Understanding ‘Car of the Year’ Testing & Results

AJAC – Auto Journalist Association of Canada – hosts this annual event, ‘Test Fest.’

They bring in 180+ new model vehicles, and auto writers from across Canada, to the Niagara Falls Drive Centre, for a full week of testing and voting to determine ‘Car of the Year‘.

(read my original ‘Test Fest’ post here)

This is the vehicle I’m driving in the video, the all-new Mercedes B250.

Nice car, it is a Mercedes, and note the asterisks:

That’s how you choose drive, park, neutral; different eh.

It’s billed as a “family car”, but I don’t understand where all the stuff goes, the stuff that comes along with a family. This car would work best if your family also had a van, too.

As a new auto journalist, this was my first time at ‘Test Fest’, and was blown away by the logistics, and high level of authenticity of it all.

So I wrote about it for this week’s ‘Keri on Driving’ column.

(read it online here)

Favourite Line:

The last one – “Even I wouldn’t listen to me”

29 years of results are posted http://www.AJAC.ca. Go search your car, see how it fared.

***

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

 

 

Hey Car Companies – Send me Your Hats

I wear a hat, a LOT.

You can go back years and years online, sometimes too much maybe.

Hey auto manufactures – send me yours, to add to my collection.

The above is signed by Alex Tagliani.

One time in the summer, I arrived at Honda Canada to pick up a car, and he was hanging out.

Hat preferences:

– baseball style only

– black, ideally

– no trucker hats

– full back

– size small

 

 

 

How to Change Your Router Password

It’s not that I don’t trust the guy setting it up, but, why rely on someone else for my own security?

Things you’ll need.

  • 1 – access to your router
  • 2 – a CAT 5 cable, connecting your router, into your computer
  • 3 – a flashlight
  • 4 – a pin to push the ‘reset’ button on the router
  • 5 – a password manager

Okay here we go!

Reset your router.  Push the tiny reset button on the back using your pin, hold for 30 seconds.  I also unplug/plug it back in, for good measure.  This will clear all your settings… your WiFi name and password, everything.  It’s like we have a brand new router now.

Use your cable to connect computer to router. Plug into ‘Port 1’ on your router.

Open a new browser window, we’re going to log into your router.  Use this chart for what IP address, to type into the address bar of your browser:

Don’t see yours above? Use this site to look it up.

Log into your router. Type the IP address into the address/URL bar of your browser, then log in using the username and password.

Here we are inside my router.

First change the name of your router, and the password.

Now we’re going to secure your WiFi.  Find your ‘wireless security’ tab, look for the SSID.

SSID = name of your WiFi

  • 1 – Name your WiFi network
  • 2 – don’t click that, we’re going to keep your WiFi network hidden (security through obscurity)
  • 3 – change the channel to anything other than the default.  Your internet will be faster. I’ll explain why in video sometime, for now just do it.

For example, here’s my settings:

  • Router Name – $r}W68@2%J
  • Router Password – 8fXM(e;?sbU67R#Za$hk
  • WiFi Username – $8LP^y:6[e4r
  • WiFi Password – iq7B:f<o3e4xa[%GuP,g

Make sure your password includes numbers, letters and symbols, and is at least 15 characters long.  15 is the magic number, again I’ll explain why in video.

Copy the changes into your password manager. Save all your changes.  Unhook the cables, you’re done, good work.

Do this regularly.  I change mine 1/month.

 

 

My Own Private GO Bus Ride

This afternoon, I returned the Honda Civic in Markham. If you’re not living here, that’s 2-hour a train, bus, then subway, to get home.

My bonehead cab driver, dropped me off at a train station that had no trains going to. So when I saw a GO bus pull in, I ran over, oh this was its last stop of the day.

So I’m standing at a normal bus stop, hear a whistle,

“let’s go!  I’m going downtown, and got clearance to take you along.”

COME. ON.

Now I’m cruising down the DVP, hanging over the front railing, enjoying the view; nice big wide windshield, and sight lines. Bus Driver Jim and I spent half the drive putting the world to rights, and the other half talking cars.  So much fun.

Thanks Bus Driver Jim!

Keri

(note: I just accidentally deleted the other photos… of the bus, the view of the road.  I have never done that before. Heavy sighing is happening, stomach dropped, some swearing)