Planet Geek

Hedonistic Uber Widgety

Geekitude

I must admit, when we bought our new Saturn relay, I was particularly astonished by the vast number of geeky widgety thingies it can do. DVD player, heated seats, FM radio with data feed, powered side doors, 110v outlet in the back, etc etc etc. One thing I thought was over the top was the remote starter. You do a particular little series of buttonpushes on the keyfob, and the engine starts.

Now, in the middle of summer, this didn't seem like that big a deal. But buddy, lemme tell you how, as it's now getting colder, giving that extra 3-4 minutes of warmup time before you even get in the car is mighty tasty. We've figured out you can start the van from the kitchen in the house, so we look out the window, do the keyfob buttonpushing, and the lights go blinkety-blinkety-blinkety-steady. One running van. By the time we walk out there, it may not be -warm-, but at least it's not simply recycling the already frigid outside air.

Other things have squirmed their way into the "Okay, I could get used to this" category. For instance the little display whoozie on the dash has a bazillion settings in it, including a compass, outside temperature, 2 trip odometers, a 'current' and 'average' mileage display (watch that puppy go to single digits going up hills!), and other handy bits like how many miles are left on your current tank of gas.

It's a fun vehicle for what is essentially a minivan. The All Wheel Drive has already come in handy with our obscenely steep driveway. We'll see how the rest of the winter goes.

Posted by dbs at December 6, 2005 3:06 PM