2007 Matrix: gripes

I assume you drove a demo Matrix? Why didn't you realize the problem then?

If you can't interpolate the difference between 40 and 50 when the needle is halfway between those numbers, I'd hate to have your depth perception and lots of other common judgments. Maybe you should have a Mercury Cougar like my old one with a digital dash that recorded every mile increase or decrease in speed?

Are multiples of 20 good luck? Is Toyota making a statement against

gee, it's a shame that Toyota salesman put a gun to your head and told you it was "buy" or "die". Maybe your wife likes it, even if you don't. As to the low tire pressure gimmick.....it really doesn't absolve you of checking pressures regularly. IIRC the indicator only shows if one tire is

12 lb less than the rest, and you run the risk of having one or more tires way short of the required pressure.

Nope. I sat in one before I bought it and found out that way.

Why do you assume I didn't? Do you think I wouldn't have bought the car then?

It's also a shame that you're a dunderheaded dimwit. You made an incorrect assumption, and then responded to that assumption with sarcasm.

Well, that was informative and useful--I was beginning to think you had nothing to contribute but sarcasm. Still, you're WAY too emotional over this. Clearly you felt the need to personally insult me over criticisms I had for the Matrix. That in itself doesn't bother me, but the fact that you felt that you had to be insulting tells a lot about you. I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings somehow, now stop being such a pussy about it for crying out loud. Sheesh.

The higher minimum seat height may have been the interior designer's way to get more back seat room. By raising the seat bottom, a back seat passenger can fit their feet under the front seats, providing a little more room to stretch their legs. I do not know if this is true of the Matrix/Vibe, but if there is a power seat option, the power seats sometimes offere a greater range of adjustment.

Unfortunately, one has to step up to a more expensive car to know which tire to check. For example, the Lexus :LS has an "information center" that will tell you which tire is low.

I believe this is an 'ergonomic safety' feature, to force both hands on the wheel. The Scion tC is set up the same way. It's a bit uncomfortable.

They actually learned this from truckers. When the trucks got TOO comfortable, the drivers were falling asleep. So, they adjusted the steering wheels to make them *JUST* less than comfortable, and discovered that it decreased the number and severity of large truck accidents!

Makes sense. I just live with it. A pillow for lumbar support prevents the seat back from reshaping my spine into a letter C, and that's comfortable enough, even for distance driving...

Is it true that it won't tell you a tire is low unless one is at least 12 lbs low? I haven't had a chance to read the manual yet. Still, that's better than nothing, I guess.

There are 2 types of tire pressure monitoring systems.

The indirect system uses the wheel speed sensors from the antilock brake system to monitor each wheel speed. If a tire is significantly low on pressure, it will rotate at a different speed from the other wheels and a light will come on. This type of system needs a greater difference in tire pressure, probably on the order of 12 PSI.

The direct system is more expensive to produce and uses a tire pressure switch mounted on the inside of the valve stem and sends a signal to a receiver via radio frequency. I am not sure what the threshold for illuminating the warning light is for this system, and I do not know which system the Matrix has.

Thanks for the info. The cheap one, I'll bet. Haven't found anything on it in the OM yet...

I'm not the one who asked your age, but I have a decade head start on you!

Gonna be hard for me to catch up, too...

Oh...yeah...what a RIDE! You could feel it wanting to pull right away, and when you got on the street it just wanted to RUN! I never got to drive one on the highway, but I think it's a good thing it came with a six-speed!

You'll be there before you know it!

No need to rush things, they happen quick enough as it is!

Got that right!

I'm not quite in such good shape as you, so today I'm kind of feeling the backlash from two days working on that snowblower!

I don't consider myself in particularly good shape. One of the places we go climbing has about 600' of elevation gain (60 stories) to the top of the bluffs. There is a path with about a 3/4 mile hike to get to the top, and I can do that with minimal wheezing with a 50 pound backpack full of climbing gear. There is another route that is basically rocks arranged as stairs that zig zag up so you are taking the elevation gain in about 1/8 mile, and I'm huffing and puffing and have to stop to rest along the way up that route. Since there are usually high school age scouts in our group, I've learned to make them carry as much of the hardware, ropes, and water as will fit in their packs ;-)

Yeah, but when I get there, he'll still have a decade on me.

And you *don't* consider yourself in particularly good shape?! I'd be wheezing if I *drove* up 600' of elevation...

I used to have no trouble trotting up those rocky stairs. :-( Fortunately, gravity and your hands do all the work when rappelling, and I only have to climb to show the kids that a particular pitch is climb-able if they can't get past some point on the wall. :-)

I wouldn't take your bet. Cheap often wins engineering arguments. :-)

"Inexpensive" might be a better term. The advantage is of this system is that it's a nearly "free" way of adding some tire pressure monitoring to the car (the wheel speed sensors are already there for the ABS). The disadvantage is that it doesn't, as you point out, give you complete information. It also won't tell you when a pair (or all?) are getting low.

Still, if you get a rapid enough leak to cause immediate danger, you'll likely find out before you find out the hard way.

I believe on my Sienna the book says it will warn you if a tire is 5 psi low. That's a fairly useful value. However, the sensitivity could also be determined by tire size and other factors. I imagine your book will tell you.

Oh, more bad news: wheel spin on ice and snow may cause the system to think you have a pressure difference. You may find a reset procedure or the indicator may just go away if it stops sensing a problem and you stop/start the engine again. We ran into that on a trip when the right side of the lane was icy going uphill while the left was not icy and the engine thoughtfully spun the right wheel a bit for me. I figured that was what triggered the light but stopped as soon as convenient to check pressure, found they were normal and I think the light just sort of went out on its own. Your book may have more details.

Um...you make it a HELL of a lot further than *I* would!