Tam's Traction Control Is Better Than Mine.

She can drive off in the snow like nothing happened. Of course, her car is from krautland and mine is from Detroit. My Darling Wife's Buick Terraza has traction control also. It works by cutting engine power also, by what feels like about 66%, for what feels like 2 seconds at a time.

There is a bump in the street on the way to my house. In my hot rod Elantra, I actually got onto 2 wheels going over it sideways once. It's a bit of a large bump in the street, where two ways meet and the more-travelled one is elevated like a yard higher than the other. Driving straight across it makes the Elantra's engine go rrrrRRRRrrr and then it's back to normal before you realize that gravity is still the boss. In my wife's van, the engine goes rrrRruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh and you're almost to the end of the first block (at 30MPH) before it figures out to give you full power back. Annoying, but usable.

The other day, leaving the HEB parking lot, there was only a small gap in traffic. I gunned it and the car hit the street and, instead of taking off like a shot (like a car with some dam' SENSE in its robot head) it cut power way, WAY back. So here I am, expecting to gi-gi-GO! and the car is bogging out. WTF?!

Traction control button: off. Park the car and then start the engine again and it's back on. BOOOO!

I don't call her "Bad Robot" for nothing.

My Elantra has one computer to run the fuel and spark timing for the engine, and that's all. It had a computer to run the transmission, but I converted it to a manual transmission. I had to. Between Bad Robot telling me when I could open the door (only in park, you human monkey!) and my own Elantra telling me what gear it wanted to be in, I was going a little kookoo.

Oh well. Tam has a better gun collection armory than I do, too. Who am I to begrudge someone a better car? Hooray Capitalism!