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The 2015 Subaru Legacy

It’s Subaru’s fully-refreshed, entry-level sedan.

2015 Subaru Legacy AWD

– 2.5 L 4-cyl. boxer engine
– CVT automatic with standard paddle shifters
– 175 hp and 174 lb.-ft.
– starting at $23,495

Competitors: Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion

Short review – loved it for 3 reasons

1 – it’s available in MANUAL

2 – List of standard features is strong

This is the base model, and includes: heated seats, automatic up/down front windows, rear-view camera, 10-way driver seat, Bluetooth and USB, riding on 17-inch wheels.  But the best standard feature is reason 3…

3 – All-wheel Drive comes standard

Lowest price in the country for an AWD sedan. And if the Legacy’s competitors even offer it, it’s about a $5,000 upgrade.

1 – the base finishings and materials do a good job faking it

2 – the infotainment system is all-new too, replacing the disaster that Subaru’s system once was

3 – good rear seat room, see next paragraph

4 – really into that cell phone pocket

The backseat will easily house to two large humans, and the fabric is cozy.

There’s no heat ducts back there though, maybe the only negative I found on this car.

The engine is a CVT, which like any good Canadian auto journalist I despise.

But Subaru does a better job than most, see: first CVT engine I ever liked.)

Has a great launch, steering is quick, and although the handling is slightly soft it’s supposed to be, it’s a sedan not a sports something #s

(see the steering in action in the photo I used for my column, Solving Crimes using Car Clues)

Subaru seems to get forgotten, but this Legacy is going to start changing that.

Read my detailed review on Autonet.

 

 

#LoveTheJourney with CARSTAR

CARSTAR is a national franchise auto body repair shop, “where accidents unhappen“.  We met last year at a charity event.

Now that I’ve pointed out their logo, you’re going to start seeing it everywhere, because they are (I was :O here’s their location list; it’s pretty pervasive).

Right now, CARSTAR is giving away a fancy trip in Canada.

If you’re like me and emotionally attached to your car (I should’ve crushed my Jetta last year, can’t), tell CARSTAR why you are, why you #LoveTheJourney and that’s it, you’re entered.

Contest details:

When – August 6 – October 1, 2013

How – tell them why you #LoveTheJourney, enter on their Facebook page

Grand Prize – a #LoveTheJourney prize pack of a trip for 2 to an ultimate Canadian journey of your choice.

Options include:

– the Thrill Seeker Journey of a trip to Whistler for skiing/snowboarding and a drive of the rockies
– the Hopeless Romantic journey to beautiful and historic Quebec City
– the Arts & Culture lover journey to Toronto for entertainment and nightlife
– the Outdoorsman trip to the beautiful Cabot Trail & Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia

Need inspiration? Watch their TV ad

Good luck!

Fellow car-nerds: the car in the video is a 2013 Honda Accord HFP (HFP = Honda Factory Performance, as in, tuned out-of-the-box). The revving audio at the start is sub-par, because the noise cancelling is great.

It’s a 3.5-litre engine outputting 278hp & 252 lb-ft torque & a 6-spd. – $38,290 and only 240 in Canada

Links from the video:

– the day my Jetta broke down – here
– the day I got the Lincoln MKX – here
– the auto-cross driving video – here
– all my ‘Keri on Driving’ columns for Sun Media – here

The intro to ‘The Canadian Explorer’ – Ep. 1/80, 2007-10 – Let’s Celebrate Canada

Here’s the site: TheCanadianExplorer.com.

It’s a mega-mess; I have trouble finding anything, and I own it.

(this post has been brought to you by CARSTAR)

Hi Black Hat

I’m Keri, from Canada.

I run this blog, and am a full-time auto journalist with my country’s largest newspaper company, Sun Media; news, reviews, and a weekly column called, ‘Keri On Driving’, where I get to say whatever I want for 300 words.

I’ve combined the worlds a few times, columns that may interest you include:

– Let’s go War Driving – here
– Securing your Car in the City – here
– Computers in Cars – here
– Your Car can be Hacked, but Not Really – here
– Stick Families are a Terrible Idea – here
– and maybe this post – Went Armoured Car Shopping

Find me in a BlackBerry class (I tested both their new phones for TELUS), or in the car hacking classes, because I think it’s about to become a huge problem.  As you know, you could drive a new car off the lot with a 5 year old un-updated system inside, oh boy.

Also, a couple months ago, I had an epiphany, then made this prediction: BlackBerry’s QNX OS is poised to become the default software for all automobiles.  Wrote about it, and that article even made the cover of the paper, here.

This is my 3rd Black Hat, and if we’ve met before I’ve probably said the same thing I’ll say again now:

I am way beneath you in skills; a script kiddie at best.

This is likely why you’ve never come across the Security category of my blog; it’s better suited to like, your relatives.

– How to change your Router Password – here
– Don’t Name your Phone your Name – here
– Most Common iPhone Passwords – here
– My blog being spidered looks like this – here
– You’re responsible for Hotspot users – here
– Your screen can be seen 20 feet Away – here

There’s a hole in the internet for end-user security stuff, so that’s the goal here.

Plus fun videos:

Smarten Up, Internet – for the housewives of Iowa

Please don’t hack me. It wouldn’t be much of a challenge even, especially because this blog is held together by tape and popsicle sticks (seriously, the search bar doesn’t even work, nor the comments) (new site coming this fall).

Look forward to seeing some old faces and meeting new ones, and am always up for car talk (had the all-new Honda Accord HFP last week; took a VP of Ford Canada’s 5.0L Mustang GT through a flood the week before that; recently travelled to Hungary to test the all-new Audi A3 Sedan; and to Alberta with Ford where I off-roaded in their Raptor, and am now a huge fan).

Twitter@KeriBlog
FB – ugh, almost never
Email = top right of sidebar

Keri

*first time my last name has ever been on the badge, because despite sharing my life online since 2007, I managed to keep my last name offline for 5 years, and am part of the 0.0002% on Google, ha.

 

Didn’t Feel Like it This Weekend

So I didn’t.

Shut my phone off, and drank beer in the country all weekend.

Isn’t that #NoFilter

Can you tell I don’t feel like being on camera?

Drove through some crazy weather Friday to get there, including a rainbow.

Esoterically, a rainbow is considered to represent enlightenment. Imagine if I was.

It was nice to disconnect, and it’s nice to be back online.  It’s also nice to re-affirm you never really miss much when you disconnect, but the benefits are so worth it.

What I’m driving – on Friday I picked up a car I’d been dreaming to have for 14 months.

2013 Honda Accord HFP. It will be documented in its own post.

I’m quite comfortable with it.

It’s on my “Top 5 Favourite Cars” list.

The rest of the list is detailed on my half-finished, “About Cars” page.

I have to finish that about page this week, along with ones for “Blogging about Food”; “Smarten Up, Internet”; “Things I Found Going about Life”; “Now this is more for me than you”; “This is my Hack”; think that’s it.

Then I have to re-direct my URL collection, to which I added to Thursday night:

AnAppropriateAmountOfAggression.com comeON that’s a movie title.

Drove east many kilometres in the afternoon sun, having forgotten to apply sunscreen to my neck because lately I am a super-spaz, and now I am literally a red neck.

Came home late today, laundry and #SundayCleaning, then a walk deep into downtown to reacquaint to the city’s pace; 2 hours and probably 8km.

These flowers are in season.

Same flowers from my intro.

Haven’t re-embedded this in a while, from summer 2007, ‘The Canadian Explorer’ intro:

Filmed almost to-the-week from now.

That’s part of where it comes from, when I don’t document or publish for a few days… I’m like meh, 6 years of archives.

Where this post came from.

Stella while I blog. Remember that time I hosted that Stella party? Seems like a lifetime, but 2 years next month.

Drained; heavy week. Unfortunately didn’t make it to the Le Mons race at Mosport today.

This week’s column is about hacking your car; some meetings this week, a decision to make about that job offer; I have a hankering to go to a casino; and do some no-destination-just-driving in my HFP (which is on my “Top 3 favourite things to do” since I’m 16).  If you hear some superfluous revving this week, wave hi.

TTYT

xo Keri

 

Visiting Unionville is like Visiting Olden Times

When I picked up the 2013 Honda Accord in Markham on Monday, I decided to stop by Unionville.

Just north of the Toronto, it’s a fast, 25-minute highway drive from right downtown, easy.  Good destination if you want to escape the city for an afternoon lunch and walk.

This is Main Street, Unionville, which is 218 years old.

I know all this because I almost moved here last summer. I was disenchanted with the city, and this is the opposite of downtown.

I decided I was going to live above a rich person’s coach house, found a real estate agent, who found me a coach house, that’s how close I came.

Here’s the most interesting part of this area.

Back in the wild west days of the interent, laste ’90s early ’00s, just north of Unvionville around ‘Too Good Pond’, used to be a collection of people who were internet pioneers, and had their own, off-the-grid ISP.

Here’s the Unionville wiki, go, for an afternoon of olden times (that’d make a good tagline).