I have taken issue with gluten-free desserts in the past, because they a) have strange textures that I’m not fond of, and b) usually taste like an old gonch.  So I approached all the recipes we considered with extreme wariness and an overwhelming sense of skepticism.  Maybe that’s because I’m German too.  Who knows?

This one, however, is a winner.  Frankly, I believe it will become the standard for chocolate cake in our home, and we don’t even require gluten-free baking.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake

2/3 cup of quinoa – bulk, organic, whatever – we’d recommend white, packaged and organic, but any quinoa will work
1-1/3 cup water
Rinse and boil for at least 10 minutes – leave in saucepan covered to cool, fluff with fork.  If the package instructions ask for a longer cooking time, follow those instructions.  Pending on the texture you’re wanting, you can adjust this to your preference.

1/3 cup milk
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup melted and then cooled butter
Combine these ingredients with the quinoa and then blend the whole business until it’s smooth

1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cacao
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Add these goodies to the blended mixture and blend everything well.
Bake it in a pan (9×13 works best) at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes and you’re good to go.

We serve it with fresh vanilla whipping cream, dusted with cacao and a mint sprig for color.  Because that’s the kind of person my wife is.

But let’s be honest here – it’s chocolate cake – you can do anything you want with it.  And by anything, I mean eat it with ice cream.  Lots and lots of ice cream.  Also, in terms of serving suggestions, I’d heap about 4 pieces on top of each other for starters.  Why anyone would bother with just one piece of chocolate cake this good is beyond my comprehension.

It’s that simple.  I can say, with all honesty, that the person we made this for had three pieces of the cake in one sitting, and it has received rave reviews since then as well.

If you have to ask, our kids loved it.

I’d love to see your feedback once you’ve tried it.

Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to share it!

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This was me, holding my son, Andon, who was just days old.  I think this picture can represent the enormous responsibility we have as dads.

But it also speaks to the enormity of the gift and opportunity we’ve been handed.

Given the opportunity, kids will raise themselves.  I’ve heard that saying throughout my life.  Kids are resilient.  Kids are tough.  Kids are survivors.  Kids will make it.  Kids will find life’s windows and doors and even make exits of their own, and they will find their way through the worst of times and the best of times.  They will be OK.

I actually don’t disagree with any of that.  I have been constantly reminded of how amazing kids are – from the minute they are born.  The miracle of being formed in the womb, the miracle of birth itself, and the miracle of a child developing into a person that walks, talks, thinks, knows right from wrong – it is truly amazing.

With all that said, I do believe it’s true – if you hand a child the opportunity, or rather, force them into it, they will raise themselves.  What I do take issue with is that there are kids out there that actually have to consider this option.  No kids should ever have to raise themselves.  I understand that circumstances aren’t always perfect, or even close to perfect, and that things happen where there is no other option for a child.  But speaking as a father, and having seen things that make me ashamed to be a man sometimes, I want to speak up about this.

Don’t ever underestimate your role as a dad.  Don’t even think about underestimating it.  Traditionally we saw dads going off to work and moms staying home to do housework and raise the children.  I mean, there were even TV shows about that life.  Those days are done.  There is value to having a mom stay home and be a home-maker, no doubt, but the necessity to work is there for many reasons, and nobody can stand there and tell a woman she shouldn’t work.  I appreciate all the moms out there that sacrifice themselves to join the dads in earning and making things work.  Likewise, the days of the dad coming home from work, grunting to the wife and kids, sitting down on his easy chair, smoking his pipe and considering his work done are over too.  Frankly those days should never have existed.

Dads have a huge role to play, and I’m going to tell you why I think so.

As a dad, you need to realize the impact you have on your children.  Let me show you some of the ways that you have an impact on your kids – and consider this:  you’re having an impact in this way, whether you are acting on that part of your role, or whether you’ve chosen to sit back and not do a thing about it.  Either way, this is affecting your kids.  It’s up to you to decide whether it’s important enough to make a difference.

You’re a leader.  You’re the leader of the family.  Again, there are traditionalists who argue that a man’s word is the final word in the house.  This isn’t about that, and I’m not going to get into that debate.  In terms of your kids, however, you are one of the two leaders and your children look up to you as that.  So lead them!  Lead them in every way possible.  Lead them down the road of life, and help them where you can.  Direct them, and make a difference.

You impact them as a moral compass.  Regardless of how you act on this, your children are sponges.  They soak up every word you say, every action they see.  They will track how you speak to your wife.  They will make mental notes when you hug and kiss your wife, but they’ll also take careful note when you hit your wife.  They will see when you are honest at a store, even if the baby took something with by accident.  Bring it back and tell the clerk about it.  Your kids will notice.  They will see how you treat others around you.  They will hear you yelling at people, even if it’s within the confines of your car.  And your kids will very likely use YOUR moral compass to find their own way some day.  If you find yourself doing, saying or even thinking things that you wouldn’t want your kids to be doing, saying or thinking – maybe you should stop.

As a father, you have a major impact on your children’s ability to cope in life.  Coping in life has never been more difficult, in my opinion.  Yet, as dads, we have an incredible opportunity to guide our children.  We have the chance to impart what we know to them.  Give your kids information.  Give them knowledge.  Teach them everything you can, that will make them better people.  Teach them right from wrong, and tell them why this is important.  Teach them what you believe, but don’t force them to follow those beliefs.  Live out your convictions, and if you’ve taught them good things, they’ll want to follow in your footsteps.  Teach them how to make snowmen, and get the carrot nose just so.  Teach them about paper airplanes.  Teach them about walking the dog and picking up after it.  Teach them about loving the people around them, even if they find them particularly unlovely.  Guide them into the right direction, and marvel at their ability to follow through.

You will also have a lasting impact in how you make your children feel.  You might not think about it very often, but consider this.  Between you and your partner, you will likely form your children’s assessment of how safe and secure they are.  And whether or not they are loved.  They don’t need to get these things from anyone else, but if they feel safe, secure and unconditionally loved in their own home, by their own parents, we’ve already made one of the biggest differences we can as dads.

Don’t ever threaten a child’s security, even if you don’t mean it.  Don’t ever attach strings to your love for your child – even if you don’t mean it.  These aren’t things to toy with.  These are matters of life and death to a little person.  Remembering that, I would suggest we fathers take every single opportunity to reassure them in these matters.  Ensure your babies know they are safe.  Ensure they know that, whatever might come, whatever storms may gather and however dark the clouds may seem, their daddy would never let anything happen to them.  Imagine the difference that will make to a little one.  Knowing that daddy will always be there.  You and I know daddy won’t always be there, and some day, the little one will realize that too.  But until they are ready to strike out on their own, resting snugly in that security can mean the world to them.

Love them.  I’ve already talked about unconditional love.  It’s meant for your partner but it’s also meant for your kids.  Don’t imply that your love hinges on something they need to do or achieve.  Don’t hold things over their heads that might make them think that daddy’s love isn’t 100% there.  Love them – like crazy!  You can’t love your kids enough.  You can’t spend too much time with them.  You can’t tell them too many times that you love them.

I also think we fathers can have a big effect with how we support our kids.  I want to ensure my children feel supported.  I don’t always agree with what my kids do, or decide.  And it is my job to tell them that.  And why.  But it is also my job to support them.  It is my job to let them make their own decisions – and this will happen more and more as they get older.  It is my job to let them make their own mistakes, and guide them back onto the right path if necessary.

As always, I will never claim to have the answers.  I am just speaking from my very limited experience, and saying what I think.  I’ve seen dads take a back seat to a) the amount of time their jobs require, b) the mom – don’t get me wrong – in our house, she’s an equal, but he should man up and do his part, or c) doing things the way their dad did it, even if they hated it and knew they’d never want to be that kind of dad.

What I do know is that when I speak of impact, it implies cause and effect.  So when I say you will have an impact on your children and their lives, I’m not kidding.  I’m not pulling this out of thin air.  Your actions, however big or small, whether they exist and can be counted on or whether you’ve chosen to sit back and do nothing as a father, will be cause to the effect.  And the effect is what your children, your flesh and blood (or perhaps not, but equally loved) will become.  Therefore, what you choose to do today will impact tomorrow’s world.  It might be a drop in the bucket, but I’m here to say I want to contribute my drop to make my kids’ lives, and their worlds, a better place.

I can’t imagine someone ever convincing me that I shouldn’t laugh with my kids, or dance with my kids, or cry with my kids, or teach my kids what I know, or tickle my kids, or play stupid games that make no sense with my kids.  No one can ever take that away from me, and I’m hoping that my kids will remember that I was there for them.  I’m not necessarily the best dad, but I do know that when my day comes to be accountable for what I’ve done here with my time, one thing I will be able to say is that I was there for my kids.  I did what I could.

I want to say that I was raised by an amazing dad, who I’ve talked about many times before.  I wish I could be half the dad he was, and I miss him so much.  I truly do wish my kids and my wife could have met him to experience his unconditional love the way I did.

Yet I am surrounded by incredible dads to this day – my brother, my step-dad, my father-in-law, and many, many others.  I am so thankful for the role models that I have been surrounded by – and that I can learn about being a great dad from them.

Being a dad is a blessing, whose proportions money or words can’t encompass, nor replace.  Take that blessing, be thankful for it, and be a dad.

Don’t underestimate your role.  For your kids’ sake, and for your own sake.

So yeah, given the opportunity, kids will raise themselves.  But let’s not make them do that.  Let’s raise them ourselves and see what an impact we can have.

By the way, that picture was one of many incredible pictures taken by one of the best photographers and one of the nicest guys in the world.  Please check out Brian Buchsdruecker’s gifted work at absolutephotography.ca and at bookstrucker.com.

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Having spent a solid portion of our Christmas break in and around pools and hot springs, I felt it was necessary, based on the situations and behaviours I observed during this time, to regale you with my own list of pool etiquette suggestions.

Let’s start in the change rooms, shall we?

1.  First of all, you can call me a prude or old-fashioned or whatever, but I firmly believe that the age of children in change rooms should be regulated.  That is, children who are in the wrong change rooms.  At some point, it just gets awkward.  My wife has told tales of boys that look to be about 10 or 12 that come in with their moms and just spend the next 20 minutes gawking at all the naked women around them.  When I’m changing in my change room, and a girl is asking her dad about the different equipment she’s seeing…  well, I’ve got two of my own girls, and this really isn’t that weird.  But when a girl that is wearing a training bra comes in with her dad, I think maybe – just maybe – those kids are ready to strike out on their own.  Let them try out their own side of the change rooms and see what happens.  Please.

2.  Snapping people with towels – it’s so much fun.  But probably not a good idea in public pool change rooms.  I can tell you why.  When I was a kid, I finally, after trying it for about 5 minutes unsuccessfully, figured out how to snap my towel.  I immediately snapped my friend’s rear end.  It was the perfect snap.  A crisp glance off the naked buttock, with a rewarding “SHNACK” to top it off.  Well, it wasn’t quite perfect, and my glee was short-lived, for my friend hadn’t waited around for me to perfect the art of towel snapping, and the person changing beside me was a perfect stranger.  It seemed he took exception to this friendly exchange, and I had to quickly explain that towel snaps are how we express appreciation in Canada.

3.  As irritating as it is to have to pay between 25 cents and a dollar for pool lockers, you still have to do it.  If you choose not to pay for your locker, don’t be surprised or angry when someone takes your stuff out of it, puts their stuff in, plops the change into the door, and walks away.  That’s how things are meant to work.  You’re not entitled to that particular locker just because it smells like your stuff now.  Pay up, or be prepared to give it up.  And complaining noisily to anyone who will look your way doesn’t make you look any smarter, cooler or more justified in being a locker squatter.

Moving along, we’ll take the tour to the shower rooms.

4.  Speaking of showering, please just do it.  It’s a lovely idea, and it gives everyone who sees you come in to the pool with wet hair, skin and bathing suit the false illusion that you actually cleaned yourself prior to immersing yourself into the public pool.  I know, it’s really a sham, and not much is achieved by running water over your body for a few seconds, but realistically, you can’t be doing any harm, and it helps settle my nerves to see you tried.

5.  I certainly appreciate the effort people put into reaching out to others.  I love getting to know new people, and hey, the pool or the hot springs is a great place to do that.  However, whilst in said showers, I have a couple of requests.  A) You don’t need to strike up a personal conversation with strangers in the showers.  If you really want to get to know that interesting fellow, by all means, but please wait until we’re in the pool to do so.  I just want to shower and get to the pool.  B)  Don’t touch me.  There really aren’t a lot of “ifs” and “buts” around this.  Let me put it this way:  if you are bending over to scrub yourself with a soapy handcloth, which I truly do appreciate you doing, I will ask you not to hold on to my shoulder to keep your balance.  This suggestion was gleaned from personal experience.  And I’m still talking to my therapist about it.

Let’s talk about what you’ll wear to the pool.

6.  I know the signage is typically clear on this, but let me reiterate.  No street clothes in the pool.  So yes, dear sir who wore his saggy gonch into the Fairmont Hot Springs pool, I’m talking to you.  If you’re at a lake, and you don’t have other things to wear, I suppose there are different, slightly laxer attitudes that might prevail.  But I don’t like seeing folks stroll into a public pool, wearing their tighty-whiteys, their shorts, their shirts, or anything else that clearly wasn’t removed during their trip through the change room.  And another thing I’ve noticed is that the street clothes wearing offenders often haven’t referred to Rule #4 either.  Ugh.

7.  Consider the appropriateness of your bathing suit.  I’ve been to Europe a number of times, and to say that they are more relaxed in terms of what they wear to a swimming facility, or frankly WHETHER they even wear something to the facility, is an understatement.  I was in for quite a surprise the first time we headed to a lake in Germany, and I started having a look around.  HELLO!  It goes for guys and girls.  In Europe, dudes wear Speedos.  It’s just that simple.  Now here, in conservative North America, gentlemen should be advised that their banana hammock Speedos might not be nearly as acceptable, etc – although it’s not against the rules, it’s just a suggestion, and just know that you’ll be snickered at.  A lot.  Also, if you’re headed to an outside pool, it gets cold here in Canada.  Just sayin’.

Finally!  We’ve arrived at the pool.  The water looks lovely.  Come on in!  Unless…

8.  Hey!  Guess what?!  Open wounds, let’s say with profuse (or even barely detectable) bleeding or perhaps ones that are oozing pus, aren’t really a nice thing to bring with you into the pool.  And even if you’re willing to be quite open about it.  Like the person who sat on the edge of the pool while I was in it, bleeding INTO the pool, and loudly discussing the stinging pain the chlorinated water was sending into their gaping wound.  Not cool.

9.  Bodily fluids may also be deposited elsewhere, or just left outside the pool.   I’m not under any illusions that pool water is clean, and that there isn’t a bunch of pee, snot rockets and probably poo floating around in minor quantities.  But please, do your part.  If you’re considering holding one nostril closed, and blowing a quarter-pound snot rocket out of the other nostril – into the pool you and I are both enjoying, please don’t.  I don’t care if that’s cool in the country where you come from. It’s not here.  And shouldn’t be there.  On that note, is that “pee dye” a reality?  As a kid, I was always warned not to squeeze off even a drop of pee, because the water would instantly turn blue or purple or whatever, and everyone would know you peed in the pool, and you’d be humiliated, and then your parents would be humiliated, and that wouldn’t be good German behaviour, and your life as you know it will be over.  But the truth is, I’ve never seen that dye do its dirty work to ruin someone’s life, and I often wonder if it’s all just a really effective rumor.

10.  Let’s not accept any relaxed standards around bodily fluids either.  I have an example to illustrate what I mean.  My parents, as mentioned, were very clear about their bodily fluids in the pool standards.  As in, don’t put them there.  My sister-in-law tells a story of a time when they were in the hot springs – Fairmont Hot Springs too, if I’m not mistaken.  A kid says to his mom: “Mommy, I have to pee!”  Well, this sounds like an excellent start, doesn’t it?  Little kid, with bladder control, advises mother of urgent need for bathroom.  If only it ended that way.   The mom, to everyone’s dismay, utters the following words: “Oh, that’s OK, honey.  Just go pee-pee in the pool.”  Those kind of standards will not do!

11.  Splashing – try not to do too much of it.  I’m no curmudgeon here, people.  I have three kids, all of whom splash around in the pool, and I did it myself.  I accept that.  I’m talking about excessive splashing.  If your kid splashes me by accident, I’m totally fine with that.  If your kid splashes me for the 30th time, after I’ve verbally taken issue with it, I will not be OK with that.  Additionally, if you are an adult, and you are very fond of jumping into the pool, directly next to, or perhaps INTO, a group of unsuspecting people, I will not be OK with that either.

12.  Band-aids – as a general rule, if you have a Band-Aid on, and I see it as you come into the pool, I’m already judging you.  I’m already thinking, well they probably have a fully infected, oozing laceration under there, and oh, look at the time, I’ve been in this pool long enough.  I know.  I’m picky.  Now, should you choose to come into the pool with your Band-Aids on, I suppose I can’t stop you.  But please, for the sake of all humanity, remember that the edge of the pool, or the bottom of it is not a good place for them.  Please keep the Band-Aid where it is, and check on it often.  On a related note:  kids – when you find flesh-colored chewing gum on the side of the pool, don’t chew it.  It’s likely a bloodied, crumpled-up Band-Aid.  Actually, now that I think about, it doesn’t matter what color it is.  Kids – when you find ANY gum in or around the pool, don’t chew on it.  Mmmmkay?

Just a couple of quick notes about other activities I was exposed to:

13.  Thou shalt not steal towels around the pool.  OK?  Because I didn’t bring it there for you to use.  I brought that towel there so I could a) be warm between the pool and the change rooms and b) cover up my gut during the change room to pool commute.  Or I might want to lay on the grassy knoll beside the pool, on my towel.  Or I might want to coddle my children by keeping them from getting hypothermia when they get out of the pool.  Whatever my reasons are, they’re better than your reasons for taking my towel.  Unless someone has lost an appendage and you need my towel to make a tourniquet that will save a life.  That is the one exception.  Life-saving tourniquets will be considered.

14.  People that read in the pool – weird?  Or am I weird for thinking they are?  I don’t get it.  Reading – what a fantastic activity.  Your brain is growing, and you’re doing yourself some good.  Going to the  pool – what a fantastic activity.  Your muscles and joints are getting worked, and you’re moving and you’re doing yourself some good.  Reading in the pool – what a strange activity.  Really?  You’re actually going to just stand in 4 feet of water, hold a book out in front of you and read?  And you look at my child strangely because they got one drop of splashed water on your dog-eared copy of “Catcher in the Rye”?  Really?  Actually, I should be more concerned with YOU, because we all know what kind of people read “Catcher in the Rye”.

15.  Don’t try acrobatic performances – especially of things you aren’t good at.  For example, if you and your 13 friends decide to make a human pyramid, and you haven’t really tried it before….. just don’t.  You look silly.  You’re going to hurt other people when you tumble down.  You’re going to hurt yourselves when you tumble down.  You’re going to drown.

16.  Remember that you displace your own volume in the water.  Therefore, if you are 700 pounds, and you are getting into a hot tub that is completely filled with people and the water is already sloshing over the edge, you will in fact not fit.  You will, in fact, send many gallons of water fleeing for their lives, over the edges of the hot tub, and once that’s done, you will make an already full hot tub an extraordinarily uncomfortable one.  Mainly because you are actually touching every single person in the hot tub with one part of your body or another.  So be kind please.

If most or all of these suggestions don’t work for you, you could always just consider spending some quality time in your own pool.

Well, that about covers it.  There are many, many more suggestions, I’m sure, and if you have some to add in the comments, please do so.  Same goes for great pool-related stories.  Share them, and get them off your chest.

If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to browse my archives tab for other posts.

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I’ll start this review by telling you I was quite excited to find out I was getting a Fiat 500 to test drive.

I’ve heard great things, and frankly, I’ve been looking forward to driving one.

The Fiat 500 is available in several trim levels – the base model comes in 3 levels and then there is the performance-minded version, the Abarth.  My tester was the top-of-the-line Lounge model.  Other than a stupid name, let’s see what this package gets you.  Everything I mention here was in my car, and I’ll tell you when it’s an option and how much it costs.

The 500 starts at a very cheap CDN $15,995.  From there, it goes up.  The Lounge trim starts at CDN $19,500 and my car, as tested, rang in at CDN $23,925.

Starting under the stubby little slanted hood, we find a very tightly-packed engine bay, holding Fiat’s modern MultiAir 1.4 Litre inline-4.  It uses a number of interesting twists and turns in terms of how it manages combustion through intake valve actuation, blah blah blah.  In the end, it gives you quicker throttle response and more power and torque, cleaner driving and better fuel efficiency.  The official numbers are 101 HP @ 6500 RPM and 98 lb. ft of torque at 4000 RPM.  Certainly nothing to write home about, but after having spent some time with it, I can see where they’re coming from.  Whatever is going on under the hood is doing things right – throttle response is quick, accurate and satisfying, and I never felt that this car was lacking power or flexibility – in terms of this class of vehicle, and within this price range.

Mileage is, of course, a big selling point with cars this size, and this one is no exception.  The 500 is rated at 7.4 L/100 km (32 mpg) in the city, and 5.7 L/100 km (41 mpg) on the highway.  Those are good numbers.  During my time with it, I saw an average of 7.3 L/100 km (32 mpg) from mixed driving – quite a bit of city driving and several extended freeway trips – none of it driven economically.  I wasn’t trying to save fuel, so I was happy with this mileage.  It’s a good thing it gets good mileage, because you only get a 40 Litre tank.

Although the engine bay is tight, the fluids and anything you might want to be serviceable for the average person is easily accessible.  The engine, in this case, was mated to a 6-speed Aisin automatic transmission which I’ll talk about a little later.

Exterior

Here’s the real story, in my opinion.  I actually really like the exterior styling of the 500, although having seen the Abarth at the LA Auto Show this summer, I am much more taken with its more aggressive look.

That said, the 500 has some fun lines to look at it.  It’s cartoonish, but in a pleasant way.  It is a very small car, regardless of which angle you’re looking at it from.  Parked beside a “normal” car, it looks puny.  It’s short, but not too low.  The front grille looks friendly, and the back looks sporty-ish.  The rear is a severe angle, and that partially affects what happens on the inside – but without that slant, it wouldn’t look nearly as good.

The wheels are pushed as far out to the corners as possible, which minimizes any overhang, and maximizes what they can do inside the car.

I liked the splashes of chrome – they are well-placed, and give the 500 Lounge a bit of a sparkle.  You’ll find it on the mirrors, strips on the front and back bumper areas as well as around the tail lights.

The wheels are nice, and run on 185/55-15′s – seemingly tiny rubber, but wholly appropriate for a car this size.  You’ll find nice fog lights in the front air dam, and a tall roof-mounted antenna.

There’s a single, chrome flattened-oval exhaust tip – I’m not a fan, and would prefer a round exhaust tip, but that’s just me.

Interior

Open the door, and plop yourself into the handsome “Italian leather” seats.  They look good with their vertically-stiched lines, and they feel good.  They’re manually adjustable, and heated – the seat heaters are a $300 option.  I found the seats very comfortable and reasonably bolstered.  You won’t go hitting the race track with them, but for normal driving, they’re good.  The driver’s seat (only) has an armrest that can swing up and out of the way.

The headroom is acceptable, but honestly, it’s not great.  I’m not tall, and I felt as though I was practically looking into my folded-up vanity mirror.  The legroom was pretty limited too – everyone drives differently, of course, but the way I do it, my right knee was permanently resting against an uncomfortable hard plastic surface on the center stack.

You’re surrounded by hard plastics.  I mean, there are no soft touches anywhere, except small padded panes on the door panels.  That’s it.  That used to fly in this class, but the competition is stepping it up, and materials are going upscale with each and every model revision, it seems.  Let’s hope that holds true for the 500 as well.

You do have a fun body-colored swath of plastic that runs horizontally across the dash, which is a welcome splash of color and livens things up a bit.  I noticed an abundance of round shapes – everywhere you look, you’ll find a circle of some sort.  It’s as if Mini and Fiat are having a “who can have the most round crap in one car” competition.  Some of them get just downright weird – like the headrests.  It’s just too much sometimes.

In front of you, you’ll see a combo-gauge.  That’s my wording.  It’s a combination between two circular gauges – the speedometer on the outside ring, and the tach on the inner ring – and a digital driver information screen in the centre.  Everything’s round.  I don’t like it.  It’s not particularly easy or quick to read, and not particularly nice to look at either.

I really liked the steering wheel.  It felt good, and worked well.  It’s manually adjustable for tilt, but it doesn’t telescope in or out for reach.

The center stack starts with some vents on top, the media system below, a row of three buttons (Sport mode, 4-way flashers and rear defroster), a chunky-looking climate control area and then a pregnant-belly-like pod that sticks out – it houses the power window switches and the shift lever.

There isn’t really a center console – it’s more like just a couple of things on the floor.  There’s a storage area at the front and a traditional parking brake lever.

The overall ergonomics in the 500 seem to be more about form than function.  There seems to be a nod toward style, but I’m not sure what style it is.  It just seems to be behind the curve in terms of ergonomic soundness and design.

Tech/Convenience

There’s not a ton of goodies in the Fiat 500, but there’s enough to keep most people happy, and to get you comfortably from here to there.

The driver information screen in the middle of the gauge “cluster” – more like a hive than a cluster – is round, and shows you a lot of information.  To be honest, it’s too much for that screen.  It consistently displays your gas gauge and engine temperature, as well as the outside temperature, your gear selection, the date and time, a digital speedometer and the odometer.  Then you can cycle through a number of other things, using a horrible 3-button system which never ended up making sense to me.  Thankfully the additional information isn’t stuff I really care to cycle through on a regular basis anyway – there’s some trip data and many vehicle settings.  Unfortunately you get no read-outs of your mileage or fuel range – which are useful to me, and should be included with all cars.  I found the entire thing a bit unfriendly to try to read quickly or to use, in terms of the sub-menus and buttons.

The steering wheel has controls for the voice recognition (Fiat calls their system Blue&Me – what?!), Bluetooth/phone use and cruise control.  You’ll also find media/stereo controls on the back of the steering wheel where you might find shift paddles on other cars.  It’s a weird system (which I have on my own Chrysler product) – you eventually get used to it, but I prefer buttons on the front of the steering wheel where I can see them and know what I’m pressing.

Speaking of the voice recognition – the system in the 500 is very fast and very accurate – I was quite impressed with it.

The stereo is a BOSE unit, with a few speakers spread around, including a subwoofer under the passenger seat.  It feeds off of AM, FM, satellite radio, CD, auxiliary or USB sources, including iPod/iPhone control.  The auxiliary and USB plugs are in the glove compartment.  I thought the sound system sounded great, and it offered a nicely padded bass response – much more than I can say for other cars in this class.  However, I felt that the design and ergonomics of the system came across as rather old-school – although the collection of hard buttons were relatively easy to navigate, it felt as though you’d find this system on a car that was 5 to 10 years old.

The climate control system is automatic, and works well.  There’s a 12 V plug in the center stack, near the main cupholder bin.

Overhead, you’ll find a nice tilt/slide sunroof, with a manual sliding sunshade.  This is a $500 option.

The power door locks are an interesting twist.  It honestly took me about 2 minutes (which seems like hours when you’re searching around a cubicle-sized car) to figure out where to activate the power door locks from within the car.  The door openers are styled levers – and quite nice at that.  To lock the doors, you just push the driver’s lever toward the door, and it locks the doors.  Quite a neat feature.  On that note, I challenged a couple of others to figure that out, and nobody could.  I hope that’s in the manual somewhere.  OH!  Speaking of the manual, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.  In the day and age of 400 page car manuals, the Fiat 500′s is refreshingly simple.  It’s written in excellent, simple English, and doesn’t overcomplicate matters.  Yes, it’s a simple car, true, but it’s nice that they kept the literature simple and fun too.  I liked that.

The heated power mirrors are controlled from the driver’s door panel.

Finally, this car had a parking distance sensor with audible alarms, which will cost you $375.  Not sure if that’s worth it, since you can pretty much reach out your back window and touch whatever is behind the car, because you’re only a couple of feet away from the hatch lid.

Storage

There ain’t a lot.  Surprise, surprise, surprise.

The 500 has a nice-sized glove compartment, which is easily accessible.  In there, you’ll also find a small, but highly usable mesh pocket – perfect to hold whatever device you might have connected to the auxiliary or USB plugs.  Smart.

Below the pregnant-belly pod sticking out of the center stack, you’ll find a weird bin type of thing.  Look closer and you’ll see it’s actually a triangle of three cupholders, and in front of them is a small, vertical slot – absolutely perfect to stand a smart phone in.  And it’s deep enough that the phone is highly unlikely to go flying even in the face of emergency braking, etc.  I liked that.

The door bins are long and easily accessible space – I found them to be quite useful.

The rear cargo space is the only true storage capacity to speak of here.  Surprisingly, although it’s a small space, it’s bigger than I expected and quite usable.  Of course, should you fold down the rear seats (they fold in a 50/50 split), you’ll find that space increasing exponentially, and you’ll find yourself able to transport much more than you might think with this car.  I wouldn’t quite sign up to move your friend’s piano yet, but still, it’s not bad at all.  Note that the rear seats don’t fold flat.  Oh, I should mention that the rear hatch is perfectly light when it comes to opening and closing it – the gas shocks are absolutely flawless in how they are calibrated.  It’s a little detail, but it’s great.

Last, and pretty much least, there is a small mesh pocket on the side of the center stack for the passenger.  I guess you could slip a flask or something in there.  It’s near the passenger’s knee, so I’d recommend popping a nice soft pad in there, to ease the pain of having to rest your leg on the hard plastics…

Rear Seat

The back seat, contrary to what you might think, is actually not that bad to get into.  I mean, it’s no Rolls Royce Phantom back seat, but considering that this car is practically microscopic, it’s not horrible.

The seats are quite comfortable.  As the picture shows, the seats are virtually flat and offer no bolstering, but they work fine and weren’t uncomfortable.  They do have truly strange round headrests that look weird, and absolutely have to be moved up if there are rear passengers – they can be moved down (I’m guessing to get out of the rear view for the driver) but they would sit in the middle of your shoulders.  It seems that form beat out function here again.

There are 2 headrests and 2 seat belts.  The legroom is tight, and the headroom is tight.  This is coming from a not-very-tall guy, so any six-footers would be screwed back there, unless you’re a contortionist.  Interestingly, the foot room is great – lots of room under the front seats.

You get a little armrest ledge for your outside arm – that seems like a friendly gesture at first, but then you notice that your shoulder is permanently pushed against the hard side of the car above the arm rest ledge.  And it’s not that comfy back there.  Obviously riding in the back of the 500 should be for short distances, well-behaved dogs or enemies.

The visibility out is OK, but it does get pretty cozy after about 15 seconds.

In terms of convenience, you’ll find 2 inline cupholders on the floor between and slightly behind the front seats and map pockets on the backs of the front seats.

Family friendliness is really out the window here.  Although my kids got into the back easily, my 7 year-old daughter complained that it seemed cramped – that’s a sign.  In case you’re really into torturing yourself and want to get kids’ seats back there, you will find 2 sets of LATCH anchors.  Be my guest.  I hope you have chiropractic coverage.

The Drive

Where do I start?  Let’s start with the good news, shall we?

As noted earlier, I never felt that this car was severely underpowered – you can’t say that about all cars that put out 100 HP.  The little MultiAir engine sounds great, and rips and snorts a bit when you get on the gas.  I had a few people comment about that when I stepped on it. The engine makes decent torque at lower RPM than you expect, and the power is fine for urban driving.  As a matter of fact, this car might even be a tad quicker than it feels.  It will get up to decent speeds around the city without trying too hard, and might surprise you once a while when you look at the speedo.

The handling is definitely competent.  Though the car feels somewhat top-heavy, it will do whatever you ask of it in corners.  Throw the 500 into a corner, and it will go where you’ve pointed it.

The brakes were great, and always did what I asked them to do.  Which was brake.  Actually one time I asked them to recite a haiku, and they did NOT do what I asked them to do.

The electronic steering is incredibly low-effort – this is fantastic for low-speed maneuvering such as u-turns and parking – coupled with an amazing turning circle, you’ve got a winner in this department.  But the effort doesn’t increase much as the speed increases, and I found that to be a bit disconcerting.  I felt that, as you start driving faster in this car, the steering gets weirder and weirder.  It feels as though it’s never happy on-center and always wants to drift one way or the other.  I would prefer higher effort requirements in the steering once you’re driving around.

The ride is quite firm – expected in a small car with a short wheelbase.  But at times it borders on too firm to be called comfortable.  However, what isn’t intermittent is the bounciness and choppiness.  I understand we’ve got a short wheelbase to work with, and that makes it all but impossible to soak up dips and bumps, because the whole car is going over or through them at the same time.  What that leaves you with is that your head is basically bobbing back and forth the entire time you’re driving.  Edmonton’s crappy roads weren’t a great way to get to experience the 500′s ride.  I hesitate to call it harsh, but I can comfortably (perhaps not the right word to use here?) say that I felt a lot like I was on a giant pogo stick at times, especially over roads that had dips and wallows in them.

I’m not sure if this is a steering or a suspension thing, or a combination, but I felt that braking while steering made the car feel very unsettled.  Not like it was going to lose control, but like it was confused.  I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has experienced that.

I did have a few trips down the freeway, and I found the car has quite elevated wind and road noise levels and was very susceptible to sidewinds.  All those factors would get very irritating on a road trip.

Outward visibility is very good with one exception.  As the driver, you can’t do a left-side shoulder check.  It’s not even a possibility.  You don’t see anything but an amorphous mass of B- and C-pillar.  To counter this, Fiat has added a small convex mirror to the side-view mirror – it allows you to see the normal mirror view, as well as what’s slightly further back in the lane next to you – exactly what you’d be shoulder checking for.  It sounds silly, but it actually works very well once you get used to relying on it.  It does take getting used to though, and the first couple of times I tried shoulder checking, I may or may not have had to change my underpants, because I couldn’t see a thing and by the time I did figure out there was a huge jacked-up diesel truck beside me, I realized the car I was in would fit into the truck’s tread pattern.

I wasn’t too enamored with the Aisin 6-speed automatic either.  Personally I feel a car like this needs to be driven with a manual – it’s spirit begs for that.  But when saddled with an automatic, a small car doesn’t have to suck.  Check out my Kia Rio review for proof.  But this one wasn’t that great. The transmission isn’t particularly fast on the shifts, nor is it particularly smooth.  It’s not a horrible gearbox, don’t get me wrong.  But what it has against it is the one thing it can’t do anything about – the competition.  I have definitely experienced faster manual shifts from other automatics as well.

The one thing I did think made the driving experience better was depressing the “Sport” button.  What it does is tightens up the shift patterns, holding shifts longer and downshifting occasionally, makes the throttle response snappier and significantly increases the steering effort.  These things don’t make the ride or the transmission any smoother, but it does add a little sportiness to the character of the drive.

Nitpicks

I’ve got a few gripes here, so bear with me.

First of all, I did notice a number of jiggly sounds coming from what sounds like the window or door seals – they’d occur over rougher surfaces but were highly noticeable.  I wouldn’t classify them as squeaks or rattles, but they were irritating nevertheless.

I’m a big cupholder fan, and was surprised to find 5 of them in this tiny car.  Unfortunately they all suck.  I use a standard size Starbucks travel mug, and it was too tight to get it into any of the cupholders.  Not cool.

The latch for the sliding sunshade is thumb-actuated and is one of the worst designs I’ve seen in a long time – it’s difficult to open or close.  There have to be a hundred better ways to make that work, and I can’t imagine why they would have settled on this way.  It’s simply poor design.

I understand that rear seats are practically an afterthought in cars like this, but if you’re going to put them in there, then service them.  There is no lighting anywhere near the back seats.  Anywhere.  So IF you have rear passengers, which you just might once in a while, and it’s dark outside, which it might be once in a while, they will be unhappily searching for their seatbelt buckles.  Which I had happen – more than once.  Just an irritant.

With all the new-fangled ways of doing things, I still appreciate a volume knob.  This car doesn’t have one.  Up and down volume buttons.  Not good for making quick and accurate adjustments to volume.  Also, if you want to use the ones on the dash, you can’t do it without looking.

I thought the seat cushions were too short.  The thigh support was inches away from the back of my knee and it always felt as though there should be more seat.

It seems like a weird choice to put only one 12 V plug in the car, and then not to put it where the auxiliary and USB plugs are.  Yes, I know USB usually charges itself, but still – why not put them all together in the glove compartment?

This is a quality issue, but still – the allen bolt in the door frame holding the door detent strip was loose – which means every time I opened my door past the first detent (which is EVERY time), there was a loud bang.  Not cool at all.  It’s a simple fix but still, it shouldn’t happen.

The Verdict

I hate that I didn’t love this car.  I was so looking forward to driving it, and for the most part, I did enjoy my time with it.  But there was enough to throw me off too.  I was surprised at the ergonomics that seemed to be behind the competition, and to be honest I wasn’t smitten with the quality or the relative lack of equipment/tech/goodies, especially compared to the competition at this price.

I know you’re paying a little more for the design, and yes, it is a cool little car.  It’s certainly a life-style choice, and I think it certainly qualifies as a viable urban transporter – a great little car to rip around the city with.

I wouldn’t recommend this car for highway driving, nor for more than 2 people.  And I took exception to some of the anomalies and unpredictabilities in terms of steering/suspension, especially at higher speeds.

I give the Fiat 500 a 6 out of 10.  I do know that the performance-oriented Abarth is said to have a much better suspension, with a much more buttoned-down approach to cornering, etc.  Not to mention a 60% increase in horsepower.  Hello!  I’d absolutely love to test one of those, as I have a feeling it would address most of the issues I had with the 500 Lounge.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was pretty high.  Obviously our family doesn’t all fit in this car, but my wife liked the looks of the car, and she thought it was fun.

I wish I’d liked more about the Fiat 500 Lounge, and I wish I could have given it a sparkling review.  I’m guessing they’ll improve on things as this model evolves, and as noted, I’m certain the Abarth would take care of most of what I complained about.  In terms of it’s size and what you get for your money, I’d find it hard to highly recommend this car for practicality’s sake.  But cars like this speak to people’s hearts as much as to their practical sides, and if that’s where you’re at, I’d be hard-pressed to talk you out of it, because it’s hard to find a true and direct competitor for this car.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Fiat.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

Here are a few posts related to the one you just read

• December 8, 2011 -- A week with the Mazda3 Sport SkyActiv (1)
• January 3, 2012 -- A week with the 2012 Kia Rio EX (2)
• December 23, 2011 -- A week with the 2012 Ford Focus Titanium (0)

The 2012 Kia Rio is Kia’s entry-level vehicle – size- and price-wise.  At the starting price, it has little competition – you can get into one for CDN $14,095.  The one I reviewed was the second from the top – the EX Uvo Auto is priced at $18,795 and includes everything I will talk about here.  Which is quite a bit.

Let’s see what’s under that short, slanted hood.  It’s nothing pretty – it’s a combination of ugly and shrouding that covers up more ugly.  It’s Kia’s 1.6 Litre DOHC, direct injection 4-cylinder engine with dual-cam variable valve timing (CVVT).  It’s nothing ground-breaking, but it is a thoroughly modern power plant, and churns out appropriate power for this class and engine-size.  It’s rated at 138 HP @ 6300 rpm and 123 lb.-ft. @ 4850 rpm.  Not bad, not great.  It’s not an engine that will stir your soul, but it certainly will move you off the spot just fine, and typically you don’t expect much more than that, performance-wise, at this price level.  I was quite happy with this engine.

Mileage is fantastic, in terms of the ratings.  Kia has it rated at 6.8 L/100 km (35 mpg) in the city and 4.9 L/100 km (an astounding 48 mpg) on the highway.  I saw 7.2 L/100 km (33 mpg) over the time I drove it, which isn’t bad, considering I never drove it with a light foot.  That comes out of almost exclusively city driving, with a couple of quick squirts down the freeway.

Exterior

Styling-wise, the new Rio is just a complete 180-degree turn from where the last generation Rio left consumers.  I won’t get into the last generation one, but it wasn’t pretty.

The 2012 Rio enjoys a very clean design.  The ex-Audi design chief, Peter Schreyer, has given it nice smooth sculpted lines, with a lovely chiseled scallop on the side – it adds a lot of character.  You’ll also see the familiar corporate snout in the grille.

I found the front end looks aggressive, in a good way, and includes foglights, and the rear end is clean and well-designed.

I liked the wheels – they look sporty and, at this price point, fancy!

The car is small in terms of its outside dimensions – pictures don’t quite do its small size justice.

Interior

Get into the easily accessible driver’s seat, and you’ll see a clean, well-designed dash.  Materials-wise, the Rio has a ways to go.  I felt that there is an abundance of hard plastics, and I heartily disagree with the literature that indicates this car has a “soft-touch dash”.  It’s not.  The only soft-touch materials are a slight pad in the door panel.  With that said, the plastics have a nice visual texture to them, but the competition has headed down the soft plastics road – time to catch up!

Other than that, I really liked the interior.  The seats are firm, and decently bolstered.  I thought they were initially uncomfortable, and once manually adjusted and properly positioned, they were just fine for me.  I thought the seat fabric, at least the inserts in the center panels, was terrible – it looks like a bunch of random stitches.  Not for me, thanks.

I really liked the little steering wheel – it felt good in every situation.  It’s manually adjustable for height and reach.  Speaking of tactile goodness, I really liked the feel of the shift lever.  It’s perfectly shaped, and I tend to rest my hand on the lever, even in an automatic.  It’s great for that, and feels just right when you’re manually shifting that lever up and down.

The headroom in the front is reasonable, but not great.

In front of you, you’ll find a clean 3-gauge instrument cluster – one large full gauge speedometer in the middle, flanked by two half-gauges – the tach on the left and the fuel gauge on the right.  Below the the speedometer is a driver information screen.

The center stack starts with vents on the top.  Below that is the media control and screen area, and below that the climate control which is manually adjusted.  At the bottom of the stack, you’ll find a recessed bin.

The center console starts with that recessed bin, the automatic shift lever and a traditional parking brake lever.

There is a fuel-door release on the floor near the driver’s door.

Tech/Convenience

Now, looking at this car for the first time, and absorbing its price, you’d think this section would be short and sweet.  You’d be wrong.

I was duly impressed by the amount of goodies packaged with this car – at this price.

Overhead, you’ll find a nice tilt/slide sunroof, and LIT vanity mirrors – that made my wife happy!  The front seats are heated – the heating elements work well and quickly.

The steering wheel has a bunch of controls on it – for your phone, voice recognition, media and cruise control.  Headlights are automatically controlled, which is quite unusual in this class.

Power door locks, windows and mirrors are all controlled from the driver’s door panel.  Interestingly, especially at this price level and on a vehicle this small, the mirrors are also power-folding.  A lovely bonus!

The Rio is started with a traditional key, but comes with a remote door lock FOB.

The driver information screen is excellent, and other manufacturers could take some lessons away from it, in terms of what can be done with a small screen and what should be available to the driver.  The screen clearly displays what gear you’re in and the odometer.  You can switch between additional information, including average and instant mileage, average speed, elapsed time, outside temperature, fuel range and 2 trip meters.  I can’t imagine needing more than that, and that’s better than I’ve seen on vehicles costing significantly more.

This vehicle had Microsoft’s “Uvo” info-tainment system.  Other than the retarded name that made me continuously think of ovaries and my pre-conceived notion that everything Microsoft absolutely sucks in terms of user interface, I have to admit that this system was a joy to use.

In this configuration, it uses a small touch-screen and a series of well thought out hard buttons.  The layout is simple, and navigating the system was easy and straight-forward.  The screen is quite small, but crisp and the graphics are excellent.  I thought the screen was occasionally less than perfect in terms of responsiveness, and required the occasional double-tap – but overall, using it was a great experience.

The sound system, integrated into the Uvo unit, has 6 speakers and doesn’t sound great.  But it works very well.  Sources are awesome – including AM, FM, Sirius satellite, a hard-drive based jukebox for ripping your own tunes, CD, auxiliary plug, USB sources and Bluetooth streaming.  I can’t really think of anything more you’d want.  And they all work well.  You’ll find the auxiliary and USB plugs in front of the recessed bin where the center stack meets the center console, in addition to two 12V plugs.  Well placed and thought out.

Phone integration is great, and pairing a phone is simple.

Here’s the kicker – even though it’s coupled with a small screen, this car has a back-up camera with distance markings on the screen.  There are cars at double the price that don’t have a camera.  See my review of the 2011 BMW 328i if you’d like some proof.

In terms of driving tech, you’ll find an “Active ECO” mode button – I’ll talk about that in the driving section.  See what I mean?  This car is actually pretty loaded up with tech and goodies.

Storage

Considering this is a small car, it does quite well with storage options.

The cargo space is surprisingly large and useful.  You’ll find a mesh storage pocket back there too.  To increase it significantly, the rear seats fold down (albeit not flat) in a 60/40 split.  You also get some tie-down loops back there (not heavy-duty, but certainly enough to keep luggage, etc. in place) and the space is topped off with a hard tonneau cover, which swings up with the rear hatch.  Those covers have pros and cons – they’re excellent for security, but can be in the way when you’re trying to maximize your cargo area and can be a pain to remove and store.  That said, it also adds additional space in the back to put coats and other stuff for road trips.

In front, you get a huge glove compartment.  Where the center stack meets the center console, you’ll find a recessed open bin – it’s big, and smartly placed and quite useful.

There are two inline cupholders in the console, and behind that, an armrest with a sliding lid to adjust for comfort.  Lift the lid and you’ll find a deep bin with a relatively small footprint – which isn’t that great, but better than nothing.

The door pockets include another cupholder and an oddly-shaped bin – they’re useful.

Finally, in the middle of the dash, there is a 2″ square hole – about 3-1/2″ deep.  It has a rubberized bottom, to keep things from sliding out of it, but I can’t imagine what you’d put in it.  Maybe an old-school cell phone?  Smartphones don’t fit in it, width-wise – they have to be put in at an angle, which defeats the purpose.  It’s a strange little cubbyhole.

Rear Seat

Getting into the back seats is pretty easy for a small car.   I found the legroom to be OK – it would be barely passable in a bigger car, but this is as compact as it gets for a 4-door, so it will do.  Kids would be alright, but adults won’t be happy there for long.  Footroom, on the other hand, was fine – there is quite a bit of space underneath the front seats.

You will find 3 seats, with 3 seatbelts.  As is typical for cars this size, calling the middle space a seat is a bit rich, unless it’s for a small, well-behaved dog.  Kia put 2 head-rests back there, showing us that they know the middle seat isn’t fit for human consumption.

Family friendliness is fine – accessing the back is easy thanks to the back doors – child seats and boosters fit well.  You’ll find two sets of LATCH anchors.

In terms of storage, there ain’t much.  Door pockets are actually just cupholders, but they do function well, and you have two map pockets on the front seatbacks.

The Drive

As expected, this isn’t a fast car.  But it does have enough power to get you where you want to go.  It’s perfectly fine for everyday driving, and even on the freeway, it didn’t feel like it was running out of breath.  Don’t expect any neck-snapping acceleration – in any gear.  It’s not that kind of car.  I did enjoy the little snarl that the 4-cylinder came up with – it made it fun to step on it, whether it really sped up things or not.

The 6-speed transmission left me highly impressed.  I thought it did a fantastic job in every circumstance, and that’s more than I can say for most automatic transmissions I’ve used.  Simply commuting from point A to point B, I found the transmission smooth.  But change your driving style, and I felt that the transmission never felt lost – it always knew what I wanted from it, and I felt it always made the most of the power it has to work with.  For example, when I’d drive a little more aggressively, the transmission wasn’t afraid to hang onto a gear a little longer here and there, as if it had read my mind.  Frankly, I thought it did a better job at adapting to a more aggressive driving style than some transmissions with “Sport” modes.  Nice work, Kia!

All things considered (how light this car is, and how short the wheelbase is), the ride was pretty good.  I’d say it’s firm, but not to the point of being harsh.  It remains on the comfortable side of firm rides.  I’m guessing it would settle down a bit more if you got a couple more adults in the car, but it would likely slow things down too.

Although the car does have noticeable body roll, it’s not disconcerting and to be honest, it does nothing to harm the car’s ability in the corners – you can feel free to throw the Rio into corners with aplomb, and it won’t complain – it just ends up where you pointed it.

The brakes felt good – not great, but not mushy, and they always provided appropriate braking power.

Nitpicks

I had a few, but at this price level, with this much to offer, it seems silly to be nitpicking.  Yet here we are – must be my German blood.

One thing I took issue with is that Kia chose to make the front seat-backs a hard plastic material, rather than upholstering them.  This is a major oversight, because the legroom real estate is already at a premium back there – if you have longer legs, and they’re pressed up against the front seats, you’ll be extremely uncomfortable, because they’ll be bunched up against hard, unforgiving plastic.  Not a great place for your knees on a road trip.

I thought Kia could have done a better job with the sound insulation.  The road noise was quite high, and driving over the gravel-strewn winter streets in Edmonton, I found you could always hear the rocks and the road grit chattering into all the wheel wells.  I never spent any time with the previous generation Rio, and I did read that this is a major improvement in terms of sound-deadening, but I think it could be quite a bit better.  It’s no tin box, to be sure, but it gets irritating after a while.

Oh right, I said I’d talk about the “Active ECO” mode.  So, I couldn’t find much information about it, but when the button is depressed, the entire car becomes depressed.  As noted, it’s not a fast car, but it’s definitely sufficiently nimble to be enjoyable.  Not so in the ECO mode.  I’m guessing it retards engine and throttle response to maximize fuel economy, but whatever they do, it makes the car become a complete slug.  I’d say the mileage in regular driving mode will be enough to make most people happy, and the compromises the ECO mode bring will be enough to get most people to stay away from it.  Unless you’re just in bumper-to-bumper traffic anyway, I’d say forget about the ECO thing.

Outward vision is good, with the exception of doing shoulder checks.  The rear pillars are very chunky, and they do create a blind spot that has to be reckoned with.

I wouldn’t call this car “fun” to drive, but for this class of vehicle, it’s as close as you can get – I couldn’t ask for much more at this price.

Details

Couple of things that caught my attention – I liked the little row of cool orange LED lights on the front of the side-view mirrors used as signal repeaters.

I really enjoyed the feel of the shift lever – it felt perfect for me.

The bin at the front of the center console has an indentation in it – which is perfectly-sized for smart phones.  It will keep most any smart phone in place, without having it slide around.  Why doesn’t EVERYone make stuff work like this?

The steering wheel has a mute button on it for the media system.  Brilliant!

Verdict

This is a lot of car for the money, and paired with an amazing warranty, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.  In this class, at that price, I give the Rio an 8 out of 10.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was middling.  She was quite taken with the illuminated vanity mirrors (I know this sounds horrible, but I can’t make this stuff up!) and thought it looked cute, but felt the car was too small for her.  This coming from a woman with 3 kids and a shopping addiction, which we all know makes her a poor opinion source for small cars anyway.

This brings me back to my dilemma at the beginning.  But before I explore that further, I need to point this out – when I did some homework researching the various models, I was even more taken aback at the EX Luxury model than I was at my review EX.  The top model, which is one step up from the one I reviewed, is the aforementioned EX Luxury.  Now, as well equipped as my review sample was, the Luxury goes for broke and includes stuff that you really shouldn’t expect in a car that’s $20,795.  It has everything I mentioned, as well as the following:

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There’s plenty more where that came from, but this won’t be a super long post. This second part of the post is harder to share, because it’s an admission of faults – something men aren’t real good at.

But I’m here to do two things today – share a couple more things I’ve learned and along the way, I’m going to admit a couple of things I got wrong. And when I write “things I’ve learned”, I really mean “things my amazing wife has inadvertently taught me by just putting up with me”.

Let’s talk about the silent treatment. When we first got married, I thought the silent treatment was a great idea. I’m not lying when I tell you I thought I was doing Aimie a favor. I know, it’s ridiculous, but hear me out. I thought that if I didn’t necessarily agree with something that my wife said or did, I’d apply the age-old wisdom of “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Riiiiight. I assure you, this never, ever works if you’re trying to justify the silent treatment. I’ve learned that, by not saying anything at all, I was speaking in volumes louder than if I had just spoken up and said “Honey, I don’t really agree. Here’s what I think…” Being silent, even for a few minutes, is totally cool when you’re with the boys. Not so with your wife. Their minds function differently than ours, and that just doesn’t work for them. Need proof? When’s the last time you caught your wife being silent?

Tough crowd, tough crowd. Let’s move on then, shall we? Seriously though, there is nothing bad that could ever come out of speaking up and letting your sweetie know how you feel. Honesty makes the world go ’round, and never more so than in relationships.

I have also learned to accept her filter. Let me give you a little example. I love Twitter. It’s instant, it’s truth, it’s often visceral and it’s far more human than other social media platforms. It allows us to quickly let everyone know what’s on our mind. And therein lies the problem.

My big mouth has often got me in trouble, and tweeting is a perfect opportunity to get into the same kind of trouble. Today I saw something that made me cringe, and I thought “Boy, I should really tweet that! I’m absolutely certain the whole world will agree with my awesome opinion on this matter.” For some reason, I showed Aimie the tweet before I hit SEND. She looked at it once, looked at me, and before words even came out of her mouth, I realized that what she was about to say was right, and that I wouldn’t be sending it. She said: “I wouldn’t tweet that. Is it appropriate?” The old Wildsau would have bristled at the notion of accepting any such feedback. The Wildsau that has learned many things from his wife sat back, smiled to himself, deleted the tweet and forgot about it as quickly as it had come up.

Go ahead and make fun of me – call me whipped if you want. I’m far from being whipped. I’m just aware that my wife’s mentality differs greatly from mine, and for good reason. It completes me, and her direction has never failed me along life’s road. I’m grateful she cares enough about me, and what people think of me, to say these things to me. It’s just another reason I’m crazy about her. Did I choose not to send that tweet because I wanted to please my wife or because she has the power of veto over my Twitter account? Not in the least. I did it because my wife was right, and I’ve learned to accept her filter on my words and actions – she’s never been wrong about where she’s pointed me. There’s a big difference between being whipped and being tuned into someone who knows you better than anyone else and who cares enough to give you their opinion.

I’ve previously talked about how things that are critically important to me, such as sanitary use of toothpaste, are of little or no importance to my wife. There’s further learning here, and it’s just a crucial. In addition to compromising and making the best of what’s not as important to my wife as it is to me, I’ve learned to find out what’s important to her. This goes a long way, my friend, and serves a number of purposes.

First of all, considering your wife is, or certainly should be, your best friend, don’t you think it’s important to know what matters to her? Take my word for it – it IS important. Vitally important. Secondly, a relationship should go both ways, and if you take the time to figure out what’s important to her, and she realizes that, what do you think will happen? She will do the same for you. And you’ll both come out ahead! What could be bad about that?

Here’s an example out of my marriage. My wife loves to shop. But she loves to hunt for the deals. It’s so important to her to find a sale – for anything. As a matter of fact, I’m quite certain my wife would buy something we’ll never use – as long as it’s on sale. “Oh, you have a baker’s dozen of donkey saddles on sale? Great! I’ll take them!” And what’s just as important to her is telling me about it. Here’s the rub – I couldn’t care less. I don’t ever, EVER look for sales, and certainly don’t celebrate them as victories to be shared with friends. But I’ve learned that it matters to my wife, and instead of saying “Just tell me what you bought, don’t tell me how much percent off it was”, I quietly enjoy my wife’s victories with her now. Do I care about them? Nope. But I want to hear about them now – because it matters to the one person who matters most to me.

This kind of leads into the next lesson I’ve learned. Don’t try to change your wife. I don’t care what topic this leads to, or which facet of life you might be thinking of applying this to – the lesson I’ve learned remains the same.

Don’t try to change the little things. I’ve stopped trying to change her horrifying toothpaste use. Yes, I’ve learned that it’s not really that important in the grand scheme of things.

And don’t try to change the big things. Just as importantly, don’t head into a partnership thinking you’ll succeed at changing her. I’ve also learned that we’ll never really change someone’s character. If there are things that are so important to you, that you know you’ll never compromise on them, such as your faith or your values – and your partner doesn’t share your opinion on these things…. I can almost guarantee that you won’t be able to swing them in your direction as time goes by. Can you live with that?

Changing someone’s core values and beliefs is a virtual impossibility in many cases. And here’s something frightening. The person in your life may love you so much that they will act as though they’ve changed for you – just to make things work smoothly. But in having tried to change them, and their character, we stand a good chance of having shoved them directly into the path of an oncoming resentment train. And so, after having a closer look, you might find the venom of resentment behind that facade of harmony. I certainly don’t have the answers here, my friend, and I would never tell someone how to live their life. But I’ve seen enough of these situations and I’m grateful my wife has taught me, without ever trying to, to stop thinking about changing her.

This brings me to the most important lesson I’ve learned – so far.

I have learned that loving my wife should never have strings attached. Not even tiny threads that are practically invisible. Let me explain. Some loves have very clear conditions. The wife is expected to speak a certain way, or not speak a certain way. Expectations of intimacy are unspoken, but hang heavy in the air between partners. He requires her to support his habits, hobbies, and activities – or else. I have seen it – far more often than I’ve cared to. It’s rarely spoken, but so clear, that it might as well be written on his forehead, or be silk-screened onto his spaghetti-sauce-stained wife-beater. This isn’t “strings attached” love – this is “heavy-gauge ropes attached” love. And if she doesn’t toe the line, his love is, in one way or another, revoked. Stand back and take a broader view of that – is that really love at all?

I’ve also caught myself attaching much finer strings in the past. There were times where I have to admit putting the smallest of conditions on my love. Not my overall love, of course. But parts of it. If Aimie didn’t do something the way I wanted it done, I may have felt a slight twinge of “Are you kidding me?”. It’s tough to explain, but it was there. And suddenly I would realize that I had, subconsciously, placed a condition on fully, truly loving my wife.

And this brings me to my final point. I’ve learned that no love for my wife should ever be conditional. No conditions should ever be attached to the strongest and most powerful feeling that we can ever feel. I talked about true love the first time I wrote about this. I’ve also spent time talking about how we love our loved one. But this time I challenge you to make it unconditional love. I’ve learned that it’s possible, and that it’s not hard to do.

I’ve learned to actively consider how I love my wife, and although I do have to think about it at times, I have learned to love her unconditionally. Why? In my opinion, it’s the only way true love exists. If you can learn to love your girl without wanting anything in return, you will experience more satisfying love than you thought possible. And there is no way that loving your wife unconditionally can ever have a negative impact on your marriage, or for that matter, your life. I give you my word on this.

Thank you, Aimie, for having put up with me for this long, and for having taught me so much – about you, about the world around me, about love and about myself. You still intoxicate me, you are my strength, you are my ray of sunshine on the brightest and darkest days alike – and you, without ever trying, have continued to make me a better man.

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I had the opportunity to participate in the exceptionally fun Ford Focus Challenge in Vancouver earlier this year, and I already told you quite a bit about the Focus.  I’m going to use some of the material from that review, and add to it – being able to spend a week with a car fleshes out some of the questions I had lingering from the one day I spent with the Focus this summer.

The 2012 Focus starts at a very reasonable $15,999 for the S trim level sedan, and goes up to a still-reasonable and very competitive CDN $30,060 (including taxes!) for this particular Titanium trim level 5-door hatchback which was essentially loaded up with every option from I could see online.

All 2012 Focus models include the new 2.0 litre inline-4 engine.  It’s a modern unit, using direct injection and some other goodies to make a decent amount of power, and designed to be extraordinarily fuel efficient.  The engine cranks out 160 horsepower at 6500 RPM and 146 lb.ft of torque at 4450 RPM – these numbers are enough to make this an agile little car, and I rarely found myself needing more to do anything I threw at this car.  In terms of the competition in this class, but I think that the balance between flexibility, power and fuel economy is near the top of the class.

Speaking of fuel economy, the Focus is rated at 7.2 L/100 km in the city (about 33 mpg) and an astounding 4.8 L/100 km on the highway (49 mpg).  Those are impressive numbers and Ford says it’s an 18% improvement over the previous model’s economy.  All this is with the automatic transmission.  And this automatic transmission isn’t the old-school one – they’ve brought some new goodness to the table here as well.

It’s Ford’s new 6-speed PowerShift dual-clutch unit – I found the shifts to be quick and relatively very smooth.  The transmission did seem to be quite economy-centric, and I felt it liked to head for the higher gears more often than I wanted during spirited driving.  The upside is that this car (according to Ford’s notes) can drive 977 km (607 miles) on one tank of gas on the highway.  That’s pretty rad!  There is an S setting which would, logically, stand for Sport and should hold the gears longer – I found that this worked but didn’t convey as sporty of a character as I wanted.  Unlike some other cars’ “S” settings, it doesn’t transform the driving experience.  I also take great issue with Ford’s manual gear changing mechanism for their automatics and I’ve droned on about it before – it’s a goofy rocker switch on the left of the shift lever that you activate with your thumb and it never feels natural, and doesn’t even begin to approach a sporty way to change gears.  I miss paddles or at least a slap-stick manual gate for the lever.

Exterior

The 2012 Focus draws on what Ford calls “Kinetic Design” language, which talks about the flow of energy, blah blah blah.  In subjective terms, I would say I appreciate the new styling direction.  It’s a nice, modern take – it has character without taking too many risks and possibly alienating buyers.  I prefer the hatchback over the sedan.

Both share the same front end, with its menacing trapezoidal grille treatment – they definitely look like they mean business.  A number of people commented on the aggressiveness of the grille and appreciated that it does something different.  I really like the rear end of the hatch – it has a little spoiler and just the right kind of curves to make it look spicy.  It’s really difficult to make a compact sedan look spicy, because there’s always the nasty business of a trunk.

Ford uses wrap-around tail-lights which look great on both, and they also use a wrap-around headlight design which they call Dragon Eye design.  That’s a bit rich, but still, it’s a nice look.  It’s aggressive, modern, sleek and it works.  I noted that the wheel choice really makes a difference on the Focus – and they’ve got some good ones.  You can opt up to 18″ rims on this car, which looks hot – they ring in at $430.

This example came in White Platinum Metallic Tricolor, which does the curves and angles of this new body style justice – I love this color and I quite like the new look.

Interior

The materials used in this car are upscale in terms of this class, and the dash is fitted with a soft plastic with a nice texture and grain on it.  I felt that the fit and finish were exemplary throughout the cabin.  As I’ve noted with other vehicles, I do like the ambient lighting that Ford offers in its recent models.  The fact that you can change the color of it with a button had my kids thrilled.

This tester had the two-tone leather interior.  I quite liked the contrast on the dash, and it was nice to look at.  When it came to the seats and the steering wheel I thought this color combination was a bit too much.  It looks like someone took out Shamu and brought him to the taxidermist.  No more Free Willy!  That said, most people that sat in the car quite like the striking contrast.  Judge it for yourself.

Regardless of the color, the seats are excellent.  They’re very comfortable, with a nice balance between firmness and cushy-ness, but also offering a notable amount of bolstering.  The front seats have 5-position heaters, and the driver’s seat is power adjustable.

The dash is well-designed – it has some interesting twists and turns, and tries to do some normal things differently – I liked the new shapes and contours I saw, and everything was relatively user-friendly, if not a bit busy.  I also felt the whole cockpit is very driver-centric – that’s not a complaint, just an observation.

The instrument cluster is simple – two big easily readable analog gauges on the outside, flanking a small centre screen which is above two small gauges.

I like the steering wheel very much.  It’s comfortable to grip, and a good size.

The center stack starts with the touchscreen on top – below it are the media controls and then the climate controls.  The center console has the shift lever up front, with a parking brake lever to the left of it.  Behind the shifter are seat heater controls, a 12V plug, and finally two cupholders.  I’m not a big fan of the bulkiness of the shift lever – it’s tough to explain, but somehow, it doesn’t feel sporty.

I really liked the well-upholstered center armrest – it looks good and feels even better.  In terms of headroom, I felt the front was average – I’m guessing there would be more in a model without the sunroof, but it was fine for me.

Tech/Convenience

Let’s get the MyFord Touch system out of the way.  I’ve talked about this system at length in my previous reviews, especially with the Lincoln MKX, and I continue to have the same opinion of it.  It’s promising technology, but there are too many issues with the response time, and too much layering of access, to make it a great system.  The potential has always been huge.  The system does control 4 major areas of function – the audio/media system, the navigation system, climate control and the phone functions.  The screen is located at the top of the centre stack, and is easy to read and to reach.  And on that note, this system is significantly improved for 2012 models and for the future, and the improvements are firmware-based, not hardware based, which means older ones like this can be upgraded.  Good news!

Integrated into the screen is the rear-view camera which shows distance markings and the very useful trajectory lines, and is paired with audio warnings from the distance sensors.

The stereo is a Sony-branded system, which sounds really, really good – you have 10 speakers, including a center channel and a sizable subwoofer in the trunk.  This system sounds crisp and clear.  Audio sources are AM, FM, Sirius satellite radio, USB (2 outlets!) and SD cards, as well as Bluetooth streaming.

The climate control is a nice, simple dual-zone system that was very accurate.  A lovely tilt/slide sunroof rests overhead, and next to its controls you’ll find a 3-setting HomeLink transmitter for your garage door opening convenience.

The Focus has the MyKey system, which is a great idea – and I’ve talked about it in other Ford vehicle reviews.  It allows parents to program their kids’ keys to limit the top speed of the car, as well as allowing them to control the maximum volume of the stereo system AND the stereo remains muted until the seat belts are buckled up.  They’re certainly not draconian measures, and although they’re likely to piss off the average teen, it’s a small price to pay to be able to take the car out, and it would give me peace of mind as a parent.  Forward thinking!

The information screen between the gauges is controlled by steering wheel buttons and it is very sharp and easy to read, as well as easy to navigate.  Other manufacturers could learn a thing or two here.  The screen gives you access to two sets of trip meters, fuel economy (average), trip timers as well as system settings, outside temperature, odometer reading and shift lever position.

The steering wheel has two D-pads for media and the driver information screen.  You’ll also find buttons for the cruise control, phone and hands-free operations.

The car comes with a keyless FOB, which allows you to open the car by just touching the handle, and of course that brings you a push-button ignition.  Power windows and mirror controls are on the driver’s door – the power door lock switch is centrally located – you all know how much I hate that.

Some under-the-hood tech for you?  A spanky little innovation that they call active grille shutters.  The car figures out exactly how much fresh air the engine requires at that particular point in time and adjusts the grille to open and close as it sees fit.  That allows the engine to warm up quicker, and therefore more efficiently – and this will also slightly aid in the car’s aerodynamic presence whilst driving.  An interesting concept, to be sure.  How much impact it has, I can’t say, but it certainly is food for thought.  Cool stuff.

It seems like a shame to leave this tech bit to the end, but it’s certainly not the least of the goodies.  This Focus had the Active Park Assist, which will not only find eligible parking spaces for parallel parking, but also will coach you into the spot, doing all the steering wheel work itself.  It has to be experienced to be appreciated, but let me put it this way, I’ve tried it about 20 times, and it has always parked me perfectly – perfectly spaced, perfect distance from the curb.  If you have a phobia around parallel parking, the Parking Technology Package is the best option you could ever get.  Never mind that – for $600, considering it includes front and rear parking sensors, the rear camera and the Active Park Assist technology, you’d just be downright silly not to check off that box.  Plus it’s a great conversation piece, believe me.

Storage

Storage space seems limited at first, but it’s not a big car.  You’ll find two cupholders in the centre console.  There is a glove compartment and a nice, usable and deep centre console bin, and that’s about it, short of small door pockets which incorporate little cupholders.

The space in the hatch is great, and allows for plenty of cargo – of course the rear seats fold down (typical 60/40 split), and make it a voluminous space to work with.  I appreciated two great inside grab handles on the hatch – they make it easy to close that lid.

I liked that the hatch space was nicely upholstered and offered simple, smooth surfaces – no surprises and less things to get in the way of maximizing your ability to use the space.

Rear Seat

In the back you’ll find 3 headrests and seatbelts, but truly only seating for two adults.  The middle seat is small and tight.  That’s not a criticism – that’s standard for this class of vehicle.  Those seats are very comfortable back there – they could use more bolstering, but all in all, it would be a nice place to be on a road trip. The beltline gets quite high toward the back, so it seems pretty cozy sitting back there.

The legroom is OK, nothing to write home about.  The headroom is good.

In terms of storage, there are decent door bins and the standard seat-back map pockets for the rear seat passengers.   There is a 12V plug at the back of the center console.

A couple of details really stood out for me in the back seat – little things that make a difference.  One was a well-shaped and designed armrest in the door.   Often rear seat passengers don’t find themselves with anywhere to put their outboard arms, and this is a great place to put your arm down.  That will make a difference on a road trip.

Also, there are two brilliant little storage bins on each side – one by the passengers knees and one higher up at waist level.  They’re just little nooks and crannies, but I love that they’re using them as storage where it’s useful.

Finally, the middle seatback folds down to make a great floating armrest, and it has two cupholders in it.  All in all, the rear seat in the Focus is not a bad place to be.

Got kids?  Sorry to hear that.  I kid, I kid.  I have three of my own.  You’ll find 2 sets of LATCH anchors, as well as 3 high-mount anchors on the back of the seats.  Fitting 3 kids’ seats will be nigh-impossible but can be squeezed in – 2 are just fine.

Details

In Vancouver, we were shown how Ford uses recycled jeans and cotton in the carpet backing and sound-dampening materials, and I believe in the seat fabrics as well.  In addition, a huge number of components throughout the Focus are made of recycled materials, and are further recyclable after the life of the vehicle.  They are also using greener materials, such as soy foam seat cushions – I’m certain that would delight the granola-eating, tree-hugging crowd if they were ever stranded on an island with a Ford Focus – you could just start eating it.  Mmmm, seat cushions.

MyFordTouch has a favorites screen – there you can assign up to 22 shortcuts to anything you want within the system – favorite phone numbers, radio stations, destinations for the nav system, anything you see fit.  That’s pretty cool, but what I really like is that any two of them can be assigned to little buttons on the steering wheel.  They simply have a star with the number 1 or 2 in it on the button – and whenever you hit that button, the system will immediately achieve what you’ve assigned to that button – call that favorite number, go to that favorite station, pull up directions to that favorite destination.  Whatever you choose.  Now THAT’S convenient.

The Focus uses ample amounts of backlighting throughout the car – perhaps more so because they want to show off the ability to change the colors of the lighting.  But I actually appreciated the fact that the door bins are lit.  Makes a big difference when you’re looking for a parking pass in the dark.

The Drive

I really enjoyed the day-to-day driving aspect this car delivers.  It is comfortable, and competent.  The engine does work hard to get things going quickly, but the car never felt strained.  Considering the weight of the car versus the numbers the engine puts out, it felt right.  The upcoming Focus ST will solve any issues around lack of power, if you feel that’s the case.  That car, to me anyway, may be the perfect small car.  It will also be significantly more money than the regular Focus.

The handling is excellent on this vehicle.  It always felt planted and was very confident on every surface, including ice and snow.  Ford was kind enough to put excellent winter tires on it, which is just common sense for anyone living in a winter climate.  With those tires, I can honestly say this is a fantastic winter car.  The electronic whizbangery keeps things steady when you’ve pushed it a bit too far, but it takes quite a lot to get the Focus out of joint.

There was a bit of body roll, but to be clear, it’s nothing irritating and nothing that would ever make you unsure about this car’s capabilities.  AND the trade-off is well worth it – considering how short the wheelbase is on this car, and how well it handles, I was very impressed with the ride quality.

The Focus’ has new, electronically-assisted power steering which is substantially more flexible and adjusts to the driving situation.  It’s nice and light in slow driving, like a parking lot, and it varies the assistance when it needs to.  I thought it felt like a well-balanced system and I think the steering is at the top of the class – that said, the competition isn’t far behind – many vehicles in the entry level classes have migrated to electronic steering these days.

The Focus also sports a torque-vectoring differential.  This pushes torque to the wheel with the most grip, and makes a big difference in performance driving.  Torque vectoring isn’t a brand-new concept, but I think it might be exclusive to the Focus in this class of vehicle – please correct me if I’m wrong about this.  You’ll find it on more expensive, performance-oriented cars  (it’s a much-touted option on the Audi S4, which easily costs twice as much as this car), so it’s refreshing to see it on this vehicle.  Standard equipment.  Sweet.  Drive the car aggressively, and you’ll feel the difference that it makes.

That brings me to the one big issue I had with driving this car.  Yes, I typically commute in relatively slow-moving traffic, and that’s most of my driving.  But I’m also a driving enthusiast, and there are definitely times where I like to step on it, and push a car closer to its limits.  Considering that the Focus has pretty high limits, and is a very competent car, I felt that Ford has done a little too much to curb your enthusiasm in terms of wringing a little more out of the car.  Let me explain.

The Focus is equipped with a dual-clutch transmission – that’s great stuff, and very efficient.  Yet, even in Sport mode, it tends to lean toward efficiency rather than sportiness.  It will hunt for higher gears, and often leave you wanting a lower gear.  It’s a very smooth transmission, and I never felt it got lost trying to do its thing, so that’s good, but somehow it left me wanting more.

I know the Focus ST will be a sharper tool in terms of pointing toward performance and sporty driving, but this Focus isn’t a lame duck – it has the ability to do much, it just seems like Ford is afraid to let us use all of it.

The driving experience is very pleasant, but could be so much more if Ford just let us.

Nitpicks

Not many of these – but here goes:  the D-pads on the steering wheel curve over the top of the center spoke of the wheel, and I found them awkward to use.   A weird ergonomic oversight.

The front cupholders have no adjustment mechanism, so they’re one size, and my mug kind of rattled around in there.  Also, there are electronics RIGHT in front of the cupholders – the seat heater controls and a lidded 12V plug.  As your delicious beverage jiggles around in those cupholders, you might also be finding it splashing onto those electronics – which is not cool.

The rest of my issues can be filed under the “Please Ford – let the Focus have some fun!” category, as per my complaint in the Driving section.

I’ve cursed the Ford manual shifting mechanism on their automatic transmissions before, and I continue to hate it.  The thumb-actuated rocker switch on the shift lever is just weak.  Either offer paddles or a simple slap-shift manual gate on the lever.  Please.  I beg you!  Nobody who wants to sport it up a bit will ever enjoy using that manual shifting method.

I don’t appreciate the effort involved in turning off the traction control.  If you are asking why I’d want to do this in the first place, just skip this paragraph.  Anyway, there is no button for this.  Turning off the traction control requires one to navigate through the driver information screen – first to “Settings”, then to “Driver Assist”, then to “Traction Control” and finally you have to select “Off”.  This is infinitely hemorrhoidal, and then to add insult to ….. insult, you’re rewarded with a traction control that isn’t truly defeatable.  Some of the electronic grannies remain in their rocking chairs, keeping a watchful eye on your and your silly antics behind the wheel, ready to scold you and wave their canes threateningly if you let things get out of hand.  Where’s the trust, Ford?

Verdict

I have no hesitation in saying that I loved the Ford Focus.  I was wondering what Ford would come up with – because my little sister-in-law drives a first-gen Focus, and it is a turd that can’t be polished.  Ford has come a long way since then – as a company, and with the Focus as a product.  This is a car I would want to own.

I give the Focus an 8 out of 10.  Considering the amount of quality and standard equipment in terms of tech and safety that comes baked into this car, I would recommend anyone buying in this class to have a close look at it.  On top of that, considering the amount of luxury and toys you can add to load it up as this particular one was, and barely crack CDN $30,000, this car remains competitive at all trim levels.  You don’t have to head up to the Titanium trim level to get a lot of the goodies here, and you can get into the car for a great price.  Add what you want, and you’re still in the ballpark.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was very high for this car as well.  Aimie liked the ride, the comfort and absolutely loved the Active Park Assist feature.  If that isn’t a selling feature, I don’t know what could sway someone.

I’m truly stoked about the arrival of the Focus ST – it’s fantastic that it’s making it to North American shores, and it will very likely be a strong rebuttal to the few niggling arguments I had while driving this model.

In the meantime, although I feel that some of the Focus’ sporting abilities are hidden behind a couple of Ford’s corporate decisions, this is a fantastic car and shows that Ford is serious about making a quality vehicle.  I experienced a well-built, solid car – with no squeaks or rattles, exemplary fit and finish, and sporting comfort and tech goodies that unquestionably set the bar for this class.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Ford.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

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• December 8, 2011 -- A week with the Mazda3 Sport SkyActiv (1)
• October 8, 2011 -- A few days with the 2011 Ford Transit Connect Taxi (0)
• July 26, 2011 -- The 2012 Ford Focus Challenge – Vancouver, B.C. (2)

This story means the world to me – for two reasons.  Clearly there is a lesson to be learned here, and it can be applied across generations, and to many of life’s situations.  But it’s also important to me because my daddy used to read us this story every single Christmas Eve.  I have to be honest and tell you that I wasn’t always that fond of all of our traditions when I was growing up, because there were times where I just wanted to rip into my presents.

Of course, these days I love our Christmas traditions – where we sing Christmas carols, and perhaps read a couple of stories and talk before we get to the presents.  But the one tradition that I always had time for, and loved, was when my dad pulled out one of his old, tattered books of German prose.  One of them bound this story within its pages.  I do remember my dad’s favorite of these ancient books – the book was called “Der Ewige Brunnen” – in English, “The Eternal Well”.  It represented eight centuries of collected writings.   I often found my dad reading quietly out of this book, and it was one of the things that defined him to me – he could recite many of the poems out of it.

I have learned that you can always tell how important a book (or more specifically, what it contains) is to someone by how much that book is used – my dad’s Bible and this book were very well-worn, and bear witness to what was important to him.

I had a wonderful time translating this story, and the tears kept streaming down my cheeks as I did.  They were good tears, and although I miss my daddy very much, I have so many amazing memories of my time with him.  I hope you enjoy the story – I’m posting my translation first, and at the end, the original German version too.

Under the Chimney

by Rudolf Kinau (my translation into English)

I was a small boy and still believed in Santa Claus. Not the one that goes from house to house, knocks on the door and asks: “Have the children  been good all year?” We didn’t know that Santa in those days. “He comes to those who have an iron stove and a narrow stove pipe,” Mother said.

No, we weren’t quite there yet. We still had the other Santa, that flew through the sky in the middle of the night with a big sack – over the roofs everywhere where was still a true old stove, and threw something into the chimney.

There were five of us children in the house, and I was the youngest. And the night before Christmas, we each had to put a plate on the stove – all nicely placed around the chimney opening above the stove. “Not too far to the center,” said Mother, “because that looks very greedy. But also not too far away toward the edge of the stove, otherwise you might get nothing.”

We presented our five plates – each of us had their own plate, and mine was particularly colorful – we put all five in a lovely half-circle around the fire hole. And then all of us quickly stretched our bodies over the stove and looked up into the chimney – to make sure it was really open. And then we said “Good night” and climbed, one by one, into our beds.  Mother still sat at the table and sewed a bit.

In the dead of the night, I woke up – I was certain I had heard a crack or a hum and I thought: “Maybe he just – just now – flew over our house and has thrown something into the chimney!” And I thought: “I wonder what it would be?  What could possibly be on my plate now?”  Because I believed I couldn’t fall asleep again, and because the night was flooded with bright moonlight, and because everything was so quiet in the house – I got up quietly and snuck into the kitchen and looked onto the stove. But there was not much to see.  All the plates were still empty.

“You must have been hearing things”, I thought to myself and wanted to turn around already and head back to bed, when I suddenly thought to myself that my plate might possibly be positioned slightly further back than the other four. And because, especially this year, I just wanted something very nice and a lot of it from Santa Claus, and because no one saw me and nobody knew I was here, I quietly and gently pushed my plate past the others and directly under the open chimney. Then I quickly went to the bedroom and crawled under the blanket.

I lay awake for a long time and didn’t know whether I had done the right thing or not. But then I thought: ‘I’ll get up very early so that no one notices anything.  And if it is really bad, and everything has fallen on my plate, I can still give the others something from my bounty.” – and then I fell asleep again.

When I woke up, Jacob and Grete were already in the main room, and Johann and Heiner were already at the window. I wanted to quietly sneak by them, but Mother said – “Stop!  Where do you think you’re going?”  ”Oh, just to look whether there’s anything in my plate…”  “No, you stay here!  And put some pants on! And stockings and boots. And wash your hands and your neck! When you’re done, we’ll all go in at the same time. And I’ll go ahead so that there’s no fighting afterwards.”  I probably made a very unhappy face, because Grete looked at my very strangely and Johann said: “Well, get a move on!  We’re all waiting for you!” Well, this particular morning things didn’t go as fast as they should have, but eventually I was ready and stood at the door, ready to head into the kitchen.

Mother said “Stop!” again. “I’ll go ahead, and you can all follow me!” – and with that, she crossed the floor, stood in front of the large hearth and handed us our plates.  She was happy for each of us as she passed each plate. Johann had five beautiful apples and at least twenty nuts and four brown cakes – and a pair of new skates; Grete found a beautiful white apron on her apples, nuts and cakes; Heiner got a big fairy-tale book, and Jacob a construction kit!  And me? – I had only a small apple, a single nut and a brown cake – and nothing else – in my big colorful plate.

“Well, what is the meaning of this!?” asked Mother. And she scanned the whole hearth and looked up into the chimney, in case anything got caught in there.  ”Why did this happen?  Have you not been a good boy this year?”

“Yes!” – I just nodded, because I couldn’t say a word.  A big lump hung in my throat. And as my brother and sister regarded me – half with pity and half with Schadenfreude, mentally listing the bad things I possibly may have done this year, I just kept shaking my head: “No, no – that’s not it.”

No, I knew better. And I realized that Mother knew it too – she was just acting.  ”Santa Claus will likely know why”, Mother said, “so there’s nothing further we can do.  You others could give him something from your gifts, if you like, but that doesn’t quite seem fair either.”

Grete and Johann each gave an apple to me. Heiner gave me a few nuts. Jacob gave me two of his brown cakes. “And you might get something else from me,” Mother said, “as soon as I know why Santa Claus thought so little of you this year.”

I loitered around for about an hour, then I went to my mother and told it to her – quietly, just between us: that I got up at night and that I had pushed my plate in front of the other four and directly under the chimney.

Mother shook her head. But then she looked quietly into my eyes and patted my head over the part in my hair. “It is fine,” she said, “we won’t speak of this any more.  You may place your plate back on the stove again tonight – sometimes, for some reason, Santa Claus comes back.”

That evening – all alone – I placed my plate on the stove again.  Not directly under the chimney, but also not too far away to the edge, but about half-way to the middle, as if four other plates also stood there. And the next morning, I had four beautiful apples, roughly 20 nuts and three brown cakes, and on top – a beautiful, soft, woolen cap – with a colored tassel. I was very happy and wore that cap for a long time, and I haven’t forgotten it to this day.

I often think about that Christmas morning and about my soft, woolen cap with the colored tassel, – especially if I’m tempted to put my plate somewhere in front of others and directly under the chimney again.

That’s it!  I hope you enjoyed it.  I can’t wait to read it to my kids, and the rest of my family, this Christmas Eve.  I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very blessed Christmas season, and regardless of what you believe in, I hope that Christmas is more than presents and food to you, and that you might take the time to consider what it means to you and your loved ones.

Thank you kindly to those of you who have taken the time to read my personal and vehicle-related posts over the last year and four months – your time and your feedback is greatly appreciated.  I look forward to continuing and getting to know more of you.

Oh, and my dad’s book?  ”Der Ewige Brunnen”?  It was one of the treasures that I inherited when he passed away, and it has immeasurable value to me.  I’ve decided to have it restored so it can live on in my memories, and hopefully those of my children.

I wanted to say a special thank you to Bernice Dutton, an online friend I haven’t met yet, who convinced me to post both versions of this story.  I’m glad you did!

As promised, here is the original German version of this short story – the one I heard so many times as a boy growing up, and the one I wish I could hear my daddy read just one more time.

Merry Christmas, friends!

If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to browse my archives tab for other posts.

Unter dem Schornstein

von Rudolf Kinau

Ich war noch ein kleiner Junge und glaubte noch an den Weihnachtsmann. Nicht an den, der abends von Haus zu Haus geht, an die Tür klopft und fragt: “Sind die Kinder auch immer artig gewesen?” Den kannten wir damals noch nicht. “Der kommt zu den Leuten, die einen eisernen Herd haben und ein enges Ofenrohr”, sagte die Mutter.

Nein, so weit waren wir noch nicht. Zu uns kam immer noch der andere, der mitten in der Nacht mit einem großen Sack übers Land und über die Dächer flog und überall, wo noch ein richtiger alter Herd war, etwas in den Schornstein warf.

Wir waren fünf Kinder im Hause, und ich war das kleinste. Und wir mussten am Abend vor Weihnachten jeder einen Teller auf den Herd stellen, alle schön der Reihe nach rund um das offene Ofenloch herum. “Nicht zu weit nach der Mitte”, sagte die Mutter, “das sieht so unbescheiden und gierig aus. Und auch nicht so weit weg an den Rand, sonst kriegt man nichts.”

Wir stellten unsere fünf Teller – jeder von uns hatte seinen eigenen Teller, und meiner war ganz besonders bunt – die stellten wir alle fünf in einem schönen Halbkreis vor das Feuerloch. Und dann beugten wir uns nochmals alle ganz weit über den Herd und guckten hinauf, ob der Schornstein auch wirklich offen war. Und dann sagten wir “Gute Nacht” und kletterten einer nach dem anderen in die Betten. – Mutter saß noch am Tisch und nähte.

Mitten in der Nacht wachte ich auf, und ich meinte, da hätte etwas gebrummt oder geknackt und ich dachte: “Nun ist er eben – gerade eben – ist er vorübergeflogen und hat was in den Schornstein geworfen!” Und ich dachte: Was das nun wohl gewesen ist? Was da nun wohl liegt – auf meinem Teller? Und weil ich meinte, ich könnte nun doch nicht wieder einschlafen und weil draußen ganz helller Mondschein war und alles war so still im Hause, so stand ich leise auf und schlich mich nach der Küche und guckte auf den Herd. Aber da war noch gar nicht viel zu sehen. Alle Teller waren noch leer.

“Dann musst du dich wohl verhört haben”, dachte ich und wollte mich schon umdrehen und wieder ins Bett, da meinte ich plötzlich, dass mein Teller diesmal etwas weiter zurück stände als die anderen vier. Und weil ich doch gerade in diesem Jahr etwas ganz Schönes und auch recht viel vom Weihnachtsmann haben wollte und weil mich niemand sah und auch keiner etwas davon wusste, so stellte ich meinen Teller leise und vorsichtig ein ganzes Stück weiter nach vorn und schob ihn mitten unter den offenen Schornstein. Dann ging ich schnell wieder in die Kammr und kroch unter die Decke.

Noch lange lag ich wach und wusste nicht, ob ich das nun so richtig gemacht hätte oder nicht. Aber dann dachte ich: “Ich steh’ ganz früh auf, dass keiner etwas merkt. Und wenn es ganz schlimm wird und alles auf meinen Teller gefallen ist, dann kann ich ihnen ja noch immer etwas geben.” – Dann schlief ich wieder ein.

Als ich aufwachte, waren Jakob und Grete schon in der Stube, und Johann und Heiner standen schon am Fenster. Ich wollte mich leise an ihnen vorbeidrücken, aber – “Halt!” sagte die Mutter. “Wo willst du hin?” – “Nur einmal sehen, ob was in meinem Teller …” – “Nein, hierbleiben! Und erst Hose anziehen! Und Strümpfe und Stiefel! Und die Hände und den Hals waschen! Wenn du fertig bist, gehen wir alle zugleich. Und ich gehe voraus, damit es nachher keinen Streit gibt.” Ich muss wohl ein sehr unglückliches Gesicht gemacht haben, denn Grete guckte mich so komisch an und Johann sagte: “Nun, schau zu, dass du weiterkommst! Wir warten auf dich!” Es ging an diesem Morgen nicht so schnell, wie es eigentlich gehen sollte, aber zuletzt war ich ja doch fertig und stand an der Tür und wollte hinaus.

“Halt!” sagte die Mutte wieder. “Erst komm ich, und ihr kommt alle hinter mir her!” – Und dann ging sie über die Diele, stand vor dem großen Herd und reichte uns unsere Teller. Sie freute sich bei jedem Teller mit. Johann hatte fünf schöne Äpfel und wenigstens zwanzig Nüsse und vier braune Kuchen – und ein Paar neue Schlittschuhe; Grete hatte auf ihren Äpfeln und Nüssen und Kuchen eine schöne weiße Schürze liegen; Heiner ein dickes Märchenbuch, Jacob einen Baukasten. Und ich – ich hatte in meinem großen bunten Teller nur einen kleinen Apfel und eine Nuss und einen braunen Kuchen – und sonst nichts – kein Stück weiter.

“Ja, was hat denn das zu bedeuten?” fragte die Mutter. Und sie suchte den ganzen Herd ab und guckte nochmals in den Schornstein, ob da nichts hängen geblieben war. “Wie kommt denn das? Bist du denn nicht artig gewesen im letzten Jahr?”

“Doch!” nickte ich nur, denn sagen konnte ich nichts. Mir saß ein großer Kloß im Hals. Und auch als meine Geschwister mich nun halb bedauerten und halb in heimlicher Schadenfreude aufzählten, was ich vielleicht angestellt haben konnte, schüttelte ich nur immer den Kopf: “Nein, nein – das ist es nicht.”

Nein, ich wusste es besser. Und die Mutter wusste es auch, das merkte ich – sie tat nur so. “Der Weihnachtsmann wird ja wohl wissen, warum”, sagte die Mutter, “wir können weiter nichts tun. Ihr könntet ihm höchstens etwas von euren Sachen abgeben, wenn ihr mögt, aber recht ist es ja eigentlich nicht.”

Grete und Johann gaben mir jeder einen Apfel. Heiner gab mir ein paar Nüsse. Jakob gab mir zwei braune Kuchen. “Und von mir kriegst du vielleicht auch noch was”, sagte die Mutter, “sobald ich weiß, warum der Weihnachtsmann dich so kümmerlich bedacht hat.”

Eine ganze Stunde drückte ich noch herum, dann ging ich zu meiner Mutter und sagte es ihr – leise, unter vier Augen: dass ich nachts aufgestanden wäre und dass ich meinen Teller vor die anderen vier und mitten unter den Schornstein gestellt hätte.

Die Mutter schüttelte den Kopf. Aber dann schaute sie mir still in die Augen und strich mir über den Scheitel. “Es ist gut”, sagte sie, “wir wollen nun nicht mehr davon sprechen. Du darfst deinen Teller heute abend nochmals hinstellen – mitunter kommt ja der Weihnachtsmann wieder zurück.”

Ich stellte abends – ganz allein – meinen Teller wieder auf den Herd. Nicht direkt unter den Schornstein, aber auch nicht zu weit weg auf den Rand, sondern so halb bis zur Mitte, als ob noch vier andere Teller daneben ständen. Und ich hatte am nächsten Morgen vier schöne Äpfel, etwa zwanzig Nüsse und drei braune Kuchen, und obendrauf eine schöne, weiche, wollene Mütze – mit einer bunten Quaste. Ich habe mich ganz toll gefreut und habe sie lange getragen und habe sie auch heute noch nicht vergessen.

Ich denke noch oft an diesen Weihnachtsmorgen und an diese weiche, wollene Mütze mit der bunten Quaste, besonders immer dann, wenn ich meinen Teller einmal wieder irgendwo vor die anderen und mitten unter den Schornsein stellen möchte.

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Zoom Zoom?  Probably not the word I’d use.

Before I start hacking on this car though, let’s find out what it’s all about, and what it does right.

The Mazda3 Sport has become somewhat of a fixture on the road – there are a lot of them and although the styling is different from anything else out there, they kind of blend in, because they are so plentiful.

The Mazda3 is Mazda’s second from the bottom model – a step up in most departments from the entry-level Mazda2.  It’s available in sedan or hatch – the hatch is the Sport.  And from there, you can choose a variety of drivetrains, 3 to be exact, and a number of trim levels.  Hence the number of them on the road – you can get into a Mazda3 for a very affordable CDN $16,595 and can more than double that amount if you want a loaded-up Mazdaspeed3.

The SkyActiv we have here starts at CDN $19,995.  I wasn’t given an invoice so I priced it out online – as tested, you’d be looking at CDN $24,710 plus taxes.

So what’s this SkyActiv business then?  Other than a misspelled word, I mean.  Well, it’s Mazda’s way of giving the consumer more horsepower and torque (than the entry-level model) and better mileage than all the Mazda3s.  They achieve this by using a new 2.0 L high-compression, direct injection engine coupled with weight reduction within the body structure, and coupling that motor to SkyActiv-specific transmissions.  In this case, it’s a 6-speed automatic “that combines the best of manual, CVT and automatic transmissions”.  Okaaaayy.  Mind you, there are some neato things, such as only using a torque converter at low speeds, and then a wet clutch at higher speeds.  Body and chassis see a 30% increase in rigidity whilst enjoying a 100 kg (220 lb) weight loss, for “more of that exhilarating Mazda driving feel while increasing crash safety performance and reducing weight”.  Right.  I’m going to question the exhilarating part before long, as you’ll see.

Numbers?  Sure!  155 HP @ 6000 RPM and 148 lb.ft of torque @ 4100 RPM.  These numbers sit smack in the middle – between the entry-level GX model and the upper-end GS and GT models, which use the bigger 2.5 Litre engine.  With that said, the fuel economy is better than both of those models, even with the automatic transmission.  It’s rated at 7.1 L/100 km (33 mpg) in the city and 5.0 L/100 km (47 mpg) on the highway.  You get a 55 Litre fuel tank.

Exterior

In terms of styling, as mentioned earlier, it’s a unique take on the small 4-door hatch/mini-wagon, yet the look has become familiar.  In a good way.  Most of this styling exercise works quite well, and is pleasing to the eye.  I enjoyed the sculpted front fenders, the smooth flowing lines that never get too complicated, and the little details – such as the rear spoiler, and the nice exhaust tip.  Mazda calls it a sport-exhaust garnish – as if it were a sprig of parsley or something.  Worst choice of wording I’ve seen in a long time when it comes to trim.  Garnish?  C’mon, Mazda! Anyway, it looks good – simple, clean and effective.

The most polarizing part of the current Mazda3 has been the toothy grin at the front.  I shouldn’t actually call it polarizing, because that would imply that some people love it while others hate it.  I haven’t come across anyone who likes it yet.  So really I should say most off-putting instead of most polarizing.  They have lessened the goofy grille-dentures a bit, but it still looks dumb.  If you don’t see a cartoonish overbite in the front end here, you’re probably blind.

I think that the car would benefit from a slightly lower stance and bigger diameter rims, such as the GTs or those on the delicious Mazdaspeed 3.  It looks a bit…. econo.  Tough to explain, but beside a higher-end model, it makes sense.   Speaking of the wheels, they are 10-spoke SkyActiv specific ones, and they’re alright, but nothing special.

Interior

Open the door, and get into the easily accessible front seats.  Both front seats are manually adjustable and heated.  I felt the seat was quite comfortable at first, yet over longer distances, it was a seat I was generally trying to adjust to get more comfortable in.  I haven’t experienced that in any of the cars I’ve reviewed, and I found that I might take issue with these seats if I was headed into a road-trip with this car.

The heating on these seats is funny.  It’s a 5 position rotary switch – the first position is quite toasty, and the second is already hot.  I mean, you will likely get a tan on your rear-end in position two.  I can’t imagine what positions 3, 4 and 5 would bring, other than skin grafts and a stay in the burn unit.  Mind you, you could pack a griddle and you could forget about bringing a camp stove if you were car camping.  Just use the seats to cook things.

The seats are well-bolstered, on both upper and lower cushions.

Materials around the cabin are pretty good.  The bulk of the dash and the center console armrest are covered in a nice, rubberized soft-touch plastic – it felt good and looked good.  It also seemed to attract dust (not that unusual) and fingerprints (significantly unusual).  Other than that, you’ll find textured hard plastics and a couple of slashes of brightwork in the form of aluminized plastic – the door grab handles and a bit of dash trim.  That attempt at brightening things up is in vain – it remains a dark and relatively sombre place to be.

In front of you you’ll find an excellent steering wheel.  The rim is grippy and of medium thickness, and everything just feels right with it.  Comfortable to hold, easy to crank.  It’s manually adjustable for reach and height.  Behind it sits a dual-binnacle holding a traditional set of gauges.  They use white writing on blue backlit halos – the effect is very nice, and easy to read too.  Between them is a small digital screen, with a digital fuel gauge, odometer and two trip meters.

You use a traditional key to start this car, and you get a remote-lock FOB to go with it.

In the dash, above the center stack, there is a monochrome driver information screen, under a little eyebrow in the dash and tilted toward the driver.  Below it is the stereo system, and below that, the climate control system.  At the left of the bottom of the center stack are the two seat heater/stove controls, and on the right is a hinged lid over a cigarette lighter/12V plug.

On the center console, you’ll find a traditional automatic shift gate, with a nice parking brake lever on the left side – nice and close!

I like the red backlighting of the switchgear – it’s easy to see, to read and it’s pleasing to look at.  And it contrasts well with the touches of blue they throw in there.

I found the legroom to be fine in the front, but knee room felt a bit tight.  I’m not tall and my knees were precariously close to the underside of the dash.  My knee often rested against the hard plastic of the center console too – that’s not a complaint though – it was comfortable for me.

Tech/Convenience

Well, there isn’t a ton of it, but it’s mostly good stuff.  Power locks, windows and mirrors can all be controlled from the driver’s door.

Overhead, you’ll find a power tilt and slide sunroof.  I can honestly say that this was the most refined sunroof mechanism I’ve ever used.  Operation was perfectly smooth – no grinding sounds, nothing like that.  It just glides.

The stereo system has an average amount of buttons, but it seems busy on the dash, and requires a second look to figure out what you’re doing – button-wise anyway.  It’s a 6-speaker unit, and it doesn’t sound particularly good.  Especially with digitally compressed music – streaming from my iPhone sounded brutal for the most part – tinny, or boxy.  Audio sources are AM, FM, CDs, auxiliary line-in and Bluetooth streaming.  All work very well – none sound very good.  Sirius satellite radio is optional – there’s a button, but you have to get the capability added for it to work.  I saw it was a $580 upgrade, and can be had a la carte instead of part of a big, pricy package.

Strangely, because the competition all offers it, you can’t connect any USB devices.  There is a second 12 V plug in the center console bin, along with the line-in plug.

The car offers voice control and phone control – pairing a phone is a breeze and the voice recognition system is excellent – and quick!

That driver information screen in the dash shows you the outside temperature, a clock, and information about either the phone or the media system, pending on what you’re using.  Nothing else from what I could figure out.

The climate control is nothing special – no automatic control here, but it works well.

The steering wheel has rudimentary cruise control, media control, hands-free and phone controls.

Storage

There’s not a whole bunch of it.  There are two inline cupholders in the center console, which can be covered with a hinged lid.  The glove compartment is small, and is completely filled with the biggest owner’s manual I have ever seen for a car.  Honestly, there must be a couple of Shakespeare classics in there too, because I can’t imagine what would take up that much room.  Maybe they have the owner’s manual translated into all the languages of the world and keep it all in one book.

The door bins are small, and there are just no little nooks and crannies for you to put anything.  It’s actually quite irritating in a car this small, and I’ve seen much better use of space in other cars, where manufacturers will find and use every spare cubic inch for storage.

The bin under the console armrest is small, but deep and quite useful – it also has a removable tray in it.

The main storage story is the cargo area.  It’s a good size (335 Litres) and has a tonneau cover for security.  It’s not huge, but very usable space.  You can multiply that space by folding the 60/40 split seats down.  The trunk is lit well, and very nicely upholstered – no screws or hardware sticking out anywhere – and that’s more than I can say for some cars costing twice as much as this one.  You’ll find 4 tie-down hooks back there too.

Rear Seat

The seats in the back are comfortable, and considering how small this car is, it’s easy to get into the back.  The seats are barely bolstered at all, and I’m finding that quite typical for back seats in this class.  Although there are three seats and three seat belts, I’d consider the middle one an emergency seat at best, or just reserve it for a well-behaved dog.  A small dog.

Legroom in the back is not good.  As noted, I’m not tall, and had the driver’s seat where I normally keep it.  Sitting behind it, I found my not-very-long legs crowded back there.  I’m guessing six-footer passengers will not be happy in this car unless they’re riding shotgun.  Happily, foot room is very good and the space under the front seats makes keeping your feet there not too bad.

I thought the visibility was nice from the back seat, and it’s not claustrophobic back there at all.

Door bins are basically just cupholders.  Convenience-wise, you have power windows, and a ceiling-mounted reading light.  No plugs, no 12V plugs, no storage – other than one seatback map pocket.  I suppose you could throw a couple of things on the tonneau cover behind your head.

The middle seatback folds down to form a lovely armrest with two cupholders in it.

In terms of accommodating your family, you’ll find two LATCH anchors.  I could fit three kids back there, if one wasn’t in a child seat.  Three child seats won’t work.

The Drive

Here’s where I found the biggest issue with this car.  When you get into the car, the driver information screen flashes a bright blue “Zoom Zoom” at you. You’ve seen the ads, the literature.  That’s Mazda’s thing – the Zoom Zoom thing.  I HAVE driven Mazdas that have Zoom Zoom.  But unfortunately that’s where this car fell short for me.

Let’s talk about the good stuff first.  They weren’t kidding when they talked about increased rigidity.  The chassis felt very solid, regardless of what you throw at it.  The handling manners are impeccable, and I was duly impressed that this car didn’t flinch at any corners.  The car stays relatively flat, and you can point this thing in a direction and it will follow your lead – immediately.  My tester had winter tires, and it outhandled most cars I’ve driven with good summer tires.  I felt that, for the most part, the handling was crisp and very predictable and competent.

Low-speed handling, including parking lot maneuvering and u-turns are a breeze.  Steering effort is light and it’s accurate.   I did enjoy the engine noises.  It was throaty under load, and loud enough to remind you of the cool exhaust “garnish” back there.

The ride in this car is firmer than I expected.  I was taken aback by it right away, and to be honest, there were times when I felt the ride was harsh and almost punishing – especially over irregularities like potholes and expansion joints.  Which aren’t irregularities here – we have more of them than we have smooth pavement, so this is a big consideration.  Although the ride can be jarring, it’s not horrible – it’s just less comfortable and stiffer than average.  It is very good on the freeway or highway, and smooths out at higher speeds.

Now where I had no smoothness complaints was in the transmission department.  This new automatic is definitely one of the smoothest transmissions I have driven.  Shifts are mostly imperceptible, and I never really felt that this transmission was confused.  It does seek higher gears, but this car’s mission is to be efficient, so that shouldn’t be surprising.  There is a manual slap-shift, but no paddle shifters – you just use the shift lever.  I feel that Mazda did a fantastic job in refining this transmission.

Visibility out of this car is quite good.  The exception are those huge rear pillars – they’ll get in the way of your shoulder checks a bit, but it’s nothing alarming.

I don’t know if you can tell or not, but I’ve been trying to talk about everything but the actual performance.  But there’s nothing else left to talk about.  So let’s get to it.

This car made me sad when I stepped on the gas.  I truly expected more.  To be fair, when it comes to everyday driving – commuting, keeping up to traffic, etc, this car fares well.  It just does its job quietly and I had no complaints.  But should you try to wring even a little bit of aggressive driving out of it, or worse yet, should you require some emergency power in a dire driving situation, you’ll be in trouble.  It just feels like a slow car.  Acceleration is lackluster and it gets worse at speed.  If you’re on the road, doing 50-60 km/h and you want to get into a passing position and step on the gas – well, go ahead and take some knitting with, because you’ll finish a couple of rows of Uncle Harold’s Christmas sweater before you get where you want to be.  Honest to Pete, the power just never seems to show up in this car.

An example for you.  I put this car into manual mode, and was in second gear, at 3500 RPM.  Now most cars, even underpowered ones, will get out of their own way if you step on it in this situation.  Not the Mazda3 Sport SkyActiv however, and you’ll be experiencing either total frustration when you want to do some truly sporty driving (because it doesn’t like getting to fun speeds AND you have this awesome handling capability just waiting to be used) or you will experience moments of sheer terror where you pull into the fast lane, step on it, and realize you’re nowhere near getting ahead of where you were and the semi behind you is bearing down on you like in a bad dream.

The 2012 Subaru Impreza I tested recently definitely feels faster and more responsive in all driving situations, even with the CVT transmission that I’m not a fan of.  And that’s saying a lot.

Again – this performance is doubly frustrating because this car has handling chops.  They’re just wasted here.

Nitpicks

I felt this car offered a dire lack of tech and frankly, basic information.  I’m used to being offered my fuel range and fuel economy (instant, average, both) - yet I couldn’t find that information anywhere.  Strangely, in stock photos, I see a second screen beside the driver information screen and the fuel information is in there – but that screen didn’t exist in this car.  Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong about this.

I didn’t enjoy the dot-matrix display in the driver information screen.  It’s ugly and crunchy text and it’s quite far behind what I’ve seen in the competition – Ford, for one, does these things right, and their displays make this look like an Atari from the 80′s.

Opening the rear hatch requires you to put your thumb on a round sensor button, and simultaneously grabbing under a small cut-out on the bottom edge of the door.  In our snowy, slushy conditions, if your car is grimy and dirty, you are guaranteed to get that sludge on your hand if you’re opening the trunk.  There’s no way around it.

When this transmission is in manual mode, I felt it wanted to do more of my thinking for me than I wanted it to do.  For example, most manual modes will let you lug the engine along – if you put it in too high of a gear, it will lug, but it won’t correct you.  Learn your lessons, learn your car – that’s what I think.  Yet this one will automatically downshift for you if it feels you are letting revs drop too low for the engine.  I don’t appreciate that kind of granny kicking in for me, thank you very much.

When at a light that turned green, I found that letting go of the brake pedal and stepping on the gas resulted in a slight, half-second hesitation before anything happened.  Not that much happens when you step on the gas anyway, but still – I found this hesitation a tad irritating.  It felt as though everything was electronic and the delay was caused by some bureaucratic anti-Zoom Zoom department having a board meeting somewhere in the bowels of the car and debating whether they should let the driver get off the line at all.

Finally, the main control knob for the stereo doesn’t stick out nearly far enough, and it’s actually difficult to grab and rotate it.

Details

The stereo has a horizontal dividing line and a halo circle that are backlit with a nice, deep blue.  These are highly noticeable in the dark.  When you do something stereo-related, using buttons on the dash or the steering wheel, such as changing the volume, radio station, etc, those blue backlit parts glow brighter for a brief second.  It’s a cool detail.

I like that there is a blue engine temperature light that glows until your coolant has reached optimal temperature to be driven efficiently.

There is a red light that glows right above the ignition slot, so you can find it with your key in the dark.

Lastly, I appreciate the excellent handles on the inside of the trunk lid – it’s easy to grab and shut the hatch.  Also, the gas shocks for the hatch are perfect – they open nicely, and they have just a perfect amount of resistance to make it very easy and quick to close, without feeling cheap.  Well done.

The Verdict

I have to say that this car does a lot well.  But when your company sells you to us as a Zoom Zoom product, and you flash that at me when I get into the car, I expect at least a little Zoom Zoom.  And that’s what hurt this car in my opinion.  Most people will be happy with this car, and it’s a refined product that felt well put together and relatively well designed.

But I felt this car fell flat on its grinning face whenever I asked slightly more of it.  I’ll say it again – couple that lack of performance with a car that has great handling capability and it makes it even more irritating.

I give this car a 6 out of 10, which seems like a shame for a car that does so much so well.  It’s a small car, and it doesn’t make many compromises.  But it does make a few – in addition, Mazda is likely running into some issues is that the competition hasn’t stood still.  Build quality is up across the board, tech offerings far surpass this car where most other competitors are concerned, and the Zoom Zoom thing that used to set Mazdas apart isn’t easy to find here.  Frankly, I found the competition to be much Zoom Zoomier for the most part.  Price is a consideration, and although relatively sparsely equipped, this car does manage to keep the price down, and let’s not forget one of its key missions – fuel economy.  It definitely does a good job there, and that’s the one place where Mazda has kept their promise with this car.  Too bad they couldn’t figure out how to do a Zoom Zoom transfusion and keep the fun in it too.  I’d likely make this a 7 out of 10 for the higher horsepower versions of this car and that might be what it takes to make a good car head into great car territory.  With that said, I’d be shopping very carefully out there because the competition is offering a lot of good stuff in this category.

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) was middling.  My wife likes the shape of the Mazda3 Sport, and she liked the drive.  My wife simply doesn’t drive with any sporting intentions, and for folks like her, who don’t need more space, this is a great car.

If you want to push your Mazda3 beyond mundane commuting duties and saving the planet with great fuel economy, you’ll want to look at the higher-trim, higher-power Mazda3s with the 2.5 Litre engine at very least – or better yet, look at the Mazdaspeed 3.  That’s where it’s at.  The SkyActiv, while seemingly achieving great things at the pump, has had a big part of the Zoom Zoom fun sucked out of it.

Disclosure:  Vehicle was provided by Mazda.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my other vehicle reviews under the car reviews tab at the top of my blog.

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Let’s talk scars.  Everything I say here can be applied to emotional scars too.  I have a scar that can’t be missed.  It goes from just below my right ear to where my neck meets my shoulder.  Actually the scar takes a 90-degree turn there, and continues across my entire throat and was held together by 98 stitches at one time.

We were treated to a lovely evening out recently and I was asked about my scar.  Actually, I get asked about my scar a lot.  Whenever I start a new job, I can hear the whispering and I can feel the stares burning into my neck. It doesn’t bother me.  In the past, I’d typically deflect the questions with the answer “It’s a long story” and kind of leave the person hanging.  I’d even revel a bit in the dangling questions that were left, and the deepening mystery around my scar.  I could tell it drove people crazy.

But I’ve changed my approach.  I’ve realized that I had no good reason to keep the story of my scar hidden away.  On the contrary, I have plenty of story to tell.  And now, when I look at myself in the mirror every morning and see what some might consider a disfigurement on my neck, I am reminded only that I have so much to be grateful for.

So when I was asked about it, my wife and I told my whole story and it got us talking about scars in general.  Which got me thinking.  Which is why I’m here, writing this.  Yep, this is me, sporting my trophy.

Scars are often seen as something negative.  They are a reflection of pain, a wound, trauma, sadness.  They are what remains of these things, and will forever remind us of what was suffered.  They are horrible mementos, aggregating everything bad in recent and long-past memory into one ugly stripe.  They make us sad.  They make us angry.  They bring about fear of the known and the unknown.  When you think about it, scars are powerful and practically have lives of their own.  But these marks, these flaws, these blemishes – they can do so much for us – if we would only let them.

Instead, they often cause us to judge people, to make assumptions and inferences.  They can cause us to turn to our emotions.  They can cause us to turn away from people, or conversely to turn to people.

I, for one, believe scars have a beauty that far outweighs their ugliness.  And yes, scars can be inside of us too.  I feel that scars on our skin, as well as scars on our hearts or souls, have a measure of power and potential that we should let them realize.  I feel we shouldn’t categorically dismiss scars as ugliness, and even if we sympathize with their bearers.  I don’t think we should consider scars as nasty things that we’d be better off without.

To me, scars are proof.  Proof of so much more than we would be able to see without them.  When I come across someone whose skin is scarred, or whose soul is clearly bearing scars of the past, I try to see these scars as signs of strength.  I see them as absolute proof of resilience.  And I see them as a sign of grace – somewhere, at some point in time, the bearer of that scar was shown some grace by someone, or something, and is here to tell the story.

I have more scars.  My hands and knuckles are littered with scars, harking back to lessons I learned.  I used to love to fight.  I’d go out of my way to cause fights, and to get into them.  I can’t explain it, and I’m certain that I had more wiring loose than tight in those days.  Yet I learned a lot about myself and I can still look down at my battered hands, shake my head and see my being here as a measure of grace that I don’t deserve.  I can then choose to be ashamed at who I was, dwell painfully on regrets upon regrets, or I can choose to look up, see the world around me and consider those scars a reminder of how far I’ve come since then.

Grief leaves some big scars behind too.  I’ve been through my share of grief, having lost my dad and my brother in the same summer.  Though it’s nothing to be considered extraordinary (for there are many who have lost much more than I have), it has had a big impact on me, and I bear scars from these losses.  My whole family does.  Even my kids do, because they talk about never having met their real Opa and one of their uncles.  These scars never truly heal, because a real piece of us is ripped away and can not be replaced.  Again, it is up to the person who bear these scars, and how they will choose to look at the scars inside of them.

I don’t actually feel that there are good scars.  I just feel that scars can be seen in a positive light, and under that light, we can see wonderful things that can come out of the scars and the events that caused them.

There are scars that are more complex and darker, and difficult to see in any positive way.  I feel that, when we look around ourselves, humanity is scarred with an indifference.  This scar that is an air of apathy about our neighbours and fellow passengers on this planet is a result of constant friction.  It’s not a deep cut, like some scars, but more like a carpet burn.  It’s this repeated “looking the other way”, and lessening of the bonds and shared burdens between us and strangers, that have led to this scar.  And it’s not easy to see it positively.  But it is a great opportunity to do things differently.

I’ve spoken to people that bear what seems like a million scars – on their person, and on their souls.  Unfortunately, there are those who choose to spend their years tracking who has caused their scars and keeping a careful, vengeful record of it, instead of seeing any of the potential good in them.

Sure, we can try to eradicate our scars.  We can get laser therapy to try to rid ourselves of the scar tissue.  We can try a number of methods to erase the scar – physically or emotionally – but in the end, we’re never really getting rid of the scars themselves.  So let’s try to look at our scars for what good they might do.  What use are these scars?  Those of others can teach us lessons, and those of ours can be reminders.

In the end, it is my opinion that there is something beautiful in all of our scars.  A scar means that what has caused the hurt is over.  It means the wound has now closed and, at some level, has healed.  If nothing else, the healing process has begun.  It is a sign that we are alive, that we’ve been given another chance, and that we have survived the hurt, the lesson or the test.

What bigger measure of grace can we ask for?  Am I crazy in saying that our scars are beautiful?

If you’ve enjoyed this, feel free to browse my archives tab for other posts.

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