Andy Cap Cincinnati Red BRZ journal

[andycap]

Onboosti, the front plate holder was already mounted when I first saw the car. Ohio has the stupid law that requires cars to have a front plate, although Kentucky and I believe Indiana don't. I was one pulled over by Ohio State Highway Patrol in my 84 Trans Am during rush hour bumper to bumper traffic going no faster than anyone else and my lack of a front plate was the excuse used to pull me over. I told The Statie i don't have the bracket and it's an old car so it's not easy to find, not that i looked. He was fishing and had nothing so he had to let me go.

As for the good gas mileage, I would say for the most part I've been easier than normal on the car. I just got back from a two day golf outing that was about 140 miles away. Once I got on the highway, I kept it very close to the speed limit which varies from 55 to 70 along the way. I also tried not to accelerate too fast, but just enjoy the ride. And I must say, even after over 2 hours in the car, it's still very comfortable and even relaxing after a weekend of 63 holes of golf.

The dash board display is saying I'm getting 34 average MPG on this tank (reset at last fill up). I've got to fuel up before heading to work tomorrow and I'll post what the MPG was based on miles traveled since last refuel and amount of fuel put back into the tank.

[andycap]

After refueling, the Dashboard trip computer says the average MPG was 34.7 and my calculated average MPG based on replaced fuel and milage was 33.428 MPG.

I only have two data points and the first one isn't 100%, but so far the car's computer seems to calculate a little over 1 MPG higher than what I've calculated.

[andycap]

Has anyone had any issues with the GPS not being accurate or taking a while to track after starting the car?

When I get to the end of my street in the morning (about a quarter mile), I hear GPS signal lost and it usually doesn't start tracking again for a few minutes after traveling almost 2 miles.

The other day, when it finally started tracking again, it was showing me between 1/2 to 1 mile north of my actual position in a subdivision while I was traveling west bound on the highway. I really haven't been using it for navigation, but sometimes I'll just have it on tracking my location.

I know it doesn't have cellular assist (AGPS) in getting it's initial coordinates like a cell phone does, but it seems to take a while to get going. I'm not sure why it doesn't use it's last location before turning off as a reference to more quickly get a fix. It's not like the car is going to be towed around much where that wouldn't hurt 99% of the time.

On another note, I finally got my plates today for the car:





Y BRZ? MY BRZ !

[Jeredin]

Sorry to hear your troubles with the gps, but those plates look great!

[andycap]

Sorry to hear your troubles with the gps, but those plates look great!

Thanks Jeredin

Once the GPS starts tracking correctly everything is fine. I guess i'm just spoiled by my iPhone and the GPS apps I have installed.

On another note, has anyone had any luck using the BRZ voice commands? Does it need some kind of training or initialization?

[Jeredin]

Update?

[andycap]

I was playing with the voice commands a little and discovered a little about how to work it. If you want to use voice commands to find an GPS POI, you have to hit the voice button and say "navigation" first, then you can say something like "find a restaurant"

Not nearly as eloquent as Siri on my iPhone, but having the phone linked through the unit is nice too. The other day I simply activated Siri and said "find a number for Brio", and siri had me calling the restaurant within a few seconds all over the hands free Bluetooth connection on the car. At least my wife was impressed.

The GPS is still loosing signal but only withing the first mile after starting the car. It eventually regains a signal and has no issues for the rest of the trip. I took the car into the dealer to have the Luxcare protection applied and made mention of the GPS issues, not that I expect anything to come of it. I just haven't been using the navigation screen but keeping it on the full screen audio function.

[Jeredin]

Are you growing to love it more? Or have you already hit your comfort level with it?

[andycap]

So still loving my BRZ after nearly 5 months! It's my daily driver so I don't go out and have fun with it as much as I would like to. With gas prices getting higher, I find myself trying to make the MPG display go higher instead of the RPM or MPH. I do try to let go every once in a while though. I've still not seen another BRZ on the roads of Cincinnati. A few FR-S, but no BRZ.

No modifications planned for the car at this time. It will probably be a long time if ever that I do any performance mods. If I ever sell it, that could be a selling point, an unmodified stock BRZ. I have gotten a new radar detector for the car. My old one had false alarms all the time on highways and around retail stores. New one has GPS built in to remember locations of false alarms and not go off.

Only issues I've had with the car is the passenger side tail light has been getting moisture in it after the morning dew or rain. Also the material around the parking break lever pops up from the base when I pull the handle too high up. Still have the in-dash "GPS signal lost" issue when first setting off in the car too. Only other annoyance I've got with the car is the Bluetooth connection when starting the car while having a phone conversation. The conversation automatically switches to the car which is fine, but then the Bluetooth audio starts pulling music from my phone too and plays both the conversation and music through the speakers. You can't turn off the audio because the screen is locked on the dash to the phone conversation and my iPhone wants the audio to be controlled by the head unit, so can't turn it off from the phone. Luckily the person on the other side doesn't hear the music.

[Doug&Julie]

...I've still not seen another BRZ on the roads of Cincinnati. A few FR-S, but no BRZ...

You'll probably see another in January. We finally put an order down after we got to drive one this past weekend. Very nice.

Loving your diary here...glad to see you're enjoying it so. I'm not surprised. I've seen your car occasionally at the mall and, every time, I think "..man that looks good!". I even considered the red, but in the end decided on black.

Anywho...keep it up! We'll look forwarding to reading more!

Cheers