The big difference of course is traffic data.  Now I know some of the newest in car systems have live traffic data but mine doesn’t and without it I would have wasted a few hours sitting in traffic.  I have one picture from the iPhone to illustrate the value of traffic data.

Without that data I would have sat in that red traffic for at least an hour but probably longer.  I of course never knew what the issue was but with that warning I safely hopped off ahead of the slow down and cruised past it on a parallel highway at around 60mph so I barely lost any time.

So in my case the cars GPS is cool and has its value but the next time I go to buy a car I don’t think I would consider one unless it has live traffic (and maybe weather).  With the iPhone and most any other modern smartphone you have all this in your hand so even if the car can match it I am not sure it would be worth the extra expense.

• 1983 Chevrolet Citation – bought from a fleet used with nurses.  It wasn’t pretty but at 16 you are just happy to have something to get you where you want to go
• 1983 Volvo Turbo – looked like every other square Volvo from its day but it packed a little something extra.  Of course it also need a new Turbo while I had it, that any many other things
• 1987 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde – this thing would fly.  On one occassion I hit 90mph in 3rd gear.  Recaro seats and Momo steering wheel and Italian styling made it one of my favorites
• 1991 Alfa Romeo 164L – Italian sedan with less of a sporty feel and more of a luxury sedan.  While I missed the sporty nature of the Milano it was nice to have more features and comfort
• 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS – large and fast and my first brand new car.  I finished college and decided I would buy myself a new car.   It had the Corvette engine and lots of room and a bear to park but I had fun with it.
• 2000 GMC Yukon – moved to the SUV to give myself a little more functional space.  WIth two large dogs and a old house I needed the flexibility to carry and haul all sorts of things.
• 2003 GMC Yukon – enjoyed the first one so I upgraded to another new one with more features.  Thankfully I got out of the large SUV before the gas prices started heading north.
• 2005 Honda Odyssey – we found out our second daughter Marin was on her way and I said we needed to get a Minivan – a few weeks later I was driving the cream of the crop for Minivans and haven’t looked back.  It has carried our family with ease and handles like a car.

I will likely add a new one this fall but that covers my list of cars so far.

I had my short list of cars ready to check out and only two of six had power available.  This seems a small thing that any major automaker would want to handle – as a buyer I come to easily check out the cars I find interesting – so why not make it easy to do.  You can’t demonstrate power features and other electronics (now that navigation systems are so common why not show them off) that would help sway potential buyers.

Kudos to Mazda who actually had someone that travels around doing the car shows.  He (I think his name was Phil) was very knowledgeable and even got the key out for us to check out everything.  Others weren’t so helpful or prepared. 

With my Honda Odyssey now 3.5 years old I am looking and thought this venue would let me get an initial impression about all on my list – but it didn’t.  Now I have to decide if I want to visit a dealer just to sit in and see if it has enough room.  As someone looking to buy a new car in the coming months the auto show failed me.

I just read another story on Edmunds today that put it up against the best crossover and SUV — it still won.

We’ve compared the SUV, the CUV and the MPV in every way you can with the 2008 Toyota Sequoia, 2008 GMC Acadia and 2008 Honda Odyssey, and you just can’t resist the inevitability of the result. Once you consider that the only vehicle here with sliding doors also boasts the most carlike dynamics and unmatched functionality, the minivan is once again the vehicle to beat when it comes to real-world family use.

They reference the image angle and while I still get the occasional sigh when I mention that I drive a minivan I am comfortable knowing that I will have plenty of time later to get that performance sedan.

A colleague and friend recently got the 2008 model and I think it might be getting close to trade in time for me as well. The Atlanta Auto Show is coming up next month and I have a short list to check out but I don’t see anything knocking the Honda Odyssey off the top of my list.

The only thing I have been remotely unhappy with has been the PAX system and they now treat that as an option rather than a standard feature.

Significantly, the Odyssey Touring is available without the controversial Michelin PAX run-flat tires for 2008, a move that puts $600 in your pocket and provides a more supple ride.

I had another colleague trade away an Odyssey largely over those tires. Honda may have more experience now but when I bought mine they still marketed them like they would last as long as normal tires. With just over 30k miles I have already replaced them once and you can find plenty of others with the same experience so I am happy to leave that option unchecked this next time.

So by now everyone has heard about the tornado that went through Atlanta, more specifically the one that hit the CNN Center. It seems my side of the building escaped damage, it was mostly focused on the side facing the park (shown) and the side toward the World Congress Center.

We were out of town this weekend but didn’t escape the storms. We traveled to Prosperity, SC where 45 homes were damaged. We were fine and outside of a few trees around our friends house there was no serious damage.

It made me think about discussions I have had in the past around flashing lights. In this case there is a main road that I and hundreds of other cars were on and a small side road with its fair share of cars (waiting to get on our road).

In our path it was flashing yellow, the smaller road was blinking red. I have always operated that when I see yellow I should be cautious but don’t have to stop and when I see red I have to wait until it is clear to go. Well I can say that most people don’t seem to operate that way.

To be fair I let someone go ahead of me when I finally made my way to the intersection but told myself when I get to work I will look up the code to see if I am right.

I am. Here is the text from the 2008 GA Drivers Manual.

Traffic signals are placed at intersections to control the orderly movement of traffic and to prevent accidents. Drivers (including bicyclists) and pedestrians must obey these signals except when an officer is directing traffic. If a traffic signal is not functioning at all at an intersection, all drivers must treat the intersection as if a stop sign is posted for all directions. If a traffic signal is malfunctioning and flashing, drivers must proceed based on the color of the flashing signal they are facing: if the driver is facing a yellow flashing signal, the driver may proceed with caution; if the driver is facing a red flashing signal, the driver must stop and wait until it is safe to proceed.

Now I just wish all those on the road this morning would read this. And for the unfortunate folks that were in those cars that connected this morning I hope you read that too before calling your insurance company.

I think this calendar reminder says it best, a vacation is overdue.

Well it came yesterday and of course I wanted to give it a trial run before heading out of the country with it. It did a great job tracking my trip in to work, handling downtown Atlanta without any issues. Just plug it in to the MacBook Pro and pull off the file. I uploaded it to GPS Visualizer to see what it looked like and it was very smooth and precise. The device took a few minutes to get itself locked but didn’t drop once it had connected. I deleted a few points that were close to home so I don’t give away too much about where I live but this shows how smooth the tracking was.

Here are a few sites I have been reading to get myself ready and learn more about how to easily handle capturing and adding in the geo data to my photos:

• Geocode Your Images
• Sony GPS-CS1 for Mac

My FlyRight is in hand and the suitcase is sitting in the closet just waiting for me to load it up.

Just a few more days until I head off to Ireland to relax.