{"id":1095,"date":"2008-09-10T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-10T19:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bibik.org\/blog\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2008-09-10T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-10T19:32:00","slug":"learn-to-love-your-car-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/2008\/09\/10\/learn-to-love-your-car-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn to love your car again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is your car losing that new-car smell\/feel\/taste? \u00c2\u00a0Are you simply bored with it? \u00c2\u00a0Have you lost appreciation for the subtle nuances simply because you drive it every day? \u00c2\u00a0I have a great way to learn to love your car again. \u00c2\u00a0Drive something worse for at least a few hundred miles. \u00c2\u00a0That’s all it takes!<\/p>\n

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While in Paris, we decided to rent a car and go bomb around the countryside. \u00c2\u00a0We visited numerous chateaus, putted around quaint towns and circled about 60% of Paris. \u00c2\u00a0Renting through Europcar, we were graced with a fairly-new (~6,000km on the odo) petrol Peugeot 206 5-door. \u00c2\u00a0 Some highlights:<\/div>\n
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  • 75 horsepower!<\/li>\n
  • 0-60 in just under 15 seconds!<\/li>\n
  • 44 MPG!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Filling up in Europe is deceptively expensive. \u00c2\u00a0 “Oh, hey, somewhat over a euro per liter, under four liters per gallon, not terrible!” \u00c2\u00a0 This is sort of like the “Roughly how many piano repairmen are in Chicago?” type problem; estimates here and there can compound how far off you are from the true total. \u00c2\u00a0 After driving about an hour and a half, the refueling bill was about $70 USD. \u00c2\u00a0This is for a sub-compact! \u00c2\u00a0 I looked a less-efficient cars in awe for the rest of the trip. \u00c2\u00a0I saw a GTO a day after my return to the States and thought to myself \u00c2\u00a0“That car gets 16 MPG; my equivalent fuel bill would have been almost $200!”<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    When I slipped behind the wheel of my car, everything was right with the world. \u00c2\u00a0The clutch wasn’t a hilariously-light affair with a three-inch engagement point. \u00c2\u00a0The steering wasn’t so light that I felt as if I was steering with a soggy baguette ring. \u00c2\u00a0 The engine could accelerate! \u00c2\u00a0 Acceleration is banned in France. \u00c2\u00a0 I like accelerating. \u00c2\u00a0 I really did enjoy the shifter in the 206. \u00c2\u00a0The 6-speed Getrag in my car is getting a bit notchy at only 50,000 miles. \u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    My car is nowhere close the the optimal configuration for automotive enjoyment. \u00c2\u00a0It’s an open-diff, nose-heavy FWD with a funky rear suspension (Ford ControlBlade). \u00c2\u00a0If I was coming home to a mid-engine RWD vehicle, my appreciation would be that much greater.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Is your car losing that new-car smell\/feel\/taste? \u00c2\u00a0Are you simply bored with it? \u00c2\u00a0Have you lost appreciation for the subtle nuances simply because you drive it every day? \u00c2\u00a0I have a great way to learn to love your car again. \u00c2\u00a0Drive something worse for at least a few hundred miles. \u00c2\u00a0That’s all it takes! While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibik.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}