Highway clean-up with the Scouts in September. Smog is from California wildfires, 1,500km to the southwest
It hasn’t taken long for Baymax to seamlessly slot into family life. The kids like the new-found space and comfort in those big captain’s chairs and we’ve all enjoyed the quietness of mostly all-electric motoring.
Barring the 290km (180-mile) drive home from Edmonton, we barely used any gas at all in the first few weeks of ownership. The furthest we drove on a full charge – on one particularly flat and undemanding route – was 59km. That’s about 3.7km/kWh (2.3 miles/kWh). However, 47-50km was more typical when you factored in hilly terrain or highway driving – around 2.9km/kWh (1.8 miles/kWh).
We averaged a decent 4.4L/100km (53.5mpg US) over our first 1,000km, including that 300km from Edmonton; by the time the weather turned colder in mid-October, the fuel consumption had increased to 5.8L/100km (40.5mpg US). That’s still a respectable figure, but not one I expect to match through the Alberta winter. At this point, I reset the trip meter to start recording a cold-weather average.
Running errands in the city, it took us until the end of October – two months and 1,900km into our ownership – to empty the first tank of gas that came with the car from the dealer. Note to self: only fill the tank completely when a long trip is imminent, so that the fuel doesn’t degrade before it’s used.
Naturally there have been some teething troubles, one of them stemming from the poor service at the selling dealer. They didn’t follow up on a request to apply the outstanding recall (W46 – 12V isolator post connection) so Baymax went to our local Chrysler franchise, Crowfoot Dodge Chrysler, to have the gasket fitted. Couldn’t fault the service: the car was booked in quickly and a socially distanced courtesy shuttle brought us home while the work was being done, and back to pick it up.
The PacHy was back at Crowfoot the following week to have a Uconnect software upgrade installed, which eliminated a known issue with the system periodically requesting an anti-theft code. We’re otherwise impressed with the Uconnect so far. It’s intuitive to use, the display is crystal clear and the sound from that Harman/Kardon stereo upgrade is mega.
At the end of September we said goodbye to Hettie the 2003 Outback, which went to a new owner in the south of the city. She went straight to the shop for a timing belt and head gaskets before going back to work every day. Always good to know that a car is being looked after; thanks for the memories!
Barring the 290km (180-mile) drive home from Edmonton, we barely used any gas at all in the first few weeks of ownership. The furthest we drove on a full charge – on one particularly flat and undemanding route – was 59km. That’s about 3.7km/kWh (2.3 miles/kWh). However, 47-50km was more typical when you factored in hilly terrain or highway driving – around 2.9km/kWh (1.8 miles/kWh).
We averaged a decent 4.4L/100km (53.5mpg US) over our first 1,000km, including that 300km from Edmonton; by the time the weather turned colder in mid-October, the fuel consumption had increased to 5.8L/100km (40.5mpg US). That’s still a respectable figure, but not one I expect to match through the Alberta winter. At this point, I reset the trip meter to start recording a cold-weather average.
Running errands in the city, it took us until the end of October – two months and 1,900km into our ownership – to empty the first tank of gas that came with the car from the dealer. Note to self: only fill the tank completely when a long trip is imminent, so that the fuel doesn’t degrade before it’s used.
Naturally there have been some teething troubles, one of them stemming from the poor service at the selling dealer. They didn’t follow up on a request to apply the outstanding recall (W46 – 12V isolator post connection) so Baymax went to our local Chrysler franchise, Crowfoot Dodge Chrysler, to have the gasket fitted. Couldn’t fault the service: the car was booked in quickly and a socially distanced courtesy shuttle brought us home while the work was being done, and back to pick it up.
The PacHy was back at Crowfoot the following week to have a Uconnect software upgrade installed, which eliminated a known issue with the system periodically requesting an anti-theft code. We’re otherwise impressed with the Uconnect so far. It’s intuitive to use, the display is crystal clear and the sound from that Harman/Kardon stereo upgrade is mega.
At the end of September we said goodbye to Hettie the 2003 Outback, which went to a new owner in the south of the city. She went straight to the shop for a timing belt and head gaskets before going back to work every day. Always good to know that a car is being looked after; thanks for the memories!
Uconnect anti-theft code glitch fixed by a software upgrade