Eddie Eddie Eddie

Hmm... Yikes! Talk about bad luck. My first problem was in the summer of 2017 when my fan motor quit. Not bad considering I took delivery in 2010. Just like my old smart, this will go to charity once I'm done with it. What are you replacing yours with? Eddie

Hmm... Mike's been drinking a bit too much of the Haterade when he's behind the wheel of his Fiesta. I rolled over 231,000km the other day & still love my Fiesta. The only reason I'm getting a new car in the summer is because it's been tough finding a car that can meet or beat it in fuel economy on a regular basis & still be a decent driving experience until recently. Back on topic, there was a lot of GM junk on that list which bloated their offerings. Case in point, the Cruze & Impala! My coworkers get stuck with them as rentals when we travel out east (I had the sense to adamantly refuse them). In my short time driving them, as well riding as a passenger made me think that yeah - I could drive this on the daily - if only I hated driving & life in general that is. I love how GM & Ford claim everyone's switching to pickup trucks & SUVs as the reason they're axing a lot of these models. Did the Japanese & Europeans not get this memo? I haven't heard of them ditching cars or shutting plants down. As well, what happens in places like Oshawa where I'm sure a lot of their employees bought trucks & SUVs. What happens when they realize just how much it costs to drive them? Eddie

Hmm... I think the new SPCCI engine debuting in the new Mazda 3 is genius. Of course, I'd still wanna see fuel economy figures as well a review of its driving characteristics to validate my opinion. With diesel cars becoming a rarity, a gasoline engine that operates very much like a diesel is the closest we will get in the near future to driving a diesel again. I've seen a similar motor from Achates Power with their 2.7L opposed piston compression three cylinder gasoline engine that they demonstrated in a pickup truck a while back. Not sure when that goes into production though & with who. The new Mazda 3 with the SPCCI engine in FWD & a manual would make a very good contender as a replacement to my aging Fiesta next summer. The main problem I have with it is the frustrating infotainment system Mazda uses. First world problem, but it's still a major factor in my next vehicle. If Mazda were to ever take the plunge into EV or hybrid vehicles, I think an SPCCI engine would work much better in an EV with range extender setup than the traditional gasoline motors did for Chevy's Volt or the BMW i3 & i8. Eddie

Hey Mike, I do still have my Fiesta. Mine's been great to me. I can coax 1098km out of the 47L tank & otherwise has been relatively trouble free. I was going to give it away last year to the kidney foundation so I could get a new car, but the money I was going to use for its replacement kept me afloat for the 60 weeks I remained unemployed. Next year once the 2020 models come out I'll replace the Fiesta with a Hyundai Ioniq PHEV. It's one of the few hybrid cars out there that can better my Fiesta for highway fuel efficiency.

Hmm... I didn't think my login was still valid on this site as it's been a while. However Keith's right, I do have a new job semi related to this topic. Edmonton is currently expanding their LRT from Downton to the South East section of our city. It's the Valley Line LRT project which will cost almost $2 billion. It may cost just as much of not more for stage 2 of the project which connects the same line from Downton to our city's West End after this is done. I personally love it for a few reasons: It's about time we get some modern trains in our system such as the Flexity Freedom by Bombardier Transportation. Our current fleet is retrofitted Siemens trains, some of which have been in operation since the late 70's. Everything runs at grade with a beautiful layout that eliminates traffic bottlenecks caused by our other LRT lines & offers what I find to be the most scenic view compared to our current system. As well most importantly, I will be the first driver of these trains having been recently hired on by Bombardier Transportation. While totally unexpected, it's the big break I have been looking for & I'm very excited about this opportunity. I head out to Ontario this Sunday for the rest of the month for training in Kingston as well some hands on experience in Waterloo. I have yet to mention to the company that this is my first flight since the 90's & I might be afraid of flying... I'll leave that as a surprise when I get to the airport tomorrow morning. (I offered to drive the 37 hours at my own expense & still be there on time for Monday morning, but was denied.) The upcoming 2+ years wait for our new trains to come into service reminds me of what it was like waiting for the first shipments of our Fortwo to arrive. Eddie

Hmm...Haha, not looking for another car club. I already lose too much time online without owning a computer! ;)Eddie

Hmm...Gonna have to disagree there Mike!I was around 16K km intervals until I started breaking longer and longer running tanks in the summer. I actually want it to trip the oil change reminder now to get it over with and allow me to plan a good decent weekend drive into Oregon (need to pickup a rare beer), but at the same time my curiosity is begging me to see how far this tank will go. If you haven't gotten it yet, do the undercoat as it helps deaden the outside noise even more. I have the fancy strobing brake lights as I did in my smart and switchback front turn signals. They're white as running lights but blink orange. I yanked a fuse to disable my DRLs within hours of taking delivery. In the next while I plan to buy an extra 3157 harness to piggyback on the current one and wore some resistors to stop the fast blink & dash warning. No relay as it's controlled by the canbus like the smart. The new versions of my switchbacks with brighter LEDs will also be a part of this meaning I'll giveaway my old ones (giving you first right of refusal). Also read up and cut up your headlight wiring to exchange your H11b setup for a regular H11. I'm so glad I did as I now have a lot more choice for bulbs than Osram twistlocks. Eddie

Hmm...Well if that works, I should almost bust out the electric jack for my next road trip!

Hmm...Looks like it's on!However, I thought filling a gasoline vehicle like that would burst the charcoal evap canister. One of the reasons I don't SuperFill my tank. Eddie

Hmm...Looking good Mike!My TPMS never needs to be recalibrated when I switch over to my winters. I'm doing this from my cell phone so let's see if it'll allow me to attach a pic. Eddie

Hmm...So in my quest to hit 1100km, I ran out of fuel! At 1098km to boot. I tried pushing it the remaining two kilometres, but couldn't get it up the hill after one. I'll have to wait til next year to try this again as it seems to act like a diesel in how it only performs its best in the warmest of weather. Eddie

Hmm...Maybe I was wrong. It CAN go lower. 260km and sitting at 4.0l/100km. Eddie

Hmm...So I filled up today and went out for a cruise. So far I've travelled 110km and my dash reads...4.1L/100km!!!If I can keep this up I can push for 1100km. However, I'm starting to think this is the absolute limit of my Fiesta. Eddie

Hmm...1022.3km driven on a single tank! 46.637L consumed. That is almost too close! Eddie

Hmm...Iain, that's massive!45L tank @ 3.7L/100km should make 1200km a cakewalk for you.I know with my car emmisions control means no matter what the ambient temperature is, my first 8km are the worst for fuel economy as more fuel is dumped in to warm it up faster.That and also like a lot of the newer vehicles including a Cummins diesel I drive for work, there's still 1.5L/100km worth of fuel being burnt when engine braking which is rather annoying.I wouldn't be surprised if the European versions do not exhibit this behaviour.Eddie