by Michael Sheehan on January 19, 2012
in auto, Cast of Dads, Consumer Electronics, Family, Ford, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Opinion, Review, Sony, video
A few months ago, Sony and Ford Motors invited the Cast of Dads out to the East Coast to participate in a variety of events, one of them was driving a 2011 Ford Explorer (note, link is for the 2012 model) from Boston to NYC. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the event, and boy was I jealous. Part of my envy came from the fact that I couldn’t drive the Ford Explorer (you can read more about the excursion over at the Cast of Dads). Luckily, over the 2011 holidays, I did have the pleasure of getting behind the wheel of the 2011 Ford Explorer for a road trip to and from Los Angeles from the San Francisco Bay Area.
I’m pretty familiar with Ford and their push to enable technology behind the wheel. I have test driven the Ford Flex and the Lincoln MKX (which is essentially quite similar to the Ford Edge). But being able to experience the Explorer first hand was pretty important to me since it has been a long running model for Ford since 1990.
Image source: Wikipedia.com
Well, we are already in 2012 now, so how does the 2011 Ford Explorer stack up? Pretty darn well. It has plenty of technology to make a gadget-drooling dad happy as I barreled down the super boring stretch of the I-5. (If you haven’t driving the I-5 ever, you definitely aren’t in for any type of treat. It’s really boring and at times your auto is filled with the lovely stench of cow manure as you pass the cattle farms – you can also almost take a nap without turning the wheel as the I-5 seems to stretch on indefinitely.)
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A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Ford folks at a San Francisco 49er game. There I got to see a preview of the new 2013 Ford Escape, which is billed as a “smart utility vehicle.” I didn’t actually get to test drive it, but I did have a chance to test out a new, innovative feature that I’m sure will prove to be a “life-saver” for parents and adults who frequently have to lug groceries or bags and load them into the hatch.
Ford has introduced the first “hands-free” lift gate which allows the driver to simply “kick” to open the lift gate, assuming they have the keyless dongle on their person (e.g., in a purse or pocket). By simply kicking under the back of the car, the Escape senses the motion and automagically opens the lift gate. It can be closed using the same gesture as well.
Below, you can see this process in action…with a little bit of a surprise! This video is also available on YouTube directly.
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I sit in a darkened cafe. About a block away, packs of people are streaming into the San Francisco Opera House as part of a holiday tradition that goes back decades. Dressed up with kids in tow, they are off to see the San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker. I have seen the Nutcracker ever since I was a small child. It was an event that symbolized the holidays for me. Now, it has a different meaning altogether for me, and this year, there has been a car that has really made the difference for me and my family – the 2012 Nissan Quest.
A few weeks ago, I was given the 2012 Nissan Quest to drive for 2 weeks as part of an outreach program to bloggers around the country. We were ask to essentially embark on a “Holiday Quest” and we have been tagging our social activities with the hashtag #HolidayQuest. Nissan kindly donated not only the Quest for two week, but they also are donating $500 to a charity of our choice and provided us with $500 “holiday money” to help us take that hard edge off of the holiday season. And a few days ago, Nissan gave out 5 prizes of $1000 to some lucky Twitterers who participated in a Nissan Quest TweetUp!
For our family, the Quest became our transportation of choice, and boy did we have a lot of driving to do. When I checked the odometer at the end of my 2 weeks, it seems that we have gone almost 1000 miles just around the San Francisco Bay Area and most of the driving has been to holiday-related activities.
We used the Quest to go to holiday piano recitals as well as holiday dances for my younger two daughters. But probably most of the mileage has come from the back and forth from our home to San Francisco Ballet – the reason being, my oldest daughter, who is 12, is performing two roles in the SF Ballet’s Nutcracker, that of a dragonfly and also, the main role of Clara. Clara is the girl in the Nutcracker who receives the toy nutcracker and then has a dream sequence that spans the rest of the performance.
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The automobiles that I have been testing over the past few years were very much oriented toward families of 5 or more people (which is how many there are in my family). Typically these are SUVs or Crossovers, and many have 3 rows of seats. Let’s face it, if you have a larger family, you need more space, for warm bodies as well as for stuff (e.g., toys, luggage, car seats, groceries…you get the idea). While a lot of these SUVs or Crossovers are extremely comfortable verging on luxurious, I have been dying to try something just a bit more “sporty.”
Enter the 2011 Infiniti G37 Journey Coupe, or rather “enter screeching around the corner at 90 miles an hour.”
I spent a week enjoying this 4 seater street rocket as I drove around the San Francisco Bay Area. From trips to Monterrey Bay with my kids to driving to a tradeshow 4 days of the week to simply shooting over to the store to grab groceries, I logged a lot of hours in the G37. In fact, I came up with every single excuse possible to drive it, even around the block.
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