2 Weeks With Ginger

I’ve had Ginger for just under 2 weeks now.  It’s not really enough time to give a good review, but I can give some highlights.

The ride on Ginger is smooth as silk.  She glides over bumps and humps and hardly shakes the cabin.  That’s wonderful on these horrible winter roads and great on those hour long drives to and from work.  I imagine that the tradeoff will come from losing that tight sports car like handling that Fiona had.  Fiona could corner like nobody’s business.  I imagine if I ever get Ginger up to spend and try to change direction that I’ll find her leaning heavily against the turn. 

I’m getting mixed results on the mileage.  So far all of it has been better than Fiona which is saying a LOT.  Fiona, in the winter time, was getting between 32 and 34 miles per gallon.  I figured that by the most accurate method… gallons into the tank while filling up divided by miles driven since the last fill up.  Well… I haven’t been able to use that method with Ginger yet.  I did fill up her tank once, but I hadn’t set the trip odometer when I picked her up.  I will have to fill up the tank again either today or tomorrow and then I’ll get a good measurement.  For now I’m just using Ginger’s own computer and that says I’m getting a low of 34 miles per gallon on one slippery trip from work and a high of 42 miles per gallon on a really nice trip to work. 

I am learning that there are methods to getting the best millage out of Ginger.   Being a hybrid, I figured the goal should be to drive in EV (electric Vehicle) mode as much as possible.  But that’s only half of it.  You see, the battery will only let the car drive in EV for so long before needing a charge.  The battery charges in one of three ways.  1) every time I brake, some of that energy is put back into the battery.  2) every time I coast (while in EV mode), some of that energy is put back into the battery.  3) When the internal combustion engine (ICE) is running but not accelerating hard enough for the battery to add extra power it will charge the battery. 

It’s that third one that gets to me.  If I accelerate hard both the ICE and the battery assist in charging Ginger forward.  That’s bad… I would rather have the ICE take care of all the acceleration so that it’s also charging the battery. 

My last lesson on miles per gallon is that when the car first starts up and works on warming both the cabin and the engine up, the ICE will run almost constantly.  Evidently the radiator coolant has to reach a particular temperature before it will let the ICE shut off and run off the battery.  When I’m at home that’s not a problem… I simply start the car (via remote start!) 15 minutes before I leave.  When I ease myself into Ginger’s supple seat she’s all warmed up and ready to cruise along on battery.  At work it’s another issue.  When I’m in the south clinic, I can head to a particular window and remote start Ginger.  But when I’m on the north side (north clinic, 4 or 5 blocks), I can only remote start Ginger when I’m walking out toward her.  She can only get a minute or two of running before I enter her. 

Toys:  I ADORE the automatic high beams.  As I’ve mentioned many times, I drive for about an hour on two lane highways after work to get home.  There’s a constant shifting between low and high beams for both on coming traffic and slower moving vehicles in front of me.  I’d guess that I hit the high/low beams a couple dozen times during that trip.  Now I don’t even have to touch the stalk.  Ginger does that for me, and I’ve never felt that I had to step in to avoid blinding someone. 

The Lane Departure system is…. Well it’s fun, I’m just not sure it’s something that I want to have on all the time.  For the most part it never gets in the way.  I don’t often take my eyes off the road and therefore only rarely encroach upon the lane markings.  On sharper curves though, it seems to want to push the car slightly.  Evidently I take a curve fairly close to the lane markings.  That would be fine enough on dry roads, but when it’s a little slick it means the car is trying to change directions while I’m moving around an already tight curve.  That’s not good as I could easily imagine it making the car slip and slide.   On the other hand it could also be a life saver.  I said earlier that I don’t OFTEN take my eyes of the road.   When I DO take my eyes off, it will be there to ensure that I stay safely in my lane. 

The back up camera is also a mixed bag.  Yes, it’s nice to have that view, but I don’t really back up all that often.  I don’t park into a space ass end first, and when I back out of a spot I can easily find my way by simply looking over my shoulder and checking my mirrors.  When I do back into a spot it’s at home… but the spot is so tight that I don’t dare rely on the camera… I have my passenger mirror about an inch away from hitting my car port.   The camera is just not accurate enough to take over that task.  So it’s cool… just not really useful yet. 

The other safety features… BLIS and cross traffic warning…. Havne’t been useful yet.  I imagine they’ll be like the lane departure system.  Useless until they save my (or Ginger’s) ass. 

The heated steering wheel.  AMAZING!  I’ll never go without one again.  As a smoker I don’t like using gloves while driving.  They just don’t let me feel the cig hanging dangerously from my hand.  So on evening trips from work when it’s very cold out, I simply got used to having my hands freeze.  Now they stay nice and toasty warm!

My initial impression is one of complete satisfaction.  I’m just not sure that isn’t from Ginger being new.  I’ll have to give her several more weeks, if not months, of use before I decide if she’s better than Fiona or not.