car reviews

2 Comments Posted on November 24, 2014February 28, 2019 car reviews, parenting, Uncategorized

2014 Scion FR-S (Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ) Review: How To Shift In Reverse/Size Of Back Seat

A few weeks ago in preparation for my son’s upcoming 4^th birthday, I requested to review “something special” for him. Therefore, a 2014 Scion FR-S was delivered to my home for me to review the week of his birthday.

I explained to my son, “This is Lightning McQueen.”

It really does look like the character from Disney’s Cars, doesn’t it?

Obviously, this is a very sporty, sharp looking car. There is no denying that.

And to make sure I got the full experience on this sports car, I asked for the manual transmission.

Let’s talk about that…

I’ve driven a stick shift since I was 15 and the Reverse gear has always been the bottom right section.

Not with the Scion FR-S, which is also known as the Subaru BRZ and/or the Toyota 86, depending on which part of the world you are in; more on that in a minute…

It actually required some research to figure out how to use this apparently European style of a gear shifter. I noticed there was a lack of information on the Internet and even YouTube on how to shift the gears.

The main problem I was having was simply getting the car into Reverse.

Here’s the trick, as demonstrated in the video I made for you:

You have to pull up on the “ring” of the shifter before it will allow you to move the shifter left into the Reverse gear.

Once you move the shifter into 1^st Gear from there, you will probably feel a slight vibration, sort of like a “triple click” so that you know you’re in 1^st gear, not 3^rd.

That’s something else that may take some getting used to: the gears are not so much in the tradition squared “U” formation. They are more of a “V”; very tight.

Again, this all takes some getting used to. It might literally require driving around the block a time or two, literally.

I suppose that’s sort of the qualifier for the manual transmission version of the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86:

You have to be pretty confident in your abilities to drive a stick shift to enjoy it. I feel this car is designed for that corner of the market that is still passionate about driving a stick. After all, if you’re like me, you probably see the ability of driving a stick shift as a lost art.

This car is not for most people, which is probably why you don’t see an abundance of them at Toyota/Scion dealerships. Chances are, if you’ve made it this far in to my review, you’re part of that demographic that the Scion FR-S is intended for.

If you’re curious about the size of the back seat, you came to the right place. I rode in it for about 4 miles round trip to and from the storage facility (we’re moving across town); with my dad driving and my wife up front.

I am 5’9” and 143 pounds. Sitting back in the seat, the top of my head was against the back windshield. Sitting straight up, my head cleared the ceiling by a half an inch.

As long as my knees weren’t together, leg room wasn’t an issue. I sort of have to straddle the front passenger seat; which was not pushed fully back; only about half the way.

And here’s a video I made on on that too:

A child will easily fit back there, given that your wife is okay with it…

Adults my size or smaller shouldn’t have too much of an issue for shorter trips. Granted, I don’t think anyone is expecting a “road trip worthy” back seat from the Scion FR-S.

After all, it’s a 2 door sports car. However, it does indeed have 4 seats and 4 seatbelts should the occasion arise.

Lastly, I want to point out the obscure fact that the motor for the Scion FR-S is made by both Toyota and Subaru!

If you’re familiar at all with Scion, you know they are the sportier, younger sister of Toyota.

So I wasn’t surprised to see a Toyota engine in it, but I definitely was surprised to see the Subaru name. Check out my video on that now:

Apparently, overseas, Toyota and Subaru team up for special projects; unlike here in America, where it appears those two companies are competitors.

Notice the “86” emblem on the sides of the car. I suppose that’s a sort of “Easter Egg” that points to the fact that outside of America, this vehicle would be a Toyota 86, or a Subaru BRZ.

As you can see from the dashboard display, I was averaging over 28 miles a gallon in this $25,000 sports car.

I get a free tank of gas with each car I review, and sadly, I didn’t even get through the first quarter tank. I could have easily spent another week driving this one!

At least my brother-in-law and I got a chance to take it out for a spin down Broadway in Nashville late Saturday night.

I’m all for answering any questions you have about the Scion FR-S. I really do feel there’s a lack of information on the Internet about this car, so I’m hoping to change that.

Thanks for reading!

And if you dig this t-shirt, click here to get it for the lowest price on Amazon!

shift

3 Comments Posted on October 25, 2014 car reviews, reviews, Uncategorized

The Toyota “Family Reunion” Press Preview In Pompano Beach, Florida

Last week I had the privilege, as a car reviewing daddy blogger, to be flown from my home in Nashville down to Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in Pompano Beach; about 20 miles from Jacksonville, Florida. I was invited to the Toyota “Family Reunion” where the updated Sienna, Camry, and Yaris were featured and available for several hours of drive time.

There were 48 of us journalists, writers, and bloggers attending the 2 day event along with me.

We were all given around 6 hours during the 2 days to drive all versions of the updated Sienna, Camry, and Yaris; as Toyota provided dozens of the vehicles for us to choose from.

I admit, I took full advantage of every minute of drive time in the beautiful palm tree filled landscape of Pompano Beach.

Toyota provided multiple drive routes for us to tackle with our driving partners, but I often found myself and driving partner so caught up in conversation about the car, and admiring the sunny location, they we would get off course, then just use the navigation system to help us get back to the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club where we were staying.

From there, we would pair up with new partners and cars.

I guess you could say I was “professionally joyriding.”

As for the 3 vehicles being featured at the Toyota “Family Reunion” Press Preview, I’ll start with the Sienna.

It was the first Toyota vehicle I ever reviewed, back in September 2013; in fact, it’s what got me started regularly reviewing cars for my daddy blog here.

With the updated 2014.5 model, I noticed a lower dashboard, easier to access controls, and of course their new Driver Easy Speak feature which enables the driver to use the cars speakers to communicate with whoever is in the back seat.

The acoustics are designed in such a way that if you are in the backseat, it’s almost like the driver’s voice is inside your head, like your conscience or something. That’s the best way I can describe it.

Moving on the Camry; I had never been in one my entire life until this trip! That’s ironic, considering that it has been the best selling car in America; 12 years in a row! Since it’s introduction in 1983, more than 10.2 million have been sold. And there are currently 6.6 million on the road today.

Something else I want to point out about the Camry is how American made it truly is. The production of the Camry employs 7,000 U.S. workers and the vehicle contains 75% North American content.

I view Toyota as more of an American car company than many official “American” based car companies. I realized that back in the summer when I reviewed the Highlander and saw the sticker on the door, showing that it was built in Texas.

My last vehicle to drive was the new redesigned Toyota Yaris; which has adopted more of a European look. As expected, I really enjoyed it; especially because I got to choose between a stick shift or an automatic.

You better believe I chose the stick shift. It’s a lost art these days to drive a stick and I am just the classic gentleman for the job.

In fact, I’m interested in driving more stick shifts when I review cars from now on, but I get it that there are less of them out there.

I hope to review the Yaris, as well as the Camry, in upcoming months. I really enjoyed driving them both in Pompano Beach, but unlike the Sienna, I haven’t already reviewed them back in Nashville with my family.

It will be interesting to me to see how those vehicles mesh with my family. I can see my son Jack really liking the 5 door Yaris.

He would say, “Daddy, this car has 5 doors? I didn’t know cars could have 5 doors!”

My job here today has been introduce you to the newly updated Toyota Sienna, Camry, and Yaris. I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse, as I know I definitely enjoyed getting to be a part of this Toyota “family reunion.”

Stay tuned for more Lexus/Toyota/Scion reviews right here on Family Friendly Daddy Blog! I am reviewing a 2015 Scion FR-S the week of November 11-18 for my son’s 4^th birthday.

Leave a comment Posted on October 4, 2014 car reviews, Spirituality, Uncategorized

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Downtown Nashville

I’m assuming you just finished reading 2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape!

So after having a very fun/random/original weekend helping my Grandma “escape” from the nursing home, we hit the road back to Nashville where we live.

On top of an already busy weekend, my wife Jill just happened to win 2 free tickets for Dierks Bentley’s Miles & Music for Kids concert.

We dropped off our son Jack at our friends’ house, where we had a lot of fun playing with their toys, then we drove to Riverfront Park in downtown Nashville.

Sure enough, this made only the 2^nd time Jill and I had actually been to downtown Nashville this year; despite the fact we actually live in the Nashville city limits.

If you haven’t driven down Broadway in Nashville, or more importantly, walked down it, I took a few shots of it with my camera to share its timeless glory.

Granted, be prepared to pay around 10 bucks to park. But visiting downtown Nashville is an event of its own, so that’s how I look at it.

I hinted at it already in 2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape! but the Lexus GX 460 was my favorite Lexus vehicle so far.

At the risk of sounding borderline bravado, the Lexus GX 460 is just such a masculine ride. (Though my wife and my mom seemed to like the vehicle as much as I did!) Like I said before, driving it reminded me a lot of the Toyota Tacoma, which is my favorite Toyota vehicle.

It felt like the appropriate vehicle to be driving while in downtown Nashville; which back in 2009 was voted “America’s #1 Manliest City”.

My wife and I got to see Jon Pardi and Randy Houser play right there in front of the Cumberland River, which runs right through the middle of downtown Nashville.

Had we waited around a few more hours, we would have eventually seen Dierks Bentley perform, but we wanted to make sure we got our son Jack to bed at a decent hour.

As we made our way back to the car, we strolled past dozens of “honky-tonks,” all of which have a no-name, trying-it-to-make-it, paying-my-dues singers performing in the window.

I like living in Nashville, even if I’m barely exposed to the true stereotypes the city is known for.

Even though we didn’t actually get to see Dierks Bentley with those free tickets, the important thing is that my wife and I got to hang out “alone together” on a date, which is something we don’t get to do often; not that that makes us unique by any means.

Life is busy and our schedules are overwhelming. It’s nice to take a break and enjoy the back drop.

Car Review Stats:

2014 Lexus 9700A GX 460 5-DR SUV

4.6 liter V8, 301 horsepower

17 mpg average, 15 city, 20 highway

as shown: $55,505.00

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5 Comments Posted on October 4, 2014October 5, 2014 car reviews, funny, Nostalgia, parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape!

So last weekend I broke my Grandma out of the nursing home without anyone knowing it, then I pushed her in her wheelchair a mile down the road while she wore a “seatbelt” we made from a rolled up blanket…

Wait, actually, that’s probably not the best way to start this story. Let me try again.

The last time my Grandma had seen her younger brother Bob was back in the summer of 1987, back when I was six years old, when we took a family vacation road trip to Buffalo, New York where my Grandma and my mom are from.

That was 27 years ago…

But then randomly this year, my great-Uncle Bob decided that he wanted to visit my Grandma (his sister) by train with his girlfriend (he’s never been in a plane and he’s only left the state of New York once).

So I decided it would definitely be worth the 2 and a half hour drive from Nashville where we live, to my hometown in Alabama; taking my own family (my wife Jill and my son Jack) to witness this great reunion- 27 years in the making!

And to make things even more fun, we were able to review the 2014 Lexus GX 460 in the process. Which, for the record, was my personal favorite out of all the many Lexus vehicles I have reviewed within the past year.

The way it drove reminded me of the Toyota Tacoma, my favorite Toyota vehicle, which I reviewed on my 33^rd birthday back in April.

My wife Jill appreciated was how spacious the 2014 Lexus GX 460 is. We had to transport some of our son’s toys to my parents’ house; as we are in the process of building a new house (as I recently wrote about when I reviewed the 2014 Lexus GS 450h) and needed a place to store some things.

Meanwhile, my son Jack loved the stadium seating in the back because he could see everything that I could from the driver’s seat. Also, it has a 3^rdrow seat from can fold up from the very back.

He convinced us to let him sit in the very back for the entire round trip! Not to mention, to and from school a few days as well.

I was surprised at how easy it was to hear Jack and Jill all the way back there. (I’m sure many educated people at Lexus have labored countless hours over making sure the sound carries that well!)

The visibility from the driver’s seat also greatly impressed me as well. I can’t remember the last time I drove a vehicle with better visibility than the 2014 Lexus GX 460.

So we arrived at my Grandma’s nursing home and along with my dad’s help, were able to lift my Grandma from her wheelchair to the car.

In the process, I also “re-met” my great-Uncle Bob while there, who of course didn’t recognize me as a grown adult. As we talked, I learned from him that it was nearly 100 years ago, in 1923, that his own parents moved to New York from Michoacán, in southern Mexico; though he nor my Grandma ever really spoke Spanish.

The whole family met as a whole back at my sister’s house, just a mile away from the nursing home.

First, we celebrated by brother-in-law (who apparently happens to look a lot like me) turning 30 years old.

Then we headed outside to the “jumpy castle” as Jack and his cousin Calla burned off extra energy they mysteriously gained from not having to take a nap that day.

And of course, we checked out the storm shelter, which has sort of become the routine when we visit.

Next we had a plant-based (vegan) lunch, prepared by my sister…

Followed by an instantly made-up game of “bean bag bumper cars”…

That’s about the time we got a call from the nursing home. Turns out, none of us even thought to actually sign my grandma out. And coincidentally, no one working there noticed us wheeling her out the front door!

The workers were so glad to hear that we had Grandma with us instead of, I guess, her somehow escaping (?) on her own.

However, by that time she was ready to get back to her home. The thing was, she was afraid to be lifted back up into a vehicle for the 0.925 miles back.

We did what every all-American family would have done in the same situation:

My sister and her husband rolled up a large blanket, then I MacGyvered it into a home-made seatbelt. And now this particular photo collage begins to make more sense…

After all, despite it only being about a mile away, the journey was all hills.

Fortunately, my daily routine of mountain biking during my lunch break had conditioned my body to be able to get my Grandma to her destination in less than 15 minutes. She even got to catch a glimpse of the County Fair a few blocks away.

Before we left the next morning, we made sure to snap a few pictures of our family.

Since my brother-in-law/look-alike turned 30 recently, and until Jack turns 4 next month, it means that we are living in a time when my wife and I are both 33, my sister and her husband are both 30, and their daughter Calla and our son Jack are both 3.

So we figured we should take an official picture of this cool “3-30-33” moment.

And that just goes to show that anytime my family gets together, it’s never “normal.”

But it is fun.

If you were entertained by this story, then be on the look-out what happened after we drove back to Nashville to see a Dierks Bentley concert that my wife won tickets for!

Car Review Stats:

2014 Lexus 9700A GX 460 5-DR SUV

4.6 liter V8, 301 horsepower

17 mpg average, 15 city, 20 highway

as shown: $55,505.00

See all 4 posts on the 2014 Lexus 9700A GX 460 5-DR SUV:

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape!

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Downtown Nashville

Folding Down/Up The 3rd Seats Of The 2014 Lexus GX 460

Syncing Up Your Phone/Using Driver Assist In The 2014 Lexus GX 460

Were you interested in what you just read? Was this post a strangely pleasant distraction to other things popping up on your Facebook or Twitter feed? Ya know… you could always like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or even subscribe to Family Friendly Daddy Blog by clicking on the appropriate icon on the left side of this page. No pressure though…

Leave a comment Posted on October 1, 2014October 1, 2014 car reviews, reviews, Uncategorized

Folding Down/Up The 3rd Seats Of The 2014 Lexus GX 460

Third row seats in SUVs are so hot right now! And chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve recently purchased a 2014 Lexus GX 460; or you’re leasing or renting one.

Even though it would have been much more practical for my son to have sat in the 2nd row seat for the past week, which included a 5 hour round trip road trip, he liked the very back better.

He was able to have a place for his sippy cup, blanket, vintage Transformer toy from my own childhood, and his favorite stuffed animal which he clothed in his own underwear.

Now, let’s get to what you came for. In just a few simple picture collages, I hope to show you that it’s actually pretty simple to fold up and down the 3rd row seats of the 2014 Lexus GX 460.

The 1st step is to unlock the back door using your remote. Then pull the door handle open, on the left side of the license plate. Once you swing out the back door from left to right, you’ll see some interesting things.

On the door itself are two panels, which after you open them, you’ll discover a roadside tool set on the left and a 1st aid kit on the right.

Turn facing the front of the vehicle and on the right interior side you will see a convenient power outlet; AC 120 V, 100W. That’s the kind you need for your electronics!

If you face your left, you will discover a secret compartment to hide and store whatever you can imagine; whether it be rare golden coins lifted from the Titanic (I won’t ask how you got them), or simply just tickets to the upcoming Dave Matthews Band concert.

Oh yeah, the seats. Let’s learn how to fold them up and down now.

Pull the lower handle you see on the back of the seat. What that does is automatically pulls in the base of the seat in front you. See my “action shot” below.

Now you want to pull up the ribbon handle which allows you to fold in the head rest.

To actually fold the seat down, left up the latch on the back shoulder, then push the seat down until it becomes the floor.

Follow those same steps for the other 3rd row seat and you’re done. Your view should look like the upper left corner shot in the collage below.

So now, real quick, let me show you how to fold the seats back up:

Just lift up the “back shoulder latch” and push the seat up, while standing next the vehicle with the back passenger door open.

Now you need to pull out the base of the seat again by pulling a tray right underneath the seat base. And don’t forget about those head rests!

While it may have taken 2 minutes and 13 seconds for you to read and process this information, I’m confident that once you do it a few times, you’ll be able to fold the 3rd row seats up and down in less than 30 seconds.

Hopefully this is now officially the most entertaining review of how to fold down and up the 3rd row seats of a 2014 Lexus GX 460 that exists on the Internet!

That’s sort of what I was going for, at least… Thanks for reading!

Were you interested in what you just read? Was this post a strangely pleasant distraction to other things popping up on your Facebook or Twitter feed? Ya know… you could always like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or even subscribe to Family Friendly Daddy Blog by clicking on the appropriate icon on the left side of this page. No pressure though…

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