octothorpe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
octothorpe) wrote2006-09-04 06:46 pm
octothorpe) wrote2006-09-04 06:46 pm
TSX: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
So I've had the car for less than a week, and there are a lot of things I love about this car, however there are a few things I dislike. I'll make this short and sweet. If you have any questions about something, let me know, and I'll elaborate.
- The Good
- Good amount of power for a FWD car. I've driven the TL, and it cries out to be 4WD, or RWD
- The seats. They hug you. Larger (wider) folk will be very uncomfortable. To me, they're perfect
- Gears. All 6 of them put down some good power
- The view: lots of glass, and nothing in the way. Contrast with the TL's *gigantic* A-pillar, which makes seeing in the corners impossible.
- Brakes. We like to stop
- DBW Throttle. I was ready to hate this, and replace it with a physical cable. As it turns out, it's very responsive, although I'd still like a real cable.
- Voice activated everything. It's not just a gimmick, and for the most part, it understands me. I'm still learning what it expects to hear for a given command.
- Bluetooth Integration is amazing. Caller ID appears in my front instrument cluster, and everything is operated via the steering wheel. I believe it also boots the antenna signal, as I have more bars shown on the car, than what I normally see on the phone, given the same location.
- The Bad
- Door lock rocker switch. It's counter intuitive. Forward (would be "up" if mounted vertically) should *unlock*, and it doesn't.
- VSA has to be manually turned off every time you turn on the car. The VSA is the vehicle stabilising control. It will apply the brakes/throttle if you lose traction. I'm not into cars thinking for me, and I'm *really* not into UIs not remembering their state.
- The suspension sucks compared to what I'm used to. Chances are pretty good you reading this will *LOVE* it. If I don't feel every grain of grit on the road, I am not happy. It's not as bad as a mercedes suspension, but I know Honda/Acura can do better
- Car Navi Nag Screen.
- Difficult to step back form a navi sequence. If you hit the "back" button, you often go to the default screen, rather than 1 screen backward.
- Voice Activation delay. There is too much of a delay in me saying the command, it interpreting it, then doing it. Cut to the chase, and do it while you're reciting my command, as there is no interrupt for a bad interpretation (you can't cancel a command, you have to tell it to do something else to fix it)
- The Ugly
- The rims. Dayum. Can't wait to get rid of them.
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I share your distaste for battles of wit and configuration with roboticised cars. They're programmed to believe they know better than you what you want, and it is gritching as all hell. And no, I never get used to it. I don't mind well-sorted hydromechanical autoboxes, but I loathe the electronic ones, each and all, for that very reason: The hydromechanical type can be controlled and overridden at will. The electronic one, like an intransigent nanny, always knows better. Blechk. I also dislike automatic lights (daytime or nighttime variety), clever little robot servants who're absolutely sure that because I've set the handbrake I want the interior lights on and the doors unlocked (or because I've attained 22km/h I want the doors locked), and yeah, on-by-default-every-time VSA would get to be a nuisance in a hurry.
More generally, I do not feel the advent of BCMs has been all to the good. There is a small but perceptible and very annoying delay between actuating a control and getting the result. It may be only a fraction of a second, but it's an affront to have to submit a request to the omnipotent brain, then wait while it decides whether or not to grant your request.
I like cables. And pipeworks and switches and wires that aren't multiplexed. But then, my automotive tastes are...erm...bizarre overall.
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I added a hardware device that I can program to disengage the DSC in the MINI. It's meant for 'track days' (hence the name 'track-mode DSC').
Nag screens? Get used to it, it's lawyer's fault. Your best bet is to find Euro firmware for the nav system.
I have yet to find an infallible voice-controlled ANYTHING. Most people fall into this category as well.
Enjoy the tuning!
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You mentioned that you hacked your DSC to turn off... does that imply you don't normally have the option of turning off your stability control??
There's a hardware hack for mine, so it will remember "position" between restarts, but I'd rather not bother with it, as it involves putting the PCB in the front driver's door, and splicing wires.
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This just drives me fucking nuts, it's like these people never use the UI they designed. Our Comcast cable box has the same
fucking shit"feature", and when I am seven layers deep into choosing something and I hit "back", I do not want to start the whole process anew. I do, however, want to throw the fucking box out of the window and laugh maniacally.no subject
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Read Pasty's Ab Fab sweetie darling
Oh yeah, one other thing...
Re: Oh yeah, one other thing...
Re: Oh yeah, one other thing...
VOL: a type of US-spec low beam with a horizontal cutoff at the top of the Left side of the beam, 0.4° below the centreline height of the lamps (= 2.1" below centreline height at 25' distance). This type of cutoff is conceptually similar to the European ECE low beam cutoff, which is placed 0.573° below centreline height (= 3" drop @ 25').
VOR: a type of US low beam with a horizontal cutoff at the top of the Right side of the beam, at the centreline height of the lamps.
Lens markings will tell you whether your lamps are VOL or VOR. The VOL type, if the beam is well designed, can give longer in-lane seeing distance than the VOR type, which tends to give short seeing distances because the light cannot go above horizontal even on the nearside. For various reasons, most of them specious and dumb, many US-market cars come with VOR low beams.
The cutoff itself can be a little disconcerting if you're used to poorly-focused older-type US beams. There is a tendency to feel as if you can't see as far due to the sharp cutoff. Here's the thing: Seeing distance isn't materially different for the two types of low beam, it just seems so because that cutoff on the road surface gives you a real-time, dynamic visual indication of your seeing range. "Here's where your light beam ends. If you can't stop in time, slow down!" That information isn't available without a cutoff, which is why North Americans tend to overdrive their low beams to a greater degree than drivers in the rest of the world where low beams with offside cutoffs are universal.
Aiming: There's no such a thing as self-aiming lamps (I wish!). Self-levelling, yes, and your TSX may or may not be so equipped. Turn on the lamps, then turn on the ignition and start the car while watching the beams on a wall: Do they do a little down-then-up jog? If so, you've got self-levelling (mandatory with Xenon lamps outside North America—ditto headlamp lens cleaners).
Aim information is here, though the proper use of an optical beamsetter for the task is so vastly superior to any "shine at the wall" method that the latter really only ought to be done in emergency. Careful, they're probably close to correct from the factory, and even many dealers don't give a tinker's and do a halfassed job of it.
BMW lamps are a mixed bag. Most of what they've got on offer right now is actually pretty good, but there are a few that make you scratch your head and wonder where all the light's going. All automotive HIDs use the same bulbs, so the range in apparent "blueness" is due to optics. Some automakers think it's clever and cool to tweak the optics to get maximum blue-violet effects at the cutoff fringe. *makes wanking motion*
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New Rims
Re: New Rims
Re: New Rims
*shudder*
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Can I have a ride?
In the car that is.