Sunday, May 11, 2014

Exercising My Right to Drive a Convertible

My favorite ride on a recent trip to Disney
Disney is all about fantasy, so driving a Camaro SS was a dream come true at the ultimate fantasy land, Walt Disney World.

I was in Disney at the TravelingMom retreat and Chevrolet http://www.chevrolet.com/ brought a bunch of shiny cars for everyone to drive. There was a 2014 Impala, the 2015 Tahoe and Suburban and the 2014 Camaro.

It poured for most of our time in Florida, so we really got to test the cars in less than ideal conditions - wet roads, mist falling. So we didn’t have the top down.  But the car handled well on curvy roads in the rain; I could imagine how much fun it would be to tool along on the California coast in this sporty car.

Where to Go

Chevy MyLink has a built in navigation system, but this Camaro was also equipped with OnStar, a remarkable concierge service for your car. You press a button, and within seconds are connected to a live phone call. All you have to do is tell the person where you are going, and directions will be either loaded into the nag system for you, or spoken aloud while you drive. Amazing.

The Camaro looks great from any angle
OnStar also offers incredible peace of mind - they provide roadside and emergency assistance, even for weather situations out of the scope of the car.  If say, the car in front of you hit black ice and had an accident, you could contact OnStar and get that person emergency help.

Connected Car

Chevy MyLink has an easy to use touchscreen, with Sirius XM radio and bluetooth integration with your phone.

Eyes on the Road

Everyone else is looking at you, but you want to make sure that you keep your eyes on the road.  It’s easy with this car, which has color heads up display. There are also audio controls on the leather steering wheel, so you won’t get distracted playing with the touchscreen.

Midlife Crisis

The money shot; the Camaro with the top down
If you drive this car with little kids, there are rear child seat latch anchors.  And up to teen years, a couple of kids will fit comfortably in the back seat. 

But if you are tall, and/or have large children, they will not enjoy the rather cramped rear seat. I like to drive with my seat pretty far forward, but still, my rear seat passengers were happy to get out of the car.

However, the Camaro does offer creature comforts like heated front leather seats, remote keyless entry, parking assist and power outlets.

The Camaro starts at $41,885; extras including special headlights, racing stripe, automatic transmission, remote start and the navigation system brought the price up to $46,650. It gets 15 mpg in the city, 24 on the highway.


Note: Chevrolet provided the Camaro for my test drive. Opinions expressed are my own.



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