No, not the least-popular Star Trek series; this is about Enterprise car rental. The Infiniti is at Mathews Carlsen having some minor body work done and USAA‘s rental reimbursement is for Enterprise. I dropped the Infiniti at Mathews Carlsen, who called Enterprise to pick me up. No answer. They called again, got someone who said [...]

No, not the least-popular Star Trek series; this is about Enterprise car rental. The Infiniti is at Mathews Carlsen having some minor body work done and USAA‘s rental reimbursement is for Enterprise.

I dropped the Infiniti at Mathews Carlsen, who called Enterprise to pick me up. No answer. They called again, got someone who said they’d be right over. Some time later, with no sign of Enterprise, they call a third time and are told that there is only one person at the rental desk so no one to come get me. MC details a person to drive me over to Enterprise at the Palo Alto Municipal Airport. This is great, because it’s much closer to MC than the office I’d been to previously in Mountain View. There is indeed one Enterprise employee at the airport desk, plus one other customer waiting for a car, but there are no cars. We’re assured that cars are even now being delivered from other Enterprise offices.

A few minutes later, Enterprise employee #2 arrives with other customer’s car and he is sent on his way. Employees #1 and #2 confer and then tell me they will wait for employee #3 to arrive, and then the four of us will go to Enterprise office #3 with a stop at office #2 to drop off employee #1. All clear so far?

Employee #3 arrives and the four of us set off. Employee #1 is dropped off at Enterprise office #2, which happens to be the Honda dealership right next door to Mathews Carlsen. Employees #3 drives #2 and me to Enterprise office #3, the one I’d been to once before. We get out, I wait around a little while more and then am finally shown to the car that will substitute for my beautiful Infiniti for the next three days: a white Kia minivan.

The sole saving grace of this runaround is that the Enterprise employees were perfectly aware of how ridiculous it actually was. Everyone was good-natured and friendly, there were no harsh words, dirty looks or mutterings under breath. Just the same, I think I will request a different rental company next time, if there is a next time.

Steve Kroner of the Chronicle reports: Two sources close to the negotiations have confirmed the A’s radio broadcasts will air on KYCY (1550 AM) and KNTS (1220 AM) in 2006. KYCY will be the flagship station, but its signal does not cover the South Bay well. KNTS is a South Bay station, but apparently it [...]

Steve Kroner of the Chronicle reports:

Two sources close to the negotiations have confirmed the A’s radio broadcasts will air on KYCY (1550 AM) and KNTS (1220 AM) in 2006.

KYCY will be the flagship station, but its signal does not cover the South Bay well. KNTS is a South Bay station, but apparently it will not carry weekday broadcasts until 6 p.m. So, the plan is for KNTS to skip weekday afternoon games, and to join in progress games that begin between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Pacific time.

I haven’t yet gone out to check reception on KYCY here in Palo Alto. Does any other MLB team have such a ridiculous scheme for broadcasting their games? And way to cater to the South Bay audience, guys, that’ll sure help your quest to relocate to San Jose.

I have XM, which carries all MLB games, in the Infiniti. Unfortunately, XM runs the home team’s broadcast for each game, so if the A’s (or Giants) are on the road that means I will hear the other team’s broadcast.

So I’ve had the lovely new OMNIMVR Mk. II (no license plates yet) for 23 days. In that time, I’ve noted a few things that bother me about it. These are not horrible awful defects or anything actually wrong, they are just observations and are mostly in comparison to the Pontiac. The side mirrors are [...]

So I’ve had the lovely new OMNIMVR Mk. II (no license plates yet) for 23 days.

In that time, I’ve noted a few things that bother me about it. These are not horrible awful defects or anything actually wrong, they are just observations and are mostly in comparison to the Pontiac.

1. The side mirrors are small, so small that in order to get a good view to my left I have to lean forward and back while looking through the mirror. The Grand Prix had big mirrors.
2. The nose is low, low enough that when parking it tends to scrape on the concrete wheel stop. The Grand Prix had this problem as well, but the G35′s nose seems to be lower.
3. There is a noticeable lack of integration between the various systems, made more evident when such integration does reveal itself. For example, though the car is equipped with both a DVD navigation system–featuring “Points of Interest” including phonebook-style listings for restaurants, shops, etc.–and Bluetooth connectivity for my phone, selecting a listing on the navigation system does not dial the phone. It seems obvious to me that these two systems should work together.
   Another example: when using the Bluetooth handsfree system to make or receive a call, the stereo is muted. This is good. What’s missing is a manual “mute” mode for the stereo.
4. Finally, I really do miss the Grand Prix’s HUD. I am presently looking into whether one can be fitted into the G35.

Of course, the car has a much larger number of good points: beautiful lines, loaded with tech-y goodness, lots of power.

I think my most favorite little feature is Infiniti’s “Intelligent Key” system: the usual remote-unlock keyfobs are upgraded with RFID to identify the holder. This means I don’t have to use the remote to unlock the car, just walk up and press the button on the door handle… with the keyfob still in my pocket. It only unlocks if the Intelligent Key is within a few feet. The trunk works the same way. Not only that, but there are two Intelligent Keys and they are uniquely coded, so that when Jen drives the car… if she ever does… her Key will unlock the door and move the seat and steering wheel to her preset. They then move back to my preset when I unlock the door with my Key. And the best part: the ignition also recognizes the presence of the Intelligent Key fobs–only when actually inside the cabin–so no key is necessary to start the car; I just turn the switch.

So far the longest drive we’ve taken is to Walnut Creek, when we visited my grandmother two weeks ago. We’ll be driving to SoCal next weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the car performs on the long straightaways of I-5 through the Central Valley.

After just under seven years, I have retired the original OMNIMVR. The ’99 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP served me so very well, but at 100,000 miles and seven years it was entering that stage of a car’s life where it was going to take significant money to keep it running, and I’d rather put that [...]

After just under seven years, I have retired the original OMNIMVR. The ’99 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP served me so very well, but at 100,000 miles and seven years it was entering that stage of a car’s life where it was going to take significant money to keep it running, and I’d rather put that money into a new car. So I donated the Pontiac to Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation–I’ll take a roughly $6000 deduction on my 2006 taxes–and have purchased a new 2006 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
I’ve had it for just about two weeks now, and I am absolutely loving it. Jen is handling the DMV/license plate issues, and we’re getting a new set of OMNIMVR plates for it–they should be here in a few months, she says. I don’t have any great pictures yet (certainly not as good as in the gallery on the Infiniti Web site) but here are two from January 3rd, the day I took delivery.