[V8] The Audi S5: A $59000 NOPE!

[Unka Bart]

On May 13, 2007, at 5:20 AM, Roger M. Wood-bury wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Coleman, David [mailto:David.Coleman at blackrock.com]
> Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 11:55 PM
> To: rmwoodbury at adelphia.net; v8 at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: [V8] The Audi S5: A $59000 NOPE!
>
> Roger, you creaky old fart.  Do run-flat tires and GPS scare you too?
> :-)
>
>
> Nope.  Run flat tires mean nothing to me.  I know how to change  
> tires and
> wheels, so "run flat" has no relevance.
>
> GPS?  Nope.  No fear there.  Had one.  Threw it away.  I know how  
> to read
> maps and charts....aeronatical, nautical, and even Rand McNally.   
> When the
> batteries go flat in the GPS, I can still get there.  Besides, I  
> have only
> two hands and arms.  With cell phone, Blackberry, pagers and who knows
> whatever, how does one handle a GPS AND drive at the same time.  Maybe
> that's yet another reason why there is so much carnage on the roads.

<snippage happens...>

I'm a Red Cross Disaster volunteer.  During the periods I'm not  
deployed away from home providing assistance to folks recover from  
tornados , floods, wildfires or whatever, I spend one week out of  
four on-call for DAT (Disaster Action Team) duty.  DATs are usually  
called out by the Fire Department when it is determined that a house  
fire has progressed to the point that the occupants will be unable to  
return to live in the house without substantial repair.  The DAT  
arrives on scene and provides the family with shelter (usually in a  
motel), food and clothing, as well as comfort kits with misc.  
toiletries.

On average, I'll get two calls during that week, and they usually  
come at oh-dark thirty.  They also usually are at locations in areas  
of the town unfamiliar to me.  I did this, using a combination of  
directions given by the fire dispatch over the phone, and a  
flashlight/map  for about a month before getting on the internet and  
purchasing a Garmin nuvi 350 GPS voice navigator.  Trying to navigate  
in areas where you have to shine a flashlight on the street sign,  
then on the map, then on your direction notes, is frankly insane.  I  
have never had an address that I wasn't able to enter into the nuvi  
and have it take me directly there with no more of the insane dance  
the previous process required.  And brother, I've been to some  
locations that simply amazed me that the Nuvi could know about.   
Recently, I took it with me and used it in Enterprise, AL; and even  
more recently up in your neck of the woods last month, trying to find  
enough damage to justify deploying the Red Cross to Maine for the  
Nor'easter last month (there wasn't enough, but they declared a  
disaster nonetheless.  Oh well...)  I've used it in navigating  
through heavy rush hour traffic in large cities I'm unfamiliar with  
where the volume and velocity of the traffic makes trying to navigate  
by reading a map a dangerous proposition and it has never let me  
down.  Being an old cannon-cocker, map reading is second nature to  
me, but these voice nav GPS systems are definitely an improvement  
orders of magnitude over paper maps for my uses.

Maybe the thing I like best about mine is the "go home" function.  My  
DAT calls most often take me into areas I'd rather not linger in,  
once my mission has been accomplished.  Being highly dyslexic, I'm as  
much in need of navigating on my way out as I am on the way in.  Now  
I simply hit "go home" and get the hell outa dodge.  Works for me,  
YM, naturally, MV.

Yer kindly ol' Unka Bart