Auto Review : 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX

Reviewed vehicle : 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX sedan 5 speed manual
Approximate mileage : 16,000 miles
Relationship to vehicle : Owned in 2003 but have since sold it

Even 2 years after selling my WRX, I yearn to drive a WRX. I still remember when Mitch and I went to pickup this vehicle in Vancouver, Washington (about 200 miles away) and I had no idea how to drive it. The only other experience I had with a manual transmission was on an old Mercury Tracer that had a fading clutch, so I had a much larger margin for error.

My first time driving the WRX (in Vancouver), I remember stopping at a stoplight, and then letting go of the clutch while it was in first gear, and then looking back at Mitch as he was laughing his ass off. I even remember leaving a gas station in 4th gear and having trouble getting up to speed. But as soon as the turbo kicked in, all of a sudden I was going 70 on the freeway.

One thing that is really cool about the WRX is that I've always thought about taking a Civic and doing all the "Fast and Furious" stuff to it. But I could never justify voiding the warranty or spending extra cash to do it. But on the WRX, a spoiler, hood scoop, nice wheels, and turbo all come included.

I quickly got the hang of my new sports sedan and I loved every second I drove that car. Unfortunately, it had a rebuilt title (which basically means "no warranty"), and at 16,000 miles, a head gasket blew after the radiator hose popped off while my dad was driving it. I really don't know what all that means, but it cost me $1,500 to fix at One Stop Lynnwood (which was a good deal since the dealers wanted $3,700 to fix it).

As soon as it was back up and running, I drove it around. It was great still, but I was too scared to continue driving it, fearing that another problem would soon arise. So I sold it for a relative bargain at the time (an even $15,000) since the Kelley Blue Book was at least $3,000 higher.

I've thought about buying another one ever since, but the interior is rather bland and I feel like I outgrew the looks (Can you imagine a real estate agent driving clients around in a WRX?). I will never forget the feeling though, of zooming past cars worth 3 times more.

Movie Review : Memoirs of a Geisha

Viewing Venue : Crossroads Cinemas (Bellevue)

First off, I'll be completely honest... Michelle dragged me to this movie. I haven't read the book and when I saw the previews, I was less than excited to see the movie. And think of how I felt when I found out the movie was 2.5 hours long! Length of a movie was exactly the reason I did not want to see King Kong (which is 3 hours long).

But I ended up enjoying the movie, mainly because it was a nice change from the usual comedies and sequels/prequels that I go to see. Parts of it definitely dragged on, but I expected it to. I could tell some people in the audience were exhausted from watching it.

Also, I believe the movie was the "Hollywood" version of the book, leaving out some parts and changing others. At least that's according to Michelle.

The only part of the movie that I really thought was odd is that all the Asian characters spoke English. Now, I don't really mind that, except that when Ziyi Zhang's character started conversing with an American soldier, I was wondering, "Where did she learn how to communicate with an American?"

Another question that I had after the movie was, "What really is a geisha?" The movie, at times, leads you to believe that a geisha is an asian hooker, but without the sex. So I guess that would be a dancer or a stripper. But it never really explains if they're glorified waitresses, really fancy drink servers, dancers, or a combination of all of those things.

If I didn't have a girlfriend, I never would have seen this movie. And it doesn't appeal to a wide American audience. So having seen this movie makes me feel like I went to some cultural theater event.

It's worth watching. Maybe not for $9.50 per person at the theater, but when it comes out on DVD, check it out.

Update on the Suburban

I got sick of the Suburban getting 10.8 miles per gallon (except on the Whistler trip when it averaged 12.2 MPG which is still terrible), so I took it in for an oil change at Jiffy Lube (I usually take my vehicles to a mechanic that I trust up in Lynnwood but I dropped off the SUV in Bellevue during lunch). The Jiffy Lube guy said the fuel filter looked all rusty, so I had that changed as well. I thought that might have fixed the gas mileage problem.

Also, I put in some more of that zMAX stuff in the Suburban after I got the oil change done. That stuff improved my Ranger's mileage from 19 to 23 MPG and Michelle's Accord gas mileage from 17 to 24 MPG, so I was hoping for a jump to 15 miles per gallon in the Suburban.

Unfortunately, I haven't driven it enough yet to find out the new (and hopefully improved) gas mileage.

I did, however, learn from Jiffy Lube that the Suburban isn't a common Suburban. I was trying to figure out why it weighed almost 7,000 pounds with no people in it (regular Suburbans are around 5,300 pounds). Well, it turns out it's got an 8.1 liter V8 and it's a 2500 version instead of a 1500 (meaning it's heavier duty than normal). That might explain why the gas mileage is so bad. Regular Suburbans are bad enough (13 MPG city and 17 MPG highway). Adding the weight of almost 5 Suzuki motorcycles onto that, along with a much larger engine makes 10.8 MPG sound almost decent. This is, until I go to the gas station again to fill up the 35 gallon tank.

Itch to get a Truck

Ah man, I've been looking at getting a 4 wheel drive work vehicle lately. I honestly don't need one. I've got a sedan and a 1992 Ford Ranger (2wd) already and can borrow Michelle's Suburban pretty much anytime I need it.

But for some reason, I have this urge to get a huge pickup or SUV, old or new, ranging from $2K to $25K. I'm just waiting for this urge to pass. Thankfully, I've been too busy to go around and test drive anything.

There's 3 deals that are really tempting, 1) a 1994 Ford F150 for about $3500 that has 4WD, over 100K miles, and runs pretty well, 2) a brand new lease on a Ford F150 FX4 for $179 a month with $1900 down or 3) $299 a month to lease a new Toyota Tundra double cab.

The Toyota is the most tempting, because of the resale value and build quality, but a double cab is kinda useless because the truck bed is so short (I couldn't even fit a washer and dryer on the back). Plus, I'm not really the type to lease a vehicle. I've never been a fan of it. The $3500 Ford truck is tempting because of the cheap insurance (liability only) and I could pay cash for it easily. But then, that makes my Ford Ranger redundant, except that the Ranger is small and gets good gas mileage (22 MPG).

Anyway, if anything ever becomes of this, I'll be sure to post pics of the new ride on here. Until then, lets hope this feeling passes. Another monthly expense is the last thing I need.

Rain!

It won't stop raining here in Seattle. I'm definitely used to the rain and didn't mind it when I was snowboarding 50 times a year (because rain down here meant snow in the mountains), but I'm starting to get sick of it. Especially since traffic sucks when it's raining and it's a pet peeve of mine to meet a real estate client when I'm soaking from the rain with a dirty car.

I might have to take a break from real estate, clients, and working in general so I can go up to the mountains to enjoy the powder. Even Snoqualmie has powder (18 inches in the past 24 hours!!).

Gadget Review : Sony Playstation PSP

A few weeks ago for Christmas, Michelle got me a Sony PSP. It's something I never would have bought for myself but that I totally wanted. I thought all a PSP did was play video games, but it turns out that it does a lot of things that my computer does. It's got a web browser, can play movies, music, and display pictures.

Now I'm just trying to figure out the most effective way to convert my existing DVDs to play on the PSP. Unfortunately, that means I'm going to have to get a 1 gig Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo to store the movies. Those run about a hundred bucks. The software to convert the DVDs runs about $40 as well.

The PSP itself costs $250, so everything ads up pretty quickly. Games are $25 to $40 and UMD PSP movies cost as much as regular DVDs (which is just ridiculous).

The UMD discs are pretty interesting themselves. They look like tiny CDs/DVDs that are enclosed in plastic cases. Is this what the future of multimedia entertainment will look like?

So far, I've got NBA 06, Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition, and Star Wars Battlefront 2. As well as Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2 that Michelle gave me with the system.

By the way, NBA 06 is a terrible game. In most NBA games, when you set it on "Rookie" mode (aka beginner mode), you can beat any team pretty easily. That's all I wanted to do so I could get used to the controls.

Unfortunately, even in Rookie mode playing as the San Antonio Spurs (who have one of the best ratings) against one of the worst teams (I think it was the New Orleans Hornets), I got killed by 30 points. 3 pointers do NOT go in, 1/2 my passes get stolen, and I can never get past any defenders when trying to score. I've read many reviews that said almost the same thing, so I know it wasn't just my basketball skills. I think my favorite basketball game was NBA Inside Drive 2003 made by Microsoft for the Xbox. Unfortunately, that franchise of games no longer exists.

I haven't had time to crack open Battlefront yet, but Midnight Club is a very entertaining racing game. The only complaint I have is that it takes a while to load races / levels. I find myself waiting around a lot. But the "zone" and "draft boost" features (don't know if that's what they're really called) are really unique compared to other racing games I've played.

All in all, I'm glad I have another cool gadget to help me spend the little spare time I have left every day.