RANT - Smog alarm

So today we had / are having Smog alarm in Belgium.
In short the air quality is poor and to solve this we're going to drive at 90kph instead of 120kph on the highway.
Since I have a 140km commute, this has a big impact on me, and this gave me a lot of time to think this through.
Here are some random remarks

• It causes the trucks,which usually drive on the right lane to drive in the middle. As everybody knows, trucks are limited to 90kph, so setting the limit for everybody at 90 will cause a messed up situation. You'll have your "cautious" drivers doing 85 on the right or middle and trucks overtaking them. 
• All the media hype you get the last days makes people ignore the signs along the highway. So even on places where 120 is still allowed you'll have the white van man blocking you. Which might not be such a big deal if you only have 15k to drive. Me on the other hand was rather annoyed. 
• If instead of having 99% diesel cars on the road, we had more petrol engines we would have less pollution. Way to go politicians in pushing for diesel. 
• On a side note, has anybody who drivers an "ecological car" ever achieved the claimed consumption ? On my 10 year old diesel, which is supposed to be very un -eco I commute using only 5.5l/100km, beat that. 
• Wouldn't it make sense to make everybody's commute shorter by trying to get rid of the traffic jams ?
• Wouldn't it make sense to make commuting by train more pleasant and efficient. I simply don't get why I need to spend about an hour extra for the same distance when taking public transport. Let alone why trains can have delays. They only have 1 track, no other cars on it and the trains stations have been the same since ages. But hey, i'm getting side-tracked. 

Oh well ... I'm not looking forward to the trip home :-/

RANT - iCoyote update woes

Last week I got a nice popup on my phone telling me about the new version of iCoyote.

I went ahead and installed the new version, all 37Mb of it. (why should a program with just one function be that huge ??)

Ever since I first used it, I long for the old version. Call me old or retro minded but the old version of was just plain better. OK it didn't look as fancy but at least it did the job and didn't make me feel like throwing my phone out of the window. 

Now I have to cope with

• A screen that's stuck on full blast since the night mode doesn't work. Sure it works in the settings screen but once you're in the main app it goes back to blinding. 
• A broken mute function. If I want it to shut up I really want it to be silent. So no beeps to tell me how far I'm away from the radar, nor overspeed beeps
• Sound that's always on media, even though the settings are set to notification. Since my podcast is set to mute on notifications of other programs, it now happily keeps on chatting when iCoyote makes a sound. Combine this with the previous point a d you have a very annoying bug. 
• An indication  telling me I'm doing mph instead of kph. Hello iCoyote people, we have metric here in Belgium. Luckily the speed is in kph, so at least I don't have to constantly re-calculate my speed. 
• Nag screens. Every time it tells you there is a vehicle stopped or a mobile radar it asks you to either confirm or decline its presence. This is all well and good, were it not for the nagging sound every couple of seconds followed by a obnoxious buzzer if you fail to answer. Sometimes I prefer focusing on driving rather than fishing for my phone to answer a question.

In short, I want the old version back.

And as a closing thought it would be nice if the iCoyote people actually listened to their customers. Given the number of 1 star ratings they're getting on Google play lately, one would think they'd do something about it, or at least have send some communication out into the world. Guess again.

I'll have to give Waze a test-drive.

COTW - GT86 - BRZ

It's been a while since I've written something here. Come to think of it, I really must stop starting my posts with this sentence. The way to go might be to post more frequently, but I don't seem to manage it lately.

Anyway, off to the meat of the post, the car.
I present you the Toyota GT86 / Subaru BRZ. This car should need no introduction, unless you spend the last years under a rock or you have absolutely no interest in cars (what ARE you doing here ??)

So there you have it, I've got the successor of the celica on my mind. It's a proper sports car in such that it has the engine up front, the driven wheels at the back, a low center of gravity and the proper amount of doors, being 2.
In the last couple of years I haven't seen a negative review. Most of them go something like it's a brilliant and fun car to drive. If you really twist the reviewers arm they say it could do with some more power for track use. Since I've driven it once many moons ago, I can concur.
Living in Belgium, a country without any form of car culture, (there are no tracks, you can not modify your car - even something as small as changing a bulb for a led is frowned upon and the bulk of the cars have a 1.6l diesel up front for tax reasons) I would even go as far as saying the 200hp is plenty for day to day use.
The only mod I might consider is having a set of different size rear rims so that I can "recycle" cheap tires at the back :-)

I've been checking out list prices for second hand ones and they've fallen as low as 15k. So depending on the funds that rest me after our apartment is done this might be an option. Fingers crossed.