[NOS2Go4Me]

^^ Tim - that's good to know man! Thanks for the heads-up! Maybe I'll just stick with the stock Edge 18" aluminums.

I made a "ninja run" to Toronto and back Saturday, my grandmother had partial hip replacement surgery last week and I wanted to go see her. I did 800KMs on about 70L of gas, mostly highway but with about 60KMs within Toronto at city speeds.

My observations thus far:

- The leather seats in my Limited are WICKED. However, as it's an American Limited, they aren't heated. I'll decide by the fall whether or not I want to have heating elements installed. I'm debating sucking it up and not worrying about it.

- The stereo is USDM, therefore it's not the Audiophile but a 4-speaker setup. Do I care? Not really. It sounds great and I'll just upgrade the door speaks later. The deck has lots of thump.

- There's no moonroof. It bothered me for all of 10 minutes. It's one less window to close in the summer and one less leak to worry about down the road.

- The ride in the truck is great! High-frequency bumps / expansion cracks are about all that makes any noise in there. Tire thrum is present at speed, but hey it's a truck! It's bearable. Plus, changing from the stock treads would likely help.

- Cornering feels a tad tippy but when you're coming out of a Mazda RX-8, everything feels tippy. It's stable at speed and it's not wandering at all, which is better than I expected. The electric power steering feels almost on par with the RX-8s - that's not bad at all!

- Braking is responsive but requires more pressure than I expected. Again, I'm adjusting from a sportscar here so I'm likely overly critical. There's no fade or pulsing and it's a smooth, linear motion when braking - all good.

- Acceleration is decent given the curb weight. 2nd is geared kinda tall but oh well. I'm not out to streetrace! Pulling to 100 doesn't take long at all (feels faster than a 2007 ZX5 with the autotragic). Pulling "above 100" (kickdown to 3rd) isn't startling but it gets "well above" 100 without issues or complaints.

- Fuel economy is pretty decent and bang-on with the quoted economy for the 2008 from what I can tell. What I do like is this: the trip computer in the dash console can monitor distance to empty, average fuel economy over time and "instant" fuel consumption (it's likely a digital version of the BMW's fuel economy meter).

I found myself checking the average fuel economy after a while (started at 8L/100KMs, went to 9L/100KMs) but mainly staying on the "instant" fuel economy screen (lower the bar, less fuel being used). I could cruise at the second lowest bar (lowest being idle-ish for throttle used) even at 110 with the CC on. Overall, I'm really impressed.

- Toys. Aside from the wicked trip computer, the auto headlights were missed. Perimeter lighting at night when you remote unlock is cool. The "pull up to fold flat" seat cushions and seats are cool in the back. The cavernous centre console can hide a small migrant family, easily. The digital compass and temperature readout on the centre stack are neat (didn't have the compass in the RX-8, but with sat nav didn't need it).

Overall, I'm impressed! It's getting a set of Silverstars for now (this week sometime) till I decide whether or not to fit a set of HIDs. A K+N panel filter will round out the "mods" for now till I get more used to it. Oh, and I'm switching to Mobil 1 on the next oil change.

And now... trade-it-in day: