Showing posts with label Cars and Automotive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cars and Automotive. Show all posts

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Climate Control Undressed and Exposed

As I'm sure many of you are aware, some of the more upscale cars or vehicles offer a feature called climate control. For both of you who don't know what this is, instead of just being able to blow cold or hot air out of the vents it will automatically maintain a certain temperature. This seems like a great feature and one that I would actually enjoy, but the story doesn't stop here.

Car makers have taken it one step further and offer dual climate control which allows both the driver and front passenger to select their own temperature independent of each other. This is where I begin to have an issue. I mean, is this actually possible?

As a high school graduate, a college graduate, an electrical engineer and just a sane rational person, I'm going to tell you that dual climate control just isn't possible. The driver and passenger are sitting too close to each other for me to believe that each one is enjoying their own separate temperature. I'm not aware of any invisible barrier that keeps the two regions independent of each other. I will concede that the vents can work independently, but the cabin area is just far too small to maintain separate temperature zones.

As a result, there is no way that I would pay extra for a vehicle to have dual climate control. If there's a car I want that has this feature in the base model, I might go for it. But I definitely wouldn't seek it out.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

If I Were Looking To Buy...

I've been thinking about what type of vehicle I would get if I were looking to buy a new one. It's not something that I'm going to actually rush out and do, but it's fun to look at what's out there. If I were to get an SUV I would most likely go with the Chevy Tahoe. It's not quite as big as a Suburban but still big enough and powerful enough to get the job done. I'd most likely go with black. I wouldn't necessarily get the huge rims, but I would definitely consider them.


If I decided instead to go with some sort of sedan, I would have to give the nod to a Mercedes. I haven't really narrowed it down to the exact model, but I'm not exactly in a hurry. I used to be all about a BMW, but that has changed since I've been less and less impressed with them. The 3-Series especially has become all too common these days. So for now I'll continue to look at what Mercedes has to offer.

Since neither of these options are in my near future, I'll probably change my opinion by the time I actually purchase something. Until then, I'll never really get tired of looking at the above Tahoe.