Enkay Blog

I Have a Bone to Pick

As you all know, I am a big car guy and I have test driven a wide variety of cars and I generally critique cars – whether I like them or dislike them – even if I own them.

Now before I start talking about the image above, I just want to clarify that I own a Toyota and I actually like the Scion lineup. The problem that I have is I wonder, I really really wonder why Toyota — or better said, the designers of the xB decided that it might be better to design the car with only one reverse light as you can see from the image above.

As you probably know, most cars have two lights that turn on when you switch to reverse. Well, in the Scion xB you’d think something was wrong when only one light would turn on – which is on the lowest left hand corner. I just think its a really weird set up and its sort of a design flaw in my opinion.

Honestly, I don’t even own an xB and as a consumer I feel that I’m getting jipped off! I just thought it would be interesting today to talk about some things that interest me personally – it might not be a big deal but I still think its something I should get off my chest!

I hope you liked this short post and I just wanted to see what your opinions would be about this – do you think there is a specific reason why there is only one reverse light? or is that just something that needs to be fixed? I just want to see if anyone else thinks this is as weird as I do. Have a good weekend!

This Is Why We Have Problems!

As most of you know, we are currently dealing with high gas prices not only in the United States but all over the world. Gas prices have been rising and so have the cost of other foods and goods as a result but what I fail to understand is what could be the cause of this. Well, I look around and most of what I see is large trucks, large SUV’s and just one person inside the vehicle. I know that I live in Texas and that everything is big in texas, but do you really need the car below to haul a single person around in?

I saw this outside the Barnes and Noble and I noticed a lady get out of this vehicle by herself. I’m sure she has a use for a truck like this otherwise she wouldn’t get it right? Well, most probably thats wrong. It seems as though a lot of people are driving around large SUV’s mainly because they’re getting a better deal on them. A somewhat stupid way to justify burning twice as much fuel but whatever floats your boat. Either way, I saw this car and the lady getting out of it and I just had to take a picture because it sure is as large as it looks in the picture. I’m sure I could part two Mini’s back to back to make up the length of this car. Hope you like the picture!

Need a Fuel Efficient Car?

Looking at the current gas prices, you may be thinking about downgrading to a more fuel efficient vehicles. I can speak for Americans as, if you look around, all you will see is SUV’s and Minivans which are also referred to as gas guzzlers.

If you are looking to downgrade most of us think of either Toyota or Honda. With the introduction of the all new 2008 Toyota Corolla, the competition is almost over. The new corolla packs several new features and has been able to maintain great gas mileage for a considerably affordable base price. The Corolla has been around for decades and carries a lot of history along with each and every Corolla sold. Toyota has always been a close competitor with GM and has recently come very close to surpassing GM’s production.

If youre in the northern region of the United States, may I recommend Toyota Corolla Virginia for your next fuel efficient car purchase. I think that we all know how reliable Toyota’s are and speaking of which, my family owns 2 fuel efficient and highly reliable Toyota’s. Now, im not here to argue which car maker is better but in case you are in the market for a great new car that will save you money in the long run then you may want to keep your eyes locked on the new Corolla so go check it out!

Police Sirens To Make You Shake!

I came across this news item about 2 weeks ago and I really didn’t know anything about this until I did a little research but apparently the Police are unhappy with their current sirens in the US. They feel that sometimes while in the process of pulling over the driver, their sirens aren’t doing a great job if the driver isn’t paying close attention to what is behind them or if they have their music too loud. I have noticed that sometimes the sirens aren’t loud enough when I have the music going, well the “Rumbler” is a new siren that is said to fix all that.

This new siren is used along with the traditional siren and helps get attention mainly because it can also be felt. The siren can be felt from 200-300 feet away through the use of high output woofers and an amplifier. The main objective is to produce low frequency sound waves, kind of like a subwoofer that ends up shaking everything. The Rumbler does turn off automatically after 10 seconds and seem to be pretty effective.

They aren’t too expensive costing around $350 a siren and was developed by the Illinois-based Federal Signal Corp. It was apparently that motorists werent responding to the traditional sirens and hopefully the addition of the Rumbler can help them to either pull over or make way for patrol cars.

I was able to pull up a video of the Rumbler in action at night. I do not know too much about who took this video or where it was taken but I was able to acquire it through a little bit of searching on Youtube.

Here is another video of the Rumbler in action that was taken by a Police Officer. This one gives you the full Rumbler experience!

2008 Toyota Highlander Review (Test Drive)

A few days ago I went down to Fort Bend Toyota/Scion and test drove the new 2008 Toyota Highlander. I met with R.J. Rideaux, who helped in getting me into their only 2008 Highlander on the lot. The Highlander has been redesigned for 2008 and has been one of the best selling SUV’s. These Highlanders sell so well, that it was difficult to find one on the lot and the one we found was a wonderful blue Limited that was more on the higher end. The vehicle had an MSRP close to $41,000 and had several added options including the JBL Navigation/Audio system. Lets take a look at the 4 dimensions of this review: exterior, interior, cargo room and the drive. There is also a video at the bottom!

  

Exterior
The new Highlander shows significant signs, of improvement. I am not saying that the old design was “boring” but it had gotten old after around 5-6 years of production. The new design gives the Highlander a more aggressive look and stance. When you look at the new Highlander, you can easily see either a male or female owner. The Highlander is longer than the previous Highlander and looks more expensive than it is. The new headlamps and rear lights also work well for the Highlander adding to its elegance. The rear hatch also features a nicely finished aluminum rectangle with “Highlander” inscribed in it. Overall, the exterior has seen a drastic improvement

 

Interior
The interior was very luxurious in this vehicle. Yes, it did have the optional leather, rear view camera and the beautiful 8″ LCD based Navigation system, but even still, the Highlander’s interior is very upgraded. The center console has plenty of storage room and the glovebox is average in size. The controls in this vehicle were well laid out and seemed that Highlander buyers of older age will not be complaining about the size of the controls. There are two cupholders in the Highlander in the front and that seems plenty to me. The Limited also featured a 3.5″ information display that displayed the time, outside temperature and the current A/C settings.

  

There is also a conveniently placed conversation mirror, so that you really dont have to turn around to check on your younger passengers in the back seat. The gauges are also very clear and easy to read. The seats felt very comfortable and would not be a hassle for long drives. There was enough leg and headroom for the front passengers. I did sit in the second row seating and there was still plenty of room for 3 adults however, the 3rd row seating is only for children as many have claimed previously. Toyota has created the 2nd row such that you can convert it from two separate “captain chairs” to one that seats 3 individuals. “Captain Chairs” mean that each seat will have its own armrests and this setting allows easier access to the third row.

  

Cargo Room
Although I have never previously reviewed cargo area, I was able to find some great pictures that show you the versatility in cargo capacity for the Highlander. The third row does take away quite a bit of the cargo room as you can see, but if the third row isn’t your concern then there is plenty of cargo room with the third row folded down. There is even more cargo room with both the rows folded down. Either way, the longer body style has accommodated the third row seat well, leaving room for cargo.

Drive
All Highlander models are equipped with a 3.5L V6 (the same as the V6 Camry and Rav4) that produces 270hp and 248lb ft. of torque. This combination delivers 18 city, 24 highway and 20 in mixed driving. The numbers are impressive and the drive certainly matches those numbers. The Highlander is very smooth from the get go. Since I was driving the Limited, it was equipped with the rear view camera and that made it very easy to watch for obstacles in your path. Put the car in reverse and the 8 inch LCD shows you what is in the rear surrounding area. Step on the gas a little and the Highlander’s V6 does not hesitate to accelerate and does so with 0-60 time of around 6-7 seconds. The drive is very comfortable and the Highlander isn’t difficult to manuver at all.

The 3.5 inch center information display that I mentioned earlier is also placed such that the driver does not need to take his/her eyes off the road. The steering wheel is equipped with bluetooth phone controls, audio controls as well as A/C controls making it very easy for the driver to change settings while not taking their eyes off the road. The braking in the Highlander is also exceptional and is equipped with ABS and traction control. Even at high speed with the radio turned off, it was almost impossible to get a sense of the road noise considering it was a very windy day. Even road noise was minimal when driving on the highway at 65mph. While driving on the highway you will notice that the Highlander does not have a blindspot which is very comforting to the driver as in some SUV’s it is quite a task to notice vehicles in nearby lanes.

Conclusion
The 2008 Highlander is the perfect blend of performance and luxury and delivers that in an appealing package. The Highlander has received top marks for safety and the drive quality was better than average. With room for 7 and a very well performing 3.5L V6, the Highlander is sure to meet the demands of every consumer. Thank you once again to R.J and Fort Bend Toyota/Scion for the opportunity!

  

Source: Toyota, Edmunds, Video Courtesy of TestDriveVideos