via X-ray Delta One
By Crabby McSlacker
Yes, this is another gripey post, bringing yet more Cranky back to Cranky Fitness. Um, yay?
Our subject today: New cars and why they suck.
I already have an adversarial relationship with cars. I think the more we can avoid being in or around them, the healthier we will be. Walking or biking? Great! Riding around sitting on our asses? Not so great! Let alone breathing exhaust-filled air or getting mowed down by a driver who is too busy quaffing his caramel triple frappucino and angrily texting his ex about about the kids' orthodontia bill to notice where his car is pointed.
However, depending on where you live, driving can be a necessary fact of life. Our old car crapped out over the weekend, requiring the kind of repairs that would cost many times what the car was worth, so we were forced to do some quick shopping.
We wanted something economical, with a hatchback for dump runs (our trash removal service doesn't do yard waste) that wasn't totally hideous looking. We wanted something used (cheaper) but relatively low mileage, as living on the tip of Cape Cod makes repair issues a huge hassle.
Well, it turns out almost all new cars are in my mind, pretty hideous, except for sexy Mini Coopers, one of which we flirted with for a while.
Hey baby, going my way?
But then we discovered the nearest repair place would be several hours away, and there was practically no warranty on the car, so we took the high road and came back a more boring sensible choice:
Yep, a certified used 2013 Honda Fit with 7500 miles on it. It's a tiny car, but clever engineering gives it pretty impressive cargo space when you fold things down the right way. We ponied up $1200 extra for a 100,000 mile bumper-to-bumper zero-deductible warranty too, so barring any apocalyptic car-destroying disasters, we're probably set for a while.
Yep, I'm short and squatty, but I'm cheap!
However the new car buying thing was an aggravating experience for two reasons:
Windows? Where The Fuck Did They Go?
The Fit has better visibility than many new cars, but ALL new cars seem to be competing for how little window space they can provide, ensuring that drivers are surrounded by massive blind spots.
This is supposed to look "sleek" to some people, but it looks squinty and hulky and weird to me.
Plus, and I know this is freakishly weird: I actually like to be able to SEE WHAT'S AROUND ME when I drive.
Head Restraints Placed Way Too Far Forward Because of Insanely Stupid Safety Requirements
If you are tall or of large girth or prefer to slouch while driving, this is not a problem. Your head will not be shoved forward by the head restraints in new cars, forcing you into a tortured seating position that resembles the letter "C" as in Cramped and Crumpled and Completely Cranky.
Some makes are worse than others, but they all suck.
A quick look at various car forums suggests that one option might be to flip the headrests around backwards, but this seems a little unsafe in case you are in fact hit from the rear and need the restraint to be in the same zipcode as your head when it snaps back.
My extremely inelegant solution at the moment is to put a pillow (yes, the large kind you sleep on at night) in the seat, then secure my lumbar support pillow on top of it.
Makes for a pretty sexy car interior, right?
But it's less excruciating to drive this way. I googled for back support products, but the only one that looked appealing was a couple hundred bucks and I'm thinking I might go pillow-case shopping instead.
So, what do you guys look for in a car? Any bitter complaints or great finds?
via X-ray Delta One