New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #40

back up cameras are great. I just dont like the big TV screen distraction of modern cars. I added a back up camera to the camper and it doubles as the rear view mirror in the back. very usefull. 

I bought a 25 Tacoma in august  and,the fifth toyota truck I have owned since 1978, and like it and most of the really annoying features I am able to turn off. I like the alarm that goes off when you are backing up and something  is behind you that you cant see. The thing I hate is the object is closer than it appears passenger mirror. I go to a glass shop and have a regular mirror put on but on this one bacause it has the blind spot assist I had a small cut out area so that it would not be affected. I also hate the big screen but mine is the smaller screen which is ok. It still has the manual hvac controls instead of the touch screen like my wifes 23 subaru. I still like the headlight dimmer switch on the floor. I dont use cruise control which is good as it takes too many steps to engage it.

"The thing I hate is the object is closer than it appears passenger mirror"

This comment brings to mind one of my all time favorite Gary Larson cartoons:

It shows a terrified driver looking into such a mirror, and completely filling it is a giant, very evil-looking eye !!!

Kevinmurray wrote:

I bought a 25 Tacoma in august  and,the fifth toyota truck I have owned since 1978, and like it and most of the really annoying features I am able to turn off. I like the alarm that goes off when you are backing up and something  is behind you that you cant see. 

Ya got me beat by 6 years but I’m on my 7th truck :)

I went 24 this year on a good deal, the one safety feature I can’t turn off is the auto breaking anti rear end collision feature, it takes time to get used to.  I thought I would be turning the others off but decided to leave them on and get used to it. Decided I like the adaptive cruise control on curvy Idasippi roads.

I had a demo this summer, got pulled over for speeding fiddling with the cruise control, at the end of the conversation the state trooper said “if this was your truck I’d give you a ticket, but I have a new Subaru and can’t figure out half the shit in it…” 

Nice guy 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

back up cameras are great. I just dont like the big TV screen distraction of modern cars. I added a back up camera to the camper and it doubles as the rear view mirror in the back. very usefull. 

Putting so many car functions into the touch screen as opposed to manual controls has got to be one of the greatest human factors design screwups of all time. Subaru did this with heat seaters where in order to adjust the damn thing you had to navigate through 3 screens, taking your eyes off the road the whole time since there is no tactile feedback. There were so many complaints they issued a firmware upgrade to make it easier. Some manufacturers are starting to realize what a mistake this was and are reintroducing manual controls while the EU may start mandating it in order to reduce driver distraction.

Just to pile on to the Toyota bandwagon… we have had four of them, all with stick shift. Awesome and reliable. With one, as part of my job at the time I was able to have it shipped down to Argentina. We did two wonderful camping trips in it—one across to Chile, down to Puerto Natales, then to Puerto Montt in a ferry, then eventually Ushuaia and back to Mendoza on Ruta 40. The next summer we did another Ruta 40 trip on the altiplano up to La Quiaca on the border with Bolivia and back to Mendoza. I think we had two flat tires in all that driving and that was it.
Awesome trucks… 

Daniel Shively wrote:

A nice 30 mile round trip ride to the big city for a cinnamon roll. Temps are back to high 50’s and we will be rock climbing Tuesday. 

We both share in the frustration with the level of tech installed in newer cars. We plan to drive our 2015 Tacoma TRD Offroad 6 spd MT  and 2014 Civic until the wheels wear off. 

*official truck of the Eastern Sierra

My wheels have almost fallen off: 1989, 330,000 miles, rusting apart, takes a lickin' and just keeps on tickin'. Bought it 20 years ago in Mammoth Lakes CA with 73,000 on it. I LOVE THIS TRUCK! Still my only vehicle... It's retired now: no more snow, no more rugged 4WD, no more living in the back.  Temperate north California  coast. Treated like a baby now.

Ward Smith wrote:

I still look forward to the movie.  I met Verm bouldering in Hueco Tanks in the 90’s, he was quite the character.  I admire him for sticking to his ground up ethics, but getting all broken down is a consequence of so many bad falls.  I guess that I am a “cheater,” but using top rope rehearsal on highballs has allowed me to keep bouldering fairly hard at 65 without (so far) major injury.

Wow. I look away for a minute,,,Anyway, I did see the movie. It was available for streaming on the Banff Mountain Festival site. Unfortunately, I caught it on its last evening of availability. It is a great movie, particularly for this crowd. It won the "Best Climbing Film Award" at Banff. Both this movie and Climber Girl raise very basic questions (for me) about goals, competitiveness, risk etc. As a relative newb (only been at it for 27 years), my own desire to improve and try hard has been moderated by a strong aversion to injury, and an inborn preference for process and flow over results. I'm just not like those of us who'll throw themselves at problems come hell or high water. In any case, it's excellent fodder for conversation over a beer. I hope it shows up on streaming at some point.

I'm very glad I saw it before John gave away THE major plot point   

oldfattradguuy kk wrote:

Ya got me beat by 6 years but I’m on my 7th truck :)

I went 24 this year on a good deal, the one safety feature I can’t turn off is the auto breaking anti rear end collision feature, it takes time to get used to.  I thought I would be turning the others off but decided to leave them on and get used to it. Decided I like the adaptive cruise control on curvy Idasippi roads.

I had a demo this summer, got pulled over for speeding fiddling with the cruise control, at the end of the conversation the state trooper said “if this was your truck I’d give you a ticket, but I have a new Subaru and can’t figure out half the shit in it…” 

Nice guy 

The back up brake on mine can be turned off but when I have the bikes on the rack there is a very loud and annoying buzz in reverse but with no bikes no noise. The adaptive cruise is way too complicated for me.

Kevinmurray wrote:

The back up brake on mine can be turned off but when I have the bikes on the rack there is a very loud and annoying buzz in reverse but with no bikes no noise. The adaptive cruise is way too complicated for me.

1. Turn cruise on. 2. Set speed. 3. Set interval distance (from wife’s ‘23 RAV which has similar controls to late model Tacomas). Literally three button clicks, takes less than three seconds. It is one click, one button more than on my ‘08 Tacoma. In fast moving traffic, adaptive cruise is awesome (unless you zone out and end up following someone on the freeway at 60 mph)

A great day.  The season is just getting started.

I've never driven a late model Subie or Lexus. Are you telling me that all of the controls for climate, ventilation, and other settings are layered into menu's on the touch screen only?

We have two vehicles, neither new, a 2020 Jeep Rubicon/Recon and a 2018 Chevy Silverado 3500HD 1 ton truck. We use the Jeep for sport off-road and it's Barbara's daily driver. The big diesel is my ride, and does solid duty hauling loads. We're just pushing the house building project across the finish line, and I don't wants my tradespeople driving around for materials. They know how to build, I can drive. The other day I had over 3,000 pounds of tile in the bed from Gillette WY to the jobsite, about 80 miles. That was effortless for the truck, but it's rated for 4,500 with the Firestone Air Command suspension.

Ergonomics in both are great. Each has a touch screen that can be used to adjust all kinds of setting you don't want to be messing with while you're driving. Below the screen all of the functions you want access to while driving are laid out with well lit buttons and knobs with tactile feedback. Both have good sound systems with controls on the steering wheel, but the Jeep has better logic. You can navigate through files on a usb stick easily from the wheel with getting all distracted. 

Regarding the stick vs auto debate, things have changed. Modern auto's using a variety of tech have left the venerable clutch pedal and stick behind. The 8 speed auto in our Jeep has been a huge success in the off-road community. I laugh robustly at the person who buys the rare new Porsche that still has manual when the PDK transmission will out perform it hands down every time.

Jeeps, with their WWII aerodynamics and heavy drive trains are not known as economy cars. But I am surprised that the 6.6L diesel making about 500 horses and just shy of 1,000 pounds of torque consistently gets 4-5 mpg better mileage than the 2.0L 4 banger Jeep.

Frank Stein wrote:

1. Turn cruise on. 2. Set speed. 3. Set interval distance (from wife’s ‘23 RAV which has similar controls to late model Tacomas). Literally three button clicks, takes less than three seconds. It is one click, one button more than on my ‘08 Tacoma. In fast moving traffic, adaptive cruise is awesome (unless you zone out and end up following someone on the freeway at 60 mph)

Three steps, two more than I am willing to do. Had an astro van years ago and only had to turn it on, very simple.Basically I just have never had much use for cruise control.

Don't like heated seats either.

My 2018 Tacoma has kept me from rear ending someone once.  And I love the adaptive cruise control.  I drive long drives a lot and to have the truck just pull up behind someone going slightly slower when in traffic and not need to turn the cruise control off and not run over the other car is great.  The only complaint I have with my truck is with the automatic transmission, also my first.  It tends to hunt gears a lot when driving in the hills but does have a sport mode to lock it into a gear so that it can't constantly upshift.  I do turn the lane drifting alarm off most of the time but I can remember a few nights where it would have been great when I was driving and I was really too tired to do so.

My wifes volkswagon on the other hand has some really stupid limits.  You can't adjust the stereo settings while driving.  Did they not consider that maybe the passenger was doing the adjusting?  And the volume control on the stereo is not fine enough and goes from too soft to too loud with one click.

Kristian Solem wrote:

I've never driven a late model Subie or Lexus. Are you telling me that all of the controls for climate, ventilation, and other settings are layered into menu's on the touch screen only?

We have two vehicles, neither new, a 2020 Jeep Rubicon/Recon and a 2018 Chevy Silverado 3500HD 1 ton truck. We use the Jeep for sport off-road and it's Barbara's daily driver. The big diesel is my ride, and does solid duty hauling loads. We're just pushing the house building project across the finish line, and I don't wants my tradespeople driving around for materials. They know how to build, I can drive. The other day I had over 3,000 pounds of tile in the bed from Gillette WY to the jobsite, about 80 miles. That was effortless for the truck, but it's rated for 4,500 with the Firestone Air Command suspension.

Ergonomics in both are great. Each has a touch screen that can be used to adjust all kinds of setting you don't want to be messing with while you're driving. Below the screen all of the functions you want access to while driving are laid out with well lit buttons and knobs with tactile feedback. Both have good sound systems with controls on the steering wheel, but the Jeep has better logic. You can navigate through files on a usb stick easily from the wheel with getting all distracted. 

Regarding the stick vs auto debate, things have changed. Modern auto's using a variety of tech have left the venerable clutch pedal and stick behind. The 8 speed auto in our Jeep has been a huge success in the off-road community. I laugh robustly at the person who buys the rare new Porsche that still has manual when the PDK transmission will out perform it hands down every time.

Jeeps, with their WWII aerodynamics and heavy drive trains are not known as economy cars. But I am surprised that the 6.6L diesel making about 500 horses and just shy of 1,000 pounds of torque consistently gets 4-5 mpg better mileage than the 2.0L 4 banger Jeep.

I don't know about Lexus but yes Subaru made that design choice for many of their recent models. Incredibly frustrating and annoying. At least they didn't put the turn signals on a touchscreen. Which believe it or not happened with some Tesla models.

Diesels usually get much better mileage than gas cars but the energy density of diesel fuel is up to 20% higher than gasoline per gallon. The higher combustion ratios they use also means more of that energy is transferred to the drive train rather than going out the exhaust pipe as waste heat. I had a VW TDI sportwagen that was a great car for long road trips as I would get 50 mpg. Too bad part of the reason for that was VW cheating on the emissions test.

Kris, you are going to make big trouble at my house. Tony really thinks he needs another car even though the current one is two years old and pristine.  But now he’s fully in the Hyundai camp. I didn’t realize that some guys treasure their cars so much – – Tony remembers everything in his life in terms of what car he had at the time. And they were all sort of “muscle cars” in the 70s and 80s. So maybe it was a Chicago thing.

But since we started watching Landman I have wanted a big truck. I have nothing to haul and no place to go but I could try and come up with something. Billy Bob Thornton’s truck is probably a 2017 Ford F – 350 super something. I guess if you are earning big bucks from oil drilling, you can have any kind of car you want.

I bought my first Lexus for practical reasons. As a single mom with kids and a business, I didn’t want to be stranded anywhere and I couldn’t afford to spend days sitting at the dealership waiting on repairs. I also had some conscience about gas mileage and this was Lexus’ first hybrid.  It worked out so well I did it again in 2016 with a slightly used SUV and a very extended warranty. I gotta say it’s been great. I’ve been asked over and over why I would pay 2000 bucks for such a long warranty – – well spread out it didn’t add up to much monthly but if anything goes wrong with this car, I just pull up to the service dock leave the key in the car and they send me off within minutes in a brand new loaner.

But the big changes between 2016 and 2025 are huge. I forgot to mention that now there’s some kind of projection from the front panel onto the front window so that looking straight ahead I can see the speed , time and gas. I wish I had taken a picture because it’s kind of a laser thing—no one else can see it. And no, you can’t adjust anything while the car is moving. I’m surprised it let me tell it where I want to go – – it seemed to have a mind of its own.  When I returned it, the service guy said “too techie for you?”  Yeah, a little bit!

Lori: “I forgot to mention that now there’s some kind of projection from the front panel onto the front window so that looking straight ahead I can see the speed , time and gas. I wish I had taken a picture because it’s kind of a laser thing—no one else can see it.”

In the planes I flew we called that a HUD (Heads Up Display). I’m surprised it has taken this long to find its way into cars. 

I drive an old guys car, pretty low tech compared to current models.  Sheree has a new Volvo that is extremely high tech, too much for me.  My all time favorite car was my 1963 Corvette, 327cu,in,, 340 hp, 4 speed, it could break any speed limit in the US in second gear.  Top end, scary.  Wish I still had it.  Second favorite was a 57 Chevy,  I got the shop manual and could maintain/repair anything on it.  Rugged and simple, but sketchy driving on slick roads.  Switched the rear differential from 3.70 to 4.56 for (legal, on the Dover, N,Y. track) drag racing and won my class.  Thinking about this now and realize that I am so ancient!

Frank Stein wrote:

1. Turn cruise on. 2. Set speed. 3. Set interval distance (from wife’s ‘23 RAV which has similar controls to late model Tacomas). Literally three button clicks, takes less than three seconds. It is one click, one button more than on my ‘08 Tacoma. In fast moving traffic, adaptive cruise is awesome (unless you zone out and end up following someone on the freeway at 60 mph)

It's a great thing for relaxing a bit more while driving. I'm definitely less frazzled after a long drive using the auto pilot functions. Of course it took a few months of figuring out what all the buttons do but it has been worth it. The most intimidating thing about the new Honda is the car's manual, it is as thick as the holy Bible and takes up half of the glove box!