markque
September 29th, 2002, 02:25 PM
My first trip out of North America. Loved the city of San Jose, countryside, and all the wonderful sights. Decided in advance NOT to rent a car as their insurance regulations are inferior and they have one of the highest accidents rates in the world.
Anyway, I figured cars would be quite different down there and I was right. Most of them are old and tiny with noisy little motors. Many people mod their Hyundais and Toyotas but not to the extreme we see around here. It was funny seeing Excels, Sentras, and Corolla (diesels) as taxis with oversized exhausts and mags with wide tires. Most taxis are red.
I didn't see any Mazdas at first, but then began to see a small number of G2-G3 sedans. They are still called the 323 and not quite as nice looking - headlights/taillights appear a little more conservative on the G3. I would expect the engine to be the 1.6 or 1.8L. There were NO Protege5s at all. Sucks to be them! Mazdas are considered to be quite "luxurious".
They pay a small fortune for their cars. The Toyota Yaris, identical to our ugly Echo sedan, is $17K+ US. That translates to ~ $27K Canadian! I couldn't image paying $27K for an Echo, let alone a Corolla. However, they have a little hatchback version of the Yaris that's really cute, but very small in the hatch area. There were similar Peugots as well.
They do have a small number of cars with low profile tires but most of the people are smart enough to realize low profile tires are not conducive to their environment. The roads are riddled with potholes and culverts that would break an aluminum wheel in a heartbeat.
The taxi and bus rides I had were enough to almost damage my kidneys! I was airborne twice in the back of their city bus.
A stop sign means nothing to the Castilians. Not even the school buses stop! Everyone accelerates as fast as they can, honks the horn, and weaves in and out without signalling. Buses stop about 6 inches behind cars. Small motorcycles, some are actually little motocross bikes with no lights, split lanes regularly. San Jose screams road rage yet no one seems to bat an eye. I didn't witness a single accident, although I was almost run over several times as a pedestrian trying to cross the streets!
Glad to be back in civilized Canada! I love our country. Just wanted to share my experiences.
Mark http://msg.toprotege.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Anyway, I figured cars would be quite different down there and I was right. Most of them are old and tiny with noisy little motors. Many people mod their Hyundais and Toyotas but not to the extreme we see around here. It was funny seeing Excels, Sentras, and Corolla (diesels) as taxis with oversized exhausts and mags with wide tires. Most taxis are red.
I didn't see any Mazdas at first, but then began to see a small number of G2-G3 sedans. They are still called the 323 and not quite as nice looking - headlights/taillights appear a little more conservative on the G3. I would expect the engine to be the 1.6 or 1.8L. There were NO Protege5s at all. Sucks to be them! Mazdas are considered to be quite "luxurious".
They pay a small fortune for their cars. The Toyota Yaris, identical to our ugly Echo sedan, is $17K+ US. That translates to ~ $27K Canadian! I couldn't image paying $27K for an Echo, let alone a Corolla. However, they have a little hatchback version of the Yaris that's really cute, but very small in the hatch area. There were similar Peugots as well.
They do have a small number of cars with low profile tires but most of the people are smart enough to realize low profile tires are not conducive to their environment. The roads are riddled with potholes and culverts that would break an aluminum wheel in a heartbeat.
The taxi and bus rides I had were enough to almost damage my kidneys! I was airborne twice in the back of their city bus.
A stop sign means nothing to the Castilians. Not even the school buses stop! Everyone accelerates as fast as they can, honks the horn, and weaves in and out without signalling. Buses stop about 6 inches behind cars. Small motorcycles, some are actually little motocross bikes with no lights, split lanes regularly. San Jose screams road rage yet no one seems to bat an eye. I didn't witness a single accident, although I was almost run over several times as a pedestrian trying to cross the streets!
Glad to be back in civilized Canada! I love our country. Just wanted to share my experiences.
Mark http://msg.toprotege.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif