John & Becky Bunting

Ok, after popular demand I have re-added some old and new. Check out the navigation menu above to explore the static content of the site.

The following sections are updated -

• We have Apartments
• Our Ride (More Updating in the near future)
  
• Utah’s Worst Drivers

Enjoy,

JLB

John has been updating the blog while I’ve been in Idaho and Utah the past two weeks. I must say, there are some interesting things here. I have been catching up on everyone else’s blogs and will post my own travelogue soon.

It’s good to be home.

I was digging through my pictures and found this one.

Someone needs to give this guy a job. He has way too much free time.

So, yesterday I drove to LA. I took a rental car because Becky had our truck. I got to rent a Toyota Prius. I drove the Prius 346 miles and got 41.4 MPG. I made a point to drove the car like normal and not to change my driving habits. However as you see in the picture below the trip computer was overly optimistic. It registered 46.2 MPG; this is not correct. Either way this is way off from the EPA rating of 60/51 MPG city/highway.

Overall the car had good performance but at times the ride was “jerky“. I could feel the power changing from electric to gas and back. The computer readout of the system functioning was entertaining to watch.

The ergonomics of the interior was really weird and unnatural. The spedo was placed right were the dash meets the windshield. Also, the center console and dash had odd layouts. The seats were very uncomfortable and lacking in support. There was also, no leg room. I pushed the seat all the way back and was still wishing for more room. However, there was plenty of headroom. I suppose if you had no legs this would be a great car to drive. You could tell the car was designed to cut weight, the doors seemed rather flimsy.

However, while driving the Prius I did feel at time I was saving the planet and at moments I thought I was better than everybody else. But then reality hit; I realized how uncomfortable I was and I thought of the other alternatives.

So the real questions is would I buy a Prius? No; there are better alternatives.

If you care about MPG, go buy a VW Jetta TDI. I have test driven one of these cars. The build quality is excellent and the Germans think of everything. After owning a VW Touareg V8 I have been very impressed with VW. The Jetta TDI is rated at 35/42 mpg city/highway. The 2008 clean burning diesel that will be available in 6-9 months should get around 60 MPG highway.

Below is a random picture of the town we live in. I took this on Saturday with my phone; hence the poor quality.