Some cars keep you young
Re Frisky performer is more than the sum of
its parts, Peter Bleakney We do not fit the demographic of ages 25 to 39 as referenced in your article (reviewing the Subaru Crosstrek).
We are 85 and 83, respectively, and drive a 2013 tangerine-coloured Subaru Crosstrek. We agree with everything in the article about this car except the demographics.
Driving this car has taken 20 years or more off our ages. We love it and can always find it in the parking lot. Jim and Anita Canty, Stirling, Ont. Re Do your homework to buy confidently,
Mark Richardson You can never take enough time to lease or buy a car. Here’s what happened to me because I didn’t.
I researched the Internet thoroughly (so I thought) and leased a four-door sedan with impeccable accolades. The best in its class, they said. I test-drove the car in late winter in lots of snow and on icy roads. The test drive clinched the deal.
I searched for the best deal and felt confident when I did. I picked up the car in early spring. On the way home, I couldn’t quite get comfortable in the front seat but it was a new car and I had lots of time to play with the six-way power seat.
After two weeks, I still couldn’t get the right position. After each drive, my back ached. No matter what position I tried, the results were the same.
I did a Google search. Results: “This car should come with a chiropractor.”
At the end of the month, I returned the vehicle. What did this teach me?
Never test-drive a car while wearing your heavy winter jacket! Norm Zinman, Thornhill Re Fix rush-hour gridlock by banning big
trucks, Norris McDonald I read with interest your column on trucks clogging up the roads in Toronto and the way that large truckloads used to be broken down and distributed by city trucks.
I remember those days, as I worked at the huge Dunlop factory at Queen and Logan in the 1960s and then, after that, with other distributors in the Scarborough area.
Finally, I owned an import and distribution business in Etobicoke and was amazed how often trucking companies would send a 53-foot tractor-trailer to pick up a few pallets.
This was quite a feat as the warehouse we rented had been built in the ’60s for 40-foot tractor-trailer deliveries. For a 53-foot trailer delivery, the tractor was sitting at right angles when the trailer was at the dock.
Some trucking companies sent city delivery trucks to pick up small pallet loads. Don Buchanan, Etobicoke Neither cars nor trucks are causing gridlock. The issue is poor planning at high-volume intersections and bridges and the sheer density of intersections on arterial roads.
Just think of all the places that you avoid in traffic (Keele at St. Clair, Allen at Eglinton, Avenue at St. Clair, etc.) and compare them to intersections done properly (University at Front, Keele at Bloor, 427 at Dundas).
Do you spend the same time travelling past each intersection?
Congestion can be solved by fixing intersections and making more arterial roads into boulevards like University and Lake Shore.
While major intersections cost a lot to redesign, we could vastly improve traffic on a budget by banning lefthand turns from small residential streets onto arterial roads and reducing the number of traffic lights altogether.
If you have to turn left onto a main street, do it after turning right onto a perpendicular main road. This would also keep cars out of residential areas, which will save lives. Michael Pich, Toronto