The 2014 Jeep Cherokee -Deja Vu Adjusted For Inflation

Those who read the last post probably figured out that I went to the Twin Cities Auto Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center this past Sunday…. And for those of you wishing to set eyes upon the beautiful 2015 Mustang that I left as a clue, there’s still time to see the show if you go within the next day or two.

Of course, there are all kinds of automobiles to see at the Auto Show, but there’s also swag to be collected.  I have a small library of automotive literature, so of course, I snatched up lots of model brochures.  I got a USB plug for my car from the State Farm booth, and some other stuff.  To carry all this around, one needs a tote, and it’s foolish to bring one with you from home when there are so many to be had for free at the auto show.  I like to use these to haul around tools and groceries, so I grabbed one from every car manufacturer that had them to offer.

Hands down, the best tote bag to be had at the auto show was the Jeep bag.  Made of a canvas like material that I’m sure is completely synthetic, with sturdy handles and extra pockets, the Jeep bag was even in my favorite color; green!  It was also the hardest bag to get, because you couldn’t just walk right up and grab one.  The only way to get the Jeep bag was to wait in line and go on a ride through the Jeep jungle gym course, consisting of some steep inclines and declines, some bumpy terrain, and a ramp that nearly rolls the Jeep.  That sounded just fine to me.  I’ve taken an interest in the new Jeep Cherokee and wanted to go for a ride in one, anyway.  I waited in line, and when it was my turn to go, a Jeep Grand Cherokee pulled up to pick me up.  I asked if I could hold back until there was a Cherokee available and let the people behind me in line go ahead.  My ride pulled up, and the people at the Jeep booth assumed that I was with the guy and little boy that were now behind me in line, in spite of the fact that I had just previously been separate from them in line, and even though we tried to explain that we were not a couple.  They didn’t seem to understand, and so, my not really baby daddy and our five or six year old son for the moment and I piled into the Cherokee.  I got to ride shotgun because the little kid was too small for front seat riding, and it would have been weird to ride in the back seat with some stranger’s child while the dad rode up front, even if the Jeep people did think we were a family.

Granted, I didn’t get to drive the Jeep myself, though I’m definitely contemplating stopping by a dealership to test drive one now.  Going for a ride was lovely with such a fun course for the Cherokee to romp on.  All the Jeeps on the course were “Trail Rated”, which means they are capable of doing all kinds of crazy stuff that their drivers will likely never need to do.  Still, if I was going to buy a Cherokee, I’d get the TrailHawk version after this little demonstration.

The Jeep Cherokee has a special place in my heart, because after I totaled my Bronco (see post from about a month ago about glare ice) many years ago, I purchased a used 2 door limited edition Cherokee in black with gold trim (it was a 1988 model, and that color scheme was considered cool at the time the car was made).  I loved that Jeep.  The black with gold rims, gold pinstripe, and gold badging was something I actually liked because it reminded me of the Trans Am that my neighbor boy’s mom had when I was in elementary school, which was pretty much identical to Burt Reynold’s car in Smokey and the Bandit.

*this was one of the only photos of my old Cherokee that I was able to dig up -it predates my owning of a digital camera, so it's a digital picture of an actual photograph.  Apologies for the poor quality.


That Jeep got wrecked years ago while I was visiting campuses for graduate school, and I still miss it to this day.  It was loaded up with every available option, and was a fantastic little rig that took me on many an adventure.  So, because Jeep won the Auto Show tote bag challenge, and because of my fondness for my old Cherokee, for today’s post we’re going to compare my 1988 Jeep Cherokee to a brand new 2014 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk.

The 2014 Jeep Cherokee is not available in a 2 door configuration, so it’s not a totally fair comparison, but whatever, I’m sure you’ll get over it .

Let’s start in 1988.  Back then, a brand new Limited edition Jeep Cherokee 2 door model had a starting MSRP of $22,260 from what I’ve been able to dig up, and a 4 door version of the vehicle cost about $1,000 more.  A totally stripped down Cherokee 2 door with 2WD and no options had a starting MSRP of $11,371 in 1988.  We’re not even going to bother with that, though.  So, back to our Cherokee Limited 2 door 4x4 with selec-trac: What did a buyer in 1988 get for their $22,000+ dollars?  A loaded up Jeep with leather seats and some nice goodies for the time is what.

In 1988, the top of the line offering in factory stereos was a cassette deck, though by the time I acquired my Cherokee, it was well into the 1990’s and I outfitted it with a Pioneer CD deck.  A sunroof wasn’t an option, but mine had an aftermarket one, though I don’t really care about sunroofs, so it didn’t matter that much to me.  My Jeep did have power front seats, both for the driver and passenger, and they were leather, though heated seats were not available at the time.  Under the hood was a 4.0L inline 6 cylinder engine good for 177HP and 224 lb-ft of torque that was mated to a 4 speed automatic transmission.  Selec-trac was the top of the line for 4x4 options among Cherokees of 1988, and mine had it.  Selec-trac offered full and part time 4x4 options as well as a low range and a 2WD option. The other 4x4 offering that could be had on a Jeep was known as Command-trac and had a part time 4x4 option and low range with 2wd option as well.

My experience with the Cherokee I had was great by and large, though I did have to replace a wiring harness that melted itself together and nearly started a car fire during the time I owned it.  Aside from that, It was a great little rig, and I regularly achieved mid 20’s for fuel economy.

A base 2014 Jeep Cherokee has a starting MSRP of $22,999, so not too far off from the cost of a loaded up 2 door Cherokee back in 1988 if you don’t adjust for inflation.  Of course, we’re talking about loaded up models here, and the most loaded Cherokee you can get just so happens to be the model I’m interested in -the TrailHawk, which has a base MSRP of $29,495, or $2,000 more than the base MSRP of a Limited 2014 Cherokee.

The Trailhawk package includes premium seating surfaces -though by premium, they mean cloth with an option for leather, a hood decal, the Jeep active driver 4X4 system with rear axle lock, trail rated capability, off road suspension with a 1” lift, skid plates, 17” aluminum rims, full sized spare tire, tow hooks, and off road front and rear fascias, which cut back and down toward the wheel wells from the most protruded part of the grille to keep from snagging on stuff while ramping up or down inclines and declines.  Under the hood of the Trailhawk is a 3.2L V6 Pentastar engine with 271 HP and 239 lb-ft of torque paired with a 9 speed automatic transmission… 9 speeds!  that’s more than twice as many gears as my 1988 Cherokee had.  Supposedly, this set up will pull down 28 MPG on the highway.  The guy who was behind the wheel of the Cherokee I rode in said that in order to get the Cherokee to 9th gear while auto-sticking the transmission (it has that option!) you have to be going about 85MPH or faster.  

The base engine option for the Cherokee is a 2.4L inline 4 cylinder Tigershark engine that makes 184HP and 171 lb-ft of torque, which still beats out my 1988 Cherokee’s specs for HP, but not torque.

I visited the Jeep website and built my own Cherokee TrailHawk in the same color as the one I rode in, “Anvil clear coat” gray.  Because it’s a hypothetical vehicle, and I’m playing with hypothetical dollars, I added every option I thought I might find even remotely useful or nice.  Here’s what I piled on:

$795 for the stereo with navigation upgrade
$395 for 9 amplified speakers with subwoofers  (I like to get nice factory installed stereo stuff because it’s less likely to get stolen than aftermarket stuff)
$495 for the trailer towing package (which I would spring for even if I was buying this without hypothetical money)
$795 for the Cold Weather group which includes heated mirrors, seats, steering wheel, and a windshield wiper de-icer (a must here in Minnesota).
$1,895 for the comfort/convenience package, though because I already had a bunch of other stuff that partially seeps into that, it rang up at $1,695.
$1,295 for leather seats (much easier to clean off dog hair than cloth)
$2,195 for the Technology group which has adaptive cruise control, advance brake assist, auto headlights, blindspot and cross path detection, exterior mirrors with turn signals and courtesy lights, forward collision warning and crash mitigation, lane departure warning, parallel parking assist, rain sensing wipers, and the only thing I really wanted from all this stuff: a backup camera.  I’m sure it’s nice to have that other stuff, too, and with hypothetical dollars, why not take it all.  Grand total on the Cherokee TrailHawk I built was $37,405.

How does that stack up against my 1988 Cherokee?  Let’s see.

Using an inflation converter I found online (can’t vouch for its accuracy or what formula it uses to make the conversion, so take this for whatever you think it’s worth), the $22,260 that a brand new 2 door Limited 4x4 Cherokee cost in 1988 would amount to $43,992 in 2013 dollars.  So, going by that, the 2014 Cherokee TrailHawk I built is a bargain compared to what my 2 door limited cost in 1988... By about $6,587 in 2013 money, or $3,333 in 1988 dollars.  Almost makes you feel like rushing out to buy one.  However, the base price of a very basic 2014 Cherokee, clocking in at $22,999 in 2013 dollars would amount to $11,637 in 1988 dollars, which would get you a base model Cherokee back then with a few hundred dollars to spare, which is a much closer match up.

So far, I give a nod of approval to the new Cherokee, though that nod is based on an assessment from the passenger seat, and not from a place behind the wheel.  We might have to revisit this if I find the time to take one out for a spin.

Arrivederci, Fiat! Welcome Home, Mustang!

Today was the day I bid adieu to my little Italian friend.  But not before running some errands with my "Fiat for a week". I needed to pick up some more of my favorite edging brushes so I can help out my sister with painting at her house this week.  I thought I bought my last one at Menards, so off I went with the Fiat to the Brooklyn Park store.  Turns out, they don’t sell Zibra brand brushes.  While I was there, I did get to help a guy who had a seizure and flopped over in the hardware department, knocking over a rack of screws and smacking his head so hard when he landed that he was bleeding from his scalp.

I was almost to the brush aisle in the paint department at Menards when I heard a loud groan and a crash, then a panicked woman saying “Sir! Sir, are you okay?”  So, I beat a hasty retreat from the paint department over to hardware to see if I could help.  There was the guy on the floor, jerking and convulsing, and a Menards employee along with another guy who arrived about the same time I did.  Another guy and a woman showed up just after.

The guy having the seizure was in rough shape.  He was flailing about as he foamed at the mouth amid the scattered screws and blood on the floor.  I got 911 on the phone and got the ball rolling on an emergency medical response (this is kind of shocking, but I think I was the only one of the five of us who arrived first to have a phone on their person -I thought pretty much everybody carried one these days -but apparently that is not the case with 80% of this particular cross section of Menards shoppers).  About a minute into it, the foaming at the mouth stopped and most of the twitching as well.  The guy was a little combative as he started coming out of his seizure, which is normal… but the other woman who ran over after he collapsed apparently thought he was just being rude, so she smeared her fingers through the blood puddle on the floor and shoved her hand up to his face, telling him with kind of a scolding tone that he was already bleeding and needed to stop fighting the two guys who were trying to hold him still, at one point telling him to “be a man!”.  I can understand the desire to want to keep the guy from smacking the back of his head against the floor over and over, but that bloody hand thing freaked him out and then he started really struggling with the two guys.

I was rather astounded that the lady dipped her bare hand into a stranger’s blood, and kind of taken aback that her tone wasn’t at all calming, either -in fact, pretty damn rude, telling a guy who is seizing to “be a man“.  After all, it’s not like the poor guy set out that day to collapse and spasm in the hardware aisle of Menards.  I got in there next to him and told him we all just wanted to help, but that we were scared that if he tried to get up, he might collapse and hit his head again, so we really just wanted him to try to stay as still as he could be so we could just wait with him until the paramedics arrived to check him out.  He chilled out quite a bit then.  The EMS crew arrived, and I went on about my shopping.

Seizures can be kind of scary.  When I was in high school, a neighbor girl who was in my grade had epileptic seizures quite often at school.  At the beginning of each semester, in every class I had with her, there was always a little tutorial on what to expect if she started seizing in the classroom, and what to do if it happened.  I probably have that high school experience to thank for why the Menards guy didn’t really frazzle me, but a couple of the employees who had gathered around were all wide eyed and asked me if I was okay as I continued my trek to the paint department once the EMS crew took over, which I thought was strange.  Apparently, my switching of gears from “help the seizure guy” mode to “get my edging brush mission” with no lingering in the “stand around gawking at the emergency responders and the patient” mode in between seemed bizarre to them -well, whatever.  Their concern would have been better spent on the lady who smeared her hand in the blood, or better yet, the patient that the paramedics were loading on the gurney.    

Right about that time, I got a phone call.  It was Abra Auto Body in Hopkins calling to let me know that my Mustang would be ready to go home in about thirty minutes.  It turned out that Menards didn’t have my Zibra brushes, so I figured I had enough time to stop in at Lowes before my car would be done.  They didn’t have Zibra edging brushes, either.  I was out of time in my eagerness to get my Mustang back, so I quickly washed the Fiat, filled its tank, and zipped off to Hopkins.

This is what I saw waiting for me in the parking lot.

Keep in mind that the last time I saw my Mustang, it looked more like this:

I went inside, paid my deductible, and got my paperwork.  Then, the shop guy went out with me to inspect their work.  We went over an itemized list of what had been done, and I examined my car to make sure that the seams were identically spaced side to side, and that everything was perfect again.  There was a bit of scuffing on the rim still, but the Abra guy hopped right on it and shined it up for me.  In all, they replaced the fender, the front bumper, the driver’s side headlamp and marker light, the wheel well insert, a splash guard under the chin, some radiator brackets, and the lower chin grill.  Then, they painted the replaced panels as well as the driver’s side door (to blend it in), and the results were fantastic.  My pony is back in fighting form, and I couldn’t be happier with the job that Abra did.

Abra did clean out my car, but only in the front seats.  They did not vacuum the Aesop fur from my rear headliner, which made me happy, too.  Everything turned out great.  I transferred my things from the Fiat to the Mustang and handed over the Fiat keys to the Abra guy (they’re only a couple blocks from Enterprise, so just as they handled arranging for the Fiat to be brought there for me, they were handling the return of it as well).  Off I went in my Mustang, and it felt amazing to be back behind the wheel of my car, and I even found my edging brushes at a Home Depot store on the way home!

Don’t get me wrong.  The Fiat was a nice little vehicle to pal around with for a week, but it’s definitely not a Mustang, and certainly not MY Mustang.  I had my ups and downs with the Fiat.  Even though the novelty of it wore off rather quickly for me, overall, my impression of the brand improved from the time I spent with that little car.  My Mustang, though…  Man, did I miss my Mustang!  I was so happy to have it back that when I drove it to work, I bypassed an open and free parking space along the street in favor of paying for a safe and secure spot in the Haaf ramp, parked right in front of the security camera, where it will be as safe as can be from anything that might come along.

So, that was the big news for today…  But the little Fiat that I at first nicknamed Marcello, but then changed to Danny (because the car seemed a lot more like an automotive embodiment of Danny DeVito than Marcello Mastroianni after I spent a little time with it) did take me on a little adventure on Sunday.  It was perhaps the best possible vehicle to take for that outing, because with it, I was able to snug into an itty bitty parking space in a crowded ramp that I would have otherwise been circling about in looking for a suitable spot to park.  Just for a bit of fun, I’ll drop a little clue about just where the Fiat and I went on Sunday.        

Wanna guess where I saw this gorgeous beast?  

Fiat 500: at once charming, offbeat, and infuriating

Now that I've had some time to settle into my olive green Fiat 500, it seems like a continuation of the last post may be in order.  

The little bugger is growing on me a bit.  Last night, I hopped onto Car Soup to check out how much a used 500 Abarth would cost, just to settle my curiosity.  For those wondering, I was able to locate a few of them for around $17,000 for 2013 models with low miles.  I'm not seriously considering getting one, but the Fiat experience thus far has improved my initial impression of the vehicles.  The get up and go from a dead stop was among my complaints about my base level 500, and an Abarth variation of it should solve that issue (I hope).  

I love how easy it is to squeeze around traffic and snug into parking spaces with the Fiat.  A car this small is one that you wouldn't think would need reverse sensing, but I found myself wishing the 500 had it, just so I could more confidently take on extreme parallel parking challenges, which is a new sport I made up now that I've got an itty bitty car to play it with.  As it is,  my concern about not cracking a bumper and getting stuck with the cost of repair makes me shy away from trying to squeeze into spaces that I'd otherwise try to occupy (I didn't spring for the daily insurance beyond liability fee, so any damage I do to this car comes out of my hide).   

I haven't been doing too much to really beat up on the Fiat, because I don't really believe in trashing a rental car just because it's not mine.  I have been trying to see what it's capable of, but for the most part, it's been busy running errands and doing routine stuff.  You might think that being an Italian car, I would have picked up some Italian take out for lunch the other day, but you'd be mistaken.  

This little Italian has a driver who tries to avoid gluten, which makes most pasta dishes off limits, so I instead took it to a fantastic place in Robbinsdale to pick up some gluten free cranberry curry from Mai Thai restaurant.  What's almost as cool as the food is the fact that this restaurant has a table stacked with car magazines to browse through while waiting for carryout.  That's a nice little bonus.

If I hadn't spent the past couple days revving around and trying to test the limits of how fast my 500 can pick up speed, I'd probably be able to rave about the fuel economy.  I had to refill the tank today, and from just under 1/8 of a tank remaining to full took 9 gallons.  

Fiat recommends premium fuel, according to the sticker on the inside of the gas filler lid.  I actually scoffed at the car while standing at the gas pump, saying aloud that it could dream on or transform into an Abarth before I'd be buying it premium fuel.  I'm sure the guy at the next pump over was wondering who I was talking to, but who cares?

The nice thing was that the same sticker indicated that my Fiat would be willing to settle for 87 octane fuel if necessary.  I compromised and fed it 89 octane.  That's one thing I can credit my Mustang with -it doesn't have expensive tastes.  My Mustang was designed to dine of the cheap 87 octane stuff, and I'm happy to save a few bucks at the gas pump.  I'm not going to bother calculating my mileage from the last tank or that of this current tank of gas, because I have no plans to drive my 500 like a hypermiler ...or like a reasonable person, for that matter.  Keep in mind, this little Fiat has to fill some pretty fast horseshoes while my Mustang is in the shop, so even if it was built to be quick instead of fast (yes, there is a difference), this Fiat and I are going to strive to have some fun while we're paired up -MPGs be damned!

So far, I haven't had much problem hauling stuff around.  My gym bag fits into the little trunk space just fine, and I haven't had to transport more than one other passenger at once since the day my parents were in town, so no complaints about the space inside the 500, or the lack thereof.  

I did subject the Fiat to a little test I like to call "The Costco Challenge" today.  I picked up two large bags of dog food for Pavlov even though he seems to prefer eating poo, a bag of popcorn for weekend snacking, and some new pillows to replace the ones that Pavlov shredded up (he's a lovely dog... when he's asleep).  I had to fold down the seats to fit this stuff in the car, and in order to do that, I had to remove the little plastic cover that hides the trunk space contents from view.  I flipped the rear seats ahead after pushing the headrests down as far as they could go, but they only went partially down before hitting the back of the front seats, which I had to adjust forward so that the rear seats could fold the rest of the way.  I suppose I could have removed the headrests all together, but I don't want them rattling around in the back of the car.  Then, it all fit and I scooted away home.  It took some doing, but the Fiat conquered the Costco Challenge!

  
The "pop" sound the suspension makes over bumps and ruts persists, though I did figure out that sport mode doesn't appear to have anything to do with adjusting the suspension.  Rather, sport mode adjusts the rev bands for the selection of gears.

In sport mode, the car winds up to much higher revolutions per minute before shifting to a higher gear.  This difference is only evident if the car is put into D instead of using the autostick option for gear selection.  

The 500 is front wheel drive.  Getting it moving over the icy roadways isn't always smooth, but could be worse.  I found myself thinking how cool it would be to have an AWD 500.  It would be like the subcompact car market's version of the Jeep Wrangler with its short little wheel base.  I'd probably actually get kind of serious about the idea of buying one if it had an AWD option that would also impart another inch or two of ground clearance....  if for no other reason than how peculiar and fun I think it would be.  As it is with its front wheel drive set up, the ESC (Electronic Stability Control) light on the dash flashes quite often because the ice on the streets mean that system has to be engaged to get the car moving most of the time.  I have been using the autostick set up rather than just plan Drive because it's more fun and because I can start the car out in 2nd gear to get moving with less tire spin on the ice packed roads here in Minneapolis.  Being used to my Mustang's rear wheel drive set up with snow tires, moving to a front wheel drive set up feels odd.  There are some times when I take a corner expecting to whip around it in a bit of a slide so I can bump the car's rump around and then propel it to where I've aimed the front of with a quick little blast on the gas pedal, and it just doesn't happen because I'm not in my Mustang.  The Fiat, in contrast, stutters on ice.  It inches and inches until it builds up enough speed to match tire spin to grip, but eventually, it gets going, sans any fun slides or spins.  
  
 There are other aspects of the 500 that I dislike, though.  Most annoying is the alarm bell that sounds if you start up the car before buckling your seat belt.  The high pitched, sustained beep that the car makes until you've buckled up is like a horrible sounding alarm clock -the kind you throw against the wall not in hope of having a little longer to snooze, but in the hopes that it breaks so you never have to hear that horrible bleating again.  A toned down little chiming sound or even a thundering voice swearing at you in Italian to "buckle your f-ing seat belt!" would be preferable, and would have spared the 500 a lot of resentment.  It's not like I'm going to drive around without my seat belt.  After all, the size of the 500 puts it in the deathtrap class of cars when contemplating how well one would fare in a collision with a truck or SUV, so the seatbelt is a must in my book.  I just don't need the car to yell at me to make me wear it.

The stereo sucks.  For starters, I can't find an auxillary jack for plugging in my MP3 player -which is just as well, because I broke the silly thing a while ago anyway... but if I did have a functioning player and did want to listen to it in the car, I'd be reduced to using one of those radio tuner adapters, and they are horrible.  The music stops as soon as the ignition is shut off, which is a disappointment.  My Mustang will keep the tunes going for several minutes or until the car door is opened so that I can listen to the end of a song or the last part of whatever is being discussed on MPR without having to idle the engine while parked -surely it couldn't be too hard to integrate a feature like that into the stereo offerings on the 500.  

Beyond that, the controls are bad.  There's no knob -and while that may seem minor, just trust me when I say, it's actually very annoying to have to jab at a button over and over again to raise or lower the volume or to change the radio station.  Also, the spot on the steering wheel where it would have made sense to place redundant stereo controls is occupied by bluetooth phone controls.  I hate that.  put that crap on the center stack and give me redundant stereo controls on the wheel.  Unless something very important is happening, I don't usually care to talk on my phone while driving.  

The bass setting on the stereo was set to +2 when I picked up the car, and already, it seems to max out what the speakers are capable of handling without distorting things horribly.  I'm not even playing music that's particularly bass heavy (I grabbed a Broken Bells CD to listen to on my way out the door yesterday).  I'm going to experiment with how high I can bump the bass on the stereo before body panels start to shake off  the car.  That should be fun.  

Armrests... or rather , the armrest...  there's only one, and it's for the driver.  That's just fine, I suppose, as long as you're the driver.  But, when there's a passenger -actually, more like, when there's a male passenger - in the car with you, you'll find their elbow creeping over the tiny chasm between the seats to try to use your armrest.  I suppose it's more of a matter of how we're conditioned as we grow up.  Men are taught to spread out and take up lots of space, whereas women are urged to cross their legs and minimize the area that they occupy.  Well, whatever, but I tell you this: when I am at the wheel, I am El Cap-i-tan, and I lay claim to that armrest for myself, so don't even think of trying to elbow it away from me!  If you don't like it, take it up with Fiat.  It wasn't my idea to only have one armrest in the car.

The window controls are the kind that car makers like to call "European style" -which they can more easily get away with on a car that is actually European, like the Fiat.  However, what that really means is that they were too cheap to retool the interior panels to suit having the driver on differing sides of the vehicle depending on which car market is consuming the product, so they just plop the controls on the center stack and make misery for everybody regardless of where in the world they are.  The windows do have an auto down function, where you  can click it once and have the window go down all the way without having to hold onto the control -nice.... but they lack an auto up function that does the same thing in reverse. My Mustang has that, and I use it all the time when dealing with ticket and pay kiosks in the downtown parking ramps.  It might not be so bad if I didn't have to reach over and hold down a button on the center stack instead of just flicking my wrist over to a door mounted control to accomplish this.  

Along those same lines, there are no door lock buttons in the Fiat unless you count the ones on the switchblade style key fob.  I don't think the Fiat does autolock of the doors, either -or at least if it does, I haven't heard any click or sound to signify that it has happened.  This may not seem like a big deal, but I happen to live in a neighborhood that has had more than its share of carjackings and folks who demonstrate a great deal of criminally asshole-ish behavior, so that kind of thing does become important in my neck of the woods.  It's a security factor that is not nice to think about, but important enough that it can't be ignored.  There's nothing like pulling up to a stop light and having some deranged drunk guy stagger up and try to open your car door.  That'll make you glad for doors that automatically lock once the car reaches a certain speed in forward gear.  With the Fiat, I'm likely to end up with some creepy drunk stranger in the passenger seat, trying to hog my armrest.  No good.  Even having a little lock switch that I could flick to lock the doors rather than having to muck around with the key fob, which is lodged in the ignition would give me more confidence about taking the 500 out and about in my neigborhood.  

The nightime display of the 500 is not to my liking.  It's orange.  Not a bad color, but not something I like to have glowing at me all the time.  It makes me think of the yield light on the traffic semaphores, which make me think of slowing down, and that's not fun.  Worse yet, I don't think the color of the dash's backlighting can be changed.  We're stuck with orange.  My Mustang lets me customize the dash cluster backlights, and I like to keep them set to a cool blue, not a blazing orange.  I turned down the intensity setting a few notches to give my eyes a break from it.  On the bright side though, if you happen to love glaring orange, then you won't have any problem with the Fiat's display backlight.

The aesthetic of the 500 is seeming less off-putting to me now.  I've been encountering other subcompacts while out and about, and being behind the wheel of one such small car myself has made me acutely aware of them in a way I never was before.  The 500 is not the slickest, the swoopiest, the fastest, the most aggressive, nor is it particularly attractive... but it is distinctive.  When driving by a glass fronted building today, I glanced over and noticed my car's reflection in the window and thought to myself, "it's so ugly, it's kind of cute."   It's like one of those little lap dogs with smooshy faces that isn't good for a whole lot aside from taking up space and licking its butt, though can sometimes be treated like a fashion accessory -so Fiat can take that compliment (and that's what I'm calling that particular assessment) for whatever they think it's worth.  

Aside from a mashed up white 500 that was sitting in the lot at the auto body shop where I left my Mustang, I have yet to encounter another 500 while out motoring about in mine.  There's a Fiat dealership not too far from where I live, but not many of the little things scooting around the areas I frequent.  I think if I spent a little more time uptown, that might change, but then I'd also have to put up with being around a bunch of hipsters and douche bags, so I'll just stay the odd duck out in my Fiat, I suppose.   

"Pop" for a Fiat 500?

So, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?  I’ve been busy battling ice dams (a chunk of the ceiling in my home office came crashing down thanks to that particular Minnesota menace), and shoveling snow, of course.  Also, I just haven’t felt like blogging.  I’ve felt kind of down lately.  I miss driving my Mustang, which has been sitting in its garage stall for all but two outings since its unfortunate run in with that Honda Civic a month ago.  I’ve been borrowing vehicles and making due without it since then.
   
I’m tired of this winter -which is saying a lot, because I normally really love the cold season.  More than the weather, I think I’m despondent because I miss my dog, Aesop.

Today, I dropped off my Mustang at the body shop to have it repaired.  I keep my car pretty clean for the most part, but since my dog died in October, I haven’t lint rollered the fur off the headliner over the back seat where Aesop’s head and back used to brush against the ceiling when he would stand or move around.  I don’t want to remove the fur, because it reminds me of taking him on car rides, which he and I both loved doing.  I started to worry that the shop might clean out my car and I didn’t want them to touch that part of it.  It felt like such a silly thing to ask or bring up, so I just didn’t say anything about it to the guy at the shop today.  Besides, I’m pretty sure this auto body repair shop isn’t going to clean out my car’s interior like the one run by my  friend (I would have had his shop do the work if it wasn’t over 200 miles away from where I am).  I’m still fretting about it a bit, but I’m sure it will be fine.  If the shop is more thorough than I predict, and Aesop’s fur is gone from the rear headliner, I don’t really know what I’ll do… probably cry.

I wish I could trade my Mustang in exchange for having my dog back… I’d do it in a heartbeat.  But to be deprived of two of my most favorite things in the world; to be Aesop-less and Mustang-less really sucks.  I can’t have my big, old dog back, but I still have Pavlov, affectionately referred to as “mommy’s little asshole” (his latest charming hobby is eating poop, and yes, I‘ve tried pretty much everything to nip that in the bud -to no avail), so that’s something.    

On the automotive front, I should have my Mustang back within a week, so you know, there’s some consolation -there will be no rides in the Mustang for Pavlov until he’s changed his snacking preferences.

In the meantime, there’s the rental rocket.  In this post, we’ll explore whether this is a point of consolation or a nasty little turd, the likes of which Pavlov would gobble up before attempting to bestow kisses on everybody he meets.

I present to you, my rental car for the week.  A 2013 Fiat 500.

I’ll be honest about the Fiat… I don’t care for the styling.  I feel a bit resentful that the US car market got hit with Fiats before Alfa Romeo could make its comeback.  Alfa makes an itty bitty car called the Mito (a combination of Milan and Turin) which I prefer over the Fiat’s appearance.  I also have a thing for Alfa Romeos, and have wanted one since I was a kid and the Dodge dealership used to sell Spiders, so I’ll admit I may be biased.  Never seen a Mito?  That’s because we don’t have them here in the states.  So, it’s probably mostly some bitterness and resentment.  I’m not wild about the design of the Fiat 500, though I can appreciate its history.

Let’s take a closer look at my particular 500, though.  I went to Fiat’s website and built and priced the same exact car I’m driving.  Being a rental, it’s not much of a shock to know that this is the base trim level we’re dealing with.  Of course, saying it’s a stripped down basic vehicle lacks panache, so instead, the basic package is referred to in Fiat-land as the “Pop” edition.

Incidentally, “pop” is the same sound that the rear suspension of my 500 makes anytime it rolls over a bump in the road.  If you ever played a board game called “Trouble” that features dice encased in a little plastic dome that you push down so it pops back up and jostles the dice, you’ve heard a sound nearly identical to the troubling pop the 500 “Pop” makes.  It would seem that Fiat did not take into account that their little 500 might have to deal with Minnesota’s winter roadways and infrastructure literally chipping apart beneath the wheels of the cars that traverse the streets.

The “pop” sound was kind of alarming at first.  I worried the little 500 was going to just snap apart.  Then I remembered that it’s not my car, so who freakin’ cares?  I’m not on the hook for the underpinnings of this machine.  As long as I return it to Enterprise with no dent bigger than an Oreo cookie, and no cracks in the bumpers, I’m good to go!

We should discuss specifications.  Back to the Fiat site, where I built a 500 identical to the one I’m driving -2013 model even (which gets you a $2,000 cash allowance as an incentive to clear out last year’s models).  The 2013 500 Pop has a base MSRP of $16,100.  The “Verde Oliva” (Olive Green) paint is no extra charge.  Mine does have a $1,250 option for the 6 speed automatic transmission that can be switched over to an auto-stick type of set up where you can treat it like a stick shift without having to mess with a clutch pedal.  My 500 also has the $500 optional 15” aluminum wheels, bringing the total sticker price for the car I’m driving to $17,850, or rather $15,850 after that $2,000 cash allowance.

That’s pretty cheap for a brand new car, actually.  And the Fiat is kind of fun to drive.  It’s not fast, but it screeches and yowls through its revs enough to give the impression you’re going faster than you are.  Redlining it produces a caterwauling whine that’s not anywhere near as satisfying to the ear as the custom tuned exhaust note my Mustang can make with its V8.  It sounds fierce, though -not fierce like a roaring lion.. Fierce more like a really pissed off feral kitty cat.  The 1.4L inline 4 cylinder that sits under the hood, covered in a plastic cowl is only good for 101 HP and 98 lb ft of torque.  Of course, with a subcompact car, that’s not too bad.  Still, the takeoff leaves much to be desired, even in “sport” mode which doesn’t really seem to differ than much from non sport mode on my 500 rental.

One can boost those performance specs if boosting the price of the car isn’t a problem, though.  Jump up to a base price of $19,500 and a turbo variant of that 1.4L engine can be had with 135 HP and 150 lb-ft of torque.  But why stop there?  Boost it up to a base price of $22,095 for the Abarth model ($22,000 for the 2013 rather than the 2014).  A 2013 model year car will also impart a $3,000 cash allowance, knocking it down to $19,095.  The 500 Abarth has an amped up version of that same 1.4L engine that blasts out 160 HP and 170 lb-ft of torque and comes with a 5 speed manual transmission and performance tuned suspension (which I would hope will do away with the “pop“ jostle that the lesser 500 has).

Just for the fun of it, I built and priced a 2013 500 Abarth.  Mine was red and I added the comfort group package for $900, which gained me heated seats and auto temperature control along with Sirius radio.  I then added the Beats Sound package for $700 just in case I get tired of hearing the high pitched yowling of the 500.  That brought my total to $23,600, but that $3,000 cash allowance knocked it back down to $20,600.  That doesn’t seem too bad.  Of course, for that same amount for the brand new Fiat 500, I’d probably rather buy a used something else that’s bigger, more powerful, and perhaps has AWD, even.  I don’t need another Mustang at the moment, but if I did, that would also be something to consider, as there are plenty of used Mustangs to be had for that kind of money.

The little Fiat 500 isn’t a turd, and that’s my honest assessment.  Scooting around town with it today, I found myself giggling and grinning a lot… mostly because I felt ridiculous, like I was in a little clown car  -but also because I was having fun.  At one point, I pulled up next to a Ford Fiesta at a stop light and dropped it into neutral to rev up my engine, then scooted away when the light turned green.. I totally won that race! Though, in retrospect, I’m not sure the guy in the Fiesta ever knew we were racing.  A victory is a victory, so there!

The 500 did polarize my family members.  My parents were in town today because they stayed overnight after going to some great aunt’s 90th birthday party in Redwood Falls the previous day.  Neither was particularly fond of the 500.  My mother hated it, said it was uncomfortable, that looking through the windshield as the car moved induced motion sickness, and even called it “junky” -which I felt was harsh and undeserved.  My dad kept recounting tales of his youth when he owned and drove a 2 cylinder Lloyd.  The fond nostalgia wore off after he tried to squeeze himself into the back seat of the 500 for a lunch outing.  He didn‘t direct as much ire at the little rig as my mother did, but there was no more comparing it to his wonderful little Lloyd after that.

So, the 500 was not a big hit among my retiree parents.  However, I took my brother for a spin in it, and he loved the little bugger.  We didn’t even make it back into the driveway before he was calculating how much it would cost to buy one.  He was thrilled with the head room (he’s a pretty big guy, and in the past owned an Infiniti Coupe that he had to scrunch his neck down to fit into comfortably, so that’s a big deal for him).  He also thought the auto-stick transmission set up was a slick and convenient compromise.

So, there you go.  My take on it is that the 500 isn’t great, but it’s not bad, either.  I’d like to try out an Abarth to see how it stacks up against the little Fiesta ST subcompact I took out on the track last fall, because THAT was a pretty slick little car and definitely beats the pants off the Pop version of the Fiat 500.  I’ll be happy to get my Mustang back all shiny and gorgeous again, but in the meanwhile, popping about in the 500 will suit me just fine.

Minivans and Mystery Machines: the 1961-1967 Ford E-Series Van

Inspired by yesterday’s brightly painted Ford minivan, I’ve lined up another couple of Ford minivans for today.

These two are the original generation of the Ford E-series, or Econoline vans, though notably smaller than the massive vehicles that the E series vans are these days.  In fact, the modern reincarnation of the 1961-1967 E series is probably closer to the Ford Transit Connect than a brand new E-series.

These ‘61-67 vans are kind of cool with their unique brand of ugliness.  They are front engine vehicles that were powered throughout the span of their run by inline 6 cylinder engines.  Originally, a 2.4L (144 cubic inch) I6 sat above the front axle, sending 85 HP and 138 lb-ft of torque down the driveshaft to the rear wheels.

Because both the engine and the driver sat above the front axle of the rig, a 165 pound counter weight was placed along the rear of the van to balance it out.  These were actually pretty light weight machines due mostly to unibody construction that used the body as part of its framework.  They weighed in at just about 2,500 lbs.

This van was based on the Ford Falcon, and the 8 passenger version of it with 3 rows of seating was called the Falcon van. It’s actually smaller than most minivans you’ll see these days, being more on par with the VW microbus than modern minivans.  But of course, the V-dub had its engine in the rear.

The two we have today are both cargo van versions of the original E-series Ford van, but it could also be had in truck form and, as mentioned before, in passenger “Falcon Van” form.

I did some shopping around, and most of what I found were the truck versions of the 61-67 E-series, which ranged anywhere from around $3,000 for one that was in horrible, probably non-running condition and needed body work, interior work, and paint, up to around $19,000 for a custom and upgraded one in beautiful condition.  The stuff in between ranged from about $6,000-$12,000 for presentable specimens with decent paint.

Both these vans appear to be the same paint color, though the Mystery Machine probably had a respray prior to the application of the graphics (or more likely, it was just wrapped, but I bet its door sills are that same powder blue).  The Mystery Machine is also the older of the two vans, which we can tell from the little circular tail lights.  The less mysterious powder blue van has the vertical, rectangular tail lights that you’d see on a 1967 model.  They are certainly eye catching -especially the Mystery Machine van, which is being used to advertise for a graphics company.  I blurred out their contact info, but if somebody would like it, send me a message and I’ll give it to you.  I’m just a little wary of posting phone numbers and email addresses on line -even if they are being advertised to the public on a van.

I think these vans are cool, while at the same time, they spare their drivers from being clumped in with the rabid VW bus fanatic types.  I’d drive one to haul stuff around.