Choosing The VPS hosting Package That Suits You

In today’s webhosting market, there is a lot of VPS hosting providers with many different hosting packages. So once you decide to buy VPS hosting, you have to do a thorough research before choosing the VPS hosting package that suits you the best. It might cost you a lot of money, not only if you choose a wrong VPS hosting package, but also if you choose the wrong hosting service provider. So if you have any concerns regarding a hosting package offered by any hosting provider, you should always contact them via email or live chat, prior to purchasing anything.

Here’s a short list of the most important things that we think you should keep an eye on while looking for the best VPS hosting package.

Budget

Budget is one of the most important factors that people choose to go for a Virtual Private Server in the first place. It also plays an important role in selecting the VPS server package that suits you the best. The main factor that determines the price of a virtual server is its resources. The higher the amount of resources, like RAM, CPU, disk space and bandwidth, which comes with a virtual server, more price you will have to spend to purchase it.

Features Needed

This goes hand in hand with the budget. You have to be clear about the features you want on your virtual server. You can always check what kinds of features are offered with a hosting package before you buy VPS servers. In case if you are not familiar with any of the features, a quick Google search will get you all the information you need. In addition, most of the features of VPS packages, including RAM, disk space and bandwidth can be customized.

Hosting Technology

This is also a very important factor you should consider when you buy VPS servers. This mainly depends on the applications you are planning to run on the server. Currently, the most popular VPS technologies are Microsoft’s Hyper-V and Virtuozzo. So you have to decide the correct virtual server package according to the applications you plan to run on them.

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Going for Windows VPS Hosting?

When you are on the search to buy VPS hosting, you would come across a number of VPS hosting providers with Windows VPS hosting packages and Linux VPS hosting packages. Some hosting providers would offer both hosting platforms.

There are many aspects to consider when choosing the correct VPS hosting platform. Anyway, while some times choosing windows hosting platform can be a personal preference, there are some other times when it becomes a necessity.

Windows or Linux

The truth is, it is always more important to focus your time and effort on finding a reliable hosting provider to buy VPS servers, more than focusing on the platform. However, there are some points to consider when choosing whether to use Linux or Windows platform.

• Price

This was a very important factor in the past as windows VPS hosting was very expensive than Linux VPS hosting. However, due to the competitive nature of the hosting industry, now the price difference between Windows and Linux platforms are negligible.

• Features & Performance

While price is becoming less of a concern, features offered by each platform and the performance have become an important factor on choosing the right VPS hosting package. Both platforms support a number of various features and will allow you to create pages, run scripts, install forums, create blogs, and many more with only a very little difference. Even though Linux might have a slight edge on the performance, most users will not be noticing any performance difference between the two platforms.

• Security

Although Linux is believed to be more secure platform, it is a fallacy. Both platforms have potential for vulnerabilities.

Windows specific features

Since there is a very little difference between the two platforms, the choice of using Windows VPS hosting finally comes down to whether you are using Windows specific features of not. Popular Windows specific features are:

1. ASP
2. FrontPage
3. .NET
4. Windows Streaming Media
5. Access
6. MsSQL

Any of the above features will work more smoothly on a Windows platform than on a Linux platform.

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Creating a Virtual Machine on Windows Server 2008 using Hyper-V

Hyper-V is the modern generation of virtualization, with Windows Server 2008 you no longer need to install an application such as Virtual Server 2005 or Virtual PC or other virtualization technology in order to build your virtual machines (VM). 

 

Hyper-V is one of the new roles available with Windows Server 2008 where you can install it and then start creating your VMs. You can use a virtualized computing environment to increase the efficacy of your computing resources.

 

Benefits you get from a VM

• Increasing the hardware utilization

• Decreasing the cost by sharing in number of VM

• Maximum availability and Secure

• VM can be accessed from anywhere in the intranet

• Possibility of running programs in other OS from what is running on the machine.

 

Creating Hyper-V Virtual Machines

 

 

Open the Hyper-V management console.

 

 or go to command prompt and type c:\Program Files\Hyper-V\virtmgmt.msc and press "Enter"

 

In the right side panel, click on "New" and select "Virtual Machine" 

 

 

 

Give nam efor your Virtual Machine, here you can specify a location as well (if required). Then click "Next"

 

 

 

 

You can specify the capacity of memory to your VM.

 

 

 

 

Select "Local Area Connection - Virtual Network" from the drop down list and click "Next"

 

 

 

Here you get few options, you can create a new Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) or you can simply assign an available VHD or else you can assign a VHD later.

 

 

 

If you need to install a new Operating system for your new VM you can do it in this step. Also you can install an Operating system from an image file you have created or from a Physical DVD / CD. You get four options to install your OS. Click "Next" to proceed further.

 

 

 

Now you can see the details of your VM. This is the final step and you are almost done. Click "Finish" button to complete the process.

 

 

 

Your new Virtual Machine is ready to use. You can start your VM from the Management Console. 

 

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How to Back-up your Virtual Machine?

A Virtual Machine (VM) is a software execution of a computing environment in which an operating system or program can be installed and run.

When working with technology we should be very careful about the data. We use secure methods such as virus guards firewalls to protect our data but still there is a risk from sudden crashes, virus/malware attacks. In such situation happens you will lose all the data or a part of it. Therefor we need to back up our data in regular basis even it if is a Virtual Machine either Physical machine. 

There are two types of Back up mechanism, one is called “Saved State” (default in Hyper-V) and the other one is “Child VM Snapshot”. In “Saved State”, snapshots are taken of the correct volumes, and the VM is returned to the default state.

In "Child VM Snapshot", use VSS inside the child VM to participate in the backup. And you should meet the following conditions in this state. 

• Backup (volume snapshot) Integration Service is installed and running in the child VM (Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor).

Backup Integration Service will not be supported for Windows 2000.

• The Child VM should be in the processing state.

• The Snapshot File Location for the VM is set to be the same volume in the host OS as the Virtual Hard Disk files for the Virtual Machine.

• All volumes in the child VM not dynamic disks (they are basic disks).

• All disks in the child VM must use a file system that supports snapshots (example, NTFS).

The unique behavior happens when the Hyper-V VSS writer (part of the "Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management" service) processes the PrepareForSnapshot event. If the backup was done using the "Child VM Snapshot" method, there is additional processing done but it is not visible to the child VM.

The following procedure describes how to back up VMs.

1. For each VM in the writer metadata, if the "Saved State" method is used, the VM is put into a saved state. For VMs using the "Child VM Snapshot" method, the Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor Service in the child VM processes the backup as detailed in Overview of Processing a Backup Under VSS. All VSS events in the child VM occur during the host operating system processing of the PrepareForSnapshot event.

2. After all VMs have either been put in the saved state or had snapshots taken, the Hyper-V VSS writer returns from the PrepareForSnapshot event. No processing is done by the Hyper-V VSS writer during the Freeze and Thaw events.

3. When the Hyper-V VSS writer processes the PostSnapshot event, VMs that were backed up using the "Saved State" method and were put into a saved state by the Hyper-V VSS writer are returned to the state they were in before the backup started. For the VMs that were backed up using the "Child VM Snapshot" method, the host image of the VHD files that had the snapshots taken are rolled back to the snapshot taken during the processing of the PrepareForSnapshot event. This processing is done independently of the VSS writers in the child VMs so the snapshots taken must be auto-recoverable. (VSS_VOLSNAP_ATTR_NO_AUTORECOVERY is not set in the context.)

 

Note  

• Partial backups are not supported. If any VM fails to create a snapshot, no VMs will be backed up.

• Pass-through and iSCSI disks are not visible to the host operating system and therefore not backed up by the Hyper-V VSS writer. Backups of these volumes must be done entirely within the VM.

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Wordpress on VPS

If you ask hundrad people about the famous CMS today, 80% will say it is none other than "Wordpress". Even a 12 years old kid can maintaing a Wordpress based website with zero programming knowledge. It is easy to customize and easy to manage and get alot of features also can use a lot of plugins to do magics within the website. Still a lot of people use shared hosting to host their websites, blogs. But the new trend is twisting Wordpress with Virtual Private Servers (VPS).

A VPS can offer the site owners the level of customizability, stability and security of a dedicated server while still costing much less than one.  Poor performance and high downtimes are two of the main problems with using a shared hosting option for WordPress hosting. A VPS hosting option can also easily eliminate these two problems while providing more customization options for the webmaster. In addition, a VPS hosting solution may also prove more cost-effective for any WordPress site that receives medium-to-high levels of traffic.

Virtual private servers are more secure, stable and customizable when compared to shared hosting servers. Each VPS server contains systems files, which are independent of each other. For this reason, any VPS hosting solution will not be affected by any potential security problem affecting a bordering VPS on the same physical server. Unlike shared hosting, when you buy VPS hosting, you are also granted with root access, which allows you to utilize your own secure configurations. An assigned disk space and memory is also given to each VPS hosting solution. This disk space and memory remains uninfluenced by the way that nearby VPS hosting solutions deal with their resources; in the case of a WordPress blog VPS, this suggest that extra bandwidth could be assigned to upload and run high-definition  images, videos and other medias without reducing the speed of your site or any others. Users will also be able, thanks to root access, to keep the control and easily customize the installed software. Moreover, extra resources can be added without any downtime, which means that sites with VPS hosting are scalable. Even though dedicated servers offer resembling functions as well as the control over the whole server and a more disk space, they do cost considerably more and often lacks technical support.

Although first-time users who buy VPS hosting solutions might find it a more challenging to administer, you can install a Control Panel, such as WebsitePanel, which simplifies the task through a very user friendly graphical user interface. You can easily install and configure the MySql databases, and many other third party applications required for WordPress through these GUIs. While some VPS hosting providers offer a pre-installed control panel as a feature of their hosting packages, others will offer them for you to purchase as a separate option.

You can use either a Linux or a Windows VPS hosting option to host your WordPress sites, and the minimum system specifications will vary according to the number of sites you are planning to host and whether or not you choose a control panel. For anyone who is running one or many WordPress websites, a VPS Hosting option is an affordable middle ground between cheaper, but unstable and less customizable shared hosting solutions, and more powerful, but very expensive dedicated hosting solutions.

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Static Website to Content Management System (CMS)

What is a Static Website?

The static website is simple website design which is cost effective and beneficial for the small businesses or individual. Each page is coded in HTML and displays the same information to every visitor. Mostly there will be few simple web pages with few images.

What is Content Management System (CMS)?

A Content Management System (CMS) is a system used to manage the content of a Web site / blog. There are two elements as CMA (Content Management Application) and CDA (Content Delivery Application. If you google you can find a lot of CMSs but out of all only few really do the job.

There are hundreds of free CMS options out in the market today. From those CMS programs, the most popular options are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. And out of the top 100,000 websites online, 52.87% are using WordPress while Drupal and Joomla are being used on 17.12% and 7.11%. In addition they are also used on 83.16% of the top 1 million websites.

 

Why migrating to CMS?

If your company is performing fairly in the new global market, there is a good chance that it already has a website. However, if you are looking to make the most out of your online preference, it could be a good idea to migrate from your ordinary site to a CMS (content management system). 

Simply “having a website” is not enough to succeed in today’s highly competitive online market. In the contrary having an outdated website can do more harm for your business than good. Most of the internet users today do not like to meddle with web sites that do not appear decent or hard to navigate. They will just leave the site and look for a better alternative, thus you will use a potential customer.

The most significant feature that all these three CMS programs have in common is the ease of maintenance. Actually, the simplicity to use starts with the process of downloading any of these (WordPress, Drupal or Joomla) hosting options. It is as simple as going to the relevant website and clicking the “download” button. Moreover, while being really easy to update, the CMSs also make all the other aspects of maintaining a website very easy. Thanks to the wide variety of applications that can be installed on these CMSs, it is very simple and easy to manage, not only the posts you make, but also where and when they should be posted. And on top of all that, the communities behind all three CMSs are always ready to provide great support to any company that is looking to move their site into a CMS.

Today, a huge amount of popular websites are powered by these CMS programs. While thousands of websites, including Forbes.com and KatyPerry.com are powered by WordPress, most of the government websites, including whitehouse.gov are powered by Drupal. Joomla is also being used in many leading websites, which include the IHOP.com and Guggenheim.org. For any company’s static website, CMS programs like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla presents a number of advantages for setup and maintenance. And these options can easily help ensure a much better online presence, while also making a company’s website a lot more usable for its customers.

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Mobile Friendly Website on VPS Hosting

Since apple introduced their iPhone back in 2007, millions of people are accessing the internet via their mobile phones every day. With the introduction of the smartphone, that has amazing web browsing capabilities, every business was forced to rethink their website. If you are engaged in a business that depends on its online presence to drive income directly or indirectly, you should definitely think of making adjustments to your website in order to fit the millions of potential customers who might visit your website via mobile devices. And if you are a person who is planning your future online presence, you might want to think about making it mobile friendly before you buy VPS hosting and hosting it.

So I thought of giving you some tips on building your mobile friendly website on you VPS server.

• Create a designated mobile URL. The usual way of doing this is using your standard URL with a modification. The most common way is using the letter “m” before or after the standard URL.

Ex:

Google URL - http://www.google.com

Google mobile URL - http://www.google.com/m

• Do the designing of your website with a small screen in mind. Although PC monitors are getting bigger, mobile screens are not.
• Rethink the content. People who use the mobile phone for browsing are usually looking for useful information on the go. Typical mobile web users are not looking for shopping.
• Keep mobile consumption in the mind when organizing the content. As the mobile screens are very small, you have to organize your content in a way that requires the mobile user to minimize the scrolling experience.
• Minimize clicks.
• Limit the user inputs. It is often a frustrating experience to having to enter a lot of data to a website through a mobile device.
• Always use Java and not Flash. Java is the most mobile friendly website development platform.
• Think “vertical”. While your PC website is designed for a “horizontal” display, always make your mobile website vertically.
• Put links to your homepage and the previous page in every other page.
• Keep it simple!

Keep the above tips in your mind when designing your first mobile friendly website to host on your VPS server.

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Advantages of using VPS Hosting for Blogs

Today, there are more than 70,000,000 blogs hosted in WordPress alone. And there are about 500 million blogs worldwide and the number is increasing every day as hundreds of blogs are being hosted every day. While most of the bloggers only get few visitors every day, there are some bloggers who may get hundreds of hits per day, which would make them move forward from shared hosting. For those power bloggers, combining all their blogs and websites and hosting them on a VPS will be a way to get a higher level of performance and uptime.  

VPS hosting has a number of advantages over Shared hosting. And with WordPress, VPS hosting can bring you the advantages of dedicated hosting, but at a really lower price. Even with the most basic VPS hosting solution available on the market, power bloggers, who will get higher traffic even with few posts, can get the resources to handle that traffic.  

Advantages of VPS Blogging

One of the most important advantages of VPS hosting is getting your own IP address. And with a unique IP address, the stability and the reliability of your site gets increased. You won’t be affected by any of the actions of the other users who are also hosted in the same server.  

Another advantage is the higher level of privacy and security. With the new Hyper-V technology, Virtual Private Servers can now offer the level of security as of the security level of a dedicated server. So even if someone in the same server gets hacked, your server will still be safe and sound. And since you get root access along with full administrative rights, you have total control over the content hosted on the server.  

Customization is another advantage you get with VPS hosting. VPSs are almost as customizable as dedicated servers. And you can install all the apps and software packages, including WordPress, with the use of a platform like websitePannel.

The reason why VPSs are often referred to as VDSs (Virtual Dedicated Servers) is their ability to provide each user with dedicated resources. It can offer you dedicated RAM, CPU, disk space and bandwidth. And only a predetermined number of VPSs will be installed on one physical server, and you can update or reboot your VPS at anytime you want without affecting any other user in the same physical server.  

With Virtual Private Servers, a single user can never get away with all the bandwidth and/or any other resources because all the VPSs are allocated with its own resources and are not sharing the resources, like on a Shared host.  However, the resources are also scalable, which means that any user can upgrade their resources on the fly. With VPS hosting anyone can experience swifter upload times and reduced latency even with higher traffic levels.  

Another added advantage of VPS hosting is multi blog or multi site hosting. With VPS, bloggers can host multiple websites or blogs on their servers, like Joomla, WordPress, Drupal or Movabletype. With the ability to make use of several software platforms on a single server, bloggers get the capability of expanding their offers without reducing the quality.

With VPS hosting bloggers can make sure that they don’t miss out on potential customers or site visitors, which might go away if your site is loading slowly or is not working to its best possible capacity that would occur if they use Shared hosting. So when any blogger notices an increase of their traffic or has to manage a big number of blogs at once, it might be the time to move to VPS hosting.

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Create a Hyper-V Cluster in SCVMM 2012 through Failover Cluster Manager

The “System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012” (SCVMM2012) is a management solution for the virtualized datacenter. It allow you to configure and manage your virtualization host, networking, and storage resources.

Using SCVMM2012 console you can create a cluster easily. Following steps will teach you how to do it without additional networking skills.

First you need to login to an Administrator account to create the Cluster Computer Object in the AD.

Process

In the main menu of Administrator Window, click on Create and go to Hyper-V Cluster and select Create Hyper-V Cluster. 

Enter a Cluster Name under General Tab and select Use and existing Run As account. For any failure with a cluster in Windows 2008 R2, you will require an Admin Account to add the Cluster name Computer Object into the domain. It will also create a DNS.

In this step you need to select the Host group and here we are using Hyper-V as the host where our hosts are located.

Now you can select your Host to Cluster. In the below image you can see two Hosts we have added.

If you are planning to add a new node or if you assured that the nodes are fine, you can select the check box “Skip Cluster Validation Tests”

Here you will need to add a Cluster IP address. 

Out of all your disks, you may select one to cluster. In the below image you can see disks and it is depend on your machine.

In this step, VMM will automatically create an external Virtual Network. Simply click on Next to proceed.

Now you can see all the details of your cluster. Review them and click on Finish.

You can see the progress with more details of your clusters.

If you have direct attached disk, you may receive issues similar to below image. 

At least, you can see your 2 node clusters created using SCVMM 2012.

You should give some priority to this step. If you are using this cluster for a Lab or Training environment you may use “0” as the cluster reserve (nodes).

You can see the link to your Cluster Validation Test under Status Tab.

If you need to see the report, visit C:\WIndows\Cluster\Reports and you will find a MHTML file.

This report is similar to if you run the Validate Cluster through Failover Cluster Manager.

Clusters you have not selected can be seen under Available Storage Tab. You can convert available disks as CSV at any time.  

Have a look at the status of your jobs

Disks you have converted as CSV can be seen at Shared Volumes Tab. 

Visit Virtual Network Tab to see your virtual network details and in the below image you can see that the External Network process was completed.

Right Click on one of your Hosts to see more options you can proceed related to clusters.

You may need to do this process through Failover Cluster Manager to become success

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A Sporty Coupe By Any Other Name: The 2017 Toyota 86

The 2017 Toyota 86.

For five years, you have seen a car that looks like the one above carrying a badge identifying it as a Scion FR-S, or perhaps a Subaru BRZ.   The shuttering of Scion as Toyota's youth brand resulted in a product shuffle, with the FR-S becoming the Toyota 86 (which was its name globally) for 2017.

2017 Toyota 86.

This is, however, not a simple re-badging.  The 2017 Toyota 86 is freshly restyled, with a larger, more aggressive center air intake, standard LED headlamps, new daytime running lights and turn signals, new taillamps and more sculpted front and rear bumpers.

And, if you are among the minority of drivers who can drive, let alone prefer, a manual transmission, there is a performance bonus.  Stick with the stick and there's a differential gear ratio change and revised engine tuning you won't get with the automatic. That results in more torque and an additional five horsepower---205 versus 200 in the automatic model.

Neither of those numbers is earth-shattering, but in a small, light coupe, the power is more than adequate.  And the Toyota 86's strong suit is its handling.  That has been enhanced as well, with revised spring tuning and a shock rate change.

2017 Toyota 86 interior.

Inside, you'll find the "86" logo on the new soft-feel trim on the dashboard.  Toyota calls it "Granlux". The seats have silver stitching.

About the seats.  You will see there is a back seat.  However, without putting the driver and/or front passenger entirely too close to the dashboard air bags, there simply is no legroom back there.  It may have four safety harnesses, but the 86 is, as a practical matter, a two-seater.

EPA fuel economy estimates have slid from last year's 22 city/30 highway to 21 and 28, respectively. And the base price has gone up from $25,305 to $26,255.  With zero options and $865 delivery processing and handling fee, the as-tested price came to $27,120.

Our Publisher and Executive Editor has always written in glowing terms about the Scion FR-S,  calling it the "45 years later equivalent to the original Datsun 240Z."  That's pretty much on the money.  Drivers who appreciate drivers' cars should thank Toyota for keeping this one alive and improving on the original.

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The Humble Giant: Terry Page 1950-2017

Terry Page.

The automotive world lost a visionary, a major player and a truly nice guy last weekend.  Terry Page, the founder of Page One Automotive, a Bay Area-based company that, in addition to providing event services, is one of only a handful that manages and maintains manufacturer vehicle press fleets and handles the logistics of getting them from one automotive journalist to another so you can read about them, passed away of cancer at the far too young age of 66.

Terry revolutionized the way guys like me get the cars you read about.  Time was, each manufacturer maintained their own fleets and hired several someones ( often individual people) to manage it for them.  Terry was handling it for Ford in Northern California more than 30 years ago when he realized there was a better way for everyone involved.  I said Page One was one of a handful...it was also the pioneer. Roughly half of the thousand or so cars reviewed in the eight and a half years of TireKicker's existence thus far have come to us through Page One.

Terry was also a major and early supporter of Western Automotive Journalists, the Northern California professional association of automotive journalists, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.  When I relocated TireKicker World Headquarters to Northern California in the fall of 2013, I joined WAJ and three weeks later, found myself sharing a table with Terry at the annual holiday party.  We've bumped into each other at events since, and chatted a bit.  Many people knew him far better than I did, but every single one of us has the same bottom line:  Unfailingly kind, smart, gracious and open.

If you've never heard of Terry, that's because, to Terry, it was never about him.  The photo you see above is the one on the internet...from Page One's own website, in the smallest resolution (250x250) possible.  And I'll bet that's exactly what Terry wanted.  It was about the work, the product, the people he served and the people he employed, not him.

I have the good fortune of working fairly closely with his people in both the Bay Area and Phoenix, and to say they're devastated by the news of Terry's passing would be putting it mildly.  There are too few like him in any business.  I'm thankful I was able to meet him, and get to know him a little.  I wish I'd known him better.

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The Optimal Optima? The 2017 Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid

The 2017 Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid.

I am rapidly becoming a fan of plug-in hybrids.  Here's my reasoning:

Pure electrics can leave you stranded, or at the very least, unable to get where you need to go as quickly as you could with a gasoline-powered car.

Gasoline-electric hybrids use gasoline and pollute the air for at least part of most trips.

A plug-in hybrid gives you a certain amount of pure electric range before switching into hybrid mode...meaning it's at least possible, depending on your commute and other trips, to not use a single drop of gas or put a particle of tailpipe emissions into the atmosphere for days, weeks or longer.

2017 Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid charging port.

The 2017 Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid is based on a car we certainly like a lot, the Kia Optima.  Its 103 MPGe EPA rating is only two less than the all-electric Kia Soul EV.  That gets the Optima Plug-In Hybrid an immediate 7th-place ranking on the TireKicker's Top 10 Fuel Savers list on the right-hand side of this page.  And its price is in the sweet spot for vehicles of this type: $35,210.

2017 Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid Eco gauge.

Upsides?  It's larger (and less controversially styled) than the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime.  It's roomier than the 2017 Chevrolet Volt.

Downsides?  While the Optima Plug-In offers 29 miles per charge of pure EV function, it isn't really pure EV.  If it thinks conditions warrant, it will switch to hybrid mode and kick in the gasoline engine.  The Prius Prime only has 25 miles range, but it is pure EV and works at speeds up to 84 miles per hour.  And the Volt shames both with a pure EV range of 53 miles. 

A more direct comparison, both in terms of size and range, might be the Ford Fusion Energi.  The Optima beats the Fusion Energi in MPGe rating (103 to 99),  because the Fusion Energi only has 22 miles of pure EV range to the Optima Plug-In Hybrid's 29.

But.

Getting that 29 miles of range on household current takes more than nine hours of charging.  The Fusion gets a full charge in five. 

An odd thing about the Optima Plug-In:  We could never get the range indicator to read 29.  Even after a lengthy charge, 27 was the highest number it would display.  Usually it was 26.  But actually driving it produced a different result.  The office for my day job is 25 miles from home.  I'd arrive with 9 miles worth of range remaining, which would last for 15 miles of the return trip.  In that sense, the Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid under-promised and over-delivered, which isn't a bad thing.

With the help of the EV range, a week's worth of driving, including a trip from Folsom to Napa and back (164 miles), wound up at 54.5 miles per gallon.  Which is stellar performance for this size class.

All told, I'd have to say the 2017 Kia Optima Plug-In Hybrid is a strong choice, but not a category-killer.  I wouldn't bet against the next generation.

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Unlikely Object of Desire: The 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L Plus

The 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L Plus.

If you want proof of the power of peer pressure, look no further than the minivan.  More useful than sedans or most SUVs for most American drivers, filled with convenience touches other vehicles do not or cannot provide and configurable in everything from base-level family hauler to near-private jet luxury, they are uncool.

Why?  Because everyone says so.

The one vehicle that could turn that around is the Chrysler Pacifica.

2017 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L Plus.

Eight months ago, when the Pacifica was just arriving in dealer showrooms, I wrote a review of the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Touring that said Chrysler has raised the bar for minivans.  Now we see how you can raise the bar by going up a couple of trim levels.   For the Touring is one level up from the base LX.  This time, we drove the Touring L Plus---one level down from the top-of-the-line Limited and two levels above Touring.

By choosing Touring L Plus, the basics of the 3.6-liter V6 and nine-speed automatic transmission remain the same, as does the EPA-estimated 18 miles per gallon city/28 miles per gallon highway.  What changes is the level of standard equipment, as you add leather-trimmed seats, a power liftgate, heated front and second-row seats, three-zone automatic climate control, Uconnect Theater---which is sadly, maddeningly and confusingly not compatible with Apple products---a 13-speaker Alpine audio system and an 8.4-inch color touchscreen for the infotainment system.  All for a base price of $37,895.

2017 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L Plus interior.

Unlike last summer's test vehicle, which had only the power liftgate as optional equipment, this Touring L Plus came with almost six thousand dollars in extra-cost options:

• Hands-free sliding doors and liftgate ($795).
• 20-speaker Harmon Kardon Sound group including a 760-watt amplifier ($995).
• The tire and wheel group, with 18-inch aluminum painted satin silver wheels, all-season tires and a touring suspension ($895).
• The Advanced Safetytec Group, consisting of front and rear park assist with stop, a 360-degree camera system, parallel and perpendicular park assist with stop, adaptive cruise control with stop and go, full speed forward collision warning , lane departure warning, rain-sensitive windshield wipers, automatic high beams and advanced brake assist ($1,995).
• Uconnect 8.4 Nav, which is navigation bundled with HDRadio, SiriusXM Traffic and SiriusXM Travel Link ($695).

With $995 destination charge, the as-tested price came to $44,265, a price that is competitive with other high-content minivans.  The difference is that the Pacifica is seductive.  Drive it and you will find yourself saying just how nice it is, how well it drives and how you could actually see yourself owning a minivan. Say it to enough people and we might see peer pressure swing the other way.

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Old Faithful: The 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander GT S-AWC

The 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander GT.

Sixteen months ago, I wrote about how the Mistubishi Outlander GT, despite winning on value arguments, was rapidly showing its age.  I stand by that review.  But I also have a renewed appreciation for the Outlander GT, what it can do, and how (comparatively) little it costs.

2017 Mitsubishi Outlander GT.

As usual, deeper appreciation comes with experience.  In this case, it was an overnight trip from Folsom (suburban Sacramento) to Reno, Nevada...to see Stevie Nicks and the Pretenders open the second leg of their tour (Mrs. TireKicker's Christmas present).

With two concert tickets purchased back in December, plus a non-refundable night in a hotel room in the Biggest Little City in the World, actually getting over the Sierra in February was a priority.  Those of you who live elsewhere may have seen in the news that California's long-running drought has come to an abrupt halt---with record rain and snow.

Folsom to Reno (source: Google Maps).

It's worth remembering that the route to Reno takes you over Donner Pass, named for the Donner Party, only half of whom made it to California in 1847 (allegedly by eating the other half to stay alive).  They were trapped in a snowstorm---and it was only late October.   Here's what noon on February 23 looked like at the town closest to Donner Pass...Truckee, California:

Snow in Truckee, CA.

There were chain controls in effect for about 25 miles of our journey, but fortunately, the California Highway Patrol allowed four-wheel-drive vehicles with mud and snow tires...and that means our Outlander GT S-AWC (all-wheel control) was good to go.  With heated seats and steering wheel, automatic wipers and lights and a seemingly bottomless windshield washer reservior (filled with freeze-resistant washer fluid), we were able to just relax and enjoy the beauty.

2017 Mitsubishi Outlander GT interior.

The base price of the 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander GT S-AWC is $31,695.  That brings a lengthy list of standard equipment, including a great-sounding nine-speaker 710-watt Rockford Fosgate audio system, Apple Car Play, the aforementioned heated seats, micron-filtered climate control, 18-inch alloy wheels and a power glass sunroof.

The one option package our tester had was the same one in last year's car...the GT Touring Package (multi-view camera system, forward collision mitigation, adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, automatic highbeams and the heated steering wheel)...but the price on that package has been slashed from $3,350 to $1,500.   And that meant the bottom line for this year's car (with $895 destination and handling charges) was less than last year's....$34,090....which only strengthens the Mitsu's value argument.

Yes, a six-cylinder engine and six-speed transmission is old-think and only returns so-so mileage (EPA estimate 20 city/27 highway), and yes, most of the Outlander GT says "2011" instead of "2017".  But you'll be hard pressed to find a three-row, all-wheel drive SUV with this level of equipment for $34,000...heck, even $40,000...anywhere else.

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