More Thoughts on The Car

My first full day with the new (used) Cadillac was quite nice. The car truly made my long commute more bearable if not an outright pleasure. The car holds the road very well, and does not get blown about by wind and passing trucks like the old Saturn. It rained and snowed here all day and the Caddie never once lost traction or threatened to slide into oncoming traffic during rush hour. It looks as though the mileage will be good too. I was told it got 28mph, if that is the case then it will only be slightly worse than my old (and much smaller) car.

Some of my observations include:
The car has so many bells and whistles that it is hard to keep the bright shiny things from getting my attention instead of the traffic. Must remember to keep eyes on the road.

This car is plumb, or cherry or whichever fruit you prefer. It may be old but it is in excellent condition. I cannot find one thing that is broken.

I realized today that I was not the target demographic for this car. Think about all the folks you know that drive Cadillac's and you will notice that many of them are retired, or in their 60's. One can see this when studying the controls for this car. The dash board is laid out with giant buttons for even the most mundane things. The analog dials are large and well lit, most of the functions are well marked and very simple. I have been over complicating this car, each time I figure out how something works (like turning on the side mirror defroster) I realize I was making it too hard. (it turns out, the mirror defroster starts when you turn on the rear window defroster).

At first I didn't think much of the heated seats, but after this mornings frosty commute I wonder what I ever did without them. No more driving for 20 minutes before the car is warm enough to be comfortable. I also like the radio controls on the steering wheel, but I keep accidentally hitting one of the buttons and am startled when my CD starts blaring when I thought I was listening to the news on, you guessed it, NPR. I have yet to figure out how to lock the radio controls in order to prevent accidental activation, but I am sure there is a huge button somewhere that will do it.

I think that all chairs should be heated, a heated office chair would be nice. What about a heated bar stool at the local saloon? Now that would be luxury. I understand that there have been some advances made in luxury automobile technology in the past few years. My daughter tells me that her friends car has both heated and cooled seating arrangements.

So now I ride to work in the lap of luxury, I have never had a nice car, always some vehicle that I settled for. The Saturn didn't even have electric windows and locks! Yesterday I even bent to roll up my window before I realized there was a tasteful (but a little big) button that does that for me. I can get used to this sort of ride, and I am only 41.

This is day 12 of my mission to blog 30 x in 30 days.