A new car!

It's been exactly 4 years and 2.5 months since I last had a working car, but since Tuesday I finally have my own wheels again!

I got a used 2018 Nissan Rogue (<50k miles), in the gorgeous "Monarch Orange" you see above.

It's actually been a bit of a shock driving again after four years of not driving in Australia (except for a single time in early 2018). My previous car was a 2013 Honda Civic, and while only five years elapsed between the production of that and my current car—well, SUV—it feels somewhat like I've just emerged from the Stone Age only to take the controls of the Space Shuttle.

This vehicle is chock-full of what feel to me like extremely futuristic features. It's got a touch screen, for one thing. It's got cameras around it giving a 360-degree panoramic view. It's got a push-to-start system—not even a physical key hole for ignition. It's got remote start, and an "Intelligent Key" system that makes locking and unlocking it without taking the keys out of your pocket a snap, a rear-window wiper, a huge powered moonroof, a powered, remote-triggerable back hatch, and a host of other little conveniences and exciting features. My previous car had a digital speedometer, and that felt like a serious innovation at the time (to the point where every person I gave a ride to commented on it), but compared to this SUV it retroactively feels like driving a horse-and-buggy.

A shot of the cameras when reversing, showing the stitched-together panoramic view.

Now I know cars have been slowly getting new features throughout my life, but never have I had so many new (to me) features all at once in a car that I own. The first time I saw a push-to-start ignition system was just back in September while I was spending a week with my family on my to Hilo, in my brother's car. I've seen cars with rear-view cameras before, but never the panoramic 360-degree view that this one has. Cars with key fobs that can lock and unlock them are familiar at this point, but this SUV can detect if the key is close to the door or back hatch, and if so, you can press a button on the handle to automatically lock or unlock the door as appropriate without even touching the key. I've seen cars with in-built navigation screens before, but never owned one, and the list goes on (though I don't think I've personally seen a car with remote start before).

I could keep gushing about all the many features that I'm still discovering a few days later (the heated seats and steering wheel might be nice when I get up at altitude), but for the sake of brevity I'll spare you. Needless to say I'm quite blessed to have been able to find such an impressive vehicle in this period of car shortages. I was really glad to get one with AWD drive, which'll allow me to get some places I wouldn't want to take my 2WD Civic—I can finally drive to the summit of Maunakea, for example, and I've got some other places in mind that I might see about exploring. And I'm certainly pleased with the color; I quite like orange (as evidenced by this blog), so when I found a car matching what I was looking for in such a beautifully striking shade I could hardly believe my good fortune. (Funnily enough, yesterday I saw a vehicle that could've been the identical twin of mine—same model, same color!) Anyway, I'll spare you further gushing from me for now. A hui hou!