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169hp @ 6000rpm 171 ft/lb @ 4500rpm factory specs tell me you have to wind it up when you want or need power. It's rare that a gasoline engine has more torque than horsepower. Regular automatic mode just doesn't shift down as needed in the mountains, even when you floor the accelerator. Thank Ford for the Select shift mode. Even just leaving it in "Sport" automatic mode was not enough. So my downshifting showing 5000rpm when needing to increase speed on an uphill makes more sense to me now.

I just returned from a long 4300 mile road trip through 7 western States. I also used the select shift in the mountains of Colorado, Utah, and more. It worked flawlessly. I was carrying a bunch of gear in the back, so my expectation of performance with a 4 cylinder was pretty dead on. All in all, a really great trip, no problems with the van. I did pick up a rock chip on the windshield on my way in to Flagstaff, AZ. I called a local windshield shop in town and they fixed it bright and early the next morning for $35. It took 20 minutes. Beats a flat tire any day. Averaged 27mpg overall, used the factory NAV and Android Auto, again, no issue except Android Auto sucked up all my data on my wimpy 1GB plan. $5 added another gig, so on I went.... Home now, life is good. I love this little scoot.

I don't really know to be honest. I love working with the dogs. I loved fighting fire when I did that. I loved the mental/physical challenge of vehicle accidents/entrapments. I can't say any of the bad stuff really bothered me. I never lost sleep over any of them. Maybe I'm a bit of a sociopath, I don't know. For me its more painful to see the pain of the living then the dead. Trying to work on a child when the parents are crying next to you was the hardest thing for me. As a parent I empathize with them more then I actually do the pain of the child. I can usually do something for the child. Or in a few cases, I knew it was impossible to do anything. I can't do anything to help the parents in those moments. That makes you feel helpless. And I'm not a person that does well with feeling helpless. For the searches though, you really do it to bring closure to families. Yes, you hope to save someone and sometimes you do and that's great. It's awesome. But it doesn't really "balance". There's no reason to be bothered by the deceased person. As we say, they can't get any deader. I've never been bothered by the gruesome side of it. But as a parent I can't imagine not knowing what happened to my son/daughter. Not understanding what happened at the end. And as long as you don't have that body, the parental mind is a terrible thing and it always wants to believe that there is a chance, however tiny. It is very difficult for these people to get through all the stages of grief like other people do, who actually have a body to grieve over. So for me the emotional side that impacts me the most is the family left behind. That's why we do the searches. Fortunately, I'm usually not the family liaison. I could never be a J. J. from Criminal Minds! The real life people that do that have the emotional hits if you ask me. Bodies are just bodies. Their pain and suffering is over. Hope that wasn't too heavy! But honestly, thank you for asking.

When I bought this car, I knew that I was not getting V8 power. But it does just fine for me on the hills in The Streets of San Francisco.