What was good about this week?
I am getting better at the moving off in 1st gear mallarky. First and second gears are lower ratios on the I-Shift than the non-automated manual Jazz. This means that the engine tends to rev up quicker and it requires a bit of skill to trigger the change to second before the engine sounds noiser than other manual cars do when driving in the same traffic.
The trick is to get used to the engine note associated with the ideal change-to-second point (around about 1,800 rpm) and then ease-off the throttle to hint that an upward change should occur. I find this takes a little practice but the rewards are a quieter drive with all gears being selected in sequence rather than second being skipped in favour of third as often happens if I'm in urgent (pushy) morning commuter traffic.
A mistake I make often is to do my gear change hint a bit too early and instead of getting a gear change the car remains in first gear and I get a little engine braking. This is not appreciated by following traffic. In rush-hour traffic I now drive differently, tending to rev up to 2,000rpm and accepting I make a little bit more noise. This has the side affect that the car spends less time in second gear but I'd prefer not to irritate other drivers - mornings are tough for everyone after all!
My return journey allows me to experiment at getting the 1st to 2nd change as early and at the lowest revs possible - and I'm getting better. In town, outside the rush-hour times, where there are less frantic traffic demands, I'm able to change very close to my ideal 1,800 and the results are quieter and relaxed motoring.
What wasn't good this week?
Monday mornings are not considered nice by most people but for me it's made worse when it's 06 45, the car is covered with ice to scrape and you've not slept well. This was the case on 22nd February 2010. I unlocked the car with the remote - pleased I didn't have to deal with all those problems of de-icing locks that used to be part of winter motoring. I then carefully opened the door just in case it was iced shut, slipped the key in to the ignition switch and without getting in, pressed on the brake and twisted the key to start the car so the car could warm-up whilst I busied myself with clearing the frozen windows.
However the car did not start. The starter motor didn't turn. Everything else looked right - all the dashboard lamps looked like it should start. Confused I took the key out and put it in and tried again, and again. Then, assuming that the car couldn't read the immobiliser code from the key, I got the other ignition key and repeated the same procedure but got the same result. No starting.
After several attempts were made with both keys. I decided that whatever read the code from the key built in to the car had gone wrong - the car was only a few weeks old and I decided it was a possibility; perhaps something hadn't been connected properly and brand new things do sometimes fail.
I decided to work from home and call the garage when it opened in a few hours time. Just before calling the garage, I thought I'd try to start the car again. I went down to the car which, by then, was defrosted. I got in and followed my usual procedure: push the brake pedal and twist ignition key to start. It started immediately. Surprised I switched off the engine and tried with the other key. It started immediately with that too.
I was still worried. I decided that the car must have an intermittant fault. One of the worse types! I called the garage who made arrangements to obtain a temporary replacement car and arranged with me to bring the car in the late afternoon. It's nice to have a Dealer that is so accommodating!
This wait until the afternoon must have left my subconcious time to think about things because, six hours later, on my walk to the car I had a sudden realisation. Was the car still in gear when I had been starting it?
Unlike conventional automatics or the CVT, you do not need to select Neutral or Park before the starting. The I-Shift does not have a Park selector position. Instead, it can be started whenever the car is stopped and the footbrake applied, even when a gear is selected. The I-Shift system operates the clutch during starting to reduce load on the starter motor and also to prevent the car from moving whilst the starter is operating if the car is in gear.
So actually there was nothing wrong at all! To understand what happened to fool me read on. I live on a slight gradient and had become used to my previous Jazz CVT transmission's Park mechanism. Park had to be selected before the ignition key could be removed from the ignition switch. So when after upgraded from the old model Jazz to the new model - from CVT to I-Shift - it felt wrong leaving the car in neutral with the just the parking brake holding the car.
Fortunately this is all covered in I-Shift; you can pick either first or reverse gear prior to switching the engine off. Then, should the handbrake fail, the car would be prevented from moving. However, since I share the car with A, I use a neat I-Shift trick. After the ignition is switched off, I move the selector out of the in-gear position to the neutral position. This means that the next time the brake pedal is pushed and the ignition switched on the gearbox and clutch are activated and neutral is selected. Neat huh?
Well it is until you forget to move the selector to the neutral position the last time you used the car. If you do so then that the next time you happen to be starting the car with the car door open, reaching a foot in to press the footbrake, twisting the key to start the car then you'll find that the car refuses to start.
Why? Well, it makes sense really because if the car had started then, when I took my foot off the foot brake, the car would have driven off leaving me running after it holding my ice-scraper!
So, the smart people at Honda have thought about sleepy headed folk like me. And my Honda dealer was very sympathetic and the representative I dealt with didn't even surpress a grin. So professional - although I didn't wait around just in case I heard the laughter! Don't worry, if I had heard any I would have understood - I'd have deserved it!
What am I loving?
- The I-Shift system - I'm driving around in automatic mode now, don't feel the need to use the manual mode at all!
- Quick cabin warm-up from cold - it's been -5 C most mornings this week which is cold for us.
- The thinner A-pillars and the bigger fixed windows. They really do make a difference at tricky junctions. Now cars can't lurk behind the A-pillar to surprise you when you turn to make that second look before pulling out! A definite improvement over the old model Jazz.
