Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

This morning I filled my tank for less than 20 bucks! The $1.79 I paid for 93 was certainly the cheapest in the life of my Mini, even beating the $1.99 I paid a few times when I first got it in ’04. But the steep reduction is even more appreciated after the back-breaking gas prices of this summer…the highest I paid was a whopping $4.25 a gallon in June.

Just in time for the New Year. Best wishes that you have a happy one!

Today I performed my biannual ritual of swapping between summer and snow tires. Not an easy job today with bitter temperatures and wind chills as low as 8 degrees, which we’ve had the last few days.

In previous seasons I would switch much earlier, usually mid to late October. I really pushed it this year as the tread depth on my (still incredible) Nokian Hakkapelittas is getting low, and also because my summer BFG SP Sports work well in lower temperatures (as long as the road is dry). The Yokohamas I had previously would basically fall off a traction cliff in temperatures below 50-60 degrees. So I’ve been very satisfied with the moderately priced BFGs; Excellent dry and wet summer traction, and a wider temperature range.

Another addition I added just over a week ago were Valeo Ultimate wipers. I was tempted for years to get the jointless wipers, but I kept going for the inexpensive blade-only replacements from my dealer’s parts counter. I am downright shocked at how silent the Valeos are. I’ve always been annoyed by wipers both visually and sonically and therefore run them at as low a speed as possible. You can’t even hear these wiping. Contrary to reports I read years ago, they do not lose contact at high speeds either; a small spoiler is molded into the back. We’ll see if they continue to be as impressive through the winter.

Not much other news, as my MINI continues to serve well on my long commute. It will reach 80,000 miles in the next week or so.

Comparing Zaino Z2, Prima Epic, and Ultima Paint Guard Plus waxes

Last year, the Utopia line of products were introduced including their Paint Guard Plus wax…at a whopping $75 per bottle! I was certainly intrigued by their longest lasting claims, and especially the fact that you simply swipe it on, no removal needed. I bit when they offered an intro sampler kit with a much cheaper smaller bottle (thankfully now available at a more affordable price). So after giving my MINI its yearly springtime polish, I applied it along side my old standby Zaino Z2 Pro. As you can see in the top image, the Zaino needs to be buffed off once dry…no need at all for the Utopia. It literally applies to the whole car in under 5 minutes.

But nothing is perfect. Though Zaino is not regarded as a rich, deep wax, once buffed off the single coat of Zaino was slightly darker than the Utopia. The difference was only visible if you looked hard or from certain angles, as seen here:

A full month later, I checked again. Both waxes seemed unchanged. Their durabilities were certainly equal so far. So I took the opportunity to compare to a third wax. I re-polished the front portion and applied Prima Epic. Though Epic is still a synthetic polymer wax, I find it shares some of the qualities of carnuba waxes; more effort to apply, tough to get an even coat, less durable, but perhaps most importantly a spectacular deep, dark look. As you can see below (as well as here), Epic is clearly darker and deeper than the others by a wide margin, easily visible to the eye.

A busy summer prevented me from washing the car for another month and half, but when I did, my past experiences were proven. The Zaino and Ultima were unchanged, but the Prima was gone, as seen below. A quick misting seen here still shows the lines between waxes as well.

I’ve been so busy this summer that I sadly only had the chance to wash my MINI less than once a month. But I must say it was nice to quickly and easily add a new coat of Ultima after each wash, in less time than any other step of washing. The included brick-shaped applicator is actually perfect to apply a light coat of the thin solution in one pass, just a few mists on the applicator for each panel. It also is the first wax I’ve used that truly leaves no residue on textured plastic trim. Despite coating the car with every wash, I’ve used less than a 10th of the small bottle all summer…so it’s not as expensive as it may seem.

So what’s the conclusion here? There’s no clear winner. Ultima Paint Guard Plus is the easiest wax I’ve ever found to apply that is still quite durable; perfect for those that don’t have the time to spend the extra hours waxing, or perhaps if you have a light-colored paint that won’t benefit from the added depth of others. Prima Epic is clearly the winner on looks, with an incredible depth that really makes darker paints look spectacular, but it is tough to apply and must be done often, so is only recommended for those who want to spend a large amount of time waxing their cars often (and that used to be me). And Zaino Z2 Pro is still an excellent choice for durability, reasonable ease of application, and decent appearance.

Just a year ago you may remember I installed a Garmin GPS with traffic capabilities. Sadly it proved useless for commuting. Like most nav systems, it only had traffic knowledge of the largest interstates, and data was often 20-30 minutes delayed. And anyone living around Boston knows that GPSes are not very useful here as the largest roads are often slower than smaller ones.

Dash is a company that put a bit more thought into their GPS system, and produced what I think is the only GPS worthy of a daily commute or city driving. The Dash Express is always connected to a cellular network, and as each owner drives around,their flow information is reported back to the database. It records not only realtime data for the highways, but as you can see above, it even has knowledge of all but the smallest of roads. It combines this live data along with previous data, as well as data from many 3rd party sources, to calculate a much more accurate travel time for ALL roads. And although its network needs to increase a hundred fold to be completely precise, its intelligence has already proved valuable in my commute, especially as it displays and compares multiple routes, and I can look at specific areas well ahead of time so I can avoid them. In fact, it is the only system smart enough to route me to the quicker exit near work, whereas even Google routes you to a much slower, though shorter, exit.

I would not, however, recommend it for the casual user, as it can’t compete with the polished interface or portability of the other brands. (It almost looks like I have an old bus TV on my dash) But it can certainly save time, and potentially gas money as well if you’re sitting in traffic less (plus it lists gas prices pulled off the internet of nearby gas stations…). Instead of having a database POI search, it searches live off the internet, making it much easier to find what you are looking for weather it be a business name or even a generalize category. It also has an open API which many developers had made customized searches that you can download to it. And what’s starting to become one of the most important features in electronics I buy: an active company-supported enthusiast forum, with the actual developers participating.

The Dash comes with an equally giant panavise mount strong enough to mount a cinder block. I instead made a custom metal bracket allowing me to screw it to the Kuda mount that my previous GPSes have all attached to. That price continues to fall, and the monthly fee is really about the same cost as traffic and map updates that you pay yearly from other brands. Hopefully they will continue to improve the interface and add features as I find I am using it daily instead of once a month as before.