Pepe's Garage

January had been tough on us. I won’t delve much into it.  Just a short one, someone broke into our apartment and made it off with our much love Samsung LCD TV 46″ and few other good stuff. We were upset that it happened to us. I had this experience a few times and I know what it’s like to be robbed in our own home. The lowlifes will have a day of reckoning soon.  Anyway, insurance will cover us well.

Still, we’re now planning to move out of this apartment. Apartment’s a nice place but it’s too close to where all the parasites live. We usually live in a nice area with the least chance of petty crimes and such.  Oddly enough, if you visit our place, we live on a nice street. Drive one block to another street, you’ll see why our place isn’t that safe at all.  We really cannot wait to find the best place soon and move there.

In San Francisco, we checked a lot of apartment in different districts. Found only two good ones. One wasn’t ideal for Orkid which is okay. The other one, we missed it. I saw the place and it’s lovely. Orkid would love this apartment but someone got to it. Really, the landlord didn’t listen to the apartment agent. Aww, well, the hunt goes on.

The year’s new. I think it’ll be a great year. Orkid, my wife, and I will have a new family member coming out in the world in the summer. Hopefully, by then, things will start to slow down. Hey, everything’s already slowing down for us.

Anyway, the other day, Orkid and I demo-drove a car, a 2010 Subaru Outback. I was the one driving it. We were at Albany’s Ford and Subaru on San Pablo Ave. After driving the semi-large dark Blue 2.5 Flat-four CVT transmission AWD machine, I have to say that I was very impressed with it despise it’s semi-good MPG. 29 MPG on freeway at best while 22 in city. Orkid loved the back seat, roomy and secure. The cockpit’s very comfy and almost surreal because the feeling’s large. Somewhere in between my wife’s Mazda Protege5 and my old Chevy K1500, a pick-up truck. The paddle shifter on the steering wheels felt like a Ferrari albeit slower but worked well. The road noise was almost nil, closer to Rolls-Royce’s standard (Yes, I driven the sweetest car on Earth, an early ’80s model. So freakishly quiet that you couldn’t tell if the engine’s running or not.) An armrest on the side is a blessing of the God of Comfort! The Mazda doesn’t have one and my right shoulder hurts after hanging too long during any super-long road trip.

So, the question is, will we get it? I think not. Two reason, the mpg’s mediocre and the power’s okay. 177hp/170ft.lbs torque isn’t that great. VW’s 2.0 TDI engine fare better than the Subie’s 2.5 flat four. The TDI’s 140hp and 236ft.lbs of torque. A really zippy engine despise the low horsepower. Orkid and I have yet to test it but we will soon.

Something came to my mind plus my gut feelings. It was telling me that this is the perfect car but wait a little longer. I wondered. Back at home, I started to remember a couple years back that Europe, lucky them, already have the diesel flat-four Subarus. Review were great and ratings were pretty much equal to that of VW’s TDI line. I googled “Subaru Diesel to the USA”. Lo and behold, they’re coming to the US this year. Summer more likely. OO wow, 40mpg AWD 2.O Turbo Diesel!! Sweetness and my wife’s eyes glowed. AWD!!!! Tahoe, Bishop, Joshua, etc! Here we come!

Nice white Subaru Outback, 2010 model