Our "own" car reviews

Well, I don't have an MP3-player (no, my cellphone doesn't have one, too) nor does the radio have a standard USB-connection (at least I didn't find it), and for two hours you can bear the various radio stations we have here (if you can reach the stations...). In my car I have a radio (head unit, whatever you want to call it) which is to my liking.

bit late replying to this... I just thought it was odd that you commented on the radio reception.... I can't remember the last time I played an actual CD, let alone when I listed to radio in the car

at home or at work some radio just as background noise is fine, but in the car it's MP3s for me all the time
 
Was able to ride a few times in my friend's C63 AMG and Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8. Where do I start?

2010 C63 AMG
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OMG the noise. Acceleration is brutal, handling is really good (he ran it on a few Auto-X events already), but the ride quality does not suffer. It's very compliant and never too harsh. Cabin noise is minimal too which is typical mercedes benz. The car is quiet when cruising around town and on the highway, but opens up really loud when you gun it. Seats are awesome, but im kinda thin so bigger guys might find it too tight. Fuel economy? Forget it. The audio system is also decent with clear highs and mids but somewhat lacking in bass. In terms of reliability, he's had the car since feb2010 and it hasn't had any problems so far. He's been using it 2-3x per week and brings it out of town so it gets pretty good mileage in.

2008 jeep grand cherokee SRT8
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He sold this car late last year but we really had a blast using it. Even ran it on the race track. But as expected, body control is terrible and the brakes faded after just 1 lap (but we were 5 in the car). Interior is typical american quality, but really you buy the car for its engine and uniqueness factor (very few had these in my country). Again, forget about fuel economy, but this thing is DARN FAST. We tested it against his C63 on the strip and the Jeep WON! The amg started catching up after 180kph but we already had to brake by then. This really surprised us.
 
Rented a Giulietta JTDm in Italy and drove it from Milan to Nurburgring and back in 4 days. 2200 KM

Here is the thread in my local Alfa club board,
http://www.alfistizone.com/viewthread.php?tid=7016

And here is a copy and paste of my review from that thread.

Hello all.

I am in the final part of my trip now. Currently in Milan.
Had a great time with my Giulietta 2.0 JTDm.
We did well over 2000KM, thru Italy, Swiss and Germany.

Here is a small review.

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I Took my car once I got off a train from Swiss to Milano. It was a White Giulietta 2.0 JTDm, 6 speed manual, without glassroof, without leather seats and without the LCD infodisplay (which I really wanted to play with. )

Its a Diesel with 168Bhp, so not really an impressive number, I drove it and pretend it to be the 1.4TB version. with a 30+KG weight in the front.
I am not going to Lie to you that every corner of the car looks beautiful. The front of the car and the headlights, to me, is just plain awful. Audi like LEDs in an Alfa is exactly what i do not want to see.

The rear end however, is another story. I am very happy to see the 156/147 styled rear door handles, and the whole rear is beautiful.

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I took it out into the swiss alps in a foggy rainy saturday morning.
The feeling was great. The Diesel however, is rubbish. I am not going into detail on how bad the diesel is, because we are not getting the diesel in HK anyways. but its rubbish.
it is using hte same DNA and electronic steering rubbish that i am familiar with in the Mito. However they did do something to the software in Dynamic mode, and the throttle response in D mode is very very good. Just excatly how i wanted it.
The steering, lets be honest, cannot be compared to the Delta or the 155 or the older models, Electronic steering really took a lot of information out, however it is still usable. Feedback is still there although not as much as I hoped.

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The dashboard is excatly like a Mito. (will add photoes tomorrow)
But they putted in a shift assist logo in it telling you when to shift.
HOWEVER, its not telling you when is a good time to shift to maintain maximum power output,
its telling you when to shift to maintain maximum GAS MILEAGE. Just... WHAT?!
The brakes of the car are not sporty, lets face it, its only a rubbish clamp, but its good enough for the power.
The car is heavy. 1400KG for the diesel model, 1350 for the 1.4s. However i did not feel any understeer at all. very natural car, even with a heavy rubbish diesel engine in the font.
On the German Autobahn, I maxed out at 215KM/H. The car is very very stable in that speed, it is not like my 155 where it felt like everything is falling apart at speed, and I even did a emergency turn to avoid hitting a eagle (yes, an low flying EAGLE on the autobahn) at 180KM/H and there is no drama.

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The car feels BIG. it felt bigger then my old 156. maybe because its LHD and i am not very used to it, but it really felt big.
The boot space is huge. Fitted 2 25 inches luggage flat in and a large one on top, so i am impressed.
The rear legroom is, well.. acceptable. but could be better. I can fit in no problem even with the front seat in my driving position, and i am a 6 feet tall 185 lbs fat guy.
But is it comfortable? well....
As for the ride itself, its very very very smooth. I think it could be harder (and maybe it will be harder in the cloverleaf) but it rides out the bump perfectly.
But up in the swiss alps, i really hoped that it is a little harder.


Overall it is a very good car, and it is nothing like the Mito. I thought it is going to be a 4 door slightly bigger Mito when i first got it, but i was very wrong.
Will i get one? Yes i am sure i will. I am still very very eager to test the 1750 TBi engine and their new TcT gearbox.
Saw several Cloverleaf version on the Nurburgring and it seems pretty natural even on track.
The one big downside of the car, not counting the diesel engine, is the start & stop system. Its those rubbish system where the car cuts the engine when u are in N and off the clutch.
Its rubbish. lucky there is a big switch in the middle of the car to turn it off. But you will get a permanent warning light on the dashboard.
Like all Alfas, its not very very fast, but it felt good.
 
so.... apparently the electric smart done broke itself (some weird explanation about how a smaller, less powerful battery pack would make it run better as a opposed to the powerful one it now has.... yeah whatever).... Meaning I'm now running around in a new Citroen C3 1.4 diesel.

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Exterior is better than the egg shaped old C3, but too fussy and overly creative to me. Especially the rear end screams "look at us Frenchies, we're so cute and young and funky and modern, look at all the wavy lines!"....

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The interior on the other hand, was suprisingly good. Not the plasticky mess I was expecting. I even liked the orange mood lighting

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It even had some decent bootspace, although the rear seats are way too small for grownups...

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Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the seats & driving position. Even with the seats all the way down and all the way back, it still feels you're riding on top of the car rather than being inside. Having a steering wheel that can't be adjusted in any way does not help...

At first I thought the rear visibility was awful....

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Until I found out you could do this...

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Which is good in a practical sort of way I guess. My car can't lower the headrests that low anyways, so it was new to me.

The ride itself is weird, because even for a Citroen the damping is extremely soft. You can literally take any bump or speedbump at any speed without feeling anything. It also had the loosest steering I've ever felt, I'm talking 0,00 feedback to what the wheels are doing. While I get that this makes the car very comfortable and easy to park, it also makes it very dull and uninspiring to drive....

It has such long springs and soft dampers that the first time I cornered at anything over walking pace it almost felt like it was going to tip over. Hit any tiny bump at any speed over 30 kph and you have instant understeer. it was also unstable when braking on bumpy roads, activating the ABS far too early etc.

While these things would annoy me more on my daily driver, it was sort of OK on this car, since it's a Citroen, and it's not the type of car that asks you to race it...

Which is a good thing. I have no idea how many hp the engine is supposed to make(70 according to the site, but it seems they're lying... they're french afterall)
It is just not sufficient for swift and safe overtakes.

Motorway driving is especially boring because of this, and it sometimes felt like a sensory depravation tank : no feeling through the suspension, no feeling through the steering wheel, no power to accelerate above highway speed.... I just set the cruise control and wafted home....

So because of this I had a lot of time to play with the stereo system. For once I was overloaded with choices, radio, CD, USB or Aux in.

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I noticed no difference in sound quality between USB and Aux in, which was surprising, and the sound quality itself was fine, if not perfect. More than impressed for what is basically just the standard radio.

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They even thought about where to put everything so it's out of your way : down by the handbrake you have a slot for both, as well as a cigarette lighter (which I used to power the satnav). Good thinking that they're both accessible but also not in your way like on other cars

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They even thought of a place to put your MP3 player when it won't play nicely with the USB in (like mine, of course) : inside the armrest. Good points yet again

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Other minor niggles include a big display on the center screen that always told you what gear you were supposed to be in, although it did understand that if you floored it, you weren't interested in fuel economy. In this example it wants me to choose 4th, even though I'm doing just over 50 kph....

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It never once told me I was in too high a gear though, not even at 40 kph in 5th.

I also didn't understand why the rear windows had to be split into one big and one tiny piece, and why they chose to leave out those hook thingies for hanging your coat...Saving money much?

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In conclusion : I understand this car's point, but it's not for me. Perhaps if the styling is to your liking, you don't care at all about driving, and just want to get from A to B, this is the car for you. All driving enthusiasts who are looking for a car this size : look at a VW Polo or perhaps a Fiesta.
 
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Should be 75 horsepower, unless we measure HP differently. Considering only the stripper (Attraction) sells without height adjustable telescoping steering wheel, it's pretty well equipped. Altough selling any car without adjustable telescopic wheel is terribly cheap.
 
Altough selling any car without adjustable telescopic wheel is terribly cheap.

true, I thought I was just being dumb and not finding it, but after checking the manual (how unmanly, but it was driving me crazy) I noticed it was just impossible

also, who sells their cars without these :
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also, who sells their cars without these :

None at all? That's terribly cheap. Automatic airconditioning but no wheel adjustment and no oh-shit handles is a very strange spec. Good it's a Citro?n, they can blame their inconsequenciality on being prone to frenchness. Volvo doesnt have any oh-shit handles on the driver side, because they don't want the driver to hang on to the jesus-christ handle and the wheel. GM however does not care, and puts them in all over, as you probably know :)
 
None at all? That's terribly cheap. Automatic airconditioning but no wheel adjustment and no oh-shit handles is a very strange spec. Good it's a Citro?n, they can blame their inconsequenciality on being prone to frenchness. Volvo doesnt have any oh-shit handles on the driver side, because they don't want the driver to hang on to the jesus-christ handle and the wheel. GM however does not care, and puts them in all over, as you probably know :)

Our Astra has a sunglasses holder where the handle on the drivers side should be. But the Commodore has a handle, so I don't think GM has much uniformity :p
 
At least they have "let's put something in" uniformity. On the other hand I hear people on the internet forget they took out their sunglasses from the holder and scratches their head on it when they exit. Besides, GM probably knows we haven't heard of the sun in this country. But for Australia I think it would make sense to replace all handles with sunglasses holders (and gunracks). :D
 
But for Australia I think it would make sense to replace all handles with sunglasses boomerang holders (and gunracks). :D

FTFY :D
 
Also I must point out I'm a complete liar, there are handles for the driver in Volvos too (except when there aren't).
 
You know I prefer the driver to NOT having to grab hold of the oh God handles when driving, there is a reason they are called oh God handles....
 
Even my elchepo Saturn has grabhandles above the doors, the passenger's is retractable to boot! That was a pretty rare feature in a American car back in the day.
 
I like me some damped grab handles. The Astra does it well. In the Commodore on the other hand, the handles retract like they're trying to bitch slap the ceiling. In my car it's more of a limp wristed slap, being French and not really trying.
 
I like me some damped grab handles. The Astra does it well. In the Commodore on the other hand, the handles retract like they're trying to bitch slap the ceiling. In my car it's more of a limp wristed slap, being French and not really trying.

:lol: Mine's sorta spring loaded...but it doesn't flip up (or down like some current GM products: Imagine your standard retracting grab handle just mounted upside down...why...) but retracts in and out...I'll take a pic next time I'm bothered. I do agree that grab handles (along with glove box doors) should be damped. :nod:
 
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These work better for that because they don't wobble around. :lol:
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There's another in front for the passenger too. Good thing as the car is very rolly-polly
 
Review:

Brand new 2011 Honda Jazz Hybrid
https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2011/06/29/1_out.JPG

1.3 Liters, 88hp, 10,3kW electric motor, automatic transmisson, 1250kg, (22000 Euros)

Simply by reading and combining these numbers above you just know how awesome this car is. - If you are 70 years old. - Which I'm not.

But the manager at the Honda dealership decided to give me this brand new wagon for a day while they went at my own Honda banger for a full service and to bolt a new exhaust in.

The car was so new infact that I had to drive it off the sales display ramp. It had only a couple of kilometers on the clock and that typical smell inside only truly new cars have.

First impression: It's green. And not just from outside. No, inside too. Some big green "Eco" button and green LE-lights. And I haven't seen the brochure for this car, but I bet that one has a lot of green too. In colours and words, for sure.

Pro:
  • It's very compact, there isn't much car outside of the glass panels.
  • At 110km/h the engine is only at around 2800rpm, it's clear the car is optimized for exactly this speed.
  • Steering is very light. - I'm used to old bangers and abused company cars with first-generation power steering, so for me a steering this light was almost comical. - I feared a 90 degree direction shift into a wall just by sneezing.
  • The roof is simply just one large glass panel. - Awesome.
  • The automatic engine shut-down works very well. Two seconds after a standstill and the engine is off, and it comes on again in an instant, after the first few times I didn't even noticed this anymore. - Very refined technology.
  • It's probably very frugal with petrol. If you like to brag about how "green" you are, the low numbers you would brag on about could actually be true. :lol:

Contra:
  • In relation to it's small motor(s) it's very heavy, driver and petrol included this thing weighs more than 1.3 tons. The car is so heavy it can't drive with the electric motor alone. At least it never did when I drove it. - And I truly tried. I can be gentle if I want to.
  • At 140km/h the engine is up to almost at 6000rmp, so anything above 120km/h is pure torture for the car, the driver and the drivers ears especially.
  • If you drive carefully all the dashboard lighting is cutsy green, but if you push it a little everything goes to light blue, and if you push it a lot it goes to full dark blue - That's fancy for the first two minutes, but annoying for the rest of the cars life, especially when it's dark outside.
  • Stiff ride and seats without much comfort.
  • The dashboard is a overdesigned mess of edges and circles, the main dials are inside too deep and too reflective tubes.
  • A, B, C,D and E pillars. That's a lot of plastic and metal where some glass would be nice instead. - I know, safety first, but still.
  • Damm ugly car keys, it's a ridiculously oversized blob like most modern keys. Come on car makers, minimize these things, FFS.

https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2011/06/29/2_dash.JPG

https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2011/06/29/3_dials.JPG

https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2011/06/29/4_roof.JPG

https://pic.armedcats.net/l/li/lipadier/2011/06/29/5_roof.JPG


Would I buy it? - No. Hell no. :D
Greetings, lip
 
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Foot down, dials go dark blue, but the car doesn't accelerate at all? What was the fuel consumption at the end of the test drive? 6.5 seems a lot for such a car. My heavy diesel gets better than that.
 
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