elco, I also learned a lot about sound staging, imaging and installation. Perhaps it was the optimized aiming of the component speakers, but I could now hear cymbals crashing on the left, vocals in the center and the keyboards over to the right---nuances I could never notice in the Jazz's stock speakers.

With all the fine automobiles and sound setups on hand there, it was a huge shame I didn't get to listen to more of them as I left close to midnight. That said, I can't wait for next month's audio GT.

And truth be told, it does feel good to be back.

Birth of an audiophile

Birth of an audiophile

It's been a couple of nights now that I've stayed in my Jazz a little longer after getting home from work.

Perched on my seat, I fiddle with the settings on the Pioneer DEH-P7950UB head unit and marvel at just how adjustable it is. It's not the ultimate car audiophile's head unit---there are other, more obsessive-compulsive Pioneer HUs for that---but I don't know of many that have bass boost, subwoofer control, three-level loudness and a full 7-band graphic equalizer with 2 custom presets. It's also got 3 pre-outs so it's got a lot of room for future expansion.

Leafing through the owner's manual, I'm gobsmacked at how this thing is such a great piece of convergence technology. Out of the box, it's ready to accept a lot of add-on stuff, such as a Bluetooth adaptor, a multi-CD changer, a DVD player/monitor, and even a TV tuner. That's in addition to its support for auxiliary audio inputs, USB devices and iPods (with the appropriate cable). Most of this add-on gadgetry will make me broke, and personally I'm already happy with the USB connectivity alone.

Speaking of USBs, I hooked up my 256MB USB flash drive loaded with WMAs and MP3s and I was slightly disappointed with the sonic quality. Compressed audio files have their limitations, it seems, and playing them at higher volumes shows just how many "holes" they have sonically. Raising the recording bitrate helps preserve the quality, but to these ears they're ultimately no match for a proper CD. Still, there's something to be said about hooking up a large external hard disk with more space than an iPod for a lot less money...

Paolo, who accompanied me to Autoline for the installation, says he's jealous of my new toy. Wisely, though, he says he's sticking with his tried-and-true Pioneer HU until it breaks down. He's now tempting me with replacing my stock speakers for better ones, but that will come in due time. I don't have problems with the "cheap" stuff that's on my front doors' kick panels, apart from slight rattling under bass.

I also begin to see his point about spending good money on car audio. Too often I've lost my cool behind the wheel when I could have easily cranked up the volume and listened to good music instead.

Aural gratification finally comes...at a price.

Aural gratification finally comes...at a price.

After six weeks of frustration I finally have my very own Pioneer DEH-P7950UB head unit.

My timing couldn't have come any better: when I drove up to Autoline's shop garage this afternoon with my high school friend Paolo Campos in tow, I would eventually claim the only remaining unit in stock. The installation went very quickly, with the center console totally opened, wiring harness hooked up, head unit installed and everything closed up again in a matter of thirty minutes.

The damage was PhP12,000. Now my wallet definitely needs time to heal. I feel a guilty tinge about this whole purchase, but Paolo comforted me by telling me it's an investment.

It's worth putting in a word about the shop. The owner of Autoline was a nice Chinese guy with a lot of stories about his own ride and equipment. He was trying to sell me on other things such as speakers and tints, but I had to take a rain check on his offer. Still, he had good stuff on sale, such as a set of reverse sensors (very practical on my car!), HID lighting kits and a smattering of component speakers and subwoofers. Those will have to wait until Christmas, I guess.

Anyway, I am definitely going to spend the next few months on "budget meals" mode. In the meantime, it's worth sharing that I had the money for the Pioneer head unit a couple of months in advance. Perhaps due to my frustration of not finding it, and the corruption of having that much money in hand, I ended up spending a lot more than I strictly should have, and that's not cool.

Guys, don't make the same mistake: if you can't find what you're looking for, put it back into your account. Don't let a large sum of money sit idly within easy reach. You don't know how quickly that will get depleted.

Let's ride!

Let's ride!

Paolo rode shotgun with me today to seek out the Pioneer DEH-P7950UB head unit as he was more knowledgeable with car audio than I was. We were out on a limb going out on Black Saturday, as it's a neither-here-nor-there kind of day: some shops will be open and some won't be.

9:30 a.m. We rolled out of Paolo's house and into the highway. The Holy Week emptiness of Metro Manila's streets beckoned at my Jazz, and proved once and for all that it really is just a small city we're living in.

Our first stop was Makati, where we tried visiting a row of shops Paolo was familiar with. Unfortunately most of them were closed. I did get a PhP12,000 quote and a calling card from one of them, who agreed to send me a text message when they'd have one in stock. Afterward we proceeded to literally get lost while looking for two of the more popular shops we had in mind. When we finally did find the first one, it was closed, and we decided to just call up the other one in Pasig to determine if it was closed also (which it was).

We decided to go to Glorietta, buy my present for my dad, have lunch and look for a pair of retro Jordan sneakers Paolo wanted. It was surreal seeing Glorietta at 10:45 a.m. with 1/8 its normal load of people. We tried another car audio shop at the Fort, but it was also closed and we figured it was pointless going to its sister shop in Alabang, so we retreated to Paolo's house at 1 p.m.

It was then that Paolo's dad Tito Alex chimed in with a suggestion: why not go to Banawe? I had my reservations going to this mecca of surplus car parts. I've heard horror stories of people parking their cars there, only to return to them missing their side mirrors. I figure it would be worth the trip, though, seeing how free-flowing the roads were.

To prep for the trip we swung by the gas station for a fillup, where I garnered a disappointing 11.18 km/L. No matter. We were going to Quezon City this time, and the normally traffic-stricken roads of Sta. Mesa were cooperating very well!

We were amazed when we finally got to Banawe at around 2:30 p.m. None of the shops were closed! People were waving at us with pieces of car window tint. We didn't know which shops to stop at so we ended up making several U-turns along the length of Banawe St. Finally we decided to pull up at a nice place with a security guard watching over the parked cars. I was wary about the less-than-scrupulous hawkers Banawe was fabled for, but the shop we went to had friendly staff. I got a quote for PhP11,500 with free installation, but unfortunately the Pioneer HU wasn't in stock until next week either. I feel I'll be coming back here with Paolo next week though.

After that little adventure we drove serenely along E. Rodriguez Ave., Aurora Blvd., Katipunan Ave. and C5---all normally clogged arteries on weekends---to go back to the Fort by 3:30 p.m. and check out the Nike store there for Paolo's Jordans. He ended up buying them at a cool PhP7,500. It was nice seeing Bonifacio High Street being modeled after the open-air malls of Santa Monica in the US. Weakened by the heat and drowsiness, we were back home by 5 p.m.

Today I drove the most relaxing 98.5 km I've ever driven in city streets. If only everyday traffic was this free-flowing...but that may be asking for too much.

I'm getting excited about the 7950 finally making a home in my dashboard, but when we do make the return trip next week we'll have to contend with the crawl going to Makati or Quezon City once more. Oh well.

Thbbbbbt again.

Thbbbbbt again.

I cranked up the Jazz this morning only to find out the Kenwood's CD player refuses to load...again.

Apparently that new head unit can't wait.

Grrrrr. Talk about getting my hopes up.

Good sound can wait.

Good sound can wait.

Three things:

1. Apparently my Kenwood's CD player actually still works. It's just very picky with what CDs it'll read.

2. The Sony CDX-GT460US head unit I was considering is overpriced and short on features compared to Pioneer's top-flight model, the DEH-P7950UB.

Like the Sony, it's got aux-in and USB ports (albeit at the back I think), and has the neat party trick of taking over a plugged iPod's controls via a special cable. Apparently it's so popular it's flown off shops' shelves and many places have problems keeping stocks. Damage is PhP11,300 for the HU alone, adding PhP1,500 for the iPod direct-connect cable. When you think about Sony's top-flight HUs costing PhP18,000, you can't help but wonder there must be something wrong with this picture.

3. Spending on good car audio can wait.

I was considering all my options after getting an aftermarket head unit, which frankly can now wait because the Kenwood's still fine. Do I get separates or coaxial speakers? If I did, where do I put the tweeters and midrange drivers? Do I get an amplifier? Where should I put the damn thing?

The speed at which I've become a car audio nut has surprised me.