Score:5, Offtopic

So, I moved into my apartment at the beginning of October.

The first weekend I was there, I thought to myself, "self, your car is a piece of shit. I think you need to buy a new one."

So I did so - a 1992 Mazda Miata.

Rather... different from the Golf, but DAMN fun.

The Golf, FWIW, is awaiting a friend to be ready for it, to part it out.

Anyway, yesterday, I finally got a real camera, and today, I decided to find a nice big parking lot and have fun in the ice and snow.

So I did so. See below.

I got rid of my Civic today... I think the pictures will say it all. (They had a bit of a problem getting it on the trailer without ramps... so they took a running start.

And then they strapped it on their trailer and left! I'm all of... um... $215 richer. Yay. At least I don't have that pile rotting up the driveway any more...

Now, when they saw my Golf, they tried to get me to sell it, but... I just got that thing running. Glow plugs help a LOT with starting a diesel in this damn cold weather.



So, anyway, the other thing. I've decided to start running Linux on this ThinkPad. So, I decided to go with the flavor of the month, to try to make my life as easy as possible. That means Ubuntu.

I burned the CDs of my recovery partition, and saved ISOs of them onto my server. That way, I could restore the system in the future despite proceeding to nuke that partition. After that, I realized that I needed a hell of a lot more HDD space than that... so I started deleting crap, and got myself TONS of room. After some SNAFUs with defragging, then shrinking the partition, Ubuntu installed just fine.

Now, here's something that is awesome. In my previous attempts to use Linux, I found that I had to install a whole bunch of BS to get the tiniest thing to work.

On Ubuntu... it just... works. Sure, I've had to install the occasional package now and then, but Ubuntu's howtos actually... make sense! And are... helpful! And I've not noticed the dependency hell that I found on the RPM-based distros I've used. Then again, I am trying to stay within the distro's packages when possible...

Anyway, I've only booted into Windows a couple times. Funny part is, Windows has slowed down a LOT since this...

I think this says it all.





And, even though sometimes she didn't treat me the best, a for saving me from ANY injury.

It's official, everyone everywhere is saying... no more TDI for 2007.

With a twist.

The rumors that VW was ramping up production of the 2006 Jetta TDI to be able to sell stock into 2007 were true.

The rumors that we were getting the Touareg V10 TDI back for 2006... well, almost false. Some people have mentioned that there's going to be VERY few 2006 V10 TDIs. However, there's going to be 2007 V10 TDIs. Want a TDI? Sorry, you get a V10, whether you like it or not. Oh, and it's $59,000.

Read the Detroit Free Press article (the one that's being quoted the most): http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060528/BUSINESS01/605280708/1014

Autoweek did a fuel economy showdown for Earth Day 2006.

In it, they compared a Jeep Commander, a Chevy Corvette, a Honda Accord Hybrid, a Toyota Prius, and a Volkswagen Jetta TDI on a nice long 350 mile beer run.

The Commander and Corvette were pretty much put in as jokes. The Commander got a dismal 17.2 MPG on the highway - compared to an EPA estimate of 18 MPG. Daily driving this thing is a BAD idea, unless your idea of a daily drive is through deep mud and you're carring the seven people that the Commander has room for.

The Corvette got 27.3 MPG - compared to an EPA estimate of 27 MPG. For what it is, not too bad. I can think of many small cars that get worse. And, the 'vette was driven fast, and set the pace for the group. FWIW, this was one of two vehicles that beat the EPA mileage estimates.

The Honda Accord Hybrid got 33.9 MPG. EPA estimate was 34 MPG. Not bad, until you consider that this is a hybrid. However... the most powerful Accord is the Hybrid. Honda only offers the hybrid drivetrain with the V6 engine, and tunes it for performance more than MPGs.

The Toyota Prius got only 42 MPG. You might be saying, "only?!?!?!?" Well, the Prius is rated for 51 MPG highway. Big difference. The Prius, while beating the previous three cars tested, did the worst in comparison to its EPA rating. Maybe the EPA rating isn't accurate for real-world MPGs on some hybrids (such as the Prius)? I must point out that the driving style, according to the article, was NOT one oriented for economy - see my reference to the Corvette setting the pace. However, read on.

The Volkswagen Jetta TDI got 49.9 MPG. Just 1.1 MPG shy of the PRIUS'S EPA rating. Here's the thing. The Jetta TDI that was tested was rated for 42 MPG highway. Oh, and they were running B20 biodiesel. With B20, many report either no change or a very slight drop (less than 1 mile per gallon) in fuel economy. Maybe the EPA rating also isn't accurate for real-world MPG on some diesels (such as the Volkswagen TDI engines)?