Product Review: 2012 Ford Focus SEL

After 8 years with my 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid the CVT was starting to give me trouble, so it was time to move on. After reading the forums and blogs I found that I was not the only Honda Hybrid owner to experience CVT issues, actually almost every blog-post I found for an '03 Hybrid talked about CVT issues - I did not find this when I searched for Prius information for the same years, so my first stop was Toyota to look at the Prius, fulling intending to once again go with a hybrid vehicle. Once again Toyota disappointed with almost exactly the same situation as I had 8 years ago: "we don't have any 2011's left, but if you can wait 2-3 months, we should be getting the 2012 models in...". Subtract 8 from the years and its the same story I got back then. So, I took my brochure and notes and headed out. I have been hearing good things about Ford, and noticed that a lot of the gadgets (like BlueTooth) were included whereas these were upgrades on other manufacturers, so I went to Ford. After some discussion I found that a similarly equipped Focus was $8-10K LESS than the Prius. With my actual experience with a hybrid vehicle I know that optimistically the hybrid had saved me ~$5K in gas over the last 8 years (assumes comparable consumption of 10 L/100km vs. my 5.2 L/100km). So with my Civic I believe I saved gas equal to or more than I spent on the premium cost of a hybrid back when I bought it...BUT when looking at the Focus 2012 fuel consumption information compared to the Prius information, I was a bit amazed... Prius Hwy fuel consumption at ~4 L/100km, Focus: 5.3 L/100km. So Prius is a lot more expensive, and very little relative fuel consumption savings. So, that's the story of how I ended up with a Ford (which I'm still trying to internalize and accept). That said, here are the things I've noticed so far.

• Cup holder placement may seem insignificant, but it's one of those little things that will bug you every single day. The cup holders are in the center and with your arm on the center armrest you will be resting your wrist/forearm on the top of your travel mug, so not only do you need to reach awkwardly backwards to get your cup, but any coffee drips left on the top of the cup will be transferred to your shirt sleeve. There is a whole lot of space taken by the oversized parking brake, this whole area could have been designed better.
• I like the holder for sunglasses above the rear-view mirror. This has become a standard feature in a lot of vehicles and saves me having one of those clip-on things on my passenger visor. I've got a bit of a complaint here; the mechanism and construction of the whole area above the rear view mirror seems cheap and clunky, especially compared to wife's Honda CRV - but still, I like it.
• The integrated garage door openers are a cool gadget, and again save me from having things hanging from my visors. I got them programmed easily for my 2 garage doors and like this idea.
• The transmission has me a bit concerned, it seems to have trouble finding the right gear when taking off from a stop or at lower speeds (around 60 km/hr). I will ask about it at my first oil change but it just might be that I have to get use to a "normal" transmission again after driving a CVT for the last 8 years, and a manual stick for the 11+ years before that.
• The voice activated Sync stuff is pretty cool - I love having the BlueTooth built in and it is way easy to call people (worked right off with no trouble after Syncing with my Blackberry: "Phone > Call > Dad > Home" finds the right number and dials). The number dialing is also easy to use with no fuss. The USB link works with my iTouch and overall I am really liking the whole setup. I may be biased since the radio in my Civic has been giving me trouble for the last 2-3 years, so just having good sounding music in the car again is awesome! Still learning some of the command structures for the voice activated stuff, but it will come...
• Odd find, the USB port is in the center armrest compartment. There is a dent in the compartment moulding where the latch mechanism is located that would be perfect for a wire to feed through, but the actual clip mechanism won't allow this. Surprised, it seems like it was made to allow a USB cable to be plugged in to the USB port and fed out to a device, except for 1 small piece of plastic...I might have to modify the design.
• Not sure why, but SMS messages through the Sync interface are not supported for my Blackberry. Given the text-to-speech and voice-to-text capability already built into the car, I would think that SMS support would be an easy and very useful add-on.
• The trunk release...as far as I can tell the only way to get into the trunk/hatch area is using the button on the key fob. Annoying. Stop the car at the end of the driveway to get the garbage cans, have to reach around and almost put my head under the dash to find the button to push. Sharon grabbing a few things at the store and wants to throw them in the back, same thing. If there is a manual trunk release, I can't find it...on the car or in the book.
• The key hole is behind the steering wheel and voice activation paddle, hard to see to insert the key, and several times I have accidentally hit the voice command activation paddle while inserting or removing the key, or trying to open the trunk (see above).
• I think there should be more fuel saving stuff/options. Having come from a hybrid there are things like turning off the fuel supply to the engine while coasting or going down hill that could be incorporated into any car. I've started shifting into neutral when going down hills, my RPMs drop from ~2K to ~750, and I notice an improvement in fuel economy (of course not sure if this is impacting performance of the transmission, see a few points above...). Related to this, a Real time fuel consumption meter would also be helpful to see how and when shifting gears affects performance.
• Coolness: Blind spot mirrors built in to the regular side view mirrors. Like it, use them all the time. I think the passenger side needs to be adjusted but not sure how, more reading required.
• Windshield Stones... Cheryl use to say that her old Jetta's windshield attracted stones. I think this car is the same. I think there is something with the aerodynamics. Anyway, not much you can do.
• I had climate control in the Civic Hybrid, loved it, still do.
• The cruise control is smart!!! Every other car I have ever been in would automatically put the pedal to the metal upon cruise "resume", but this puppy is smart, it slowly accelerates and allows some wiggle-room around the set speed so no down-shifting and rocketing over little hills, good.
• The information panel(s) are great, I love them. only suggestion is to also have a summary information panel. Currently all the travel information (odometer, fuel consumption, fuel remaining, trip timer, etc.) are all on individual separate screens, need 1 summary screen that has all of this listed in 1 place

Airport Security

I just finished reading an article about a man that was wearing baggy hanging down pants in the airport who was asked to pull them up - and when he refused, they removed him from the plane and put him in jail for trespassing. There is a lot that is trivial and stupid about this story - on both sides of it - but I think the best part of the story I read was the parting words of the reporter who actually did a great job in putting the situation in perspective - a refreshing change from the sensationalizing typically seen from reporters trying to make their story seem like the next major world headline.
"Thus ends the initial account of one of the dumbest incidents ever recorded on this site, which is saying a lot. ... Personally, I feel a little dumber for having spent a portion of my morning on it, and for actually feeling compelled to offer this parting advice, applicable to any situation you can possibly encounter in life: When in doubt, always pull your pants up."

Don't Talk - Angry Voicemail (Censored)

Well, I've got to say that I have to agree with the theatre on this one... The light from the screen and the clicking of the keys (unless you have a touch-screen) is annoying for others around - as annoying as talking to the person next to you. So good-on-ya Alamo Drafthouse!

iTouch Playlists

This post feels familiar, so I may have already done something similar in the past - but I am just now recovering my iTouch music database after a computer failure several months ago, so just getting back into my music.
Basically, I feel that I am the only person on the planet that listens to my music in randomized playlists. I am amazed that the iTouch (or iPod, or any other music player I've seen for that matter) does not allow the user to create playlists from the device, and add songs into (multiple) playlists while they are playing. Often when listening to newly loaded CDs or songs I think "this is a great driving tune, and is also a general good song for parties around the pool", so while listening to the song I want to add it to both of those playlists - but I can't, I need to remember the song and do the playlist udpate the next time I connect to iTunes.
I have a cludge work-around that I use that does a bit, but want to share it anyway for the benefit of humanity... I use the star rating system to categorize the music for moving into play lists when connected to iTunes.
- newly loaded songs have no rating so I move all of these into playlist "0-rating". This allows me to select only unrated songs, shuffle them for listening, and then rate while listening using 1 of the other star ratings.
- 1-star: don't like it, delete from library on next iTune connection.
- 2-star: softer background or dinner music
- 3-star: general inoffensive tunes for weekend breakfast listening, an additional playlist called "SundayMorning" is a merge of all 2 and 3 star songs.
- 4-star: good tunes
- 5-star: great tunes, an additional playlist called "GoodTunes" is a merge of 4 and 5 star songs.

So as I listen to the unrated songs live on my iTouch, I give them a star rating. Then when I get back to iTunes and sync, I sort the library by star rating and move all the songs to the playlists listed above, delete all the 1-star, and then go into each playlist and delete any with changed ratings.
It is a primitive system since there are only 4 usable stars, but it mostly works.

If someone knows a way to actually put songs into multiple playlists while on the go and listening, please let me know.

Emergency Preparedness

So I've been thinking about the future and the inevitable zombie apocalypse, and trying to decide on a good plan for a place to go for best security while we wait out the worst of it. In a recently watched documentary, "Resident Evil: Afterlife", I saw how people were able to get into a prison after it was emptied (seems that the warden let everyone out when the infection started) and how that environment seemed to be well protected from the zombie horde (for a while) given that the security measures used to keep people in were equally effective at keeping zombies out. However going to a place like this would hinge on having the place emptied before I would want to setup camp - I don't think I should depend on this happening at my local prison and therefore don't think this is a good "Plan A" for a target destination when the apocalypse begins.

Similarly, in the subtitled foreign documentary, "La Horde", I saw how older apartment buildings with their cement and brick construction and primary use of steel doors can also make good "bunkers" - but again, the existing residents really need to be cleared (at least the infected ones), and there is the added "construction" required to cover/seal the typical front entry glass doors, and barricade the stairwell access - all in an environment with limited materials on hand to do this added and needed work (while "the horde" is on the other side of the glass trying to break through and eat you while you are whistling away working on your barricade).

Learning from the documentaries (after all, that is the value of documentaries, learning from the actions of others), I have come to think that a "big-box" hardware store may be the best option. These buildings typically have few ground-level windows, and few doors, and also few "residents" - even on a good normal day there may only be a few handfuls of people in the store, and those people would likely have not put the thought into this (as I have) and would likely leave the building when the outbreak started. Though the access doors for these buildings are typically large, the building is well equipped with the materials and tools required to fairly quickly secure the entrances from the zombie masses - up to and including the availability of quick-dry cement and construction adhesive. For any zombies that get in during or before the entrances are secure - the arsenal of "weapons" available in a big-box hardware store make this as good a place as any to be taking a stand.

In my town the local hardware store is right beside the grocery store. I do not recommend setting up camp in a grocery store.... in a related documentary, "The Mist", a group of people being attacked by prehistoric or other-worldly creatures sets up camp in a grocery store, and the limitations are quickly obvious - these stores usually have an entire front wall that is windows. Even if the windows are hard to break, if the zombies (or creatures) can see you, they will keep coming - solid walls are both stronger and hide you from sight, making it less likely that an ongoing prolonged attack will continue. Coming back to topic, over time you can assume that power will be lost and therefore the refrigeration will stop working - so any meat will begin to smell - which will make staying there unpleasant AND will attract both zombies and creatures. So, back to my point - in my town the hardware store is beside the grocery store, so if I setup camp in the hardware store, spend my time securing that location, then once done I can wait for lulls in the zombie activity to use roof access to break into the grocery store as required and transfer all the non-perishable food over to my hardware store strong-hold.

I also thought of warehouse locations in city industrial areas. These locations are also good for the same reasons - minimal ground-level windows and typically few solid, secure doors, so relatively easy to setup security, however your support materials once you establish your strong-hold are limited to the products or materials housed by that warehouse (picture rack upon rack of rolls of bubble-wrap....). I think a warehouse location is a good "Plan B" (plus these would likely have even fewer "residents" to deal with), but I think Plan A should be a hardware store - preferably located between a grocery store and a gas station.

"Plan C" would be to barricade my home. This is more difficult given the quantity of ground-level windows, however it has the advantages that I know who is in it right from the start, and I know what materials and supplies I have...but this means I also know that I don't have the materials on-hand to properly cover all the windows and secure the building. In my particular case I am located a bit in the country, so should have limited hording at my door step - at least when things start, so this would give me a little more time to collect the materials I need, and do the work. But longer term the reduced structural strength of the building and access points could be my downfall - and once the perimeter is breached, there isn't much I can do once the zombie are inside (as compared to a big-box store or warehouse where there is enough space and even height to support internal barricading structures and security measures - such as an elevated living space suspended from the ceiling beyond the reach of the horde).

So, I'm off to the hardware store to check it out. Might also keep my eyes open for the best travel route from here to there - both by car and on foot. Open spaces bad, narrow walk-ways good.