Lexus CT

'bout time for another post, here it is,

The Lexus CT

(caranddriver.com)

The CT is a Prius wearing a Tartan plaid shirt. The main difference is that the Prius is driven by quinoa and sandal enthusiasts (and strangely, suburban families) that don't mind toxic, toxic cadmium in their cars, whereas the CT driver, is a bit of a mystery. From what I can deduce, the CT is driven by teff-ingesting golfers. Apparantley this is a very broad segment of the market, because I see these things everywhere!

The CT is quite underpowered for 2017. The C200h F-sport makes 134 horsepower and it takes 10.6 seconds to get to 60. When cars are that slow nowadays, it might actually become dangerous when merging onto the highway.

Somehow, the CT gets "40" highway MPG, but the Prius gets "50" mpg. I know those figures are probably fudged, but how can a badge engineered version of the same car get 10 less MPG? I looked into this, and apparantley the CT uses an older version of the Prius hybrid drive. Generally, if I'm going to be spending $32,000 on a new car, I would prefer it to be from this century!

The transmission appears to be of similar quality as the rest of the car. It is a CVT, which means that it essentially has infinite gear ratios. This seems good for fuel efficiency and get-up-and-go, but really, CVT's end up sounding like the New York Stock Exchange, but all the people replaced with cows (MoooOOOOooMMoooooooMOOOOO), as well as breaking a lot.

So, the Lexus CT. Driven by golf and non-GMO free range organic quinoa enthusiasts, under powered, under fuel-efficiency'd, and wonky transmisson'd.

Do you have any thoughts about cars/cats? What drives you crazy? One post a week so stay tuned!

Chevrolet Trax

'bout time for another post, here it is,

The Chevrolet Trax

(caranddriver.com)

To start, the Trax has one of the worst names out there, amongst "Kicks" or "Gremlin". I doubt the Trax can actually manage any of the tracks it is eponimously named for, as it has a minimum ground clearance (the clearance of the lowest part on the car) of only 6 inches. To compare, a Challenger SRT , which is a low-slung muscle car, has a minimum ground clearance of 5 inches. The power helps the Chevrolet about as much as the dismal ground clearance.

The power comes from a 1.4 turbo four-pot. It creates 138 horsepower, not nearly enough to propell its bloated features around. This fact is fairly evident in the 0-60 time of 9.3 seconds. This would have been acceptable just ten years ago,but nowadays, it would be difficult to merge on the highway. Also, because the Trax is basically a Cruze that eats too much ice cream, the gas mileage goes down from highway 37 mpg for the Cruze, down to 33 for the Trax. All this is to make it look like the Trax is a high-riding off roader.

Also, on the note of eating too much ice cream, the Trax weighs 3151 pounds. Actual pounds. At times like these, I wonder such things as: "Is it possible to put a car on a diet?" and "Was lead accidently ordered for the body panels instead of steel?".

Do you have any thoughts about cars/cats? What drives you crazy? One post a week so stay tuned!

Nissan Sentra

'bout time for another post, here it is,

The Nissan Sentra


(image credit: Nissan)


To start, the Nissan Sentra may seem like a bit of a diamond in the rough. It looks like a $19,000 car in a world where $24,000 seems like an acceptable starting price for a midsize sedan. The Sentra most certainly costs $19,000, but it isn't really a car. It's a $19,000 dollar toaster-in-the-rough. Car and Driver reports that it is "painfully mediocre" and that "the days of truly great small Nissans have gone". Overall, C&D really did not like the sad little box (neither do I), giving it a report card of 1.5 out of 5 stars.

For a world where cars are so much faster then they were 10 years ago, the Sentra doesn't really keep up with the herd because it has a 0-60 time of 9.5 seconds. This would be very acceptable in the '90s, '80s, and would actually be considered quick in the 70's and 60's, but we live in 2017, where 9.5 seconds from 0-60 is slow. Really slow. Not-being-able-to-merge-on-the-highway-slow. Those 9.5 seconds are suprisingly fast, considering it makes 130 horsepower.

So, the Sentra. A boring toaster, a let down to the other Nissans and Datsuns like the Hakosuka, and has a Citröen level of power.

Do you have any thoughts about cars/cats? What drives you crazy? One post a week so stay tuned!