Unlike my Q5, the rear view camera of the Toyota Sienna distorts dramatically – look what it did to GPMINI!
On the other hand, it’s nighttime low light performance far exceeds the Audi! Speaking of which, this picture means my Q5 is still in service! The easy 5,000 mile visit, and check poor starting when warm, has become rather challenging 😦
(make the most of multiple posts while you can get them!)
What, a rental from MINI of Peabody? No … they don’t do rentals! But IRA Audi do. However, IRA is a big dealership group, so I end up not with an Audi but with a Toyota Sienna Mini-van:
It’s bigger than the Q5, and nowhere near as stable (I felt worried going round a curve in the road at 25, through Essex!); it’s also very noisy inside – I thought as noisy as a MINI, but perhaps not; just much noisier than the Q5. Quite good engine performance, and the wierdest mish-mash of interior; HUGE space (yes, I think there’s a third row of seats way back there), and clearly a high end spec with navigation, voice commands, and a rear back-up camera … but apparently Toyota just joined together various bits from other cars, no matter what they looked like!
So we have a nice design of driver display dials, glowing various shades of blue with white needles, very attractive, but then the navigation display is very crisp bright LCD with hardly any match to the dials, and then the temperature display area is different again, with soft vacuum-fluorescent lettering. And those totally-out-of-place bits of “wood” amongst all the grey plastic, just wierd!
I think tomorrow I need my Q5 back, whether they’ve figured the “warm start” issue or not …
Heading home from work this evening, I saw a sweet custom “Hot Rod” travelling with me on route 128; then after the rotary, there was a second one in front of me, and a third behind the first one! As we approached where I live, the front Hot Rod turned off right, and the two following me also turned off – so I zipped home, invited Margaret out, and we headed up the same turning to see what we could find …
Well worth following them 🙂
M&I / GBMINI 