New Car Stereo

I picked up a new car stereo - a JVC KD-R810. It was on sale at Best Buy, $250 marked down to $200 in one of their weekly specials. They always have some model or another on sale.

It's the first aftermarket one I've ever bought. Mainly, I bought it to get a USB port so I can listen to music on USB. This should replace the pile of unlabelled CDs in the car with a a single USB stick! (though it's likely that I will wind up with a pile of unlabelled USB sticks later.)

The secondary thing (which interestingly enough, is probably the most expensive component of the stereo) is a Bluetooth audio setup, so I can use my Blackberry in the car hands free.

I've never done any sort of installation like this myself, and I didn't like that I had to disconnect/reconnect the car battery. The last time I did something with the battery, I got some nasty sparks flying. I figured I'd let the Best Buy do the install. They finished the job in about an hour's time and showed me that all the speakers were hooked up correctly using the fade and balance controls. They demonstrated how it plays mp3s off of a USB stick. The tech couldn't figure out how to do radio presets so I guess Ill have to figure it out later. The rear USB cable sits in the glove compartment, and the microphone is sussed in the top middle of the windshield. It's pretty nice work I think.

They also said they can undo the install to put the factory radio back in for free, if I wanted to, such as if I was selling my car etc.

The install cost $70, the price of their USB/microphone deck install, and the only additional item I needed was some Corolla-specific wiring. So all told, about $300.

Anyways, looking at the unit in the dash now...

The unit sticks out of the dash a bit which I'm not used to - the old unit fit flush in the DIN slot. I'm also supposed to be able to change the colour of the displays and dials seperately... however a 2002 Corolla doesn't have a coloured lighting scheme unless you consider white lights on plain analog dials and plain liquid crystal displays some sort of theme. Maybe I'll just set the colour to white. :P

I can't seem to see the display when I'm wearing my sunglasses, what's the deal with that? Why is the protective cover polarized?

The bluetooth setup went pretty smoothly, you set a PIN and off it goes to sync with your phone. The voice dialling works very nicely. I hope the calls are clear too, but I'll have to find out later.

Its time to go root through my music collection. :D

Allen.

Blog-Slacking

Just doing the usual routine of going to work, going home, and hitting the computer a bit.

We planted a bunch of tulip bulbs in the front garden so we'll see what the results look like in the spring. This is kind of a reminder to myself to take some pictures of them when the time comes.

I haven't fixed the car yet, but one of our neighbours is a mechanic and kindly offered to look up the cost of a couple of parts for me, which I accepted. He said that bending out a couple of panels would be easy enough too. Hopefully we'll clean it up before the winter.

I was thinking that getting a bigger car would be a good change, maybe with all-wheel drive. Nothing as big as the Jeep we used to have, but I'd probably feel better if we got rid of one of our little cars, after all we have the baby on the way and it'd be reassuring to have a vehicle that won't be crumpled like a napkin in a serious crash.

Smash

COROLLA SMASH!

Had a bit of a car accident last week. I was coming home from a corporate class downtown, and I tail ended someone in the rush hour highway stop-and-go. Just after I changed lanes, the row ahead suddenly slammed on the brakes, and I was "too close" during the lane change to stop in time. I slammed on my brakes but I skidded (no ABS) into the car ahead. The damage looks about the same on both cars. A cop came by after and helped us straighten out the info for the collision reporting centre, and said the damage was probably in the neighbourhood of $2000 per car. The auto shops agreed with him when I got a repair appraisal done.

I didn't want to bother fixing it. (3rd party liability insurance) The car is probably worth less than $5000 already. All the electrical components still worked, so I set about replacing the missing plastic signal cowl masterfully with a plastic CD cover, speaker wire and some duct tape.

I wonder how much the insurance rates are going to go up by at the next renewal.

I notice that I'm leaving much more space in front as I drive now, and that I get stressed more easily if I have to drive during rush hour.

NO I HAVE NOT CRACKED OPEN THE DUTY FREE ALCOHOL YET.

Allen.

Wheel rims

...or more specifically, the lack thereof.

Here's a bit of an annoyance - In mid-May, I ordered a set of 4 steel rims from Canadian Tire. I paid $300, and they said they would let me know when it comes in.

About a month goes by with me inquiring every so often, and eventually, someone admits that they are typically not available until the end of fall. You know, when the winter tire rush starts coming in. They apologized and said they would order it directly from a manufacturer, and it should arrive on Monday or Tuesday, given that it was Friday morning when I called them. So I dropped by the store on Tuesday, and there was still nothing there.

At least I could cancel the order and get a refund.

Allen.

Lets try those tires again...

We lucked out and the Canadian Tire near my workplace had a new shipment of Goodyear Nordic winter tires about 2 weeks ago, and I got them installed, balanced and aligned. However, they have been giving us a rougher and rougher ride as time passed by - there was a decided rolling motion at low speeds, and a vibration at high speeds.

So we kept planning to go to Canadian Tire to get it checked, but things kept coming up and I didn't have either time or the car at my disposal. Anyways, on Thursday this week I finally had both, so I dropped by the Canadian Tire and told them I was having trouble with the new tires and wheels. It took a while before they could look at it, but when they did, they said that both rear tires have some sort of manufacturing defect, and their manager could authorize a replacement.

The tricky part was that the manager was not on duty in the evening, and would be in the morning, so I had to bring the car in again if I wanted the warranty work done. They gave me a card with a number to call. Of course, it was going to be a bit difficult since work was extra busy and Friday is one of Kathy's downtown work days.

So on Friday morning, I called the manager up and asked him about my case. He was already aware of it when I called, which was a pleasant surprise, and said I just had to drop the car off. So I got Kathy to drop me off at work, then take the car over to the Canadian Tire cause it is right next to the Leslie Subway stop on the Sheppard line. They called in the early afternoon to say that they have checked and replaced the 2 tires and all 4 of the steel rims too. That's a lot of replacement parts - how come it was done so badly the first time around?

Anyways, I told Kathy and she picked up the car after work. The cashier gave her a bit of a hassle and tried to charge us $340 for the rims, but thank goodness I had given Kathy all the receipts, and it listed the rim purchase. Its funny how they reassure us we don't need the old receipts cause all the data is on file, and then stuff like this still happens. So we got all of this fixed via the warranty, and the car is riding smoothly again, as it should be.

Allen.

Winter Tires

Well its starting to get a bit slushy and slippery on the roads these days, so I decided I wanted to get a set of winter tires this year.

The problem is that all the tires in my size are sold out everywhere. Its funny cause usually it's the other way around for my old Corolla - parts are cheap and plentiful and you can shop around for a good deal.

The stores say that in Quebec they've enacted a safety law which requires all drivers to use winter tires from Dec 15th to March 15th this winter, and that the demand for tires is so great that they are buying tires here. I've even seen a few articles on CBC saying there is a thriving black market coming up around snow tire theft.

Anyways, whatever the reason, I'm having some real trouble finding snow tires, unless I'm willing to spend about $150 a tire on some premium stuff... and that doesn't include the price of a set of metal rims, which is another item that is in low supply at all the stores near home and work. Sigh.

Allen.