Two years ago this week, Vice Admiral of Vehicle Testing Mike Magrath and I ventured to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz., to see his New England Patriots defeated by my Colts' quarterback's brother's New York Giants. The game itself was a blast -- I mean, how many times do you get to go to a Super Bowl -- but as they preach in every road trip movie: it's not about the destination, it's the journey, man.
The good folks at Ford set us up with a Ford F-450 and a 31-foot Fleetwood trailer camper -- even though Magrath and I had neither camped or pulled such a trailer before. What followed included unintended acceleration, unintended nocturnal barfing, unintended use of my dad's Miata as a camera car (above) and an unintended appreciation for Ford's superest duty pickup.
For the whole story, please check out the two-part Two Guys, a Truck and a 31-Foot Fleetwood
James Riswick, Automotive Editor
(With some luck, maybe we'll do it again next year for Super Bowl XLV with the new Ford Powerstroke diesel. Dallas here we come?)
Categories: Ford, Road Trips
The Kia Soul proved to be an excellent little runabout car for my annual holiday vacation to Toronto. Is it as fun to drive as a Honda Fit? Nope. Is it as spacious and versatile as a Honda Fit? Not even close. Would I rather own a Fit? Not a chance.
See, as much as I write my model reviews and comparison tests with a firm eye toward rational buying decisions, my real-life purchasing decisions would be much different. I mean, just look at the 10 cars I want for Christmas -- hardly what you'd consider the most reliable group. Hell, there were four British cars on there.
I like the Soul because of its unique styling inside and out, the Houndstooth seats, the iPod interface and the impressive stereo (for its price). I also like the idea of driving something different than the pack. However, the Soul still has a lot going for it in the rationality category, especially in regards to price and features. Plus, there's still plenty of room and I appreciated the handy under-floor cargo organizer on Christmas day.
Is it the most versatile or rational car purchase in the class? Nope, but I'd be fine with that.
James Riswick, Automotive Editor
Categories: Kia, Road Trips
Once you get the right iPod wire for your Kia (be it a Soul, Forte or otherwise), you'll need to know how to use it. Well, this video may help in that regard.
Or, if you're bored at work and have exhausted the long-term blog for morsels of information, this may kill a minute and 27 seconds. Other ways to kill time at work include putting a whoopee cushion on Takahashi's chair, convincing Sadlier that he'll almost certainly be promoted if he bakes Karl Brauer a pecan pie every Thursday and concocting an elaborate problem with the Ford Flex that Magrath needs to get fixed immediately or it will almost certainly explode.
Enjoy.
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 6,130 kilometres
Check out my Facebook Page
Categories: Kia, Road Trips
You've probably seen or heard about the speaker lights in the Kia Soul. When I ventured to Korea to drive the Soul, I was told that these weren't cleared for the United States because they'd cause people to crash or something. Apparently that's no longer an issue with Kia or the government. It didn't prove an issue for me as I didn't seem to crash at any time.
But how do these speaker lights work? Well, why write it when I've got a perfectly good YouTube?
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 6,130 kilometres
Check out my Facebook Page
P.S. I just had to let the song play itself out. I wouldn't want to leave people hanging.
Categories: Kia, Road Trips
Last year was a beautiful white Christmas in Toronto. This year featured gusting winds and rain, which caused Lake Ontario to look like the high seas and challenged the wee Kia Soul on the freeway. Oh, and it was 1 Celsius, but I'm not complaining.
Despite being a light-weight, tiny boxy thing, the Soul was actually quite commendable in the wintery bluster as I travelled down Highway 404 from Newmarket, Ontario, on Christmas night. The steering is surprisingly communicative, providing enough reassuring information from the tires when particularly nasty wind gusts threatened to knock the Soul off course. I'm glad I wasn't in last year's Ford Escape, with its even boxier shape and nebulous electric power steering.
The windshield wipers front and rear also did their job. The fronts operate by dropping the right stalk down amongst three detents, with a variable intermittent setting controlled by a turning switch on the inside part of the stalk. A second turning switch on the end of the stalk controls the two-mode rear wiper. Also, pull back for front washers and push forward for rear washers. There, and now you know how the Kia Soul's windshield wipers work. Don't say I never taught you nothin'.
Unfortunately, as the above photo shows, my Soul 4U Retro is rather mucky (above right). The Vanilla Shake paint job looks more like cookies 'n cream now.
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 6,043 kilometres
Categories: Kia, Road Trips
Yes.
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 5,753 kilometres
Categories: Kia, Road Trips
There were no epic drives or road trips in store for the Soul today, just visiting friends and doing some last-minute Christmas shopping here in Mississauga, Ontario. Oh, and picking up the proper iPod cord from Kia (it's a BMW-style one that plugs into both the USB and aux ports, but more on that another day).
One of the first things I've noticed about the Soul is that it has a rather firm ride. There's quite a bit of impact harshness that comes through because of the big 18-inch wheels included with the 4U Retro trim. They look cool, but I'm not sure they're worth the resulting ride. Especially since the Soul is hardly the sort of car to go canyon carving in ... sorry, I'm in Ontario, cottage country carving in.
The 2.0-liter four-cylinder is punchy, but it's certainly got an agricultural sound to it. When approaching 120 km/h north of 3,000 rpm, the engine starts to assert itself over the otherwise manageable road noise. The four-speed auto is reasonably quick to downshift when needed and holds onto gears well when accelerating.
So, the Soul is hardly a finely crafted driving machine, but are you really surprised? What it did do successfully was fit my 6-foot-3 friend comfortably in its back seat, stuff a bunch of shopping bags in the trunk and draw compliments. I had the Soul for all of five minutes before a lady with a CR-V said she thought it looked neat and asked me what I thought of it.
"Yeah it's cool," I said. "You get an awful lot of character for not a lot of money."
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 5,753 kilometres
Categories: Kia, Road Trips
Tis the season for Mr. Riswick to venture to his home and native land for Christmas. In the past, I've borrowed cars from Ford (a Flex and an Escape), but this year I switched things up and turned to Kia for my winter week. Presently in my parking spot here in Port Credit is a 2010 Kia Soul 4U Retro.
Now, for you Kia Soul experts out there in the States, you'll know there is no such thing as a Soul 4U Retro. But there is in Canada and it seems to line up with the American ! trim level. My tester is in Vanilla Shake ("Dune" in los Estados Unidos) with the tan/Houndstooth interior and a four-speed automatic. Thankfully, I've got heated seats, though it's only about freezing here with scattered flurries.
This is the first time I've driven the Soul since the long-lead launch in Korea, so it'll be interesting to see how I enjoy it in a place with road signs I understand. So far, so good, though the car doesn't seem to like my iPod -- I may need a different cord.
Check back for more throughout the week and next, but please let me know if you've got any questions about the Soul.
James Riswick, Automotive Editor @ 5,703 kilometres
Categories: Kia, Road Trips
I just returned from an 1,100-mile towing adventure involving our long-term 2009 Dodge Ram 1500
and my 1970 Plymouth GTX. In terms of drama it had to be one of the most boring tow trips I've experienced. The Dodge proved extremely capable over the mountain passes between Denver and Los Angeles, and even the triple-digit temps in Arizona and Nevada didn't upset the truck's cool, collected demeanor.
But not all my towing adventures have been so blissful. So for the benefit of those who like to learn from others' screw-ups, I present 5 Towing Tales to Terrorize:
1. When I was about 8 my aunt gave my oldest brother her car. It was a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker station wagon. It was actually in pretty good shape overall, but the engine wouldn't run so my Dad decided to tow it home...from Pennsylvania to Colorado...with our family station wagon and all of us aboard. It was going well until the Chrysler came unhooked in Kansas. At night. In the middle of a blinding snow storm. It took awhile to locate it, but thankfully it had landed in a famer's field with no real damage. We talked to the farmer, left it there, and eventually had it towed the last 500 miles by someone who knew how to properly hook up a tow bar.
Continue reading…
Categories: Dodge, Driving, Muscle Car, Road Trips, Talk Back Tuesday
I recently spent a week's vacation driving a 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T. It was my mount of choice for a family vacation that took me through New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania (it's near Tionesta and the Allegheny National Forest in the photo above).
Yes, you read right: a 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T was my requested family car for a vacation. The same two-dour, Hemi-powered muscle coupe that is supposed to represent high-performance and heritage in the Dodge line-up.
Now why would I subject myself (and my family) to a week of pounding out hundreds of miles in a modern hot rod? For the same reason my wife drove a 1970 Plymouth GTX for over two years after we were married, and a 2002 Mini Cooper for 18 months when our kids were ages 2 and 4. Of course it's obvious -- I like torturing them.
Continue reading…
Categories: Dodge, Muscle Car, Retro Revivals, Road Trips, Talk Back Tuesday
It's summer time, and that means everyone, (including me) is traveling the country, taking in the sights and visiting new (or maybe old, familiar) places. I'm personally spending today flying to New York City to enjoy the sites and sounds of that singular metropolis. Even more exciting, I'm picking up a new, 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T as my ride around the Big Apple.
As you may have guessed, this is a press vehicle. However, according to the window sticker (it was faxed to me last week) this Challenger is equipped almost exactly as I would equip one for myself -- right down to the Deep Water Blue color. On one hand I'm thrilled to be driving a performance car I'm personally drawn to, but on the other I don't really think of New York as a car town. It's crowded with narrow streets, lots of stop lights and no where to park. Heck, you can't even drive through Time Square anymore.
That got me thinking. If I had access to this Deep Blue Challenger R/T and could go to any city to enjoy it, where would I go?
Continue reading…
Categories: Dodge, Driving, Muscle Car, Road Trips, Talk Back Tuesday
If you've read Thomas Friedman's latest rantings
in The New York Times you already know the only way to save the world from multiple calamities is to kill the SUV -- ASAP -- through taxation. In this week's op-ed piece he calls for gas taxes, carbon taxes, and whatever else it takes to "permanently change consumer demand."
Funny, but I'm just old-fashioned enough to think the proper way to change consumer demand is through free-market forces, but I know that's an unpopular philosophy these days.
For the record, it was not too little government regulation that caused the current housing and credit meltdown but too much. Tell banks to give everyone a loan without considering the risk (because the government will pick up the tab on any defaults) and guess what? Banks gave out too many bad loans! Obviously the only way out of this mess is more government intervention...
But that's a topic for another day. For now let's focus on Friedman's insistence that Americans must be force-fed small, fuel-efficient cars whether they want/need them or not.
Continue reading…
Categories: Chrysler, Hybrid Vehicles, Road Trips, Talk Back Tuesday
It's not everyday I can drive a Ford GT through the more picturesque parts of California with a like-minded enthusiast. Okay, technically I can drive the car wherever I want whenever I want to, but in reality my schedule leaves precious little time for galavanting around The Golden State's backroads.
However, earlier this week I managed to escape the daily routine and meet up with friend and co-worker, Brent Romans, for a romp through California's central valley. Our mounts of choice? One 2005 Ford GT and one 2008 Chevrolet Corvette (with six-speed manual transmission and Z51 suspension package).
Continue reading…
Categories: Chevrolet, Driving, Ford, Ford GT, Road Trips
I'm one of the lucky ones. I get to spend the next three days wondering around picturesque Monterey Peninsula looking at exotic sports cars and vintage racing machines.
If you've never been to the Pebble Beach Concours or Monterey Historic Races you can still call yourself a "car guy" -- but your status remains provisional versus certified. Conversely, even if you have attended this long weekend of car-bauchery your car-guy status is by no means guaranteed. I've seen too many obvious posers at this event, as the wealthy-but-bored often have nothing better to do this time of year.
I've attended this event (series of events, really) two or three times, but I prefer to take a few years off between visits simply because the crush of crowds and traffic is beyond my annual tolerance level. It's sort of like a trip to Europe. Exciting and entertaining, but not something I want to experience every 12 months.
The above shot is from Concorso Italiano, which is a must-do event if you have even a molecule of Italian car passion. I'm always assured of getting my 275, Daytona and F40 fix addressed by walking Concorso's aisles, which is reason enough to attend.
Continue reading…
Categories: Auto Shows, Road Trips
I'm back after 2,200 miles, six days and two high-school reunion events in Denver.
I'll chronicle the Ford GT's road trip aspect in our long-term blog, but let's just say the car was trouble free and an easy partner to live with during the journey (big surprise, right?).
As for the 20-year high-school reunion, the thought of bringing my 1970 Plymouth GTX back to Denver last summer, and then driving it to the event this summer, worked out pretty well. The first of two night's reunion festivities took place at Braun's Bar & Grill in downtown Denver. I arrived at the event early to beat traffic and try to get a decent parking space (limited parking downtown because of early preparations for the DNC in Denver next month). Much to my surprise, I actually ended up with "showroom" parking right next to the entrance.
This made it tough to miss the car, and plenty of people remembered it from two decades ago. Lots of "As soon as I saw that car I knew you were here" and "I can't believe you still have it. Very cool!" comments.
BTW, despite the GTX's 11-month "nap" since last August it fired right up after a night on a Battery Tender, and it ran great while I was back there. Can't wait to bring it back to L.A. this fall.
Continue reading…
Categories: Ford, Muscle Car, Road Trips
