That’s a good thing.  This car has an impressive history, going back many decades, and although the only relation between that car and this one is the basic shape and the manufacturer’s name, I’ve always thought this was a cool nod to where it came from.

The Beetle was resurrected in 1998 as the New Beetle, and this is now the next generation of the new Beetle, but thankfully VW took the “New” part out of the name.  I think Beetle suffices.

Of course, the new Beetles don’t have a clattering air-cooled engine in the back – they share a lot of the basics with a VW Golf underneath the skin.

This was a 2012 Beetle Premiere trim level.  The base price of the Premiere is CDN $24,475 and that’s what my test vehicle rang in at as well.

There are a number of possibilities under the hood when it comes to buying a Beetle, and this one came with the base engine.  It’s the 2.5 Litre 5-cylinder engine, and it truly wears its experience on its sleeve.  This engine, in one shape or form, has been around for a couple of decades, having served time in Audi engine bays as well.

It’s not a bad engine, but because it’s essentially an antique, there are definitely better and more efficient choices out there.  It makes 170 HP @ 5700 RPM and 177 lb.ft of torque @ 4250 RPM.  Numbers that don’t send the competition running into the shadows, by any stretch of the imagination, but before you consider this a wimp, remember that the engine is only moving 2982 pounds of car around.  That’s not as light as the original Beetle, of course, but it’s light by today’s standards, and this configuration pulls off an 8.8 second run to 100 km/h.  Not bad.

The 2.5 Litre is mated to a 6-speed Tiptronic automatic, with Sport mode and manual shifting mode.

Since this isn’t the most modern of engines, you’re not going to see stellar numbers in the fuel economy department.  It’s rated at 9.5 L/100 km (24.8 mpg) in the city, and 71. L/100 km (33 mpg) on the highway.  I didn’t do quite that well.  I averaged 11 L/100 km (22 mpg) – which is actually quite good, because I never once tried to drive it economically and mostly had a slightly heavy foot on it, and it was almost exclusively city commuting, with a couple of short sprints down the freeway.

So yes, the base 5-cylinder has a couple of faults (mostly due to its age, and because engine technology has passed it by), but it’s not a horrible engine at all, and its character suits the Beetle quite nicely and makes for a very drivable combination.

Exterior

Here’s the real story.  Yes there is some style going on inside, but you can’t even consider a Beetle if you’re not into the shape.  The exterior shape is clearly a nod to where the Beetle came from.  This generation has made significant changes and in my opinion, each one is a marked improvement.

VW did away with the body shape that seemed to be built out of circles, and allowed the Beetle’s lines to mature.  There are slightly more chiseled shapes, longer flowing lines and dare I say it – a hint of masculinity and muscle.

I was very interested in people’s reactions to this car.  I thought many would chuckle at it and maybe laugh it off as a styling exercise but here’s the truth – reaction to this car was huge, and 100% positive during the time I had it.  A lot of people took the time to come over and comment on it and out of those who did, many knew this was the new generation and indicated they loved it.  There was also a consensus that this shape is a major improvement over the last generation.

I loved the changes VW made to the front, back and even the fenders and sides.  The biggest change for me was the new roofline, and how it appears to make the car flatter, lower and longer.  It’s a good thing, while clearly not forgetting that it’s a Beetle.

I quite liked the new treatment of the rear lights and the headlights as well.  You’ll find a shark fin antenna on top and nice signal light repeaters in the side-view mirrors.

This car had the “Rotor” style wheels – I quite liked them.

Interior

The Beetle’s interior has also been made less polarizing in this generation.  Certain styling cues in the previous one were love-it-or-hate-it, and VW has again done a great job refining this have a broader appeal.  And yes, let me make it clear right off the bat – the flower vase in the dash is gone.  Thank goodness.

Plunk yourself into the very comfortable seats, which are manually adjustable and have 3-position heaters.  They offer good bolstering for everyday driving, but nothing like you might find in a GTI.  This trim level has your butt planted on leatherette – which is just the new way of saying “vinyl” seats.  They’ve come a long way though, and it looks good and feels good.  The inserts are leatherette, while the edges of the seats are covered in a woven, carbon-fibre looking material.  I found it weird at first, but it grew on me, and I quite liked it.  These seats would be easy to clean.

Unfortunately, VW has stuck with almost exclusively hard plastics around the cabin.  Considering that the competition is headed down the road of lovely, soft-touch plastics, I’m hoping they’ll catch up and soon.  The textures are nice, but it’s the same hard plastic we’ve seen for a while – attracts dust quickly, and is very easy to scratch with anything hard, like a key.  The only soft plastic are the elbow pads on the door panels.

There is a cool, body-colored swath of plastic that surround the whole cabin, starting at one rear pillar, making its way around the beltline, across the dash (getting wider there), and back around the other side to the back pillar.  It looks great, and breaks up the Teutonic monotony that a sea of black plastic brings.

I absolutely loved the steering wheel.  It had an average thickness of rim, but it was slightly sculpted and covered with nice, smooth leather, and had wonderful stitching on the inside.  VW saw to it that the bottom of the wheel was flattened, and it just felt great to hold it and drive with it.  It’s not a performance car, and this isn’t a performance steering wheel.  Another refreshing thing to note – there are no controls on the steering wheel for ANYthing in this trim level.  I was disappointed at first, but ended up loving that.  Everything you need is close at hand, and it was a nice, straightforward driving experience instead.  I appreciate that!

Behind the steering wheel sits a pod of gauges.  A central speedometer, a tach on the left and a fuel gauge on the right.  Below the speedo sits a driver information screen.

In terms of dash design, it just feels as though there is a very broad dashboard, and less of a center stack feel.  It’s more or less how the lines play with your mind, but it works and looks different.  I liked the visual effect.

In the body-colored plastic on the dash, you’ll find the stereo system and below it, a manual, rotary-switch-based climate control system.

I found the headroom to be exemplary in the front, and leg room was also excellent.  Knee room was good, but restricted slightly by the width of the center console.  Pending on your driving position, you might find your knee resting against some hard plastics there – I did.

The center console is simple – a very nice, Audi-like and comfortable shift lever, and a traditional e-brake to the left of it.

You’ll find a lot of round shapes around the interior, but it’s not nearly as irritating as in a Mini or a Fiat.

Tech/Convenience

This section will be short.  At first I was a bit disappointed by the lack of techno-goodness in the Beetle, but found that I appreciated it.  I didn’t lack for anything I ever needed, and realized that much of the fun stuff out there is totally unnecessary in everyday driving and I didn’t miss it.

The driver information screen is a lovely red on black – easy to read and effective.  It always shows you a clock, the odometer and your gear selection.  It allows you to toggle between outside temperature, elapsed time, instant and average fuel economy, fuel range, trip meters, average speed, current speed and engine temperature (in degrees).  Useful and simple.

The stereo is a basic unit.  Chunky, clear buttons surround a nice little screen.  Sources include AM, FM, CD, auxiliary in and their Media Device Interface (MDI) which is a 30-pin iPod/iPhone connector attached to a pigtail cable in the glove box.  The auxiliary plug is at the front of the center console in an open bin.  The system has 8 speakers and to be honest, it doesn’t sound great.  I haven’t heard it, but I have heard OF the upgrade – it’s a Fender-branded system.  Interesting choice, since Fender makes guitar amps, which aren’t particularly noted for their high-fidelity in terms of music reproduction, but nevertheless, I’ve heard the system is supposed to be fantastic.  No satellite radio in the basic package, and no USB plug or Bluetooth streaming.  I’d say VW needs to re-evaluate those choices.

Bluetooth DOES however come in the form of phone control, and pairing the phone and using the system was a breeze and sounded very good in the car.

Power door locks, power mirrors and power windows are all on the door panel.  I normally wouldn’t comment, but since I drove the Scion iQ, I don’t take cruise control for granted anymore – the Beetle does have it.

You’ll find one 12V plug in the front – forward and to the right of the shift lever.  The Beetle comes with switchblade keys, inside remote lock/unlock FOBs.

The Drive

I’m going to mix things up a bit.  If you’re one of my Type-A readers, and expect my sections to always follow the same flow, I apologize.  Please take your meds and come back.

The Beetle, in this configuration, isn’t a performance car.  That’s just fine, because it’s not pretending to be one.

The suspension is well-tuned, and leans towards comfort over performance.  The ride is firm, but Euro-jiggly in a reassuring way.  It soaks up bumps nicely, and although there is some body roll around corners, it’s nothing that you’ll find disconcerting, and frankly the handling is very good.  Everyday driving in the Beetle is confidence inspiring, and even fun.

I did push the car a few times, and if you need to brake around a fast corner, you’ll feel the rear end unloading slowly and coming around, while the heavy front end stays well-planted and plows much less than you might think.  I actually like the predictability of this, and again, this isn’t anything you’ll see in normal driving.  This is a secure car around corners.

Although it’s not a fast car, it’s reasonably quick.  I do feel strongly that the Tiptronic transmission is the Beetle biggest enemy in terms of performance.  It’s a great transmission, so I’m not sure what’s going on off the line, but it seems that the car hesitates when you hit the gas.  The initial take-off is very sluggish, and it almost feels like an old-school CVT is handling matters or as if they’ve retarded the ignition.  Or as if it perpetually starts in second gear.  It’s irritating to be honest, and even more so because the car is quite competent once you’re rolling.  Put the transmission into Sport mode, and it does alleviate some of this, but not all of it.  Sport mode also hangs on to gears much longer, instead of instantly hunting for the highest gear possible to maximize fuel economy.

The manual slap-shift works well, although it’s not nearly as quick as VW’s wonderful DSG dual-clutch.  You have to step up into another engine choice to get that.

The brakes are good, but I found they got a bit spongy during hard braking.

One of the 5-cylinder’s limitations is the sound it makes.  It’s alright during normal driving – nothing inspiring, of course, but nothing offensive.  Honk on it though, and it sounds as if old Mr. 5-Cylinder is hosting a Hoover Vac convention under the hood.  Anything above 3500 RPM doesn’t sound great.  Most people probably don’t care.

As noted, I did get the chance to cruise down the freeway a few times, usually reaching 100 km/h.  I found road noise to be quite low, and just a few points of wind noise.  I didn’t think it was coming from around the windshield, as is typical, but rather from behind me.  It’s not a really bad thing, and I’ve driven vehicles with wind noise that would drown this car out.  So it’s all good.  I’m guessing little points of wind resistance are mostly related to the shape of the car, which isn’t all that aerodynamic in some spots.

I couldn’t help but notice that the Beetle is very comfortable at higher speeds.  And stable.  On more than one occasion, I’d find myself looking down at the speedometer and being shocked to find myself cruising at speeds 10-20 km/h higher than I thought I was.  It never seems as though it’s working hard to maintain those speeds.

Storage

I was very pleasantly surprised with the Beetle’s storage abilities.  If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’m a storage space fanatic, because I …. am.  OK?  Don’t ask.

The center console offers a number of nice bins – a great accessible bin where it meets the “center stack”, as well as a little change tray and another deeper bin at the back of the console, where you might find an armrest.  These bins all have rubberized bottoms, which is highly appreciated.

There are 2 inline cupholders behind the shift lever.

The door bins are pathetic little lips of plastic that wouldn’t hold anything beyond a pencil, if it weren’t for a strange band of giant underwear elastic material that’s stretched across the opening above the lip.  It allows you to put taller things in there and keeps them in place.  Still, I can’t see it as anything else than the elastic from some giant granny’s bloomers.  Check it out and tell me if I’m way off.  Gonch jokes aside, I’m guessing this would be perfect for water bottles and such.

I loved the shallow, but large and rubberized tray in the middle of the dash.  It’s different, and quite useful.

The glovebox is a nice size, but it’s the upper glovebox that’s the fun one.  It’s more a nod to the Beetle’s history than a useful bin, but I loved it!  It’s (properly) hinged at the top, and swings up to reveal another little cubbyhole in the dash.  So cool.

The trunk space is good, in terms of real estate, but the back part of that space can’t be used for higher items, as the curvature/angle of the hatch lid will cut into that space. Of course, if you fold those rear seats down, you’ll be having plenty of space to work with.  The hatch space is covered with a hard tonneau lid – additional storage shelf above the trunk, and keeps prying eyes from seeing your precious cargo.

The trunk does have a lengthy lift-over distance – about one foot between the back of the bumper and the inside of the trunk – you need to be careful that you don’t get your pants dirty when you’re leaning into it.  I appreciated the great grab handles cast into the trunk lid, allowing me to easily shut it.

Rear Seat

Getting into the back seat of the Beetle isn’t horrible – it’s typical for a coupe.  Once you’re in there, you’ll find 2 seats, 2 seat belts and 2 headrests.  The seats use the same leatherette/faux woven fibre materials and look quite handsome.  They are definitely comfortable, but would benefit from more bolstering.  This isn’t so much a criticism of the Beetle, as an indictment of the car industry as a whole.  Rear seats are basically not good.  Finding good rear seats is the exception, where it should be the rule.

You’re pretty close to your neighbor back there, so if you’re traveling with another adult, I’d get familiar with Leviticus 19:18 in a hurry when it comes to your shoulders and your proximity to said other adult.

The headroom is OK, certainly better than expected and an improvement on the last generation.  Likewise with the leg and knee room – they’re OK, and acceptable by small coupe standards, without a doubt.

Under your outside arm you’ll find a small armrest, and a tiny storage bin underneath that.  It’d be good for a phone or something like that.  Other than that, you’re given a little more space in 2 seatback map pockets, as well as access to a single upholder and the large open bin at the back of the center console – it comes almost all the way back to the rear seats.  Oh yeah, and there’s a 12V plug there too.

The seats fold down 50-50, for some flexibility.  If you need to make your life complicated and want to transport children in this car, you could accommodate a couple of child seats – there are 2 LATCH anchors.  Kids on booster seats will be fine back there – my girls loved it!

Nitpicks

I had a tough time finding things I didn’t like about this car.  I mentioned the hard plastics and the transmission already.  These notes will seem highly picky, but that’s what I am.

The speedometer is strangely non-linear.  Until 60 km/h, the speedometer affords a bigger font to every 20 km/h graduation.  Then it gives the same space to 40 km/h graduations.  It’s easier to understand once you see a picture, and I found it weird and a bit deceptive.  Not sure if this explanation would stand up in traffic court though.

I found the rear-view mirror to be exceptionally small and cramped – but realized that if it were any bigger, you’d only be exposing the dismal view out the back window further.  The rear headrests definitely get in the way.

This car doesn’t have a central armrest, and this caught the attention of a number of passengers, not just me.  That would suck for me, because I’m a big supporter of armrests and their rights.  Long live the armrest.  I know it comes in other trim levels, so it seems a weird omission.  Chubby North Americans will not shift their cars, VW – they will rest their arms on their armrests, hold their 36 oz. Slurpees and let the transmission do the work for them.  So there’s no need to leave out the armrest.

There is no rear lighting – I’ve found this on other cars too.  My theory is if you’re going to bother with rear seats, even if they’re an afterthought, please illuminate them – because putting on seat belts in a confined space, in complete darkness in a parkade is not joyful.  Or triumphant.

Speaking of illuminating – the vanity mirrors aren’t lit on this trim level – I’m not sure if that changes as you move up the ladder.  But frankly, considering the demographic they’re aiming for with this car, lit vanity mirrors should be standard equipment.  At first I thought this would be sexist to even mention, but my wife totally agrees.  She said if they want women to buy this car, they should do things like making sure you can apply your make-up in it.

You might remember how I solved most of the car industry’s problems in my Scion iQ review, when I revealed the secret to horn proportioning.  Unfortunately, I’ve got a beef with this one too – it’s a lame-o “shmeeeep” horn, whereas I’d have put a tri-tone foghorn under the hood.  But that’s just me.

Details

I’m a big fan of good dead pedals, and the Beetle’s is awesome!  Nice work, VW!

Seat heaters – it seems as though the majority of cars have them now, but often it takes you half your trip to start feeling the difference.  VW has it right.  They are quick and effective – turn them on, and your buns are toasted in 10 seconds.  Other manufacturers could learn from this – if it takes 5 minutes for me to feel my seat heater, you’re not doing it right.

A cool little detail – VW gives you a rotary band to turn, which lets you adjust the ambient lighting in the car.  It’s only the lit ring around the front door speaker grilles (an obvious circle) and a swath of light in the door panel.  It lets you choose between white, red, blue or nothing.  Kind of a neat way to personalize your ride.

The Verdict

I’m going to be honest.  I was excited to drive this car.  When I started driving it, I became less excited.  But over the next couple of days, the Beetle really grew on me.

It’s got loads of character, and in my opinion, an awesome design – inside and out, VW have done a great job, and really moved this generation ahead of the last.

I give the Beetle a 7 out of 10.  It’s no less practical than other 2-doors out there, but it’s got more personality than most.

If I were buying this car myself, I would absolutely opt for one of the upgraded engine choices – either the fantastic TDI diesel, or the turbo gas engine – which also lets you get VW’s near-perfect DSG transmission.

But as I said, the base engine suits the character of the Beetle just fine, and it’s a great car to drive around.  You’ll get looks, and you’ll find yourself looking back at your car when you walk away – and I’m guessing you’ll catch yourself smiling.

I haven’t driven the other drivetrains or trim levels, but I’m guessing I’d give the turbo Beetle with the DSG an 8 out of 10.  And let me just confirm right now that I have a feeling I’d give the Beetle R (which shares the mighty Golf R’s drivetrain – 270 rip-snortin’ horsepower and all-wheel drive) something sneaking up on a 10 out of 10.  The fun factor would off the charts, I’m sure.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was extremely high.  My wife loved this car.  She’s never been a Beetle fan – but once she spent some time in it, she loved it.  She loved almost everything about it – the ride, the shape (she thought it wasn’t as “cutesy” as the last one), you name it.  Except for those dark and foreboding vanity mirrors.

If you’re looking for a car that sets itself apart from all the others, is recognizable by anyone around the world, is fun to drive and even retains some practicality, all while retaining a reasonable price…. I’d definitely consider the Beetle as an option.

A final note:  the Beetle is available with retro-perfect hubcap-style wheels.  I absolutely love them.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Volkswagen.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

• February 14, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Toyota Tacoma TRD (1)
• February 1, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Ford Explorer Limited Ecoboost FWD (1)
• January 31, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Scion iQ (4)

I was looking forward to driving the 2012 Toyota Tacoma, because I’ve always been a fan of them.  In the end, much of what I know and remembered about the one I drove in the past remains true, and many of the compromises of driving a true truck remain solidly stuck in place.  Maybe it turns out that I’ve been a fan of the idea of a Tacoma, rather than the ownership of one.  But that’s my problem, and not yours.  Nor the Tacoma’s.  Lemme ‘splain.

The base for a 4×4 Access Cab V6 Tacoma is CDN $26,900.  Add in all the other goodies, as well as my truck’s automatic transmission and $5,000 TRD Offroad package, and you’re looking at a CDN $34,645.20 truck here.  Which is not expensive in terms of trucks these days.

The Tacoma is Toyota’s smaller truck, but as such, is still built on a real frame, and is as capable in terms of truckishness as it always has been.

Under the hood, you’ll find Toyota’s venerable V-6 – over the years, its displacement has crept up to 4.0 Litres and it’s a seemingly modern DOHC, 24-Valve engine with Toyota’s Variable Valve Timing with Intelligence (VVT-i).  When you hear it, it’s got the same rushing, roaring sound under throttle that this engine’s ancestors made 20 years ago.  Some things never change.

The V-6 makes 236 HP @ 5,200 rpm and more importantly, a fairly accessible 266 lb.ft @ 4,000 rpm.  In terms of trucks, this number sits lower on the totem pole, which ends up not being an issue, because the same can be said for this truck’s curb weight.  It tips the scales at 3,580 lbs, a curb weight that might just be the lowest in class and certainly a huge difference from the typical North American half-tons.  I know this isn’t one of those trucks, but it’s refreshing to drive a truck that doesn’t feel like it weighs a few tons, and to realize that it, in fact, DOESN’T weigh a few tons.  I appreciate that Toyota has kept the Tacoma’s weight within reason, instead of continuing to crank it up with features, and then combating the expanded chubbiness with bigger engines and more fuel-sucking.

That juice is fed through a 5-speed automatic, which didn’t impress nor offend.  It just…. shifted.  Toyota deems this a “Super Electronically Controlled Transmission”.  That’s awesome, because I hate the plain-jane Electronically Controlled Transmissions – it’s the Super ones that get me excited.  It’s “Super”, guys.

The Tacoma has an 80 Litre fuel tank, which is lovely, because it’s rated at a thirsty 7.8 L/100 km (30 mpg) on the highway and a downright parched 10.9 L/100 km (21.6 mpg) in the city, with a combined cycle rating of 9.5 L/100 km (24.7 mpg).  Gulp!  That’s not me making that sound, it’s the Tacoma’s engine.  Sadly, fuel economy ratings seem to be achieved in wind tunnels, with the wind at your back, while you’re in neutral, going downhill – in my week with the Tacoma, I averaged 19 L/100 km (12.4 mpg) and honestly, I wasn’t driving with a very heavy foot.  Yowzers.

I believe it’s part of the optional TRD Offroad package, but my truck had a 6500 lb. towing capacity – which is nothing to sneeze at for a light truck.

Exterior

Not a lot has changed over the years – Toyota has continued to refine the Tacoma over the generations, but really, the look has remained relatively static.  And in my opinion, that’s a good thing.  The Tacoma has a great mix of size, shape and utility.  I drove the Access Cab, which is the 1-1/2 doors cab.  This concept has been around for a long time, and nothing much has changed with it.  I’ll delve into that later on, but in terms of the exterior, I feel that it’s the best looking version of this truck.  The 4-door looks quite portly to me, and this shorter cab looks more balanced and proportional.

Smooth lines continue to grace the Tacoma, and it has muscular, flared-out lower door panels, as well as the ballsy, flared-out fenders.  Ground clearance continues to be exemplary, and it makes up much of this truck’s stance as well.

You’ll find foglights at the front, a shark-fin antenna on the roof, and a traditional whip antenna on the front fender.  WHY can’t they get rid of these?

The wheels were alright, but I’ve seen nicer ones on Tacomas.

Interior

Well, there’s no missing the high step up into this truck.  The ingress might be considered difficult for some, and frankly, painful for others.  Hey, it’s part of having a truck this high off the ground.

Once you’re in, you’ll certainly appreciate excellent head and leg room.  Knee room is also good, with a single caveat – a hard plastic pod housing power door lock switches grows out of the driver’s door, and you might find your left knee hitting it.

You’re surrounded by a plethora of highly variable colors and textures in almost exclusively hard plastics.  There is a huge variety of stuff going on here – you’ve got silver/metallicized plastics, texturized black plastics, smooth piano black plastics, faux perforated rubber looking stuff, grey plastics, and more.  Oh, did I mention they’re basically all hard plastics?  Sad Wildsau face.  The only soft touch stuff was the elbow pad on the door panel and the padded armrest lid.  At least Toyota respects our elbows.   I don’t think that’s enough by today’s standards.

Take a seat on a set of quite comfortable fabric seats.  The seating position is quite stretched out – that is, your legs are stretched out in front of you.  More La-Z-Boy than kitchen chair.  The seats are manually adjustable, and had surprisingly decent side and thigh bolstering.

I loved the steering wheel.  It has a very fat rim, and parts of it are covered with perforated leather.  It’s manually adjustable for reach and height, and it was a good wheel to work with.

Behind the steering wheel sits a good-looking, traditional 3-gauge instrument cluster, housing a central speedometer with a small LCD screen at the bottom, a tach on the left and fuel gauge, engine temperature and current gear selection on the right.  The little screen can’t be called a driver information screen, because all it does is toggles between the odometer and 2 trip meters.  Nothing else.  I was going to complain about the lack of a fuel economy read-out, but realistically having that information handy would only serve to sink the truck’s owner into a depressive state.

The center stack starts with a media system on top with an old-school “Hi, I was in Toyotas about 20 years ago” digital clock below it.  Underneath that, you’ll find a simple, manual climate control system, and at the bottom, an indentation above where it meets the center console.

Moving back along the console, you start with some bins and then a very nice shift lever, sticking up out of a very traditional gated slot, with positions for P, R, N, D, 4, 3, 2 and 1.  Seriously.  I haven’t seen that for many years.  No manual shifting options, other than snicking the lever into a specific gear selection.

In front of you is a very short dash, and a couple of “Oh crap!” handles on the A-pillars.

Tech/Convenience

After driving other current vehicles, the Tacoma seems quite antiquated in terms of tech.  But let’s have a look at what they hand over for your rubles.

The stereo system is very basic, but it does its job well.  Audio sources are AM, FM, satellite radio, CD, auxiliary, USB and Bluetooth streaming.  The system sounds fine, and actually gives you some bass with work with.  It has nice, chunky knurled knobs and big buttons, which makes it easy to use with gloves, and the display is a nice fine dot-matrix screen.

The rear-view mirror displays some goodies, namely the outside temperature and a compass reading AND it has a small screen for the back-up camera with the typical multi-colored distance markings.  People complain bitterly about these, but in my opinion, I’d much rather have a little screen up there than none at all.  I like it and it’s useful!  The bottom of the rear-view mirror also has buttons for three HomeLink garage door opener settings.

You’ve got power door locks, windows and mirrors, and cruise control.  Lit vanity mirrors made my wife quite happy.

The steering wheel has controls for the stereo, as well as the phone and handsfree voice controls.

There are two 12V plugs and a lidded auxiliary/USB plug in the indentation at the bottom of the center stack.

In terms of exterior conveniences, this Tacoma had a tow package with a hitch receiver and a 7-pin plug, and a very cool 120V plug in the box.  It’s sealed off with a spring-loaded lid, and can be switched from 100W to 400W inside the truck.

Storage

I thought Toyota did a great job in using all the nooks and crannies to maximize storage space around the cabin.  The door bins are essentially two deep vertical slots – cupholders.

There is a great little tray to the right of the steering wheel that goes into the dash.  It’s deep and covered, and wonderful.  I’m quite passionate about storage bins and this was a gooder.

There is a nice, deep but accessible bin where the center stack meets the console, and right behind it, closer to the shift lever, there are a couple of nice, rubberized cupholders.  These turn out to be removable inserts, and when taken out, they create another deep, squarish bin.

To the right of the shift lever, there is a long, shallow tray, and a single cupholder behind the shift gate.  This cupholder turns out to be a great place to put a smart phone as well.

A nice, wide lidded armrest hides a deep, carpeted center console bin.  The glove compartment is also surprisingly big.

There is significant cargo capacity behind the front seats as well.

Oh, and if you run out of space around the cabin, there is this thing called a truck box that sits conveniently right behind the cabin.  It’s a great size, and will hold a lot.  Toyota has added a couple of small, lidded (but not lockable) bins on the sides of the box for small items.  There are 4 heavy-duty stationary tie-down hooks, and for fantastic flexibility, there are rails along the sides and the front of the box, allowing you to position further tie-down points anywhere you see fit.  I really liked that.

Rear Seat

Let’s start with the positive.  When you open the rear, suicide-style doors (you have to open the front doors first), you’ll be taken aback at how much room is actually back there.  Until you try it out, that is.

This is all a visual deception.  The seat bottoms are so short, that they only come half-way to your knees.  So what looks like leg room is actually not.

First of all, getting into the rear seats is no joy and neither is getting out of them, although getting out of them is such a relief that it probably WOULD rate quite high on the joy scale anyway.

Once you’re there, you’ll realize how good you had it, just standing outside.  Frankly, being dragged behind this truck to your destination would probably be less painful than sitting back there for any length of time.

OK, the facts:  there are 2 seats back there, 2 seatbelts, 2 headrests.  Oh, and 2 cupholders at the back of the center console. And a sliding center window.  I’d consider using it as an escape hatch.

I’m not tall at all.  When I left the driver’s seat where I need it to be, I could not get my not-very-tall self in behind that seat.  I had to spread my legs apart to even physically fit there, and with my knees spread out to where I felt I could have been in birthing stirrups, it would have been impossible to close the rear door.  What I’m saying is my short self could not sit behind my short self.  None of this is an exaggeration.

In case you were still considering the rear seat as a possible place to travel, the seat backs are basically the thinnest I’ve ever seen, as are those super-short seat bottoms.

Mercifully, the headrests (that seriously impede the driver’s rearward vision) fold down out of the way, and those terrible seat bottoms fold up out of the way, and this creates a space that isn’t all about cruel and unusual punishment and can be used for anything but transporting people.  Under the folded-up seat bottoms, you’ll find small but useful storage bins, with lids.

With all that said, my kids did fit back there and didn’t complain.  There are 2 sets of LATCH anchors as well.

Wait!  There’s another positive – there are lovely door bins for the rear passengers.

The Drive

I have to say that the thirsty V-6 at least rewards you with some goodness, and that is plenty of low-end and mid-range torque.  I never found myself wanting for more jam in everyday driving.  That torque likely bodes well for off-roading as well as towing, although I tested neither of those facets.  As noted earlier, the V-6 makes no excuses about being under the hood – it’s not particularly quiet under load, but it has a throaty sound and it’s a good thing.

The ride is exactly what you might expect from a truck.  It appears that our ability to make true trucks’ suspension better can only progress so far, and will forever be stuck in the “major compromises” slot.  The ride is firm, and a bit bouncy – as expected, it will soak up any road imperfections with ease.  Speed bump?  I didn’t notice any speed bump.  Of course, if you encounter any kind of crack, or pothole, or other kind of Canadian road enhancement device, the truck will shudder and buck over it, and remind you that it can flex with the best of them.  This isn’t a knock, because every other truck does it, and until we figure out how to get rid of leaf-spring suspensions that essentially date back over 100 years, nothing will change.

The handling, on the other hand, is very competent.  I thought the Tacoma was a confident performer in city driving, and corners are handled with ease – smoothly even and very sure-footed!  The steering is well-weighted, with quite a low effort required – just don’t expect a tight turning circle.

The brakes are very effective, but I found them to be too grabby for me.

Outward visibility is good, especially for the front and sides.  Rear visibility is hampered by the rear headrests, but as noted, unless you’re transporting Tyrion Lannister back there (the only one who might be comfortable), they can be folded down, and out of the way.  The thick side pillars, created by the junction of front and rear doors, do obstruct shoulder checking somewhat, but it’s acceptable.

There is no possibility of manually shifting the automatic via flappy paddles or a slap-stick lever – you have to manually move it to another specific gear selection.  That still seems weird to me.

Being a truck, you expect some wind and road noise.  The tester was equipped with winter tires, so I assume that added a couple of decibels of goodness, but all in all, it was alright.  Even at lower freeway speeds, it was acceptable.

But boy did things ever fall apart on the highway.  The wind noise became very loud, but that wasn’t the worst part.  When I was driving at 100 km/h (about 60 mph), the truck was tracking all over the place, and felt as though it was very wobbly and unsettled.  It actually made me uncomfortable.  It was not a tire balancing issue, but it may be that the truck’s alignment is extraordinarily out of place.  Whatever it was, it wasn’t fun.

Off-Road Details

Although I did not have the opportunity to test it’s off-road capabilities, the Tacoma has a reputation for being bomb-proof and able to take a lot of abuse.  The TRD Off-road package includes a ton of things, not all related to off-roading.  But this truck obviously has the ground clearance to make it highly capable.  There’s a massive front skid-plate, in contrasting light metal – so you can see it a mile away.

4×4 modes are accessed with a rotary knob, allowing for quick switch-over to 2-wheel drive, and high or low range 4-wheel drive modes.

In the cabin, you have switches that cater to the off-roader, and likely won’t matter much to the everyday driver.  There is a rear differential lock, which prevents your rear axle from spinning one wheel at a time.  You’ve got A-TRAC (Active Traction Control) – it prevents 4-wheel spin on slippery surfaces – so basically, it’s an extreme form of traction control.  There’s the DAC switch (Downhill Assist Control) – it only works in low-range 4-wheel drive, and it maintains a manageable speed down inclines – basicall a hill-descent mode.  And finally there’s the RSCA switch, which will deactivate the curtain shield airbags, in case of a vehicle roll-over.  Hey, I guess there are people that truly access these trucks’ capabilities and Toyota looks to serve their needs as well.

Nitpicks

I’ve got a few.  The first thing I do whenever I get a review vehicle is pair my iPhone with the Bluetooth system, allowing me to avoid a distracted driving ticket.  I’m no techno-whiz, by any stretch, but I can honestly say I’ve never needed a manual to date in order to figure out how to pair my phone.  Sure it takes a try or two sometimes, but it’s always straight forward.  Not here.  I actually did get out the manual, because I couldn’t even figure out what button to START with.  Without exaggerating, I tried, with the manual in hand, for 10 minutes – and was unable to get anywhere.  I finally gave up – and I’ve never done that in any vehicle I’ve ever reviewed before. Way to go with the user-friendliness, Toyota.  On that note, even if it WOULD have worked, the manual made the process seem horribly and unnecessarily complicated.  It takes up 1 full page of owner’s manual, versus one or two lines in other manuals.

I kind of missed heated seats in this truck.  I couldn’t figure out why, until I realized that every single other vehicle I’ve tested has them.  And in the winter, it’s a good thing.  Vehicles that cost $10,000 less have them.  Just sayin’.

The Tacoma comes with a key.  No, not like the old-school key with remote lock/unlock buttons on it.  I mean, the OLDER-school with nothing on it.  And then a keychain FOB with the remote door lock stuff.  Like actually hanging on a keyring.  Luckily, if you lose it, you should be able to replace this in any local antique store.

I did get annoyed by the rattle from between the front and back doors – it consistently happened when driving over big bumps.

These might seem like trivial issues, and could also be burned-out bulbs, but the power door lock switches, the passenger’s power window switches and the 4×4 mode knob were not lit.  Like I said, it might sound trivial, until you’re trying to unlock the door for a passenger in the dark.  And there are zombies coming.  Not so trivial now, is it?

Detail

One weird thing – the sun visors in this vehicle are by far the thickest I have ever seen in a vehicle.  When you reach up to grab the visor to swing it down, you can’t help but be shocked at the thickness of these things.  Honestly, they are about 3 times as thick as any other sun visor I’ve seen.  This is probably a good thing – you can remove them and use them as bullet-proof body armor, or perhaps a spare skidplate when you’re off-roading.

The Verdict

Well, I don’t really know where to start here.  In terms of a light-truck, the Tacoma is a good vehicle.  The ride is comparable, it handles well, it’s a good city vehicle, and apparently a very capable off-roader.

It kind of reminds me of that wrestler I fought in junior-high.  He looked moderately tough, but there was a surprising amount of jam behind his swagger.  And once I threw a few shots at him, he surprised me with his capabilities, toughness and confidence.  The Tacoma has a lot of substance.

But the substance doesn’t obliterate the compromises.  Now these compromises really won’t surprise anyone who is specifically looking at trucks, and typically you don’t find cross-over buyers, who were looking for a nice, normal car or utility vehicle, and ended up buying a truck.  People who want trucks, buy trucks – people who don’t, don’t.  The high step-in height, the truckish ride, the horrifying mileage – these are all trade-offs that most are quite willing to accept in exchange for the ability to clamber up rocks, down hills, over dirt, snow and anything else you might want to throw at this truck, and also being able to tow something down the road.

So, in terms of a light truck, I give the Tacoma TRD a 7.5 out of 10.  It seems well put-together, well-designed and well backed-up.  I don’t think there would be any surprised to anyone who bought this truck, if you did your homework ahead of time.  I was a little concerned about the highway road manners, but I believe that to be an alignment issue, rather than how every Tacoma behaves over 100 km/h.

In terms of an everyday vehicle, for folks who don’t need a truck, this would rate significantly lower, but I don’t want to patronize this storied 4×4 with a pedestrian rating when nobody would buy this to simply commute with.  Or nobody should be buying it for that anyway.

I could berate this thing all day long over the nitpicks, or that I’d rather have liver removed with a spoon than spend any more time in the back seat.  But this truck isn’t the answer to my vehicle needs – it might be nearly perfect for someone else.  And let’s not forget that you can buy a full 4-door model if the back seat is the only issue for you.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was very low.  She didn’t particularly like the ride, nor how high the step-in height was, and the lack of any usable back seat left her out in the cold.  It’s not a truck thing, because my wife loved another truck we had.

This particular truck does away with the niceties, or the luxuries if you will, and strips things down to what Toyota deems to be the essentials.

Take it or leave it, friends.  Winter is coming.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Ford.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

• January 8, 2012 -- A week with the 2012 Fiat 500 Lounge (0)
• February 19, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 VW Beetle (3)
• February 1, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Ford Explorer Limited Ecoboost FWD (1)

I recently heard a song that triggered this post. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but the song really was the final straw.

I’d love to think of us as a world that works together. I’d love to think of us as a species that looks after one another in every situation and doesn’t celebrate each other’s misfortunes.

But it’s so easy to see my little world as population: one.  Nobody but me exists in it.

As I write this, I can’t help but mentally list everything that I have. Clothing, food, water – clean water even, a country with endless freedoms where we live in peace, a job, my health, my family… and that’s just the beginning. I have it good. Everything is fine.

Figuratively speaking, I don’t think it rains very often in my world – maybe not in yours either. I’ve actually never went hungry, or felt unsafe as I walked down the street, or wondered if I’d be persecuted for my beliefs.  Typically my biggest concerns on a daily basis are what we call First World Problems, like crying myself to sleep on my goose-down, silk-encased pillow because the Apple Store didn’t have a white iPhone in stock for me.  Or my hand being too fat to fit into the Pringles can, and being forced to tilt the can.  Or not being able to hear my TV because I’m eating crunchy snacks.

I can watch the news on my TV, and when I can’t swallow any more bad news, I can just turn it off. And it’s over. The bad news doesn’t really affect me directly. And I can stop thinking about it as easily as I turned it off.

But I believe too many of us, and I include myself as the first person on that list, live in a world of population: one. I know I’ve talked about our responsibility as dads and as husbands here before, and how I feel about all that. There are far too many people who see their own little family as a world where they are the only ones who matter and put their loved ones on a level of importance lower than themselves. That’s not cool. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.

I can’t get rid of this nagging feeling that I’m not doing my part as a member of this species. I don’t mean being an Edmontonian, I don’t mean being a Canadian, or being a white person, or anything else specific for that matter. I mean being a human, amongst billions of others.

I’ve started to look around at the need. You don’t have to look far. You don’t have to wait for a commercial with little African babies with distended tummies to come on to remind you of the need. Take a closer look at that person standing there on the street corner, begging for money. I’ve made my own rules about how I respond to these folks, and I’m certainly not here to tell you how to go about it yourself.

I’ve often looked simply at the sign they’re holding, and started making a path AROUND them. As in, far away from them, and if I can avoid eye contact, even better. Frankly, my day would just improve if I didn’t have to think of this person one more time.  But if you take the time to look at what’s above that sign asking you for a quarter, it’s simply the face of a human being. It’s a person, that at some point, may have had a similar outlook on life to yours. The longer you think about that particular person, and consider their story, the more you realize you don’t know it. You don’t know what caused them to be there, asking for your help. Sure, it’s easy to say “Oh, that person clearly made bad choices, and look where they are now.” But we don’t know what really happened. We don’t know their story, and we don’t know for sure that we couldn’t be there one day too.

I think those of us who have been given much have a responsibility to give some of it back. That doesn’t necessarily mean money. It could be time, or effort, or money, or anything else that we have an abundance of, and others don’t.

My opinion is that we are given these things – all the good stuff in our lives – in trust. You may share this opinion or not. I’ve discussed this with someone who pointed out that good things in our lives are the results of hard work. Oh really? So the folks in third-world countries that work ten times harder than I do, and barely have enough to feed the mouths in their own home, aren’t working hard then? So the person who worked their tail off in a low-paying job for 20 years that was just diagnosed with terminal cancer wasn’t working hard enough then? Truly, this isn’t about the philosophical debate that can come out of any number of angles here – it’s about what I want to do differently in my life, and what I want to teach my kids – by acting on it. You can preach good works to your kids until you’re blue in the face, but if they don’t see you acting on these words, it will have little or no impact on their decision to do the same. Much like anything else, we’ll need to live it out in order to be credible.

I don’t want to spend more time in this world of population: one. I’m hoping you’ll take another look at that person you might find quite unlovely on your way to work next time, and think about how little you really know about why they’re there – and why you’re not. I’m hoping you and I will realize that it’s a person, just like us, and that just between us and them, we’re already a world of population: two. And that there are a few billion others we can add. And that, given some thought, there is really very little that separates us from them. And when our time comes to leave this world, we’ll probably be asking ourselves “What have I given?” rather than “What have I gotten?” I want to start asking myself that question now, instead of when it’s too late.

If we can’t take care of each other, and we aren’t willing to do our part, even if it’s something small, how could we ever expect anyone else to take care of us, on that day when we might find ourselves on the other side of the equation?

If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to browse my archives tab for other posts.

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

• May 18, 2011 -- Crazy fragile, crazy resilient (1)
• January 1, 2011 -- Why I got rid of my baby (10)
• October 4, 2010 -- Saying goodbye (4)

I’m not going to lie – I went into this test drive with significant skepticism.

I reviewed a pretty sweet, loaded up Explorer Limited last year, and came away quite impressed.

The base Explorer starts at CDN $29,999, which is the V-6 powered front-wheel drive model.  Step up to this model, and you’re starting at CDN $41,449.  Yikes.  Add on the goodies I’m going to talk about, and you’re looking at CDN $49,979.  Yowzers.  That’s pricey, but you get a lot of stuff.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on the V-6 powered, all-wheel drive version of this vehicle, please click here to peruse my thoughts on the Explorer Limited.

The big differences between these two Explorers are under the sheetmetal.  So let’s start under the hood…

This Explorer is the EcoBoost.  That’s Ford-speak for direct injection and turbocharging.  They’ve found exceptional success with their EcoBoost V6 engines – in their bigger cars (Lincolns too) and most importantly for their bottom-line, in their trucks.  A big percentage of all F-150s sold now are sold with the EcoBoost V6 – and that’s no mean feat, because it’s a very big-selling vehicle.  I mean, it’s their bread and butter, so they are moving a lot of them.

However, this isn’t that EcoBoost.  And that’s what piqued my first twinge of skepticism.  I was told I was getting the 2.0 Litre, 4-cylinder EcoBoost!!!  WHAT?!  A little 4-cylinder trying to muster up enough jam to motivate this enormous land-leviathan?  As noted in my other review, this generation of Explorer is the biggest one they’ve built to date.  How on earth could they put a 4-cylinder in it?  Even a turbocharged one?

Well, here are the numbers, and they start to apply a little salve to my chapped rear.  The 2.0 Litre EcoBoost puts out 240 HP @ 5,500 RPM – it’s down 50 HP from the V6.  Not great, but not horrifying.  Ah, yes, BUT it does churn out 270 lb.-ft. @ 3,000 RPM.  That, my friends, is 15 lb. ft more than the V6, and it’s available at 1100 RPM less than where the V6 offers it up.  And that makes all the difference.

In North America, we like our torque.  Our driving requires it.  We don’t open our cars up to top the 200 km/h mark very often, but we sure like getting from one red light to the next in a big hurry.  Horsepower doesn’t make a big difference there – certainly not as much as torque does.  And this little engine has torque in spades.

The EcoBoost Explorer is rated at 10.4 L/100 km (23 mpg) in the city and 7.0 L/100 km (33.6 mpg) on the highway.  Those are respectable numbers for a behemoth like this.  Over a week of not particularly economical driving, with mostly city commuting and a slightly heavy foot to explore that torque, I saw 12.9 L/100 km (18 mpg).  That’s not bad.  Not terribly exciting, but really not bad, considering the same size vehicle with lesser performance would have been getting far worse mileage only a couple of years ago.

Let’s talk briefly about the drivetrain.  This generation of Explorer shares a platform with front-wheel drive cars – there’s nothing wrong with that, because that’s how most of us want our big SUVs to behave anyway.  Do you really know anybody who takes their SUV off-road?  Me neither.

But I was a bit taken aback to find out Ford only offers the EcoBoost in a front-wheel drive package.  So there you have it.  A 4-cylinder, front-wheel drive Ford Explorer.  Henry isn’t spinning in his grave quite yet, as this turned out to be a great vehicle.

Exterior

This new generation of Explorer has been completely rethought and in my opinion, it looks good.  This vehicle can look sleek, it can look boxy and it can look enormous, depending on which angle you’re looking at it from.  The front grille is the strongest styling feature, in my opinion.  It has horizontal slats, accented with chrome – you can’t miss it.  Otherwise, the overall shape is built out of boxes, but they’ve managed to modernize it and make it somewhat sleeker-looking, slightly hiding the fact that it’s a big vehicle.  It has a high beltline, making the bottom of the vehicle look bigger and the windows smaller.  Ford retained the faux wrap-around rear side windows that have become an Explorer trademark – they look good on this one.  Another thing you can’t miss on this particular trim level is the meaty 255-50/20 rubber wrapped around great-looking 20″ chrome wheels.

The whole package comes off as a relatively clean design, in my opinion, and considering the size and heft of this vehicle, it is done well.

Interior

The front and middle row seats are a lovely perforated leather.  Both front seats are heated and cooled, and 10-way power adjustable and were very comfortable.  They offer little bolstering on the sides, but that’s acceptable, in my opinion, because this vehicle wasn’t designed to be driven aggressively.  The driver’s seat includes 3 memory settings as well as a power lumbar adjustment.  The leg room/knee room was good for front and middle-row passengers, but perhaps less than you might think.  I found the bulk of the steering column area intruded into the knee room for the driver.  The third row’s knee room is acceptable and will do for kids.  The issue is the foot room in that third row.  The tracks for the second row of seating intrude into what little space you have to put your feet down on the floor.  My kids, on the other hand, have legs that don’t reach to the floor and they were just fine and very comfortable back there.

Headroom is fantastic in this vehicle, even with the two moon roofs looming overhead.  The third row seats have these neat scalloped indentations above them to afford the passengers more headroom back there.

The interior is done well.  The plastics look nice from a visual perspective, and are nice soft-touch materials.  Ford uses a cool LED lighting scheme, and I thought it looked good.  There are neat little touches, like the blue/red lit-up rings around the center console cupholders.  This vehicle had a dark wood trim – it’s nice, but so dark that it barely differentiates itself from the black plastics around it.  The fit and finish seems to be excellent – Ford is paying attention to build quality and gap tolerances are very good.  There were no squeaks or rattles of any kind.

Storage

Storage-wise, the Explorer does well.  There are center console bins for the front and middle rows – both are deep and very usable.  The glove compartment is roomy and has two levels.  There are a number of well-designed door bins in all four doors.  The third row has well thought-out organizers/trays, complemented with a cupholder, on both sides.  Speaking of cupholders, you’ve got two cupholders in the front doors, as well as two in the center console for both the front and the middle row.

The rear liftgate is powered, and can be controlled from the driver’s seat, from the rear liftgate itself or from the key FOB.  Cargo volume is rated at 21 cubic feet, which is decent – this increases to 44 cubic feet with the seats folded down, and it is a significant amount of space.  There are a decent array of solid-looking pivoting cargo hooks in the rear area.  Speaking of folded seats, the rear seats (with the luxury seating package) have a cluster of buttons controlling them from the back of the vehicle.  It allows for 3 different positions – 1) normal, which is upright for seating purposes; 2) fold, which folds that rear row forward, creating a bigger cargo area; and 3) stow, which is an excellent option – it partially folds the seats together flat, and them tumbles them backwards into a well situated in the cargo floor area, making for a massive cargo area with a nice flat floor.  To make this cool power option even more flexible, it allows you to apply your choice to either the left, the right or both rear seats.  This was a great way to impress passengers.  I’ve linked to my short, poorly-made video of the stow mode if you’re interested in seeing it in action – it creates a great cargo area very quickly.

Click here to check out the rear-seat stow mode on 2011 Ford Explorer

I also appreciated the bin where you’d normally find an ashtray at the front of the center console – it is lidded, and provides ample space for little extras, including connected media devices.

Tech/Convenience

This Explorer uses the MyFord system – an all-encompassing system controlling the vehicle’s climate control, audio system, phone integration and navigation system – all through a central touch-screen.  The screen can be divided into 4 quadrants, allowing you to access the basics of each area, or you can zoom in on any quadrant, taking up the whole screen for that particular function.  From there, the screen may change as you progress through menus, functions, etc.  The basics of whatever the screen is showing can be seen in the right one of two 4″ LCD screens flanking your speedometer.  For example, if you’re listening to the radio, you’ll get all the information you want and more on the main screen, but up on the dash, you’ll see the song, artist and radio station.  As mentioned, there are two 4″ LCD screens flanking the speedometer.  The left one has vehicle information in it – which is highly adjustable and controllable by the driver.  It can handle driving range, fuel economy in a variety of ways, tach, gas gauge, temperature gauge, trip computers, vehicle settings and controls the driver assist systems.  The content and control of both screens are handled by a four-way control pad with an OK button in the centre – one on each side of the steering wheel corresponding to each screen.

The concept is fantastic but the way it works isn’t always fantastic.  At times, I found myself wanting this system to react quicker to my touch but it seems this has improved.  Another issue is that it takes longer to get to some of the functions that I wanted to access immediately.  Want to turn on your seat heater?  You’re a few screens away from that.  Want to get to your phone’s contact list?  You’re a few screens away from that.  It does so much, yet it takes significant effort to dig down through the layers of offerings that I found it got irritating at times.

Media sources include AM, FM, satellite, CD, up to 2 USB devices, Bluetooth streaming, and even an SD card.  The sound system itself is a Sony-branded system, playing through 12 speakers in the Limited trim level – including a center channel and a subwoofer in the back.  I have to say this is one of the better sounding systems I’ve heard.

Many of the systems functions are buried in the MyFord screen-based system, but a few of the elementary controls such as volume, seek, scan, etc are done with a rotary dial around a directional pad just below the screen.

This model comes with a hands-free FOB – as long as you have it on your person, your touch will unlock the doors and allow you to use the push-button start/stop ignition.  The FOB also has a remote starter, which is a nice bonus.

You’ll find four 12 volt plugs spread around the cabin, and a very useful 110 V household plug-in at the back of the front center console, in front of the second row.  Right above that, you’ll find excellent temperature controls for the back, which can also be locked out to be solely controlled at the front if you want to be a control freak.  This rear climate control panel complements ceiling-mounted A/C vents, which is a nice touch taken from minivans.  Those ceiling vents do a significantly better job at cooling down a hot vehicle.

Side-view mirrors are power-folding.  It has the Homelink transmitter system, allowing you to program your garage door opener codes – up to three different ones.

This vehicle came equipped with the dual moon roof option – the front one allows for power tilt and slide, and there is a power sliding cover for both the front and the back moon roof.  These roofs allow a lot of light to come in and certainly brighten the interior.

When it comes to safety tech, the Explorer is well-equipped.  It has the collision avoidance system, which lights a row of very bright red LEDs on the dash and sounds a very loud alarm if it appears that you may hit a vehicle in front of you.  It works at all speeds, including in parking lots, etc.  It also has the adaptive cruise control which, of course, allows you to set the speed you want to travel at but also lets you define how much of a gap you want the system to maintain between you and the vehicle in front of you.  If they slow down, so will you – you don’t need to intervene.  The side view mirrors have integrated blind-spot information systems, in the form of an orange LED that glows when a vehicle is in your blind spot.

The MyFord screen also acts as a monitor for a very clear rear-view camera when you’re in reverse, and the picture includes your trajectory which changes as you turn your steering wheel which is very helpful in determining where you’ll end up.  There is also an audible distance sensor for backing up.

The Drive

Driving this vehicle is very comfortable.  The ride is excellent, although stiff enough that it doesn’t wallow around, including the corners.  I, and a few of my passengers, were pleasantly surprised at this relative behemoth’s ability to negotiate corners quite quickly, without complaining.  No screeching of tires, very little body roll.  Considering the size of the vehicle and it’s weight and height, it handles very well.  There is some thump over expansion joints and potholes, which is to be expected with the relatively low-profile rubber.  I have been in vehicles where the cabin has been isolated from road noise better than this one, but it’s not a complaint.  Because of the long hood, I always got the feeling that I’m swinging a very big front end around when I was making lower speed turns or parking the Explorer.  It is difficult to tell where the actual front of the vehicle is and I found that took a while to get used to.

I felt that the V-6 always gave the impression that it worked hard to get this big vehicle up to speed, and made a lot of noise doing so.  I can honestly say that the 2.0L EcoBoost is better suited to this vehicle, at least for the kind of driving I did.  It never felt as though it was working hard, and the torque was always there.

When you’re at speed, the little engine does take a split second to build up boost, but the hesitation is no more than the V-6 provided, so it’s not a knock.  If you keep your foot on it, the EcoBoost will surprise you with the gusto it brings to the table, and I was never disappointed in its performance.  I even enjoyed the noises it made – it sounds more throaty than the V-6 did.

The brakes are good, if not a bit grabby.

Outward visibility when driving this vehicle is exceptionally good.  The one thing I found that really impeded my outward visibility was when the third-row seat headrests were up.  They are enormous and make up what seems to be the top 1/3 of the seats – being this huge, they can’t help but be in the way of seeing out of the back.

One of the things I noticed immediately, and frankly I don’t think enough car manufacturers pay attention to this, is how wide all four doors open on the Explorer.  I was duly impressed – the doors open very wide and stay open if you want them to.  Getting into any of the four doors is very easy and roomy.  That said, it has less wide detents too, if you don’t have a lot of space beside your Explorer.  Well done!

I evaluate vehicles for family friendliness, as I have three small kids in various sizes of child seats.  We easily accommodated our 1 year old in his front-facing child seat, and our 4 year old and our 7 year old in their booster seats.  Getting the kids in and out of the vehicle was a breeze.  There are 2 sets of LATCH anchors in the second row, and one LATCH anchor set for the third row, allowing you to anchor a total of three child seats.  My kids loved this vehicle!  Just remember, you’ve got to tumble one of the second row seats forward to get to the back row.

Nitpicks

If you’ve read my other reviews, you know I often comment on the dead pedal.  I always drive an automatic with my foot firmly placed on the dead pedal space.  The Explorer has a dead pedal on the left side of the driver’s footwell where it belongs, but for some reason, the top left quarter of the dead pedal is cut off by an intrusion.  I kept kicking this intrusion as my whole size 13 foot didn’t fit and it drove crazy, especially when cornering.

I do take great issue with the fact that you can’t get all-wheel drive with this EcoBoost engine.  I’m sure Ford has their reasons, but the EcoBoost has plenty of torque, and the combination would definitely make this a great winter vehicle.  As it sits, I did find myself limited in some packed snow situations or on icy roads.  It suffers from the same traction issues any front-wheel drive car would have, and that became irritating, considering you’re driving an SUV.

Details

If you checked out my review of the V-6 Explorer, you’ll remember the cool  “Terrain Management System”.  It was controlled with a very nifty console-mounted rotary knob behind the shift lever, allowing you to switch the system into optimized modes for different terrains:  snow, sand, mud and a hill-descent mode.  As cool as it is, I firmly believe that 99.9% of owners never will try it, never mind use it regularly.  The front-wheel drive Explorer has done away with it, obviously, and has replaced it with a significantly more useful little storage cup – it’s perfect for change, or as a cupholder for those cute little espresso cups.  Pinky up!

The Verdict

I really liked the 2012 Ford Explorer.  Sure, it probably didn’t hurt that this was the Limited trim level, because any of the goodies I would want but maybe wouldn’t spring for if I was paying for them were included.  But it was a great ride.  It served me well.  Shopping trips were easily accommodated, space-wise, while my whole family was in the vehicle.  If you need room, and a lot of it, and you like that space to be flexible, this is a great vehicle.  It was competent around town, and the fuel economy is acceptable considering the heft of this beast.  It’s even a measurable improvement over the V-6 in terms of mileage.

I would rate this vehicle, for my purposes, a 7 out of 10.  With an all-wheel drive system, I would have given it an 8.  I found it expensive at this trim level with these options, and clearly there are other options out there at that price.  But it’s an excellent alternative and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending a closer look at one if you’re in the market for a bigger SUV or crossover.

In regards to competence and utility, it did everything I asked of it, and that says a lot.  WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was high – very high, in fact.  She loved the space, the high seating position, the tech goodies and the luxury.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Ford.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

• February 19, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 VW Beetle (3)
• February 14, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Toyota Tacoma TRD (1)
• January 31, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Scion iQ (4)

Scion has introduced this car to Canada, and I’m guessing this will compete on most levels with Smart cars.  Without even looking at this car, you know it will be built better and designed better than the Smart, which is hilariously crappy in all respects.

I had a week to make up my mind about whether it was just better than the Smart, or whether it was actually a great car.

The iQ starts at CDN $16,760.  As far as I could tell on Scion’s site, there really aren’t any trim levels of this car.  You just buy one, and there are a couple of upgrades and accessories you can add.  The only addition mine had was the $469 rear spoiler.

Under the hood, you’ll find a tiny 1.3 Litre 4-cylinder.  It makes 94 HP @ 6000 RPM, and 89 lb.ft of torque at 4400 RPM.  These numbers aren’t much to look at, until you realize they are only motivating 2116 pounds.

Scion makes a big ado about the fuel economy.  The iQ is rated just slightly behind the hybrids at 5.5 L/100 km (42.8 mpg) in the city, 4.6 L/100 km (51 mpg) on the highway and 5.1 L/100 km (46 mpg) on the combined cycle.  These are really great numbers, but according to the computer, I wasn’t getting anywhere near that.  I know those in-car computers aren’t necessarily super-accurate, but they’re probably pretty close.

I got 7.5 L/100 km (31 mpg) while traveling at an average 130 km/h (80 mph) on the highway.  That’s not horrible, but it’s not really very good either, never mind what it’s rated at.  Not even close.  With only a 32 Litre tank, the highway range at that rate of fuel consumption isn’t that impressive – for those familiar with our province, I used a full tank of gas at that speed between Edmonton and Calgary.

I can’t help but look at it this way – I drive a Honda Odyssey, which weighs way more than twice as much and will happily carry 8 people and their luggage, accelerates more quickly and is virtually silent on the highway, and it gets somewhere around 24-25 mpg on the highway.  I’m wondering if there wasn’t something wrong with this particular iQ, and how it consumed fuel.

There is an “ECO” mode – but I couldn’t find more information as to what it is and what it does.

Exterior

In terms of the exterior, the most obvious feature is this car’s size.  It is a seriously small automobile.  Its shape is highly reminiscent of a roller skate.  I’m really not sure how many of you even know what that is – for all you youngsters out there, it’s the predecessor to the rollerblade.  Speaking of, whatever happened to rollerblades?  Everyone was in them, and then all of a sudden, nobody is using them.

Anyway, where was I?  You get a lot of looks in this car.  Honestly, people pull up beside you at a light, mouths agape.  Essentially, there is a door, and then a little bit of car behind it, and a little tiny hood in front of it.  The overhangs are virtually non-existent.  I’d estimate that the maximum distance from the front of the front wheel to the front of the car, or the back of the back wheel to the back of the car, is about 8 inches.  I don’t think it would be possible to push the wheels out any further than they’ve done here.

One thing that makes this car even more visually interesting is that it is, proportionally speaking, a very wide vehicle.  For its length, this vehicle is enormously wide.  To be specific, the iQ is 3 meters long and 2 meters wide.  This width actually lends a slightly aggressive look to the front of the car.  I know, that sounds ridiculous, because there is nothing aggressive about this car, but it’s all relative.  What I’m saying is the front end looks less goofy than you might think.  Scion says the width makes it look “fiercely muscular”.  I kid you not.  I don’t know how that writer can sleep at night, but still – it DOES look alright.

Other than that, you’ll find a touch of chrome on the mirrors, a nice rear roof spoiler and a roof-mounted antenna.  And nasty looking wheel covers.  I understand this though – wheel covers are the car manufacturer’s way of saying: “Hey, look at how brutal your car can look.  Won’t you consider upgrading to the highly-overpriced wheel package so you don’t have to be embarrassed every time you look at your car?”

The review sample was Pacific Blue, which is to say BOOOORING!  It’s not a bad color, but it’s pretty ….. Camry.

Interior

Open the door that makes up most of the vehicle’s side, and plop yourself into a set of cloth bucket seats that are quite comfortable.  Instead of having side bolsters and different panels, the seats are one smooth, scalloped shape (including an integrated headrest) and they work well, including on longer drives.  The seats are manually adjustable forward and aft, as well as for tilt, but not for height.

You’ll find yourself surrounded by an odd mish-mash of materials.  The cockpit is made up of virtually all hard plastics, and they arrive in a variety of colors, textures and shapes.  The only soft plastic I found was a small pad on the door panel.

In front of you is a fantastic steering wheel – it’s the perfect diameter, and is blessed with a surprisingly thick, leather-wrapped rim, and a flattened bottom – it felt as though it would be at home in a car with far more sporting intentions.  Great job on this, Scion!  The wheel is manually adjustable for height, but not for reach.  The only controls on the wheel are very rudimentary stereo controls for source, tuning and volume.

Behind the steering wheel is the instrument pod containing a central speedometer.  Below it is a wave-shaped tach, and to the left, you’ll find a small, rectangular driver information screen.

The center stack starts with the stereo system, which rises out of the dash.  Below that, there are three vertically-arranged rotary knobs, which manually adjust the climate control system.

Underneath that is an angled space that looks like it might be meant for storage, but is impossible to use – there are no lipped sides to keep anything in place, and it’s smooth, hard plastic – anything you put there will slide off the second you turn a corner.

The center console is really just a short pod – it has the shift lever in the center, and a traditional parking brake lever on the right-hand side.  In front of the brake lever, you’ll find four buttons controlling traction control, the phone, power door locks and an auxiliary/USB plug under a cover.  The fuel-door release lever is on the floor, next to the driver’s door sill.

That’s about it for the front seats.  Space-wise, you’ll be surprised.  There is a lot of headroom, and you have the ability to stretch out your legs length-wise, as well as plenty of knee room when it comes to width.  That’s why it can be a bit deceiving to drive this – you pull up to a red light, and you wonder why people are gawking at you, because you are quite comfortable and then you realize, “Oh right, I’m driving the tiniest car ever!”  In the front, especially as the driver, you’ll never feel cramped in the iQ.

Scion’s literature indicates that the cabin design was inspired by the “winged form of the manta ray”.  Come on.  I’m sorry, but it just sounds silly.  A manta ray?  They should have said Batman.  Now there’s inspiration I can believe.

Anyway, the fabled manta ray’s inspiration can be found in the door pulls, the wings around the stereo pod and the instrument bin.  Frankly, the weirdly-shaped eyebrow thing over the speedometer reminded me more of Mike from Monsters Inc. than of a manta ray, but whatever.

Tech/Convenience

There is a bit of tech and a bit of convenience that comes packaged with the iQ, but not a lot.  I didn’t find that missed a lot of the goodies, but there were some that became glaringly obvious in terms of what I missed.

That little driver information screen beside the speedometer is small and cramped, and difficult to read quickly or easily.  The display looks like it comes out of a 10-year old car.  It shows you what gear you’re in, and displays a digital fuel gauge, a clock and the outside temperature.  It also allows you to toggle through average mileage, instant mileage, the “ECO” mode (on or off), average speed, odometer and two trip meters.  The toggling and resetting is done with two peg-like buttons sticking out underneath.  Very old-school.  The average fuel economy seems to reset itself after each fill-up, and doesn’t allow for you to do it when you want to.

The stereo is Pioneer-branded, and just begs to be replaced by something that doesn’t completely suck.  It presents you with small chiclet buttons, with tiny writing.  The ergonomics seem extraordinarily un-Toyota.  The sources can draw from AM, FM, satellite, auxiliary, CD, USB with iPod control and Bluetooth streaming.  This all plays through 6 speakers, and does not sound good.  Strangely, I felt it sounded better playing compressed music streaming through my phone.

Power mirrors are controlled by switchgear on the underside of the dash, and power windows and door lock controls are situated on the driver’s door panel.

You’ll find a single 12V plug at the bottom of the center stack, in front of that completely useless angled space.  The iQ comes with a traditional key, and includes a remote lock key FOB.

And that about covers it.  Oh, wait, there is a kind of cool single overhead LED light resembling an eyeball (hmm, another reference to Mike from Monsters Inc.???), set into a gimbal fixture.  It serves as the only real light that comes on when you open the door, but also as a positionable reading/map light.  Want to read in the back seat?  Too bad – you’re screwed.

Rear Seat

Actually, let’s be honest.  If you’re even finding yourself IN the rear seat in an iQ, you’re already screwed.  Whatever you did to the person who put you there, I’d consider apologizing and baking them a pie, because you’ll find little to be happy about back there.

The upside is that it’s actually easier to get into the back seat than you might think.  But once you’re in, you’ll be a sad puppy.  There are 2 seats, 2 seatbelts and 2 headrests.  The iQ is advertised as transportation for 3 adults and one child.  The theory is that the adult in the back seat can twist his or her body slightly, and put their feet in the middle – between the front seats.  There’s even a tiny floor mat for that space, and the center console is reasonably short to accommodate this.  It all sounds good on paper, but it also requires the front seats to be moved forward to the point of discomfort for THOSE people, and some pelvic distortion in order to stay seated properly, AND swing your legs over in the back.  Not to mention that the “child” in the fourth and final seat needs to be a double amputee, because there just isn’t any legroom.

The seats have very short butt-pads, the headroom is tight and the width will make it very, very cozy for two occupants back there.

Should you be mentally ill and want to make transporting children a habit in this car, there are, in fact, two LATCH anchors back there.  Good luck.

A couple of ironies – the outward visibility is actually not bad from back there, and there are two well-designed cupholders back there.  Great place to write out and roll up your last will and testament, because they can talk all the safety they want – I wouldn’t be comfortable sitting in the back of this car and getting rear-ended.  Yes, you appear to be surrounded by airbags, even in the back, but rear passengers are sitting literally inches from the trunk/hatch lid.  If you get hit by someone, you are very likely going to be seriously injured or dead.  I hate to say that, but anyone who argues with me, please go ahead and transport your children in the iQ and tell me how secure you feel with them back there.

Storage

This should be a short section.  The only real storage is the space behind the front seats, when the rear “seats” are folded down – they split 50/50.  This leaves you with a very usable little cargo space – an added bonus is, because you’re right there, you can reach behind the front seat and access virtually the whole space from the front too.

I found the lift-over height to be quite high, and that rear lip could serve to get your pant legs dirty if you’re leaning in to load stuff.  The hatch lid is fantastically easy to lift and to close.

At the back of the trunk space, you’ll find a small, lidded storage bin – about 6” deep, 5” wide and its length is the trunk’s width.  It’s useful for small items, and keeps them from prying eyes.  This is basically the slot-like space left over when the rear seats are up – you might be able to slide a briefcase or two back there.

There is no glove compartment in the iQ, nor much else in the way of storage space.  You do have great door bins – they’re not big, but incorporate a cupholder and additional space, which is very welcome.

This may sound trivial, but there is a single cupholder in the center console.  And it is absolutely perfect.  There are no adjustable arms or tension devices to fit cups – it’s essentially just a hole, but it’s done very well.  The depth and diameter work for any kind of mug or cup I tried, and it’s perfect to stand a smart phone in.  Take note, other manufacturers – forget the fancy-shmancy cupholders and do a few more of these!

The Drive

I was pleasantly surprised by the driving experience.  I found the ride to be  well-damped – firm, but acceptable, and that includes feeling nice and stable during highway driving.

As usual with cars this small and with a wheelbase this short, the car was a bit bouncy over bumps and undulations – that’s just physics, not a fault of the car itself.  Big bumps caused the suspension to get a bit noisy and crashy, but that was more of an exception.

The handling is amazing, as is to be expected from a small car that’s this wide.  It is a weird feeling to have a car almost rotate around you when you steer, instead of swinging the front end in the right direction.  It takes a bit to get used to the immediacy of the turning ability.  And it’s a great thing.  I loved being able to point this thing somewhere and have it respond without an instant’s hesitation.  To call this car agile is an understatement.  I believe they tout the turning circle to be the best in the industry (3.9 meters!!!) – I wouldn’t question that.  Low speed turns and parking with this vehicle are a joy, and couldn’t be easier.

The steering effort is very light and felt well-balanced, but I thought the steering was a bit numb on center.

I never felt this car was underpowered.  This is not a fast car, to be clear, however it never felt wimpy.  It felt just right.  The little engine and the CVT transmission seem to work well together, and it felt good in regular urban commuting, and even did well on the highway or getting into traffic.

I thought the CVT acted intelligently for the most part, and I never experienced the irritating rubber-bandiness that has driven me crazy with some other CVTs in the past.  It does have a “Sport” mode – which keeps revs higher, and it also has a low-range mode, labeled “B” – I’m not sure what that means, but it keeps it in the equivalent of a low gear, 1^st or 2^nd would be a good approximation in a traditional automatic transmission.

I did drive this car in the bitterest of winter conditions and found that it had a tough time getting traction on packed snow or icy roads, even with winter tires installed.  Again, that’s an issue of a very light car, not a design problem.

The iQ is definitely not a fan of ruts – it does get a little upset if you start bouncing in and out of them – it won’t lose control, by any stretch, but it doesn’t like the ruts.

I thought the brakes were great for this car – good, solid feel, and progressive braking.  No complaints there.

The visibility out of this car is mostly excellent.  Shoulder checking out of the driver’s side is difficult because the view is obstructed, but because of the size of the car, this isn’t a big issue, as the blind spot is so tiny.  You can just move your head an inch, and see exactly what’s next to you – it takes some adjustment, but it’s not an issue.

Nitpicks

I felt that the sound damping material was lacking.  I know that you’re very close to the wheel wells and so it’s going to be noisier, but still, there is quite a bit of road noise.  In our city, we find it necessary to spread many beaches worth of sand and rock on the winter roads, and the road grit incessantly made irritating sounds in the wheel wells.

I took this car on an extended highway trip (over 600 kms) and the wind and road noise were at levels that I found almost intolerable.  Which leads me to my next issue – no cruise control.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t even see the option of getting cruise control.  That would automatically remove this car from my list of alternates if I used it for highway travel.  Between the high levels of noise and no cruise control, I felt it was a taxing car to take on a road trip.

I think this car is well put-together, but still, I often heard some of the interior panels clacking against each other over bumps and expansion joints.  Not a creaking or a rattling, but it was definitely some kind of noise.

The ergonomics aren’t bad, but when it comes to those four buttons on the center console, it’s just pathetic.  There is no reasonable way to reach them from the driver’s seat, as you need a tentacle or something like that to get between the shift lever and the e-brake lever.  Terrible, terrible design – like an afterthought, really.

This is something else that may come across as trivial, but it drove me crazy.  The turning threshold for the signal light is way, WAY too high.  Meaning you can easily turn a normal corner in this car, and the signal light will not turn off.  Seriously, as minor as that sounds, after about 10 normal corners and your signal staying on, it starts to grate on you.

There are four settings for the climate control’s fan speed.  The first couple are alright, the third is downright noisy, and the fourth – well, let’s just say they should be naming it, because it’s about as loud as a hurricane.  Fan speed Katrina.  It drowns out any thoughts you might have about manually turning off your signal light.

Finally I’m saddened by the tragically humble horn note.  It’s a very flaccid “SHMEEP”.  I have a theory here, people.  Bear with me.  I strongly believe that car manufacturers should endow smaller cars with bigger horns.  If you drive a Hummer H2 around town, you basically don’t even need a horn.  People know you’re there, and they will get out of your way for the most part.  But if you’re in a Scion iQ, people can barely see you, and therefore you should be given a louder horn to get people’s attention with.  Smaller cars get bigger horns.  I’ve basically single-handedly solved most of our vehicle safety issues right there.  Thank me later.

Details

The iQ has 11 airbags.  That’s a lot for a car in which you can touch every single window from the driver’s seat.

The Verdict

OK, well this wasn’t an easy one.  I never took issue with driving a smaller car.  It’s just something I’ve always been comfortable with, and I don’t have to compensate for anything by driving a jacked-up, diesel truck with a big loud exhaust and a million horsepower and huge tires and a silicone scrotum dragging along behind it.  I’m actually just fine in a small car, and quite comfortable.  So that never bothered me.  I think what threw me a bit was some of the compromises in the iQ.  I know, I know – for this price, you can’t expect the world, and that’s why I’m giving it a higher score than I originally anticipated.  I give it a 6.5 out of 10.  I’m giving it this score, if it’s considered for what it was meant to do.  If you’re considering it for a highway cruiser, I’d give it a 4 out of 10.  But as an intelligent, simple, somewhat flexible, extremely mobile urban warrior, this car rocks.  It would be a great commuter, and it did everything I asked of it.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was surprisingly low.  I think my wife found it a bit too cutesy-wootsy for her liking, and obviously our family doesn’t fit in it.  She typically likes bigger vehicles, and with more cargo space, since she has a sickness – it is called chronic shopping syndrome.

I would appreciate the option of being able to put cruise control in it, and I would absolutely consider upgrading the stereo to the Pioneer touch-screen system.  I’m not sure what it looks like, or if the controls are more intelligent, but it has to be an improvement on the base system.  It’s $595 and includes a touch-screen, as well as hands-free voice controls.  A no-brainer, in my opinion.

I think anyone shopping for a Smart car would heave a hefty sigh of relief that this option exists.  The Smart car is a turd of epic proportions, and the iQ improves on most of those concerns.  The drive and the transmission alone would be reasons to choose this over any Smart products.  I’ve always said “Smart cars aren’t”.

In terms of other competition, there isn’t much.  It’s a micro-car, and we buy few of these in North America – but for those looking at them, it’s a viable alternative to bigger, clumsier, and less efficient vehicles, especially if you’re sticking to the city.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Scion.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

• February 19, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 VW Beetle (3)
• February 14, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Toyota Tacoma TRD (1)
• February 1, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 Ford Explorer Limited Ecoboost FWD (1)

I have taken issue with gluten-free desserts in the past, because they a) have strange textures that I’m not fond of, and b) usually taste like an old gonch.  So I approached all the recipes we considered with extreme wariness and an overwhelming sense of skepticism.  Maybe that’s because I’m German too.  Who knows?

This one, however, is a winner.  Frankly, I believe it will become the standard for chocolate cake in our home, and we don’t even require gluten-free baking.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake

2/3 cup of quinoa – bulk, organic, whatever – we’d recommend white, packaged and organic, but any quinoa will work
1-1/3 cup water
Rinse and boil for at least 10 minutes – leave in saucepan covered to cool, fluff with fork.  If the package instructions ask for a longer cooking time, follow those instructions.  Pending on the texture you’re wanting, you can adjust this to your preference.

1/3 cup milk
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup melted and then cooled butter
Combine these ingredients with the quinoa and then blend the whole business until it’s smooth

1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cacao
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Add these goodies to the blended mixture and blend everything well.
Bake it in a pan (9×13 works best) at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes and you’re good to go.

We serve it with fresh vanilla whipping cream, dusted with cacao and a mint sprig for color.  Because that’s the kind of person my wife is.

But let’s be honest here – it’s chocolate cake – you can do anything you want with it.  And by anything, I mean eat it with ice cream.  Lots and lots of ice cream.  Also, in terms of serving suggestions, I’d heap about 4 pieces on top of each other for starters.  Why anyone would bother with just one piece of chocolate cake this good is beyond my comprehension.

It’s that simple.  I can say, with all honesty, that the person we made this for had three pieces of the cake in one sitting, and it has received rave reviews since then as well.

If you have to ask, our kids loved it.

I’d love to see your feedback once you’ve tried it.

Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to share it!

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

• April 28, 2011 -- Creamy Dill Salmon (0)

This was me, holding my son, Andon, who was just days old.  I think this picture can represent the enormous responsibility we have as dads.

But it also speaks to the enormity of the gift and opportunity we’ve been handed.

Given the opportunity, kids will raise themselves.  I’ve heard that saying throughout my life.  Kids are resilient.  Kids are tough.  Kids are survivors.  Kids will make it.  Kids will find life’s windows and doors and even make exits of their own, and they will find their way through the worst of times and the best of times.  They will be OK.

I actually don’t disagree with any of that.  I have been constantly reminded of how amazing kids are – from the minute they are born.  The miracle of being formed in the womb, the miracle of birth itself, and the miracle of a child developing into a person that walks, talks, thinks, knows right from wrong – it is truly amazing.

With all that said, I do believe it’s true – if you hand a child the opportunity, or rather, force them into it, they will raise themselves.  What I do take issue with is that there are kids out there that actually have to consider this option.  No kids should ever have to raise themselves.  I understand that circumstances aren’t always perfect, or even close to perfect, and that things happen where there is no other option for a child.  But speaking as a father, and having seen things that make me ashamed to be a man sometimes, I want to speak up about this.

Don’t ever underestimate your role as a dad.  Don’t even think about underestimating it.  Traditionally we saw dads going off to work and moms staying home to do housework and raise the children.  I mean, there were even TV shows about that life.  Those days are done.  There is value to having a mom stay home and be a home-maker, no doubt, but the necessity to work is there for many reasons, and nobody can stand there and tell a woman she shouldn’t work.  I appreciate all the moms out there that sacrifice themselves to join the dads in earning and making things work.  Likewise, the days of the dad coming home from work, grunting to the wife and kids, sitting down on his easy chair, smoking his pipe and considering his work done are over too.  Frankly those days should never have existed.

Dads have a huge role to play, and I’m going to tell you why I think so.

As a dad, you need to realize the impact you have on your children.  Let me show you some of the ways that you have an impact on your kids – and consider this:  you’re having an impact in this way, whether you are acting on that part of your role, or whether you’ve chosen to sit back and not do a thing about it.  Either way, this is affecting your kids.  It’s up to you to decide whether it’s important enough to make a difference.

You’re a leader.  You’re the leader of the family.  Again, there are traditionalists who argue that a man’s word is the final word in the house.  This isn’t about that, and I’m not going to get into that debate.  In terms of your kids, however, you are one of the two leaders and your children look up to you as that.  So lead them!  Lead them in every way possible.  Lead them down the road of life, and help them where you can.  Direct them, and make a difference.

You impact them as a moral compass.  Regardless of how you act on this, your children are sponges.  They soak up every word you say, every action they see.  They will track how you speak to your wife.  They will make mental notes when you hug and kiss your wife, but they’ll also take careful note when you hit your wife.  They will see when you are honest at a store, even if the baby took something with by accident.  Bring it back and tell the clerk about it.  Your kids will notice.  They will see how you treat others around you.  They will hear you yelling at people, even if it’s within the confines of your car.  And your kids will very likely use YOUR moral compass to find their own way some day.  If you find yourself doing, saying or even thinking things that you wouldn’t want your kids to be doing, saying or thinking – maybe you should stop.

As a father, you have a major impact on your children’s ability to cope in life.  Coping in life has never been more difficult, in my opinion.  Yet, as dads, we have an incredible opportunity to guide our children.  We have the chance to impart what we know to them.  Give your kids information.  Give them knowledge.  Teach them everything you can, that will make them better people.  Teach them right from wrong, and tell them why this is important.  Teach them what you believe, but don’t force them to follow those beliefs.  Live out your convictions, and if you’ve taught them good things, they’ll want to follow in your footsteps.  Teach them how to make snowmen, and get the carrot nose just so.  Teach them about paper airplanes.  Teach them about walking the dog and picking up after it.  Teach them about loving the people around them, even if they find them particularly unlovely.  Guide them into the right direction, and marvel at their ability to follow through.

You will also have a lasting impact in how you make your children feel.  You might not think about it very often, but consider this.  Between you and your partner, you will likely form your children’s assessment of how safe and secure they are.  And whether or not they are loved.  They don’t need to get these things from anyone else, but if they feel safe, secure and unconditionally loved in their own home, by their own parents, we’ve already made one of the biggest differences we can as dads.

Don’t ever threaten a child’s security, even if you don’t mean it.  Don’t ever attach strings to your love for your child – even if you don’t mean it.  These aren’t things to toy with.  These are matters of life and death to a little person.  Remembering that, I would suggest we fathers take every single opportunity to reassure them in these matters.  Ensure your babies know they are safe.  Ensure they know that, whatever might come, whatever storms may gather and however dark the clouds may seem, their daddy would never let anything happen to them.  Imagine the difference that will make to a little one.  Knowing that daddy will always be there.  You and I know daddy won’t always be there, and some day, the little one will realize that too.  But until they are ready to strike out on their own, resting snugly in that security can mean the world to them.

Love them.  I’ve already talked about unconditional love.  It’s meant for your partner but it’s also meant for your kids.  Don’t imply that your love hinges on something they need to do or achieve.  Don’t hold things over their heads that might make them think that daddy’s love isn’t 100% there.  Love them – like crazy!  You can’t love your kids enough.  You can’t spend too much time with them.  You can’t tell them too many times that you love them.

I also think we fathers can have a big effect with how we support our kids.  I want to ensure my children feel supported.  I don’t always agree with what my kids do, or decide.  And it is my job to tell them that.  And why.  But it is also my job to support them.  It is my job to let them make their own decisions – and this will happen more and more as they get older.  It is my job to let them make their own mistakes, and guide them back onto the right path if necessary.

As always, I will never claim to have the answers.  I am just speaking from my very limited experience, and saying what I think.  I’ve seen dads take a back seat to a) the amount of time their jobs require, b) the mom – don’t get me wrong – in our house, she’s an equal, but he should man up and do his part, or c) doing things the way their dad did it, even if they hated it and knew they’d never want to be that kind of dad.

What I do know is that when I speak of impact, it implies cause and effect.  So when I say you will have an impact on your children and their lives, I’m not kidding.  I’m not pulling this out of thin air.  Your actions, however big or small, whether they exist and can be counted on or whether you’ve chosen to sit back and do nothing as a father, will be cause to the effect.  And the effect is what your children, your flesh and blood (or perhaps not, but equally loved) will become.  Therefore, what you choose to do today will impact tomorrow’s world.  It might be a drop in the bucket, but I’m here to say I want to contribute my drop to make my kids’ lives, and their worlds, a better place.

I can’t imagine someone ever convincing me that I shouldn’t laugh with my kids, or dance with my kids, or cry with my kids, or teach my kids what I know, or tickle my kids, or play stupid games that make no sense with my kids.  No one can ever take that away from me, and I’m hoping that my kids will remember that I was there for them.  I’m not necessarily the best dad, but I do know that when my day comes to be accountable for what I’ve done here with my time, one thing I will be able to say is that I was there for my kids.  I did what I could.

I want to say that I was raised by an amazing dad, who I’ve talked about many times before.  I wish I could be half the dad he was, and I miss him so much.  I truly do wish my kids and my wife could have met him to experience his unconditional love the way I did.

Yet I am surrounded by incredible dads to this day – my brother, my step-dad, my father-in-law, and many, many others.  I am so thankful for the role models that I have been surrounded by – and that I can learn about being a great dad from them.

Being a dad is a blessing, whose proportions money or words can’t encompass, nor replace.  Take that blessing, be thankful for it, and be a dad.

Don’t underestimate your role.  For your kids’ sake, and for your own sake.

So yeah, given the opportunity, kids will raise themselves.  But let’s not make them do that.  Let’s raise them ourselves and see what an impact we can have.

By the way, that picture was one of many incredible pictures taken by one of the best photographers and one of the nicest guys in the world.  Please check out Brian Buchsdruecker’s gifted work at absolutephotography.ca and at bookstrucker.com.

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

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Having spent a solid portion of our Christmas break in and around pools and hot springs, I felt it was necessary, based on the situations and behaviours I observed during this time, to regale you with my own list of pool etiquette suggestions.

Let’s start in the change rooms, shall we?

1.  First of all, you can call me a prude or old-fashioned or whatever, but I firmly believe that the age of children in change rooms should be regulated.  That is, children who are in the wrong change rooms.  At some point, it just gets awkward.  My wife has told tales of boys that look to be about 10 or 12 that come in with their moms and just spend the next 20 minutes gawking at all the naked women around them.  When I’m changing in my change room, and a girl is asking her dad about the different equipment she’s seeing…  well, I’ve got two of my own girls, and this really isn’t that weird.  But when a girl that is wearing a training bra comes in with her dad, I think maybe – just maybe – those kids are ready to strike out on their own.  Let them try out their own side of the change rooms and see what happens.  Please.

2.  Snapping people with towels – it’s so much fun.  But probably not a good idea in public pool change rooms.  I can tell you why.  When I was a kid, I finally, after trying it for about 5 minutes unsuccessfully, figured out how to snap my towel.  I immediately snapped my friend’s rear end.  It was the perfect snap.  A crisp glance off the naked buttock, with a rewarding “SHNACK” to top it off.  Well, it wasn’t quite perfect, and my glee was short-lived, for my friend hadn’t waited around for me to perfect the art of towel snapping, and the person changing beside me was a perfect stranger.  It seemed he took exception to this friendly exchange, and I had to quickly explain that towel snaps are how we express appreciation in Canada.

3.  As irritating as it is to have to pay between 25 cents and a dollar for pool lockers, you still have to do it.  If you choose not to pay for your locker, don’t be surprised or angry when someone takes your stuff out of it, puts their stuff in, plops the change into the door, and walks away.  That’s how things are meant to work.  You’re not entitled to that particular locker just because it smells like your stuff now.  Pay up, or be prepared to give it up.  And complaining noisily to anyone who will look your way doesn’t make you look any smarter, cooler or more justified in being a locker squatter.

Moving along, we’ll take the tour to the shower rooms.

4.  Speaking of showering, please just do it.  It’s a lovely idea, and it gives everyone who sees you come in to the pool with wet hair, skin and bathing suit the false illusion that you actually cleaned yourself prior to immersing yourself into the public pool.  I know, it’s really a sham, and not much is achieved by running water over your body for a few seconds, but realistically, you can’t be doing any harm, and it helps settle my nerves to see you tried.

5.  I certainly appreciate the effort people put into reaching out to others.  I love getting to know new people, and hey, the pool or the hot springs is a great place to do that.  However, whilst in said showers, I have a couple of requests.  A) You don’t need to strike up a personal conversation with strangers in the showers.  If you really want to get to know that interesting fellow, by all means, but please wait until we’re in the pool to do so.  I just want to shower and get to the pool.  B)  Don’t touch me.  There really aren’t a lot of “ifs” and “buts” around this.  Let me put it this way:  if you are bending over to scrub yourself with a soapy handcloth, which I truly do appreciate you doing, I will ask you not to hold on to my shoulder to keep your balance.  This suggestion was gleaned from personal experience.  And I’m still talking to my therapist about it.

Let’s talk about what you’ll wear to the pool.

6.  I know the signage is typically clear on this, but let me reiterate.  No street clothes in the pool.  So yes, dear sir who wore his saggy gonch into the Fairmont Hot Springs pool, I’m talking to you.  If you’re at a lake, and you don’t have other things to wear, I suppose there are different, slightly laxer attitudes that might prevail.  But I don’t like seeing folks stroll into a public pool, wearing their tighty-whiteys, their shorts, their shirts, or anything else that clearly wasn’t removed during their trip through the change room.  And another thing I’ve noticed is that the street clothes wearing offenders often haven’t referred to Rule #4 either.  Ugh.

7.  Consider the appropriateness of your bathing suit.  I’ve been to Europe a number of times, and to say that they are more relaxed in terms of what they wear to a swimming facility, or frankly WHETHER they even wear something to the facility, is an understatement.  I was in for quite a surprise the first time we headed to a lake in Germany, and I started having a look around.  HELLO!  It goes for guys and girls.  In Europe, dudes wear Speedos.  It’s just that simple.  Now here, in conservative North America, gentlemen should be advised that their banana hammock Speedos might not be nearly as acceptable, etc – although it’s not against the rules, it’s just a suggestion, and just know that you’ll be snickered at.  A lot.  Also, if you’re headed to an outside pool, it gets cold here in Canada.  Just sayin’.

Finally!  We’ve arrived at the pool.  The water looks lovely.  Come on in!  Unless…

8.  Hey!  Guess what?!  Open wounds, let’s say with profuse (or even barely detectable) bleeding or perhaps ones that are oozing pus, aren’t really a nice thing to bring with you into the pool.  And even if you’re willing to be quite open about it.  Like the person who sat on the edge of the pool while I was in it, bleeding INTO the pool, and loudly discussing the stinging pain the chlorinated water was sending into their gaping wound.  Not cool.

9.  Bodily fluids may also be deposited elsewhere, or just left outside the pool.   I’m not under any illusions that pool water is clean, and that there isn’t a bunch of pee, snot rockets and probably poo floating around in minor quantities.  But please, do your part.  If you’re considering holding one nostril closed, and blowing a quarter-pound snot rocket out of the other nostril – into the pool you and I are both enjoying, please don’t.  I don’t care if that’s cool in the country where you come from. It’s not here.  And shouldn’t be there.  On that note, is that “pee dye” a reality?  As a kid, I was always warned not to squeeze off even a drop of pee, because the water would instantly turn blue or purple or whatever, and everyone would know you peed in the pool, and you’d be humiliated, and then your parents would be humiliated, and that wouldn’t be good German behaviour, and your life as you know it will be over.  But the truth is, I’ve never seen that dye do its dirty work to ruin someone’s life, and I often wonder if it’s all just a really effective rumor.

10.  Let’s not accept any relaxed standards around bodily fluids either.  I have an example to illustrate what I mean.  My parents, as mentioned, were very clear about their bodily fluids in the pool standards.  As in, don’t put them there.  My sister-in-law tells a story of a time when they were in the hot springs – Fairmont Hot Springs too, if I’m not mistaken.  A kid says to his mom: “Mommy, I have to pee!”  Well, this sounds like an excellent start, doesn’t it?  Little kid, with bladder control, advises mother of urgent need for bathroom.  If only it ended that way.   The mom, to everyone’s dismay, utters the following words: “Oh, that’s OK, honey.  Just go pee-pee in the pool.”  Those kind of standards will not do!

11.  Splashing – try not to do too much of it.  I’m no curmudgeon here, people.  I have three kids, all of whom splash around in the pool, and I did it myself.  I accept that.  I’m talking about excessive splashing.  If your kid splashes me by accident, I’m totally fine with that.  If your kid splashes me for the 30th time, after I’ve verbally taken issue with it, I will not be OK with that.  Additionally, if you are an adult, and you are very fond of jumping into the pool, directly next to, or perhaps INTO, a group of unsuspecting people, I will not be OK with that either.

12.  Band-aids – as a general rule, if you have a Band-Aid on, and I see it as you come into the pool, I’m already judging you.  I’m already thinking, well they probably have a fully infected, oozing laceration under there, and oh, look at the time, I’ve been in this pool long enough.  I know.  I’m picky.  Now, should you choose to come into the pool with your Band-Aids on, I suppose I can’t stop you.  But please, for the sake of all humanity, remember that the edge of the pool, or the bottom of it is not a good place for them.  Please keep the Band-Aid where it is, and check on it often.  On a related note:  kids – when you find flesh-colored chewing gum on the side of the pool, don’t chew it.  It’s likely a bloodied, crumpled-up Band-Aid.  Actually, now that I think about, it doesn’t matter what color it is.  Kids – when you find ANY gum in or around the pool, don’t chew on it.  Mmmmkay?

Just a couple of quick notes about other activities I was exposed to:

13.  Thou shalt not steal towels around the pool.  OK?  Because I didn’t bring it there for you to use.  I brought that towel there so I could a) be warm between the pool and the change rooms and b) cover up my gut during the change room to pool commute.  Or I might want to lay on the grassy knoll beside the pool, on my towel.  Or I might want to coddle my children by keeping them from getting hypothermia when they get out of the pool.  Whatever my reasons are, they’re better than your reasons for taking my towel.  Unless someone has lost an appendage and you need my towel to make a tourniquet that will save a life.  That is the one exception.  Life-saving tourniquets will be considered.

14.  People that read in the pool – weird?  Or am I weird for thinking they are?  I don’t get it.  Reading – what a fantastic activity.  Your brain is growing, and you’re doing yourself some good.  Going to the  pool – what a fantastic activity.  Your muscles and joints are getting worked, and you’re moving and you’re doing yourself some good.  Reading in the pool – what a strange activity.  Really?  You’re actually going to just stand in 4 feet of water, hold a book out in front of you and read?  And you look at my child strangely because they got one drop of splashed water on your dog-eared copy of “Catcher in the Rye”?  Really?  Actually, I should be more concerned with YOU, because we all know what kind of people read “Catcher in the Rye”.

15.  Don’t try acrobatic performances – especially of things you aren’t good at.  For example, if you and your 13 friends decide to make a human pyramid, and you haven’t really tried it before….. just don’t.  You look silly.  You’re going to hurt other people when you tumble down.  You’re going to hurt yourselves when you tumble down.  You’re going to drown.

16.  Remember that you displace your own volume in the water.  Therefore, if you are 700 pounds, and you are getting into a hot tub that is completely filled with people and the water is already sloshing over the edge, you will in fact not fit.  You will, in fact, send many gallons of water fleeing for their lives, over the edges of the hot tub, and once that’s done, you will make an already full hot tub an extraordinarily uncomfortable one.  Mainly because you are actually touching every single person in the hot tub with one part of your body or another.  So be kind please.

If most or all of these suggestions don’t work for you, you could always just consider spending some quality time in your own pool.

Well, that about covers it.  There are many, many more suggestions, I’m sure, and if you have some to add in the comments, please do so.  Same goes for great pool-related stories.  Share them, and get them off your chest.

If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to browse my archives tab for other posts.

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I’ll start this review by telling you I was quite excited to find out I was getting a Fiat 500 to test drive.

I’ve heard great things, and frankly, I’ve been looking forward to driving one.

The Fiat 500 is available in several trim levels – the base model comes in 3 levels and then there is the performance-minded version, the Abarth.  My tester was the top-of-the-line Lounge model.  Other than a stupid name, let’s see what this package gets you.  Everything I mention here was in my car, and I’ll tell you when it’s an option and how much it costs.

The 500 starts at a very cheap CDN $15,995.  From there, it goes up.  The Lounge trim starts at CDN $19,500 and my car, as tested, rang in at CDN $23,925.

Starting under the stubby little slanted hood, we find a very tightly-packed engine bay, holding Fiat’s modern MultiAir 1.4 Litre inline-4.  It uses a number of interesting twists and turns in terms of how it manages combustion through intake valve actuation, blah blah blah.  In the end, it gives you quicker throttle response and more power and torque, cleaner driving and better fuel efficiency.  The official numbers are 101 HP @ 6500 RPM and 98 lb. ft of torque at 4000 RPM.  Certainly nothing to write home about, but after having spent some time with it, I can see where they’re coming from.  Whatever is going on under the hood is doing things right – throttle response is quick, accurate and satisfying, and I never felt that this car was lacking power or flexibility – in terms of this class of vehicle, and within this price range.

Mileage is, of course, a big selling point with cars this size, and this one is no exception.  The 500 is rated at 7.4 L/100 km (32 mpg) in the city, and 5.7 L/100 km (41 mpg) on the highway.  Those are good numbers.  During my time with it, I saw an average of 7.3 L/100 km (32 mpg) from mixed driving – quite a bit of city driving and several extended freeway trips – none of it driven economically.  I wasn’t trying to save fuel, so I was happy with this mileage.  It’s a good thing it gets good mileage, because you only get a 40 Litre tank.

Although the engine bay is tight, the fluids and anything you might want to be serviceable for the average person is easily accessible.  The engine, in this case, was mated to a 6-speed Aisin automatic transmission which I’ll talk about a little later.

Exterior

Here’s the real story, in my opinion.  I actually really like the exterior styling of the 500, although having seen the Abarth at the LA Auto Show this summer, I am much more taken with its more aggressive look.

That said, the 500 has some fun lines to look at it.  It’s cartoonish, but in a pleasant way.  It is a very small car, regardless of which angle you’re looking at it from.  Parked beside a “normal” car, it looks puny.  It’s short, but not too low.  The front grille looks friendly, and the back looks sporty-ish.  The rear is a severe angle, and that partially affects what happens on the inside – but without that slant, it wouldn’t look nearly as good.

The wheels are pushed as far out to the corners as possible, which minimizes any overhang, and maximizes what they can do inside the car.

I liked the splashes of chrome – they are well-placed, and give the 500 Lounge a bit of a sparkle.  You’ll find it on the mirrors, strips on the front and back bumper areas as well as around the tail lights.

The wheels are nice, and run on 185/55-15′s – seemingly tiny rubber, but wholly appropriate for a car this size.  You’ll find nice fog lights in the front air dam, and a tall roof-mounted antenna.

There’s a single, chrome flattened-oval exhaust tip – I’m not a fan, and would prefer a round exhaust tip, but that’s just me.

Interior

Open the door, and plop yourself into the handsome “Italian leather” seats.  They look good with their vertically-stiched lines, and they feel good.  They’re manually adjustable, and heated – the seat heaters are a $300 option.  I found the seats very comfortable and reasonably bolstered.  You won’t go hitting the race track with them, but for normal driving, they’re good.  The driver’s seat (only) has an armrest that can swing up and out of the way.

The headroom is acceptable, but honestly, it’s not great.  I’m not tall, and I felt as though I was practically looking into my folded-up vanity mirror.  The legroom was pretty limited too – everyone drives differently, of course, but the way I do it, my right knee was permanently resting against an uncomfortable hard plastic surface on the center stack.

You’re surrounded by hard plastics.  I mean, there are no soft touches anywhere, except small padded panes on the door panels.  That’s it.  That used to fly in this class, but the competition is stepping it up, and materials are going upscale with each and every model revision, it seems.  Let’s hope that holds true for the 500 as well.

You do have a fun body-colored swath of plastic that runs horizontally across the dash, which is a welcome splash of color and livens things up a bit.  I noticed an abundance of round shapes – everywhere you look, you’ll find a circle of some sort.  It’s as if Mini and Fiat are having a “who can have the most round crap in one car” competition.  Some of them get just downright weird – like the headrests.  It’s just too much sometimes.

In front of you, you’ll see a combo-gauge.  That’s my wording.  It’s a combination between two circular gauges – the speedometer on the outside ring, and the tach on the inner ring – and a digital driver information screen in the centre.  Everything’s round.  I don’t like it.  It’s not particularly easy or quick to read, and not particularly nice to look at either.

I really liked the steering wheel.  It felt good, and worked well.  It’s manually adjustable for tilt, but it doesn’t telescope in or out for reach.

The center stack starts with some vents on top, the media system below, a row of three buttons (Sport mode, 4-way flashers and rear defroster), a chunky-looking climate control area and then a pregnant-belly-like pod that sticks out – it houses the power window switches and the shift lever.

There isn’t really a center console – it’s more like just a couple of things on the floor.  There’s a storage area at the front and a traditional parking brake lever.

The overall ergonomics in the 500 seem to be more about form than function.  There seems to be a nod toward style, but I’m not sure what style it is.  It just seems to be behind the curve in terms of ergonomic soundness and design.

Tech/Convenience

There’s not a ton of goodies in the Fiat 500, but there’s enough to keep most people happy, and to get you comfortably from here to there.

The driver information screen in the middle of the gauge “cluster” – more like a hive than a cluster – is round, and shows you a lot of information.  To be honest, it’s too much for that screen.  It consistently displays your gas gauge and engine temperature, as well as the outside temperature, your gear selection, the date and time, a digital speedometer and the odometer.  Then you can cycle through a number of other things, using a horrible 3-button system which never ended up making sense to me.  Thankfully the additional information isn’t stuff I really care to cycle through on a regular basis anyway – there’s some trip data and many vehicle settings.  Unfortunately you get no read-outs of your mileage or fuel range – which are useful to me, and should be included with all cars.  I found the entire thing a bit unfriendly to try to read quickly or to use, in terms of the sub-menus and buttons.

The steering wheel has controls for the voice recognition (Fiat calls their system Blue&Me – what?!), Bluetooth/phone use and cruise control.  You’ll also find media/stereo controls on the back of the steering wheel where you might find shift paddles on other cars.  It’s a weird system (which I have on my own Chrysler product) – you eventually get used to it, but I prefer buttons on the front of the steering wheel where I can see them and know what I’m pressing.

Speaking of the voice recognition – the system in the 500 is very fast and very accurate – I was quite impressed with it.

The stereo is a BOSE unit, with a few speakers spread around, including a subwoofer under the passenger seat.  It feeds off of AM, FM, satellite radio, CD, auxiliary or USB sources, including iPod/iPhone control.  The auxiliary and USB plugs are in the glove compartment.  I thought the sound system sounded great, and it offered a nicely padded bass response – much more than I can say for other cars in this class.  However, I felt that the design and ergonomics of the system came across as rather old-school – although the collection of hard buttons were relatively easy to navigate, it felt as though you’d find this system on a car that was 5 to 10 years old.

The climate control system is automatic, and works well.  There’s a 12 V plug in the center stack, near the main cupholder bin.

Overhead, you’ll find a nice tilt/slide sunroof, with a manual sliding sunshade.  This is a $500 option.

The power door locks are an interesting twist.  It honestly took me about 2 minutes (which seems like hours when you’re searching around a cubicle-sized car) to figure out where to activate the power door locks from within the car.  The door openers are styled levers – and quite nice at that.  To lock the doors, you just push the driver’s lever toward the door, and it locks the doors.  Quite a neat feature.  On that note, I challenged a couple of others to figure that out, and nobody could.  I hope that’s in the manual somewhere.  OH!  Speaking of the manual, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.  In the day and age of 400 page car manuals, the Fiat 500′s is refreshingly simple.  It’s written in excellent, simple English, and doesn’t overcomplicate matters.  Yes, it’s a simple car, true, but it’s nice that they kept the literature simple and fun too.  I liked that.

The heated power mirrors are controlled from the driver’s door panel.

Finally, this car had a parking distance sensor with audible alarms, which will cost you $375.  Not sure if that’s worth it, since you can pretty much reach out your back window and touch whatever is behind the car, because you’re only a couple of feet away from the hatch lid.

Storage

There ain’t a lot.  Surprise, surprise, surprise.

The 500 has a nice-sized glove compartment, which is easily accessible.  In there, you’ll also find a small, but highly usable mesh pocket – perfect to hold whatever device you might have connected to the auxiliary or USB plugs.  Smart.

Below the pregnant-belly pod sticking out of the center stack, you’ll find a weird bin type of thing.  Look closer and you’ll see it’s actually a triangle of three cupholders, and in front of them is a small, vertical slot – absolutely perfect to stand a smart phone in.  And it’s deep enough that the phone is highly unlikely to go flying even in the face of emergency braking, etc.  I liked that.

The door bins are long and easily accessible space – I found them to be quite useful.

The rear cargo space is the only true storage capacity to speak of here.  Surprisingly, although it’s a small space, it’s bigger than I expected and quite usable.  Of course, should you fold down the rear seats (they fold in a 50/50 split), you’ll find that space increasing exponentially, and you’ll find yourself able to transport much more than you might think with this car.  I wouldn’t quite sign up to move your friend’s piano yet, but still, it’s not bad at all.  Note that the rear seats don’t fold flat.  Oh, I should mention that the rear hatch is perfectly light when it comes to opening and closing it – the gas shocks are absolutely flawless in how they are calibrated.  It’s a little detail, but it’s great.

Last, and pretty much least, there is a small mesh pocket on the side of the center stack for the passenger.  I guess you could slip a flask or something in there.  It’s near the passenger’s knee, so I’d recommend popping a nice soft pad in there, to ease the pain of having to rest your leg on the hard plastics…

Rear Seat

The back seat, contrary to what you might think, is actually not that bad to get into.  I mean, it’s no Rolls Royce Phantom back seat, but considering that this car is practically microscopic, it’s not horrible.

The seats are quite comfortable.  As the picture shows, the seats are virtually flat and offer no bolstering, but they work fine and weren’t uncomfortable.  They do have truly strange round headrests that look weird, and absolutely have to be moved up if there are rear passengers – they can be moved down (I’m guessing to get out of the rear view for the driver) but they would sit in the middle of your shoulders.  It seems that form beat out function here again.

There are 2 headrests and 2 seat belts.  The legroom is tight, and the headroom is tight.  This is coming from a not-very-tall guy, so any six-footers would be screwed back there, unless you’re a contortionist.  Interestingly, the foot room is great – lots of room under the front seats.

You get a little armrest ledge for your outside arm – that seems like a friendly gesture at first, but then you notice that your shoulder is permanently pushed against the hard side of the car above the arm rest ledge.  And it’s not that comfy back there.  Obviously riding in the back of the 500 should be for short distances, well-behaved dogs or enemies.

The visibility out is OK, but it does get pretty cozy after about 15 seconds.

In terms of convenience, you’ll find 2 inline cupholders on the floor between and slightly behind the front seats and map pockets on the backs of the front seats.

Family friendliness is really out the window here.  Although my kids got into the back easily, my 7 year-old daughter complained that it seemed cramped – that’s a sign.  In case you’re really into torturing yourself and want to get kids’ seats back there, you will find 2 sets of LATCH anchors.  Be my guest.  I hope you have chiropractic coverage.

The Drive

Where do I start?  Let’s start with the good news, shall we?

As noted earlier, I never felt that this car was severely underpowered – you can’t say that about all cars that put out 100 HP.  The little MultiAir engine sounds great, and rips and snorts a bit when you get on the gas.  I had a few people comment about that when I stepped on it. The engine makes decent torque at lower RPM than you expect, and the power is fine for urban driving.  As a matter of fact, this car might even be a tad quicker than it feels.  It will get up to decent speeds around the city without trying too hard, and might surprise you once a while when you look at the speedo.

The handling is definitely competent.  Though the car feels somewhat top-heavy, it will do whatever you ask of it in corners.  Throw the 500 into a corner, and it will go where you’ve pointed it.

The brakes were great, and always did what I asked them to do.  Which was brake.  Actually one time I asked them to recite a haiku, and they did NOT do what I asked them to do.

The electronic steering is incredibly low-effort – this is fantastic for low-speed maneuvering such as u-turns and parking – coupled with an amazing turning circle, you’ve got a winner in this department.  But the effort doesn’t increase much as the speed increases, and I found that to be a bit disconcerting.  I felt that, as you start driving faster in this car, the steering gets weirder and weirder.  It feels as though it’s never happy on-center and always wants to drift one way or the other.  I would prefer higher effort requirements in the steering once you’re driving around.

The ride is quite firm – expected in a small car with a short wheelbase.  But at times it borders on too firm to be called comfortable.  However, what isn’t intermittent is the bounciness and choppiness.  I understand we’ve got a short wheelbase to work with, and that makes it all but impossible to soak up dips and bumps, because the whole car is going over or through them at the same time.  What that leaves you with is that your head is basically bobbing back and forth the entire time you’re driving.  Edmonton’s crappy roads weren’t a great way to get to experience the 500′s ride.  I hesitate to call it harsh, but I can comfortably (perhaps not the right word to use here?) say that I felt a lot like I was on a giant pogo stick at times, especially over roads that had dips and wallows in them.

I’m not sure if this is a steering or a suspension thing, or a combination, but I felt that braking while steering made the car feel very unsettled.  Not like it was going to lose control, but like it was confused.  I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has experienced that.

I did have a few trips down the freeway, and I found the car has quite elevated wind and road noise levels and was very susceptible to sidewinds.  All those factors would get very irritating on a road trip.

Outward visibility is very good with one exception.  As the driver, you can’t do a left-side shoulder check.  It’s not even a possibility.  You don’t see anything but an amorphous mass of B- and C-pillar.  To counter this, Fiat has added a small convex mirror to the side-view mirror – it allows you to see the normal mirror view, as well as what’s slightly further back in the lane next to you – exactly what you’d be shoulder checking for.  It sounds silly, but it actually works very well once you get used to relying on it.  It does take getting used to though, and the first couple of times I tried shoulder checking, I may or may not have had to change my underpants, because I couldn’t see a thing and by the time I did figure out there was a huge jacked-up diesel truck beside me, I realized the car I was in would fit into the truck’s tread pattern.

I wasn’t too enamored with the Aisin 6-speed automatic either.  Personally I feel a car like this needs to be driven with a manual – it’s spirit begs for that.  But when saddled with an automatic, a small car doesn’t have to suck.  Check out my Kia Rio review for proof.  But this one wasn’t that great. The transmission isn’t particularly fast on the shifts, nor is it particularly smooth.  It’s not a horrible gearbox, don’t get me wrong.  But what it has against it is the one thing it can’t do anything about – the competition.  I have definitely experienced faster manual shifts from other automatics as well.

The one thing I did think made the driving experience better was depressing the “Sport” button.  What it does is tightens up the shift patterns, holding shifts longer and downshifting occasionally, makes the throttle response snappier and significantly increases the steering effort.  These things don’t make the ride or the transmission any smoother, but it does add a little sportiness to the character of the drive.

Nitpicks

I’ve got a few gripes here, so bear with me.

First of all, I did notice a number of jiggly sounds coming from what sounds like the window or door seals – they’d occur over rougher surfaces but were highly noticeable.  I wouldn’t classify them as squeaks or rattles, but they were irritating nevertheless.

I’m a big cupholder fan, and was surprised to find 5 of them in this tiny car.  Unfortunately they all suck.  I use a standard size Starbucks travel mug, and it was too tight to get it into any of the cupholders.  Not cool.

The latch for the sliding sunshade is thumb-actuated and is one of the worst designs I’ve seen in a long time – it’s difficult to open or close.  There have to be a hundred better ways to make that work, and I can’t imagine why they would have settled on this way.  It’s simply poor design.

I understand that rear seats are practically an afterthought in cars like this, but if you’re going to put them in there, then service them.  There is no lighting anywhere near the back seats.  Anywhere.  So IF you have rear passengers, which you just might once in a while, and it’s dark outside, which it might be once in a while, they will be unhappily searching for their seatbelt buckles.  Which I had happen – more than once.  Just an irritant.

With all the new-fangled ways of doing things, I still appreciate a volume knob.  This car doesn’t have one.  Up and down volume buttons.  Not good for making quick and accurate adjustments to volume.  Also, if you want to use the ones on the dash, you can’t do it without looking.

I thought the seat cushions were too short.  The thigh support was inches away from the back of my knee and it always felt as though there should be more seat.

It seems like a weird choice to put only one 12 V plug in the car, and then not to put it where the auxiliary and USB plugs are.  Yes, I know USB usually charges itself, but still – why not put them all together in the glove compartment?

This is a quality issue, but still – the allen bolt in the door frame holding the door detent strip was loose – which means every time I opened my door past the first detent (which is EVERY time), there was a loud bang.  Not cool at all.  It’s a simple fix but still, it shouldn’t happen.

The Verdict

I hate that I didn’t love this car.  I was so looking forward to driving it, and for the most part, I did enjoy my time with it.  But there was enough to throw me off too.  I was surprised at the ergonomics that seemed to be behind the competition, and to be honest I wasn’t smitten with the quality or the relative lack of equipment/tech/goodies, especially compared to the competition at this price.

I know you’re paying a little more for the design, and yes, it is a cool little car.  It’s certainly a life-style choice, and I think it certainly qualifies as a viable urban transporter – a great little car to rip around the city with.

I wouldn’t recommend this car for highway driving, nor for more than 2 people.  And I took exception to some of the anomalies and unpredictabilities in terms of steering/suspension, especially at higher speeds.

I give the Fiat 500 a 6 out of 10.  I do know that the performance-oriented Abarth is said to have a much better suspension, with a much more buttoned-down approach to cornering, etc.  Not to mention a 60% increase in horsepower.  Hello!  I’d absolutely love to test one of those, as I have a feeling it would address most of the issues I had with the 500 Lounge.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was pretty high.  Obviously our family doesn’t all fit in this car, but my wife liked the looks of the car, and she thought it was fun.

I wish I’d liked more about the Fiat 500 Lounge, and I wish I could have given it a sparkling review.  I’m guessing they’ll improve on things as this model evolves, and as noted, I’m certain the Abarth would take care of most of what I complained about.  In terms of it’s size and what you get for your money, I’d find it hard to highly recommend this car for practicality’s sake.  But cars like this speak to people’s hearts as much as to their practical sides, and if that’s where you’re at, I’d be hard-pressed to talk you out of it, because it’s hard to find a true and direct competitor for this car.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Fiat.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

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• February 19, 2012 -- A Week With the 2012 VW Beetle (3)

The 2012 Kia Rio is Kia’s entry-level vehicle – size- and price-wise.  At the starting price, it has little competition – you can get into one for CDN $14,095.  The one I reviewed was the second from the top – the EX Uvo Auto is priced at $18,795 and includes everything I will talk about here.  Which is quite a bit.

Let’s see what’s under that short, slanted hood.  It’s nothing pretty – it’s a combination of ugly and shrouding that covers up more ugly.  It’s Kia’s 1.6 Litre DOHC, direct injection 4-cylinder engine with dual-cam variable valve timing (CVVT).  It’s nothing ground-breaking, but it is a thoroughly modern power plant, and churns out appropriate power for this class and engine-size.  It’s rated at 138 HP @ 6300 rpm and 123 lb.-ft. @ 4850 rpm.  Not bad, not great.  It’s not an engine that will stir your soul, but it certainly will move you off the spot just fine, and typically you don’t expect much more than that, performance-wise, at this price level.  I was quite happy with this engine.

Mileage is fantastic, in terms of the ratings.  Kia has it rated at 6.8 L/100 km (35 mpg) in the city and 4.9 L/100 km (an astounding 48 mpg) on the highway.  I saw 7.2 L/100 km (33 mpg) over the time I drove it, which isn’t bad, considering I never drove it with a light foot.  That comes out of almost exclusively city driving, with a couple of quick squirts down the freeway.

Exterior

Styling-wise, the new Rio is just a complete 180-degree turn from where the last generation Rio left consumers.  I won’t get into the last generation one, but it wasn’t pretty.

The 2012 Rio enjoys a very clean design.  The ex-Audi design chief, Peter Schreyer, has given it nice smooth sculpted lines, with a lovely chiseled scallop on the side – it adds a lot of character.  You’ll also see the familiar corporate snout in the grille.

I found the front end looks aggressive, in a good way, and includes foglights, and the rear end is clean and well-designed.

I liked the wheels – they look sporty and, at this price point, fancy!

The car is small in terms of its outside dimensions – pictures don’t quite do its small size justice.

Interior

Get into the easily accessible driver’s seat, and you’ll see a clean, well-designed dash.  Materials-wise, the Rio has a ways to go.  I felt that there is an abundance of hard plastics, and I heartily disagree with the literature that indicates this car has a “soft-touch dash”.  It’s not.  The only soft-touch materials are a slight pad in the door panel.  With that said, the plastics have a nice visual texture to them, but the competition has headed down the soft plastics road – time to catch up!

Other than that, I really liked the interior.  The seats are firm, and decently bolstered.  I thought they were initially uncomfortable, and once manually adjusted and properly positioned, they were just fine for me.  I thought the seat fabric, at least the inserts in the center panels, was terrible – it looks like a bunch of random stitches.  Not for me, thanks.

I really liked the little steering wheel – it felt good in every situation.  It’s manually adjustable for height and reach.  Speaking of tactile goodness, I really liked the feel of the shift lever.  It’s perfectly shaped, and I tend to rest my hand on the lever, even in an automatic.  It’s great for that, and feels just right when you’re manually shifting that lever up and down.

The headroom in the front is reasonable, but not great.

In front of you, you’ll find a clean 3-gauge instrument cluster – one large full gauge speedometer in the middle, flanked by two half-gauges – the tach on the left and the fuel gauge on the right.  Below the the speedometer is a driver information screen.

The center stack starts with vents on the top.  Below that is the media control and screen area, and below that the climate control which is manually adjusted.  At the bottom of the stack, you’ll find a recessed bin.

The center console starts with that recessed bin, the automatic shift lever and a traditional parking brake lever.

There is a fuel-door release on the floor near the driver’s door.

Tech/Convenience

Now, looking at this car for the first time, and absorbing its price, you’d think this section would be short and sweet.  You’d be wrong.

I was duly impressed by the amount of goodies packaged with this car – at this price.

Overhead, you’ll find a nice tilt/slide sunroof, and LIT vanity mirrors – that made my wife happy!  The front seats are heated – the heating elements work well and quickly.

The steering wheel has a bunch of controls on it – for your phone, voice recognition, media and cruise control.  Headlights are automatically controlled, which is quite unusual in this class.

Power door locks, windows and mirrors are all controlled from the driver’s door panel.  Interestingly, especially at this price level and on a vehicle this small, the mirrors are also power-folding.  A lovely bonus!

The Rio is started with a traditional key, but comes with a remote door lock FOB.

The driver information screen is excellent, and other manufacturers could take some lessons away from it, in terms of what can be done with a small screen and what should be available to the driver.  The screen clearly displays what gear you’re in and the odometer.  You can switch between additional information, including average and instant mileage, average speed, elapsed time, outside temperature, fuel range and 2 trip meters.  I can’t imagine needing more than that, and that’s better than I’ve seen on vehicles costing significantly more.

This vehicle had Microsoft’s “Uvo” info-tainment system.  Other than the retarded name that made me continuously think of ovaries and my pre-conceived notion that everything Microsoft absolutely sucks in terms of user interface, I have to admit that this system was a joy to use.

In this configuration, it uses a small touch-screen and a series of well thought out hard buttons.  The layout is simple, and navigating the system was easy and straight-forward.  The screen is quite small, but crisp and the graphics are excellent.  I thought the screen was occasionally less than perfect in terms of responsiveness, and required the occasional double-tap – but overall, using it was a great experience.

The sound system, integrated into the Uvo unit, has 6 speakers and doesn’t sound great.  But it works very well.  Sources are awesome – including AM, FM, Sirius satellite, a hard-drive based jukebox for ripping your own tunes, CD, auxiliary plug, USB sources and Bluetooth streaming.  I can’t really think of anything more you’d want.  And they all work well.  You’ll find the auxiliary and USB plugs in front of the recessed bin where the center stack meets the center console, in addition to two 12V plugs.  Well placed and thought out.

Phone integration is great, and pairing a phone is simple.

Here’s the kicker – even though it’s coupled with a small screen, this car has a back-up camera with distance markings on the screen.  There are cars at double the price that don’t have a camera.  See my review of the 2011 BMW 328i if you’d like some proof.

In terms of driving tech, you’ll find an “Active ECO” mode button – I’ll talk about that in the driving section.  See what I mean?  This car is actually pretty loaded up with tech and goodies.

Storage

Considering this is a small car, it does quite well with storage options.

The cargo space is surprisingly large and useful.  You’ll find a mesh storage pocket back there too.  To increase it significantly, the rear seats fold down (albeit not flat) in a 60/40 split.  You also get some tie-down loops back there (not heavy-duty, but certainly enough to keep luggage, etc. in place) and the space is topped off with a hard tonneau cover, which swings up with the rear hatch.  Those covers have pros and cons – they’re excellent for security, but can be in the way when you’re trying to maximize your cargo area and can be a pain to remove and store.  That said, it also adds additional space in the back to put coats and other stuff for road trips.

In front, you get a huge glove compartment.  Where the center stack meets the center console, you’ll find a recessed open bin – it’s big, and smartly placed and quite useful.

There are two inline cupholders in the console, and behind that, an armrest with a sliding lid to adjust for comfort.  Lift the lid and you’ll find a deep bin with a relatively small footprint – which isn’t that great, but better than nothing.

The door pockets include another cupholder and an oddly-shaped bin – they’re useful.

Finally, in the middle of the dash, there is a 2″ square hole – about 3-1/2″ deep.  It has a rubberized bottom, to keep things from sliding out of it, but I can’t imagine what you’d put in it.  Maybe an old-school cell phone?  Smartphones don’t fit in it, width-wise – they have to be put in at an angle, which defeats the purpose.  It’s a strange little cubbyhole.

Rear Seat

Getting into the back seats is pretty easy for a small car.   I found the legroom to be OK – it would be barely passable in a bigger car, but this is as compact as it gets for a 4-door, so it will do.  Kids would be alright, but adults won’t be happy there for long.  Footroom, on the other hand, was fine – there is quite a bit of space underneath the front seats.

You will find 3 seats, with 3 seatbelts.  As is typical for cars this size, calling the middle space a seat is a bit rich, unless it’s for a small, well-behaved dog.  Kia put 2 head-rests back there, showing us that they know the middle seat isn’t fit for human consumption.

Family friendliness is fine – accessing the back is easy thanks to the back doors – child seats and boosters fit well.  You’ll find two sets of LATCH anchors.

In terms of storage, there ain’t much.  Door pockets are actually just cupholders, but they do function well, and you have two map pockets on the front seatbacks.

The Drive

As expected, this isn’t a fast car.  But it does have enough power to get you where you want to go.  It’s perfectly fine for everyday driving, and even on the freeway, it didn’t feel like it was running out of breath.  Don’t expect any neck-snapping acceleration – in any gear.  It’s not that kind of car.  I did enjoy the little snarl that the 4-cylinder came up with – it made it fun to step on it, whether it really sped up things or not.

The 6-speed transmission left me highly impressed.  I thought it did a fantastic job in every circumstance, and that’s more than I can say for most automatic transmissions I’ve used.  Simply commuting from point A to point B, I found the transmission smooth.  But change your driving style, and I felt that the transmission never felt lost – it always knew what I wanted from it, and I felt it always made the most of the power it has to work with.  For example, when I’d drive a little more aggressively, the transmission wasn’t afraid to hang onto a gear a little longer here and there, as if it had read my mind.  Frankly, I thought it did a better job at adapting to a more aggressive driving style than some transmissions with “Sport” modes.  Nice work, Kia!

All things considered (how light this car is, and how short the wheelbase is), the ride was pretty good.  I’d say it’s firm, but not to the point of being harsh.  It remains on the comfortable side of firm rides.  I’m guessing it would settle down a bit more if you got a couple more adults in the car, but it would likely slow things down too.

Although the car does have noticeable body roll, it’s not disconcerting and to be honest, it does nothing to harm the car’s ability in the corners – you can feel free to throw the Rio into corners with aplomb, and it won’t complain – it just ends up where you pointed it.

The brakes felt good – not great, but not mushy, and they always provided appropriate braking power.

Nitpicks

I had a few, but at this price level, with this much to offer, it seems silly to be nitpicking.  Yet here we are – must be my German blood.

One thing I took issue with is that Kia chose to make the front seat-backs a hard plastic material, rather than upholstering them.  This is a major oversight, because the legroom real estate is already at a premium back there – if you have longer legs, and they’re pressed up against the front seats, you’ll be extremely uncomfortable, because they’ll be bunched up against hard, unforgiving plastic.  Not a great place for your knees on a road trip.

I thought Kia could have done a better job with the sound insulation.  The road noise was quite high, and driving over the gravel-strewn winter streets in Edmonton, I found you could always hear the rocks and the road grit chattering into all the wheel wells.  I never spent any time with the previous generation Rio, and I did read that this is a major improvement in terms of sound-deadening, but I think it could be quite a bit better.  It’s no tin box, to be sure, but it gets irritating after a while.

Oh right, I said I’d talk about the “Active ECO” mode.  So, I couldn’t find much information about it, but when the button is depressed, the entire car becomes depressed.  As noted, it’s not a fast car, but it’s definitely sufficiently nimble to be enjoyable.  Not so in the ECO mode.  I’m guessing it retards engine and throttle response to maximize fuel economy, but whatever they do, it makes the car become a complete slug.  I’d say the mileage in regular driving mode will be enough to make most people happy, and the compromises the ECO mode bring will be enough to get most people to stay away from it.  Unless you’re just in bumper-to-bumper traffic anyway, I’d say forget about the ECO thing.

Outward vision is good, with the exception of doing shoulder checks.  The rear pillars are very chunky, and they do create a blind spot that has to be reckoned with.

I wouldn’t call this car “fun” to drive, but for this class of vehicle, it’s as close as you can get – I couldn’t ask for much more at this price.

Details

Couple of things that caught my attention – I liked the little row of cool orange LED lights on the front of the side-view mirrors used as signal repeaters.

I really enjoyed the feel of the shift lever – it felt perfect for me.

The bin at the front of the center console has an indentation in it – which is perfectly-sized for smart phones.  It will keep most any smart phone in place, without having it slide around.  Why doesn’t EVERYone make stuff work like this?

The steering wheel has a mute button on it for the media system.  Brilliant!

Verdict

This is a lot of car for the money, and paired with an amazing warranty, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.  In this class, at that price, I give the Rio an 8 out of 10.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was middling.  She was quite taken with the illuminated vanity mirrors (I know this sounds horrible, but I can’t make this stuff up!) and thought it looked cute, but felt the car was too small for her.  This coming from a woman with 3 kids and a shopping addiction, which we all know makes her a poor opinion source for small cars anyway.

This brings me back to my dilemma at the beginning.  But before I explore that further, I need to point this out – when I did some homework researching the various models, I was even more taken aback at the EX Luxury model than I was at my review EX.  The top model, which is one step up from the one I reviewed, is the aforementioned EX Luxury.  Now, as well equipped as my review sample was, the Luxury goes for broke and includes stuff that you really shouldn’t expect in a car that’s $20,795.  It has everything I mentioned, as well as the following:

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