Category Archives: Reviews

My Little Miata: Roadster Is Magic

Actually I could’ve titled this post “My Little Roadster: Miata Is Magic” too, because ZOMG I’m still pretty elated over my latest purchase 48 hours ago. Or was it 60? Anyway.

Just want to get the car buying details down.

Since this is on the intarwebs I have to keep the details away from incriminating (even if it is probably okay–I didn’t get THAT good of a deal), but let’s just say I purchased the car with my dad’s help. He is a sales dude for a rather large Honda dealer in the NY/NJ/PA/CT area and the same parent company owns a Mazda dealer. It’s also close by and he knows some of the people who works there. More importantly my dad has a reputation within the parent company as a top sales, so this one sales at the Mazda chain tried to curry favor by giving us a pretty good price from the start.

My previous car was a 2000 Acura TL that had about 168k miles by the time it expired due to its transmission crapping out. It’s a common problem for TLs of that vintage. Coincidentally my mom drives a 2001 TL that is having the same problem, except that transmission hasn’t completed died yet. Also, that was my temporary vehicle during the past week or two. These two TLs were both pick-ups from my Dad who plucked them from people trading them in, so they were in various shapes of used by the time my family started to drive them. My old TL was kind of beat up, the previous owner doesn’t know how to take care of the car, and the transmission was worse off than it typically is because it never had a proper transmission fluid change until 80k miles in(?!). Oh, the exterior is all scratched because the previous owner took a Brillo to it thinking it was stainless steel, lol.

Anyway. I did obviously try all the Honda cars I liked. My dad has the in, and his managers would gladly oblige. The problem was I had my sights on a BRZ, which is nigh impossible to purchase. Or rather, if my car broke down a week earlier, I might had one because by the time I went to test drive a BRZ, it basically all sold out. The Subaru BRZ Limited was the one I wanted mainly for its leather inserts and standard Nav. I want Nav! The similarly … everything Scion FR-S was equally tempting, to be honest, but it just wasn’t going to be competitively priced given how it lacks all those things, and still is going to start at around 26k. The dealer markups were in the 1000-2000 range. I can’t bring myself to buy a Toyota with a markup. That’s the worst as far as value goes. I can understand paying 30-33k for a BRZ Limited, because at least that’s fully loaded.

Funny thing about the test drive. I talked to a dealer over email about me coming down, he was asking if I can make it that day and I said no. I went the day after, after work, and by the time I got there they’ve sold the two BRZs they had (a Limited manual and a Premium automatic). In fact the owner of the Premium was about to leave when we got there, and while I talked to the sales guy my dad quickly asked the happy new owner (some guy who looks to be 25yo) how much: 31k OTD. It was the blue Premium automatic.

My dad is good with people (top sales, natch) and he got some interesting details from the owner of that BRZ. Like how this dude likes the Miata. Well, we all like the Miata. Who doesn’t? At least to drive and ride? My dad loves the Miata; it’s the only sports car he purposely test drove in order to contemplate a purchase. Man. I want that Nav. But I guess grass is always greener on the other side. Seeing how the only BRZ left in the inventory is up in Staten Island (Srsly? Central NJ is out of stock?), I just gave up on it. According to the one sales I talked to, they were only going to ship 6000 BRZs in the US this year, so it’s on allocation for each dealer in a rationed kind of way. Pay a deposit, he said. I’m like, thanks, but I might as well go buy a Miata.

So that was pretty much how I narrowed it down. Other vehicles in consideration were:

  • Genesis Coupe 3.8 V6 R-spec (or, lol, the track trim) manual
  • Accord Coupe LX-S Manual
  • Civic LX Manual (the only 4-door option)
  • Accord Coupe EX-L V6 Manual (this one is fully loaded and has Nav)
  • MX-5 Sports Manual + Convenience package
  • What I ended up with is–

MX-5 Touring Manual PRHT + Suspension package (2012, natch)

I think the Genesis was in serious contention but the one dealer never got back to my dad after asking for a quote. I suspect the 3.8 R-spec manual could be had at around 27-28k OTD, which is close to how much I paid for the Miata. But this wouldn’t be from the same parent company.

I actually rather liked how silky smooth the Accord EX-L V6 was, but I really didn’t like how it still is very large, and I don’t like the 2-door Accords for some reason. They look great at an angle but its fat ass invariably rears itself. It’s got great space, though, don’t get me wrong. More importantly, while it was a great deal, the bottom line was I was able to get the Miata about 1000 or so more than the EX-L. I’d say almost the same price, depending on financing details and any packages. If the car I got didn’t have the suspension package it would have been almost the same.

Of course, that’s the 800lb elephant in the room: The Accord is way more practical than the Miata. But well, it isn’t magical. Plus the sports trim was a good 4k less.

Actually I narrowed it down further–either the Civic LX 4-door or the Miata. I figured if I wanted cheap I should go all the way. The Civic could be sub 20k OTD, which is perfect for my budget. The Accord LX-S doesn’t get me anything the Civic doesn’t already, besides another 40 HP or so; the Civic is already a whale anyway. I also test drove the Fit, and let’s just say who in their right mind would drive, let alone buy one, I don’t know. I’m going to assume it also applies uniformly across that class of cars, since Fit is one of the better examples from that class, too.

The other car-buying tidbits:

Carsdirect.com is the place to go. I got a call from their rep and he quoted me a pretty good price on the Miata Sports trim. That number I can share: 24400 OTD. In reality after everything we could have had it as low as 23900 or even 23200 OTD, depending on financing and other promotions that you can bargain it from. It actually undercuts the price we were quoted at first. But all this was for the vanilla manual MX-5, sports trim.

The problem was that the sports trim lacked some basic amenities like power locks and remote keyless entry, and the one dealership doesn’t have the particular sports trim + convenience package, which means we had to wait, and they could make less money. A nearby one had all this stuff, actually, so we could’ve went and price match (as a BATNA).

This one did have the black MX-5 Touring Power Retractable Hardtop in stock, so we asked. That was probably the hardest choice I had to make in a long time, that or the Sports trim. I think I come away making the right choice, but at what cost? It was about another 4500, but I get the suspension package (Bilstein shocks, limited slip diff, “sports tuned suspension”), 17″ wheels, the PRHT, fog lights, some styling details, 6-speed manual transmission (instead of 5–not a real boon for me I think), in-dash 6-CD changer (they all can play mp3s these days, huh), cruise control, and some other not-quite value-adds. It was clearly the better value choice, but I didn’t want to pay so much more? You get what I’m saying? I think the main driving reason was that we all preferred the hardtop over soft. Bonus points was that who doesn’t like themselves some transforming mecha? The real BATNA at that price was the fully loaded V6 EX-L Accord, which has more interior comfort and practicality, the Nav, the leather, at least another 100 ponies…but you’re now driving an Accord. Is Miata’s “magic” worth all this?

My dad used the color choice (black) as a bargaining chip to lower the price by $300. I could not have cared less about color (as long as it’s not one of the two red colors). But nobody in my family likes the black for some reason, and I guess that is valid enough of an excuse.

I think I’m pretty happy. Unlike the MBP with Retina display, the value is undeniably there. And it’s just as magical (if not more so).

After driving with it for 70 miles I can tell you that in a way it makes everyday driving less exciting because handing of the car is more fun than the way the road turns. There is this downhill, reverse banked turn curving left that is in a 40mph zone on the way from my place to my folk’s place. We used to take that turn pretty hard as most cars will exhibit some significant roll at 40mph. I barely felt a thing with the Miata at 45mph. It was more than confident. But it doesn’t make the turn boring, just not exciting. It’s that subtle thing where the magic happens.

I think I’m more excited trying to learn to master the clutch on this thing now than any turn the road offers. I mean, I’m slowing down to make a right! Must get in right gear and pull out in right gear vrooom w.

The fact that this is a roadster simply increases the value-add. I think I would’ve been pretty happy if it wasn’t, but it wows all the friends and relatives when I take the top down and have a nice sunny day to impress them. It does give me great visibility to cut people lol.

Speaking of which, there just isn’t any torque at below 1800 RPM. Something to keep in mind. The NC MX-5 (2006-2012) has 170HP and improved driver’s cabin space. I do need every inch of it (it was one of the biggest concern against the MX-5 going in before the test drive) but it’s a snug fit like they say in all those magazines. My dad fits it perfectly. With the top up, my head comes up short of it by an inch or so. I think if I was a lightweight I might bump against it. The softtop has less clearance, which was another strike; the static gets my hair in that case.

Mazda has a redesign MX-5 for 2013. If I waited a few more months I bet I can buy it even cheaper. But oh well.

72-Hours Review: Macbook Pro with Retina Display (2012)

I think plenty of sites has laid it out for you to know. My own experience mirrors the composite list of reviews floating online, so read any of them to get an idea. If I had to pick, it would be CNET’s and The Verge’s. If you want to go further, check out Anand’s first impressions, because he gets to the heart of the matter. Well, I like them because I share his knack with familiarity in the computer component arena, at least as a personal background. Also, this is something I see in the future.

I always wondered how much my gearhead-for-PC nature comes from the fact my dad used to work for DFI. I was pretty young at the time and he only worked there for a few years, but I guess it was during a time when I was quite impressionable. He would tell me the stories at work about hardware and what’s popular and what’s always coming back for RMA; I was at least old enough to figure out that a 286 was slower than a 386. It’s kind of amusing now to think back to it, but having easy and cheap access to component hardware (he worked in the warehouse for the RMA team) probably had an impact. Granted, this is back when a 1x caddy-loading CDROM drive was like, $200, but hey.

Oh, just to make it clear as a disclaimer, this is my first Mac. We used to own an Apple II, but that probably doesn’t count. I used macs pretty extensively for a few months back during my high school/undergrad days (mostly in Codewarrior…and Escape Velocity) but that is OS9, so that probably doesn’t count either (even if UI-wise OSX is still just “evolutionary” to OS9). Since then I’ve occasionally used OSX, so I can get around if I had to; I just never had to customize it.

Fast forward to today. I think I wrote something about this just the other day, but here’s really the consumer-side take now that I had the chance to sleep with it and get that urge to rub that gorgeous retina display on my face, off my back.

I’m going to say the new Retina MBP  is almost perfect. By perfect I mean it in the sense that I think of laptops in general as a balance of three factors: price, size, and component. Each component relate to another by some facet of science, technology, economics and/or marketing. For example, smaller laptops are by nature less powerful because you can only fit fewer components and components that heat up less. More advance technology enable smaller laptops to fit more components and faster components, so that’s how those two relate. Components relate to price in the obvious way, although through mass production and improve technology, components decrease in prices. However when some component or parts is tailor-made or not very highly commoditized, price goes up. The same logic governs between price and size; whichever size gets made the most and gets bought the most gets to be the cheapest (at least on a per-quality basis, meaning high performance laptops will still be more expensive than low performance laptops even if more people buy high performance ones).

A lot of the times manufacturers compromise on these 3 elements, especially when pioneering one aspect. The latest tech? It’s going to be overpriced. Smallest size? It’s going to have crap specs. Cheap? It’s going to be a huge ugly low-end thing.  In that way, perfect here means that the balance between price, size (and design, I suppose) and component match. I can sit here and say with good conscience that the $2230 +tax I spent is well-worth it, because I am getting my money’s worth. It is very expensive; is it worth 2 Macbook Airs? I think we can debate this, but let’s just say that there are reasons why I don’t have a Macbook Air, despite my generally good valuation of them (not to mention they’re $1000 or so less).

To just take the flip side, I also think it’s fair to say that the MBPR (R for Retina Display) is overpriced because the high-res screen is kind of a first, and they want to charge more for it. Right after the Apple Store went online after the WWDC talk, I did a sanity check over at Sony’s store (and discovered their free PS3 or Vita deal, but anyway) and priced out a similar 15″ VAIO S series. Build quality and design aside, you can get a similarly specced machine for about 1500 or so, and that’s with their high end 1080 screen. So in essence, you are paying another 600 or so for the improved screen and maybe better construction/design. The Sony S has carbon fiber, which is reasonably comparable with unibody aluminum if you asked me, even if it’s much cheaper and flexes a lot more than I would like. The similarly specced VAIO had roughly the same weight, but it’s thicker than this gen’s old MBP by about < 0.1″.

Is the extra $600 worth it? I’d say so but clearly YMMV. And I would like to think it varies only because different people value that display differently. Reading the reviews online, a lot of people write it off, saying it’s only for “pros” which I think is hilarious. That’s like saying good earphones are only for DJs and musicians. If your hearing goes to crap in a couple decades, well, blame you are not a DJ or musician? Yeah, the price is very high and fact remains most people are not comfortable paying 4 digits for computers, let alone over 2k, especially given how quickly computers depreciate. But I think there’s a lot to be said about computers that retain their value (Macbooks do), computers that have balanced components (in other words, “strong” weakest links, as I referred to in my previous post), and generally will last you a long time.

[For reference, the weakest links now are the GPU and CPU–Moore’s law is unforgiving, so they ought to be rightfully so.]

Of course, the secret is something I already kind of touched upon in my previous post: the technology to make a high definition panel, small and good quality, has been around for a long time. Because for the longest time people didn’t really value this quality, these more expensive, better quality panels don’t sell. But if you want a quality computing experience you need a good display, it’s that simple. I mean if you really dig into it that also has a lot to do with the way the display evolved over time as a part of the user experience. PCs didn’t become major entertainment machines until maybe the mid-00s; I certainly didn’t realize it until I was watching the two music videos that came with the default install of Win95 (1997). It’s transformative, but overly budget-minded approaches to marketing has slowed this down drastically, coming from the PC component side and OEMs.

Apple was able to exploit this gap in their MBPR. Given the volume of sales they do (perhaps scaled up via their iPads and iPhone fabs) they can make this profitable and affordable to us. This is not so much new technology as simply expensive technology made popular by Apple’s marketing and economy of scale, to think back to the three qualities: component, price, size.

To that end, I think the 15″ size is the real compromise in the Macbook Pro w/ Retina Display. If I had one major dissatisfaction with it, it would be just that. This machine will be perfect at 13″. At 13″ we are talking about the Macbook Air. A MBA with this quality of panel and with at least 1200 lines, and a NVIDIA 650M, is my perfect laptop. Well, perfect in the common sense of the word; but it will be second to the 11″ variant of the same. Yes, I believe the MBA will get Retina soon enough. And yes, I might even trade down for that. And yes, 11″ is probably my ideal size. FWIW, I don’t know why they haven’t slapped the iPad display on the MBA 10″ yet.

The MBPR would also be better at 17″ believe it or not. Apple killed off the 17″ line with this update, and for good reasons: They don’t want people to debate if it’s better to have a 17″ screen or a 15″ screen that kicks the pants off of the 17″ screen. It’s not a real debate to me, but after using the MBPR for 72 hours I can assure you if there is a list of improvements to make this panel better, making it bigger would be on the top of the list. Actually it is only after that realization that I truely realized why the 17″ MBP met its end. Bigger is also better in this instance.

The root issue is that the 15″ display is a good size for productivity, and at the WS form factor it’s passably okay for entertainment. However now you have a couple million more pixels, you can actually use the extra real estate (or rather, make the extra 2″ worth it). At the usual viewing distance, if you sit back and watch something on the 15″ it is not a particular engrossing experience, even with the MBPR panel. Ever imagine if it was 17″ or 19″? My jaw just dropped again.

Of course anything more than 17″ it becomes impossible to use on a plane (in econ seats), so I don’t expect anything huge-large ever from Apple. But even at the same resolution, if the 17″ MBP were to resurrect with a quality panel like the 15″ MBPR, that would be an attractive option for a lot of people (in this case, real pros who want to do photo/video work for certain).

Looking back to the rise of the 15″ laptop, it is probably the poster child of compromise in personal computing, isn’t it? At 10-13″ you get great portability and the shrunken panel improves battery life. Once you hit 15″ it gets to be so big that you’re carrying a lot of waste space, or in the MBPR’s case, a lot of battery, to offset for the power consumed by the display. The 15″ size only makes sense as a desktop replacement, in my mind. But it sold, so people made components at that form factor, and it was cheap for both OEMs and consumers. It proliferated in America, for what reason? You know what I think? Go big, or go home: either make it small, or make it huge. Don’t dick around like this, especially at this price tag.

But that is a compromise I’m willing to live with if we’re talking about a 4.48-pound, 0.71″-thick machine. The Apple design factor reaches for me, that extra mile, in which bridges my wallet with theirs, despite the 15″ size. Or the fact that gigabit is through a $30 adapter. These are relatively minor things I can live with, as I’m already a packrat of sorts, but they are squarely in the minuses category.

As for the rest of the machine, read the other reviews as I have nothing to add.

Lastly, now that I have reacquainted myself with OSX and MacOS in general, I’m going to say that anyone who think OSX is better than Windows 7 is not credible. It’s really the same experience. There are some things it’s better at, but there are some things it’s not; the sum of the overall user experience is unfortunately not notable enough in the general sense to make a fuss over it. If anything, the fact that OSX has a lot of utilities and things baked in makes it a “better” value proposition–a value proposition that costs you more money! LOL.

Of course, unless it impacts some specific use case that makes you prefer one or the other…like WOL in Lion, does it even work? Is it “darkwaking” or what? Any tips? I plan to make good use of that HDMI out and hook it up to the entertainment system when I’m not hauling the laptop around. So the idea is if it can WOL, I can access it at work; if I’m in the living room, hopefully it can wake on BT keyboards? To set up the same in a PC, it took me like, 15 minutes.

NY International Auto Show 2012 Quick List

Hyundai further solidifies in my mind the value proposition. They have great interior work and promises at least something worth the value points in their line of Genesis. There are 4 trim levels for the 4-door and 2 for the 2-door, starting with their ~24000 ish 2.0T 2-door up to the 5.0 liter, 429 HP R-spec 4-door at about 47000. Worth every penny compared to the competition.

My dad was in mosty to get a glimpse of the new Honda Accord redesign. None to be seen except a concept accord on the floor. It gives us a good idea what it’ll be like, I guess.

The new Audi S8 impressed me a lot.

Realigning the top-end Mercedes S class was a good move.

Cayman is still a great buy if you want a nice sports car. Forget the Boxster, even if it is redesigned for 2012.

Among American muscle cars, consider the new low end CTS coupe, which I bet gives the Genesis a run for its money. For pure $-to-HP, the new Shelby Cobra Mustang is impossible to beat. I mean, you’re paying $50000 or so for 620 HP? Nuts.

The new Kia car with all their superbowl budget, it’s solid choice in the already crowded compact segment. I mean even the Passat this year is a very good choice. Or even the Jetta maybe. They are really the same. Just don’t buy the CC, seems like a poor choice unless you are sucker for AWD.

As for the budget ricer segment, I’m pretty hype about the BRZ and the FR-S. Well, first off, why would you buy a FR-S is beyond me, since the BRZ is outright better. Comes with standard nav! I mean, can I relive my 240SX? If it comes in under 24g it will probably beat the Genesis, at least at the sub-$30000 range.

Did you know Nissan is trying to push out a respectable line of vans, not the mini types, but commercial/passenger sort of thing? Watch out, Mercedes Benz!

I was really impressed by the Fiat 500’s. Abarth man, that could be sweet if priced right, and I guess starting at 22000 makes it reasonable. Despite what reliability issues they may have. I’d take it over, say, a GTI or similar. The fact that it only has a 5-speed transmission is more of a problem. I am willing to take a price cut for a slight performance cut in this case.

The Acura ZDX, what is this I don’t even. Pretty nice though.

And there were other things. Like seeing Stan Lee talking to the McLaruen guys.

Until next year!

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Verizon LTE Review

I bought this, it came via Amazon Wireless and it got to my place by Dec. 20th.

There’s a lot I could say but let me keep it real brief.

  • Screen is easy to scratch, so be careful.
  • It’s way too big. If I have issues navigating it with one hand, a lot of other people will too.
  • It’s fast? Yea it’s fast. Does it lag? It can. In fact at this point I think no android phone will escape this, just like you can make any PC lag.
  • Great screen, but I guess that is par for the course. Still kinda oversaturated though.
  • It’s not thick or heavy. And the flimsy build is not a real concern–the back cover is the thinnest and whimpiest back cover I’ve seen on a phone, but it gives a good hand feel once clipped in.
  • WTB a legit car kit.
  • I don’t see the point to the soft nav buttons if they’re lit all the time and that you can’t trade it out for screen real estate. Wallpaper and apps have to cut itself out of those number of pixels. The real benefit is just that when your phone is off, it looks like a cool slate. Except it isn’t even that cool since you still can see where the screen and camera is.
  • Never liked the way samsung placed the power button, but I’ll live.
  • Volume rocker is fine, although I tend to hit it accidentally if I don’t use a case.
  • Battery life is actually pretty good if you turn off LTE. Better than my N1.
  • LTE is fast when it works. It doesn’t always work I think. VZW 3G coverage is pretty solid though, so that has been a big help.
  • LTE on, it uses power like a laptop uses power. But it’s not going to drain even if you plug it into your car, unlike certain review used to claim.
  • ICS is awesome
  • The MTP thing is not a big deal, but it is a minor annoyance if you copy files to your phone all the time.

This phone is pretty okay, and like all previous Nexus phones nobody would buy this phone if it didn’t come with the latest version of Android and first-party support.

Chicken Parm and Sauce

This is more like a hybrid of this easy-to-do recipe with a touch from Bobby Flay’s Food Network entry.

From about.com

From Foodnetwork

It’s pretty simple. I gimped Flay’s recipe to begin with, and just simplified the bits. I used pre-made sauce, but it’s always nice to see a good sauce recipe independently as to how it’s coupled. That said I haven’t even tried it, so I don’t know. I do know my tastes are not too different than what Flay typically aim for, so that probably is a safe bet.

The only real modification is in the sauce, again. I tried to score some fresh parm, but it’s harder than it seems. I went to a corner grocer (Korean, natch) for the moz, and Target for the parm. Mainly because it was convenient, and I will never again buy cheese at a corner grocer in Manhattan if I can help it.  Typical Tyson’s frozen chicken breasts will do. As for bottled sauce, I think anything normal will work, just make sure it doesn’t have other meats (maybe except chicken) in it. I wonder if a white sauce version would work? Probably.

Frying with panko is the only way to go IMO. That said it’s kind of expensive. I think my $5 bag lasted me a good while, so it’s a worthwhile investment.

Basically, I recommend both recipes. Flay’s shorter oven time needs to be respected. I think if you do it hot it shouldn’t take more than 7 minutes at 400F. With that said I don’t know if I would double-barrel fry this, it isn’t a big deal. Flay’s ingredients can pump out an extra 2 mid-small size breasts if you maximize everything, so there’s also that.