San Diego

NANOG was meeting in San Diego this past week. Normally, in an attempt to reduce my travel, I don't go to NANOG, because there are several other folks from my company that go, and I can catch the sessions that I think look interesting via streaming video. However, this time there was another meeting happening directly after NANOG such that I figured if I was going to fly out to San Diego anyway, I should just go for the week. This was my first trip to San Diego. Generally it was a pretty good trip. A couple of brief impressions about San Diego. First of all, the weather was lovely! It was in the 70s most of the week, and actually hit 75 the last night I was there. One day of rain, the rest were all sunny. This was a good thing, because San Diego is a pretty walkable city, at least the area where I was. I did have to take a cab to and from the airport, but that was mainly because getting away from the airport involved a freeway with no sidewalk, not distance - it was something like 2.5 miles, which would have been quite doable if it had been safe to do so.

The conference was located at the Westin in Gaslamp Quarter. There were no rooms left in the block by the time I booked, so I ended up staying at the Sheraton Suites at Symphony Hall. It's about .5 mile from the Westin. It was a servicable hotel, but as a recent Starwood convert (previous employer had corporate contracts with Hilton), I have noticed one thing - both of the Sheratons that I have used have been overpriced by comparison with their competitors, have been a bit dumpy (in need of a remodel), and have had internet service that was borderline useless that they still insist on charging you $9.95 a day for. I like Aloft and Westin, but I think I'm going to start avoiding Sheratons where I have an option.

Anyway, there are a lot of dining options in the Gaslamp Quarter area, so when we'd break for lunch, I pretty much just pulled up Yelp and looked for something interesting each day. Here's the short rundown of the places I tried:
Hodad's - this is a burger joint that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, and the episode featuring them was rerunning about a week or two before I left on this trip, so it was in the front of my mind. I didn't go to the original (the one actually featured on DDD), but the burger and fries were still good, and I had a tasty local copper ale to wash it down. I got their Blue Jay Burger, which is a Bacon Cheeseburger with Blue Cheese cooked into the patty, topped with grilled onions. Those flavors worked really well together.

Bite M.E - This is a cutely named Mediterranean food place. I sat outside, and had a really good falafel plus some pickled vegetables. I've had plenty of kebab and the like, but I'd actually never tried falafel. Also, the pickled vegetables included carrots and celery, which is the first time that I've had either of them pickled. I've never met pickles I didn't like, so of course I enjoyed it.

Micho's - This is sort of a strange setup, because it's actually co-located with a bar called the Stage Bar, but
it came highly regarded. I had a fish taco and a carnitas taco, both were excellent, and quite cheap. I think that the whole meal including drink was less than $10. Additionally, they were using the bar's sound system to play XM 80s on 8, and it was having an exceptional day as far as music goes. I spent a lot of the time I was waiting for food singing along to the music.

Bandar - This was a Persian restaurant that came well-recommended from some colleagues. I had a beef and chicken kabob, and could barely finish it the portions were so huge. It was well spiced and tender, and I had a tasty yogurt sauce that was made with scallions (instead of the normal cucumber) plus flatbread on the side.

Lucy's Taco Shop - Breakfast was provided during the conference, so Thursday was the only day I needed to grab breakfast before my meeting. This place was right around the corner from the hotel where the meeting was being held, and so I grabbed a breakfast burrito from here. It came with a nice spicy salsa roja, and was quite tasty.

Karl Strauss Brewery Restaurant - Several of the social events that happened in the evening featured Karl Strauss Brewery products as their local feature, I tried their Amber Lager, as well as their Red Trolley Ale, and enjoyed both quite a lot - here is a microbrewery that doesn't over-hop everything for a change! When I saw on Yelp that the restaurant happened to be around the corner from where I was for my meeting, I knew that was the place for lunch. Beer, of course, featured heavily on the food menu, and I had a hamburger with beer-braised bacon and onions. On a whim, I tried their Oatmeal Stout, even though I am not normally a big fan of stouts, but this one was excellent. Very roasty and malty instead of hoppy, and it went really well with the burger. They also gave us a sample of their Anniversary brew, which tasted like it had a very high alcohol content and was aged in bourbon or whiskey barrels. Good stuff, but not something you'd want to drink a lot of in one sitting. A note to some of my friends who brew their own, I saw several of their kegs had a sticker with the slogan, "make beer, not war!" and if they sold them, I would have purchased several for you, but alas, the wait staff admitted that "we don't sell them because we suck." So there you go.

Dinner the first two nights was part of the conference's social event. The second night was a private event at the USS Midway, which was very cool. I would have liked to be able to see it during the day, but even at night it was really interesting.

Three nights there was proper dinner. First, one night a vendor took a few of us out to Nobu for sushi. I love sushi, but this was especially good. They had a lot of what they called "new-style" stuff that was not your standard sushi and sashimi. Lots of high quality fish, lots of good flavors. I don't even remember a lot of the things we tried, because someone else was doing most of the ordering, but I didn't have anything that wasn't tasty.

Stouts - I was on my own for dinner Wednesday night, as a lot of folks had already left town, and the conference ended mid-day, so I spent the afternoon working in my hotel room, and surfaced long enough to grab some dinner. This place looked good because it specialized in Irish Pub food. Turns out that it was the local hockey hangout, so while it's an Irish bar (and therefore serves what you'd expect at such a place) it also is the local Canadian expat hangout, and therefore had different hockey games on every screen, serves several Canadian beers, and poutine. I was trying to behave myself as far as dinner was concerned, so I skipped the poutine and ordered a reuben sandwich. That may have been a mistake. The corned beef (which is supposedly made onsite) was dry and flavorless, the saurkraut was timid, and while it was a decent rye bread, the bread was over-buttered and greasy, so it was a bit unrewarding. I don't know if their other food is better or not. They did have a good selection of beer, which helped, but I've been craving a good reuben ever since. Any recommendations?

Cafe Chloe - This was dinner on Thursday night. A friend from college had made some recommendations when I told him I would be in San Diego, and this was the one that he said was a must. Conveniently, it was nearby (most of the other places that he recommended were on North Side, which would have required a cab ride), and I'm very glad I took his recommendation. This is un-fussy French food. It was still almost 70 degrees out, so we had dinner outside  on their patio. A cheese and olive plate, braised short ribs with brussels sprouts, and a good bottle of red. I got to try my colleague's mussels, which were cooked in a Belgian ale cream sauce. Not good for your health, but damn good for your mental health.

A few other things that I noticed about San Diego. First, it seemed odd to me that there weren't more motorcycles. This is a place where year-round riding is definitely possible, and since it's California, you can lane-split, meaning that navigating the traffic would be easier. Yet, I only saw one or two motorcycles each day. I see more on my commute when the weather cooperates here. Second, San Diego seems to have a pretty significant homeless population, a lot of whom seem to have mental health problems. I don't know if it was the area where I was in the city, or the temperate climate, or a combination of a bunch of things, but there were a lot of folks sleeping on the street, and I saw several buildings being rehabilitated as second-chance housing. The interesting thing is that it'd be in clusters - you'd walk for several blocks and not see anyone, then you'd walk two blocks and see 10 people.

Musings on the Washington Auto Show Part 3

Last post talked about the cars on my shortlist and my impressions of them from the brief time I spent checking them out at the Auto Show. Today, it’s on to the cars that already didn’t make the cut – those which have been eliminated or drastically demoted on the shortlist, or were never on it to begin with and I just feel like ranting about them.

I sat in a new BMW 3 series, because I thought that perhaps a 335i or a Diesel might be a good mix of fun to drive and economical, but I don’t love the most recent exterior redesign, and the console interferes with my shin. Plus, it’d be nearly as expensive as the S4 which I like a lot better, so I guess that’s out.

A postscript on Volvo – the S60 R had a place on my list (near the bottom), but I discovered that unlike in the C30, their lovely floating center console is placed such that my knee/shin rubs against it in an uncomfortable way, so it’s officially off the list too. Sensing a theme here?

I’m so disappointed with Honda. They used to be the leaders when it came to using efficiency and technology to make cars that were fun to drive and still economical, but it’s as if someone pressed the Pause button on their drivetrain development for the last ten years. We went from the NSX and its ground-breaking VTEC engine to the S2000 and its motorcycle-like 9500 RPM redline, both among the first normally aspirated engines to break the 100 hp/L barrier, to the Acura TL and its great V6 + manual transmission combo to… nothing. Those engines are all still making about the same power output as they were 5+ years ago. In the meantime, the cars have gotten heavier, meaning that fuel economy has suffered, and all of their competitors have embraced direct injection, continuously variable valve timing, forced induction, etc, and are getting more HP out of their four cylinder engines than Honda is getting from six. It makes me sad that there’s nothing from Honda’s product line that I care about, especially since I used to own an Acura RSX Type-S. Even then, it felt underpowered, but it handled great, and had second-to-none driver ergonomics – easily the best manual transmission and steering wheel that I’ve ever used. The Acura TSX is interesting, especially the wagon, but the only way I can get one of Honda’s fantastic manual transmissions is to get it with their underwhelming four cylinder. The V6 is only available with an automatic. The least they could do is add the turbo four from the RDX, but that got pretty abysmal fuel economy for not too much better output. All of that aside, the console in the TSX interferes with my leg, which makes it a no-op anyway. I also really wanted to like the TL, which is interesting on account of the SH-AWD, but it’s an expensive car, the mileage isn’t great, and it’s underpowered compared with its competitors.

Toyota is trying really hard to pretend that they don’t just build driving appliances, but other than the Lexus LFA, they’ve got a long way to go when they bring out commercials like this “…the rush of 200 hp…”

I also was looking at a Nissan Maxima. I think with this version, Nissan finally got the styling right, as I think that it’s a very handsome car again, but the decision to have the CVT as the only available transmission makes it a deal-breaker. The VQ engine has gotten sort of thrashy on the top end of the rev range as they continue increasing the displacement, and having it ramp up to 4500 or 5500 RPM and stay there when I bury my foot does not sound like a recipe for aural enjoyment. To confirm that this wasn’t the right car for me, I found the seats uncomfortable – not enough padding on the cushions.

Scion didn’t bring their FR-S (the closest thing they make to an enthusiast car), but Subaru did bring their BRZ. They’re both mildly different versions of the co-designed FT-86. It was locked, so I couldn’t sit in it, but I’m not really seriously considering the car anyway, at least not yet. Currently it’s only available with a 200 hp NA flat four, so the performance is a bit below my threshold for “interesting.” Maybe if/when they bring it out with a Turbo I might be more interested, but for now, Toyota still remains an appliance maker in my book, at least ever since they discontinued the MR2, Celica, and Supra.

For whatever it's worth, it seems that I'm not the only one a bit disillusioned with HonTossan and their exceedingly boring cars.

I sat in both a Chrysler 300 SRT8 and a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, and I looked at the Dodge Dart (on the turntable). I don’t understand the decision to resurrect the Dart nameplate. All I know of that car is that it has been made fun of for 20+ years by Click and Clack, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone fondly remembering them. This one has nice styling, but the performance specs are such that it’s not really on my radar. I’ll have to say that the new interiors in the 300 and the new GC make a big difference, but they’re still not really on my consideration list. If I’m going to buy another car that gets gas mileage in the teens, I’m going whole-hog and buying a Cadillac CTS-V wagon.

In addition to looking at cars I might want to purchase, the auto show is also a great way to sit in and ogle cars that I’m unlikely to ever own, either because of their impracticality, their expense, or both. So when automakers choose not to participate or not to bring certain models, they deserve to be called out. For the second year in a row, Nissan didn’t bring a GT-R to the show. Last year, they said it was because they didn’t have any of the new ones after the redesign. This year, I didn’t even bother asking why. If I had the money burning a hole in my pocket, I would very seriously consider a GT-R before a Porsche, but I haven’t even been able to *sit* in one yet to see if I can fit (and equally important, if my kids even sort of fit in those tiny back seats). I guess I should have harassed the dealer in Manassas when we drove past and they had one sitting in the showroom last year. Since I mention Porsche, as much as of a Porschephile as I am, I have to take Porsche to task for being a complete no-show for the second year in a row at the auto show that is in their new corporate owner’s (VAG) US HQ’s backyard. I can just hear some stuffy Porsche exec saying “ze auto show in Vashington iss not vorth ze expense. Zose who are interested in our cars are velcome to come to our dealership to sit in ze vehicles.” C’mon guys, there’s no good reason for this. While some cosmetics may suffer, the show cars take less abuse than your press fleet, and you’re missing a huge opportunity to have a little kid (or a big kid) who isn’t likely to go anywhere near a Porsche dealership sit in one and say, “I’m going to own one of these someday.” Meanwhile, your competitors over at the Audi, BMW and Mercedes booths are happily letting the unwashed masses crawl all over their similarly-priced wares. I’m also sad that Mitsubishi has so utterly given up on the US car market that they also pulled a no-show for the second or third year. The Evo is on my list, but I’m starting to be hesitant to consider a carmaker that’s doing so poorly. It’d be just my luck that I’d buy one, and then they’d exit the US car market and leave me with no warranty to cover all of the magic technology that makes the car so amazing.

So if you actually stuck through all of this, congratulations. I’ll likely be posting driving impressions as I start to do test drives later in the year.

Musings on the Washington Auto Show part 2

This post is going to focus on my current shortlist of cars. I’m mainly looking at hot hatches, along with a few sedans, nothing V8-powered, and mostly four (or 5) doors so that it’s easier to get the kids in and out of the car. I tried out the following cars on my shortlist:

Ford Focus ST

I really like the interior of that one. Ford has finally gotten the memo that small, efficient cars don’t have to be penalty boxes inside, and really stepped up their game on the interior. Great steering wheel, nicely bolstered seats, high-quality materials, and the Sync audio/nav system that we like so much in the Flex. The shifter throw is a little longer than I’d like, but that’s fixable. I’m looking forward to being able to test-drive that one.

Volvo C30 T5 R-Design

I have to say that this one came out of left field. I wasn’t even thinking about this car, and I didn’t realize that Volvo were selling a version of their little hatchback with a 250hp 5-cylinder and a 6-speed. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Volvos, we had a 740 that was a great car. Not much fun to drive, but unstoppable and very comfortable. The C30 has the very Swedish and very comfortable interior, and (hopefully) will be interesting to drive. It’s a 3-door, but I noted that the seats motor back and forth very quickly, so I think it’d be manageable. I do have to say that the combination of the “male symbol” in the corporate logo and the use of the brand “Polestar” to signify their tuner package would make me think that one might be *ahem* compensating for something, but this car is so small that I doubt that’s the case.

Buick Regal GS

I know, I’m still totally amazed that there’s a Buick…anything on my list. Even 3 years ago, I was saying that the Buick brand should be killed as a part of GM’s restructuring, and in my mind, even considering a Buick would mean that your auto enthusiast card would be instantly revoked. But a lot has changed. Once Saturn was killed off (and it no longer had to compete with Pontiac’s positioning as the “performance” brand), Buick started becoming the US access point for rebadged Opels. As a result, they’ve actually been somewhat successful in distancing themselves from the two decades of cars which were only suitable for those retirees who couldn’t afford a Cadillac – rolling living rooms. The new Buicks have a nice Euro-style entry-level luxury design and sportiness. They’re running commercials that appeal to the driving enthusiast  and they’re putting a 274 HP engine and a 6-speed manual in the thing! I have to say that I was really impressed with this one. It’s comfortable, fuel-efficient, roomy, and the styling is pretty nice with the exception of a couple of fake vents on the body. I still can’t believe I’m seriously considering even test-driving a Buick, but I’m hopeful that this one is more Grand National than Park Avenue.

Audi

I had been considering 3 different cars from Audi – the S4, the A3, and the TT (either the S or RS variant) . One look at the TT in person was enough to remind me that it has a backseat that is simply not usable, so that is officially off the list. The A3 is a really nice car and I like the looks, but it’s very obvious that it’s just a very well-dressed Jetta Sportwagen, and the performance is really not in the right ballpark to compete against the other things I’m considering. I really don’t understand why Audi doesn’t import the S3/RS3. The RS3 has the turbocharged 5-cylinder that they sell in the TTRS, but is infinitely more practical than the TT. It’s not like they’d have to sell a lot of them to recoup the cost of Federalizing the car, given that it’s an engine and body that both are already certified, and a large percentage of the cars that Audi sells are custom-ordered anyway. The S4 is gorgeous inside and out. I really can’t think of another mass-market brand that does ergonomics and interiors better than Audi. The fact that it’s now using a supercharged V6 means that the fuel economy is at least adequate now, at the expense of the lovely V8 soundtrack that I fell in love with in Emily’s old S6 Avant. But it’s easily the most expensive car that I’m considering by half or more, so right now I’m of the mind that I’d have to be super impressed with the car when I drive it for it to justify the significant price premium that it commands over the other things that I’m considering. For what it’s worth, if I bought one of these, it’d likely be a lease, both to reduce the payments and so I don’t have to deal with the prospect of yet another German car that’s out of warranty. Great cars, sure, but paragons of reliability and cheap to repair they most certainly are not.

Mini Cooper Clubman 

I’ve been sort of intrigued by this one since it was announced. The regular Mini is too small, but this one is just large enough that it’s practical for more than 2 people. It has 4 actual seats (well, 2 are still basically kid seats, but that’s mainly what I need right now), the back hatch is actually two doors that open panel-van style, I fit in it quite well, and you can get it with the JCW tuning package that gives you 200hp out of the little 1.6. I’ve driven previous Minis and felt that they handled well but the engine was thrashy, but I’ve heard that the new engine is much better than the old one, so I’m looking to try it again. Hopefully the dealer won’t be such jerks this time either, as my last experience with Mini of Sterling was not one that would make me keen to rush out and purchase a car from them.

Hyundai – For a long time, Hyundai was in the same category for me as Buick, Toyota, Lexus, etc – I couldn’t even name the models or identify them on sight without looking at the badge like I can with most other marques because I simply. don’t. care. But they’ve been steadily improving. Two models caught my eye. The Veloster is a neat concept, with the rear door on just one side, and I really do like the exterior styling, but it’s so, so underpowered that I’m not really considering it, as even the planned turbo version takes the performance from awful to barely adequate, at least on my scale (keep in mind that my current car is 400hp and does 0-60 in 4.6 seconds – I’m a little spoiled in the performance department). However, I’m pretty interested in the Genesis coupe. This is the replacement for the Tiburon, but it’s really in a different class. It shares a lot of styling cues with the Infiniti G37, but it’s not a straight copy. Next year, they’re definitely catering to the enthusiast crowd with the new version – the V6 now makes 345hp and the 4 cylinder makes 271hp, both available with a 6-speed manual, and for a good bit lower price than the Infiniti. I’m still considering a G37 sedan, but that’s another one that is less likely unless it really wows me when I drive it.

Rounding out the rest of my shortlist are the aforementioned Mitsubishi Evo, the Mazdaspeed3, and the Subaru WRX STi. The Mazdaspeed3 is towards the bottom of the list, because it has strange styling, and from what I read, the torque steer is pretty bad and the gas mileage isn’t great. If Mazda puts in some of their Skyactiv efficiency enhancements (direct injection, idle stop/start, etc) before I’m ready to buy, I might give it more consideration, but it’s unfortunately showing its age and being outclassed by some of the other, newer designs I’m considering. I like the STi. I’ve driven my friend Chris’s standard WRX for a couple of hours, and so I know that it’s comfortable for me, and it handles great, but Scooby’s boxer is a thirsty engine even if you stay out of the boost, so the addition of the six-speed and more power to make the (lack of) fuel economy more worth it, plus the active differential to make the handling even better means that I’m still leaning towards the STi if I were to buy a WRX. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll have the new DI flat four from the BRZ turbocharged and ready to go in the STi by the time I’m ready to buy. Not much I can say about the Evo. In a lot of ways, it’s a poor man’s super car – it handles like a mega $ exotic because it’s bristling with technology, but the last time I drove one I was turned off by the turbo lag and the cheap interior. I didn’t have a chance to look at one because Mitsu pulled a no-show, so that’ll have to wait for the test drive phase I guess.

Musings on the Washington Auto Show Part 1

I went to the Washington Auto Show last weekend with my daughter and a friend from church and 2 of his kids. What follows are some impressions.

Those of you that know me know that I’m a pretty huge car buff – they’re so much more than a means to get from point A to point B for me. It doesn’t just stop at cars, though; I’ve had a thing for motorized conveyances for as long as I can remember. I grew up watching Knight Rider, I had posters of Italian exotics on my wall. I come by it honest – My dad has been driving the wheels off of anything with wheels for 50+ years, and before him, my “Grammie” George has been a fan of fast cars too. I have fond memories of riding in my Grandma’s cars (because somehow, they were always hers), with my Grandfather at the wheel. He’d give it the spurs, to my sister’s and my delight, but only after my Grandma would tell him to “stop driving like a fuddy duddy/old man.” From the ’77 Pontiac Firebird in Robin’s Egg Blue, to the Turbocharged Chrysler LeBaron, to the Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe and the Oldsmobile Aurora with the Northstar V8, none were boring cars. My dad, for his part, has had a Dodge Charger 2.2, Chrysler Conquest, a Pontiac Fiero Formula, a Porsche 944 S2 (not to mention Miss Vickie’s Black 944 which is what gave us both the 944 bug in the first place…), and two Corvette C5 convertibles, as well as an assortment of motorcycles (which I have been riding on the back of since I was about 5), and a boat or three.

So I give you that trip down memory lane to tell you that choosing a car for myself is one of those major life decisions for me. I’m not sure that I’m exaggerating when I say that I think I considered my last car for longer than I considered our house before I signed on the line. My wife groans every time we’re due for a car because my standards are so high and it takes so much work. There are spreadsheets, hours of research, and lots of test drives. Case in point, when my 944S was totaled, it basically took me 2 years to figure out what I wanted. I bought an Acura RSX Type-S, kept it for a little over a year, got bored with it, sold it to my sister, and ended up buying my current car, a Pontiac GTO. My wife’s car is paid off January 2013, and while I love the GTO, it is not aging particularly well – bad gas mileage (I average 15-18mpg on my commute, Premium fuel only), interior self-destructing, expensive repairs looming, so I have already started working on my shortlist of cars to replace it. I read two old-fashioned paper car magazines a month, plus one or two car blogs, so I have a good idea of what’s available and interesting, but given my size (and more specifically, the fact that I’m all leg), the ergonomics of a car are nearly as important as how fun it is to drive. The Auto Show is a great way for me to spend some time wandering around, getting up close and personal with a bunch of the cars that I’m considering, maybe discover something I hadn’t been seriously considering, and most importantly, to start eliminating cars that have ergonomic niggles that make them uncomfortable for me. You could call it my initial fact-finding mission.

In order to keep this post from being too epic in length, I’m breaking it into several posts. This is the intro, the next one will cover my shortlist, and the last one will cover the also-rans.

This time around, I’m considering some cars that are a little less powerful, but also a good bit smaller and lighter, so that I get better gas mileage when I’m commuting, but am not trading off too much in performance, and hopefully gaining an improvement in handling over my current car. The GTO dances pretty well for a fat guy, but raw acceleration is still its strong suit. I’d like to have something that is faster than my wife’s Flex Ecoboost (355 hp + AWD), which is a high bar since depending on which road test you read, it does 0-60 in between 5.9 and 6.9 seconds. I pretty much need something with 4 doors, because it makes getting the kids in and out so much easier, but it’s not a hard and fast requirement. Lastly, I want a manual transmission. I simply am not ready to move to an automatic. I don’t necessarily have to have a full manual, as I would consider any of the newer semi-automatic transmissions like a DSG where it’s a robotized manual, complete with a full manual mode and throttle blips on the downshift, etc. but I need to drive it before saying that for certain. I’ve driven enough torque-converter automatics with flappy paddles that delay shifting the transmission for 2-3 seconds after you tug on the paddle to know to say, “thanks, but no thanks” when it comes to slushboxes. 

I don’t think that the hybrid and eco-friendly drivetrains have really cracked the enthusiast market yet (Tesla notwithstanding), because they’re still busily selling every one they can make to those who will happily buy an appliance to get back and forth to work, so long as it gets great gas mileage and is reasonably comfortable. I was really hoping that a few of the newer ones would be different, but so far, not so much. For example, I really like the styling of the Lexus CT200h, but 0-60 in 10.4 seconds is just a complete no-op. That’s slower than a Prius, yet it’s supposed to be the “sporty” hybrid! The Honda CR-Z is another one that looked interesting, I like the styling, but it is still slow (~8 sec to 60) and only has 2 seats. In diesel-land, the Audi A3 still turns in a time of 8.9 seconds to 60. The one possible exception that I’m watching is the Infiniti M hybrid, which has a 5 second 0-60 time while still getting 24/32. It has a CVT and is a big, expensive car, so I think it’s only a second-string candidate at best right now. I will say that I have ridden in a Nissan Leaf, and I’m definitely impressed with the car in terms of room and drive, but it’s not a dynamic ride by any means. I think that it's likely that it'll be the second generation of electric cars before there are serious contenders for reasonably priced enthusiast cars. So for me, this means I have one more round of good ol’ gasoline-powered internal combustion in my future.