Settling Down

I have another blog called "Uncertain Wanderings" (uncertainwanderings.blogspot.ca) which perhaps reflects a restless life, but my wandering days were coming to an end. We combined our "assets", such as they were, sold off what we could & sent the rest off to the other side of the continent. We followed a short while after in the new car. As it was the end of the year daylight hours were short & snow was a risk along Canadian highways so we opted to go along US Interstates, mostly I80. It was a wonderful journey, even if a slow one due to darkness arriving soon after 4 pm at times. The FX37 was comfortable, powerful & managed to accommodate all the stuff we'd decided to bring along for our rental sojourn in BC.

And happy we were in our new home. We'd left all the snow & bitter cold behind & were now living beside the Pacific Ocean. That's the way things would have stayed, except that we'd been persuaded to lease this blue car, instead of buying it outright. In the end, it worked out just fine, but after 3 years with the Infiniti FX37 it was time to turn it in.
But for what? It was time to start the search again.
As Infiniti/Nissan knew it was time to turn in the leased car, I began to receive "special offers" from my local Infiniti dealer - the only one on the Island, by the way!
Just out of curiosity, you know, I thought that even though the lease wasn't due until late April, we'd pop down to have a look, & see about test driving a couple of others.
As I said before, I'd gone off BMW because I thought the company was milking its reputation to an excessive degree with the cost of options. When we'd driven the X3 in 2013 the base car had just vinyl seats, an awkward-shaped gear stick, as well as annoyingly stopping the engine each time the car ceased to move. And then starting again when the throttle was depressed.
I was aware this was a trend, along with turbo-charged 4 cylinder motors in order to achieve lower fuel consumption figures, but, being a sort of an old-fashioned guy, I wanted an engine with some balls, or rather, cylinders. I'm not a fan of turbo-charging even though I do accept that at lower engine speeds they are more efficient than a normally aspirated engine. However, the ratio of fuel to air stays the same - the turbo just pumps more air into the engine than normal air pressure allows - so at high revs consumption goes up accordingly.
These preferences, or prejudices if you prefer, ruled out the X3, which we also thought rather ugly, as well as the Volvo XC 60, leaving, it seemed to me, another Infiniti, the Audi Q5 & the new guy on the block, the Jaguar F-Pace. This last excited me & I couldn't wait to drive one.