lip
Well-Known Member
^
He said "classy". That's ok. - If he uses the word "good", the car is doomed.
He said "classy". That's ok. - If he uses the word "good", the car is doomed.
Our "own" car reviews
- Thread starter NooDle
- Start date
NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
Automatic tailgate is good when your hands are full of shopping so you can just have it open automatically without having to put the groceries down, look for the key, etc.
VW and Ford have this cool 'wave your foot below the car' feature that also triggers the boot, which is awesome from a practical standpoint.
VW and Ford have this cool 'wave your foot below the car' feature that also triggers the boot, which is awesome from a practical standpoint.
samulis
Active Member
So, I've been taking care of this fellow for last few weeks.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5617/22005994348_c43e7da6cd_c.jpg
Great car, way way better than my old Westfield. It has two litre opel/vauxhall twincam with itb's and exhuast manifold, silencer's wool is quite dead as it pop's and bangs a bit. Seats are carbonfiber and really comfy, if you fit that is. You enter into car by climbing through roll cages top and drop in.
Suspension is very good, while normal driving it is, well if not soft, really suprisingly comfortable. But still it handles like on rails and takes bumps with no drama. Grip level is high, thanks to R500 special tyres. Accelerating is breath taking (pun intended), in gear pull is very fast and even in town, pulling in fifth it feels really torque monster, thanks to it's light weight. Heating, non existing. Wind buff and noise isnt really bad, no more than in Miata, wind hits face in eye height and thanks to half doors there is no "normal to seven" wind blow from front and down. Steady front wind like in naked bike. Everything that looks carbon, is carbon, so it is light.
Great, fun car.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5617/22005994348_c43e7da6cd_c.jpg
Great car, way way better than my old Westfield. It has two litre opel/vauxhall twincam with itb's and exhuast manifold, silencer's wool is quite dead as it pop's and bangs a bit. Seats are carbonfiber and really comfy, if you fit that is. You enter into car by climbing through roll cages top and drop in.
Suspension is very good, while normal driving it is, well if not soft, really suprisingly comfortable. But still it handles like on rails and takes bumps with no drama. Grip level is high, thanks to R500 special tyres. Accelerating is breath taking (pun intended), in gear pull is very fast and even in town, pulling in fifth it feels really torque monster, thanks to it's light weight. Heating, non existing. Wind buff and noise isnt really bad, no more than in Miata, wind hits face in eye height and thanks to half doors there is no "normal to seven" wind blow from front and down. Steady front wind like in naked bike. Everything that looks carbon, is carbon, so it is light.
Great, fun car.
Last edited:
NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
It's also awesome that the feature sometimes open the boot by itself
According to a dude I spoke to, that cannot happen, as it sensors need both a foot UNDER the car as a leg BEHIND it in order to operate.
Otherwise every stray cat that's underneath your car would just open and close your boot for fun.
What's the power figure with ITBs?
samulis
Active Member
Previous engine had +225hp, this is bit under 200hp. Previous engine exploded on European tour and new used was bought from junkyard and installed over night.
Hbriz
Ballroom Blitz
I'm sure it could still happen. I was driving with a work colleague who has an A45 AMG. He said one day the collision prevention stuff is just scary, and he turned it all off permanently after he was driving down the road and it went into full collision mitigation mode, slamming the brakes on, lifting up the seat and tightening the seat belt. Something managed to set off the system to think it was about to hit a car in front, but there was nothing there.
AiR
Forum Addict
Swedish auto magazine ViB had their 2015 VW Passat (they actually buy cars to test) open the boot by itself three times while parked and locked. Yeah not supposed to do that but what the car should do and what it actually does is two different things when it comes to VW as we know :lol:
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Wanna get high?
Another from the series of "Craig rents different things than the rest of you". :lol:
Skyjack SJ6826-RT
What can you say about this thing? It goes up, it goes down, it drives around at a rather slow speed and it steers with a toggle switch.
Power is provided by a gasoline Kubota engine. Watch when you lift the engine cover that it doesn't smack you in the face when you undo the latch. Not that I'd know that from personal experience.
Plenty of warnings. I ignored most of them.
This shot reminds me I need to review the ambulance at some point...
Bottom line? If you need to throw a pumpkin from a great height (filled with candy, for the kids) this will do it...
Another from the series of "Craig rents different things than the rest of you". :lol:
Skyjack SJ6826-RT
What can you say about this thing? It goes up, it goes down, it drives around at a rather slow speed and it steers with a toggle switch.
Power is provided by a gasoline Kubota engine. Watch when you lift the engine cover that it doesn't smack you in the face when you undo the latch. Not that I'd know that from personal experience.
Plenty of warnings. I ignored most of them.
This shot reminds me I need to review the ambulance at some point...
Bottom line? If you need to throw a pumpkin from a great height (filled with candy, for the kids) this will do it...
Perc
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
I've driven a machine like this! Not this exact one, but a similar one and with a 1-cylinder diesel. Some guys did some roof repairs at work and left the thing in the worst possible spot when they decided to not show up for a couple of days.
This was of course a good thing?, because I suddenly got a reason to figure out how to start it and drive it around for a bit. I was not too fond of the emergency stop button on the bottom half. I can just imagine a prankster pushing it, leaving you stranded in the sky.
This was of course a good thing?, because I suddenly got a reason to figure out how to start it and drive it around for a bit. I was not too fond of the emergency stop button on the bottom half. I can just imagine a prankster pushing it, leaving you stranded in the sky.
NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
I've got a brand spanking new Superb at my disposal today, with the right engine and gearbox combo (2.0 TDI + DSG box). I've heard only good things so I expect nothing less than perfection....review to follow
IceBone
Blue Wheel Hipster
Are you sure you've only heard nothing but good things about a VAG TDI engine?
luokyio
Merc Maniac
GRtak
Forum Addict
narf
Sgt. Maj. Buzzkill
NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
The Superb review
The Superb review
So, a new Superb nearly exactly one year after driving the "old" model.
I only drove it for a very short while, and as you'd expect it's much of the same thing, just better in about every way.
Exterior :
Evolution rather than revolution, but that's not a bad thing. The old Skoda was a bit too soft looking and was aging a bit. Had a bit of old granddad whiff, which is gone with the new one.
Front end looks a bit sleeker and more aggressive, I do like the more pointy nose and sharper mirrors, which now have brighter than the sun LEDs in them.
Nice wheels too, good looking and despite them being 18"s, they didn't ruin the ride.
Interior
Again, same story here. It feels very familiar compared to the old one, nice soft touch materials, a deliciously light and soft steering wheel, and nice materials for the seats aswell. This one had some alcantara type cloth that I wouldn't have chosen personally, but I didn't mind it either.
Seats were electric and heated, so finding the ideal position (and not freezing my ass off) was easy.
Practicality (aside from stonking value for money) is one of Skoda's big selling points, and they've managed to even make it larger on the inside than it already was. Especially the rear seats excel at this, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd manage to create an echo in there.
Ridiculous boot is still ridiculous, even in regular "non Kombi" mode.
Toys
Contrary to the other one, this one came pre loaded with ALL the toys. This means : automatic cruise control, satnav, big sound system, Xenon lamps, automated parking system, rear view camera, heated seats, and pretty much everything else you could possibly think of.
Satnav is largely the same, but updated so it's much quicker to navigate.
I usually don't like the big buttons (I prefer touchscreen) but it's nice to have them there so you don't have to go back 11 menus to find the nav or the media settings. This one also featured voice control, which (for the only 2nd time ever in my experience) actually understood me!
I was farting around with it and asking silly questions, to which some actual replies came. It's not Siri, but halfway there.
The sound system was very futureproofed, as it featured more connectivity than my desktop pc! It had 2 USBs, 2 SD card readers, an aux in, a hard disk (don't know why), a DAB stereo, full bluetooth connectivity with audio streaming, and also something called a CD player.
I only tried the BT stuff and all worked fine,even displaying stuff like album art from Spotify and everything. Again, you could set it to ear piercingly loud without any issue at all.
Neat but cool feature, aside from the "dont forget your key because it's a keyless go car" warning, I got an additional "don't forget your phone" warning. They even made a specific slot to put your phone away, so that it doesn't slide around.
The automatic cruise control is absolutely brilliant, since it was an auto it worked from slightly illegal highway speeds to a dead stop and back again. You could easily set it to stay close behind whoever's in front and you really don't have to do all that much driving anymore. Confidence inspiring to say the least. This system was slightly smarter than another BMW one I tried, as it sees 2 lanes, and won't accelerate when it sees someone in the left lane going slower. Good safety feature, as it doesn't allow you to "undertake". Well, not automatically anyway.
The autopark was a simple "drive past the parking spot, wait for the beep, and then just let the car take over. As with most systems you do operate the throttle and brake, but the car does everything else. Parked nice and close to the kerb aswell....
... not that you'd need the system, as it has front and rear parking sensors, AND a camera. Still, one less thing to worry about....
Ride & Handling
Such a large and heavy car shouldn't be a rocket ship, and it wasn't, but it was just fine on the mix of roads I drove it on. It does it's best to hide its weight, and is much quieter than the old model, where the engine sometimes has a tractorry drone. Here it was supremely (or Superbly) quiet and relaxed at all times.
At the limit, of course you did see the shortcomings of FWD, as understeer rears its ugly head, but ESP did its thing (much later than I'd anticipated actually, they allow you half a second of wheelspin, which feels like it isn't much, but it is).
Supremely supple ride, I could imagine myself crossing continents in this car without ever getting tired or bored.
Engine
I got me a good one this time! 190 hp 2.0 TDI coupled to the DSG!
I think this was the 6 speed DSG since it never went into 7th, and it was slightly slower than the 7 speed, but I'm nitpicking here, it's a DSG, so it's properly good. I did miss paddles though, as I never quite got the hang of manually shifting by throwing the gearstick up and down. Oh, and coupled to the start/stop system, it sometimes took a while to get going at a red light (car turns itself on, gearbox thinks about what it's going to do for a second, and THEN it goes)....
The engine was what you'd expect, powerful and torquey enough to let you forget you're driving around in more than 2 tonnes of metal.
I'd forgotten how fun torquey diesel, engines are, and this one doesn't run out of revs like I remember the older ones doing.
Overall verdict : Still 9/10 easily.
Sure, it's a bit more expensive, coming in at around 35k? with all the toys, but at that money you're still looking at a basic A4 or 3 series, with less power. If I have to really come up with some negatives, I could say the gearbox could be a bit quicker to respond at times, it is a bit hard to see out of if you put the seat low down, and the steering wheel buttons need quite a firm push before they react.
Conclusion : the Superb has only become Superber
The Superb review
So, a new Superb nearly exactly one year after driving the "old" model.
I only drove it for a very short while, and as you'd expect it's much of the same thing, just better in about every way.
Exterior :
Evolution rather than revolution, but that's not a bad thing. The old Skoda was a bit too soft looking and was aging a bit. Had a bit of old granddad whiff, which is gone with the new one.
Front end looks a bit sleeker and more aggressive, I do like the more pointy nose and sharper mirrors, which now have brighter than the sun LEDs in them.
Nice wheels too, good looking and despite them being 18"s, they didn't ruin the ride.
Interior
Again, same story here. It feels very familiar compared to the old one, nice soft touch materials, a deliciously light and soft steering wheel, and nice materials for the seats aswell. This one had some alcantara type cloth that I wouldn't have chosen personally, but I didn't mind it either.
Seats were electric and heated, so finding the ideal position (and not freezing my ass off) was easy.
Practicality (aside from stonking value for money) is one of Skoda's big selling points, and they've managed to even make it larger on the inside than it already was. Especially the rear seats excel at this, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd manage to create an echo in there.
Ridiculous boot is still ridiculous, even in regular "non Kombi" mode.
Toys
Contrary to the other one, this one came pre loaded with ALL the toys. This means : automatic cruise control, satnav, big sound system, Xenon lamps, automated parking system, rear view camera, heated seats, and pretty much everything else you could possibly think of.
Satnav is largely the same, but updated so it's much quicker to navigate.
I usually don't like the big buttons (I prefer touchscreen) but it's nice to have them there so you don't have to go back 11 menus to find the nav or the media settings. This one also featured voice control, which (for the only 2nd time ever in my experience) actually understood me!
I was farting around with it and asking silly questions, to which some actual replies came. It's not Siri, but halfway there.
The sound system was very futureproofed, as it featured more connectivity than my desktop pc! It had 2 USBs, 2 SD card readers, an aux in, a hard disk (don't know why), a DAB stereo, full bluetooth connectivity with audio streaming, and also something called a CD player.
I only tried the BT stuff and all worked fine,even displaying stuff like album art from Spotify and everything. Again, you could set it to ear piercingly loud without any issue at all.
Neat but cool feature, aside from the "dont forget your key because it's a keyless go car" warning, I got an additional "don't forget your phone" warning. They even made a specific slot to put your phone away, so that it doesn't slide around.
The automatic cruise control is absolutely brilliant, since it was an auto it worked from slightly illegal highway speeds to a dead stop and back again. You could easily set it to stay close behind whoever's in front and you really don't have to do all that much driving anymore. Confidence inspiring to say the least. This system was slightly smarter than another BMW one I tried, as it sees 2 lanes, and won't accelerate when it sees someone in the left lane going slower. Good safety feature, as it doesn't allow you to "undertake". Well, not automatically anyway.
The autopark was a simple "drive past the parking spot, wait for the beep, and then just let the car take over. As with most systems you do operate the throttle and brake, but the car does everything else. Parked nice and close to the kerb aswell....
... not that you'd need the system, as it has front and rear parking sensors, AND a camera. Still, one less thing to worry about....
Ride & Handling
Such a large and heavy car shouldn't be a rocket ship, and it wasn't, but it was just fine on the mix of roads I drove it on. It does it's best to hide its weight, and is much quieter than the old model, where the engine sometimes has a tractorry drone. Here it was supremely (or Superbly) quiet and relaxed at all times.
At the limit, of course you did see the shortcomings of FWD, as understeer rears its ugly head, but ESP did its thing (much later than I'd anticipated actually, they allow you half a second of wheelspin, which feels like it isn't much, but it is).
Supremely supple ride, I could imagine myself crossing continents in this car without ever getting tired or bored.
Engine
I got me a good one this time! 190 hp 2.0 TDI coupled to the DSG!
I think this was the 6 speed DSG since it never went into 7th, and it was slightly slower than the 7 speed, but I'm nitpicking here, it's a DSG, so it's properly good. I did miss paddles though, as I never quite got the hang of manually shifting by throwing the gearstick up and down. Oh, and coupled to the start/stop system, it sometimes took a while to get going at a red light (car turns itself on, gearbox thinks about what it's going to do for a second, and THEN it goes)....
The engine was what you'd expect, powerful and torquey enough to let you forget you're driving around in more than 2 tonnes of metal.
I'd forgotten how fun torquey diesel, engines are, and this one doesn't run out of revs like I remember the older ones doing.
Overall verdict : Still 9/10 easily.
Sure, it's a bit more expensive, coming in at around 35k? with all the toys, but at that money you're still looking at a basic A4 or 3 series, with less power. If I have to really come up with some negatives, I could say the gearbox could be a bit quicker to respond at times, it is a bit hard to see out of if you put the seat low down, and the steering wheel buttons need quite a firm push before they react.
Conclusion : the Superb has only become Superber