Our "own" car reviews

Toyota Aygo manual rental on Menorca, had about 12tkm on the clock, I drove about 250 km.

That's an asthmatic little 1-litre 3-cylinder there with some stupid gear ratios - when you shift from 2nd to 3rd at 3000 rpm (where it already drones quite loudly so you long to put it in a higher gear) it'll drop to about 2000 where you have absolutely no power at all. I kept driving in 2nd gear up until about 65 kph, in my own car I'm already in 5th gear there and I found myself driving 90 (the speed limit there) in 3rd gear. When you shift from 1st to 2nd gear on steep hills at 40 kph after you set off it struggles to keep the speed, I didn't even had that with the 1995 Suzuki Swift Cabrio with the same amount of power and weight. Might have something to do with a cylinder and 300 ccm more...

The interior is as in any other japanese city car a sea of plastics, but at least the revcounter sticks out on the top left of the speedo as a funky touch. The seats are appaling, they don't have any support whatsoever since they are absolutely flat and the seating area is about 10 cm too short for my likings. To be fair, I might be spoilt by the sports seats with extendable seating area in my BMW... :angel:

Oh, and to top it off, for the 250 km it used 18 litres of fuel so it's 7.2l/100 km - OK, Menorca isn't flat, but I used throttle cut-off on the downhills after the uphill-sections which should account to something. For such a little snotbox that's far too much and has to do with the fact that you have to go full throttle constantly to just keep up in traffic or not slowing down on uphills...
 
Don't knock the funky little hatchback :p

A customer of mine used to call his Aygo "the Trabant" and I guess that sums up his feelings for it. :p Apparently he got it for free and decided to drive it into the ground instead of selling it. He also mentioned the appalling fuel economy you end up with when you go flat out, which you pretty much have to do to use it on any sort of freeway.

It's probably a good city car, I've never driven one. It sounds like it doesn't really belong anywhere else though.
 
Perc said:
Because I use my car to go other places besides home and work.
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Fine, then get an electric car with a proper range like a Tesla, or no home charger and a conventional engine. PHEVs don't work for inbetweeny stuff as I discovered
 
7,2 is an achievement Ive never reached in my C1. It's true it doesn't really move under 3 k rpms but there's 7000 rpms to play with, which you need to use. I use my C1 exclusively for non city traffic though, so what do I know? :lol:
 
NooDle said:
You have no control at all over how much battery or engine power you use, unlike other PHEVs...
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Pedal on the right? :tease:

More seriously, if you buy a phev without a socket on at least one end of your daily commute you're weird. It's a 12kWh battery, so work or sleep is enough for any plug to fill it up completely. No serious need for a fast charger like with a pure EV, so no installation needed in your garage.
 
There was a supercar try-out near by today. There was this:

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But then there was also this:

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I don't know about the year or mileage or anything, but I know it was a Lamborghini Gallardo, it had 520hp shouting through the huge exhausts, it had no roof and it was orange.

so...

Yep, that's me behind the wheel. My fianc?e had bought me 15 minutes with this monster :D

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What can I say, until now the most powerful cars I've driven were a V10 Touareg, an SL55 AMG and R.A's Supra, but this one gave an experience way above any of them. When pulling off the line, you press the hard accelerator down, the engine starts grumbling in a way of "Look at me, I'm leaving now.", then you press the accelerator a little lower, the engine sounds like "LOOK AT ME!" and then you press it just a little more and it starts moving. The steering feeling was very stiff but accurate and the brakes really need a push in order to work. And then they killed the speed quickly. The revs climbed quickly above ~2500rpm and then when you clicked a bigger gear into the box, the whole drivetrain said boom, the exhaust said snap crackle pop, and a bigger gear was in. The downshift was automatic.

Going on the highway was also amusing. The instructor warned me of using the first gear too much, but on second gear the car really flew past the Toyota ahead of me. Getting the revs above 3000rpm or so gave it a real, sudden push, sort of like turbo lag, and then the orange rocket woke up in a whole new way. Upshifting then made a real BOOM and a slight jerk into the acceleration. No double clutch gearbox, eh?

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The Lambo was indeed a test car, it was in quite a sad shape. The HU screen inside was scratched, the check engine-light was on and it vibrated quite a bit, but I really didn't care. After all, I did just drive an orange, drop top Lamborghini.
 
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Perc said:
I'm not surprised, not in the least. Toyota is very good at building cars with no redeeming features at all, because they know people will buy them in droves anyway. There's no excuse for a 4 speed automatic in anything made after ~00 or so.
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You can still get a Corolla with a 4 speed. In 2015. :|
 
It's a 4 speed auto that's stupid reliable and still lets the car get competitive acceleration and fuel economy numbers, though, while keeping costs down. What's the problem with that?
 
Needs more gears
 
Spectre said:
It's a 4 speed auto that's stupid reliable and still lets the car get competitive acceleration and fuel economy numbers, though, while keeping costs down. What's the problem with that?
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it could get even better acceleration and fuel economy numbers. Can't deny the reliability and likely not the cost...but damn...4-speeds sucks. My current car has less HP and torque than my old car. Both are 2.5L, but my old car was a V6 and this one is a 4cyl. Even though this new car is hundreds of lbs heavier, it feels like it has 30-50% more power due to the 6 vs 4-speed transmission. I'm also averaging (with lots of stop-and-go driving, even on the highway) almost 50% better mpg (18.9 vs 27.3mpg)
 
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Spectre said:
It's a 4 speed auto that's stupid reliable and still lets the car get competitive acceleration and fuel economy numbers, though, while keeping costs down. What's the problem with that?
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I mean I guess it's OK but just comparing it to a contemporary it looks outclassed.

Then again, if you want more mpg's, Toyota will gladly sell you a Corolla Eco/Eco Plus.
 
rickhamilton620 said:
I mean I guess it's OK but just comparing it to a contemporary it looks outclassed.
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The market for the Corolla really don't give a shit for the number of gears, just the MPGs on the sticker they produce. The Corolla is competitive. Having ridden in a coworker's, it's fine for what it is. The people who do care about the number of gears aren't likely to buy a Corolla because it's a Corolla.
 
NecroJoe said:
it could get even better acceleration and fuel economy numbers. Can't deny the reliability and likely not the cost...but damn...4-speeds sucks. My current car has less HP and torque than my old car. Both are 2.5L, but my old car was a V6 and this one is a 4cyl. Even though this new car is hundreds of lbs heavier, it feels like it has 30-50% more power due to the 6 vs 4-speed transmission. I'm also averaging (with lots of stop-and-go driving, even on the highway) almost 50% better mpg (18.9 vs 27.3mpg)
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That's not a valid comparison.
1. The Cougar was supposed to be a snarly sporty coupe. Fuel economy was a secondary or tertiary consideration.
2. You had the craptacular CD4E which was not representative of most 4 speed autos.

As for the Corolla vs your 3:


It doesn't seem to be suffering a whole lot in terms of fuel economy from having a 'mere' 4 speed. Right now Toyota needs to concentrate on reliability and price because many recent Toyota models have run into problems with both, and Hyundai is poised to eat Toyota's mainstream car lunch if Toyota slips any further.

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PelicanHazard said:
The market for the Corolla really don't give a shit for the number of gears, just the MPGs on the sticker they produce. The Corolla is competitive. Having ridden in a coworker's, it's fine for what it is. The people who do care about the number of gears aren't likely to buy a Corolla because it's a Corolla.
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Exactly this. New base Corolla buyers want a reasonably priced transport appliance that gets good MPG ratings, has adequate power, has almost no maintenance required and is as reliable as a stone axe. Driving excitement isn't even vaguely on their list of requirements.

FYI, only the very base 2015 Corolla gets the 4 speed auto. All the other ones get CVTs for autos.
 
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2015 Buick Encore. The only car named after clapping to my knowledge. :p

Also known as the Opel Mokka.
















This example has around 2,500 miles on it. It has decent power even at 4,500 ft. above sea level, transmission shifts are good. Climate control is fine(although, there's no off button, you have to press the blower down button until it shuts off), even the radio sounds good.

The way this thing feels, driving wise, it feels exactly a Chevy Cruze. Power delivery is the same way, no matter how hard you hit the gas, the car sort of surges to your throttle position rather then just going straight to it or, like Chrysler seems to, forget you hit the gas until a second later, jerking you forward. It's a weird feeling when you are sitting at an intersection and you want to make a turn across oncoming traffic. My mind was like "go go GO GO GO!"

Seats comfy and supportive. Ride quality is acceptable. Coming from Buick regardless of model(or badge engineered model), I would expect it to float or just handle bumps in a caring matter rather than just like any other crossover. The biggest issue I have with this car is the tire noise. I don't know if it has to do with the tires chosen by GM, the asphalt materials used here in Utah causing a rougher finish, or how the tires are wearing(only 2,500 miles, really?). Its a mid-high bass rumble that gets to you. It will also rattle anything in the cup holders. The tires are Continental Contipro Contact. Smoother runs of asphalt did lessen the noise but not eliminate it. That right there is a complaint I've had with newer unibody cars, any sort of tire irregularity's are transferred to the cabin creating a speaker box in a sense. The noise just radiates around you. I don't know what pre-2005 unibody cars had that newer ones don't but, for some reason those older cars take car of tire noise much better.

The chrome trim and brushed metal finish around everything, especially around the shifter can be distracting during sunny days.

This model has blind spot warning and a backup camera. The camera is an unnecessary feature for someone like me who was taught to turn and look behind you when backing up. Although, I can see why they added the camera, the C pillars are so large, you could lose a group of people or some bikers. The lane departure/blind spot system was a neat feature but not really needed if you're paying attention to the road. As soon as you flick your signals on and a car is there, it beeps at you. I'm not sure if it would go off if you didn't use a signal. I guess the orange light in the side mirrors should be enough of an indicator for you.

The Buick Intellilink (Chevy MyLink) is a breeze to use over Chrysler's U-Connect. With this Buick, for pairing my phone, all I had to say was "Pair a device" and it knew exactly what I meant, didn't bullshit me with how to add a phone or what website to go to, to see a list of pair-able devices. I swear every Chrysler car I use the phrase you use to add a phone changes. Sometimes it's "Connect phone" "pair a device" or none of those things because I wasn't in the correct menu and you have to say "help" to find the correct menu but, you must listen to the entire list of things to say before you can add your phone. Once you do get there U-Connect always says "refer to www.uconnectphone.com for a list of devices." Why are you telling me this? I didn't even need to set a priority level. It just set my phone to the first priority.

Would I own one? No, if I were to buy a Buick, it would be a nice sedan. It's too small for my tastes and the tire noise is horrendous. Whether that can be fixed with a new set of tires, I don't know but, GM should sell the car with usable tires off the lot.
 
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Bravo sir.
 
Oh yeah, fiat...
 
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