Basic Motoring

 Thinking about it, I begin to realise that I've spent a great deal of 

unnecessary dollars on motor vehicles. 

 I've owned nearly thirty at last count. 

At the moment, I'm looking after two vehicles belonging to offspring, 

one because she's overseas, and the other because he cycles to work 

and doesn't need it, but won't sell it because he might be transferred 

to a situation where he does.

Because my garaging and custodianship includes, as a condition, 

the right to drive the cars, I had  the choice of four cars to use in 

my recent excursion to Canberra and back.

Now the MX5 is fun to drive, and would possibly have been first 

choice, but it's appreciating in value, and I'm trying to keep its 

distance covered low. Besides, it is not all that enjoyable on a long 

run down a highway. It's an interesting car, built for interesting roads.

My bride uses our "new" car, a Kia Rondo, and whilst she doesn't 

mind driving the 323, is happier with the Kia. This left my son's 

Mazda 323 Protege as the weapon of choice for my Canberra excursion. 

My daughter's Toyota Echo, whilst a pleasant 

little car, was never a consideration.

It was a journey for research purposes at the AWM, and no other 

family members were all that interested, so I was travelling solo. 

The 323 has a number of features that made it a good choice for a 

solo journey. 

First up, it has three music sources - the original cassette player, 

an aftermarket 6 stacker CD player, and my iPhone connected 

through a bluetooth plug-in device. There was never going to be 

any shortage of mobile entertainment.

                             Aftermarket cruise

Navigation was taken care of using the iPhone, on a magnetic 

mount which meant it was hands free and legal. I have mastered 

the art of using the GPS app and the music player simultaneously. 

A recent IOS upgrade has made this simple.

This meant that all the features expected these days on a modern 

vehicle (GPS, bluetooth phone connection, and music player) were 

all available in this twenty year old car, for the price of a magnetic 

phone mount and a bluetooth connector. All worked a treat, with the 

possible exception of the GPS, which when connected to Google maps  

had a bad habit of setting me up for a beeline journey down some 

dodgy roads if I took it literally.

The Mazda performed beautifully. It delivered 7.3 Lit/100kms at a 

cruise of 110km on the Newell. The aftermarket cruise control 

was a boon.

The air conditioning in Mazdas is renowned for its efficiency, and 

with the combination of well-shaped velour lined seats, and a steering 

column adjustable for rake and distance, ensured a very comfortable 

driving position. Cars of this vintage generally enjoy better vision, 

as the styling fashion which creates blind spots for rear vision hadn't 

arrived in 1999.

       

          Mountain straight, Mount Panorama

I got to drive it around the Mount Panorama circuit on the way home. 

At 60kph, that was an unexciting, but interesting experience.

These things are going for about $3500 used at the moment. 

If you can find a low kilometerage example (like my son's car), they're a bargain.