[williamsji]

I've lived Utah and Colorado my whole life, so I know how to drive in snow without these safety features, it was disappointing that they were so easily defeated.

You are disappointed that your consumer motor vehicle does not have military aircraft grade de-icing and ice counter-measures to allow a safety "assist" system to work in a blizzard where you have no business relying on said assist system in bad weather to begin with.

So you are willing to have hundreds of dollars in parts costs added to every CRV on the road, just so the radar never ices over?

Tip: that will not fly with most buyers... period. It would also price Hondas out of the market vs competition (who also have issues with front radar icing over in bad weather).

I did notice that the front face of the radar array (the plastic protective cover) appears to have has been changed by Honda in the mid-life refresh, and I bet it was to reduce ice build up from the looks of it.

 

[williamsji]

I just did my first long road trip in the hybrid. It was a lot of fun to drive, especially with CarPlay and all the Touring features. And Sport mode is fantastic when passing or coming off an entry ramp at full speed. I can confirm that the MPG takes a real hit on such a trip -- I usually get ~35 on shorter highway runs and 37-39 in the city, but on a really fast highway I had some stretches of 30-31. (Still better than many cars, and close to my old Civic.) No regrets at all! (I had one odd problem, though -- two of the caps on the tire valves fell off at different points in the trip -- maybe somehow due to rough roads? I replaced them with aluminum caps and had no more problems. But I do look forward to putting on some Michelins, because the OEM tires seem unnecessarily loud.)

Yeah, at freeway speeds, a boxy shaped SUV is not the most mpg friendly of vehicle shapes.... even when properly tuned in simulations and wind tunnel verification tests. Only reducing speed to under 65 will improve fuel economy. Then again.. hybrids are all about improving city fuel economy and combined fuel economy, not actual highway speed fuel economy.

As for the valve stem covers falling off, if they were not properly tightened down, that does happen. I always double check mine after checking and adjusting tire pressure. After the tires are set and the caps reapplied, I go back around and double check tightness.. and sure enough.. every once in a while I find one not properly tightened.

 

[williamsji]

It's Here!
View attachment 150992

Just enough so far to make the roads hazardous. How many inches are you expecting, and do you get blowing drifts.. being out on the plains?

We have the fully-wet version (Pineapple Express) getting ready to roll through here late tonight. I prefer the winter storms from Alaska though as they do not bring the harsh winds that the tropical PE does. I loathe rolling up my Sunsetter patio shade covers, but better than letting the wind chomp on them.

 

[williamsji]

Called "Brake Hold".
I don't think it has any negative impact, no more than holding your foot on the pedal.
The only problem I see is, I was using it most of the time, then I was driving my Accord, which doesn't have brake hold, and I caught myself creeping up on the car in front of me.
Other than that I see no reason not to use it.

Brake hold is a really nice feature for stop and go traffic.

I personally do not use it, only because I don't want to become accustomed to it, rent a vehicle and then end up in a fender bender because I forgot I was driving a vehicle without it. In other words, until it becomes ubiquitous in motor vehicles, I just avoid it and rely on my foot, since I always know where it is and what it is doing.

 

[williamsji]

We had friends in from LA this week. They were saying $5.00. I paid $3.15 at my last fill up. I use Road Trip to record fill ups and mileage. Finally had road trip and the car’s mileage agree.

Tell your friend to stop buying the most expensive brands in LA. LA average price is ~ $4.50 right now, which is higher than normal... but LA is also suffering price premiums on many many things due to transport and/or supply interruptions. LA prices right now are better than they are in the Bay Area.

California does have persistently higher fuel prices than the national average because California has specific low emissions fuel blend requirements, which are only produced via local refinery capacity in the state. So we get gouged by big oil who owns both the source and the refineries. Captive market... gets exploited for profit. Our gas is not imported, oil is imported and it is then refined inside the state, mostly in norther California.

Thing is.. Californians baked all this into their personal finances many years ago. It is what it is.

AAA Gas Prices

 

[williamsji]

I like white, think it suits the CRV very well. The reason I didn’t buy white was because at the time everyone in the local vicinity drove a white Audi, Mercedes or BMW. The car looks nice in red but hopefully next time everyone else will have moved onto another colour so I can get my first choice without feeling as though I’m following the crowd.

Plain white paint finish is way too stark and glaring for my personal tastes.

Most white paint finishes on vehicles now days though are somewhat "off-white" due to the use of pearl finishes which tend to throttle down the starkness of the white undercoat paint finish.

White Diamond Pearl is probably THE best white paint finish I have seen to date on Hondas, and I really like it. It is even more immune to showing dust and dirt than the stark white paint finish on some brands/models.