Brain Fertilizer

Okay, I found the trip odometer. In fact, it has Trip A and Trip B. The buttons for it are hidden by my hand in my normal driving position. I didn't get an introduction to the vehicle because it was late at night and we were both tired. I told the salesman I'd call him if I had any problems and would stop by on Saturday for the complete introduction.

I actually only looked at this car once in daylight, and was only driving it at that time for a comparison. I was somewhat focused in the Forenza or maybe the Reno, to tell the truth. But throughout the process, I wanted more and more to get a more "grown-up" car, one I could take my commander home from the airport with without embarassment. And I guess as the process went on, they were getting more excited about getting a 2004 off their lot...!

I was reading the reviews of the car at Edmunds, um, after I bought the car. I know I mentioned that before, there is another point I want to make from that. One of the commenters said that after the car adjusted to his driving, he had plenty of power and got gas mileage far above the posted ratings. I mentally shrugged, considered the guy a little out of touch with reality, and moved on.

It turns out he may not have been so crazy.

When looking at the car and all the literature, I had been paying attention to the horsepower, gas mileage, fit/finish, price, and amenities (can't call 'em 'options' since they are all standard). One thing I missed in the literature was that the car has something called "smart" transmission. Here's a quote from a press-release puff piece:

The front-wheel-drive Verona comes standard with a "smart" computer-controlled four-speed automatic transmission. A feature called adaptive shift control allows the transmission's computer to "learn" the Verona owner's driving behavior and then adapt shifting patterns to optimize the car's performance.

Does any other car do this? I can see where this would be a definite cool thing, and could explain why the I-6 seems underpowered compared to its competitors: the test-drive editor hadn't driven it long enough! (perhaps)

Now, if this is already the industry standard, then disregard. But I haven't seen any other car company claim this feature, much less make a highlight out of it...