Sound system ...

The Bose sound system that came fitted in the car performs satisfactorily well. Though more of a "video" man than an "audio" man, for the first time in my life I become interested in listening to music - no, not that kind of music created by the Classics composers such as Mozart or Beethoven - but the kind of music from Strauss or Rodgers and Hammerstein or Bill Haley and his Comets.

When before I need to listen to some songs, all I did was to borrow a cassette or a disc containing pop music and play them on the player without as much as enjoying them as to keep me company when being alone in a car. But now I take the trouble of downloading all kinds of music even the Classics and burning them to a CD. But my preference is still to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Rick Astley and such, than to some piano concertos or symphonies.

However, the video system does not work at all since, I was told, that the system was more for Japan than for Malaysia. I have to re-install a new system or modify the existing one to suit Malaysian condition. The FM system works partially, being able to tune to radio stations in Malaysia between frequencies 76.0 Mghertz to 89.9 Mghertz. I have to modify the radio to be able to tune up to 108.0 MgHertz.

Petrol consumption again ..

I again checked on the latest petrol consumption of my car only to find that it had increased substantially. On 03/10/2009, before going to Chemor for a wedding reception, I had filled up the tank in Subang Jaya when the meter read 17386 km. The greater part of the to-and-fro trip was on the PLUS highway but I had also travelled on the trunk roads in the Chemor area and a few kilometres in the village area. On the way back, I dropped by at my daughter's shop in Bukit Beruntung before going back to the apartment. I decided to wait a few days before re-fuelling. So today, at 01.00 am, I refuelled at the Shell station in Subang Jaya and the meter read 17855 km. I had thus travelled 469 km and the petrol used was 54.29 litres. The petrol consumption rate was therefore 8.6388 km/litre or 24.403 miles per gallon.

It should have been anywhere between 26 t0 29 miles per gallon as in my previous tests. I attribute this increase to:-

(1) my aggressive driving technique - too much acceleration,

(2) something was really wrong with the injection system and

(3) fuel evaporation - since I left the car parked for 5 days before refuelling. A proper fuel consumption test should be done within a shorter duration of time as in my previous tests. The ambient temperature for the past 5 days had been above 30 degrees Celsius.