October 07, 2007: 1st Night Drive
First night drive tonight...not sure that the auto dimming mirror is working properly (but this care is my 1st time with this kind of mirror). The xenon's are awesome--almost as good as (from the old days!) my BMW 2002 with 7" 110-watt H4s and 7" Marchal driving lights with 110w H1 bulbs. Light color is "clean white" and the light spread is excellent across the road on low beams. On highs, the top of the light pattern opens up and there's plenty of light down the road. I drove from Centreville into Clifton, then from Clifton back toward southern Fairfax County on winding roads. As I told my wife, I drove at 4/10s to 5/10s, since I haven't seen these roads in 10 years and am still learning the car's capabilities. But...even staying in D (no paddles!) and taking it cool, this was easily the smoothest, not-quite-fast drive on these roads. The car's amazing...and the wife still likes the ride, the seats (which she says are "very comfortable"), and the Nav system. She even likes "Alice's" voice, Alice being, of course the nice lady in the Nav system.