R & R time really means …
… relatives and reminisces, which is what Bev is relishing this week. It’s my turn next week back in Toronto. Her aunt and uncle have been doppling us with fresh fruit and fantastic home-made — really made at home here — Pennsylvania-Dutch desserts — can you get a whiff of shoo-fly pie??? — between jaunts here there and everywhere that reverberates Bev’s early years in this region. We also lunched and lollygagged with her other aunt and uncle and with a friend she made at her first job out of high school.
Yesterday was a quick jaunt up to Hershey, which prompted me to start the argument: who came up with chocolate kisses first? Was it Perugia with its baci (kiss) and did Hershey copy it, or vice versa? Today (Saturday) we’re sked for a gathering of the clan at a Kutztown tavern. Eldest will be in late 80s and youngest in early 20s. We’ll report later because we’re set to go.
Rambling and rogue thunderstorms are forecast for this area for the next three days. If we can get by Syracuse Monday in half-decent weather, that’ll be a plus. Our trip down here Monday was the first time in more than a dozen trips we’ve ever had decent weather getting through and by that town.
Surprisingly pleasant…
… the hot muggy weather just hit us today here in eastern Pennsylvania.
Toronto’s layover was a gem. Bright and cool — AND NO MOSQUITOS — and Lou’s 75th birthday gathering could not have moved into history so well. Everyone schmoozed with everyone else and the food and family and friends were all mellow.
Drive to PA was eventless — took about 9 hours — and we’ve managed to squeeze in a quick tourist jaunt to Jim Thorpe (hadn’t been there before). Took some fotos and had some excellent food and then slept it all off before the heat hit today. It was 97 when I checked at 2:20 p.m. and the humidity was off the charts. Bev drove for about 15 minutes through an intense thunderstorm with rain drops that sounded like hail on the windshield. Seems to be cooling off in the evening.
Time for a change…
…not only for this blog but for us, too.
We’ve taken the luggage down to get ready for an about-a-month-long visit Back East.
We have our house sitters lined up and calls made to credit-card companies to let them know we’ll be on the road and alerted the alarm company, cops, relatives and neighbors so all we have to do now is decide what color slacks and tops we want to take. And how many.
We’re traveling in middle of summer — ugh — the unpredictable-weather and busiest-travel time of year to attend brother Lou’s 75th birthday. We agreed several months ago we’d attend his and he’s to attend my 80th later this year. We’ll be in Toronto for a few days for the festivities, drive to visit Bev’s folks in the Reading, Pa., area for a week, and back to Toronto to hang around with Lou and Jean, play some cards, sip some scotch, drink some wine, and snag a table in some of Toronto’s fine restaurants. In Pa., we’ll do our usual shopping at the Bethlehem of outlets — at the Vanity Fair complex in West Reading — and get our Amish-food fix at one of the several such eateries peppered over the rolling countryside.
We don’t worry about gaining weight during these sessions because we do a lot of walking. As those of you who are familiar with the cities back there, they’re more conducive to walking around than the stretched-out metros of the Southwest, like Phoenix and San Diego and Los Angeles, where it’s normally long-haul to walk anywhere from where you are.
As always, we anticipate a fine R & R (relatives and reminiscing) time but do not look forward to the airport and airplane crunching and scrunching both going and coming. But the excitement of being there and enjoying the folks is beginning to build. And we’ll take a few photos to accompany the travel pieces we write when we return home.
— Cecil Scaglione
Infiniti JX35 Redefines Safety and Luxury in Midsize Crossover
The new Infiniti JX35, a midsize, seven-passenger luxury crossover, blends state-of-the-art safety with passenger-seating versatility.
Story and Photo
By James Gaffney
Mature Life Features
In the two seconds it took for me to take my eye off the road to make sure my grand-nephew, Tyler, asleep in the backseat was safely buckled up, I felt it. My vehicle automatically slowed to a stop.
As I quickly turned back around, I saw the reason why. The car ahead of me had suddenly stopped. Had it not been for the “intelligent brake assist” feature in the Infiniti JX35, a seven-passenger crossover and the luxury-carmaker’s newest offering, , I might have had some explaining to do to Tyler’s parents — all the more so since I’m his godfather.
Intelligent brake assist is only one of several state-of-the-art safety features packed into Infiniti’s latest effort to offer smaller alternatives to its larger crossover and SUV lineup that includes the behemoth QX56. By the time I finished driving the car for a week and testing its panoply of safety technology – backup collision intervention, front and rear parking sensors, 360-degree parking camera, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot and lane-changing warning systems – I came away thinking this might be among the safest vehicles on the road today. As in, well, Volvo safe.
Similar to intelligent brake assist, adaptive cruise control uses front-mounted radar sensors. These enable the driver to choose from among several pre-set distances that this car from the vehicle in front. If the vehicle ahead slows, so too does the JX35 to maintain the pre-set distance. On numerous occasions and in many types of vehicles offering this feature, I have found it to be a godsend, especially in heavy traffic, in fog and in extreme weather conditions.
But the all-new JX35 can do a lot more than merely get you from here to there safely. The second- and third-row seating that makes the vehicle a true transporter, for instance, seems created not just for soccer moms and football dads, but also extended family child-raisers whose roles place them smack in the middle of a new demographic of “active grandparenting,” or, in my case, “active uncle-ing.” With its 60/40-split folding and reclining second-row seats and easy access to a 50/50 split third-row bench seat, this Infiniti seems tailor-made for hauling family young’uns and their friends to sports practice, recitals and Saturday matinees. With a spacious and well-appointed cabin, this midsize crossover holds its own legroom-wise even if some young members of the clan have reached that dreaded age of adolescence and the growth spurts that go with it. The good news is the JX35 offers plenty to help distract these teenage rebels without a pause: Bluetooth, USB connector for laptops, dual-screen rear-seat entertainment system, and 13-speaker Bose stereo system.
That said, the JX35, built on a wider and elongated Nissan Murano platform, should not be pigeonholed as safety-obsessed with little in the way of fun and luxury. For starters the heated, eight-way driver and front-passenger leather seats help make this front-wheel-drive SUV (optional all-wheel-drive is available) a pleasurable ride and road-trip contender on par with its chief rivals from Acura, Buick and Lexus. Adding tech to the trek is a power lift gate, tri-zone automatic climate control, and a seven-inch color monitor for navigation, audio and other on-board systems.
Infiniti has never slouched when it comes to cabin materials and the JX35 debutante is no exception. Quality hard plastics are found throughout the interior. Burnished alloy and faux burl-wood accents on the inside door panels, console and center stack help imbue this newcomer with just the right touch of luxury. Adding a sporty finish and finesse to the design is a curvilinear dash of soft-touch materials and a double-stitched, leather-wrapped short-shifter.
The question that remains is this: is the JX35 fun to drive? Depends. On one hand its 3.5-liter V-6 power plant, which boasts 255 horsepower and 248 pound-feet of torque, can seem zippy and the drive well-balanced thanks to its independent strut front and multi-link rear suspensions. Call me old school but I still have a problem with some of the new continuously variable transmissions like that in the JX35. In this Infiniti, the faux six-speed gearbox feels a tad too slippery for my tastes. Even when I put the car in manual-shift mode the power plant felt sluggish, especially when I pushed the revs to the redline.
The JX35’s saving grace may be that it comes with a Drive Mode Selector knob for snow, eco, sport and normal driving, depending on road conditions, performance preferences, and gas-saving goals. Sport mode, for instance, firms suspension, tightens steering, and lengthens revving ranges. Elsewhere this luxury runabout’s impressively tight turning radius makes the JX35 the wizard of ahhs in virtually any crowded parking lot. (And it should for a starting MSRP of $40,000.)
No matter how you slice it, this newbie’s EPA Estimated Fuel Economy is decidedly lackluster: 18/24 city/highway miles per gallon, respectively.
Despite its outstanding safety features, competitive versatility and luxury, Infiniti’s brand-new crossover by no means answers all the midsize crossover questions consumers face when shopping for a vehicle in this segment and price range. But the roll-out of the JX35 likely offers a glimpse into the future of what we can expect from the carmaker’s midsize, seven-passenger crossovers down the road.
(James Gaffney is the former automotive columnist for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)
IT’S NOT FUNNY ANYMORE!
We take our comedians seriously and our politicians are a joke.
–Cecil Scaglione
Mature Life Features
Mixed bag of technology in Mazda’s all-new CX-5
By James Gaffney
Mature Life Features
As a rule, I tend to like Mazdas. Over the years I’ve tested the Mazda 2, 6, CX-7, CX-9 and the MX-5 two-seater (even owned one for a spell). Most were well designed and fun to drive, whether it was a subcompact or mid-size SUV.
But the all-new Mazda CX-5, a compact crossover unveiled at the 2011 Geneva Auto Show and introduced for the 2013 model year, is a mixed bag of sorts.
The CX-5 is being celebrated as the first vehicle featuring Mazda’s full Skyactiv Technology suite, with its rigid, lightweight platform, combined with a new series of efficient engines and transmissions resulting in reduced emissions and fuel consumption. With an EPA-estimated fuel economy of 26/33 city/highway miles per gallon, respectively, the four-passenger, five-door hatchback offers a glimpse into the automaker’s gas-pump-conscious design direction. Ditto for the relatively roomy interior space with better-than-average leg room for two rear-seat passengers (a third is going to make the going cozy at best) and more than ample front-cabin headroom, all of which makes this compact SUV a surprisingly good candidate for long hauls and road trips.
Cargo space is by no means best in class but is competitive thanks to a choice of 60/40 or 40/20/40 split-folding rear seats, depending on trim level, that create enough room for toting skis for weekend trips to the mountains in winter. Another road-trip boost comes in the form of the full-size spare the CX-5 packs beneath the cargo lid in lieu of the skinny-minnies found in most small cars today.
A retractable full-size black skirt running the length of the hatchback window completely any cargo in back.
Mazda has long excelled in creating eye-pleasing cabins that combine thoughtful design with quality materials and soft-touch surfaces while resisting the temptation to incorporate cheap-looking faux alloy and polished plastic trim. Unfortunately, the CX-5’s headliner feels like egg-crate material.
Mazda’s cabin color palettes, as a rule, not only are tasteful and understated but occasionally downright elegant. My CX-5 was no exception. It scored extra points for a driver’s-side instrument cluster that utilized black gauges with white lettering to optimize contrast for better visibility, especially at night, for over-40 drivers.
Center stack and center console layouts may be user-friendly but the on-board touchscreen proved a frustrating near hair-pulling experience for my frequent traveling companion and test-car-savvy guinea pig. She spent 20 minutes to no avail attempting to hook up her iPhone’s song list to the car’s audio system.
“This is ridiculous,” she finally said in defeat.
Mazda’s designers at its North American studios in Irvine, Calif., did excel in sculpting body lines that make this bantam crossover look bigger than it actually is, thanks to a rising front-to-rear belt line, slightly protruding roof spoiler, and angular tail lights that buff out the rear end. Receding headlamps and a honeycomb grille badged with Mazda’s signature wing-like logo imbue the front fascia with an unusual level of contemporary flair for a car whose base-trim model starts at $20,695.
During around-town and highway hauls the handling is firm, responsive and reasonably agile, the steering tight, and the cabin relatively quiet, with overall road manners worthy of Mazda’s well-earned reputation for producing blacktop-worthy vehicles.
The problem is, the CX-5 just isn’t much fun to drive. If there is an inherent flaw, it’s that it comes to the table with only one available power plant — a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine that which kicks out a rather miserly 155 horsepower and 150 pound-feet of torque.
Forget about performance-oriented driving. Merely accelerating on a freeway onramp — using the manual-shift mode of the six-speed automatic tranny — left this driver wondering why Mazda would shortchange such an otherwise promising crossover. By comparison, the comparably priced 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, a compact crossover and CX-5 rival I tested the previous week, proved a spirited drive. And, yes, this was in no small part due to the fact its 2.0-liter, four-cylinder tranny was turbocharged and blasting out 264 horses and 269 pound-feet of torque.
That said, the CX-5 comes in three trim levels: the base Sport (starting MSRP $20,695), mid-level Touring ($23,895) and top-tier Grand Touring ($27,045).
Standards in the Sport include 17-inch alloy wheels, keyless entry, tilt-telescoping steering wheel, height-adjustable driver’s seat, 60/40 split-folding rear seats, four speaker sound system with CD player, and iPod/USB audio interface with audio jack. The Touring trim adds fog lamps, rear privacy glass, upgraded cloth interior, six-way power driver’s seat, leather-wrapped steering wheel, blind-spot warning, rearview camera, six-speaker sound system, and optional touchscreen navigation system. Grand Touring adds 19-inch wheels, sunroof, auto headlamps, heated mirrors, eight-way power driver’s seat, leather upholstery, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, and premium nine-speaker Bose sound system with satellite radio.
Like many first-generation automobiles to roll off the assembly line, my top-tier CX-5 Grand Touring test car still has a few power-plant and on-board technology issues to iron out before it earns its stripes as a global competitor in the compact crossover market. Time will tell how the Japanese automaker Mazda, named for the Shinto god of wisdom, choses to tackle these matters.
(James Gaffney is automotive editor-at-large at Seven magazine and the former automotive columnist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)
A problem with reading health magazines is …
… a misprint could kill you.
— Cecil Scaglione, Mature Life Features
Honda Accord Coupe a Luxurious Ride
By James Gaffney
Mature Life Features
A friend who has driven nothing but Honda Accords for the past two decades has received no small amount of ribbing for her choice of what many argue is among the most vanilla cars on the market. Reliable as all get-go, but a plain-Jane in spades. I even held a one-person “intervention,” imploring her to buy something more stylish and fun when time came to trade in her beloved sedan.
However, my thinking shifted the moment I slid behind the wheel of the redesigned Accord EX-L coupe and feasted my eyes on the revamped cabin layout. “It doesn’t even look like an Accord,” my Honda-loving friend pointed out, almost cooing. When I laid into the accelerator and felt the powerful 3.5-liter V-6 ripping into some two-lane country blacktop, I almost couldn’t believe the ear-to-ear grin I glimpsed on my face in the rearview mirror.
Could it possibly be the Honda Accord is also – and at long last — fun to drive?
All I know for certain is this: the week I spent testing the ninth-generation Honda Accord coupe that’s drawing rave reviews from consumers and the automotive press alike forced me to rescind any unflattering descriptions I had heaped upon one of the consistently top-selling cars in the United States.
The high-tech gewgaw that caught my attention was Honda’s new LaneWatch feature. Every time the driver turns on the right-turn-signal indicator, a fisheye-lens camera mounted in the passenger’s side-view mirror shows any vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians in the driver’s right-side blind spot, which can be seen on a monitor on the cabin’s center stack. Initially, I wondered if this was a solution to a problem that didn’t exist. Until the day I was making a right-hand turn in my neighborhood and might have run over or into a woman in an electric wheelchair – too low to the ground to be seen in my sideview mirror – had it not been for LaneWatch.
Now in its 38th year of production, Honda has helped set a new standard for what consumers could and should expect – no, demand – in terms of automotive reliability and gas mileage. It’s not uncommon for owners to log a minimum of 150,000 miles on a Honda Civic and Accord with only routine maintenance without a hiccup. All of which helps explain why nearly 332,000 of the vehicles were sold in the United States alone in 2012. But when it comes to dependability, Honda faces stiff competition from the Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima. But if the boldly retooled 2013 Accord EX-L coupe is any indication, Honda is in it to win it.
While the new body lines are not a radical departure from previous Accords, the front fascia reveals subtle tweaks that better blend Honda’s signature honeycomb grille and sculpted hood lines while the coupe’s slightly sloping roofline profile adds a sporty appeal.
If the Accord truly has a new story to tell, it probably begins with its feisty powerplant that kicks at the stalls with 278 ponies and 252 pound-feet of torque, mated with a six-speed automatic transmission (with paddle shifters, depending on trim level), that humps down the road with unbridled gusto. When employing the paddle shifters in sport mode, where the tranny keeps the car in the lower four gears longer and locks out the sixth altogether, my Accord coupe demonstrated surprisingly quick, clean and robust accelerations.
Along with performance accolades, the new Accord really shines when it comes to comfort. Spacious leg and head room for both front and rear passengers makes the EX-L a worthy contender for best four-passenger, road-trip coupe.
Honda has learned over the years how to appeal to a broad spectrum of consumers with a phalanx of trim levels. For instance, the Accord is still available with a four-banger tranny in the entry-level LX, Sport, EX, EX-L and EX-L (with navigation) trims. Step up to the V-6 and the trim levels shrink to the EX-L, EX-L (with navigation) and Touring.
The base four-cylinder LX trim comes with 16-inch wheels, dual-zone automatic climate control, full power accessories, cruise control, an eight-inch video display, Bluetooth, rearview camera, cruise control, tilt-telescoping steering wheel, height-adjustable manual driver’s seat, folding rear seat and four-speaker sound system with CD player, auxiliary jack, iPod/USB audio interface and Pandora.
Jump to the EX-L trim and you can add leather upholstery, eight-way power driver’s and four-way power passenger’s seat, 18-inch wheels, rear spoiler, heated mirrors and sunroof, forward-collision and lane-departure warning systems, leather-wrapped steering wheel, premium seven-speaker sound system with satellite radio and HondaLink’s smartphone app integration , navigation system with voice recognition, and Honda’s new LaneWatch blind-spot display. Jump to the Touring trim if you wish to add adaptive cruise control.
With a starting MSRP of $21,680 for the bare-bones 2.4-liter, manual-transmission, four-cylinder LX trim, the all-new Honda Accord is still within the price range of most car buyers.My EX-L trim V-6 test car weighed in at a substantially higher $30,070.
(James Gaffney is the automotive editor at Seven men’s magazine and former automotive writer/photographer for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.)
Mature Life Features, Copyright 2014
WHAT A BUMMER!!!!!!!!!!
Just got demolished by an extremely efficient virus called Cryptolocker. Look it up and do some reading and research for yourself. Apparently, you don’t have to download anything to get it. It’s contagious from infected emails and web sites. And it’s voraciously vicious. If you back up with an external hard drive or CDs or flash drives, do not keep them plugged because they’ll be gobbled up, too, if you’re attacked. And your files will be irretrievable. Many experts suggest cloud storage.
B E W A R E . . .
If the Best Things in Life …
… are free,
how come I’m always broke?
— Cecil Scaglione
Mature Life Features
Mature Life Features 