Dave and I are still getting used to our “new” car. We traded in our paid-off 2010 Ford Escape with 188,000 miles on it for a 2019 Jeep with 84,000 miles. A great deal, but it came with one big downfall – a payment book. I guess I had my head in the sand to think a 15-year-old vehicle with that many miles was going to be my forever car.
The biggest adjustment has been the remote start. It’s awesome in the winter to stand in the kitchen and start the car so it can get busy warming up. As long as you remembered to leave the heat turned up when you got out of it last. And keep in mind it’s only going to run for 10 minutes and then shut off. Two quick reasons right there why you will come outside to a still-cold car.
And a locked one. Using the remote start means the vehicle automatically locks itself. Conversely, if the keys are in it (anywhere, not just near the ignition), it won’t lock, no matter how many times you hit the button. My keys were in my purse — outside — but the car still wouldn’t lock. I finally located Dave’s keys in the pocket of his sweatshirt in the way-back.
We’re also having troubles with everything being run by a touch screen in the middle of the dash. Although I suspect some things are also controlled by the steering wheel. I was headed to work the other day and glanced down at the speedometer. “72,” it said. Are you kidding me? I haven’t gone that fast with me driving since I was in my “terrible twenties.” Somehow the gauge got switched from miles to kilometers. Apparently, 45 mph is roughly equal to 72 kmh. To put it back, we had to go to the screen, to settings, to display, to mph vs km. Yeah, I’m pretty sure we didn’t accidentally do that. I blame the steering wheel.
Our son set up the phone so we can make and get calls through the radio. Very fun. I managed to muddle through and get my audio book hooked up, but I had to have the volume turned all the way up. When I would turn off the book, the radio automatically popped on at like 8 million decibels — enough to shoot you right out of your seat. It turned out to be an issue with the phone (audio book) and not the car.
We learned that stupid cold temperatures will make the car complain that the tire pressure is too low. It gives you a warning on the dash where the mph should be.
We didn’t add air, we just figured out how to make it go off the screen and prayed for warmer temps. Now, it’s warmer and the miles per hour are back. Dave’s been paying a lot more attention to his speed with the big numbers right in front of his face. This helps a lot because we’re doing the monitored driving thing to get a discount on our car insurance. This means I “legitimately” get to gently remind him on his driving skills, like cornering, braking and accelerating.
I mentioned we would get “dinged” on our discount if he accelerates too fast and he reminded me that we could get “dinged” on the bumper if he didn’t get us out of the way fast enough. Fair.
We’re learning, that’s all I can say. Other than that, we’re still missing the heated seats we had in the Escape.
