Our "own" car reviews

Being french, would the brakes have worked?
 
93Flareside;n3544597 said:
Being french, would the brakes have worked?

They did, at some point I lost the game of chicken with the truck I was quickly closing in on and braked using my own feet :driving:
 
Not owning a car at the moment meat I had to rent quite a few cars for a couple of days or a week at the time, these are some brief impressions:

Peugeot 208 PureTech 72 - 72hp, 3cyl french eco box - and I liked it. It was not bad even on the Autobahn. I even ended up liking the strange interior layout and tiny steering wheel at the end. All around positive experience.

Renault Clio 1.2 16V - not as much fun to drive as the Peugeot, but still a nice hatchback overall. Hated the navigation unity though and rear visability wasn't to my liking. Nice seats ...

Nissan Micra K14 1.0 - what a nice car ... untill it broke down 2 days into my week of renting with and unfixable fault in the electronics. Before that I liked it - apart from the navigation unit which was prob the worst I have had recently ...

To replace the broken Micra they gave me a Fiat 500. A downgrade, but it was take this or wait a day for another car. So I got a Fiat 500 Diesel. And I loved it. You can say stockholm syndrome all you want - I liked the 500 for what it is. It was my first time even being in one and I can see why these little things sell like bread. For what they are, they are quite perfect. Little funky town runarounds. Stepping into it after the Micra, it was a lot less comfy in the 500 ... but ok. If I was in the market for a city car, this would be hard to ignore.

Vw Touran - so I had 4 people to transport with luggage for a week and needed something bigger. And what I got was a fully loaded Touran with toys like DSC and ACC. I did not check, but I think it was the 1.4 petrol. The ACC is really something I adored and combined with the DSC Gearbox a real joy to drive on the autobahn with. The car did not miss a beat and I really enjoyed driving it despite being (essentially) a smal van.
 
Citro-*cough* sorry "DS Automobiles" DS3 with some diesel engine:

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It's honestly hard to tell how much I like this car due to a number of external factors. It's my first time out of the country. I have no idea what I am doing driving in Europe. And the jaw-dropping mountain roads of Verdon would make a Corolla entertaining.

But I've now done more practical driving on highways and in the city, and I feel I have a better opinion. The diesel motor isn't bad. it's satisfying to downshift into second and feel a surge of power, and it has no trouble accelerating onto the highway and making high speed passes. Definitely "enough" power in a car I thought would feel underpowered to my American senses. There are still a few quirks that take some getting used to. It sounds awful. Like it has a serious rod knock or something. Not great for windows-down cruising. The car launches very hard when the clutch bites, using the throttle is usually overkill. And I am amazed that itdoes not have a clutch switch on the ignition. You can imagine how I discovered this....

The transmission, however, is only a 5 speed, and this seems to hold the engine back a bit. With the diesels limited rev range it really feels like the gap between gears is too large. I feel like second gear is deliberately low, which feels good on the downshift and while accelerating from a standstill, but shifting into third it is way to easy to kill your momentum. In general the engine has a pretty narrow power band and rewards you for staying in it, which would be way easier with another gear. The throw is also quite long but I am most likely just used to driving a sports car.

The ride is balanced very well, avoids being too stiff while still feeling pretty good in quick s-bends. Steering is far too light for my tastes at low speeds, but it stiffens up nicely on the highway. I wish it could be reconfigured in some way, maybe it can and I can't find it.

Overall I can't fault the car as a rental, I like the way it looks, it's small and easy to maneuver, not boring to drive and has enough power to keep up without trying too hard. A sportier trimline of this is the exact type of thing I would want to own if I lived in Europe. Luckily, I don't, so I can keep enjoying my 20 mpg sports car :p Speaking of which, fuel economy is on another level. I've driven about 350 km, a lot of which was spirited driving on low speed, curvy roads, and am still over half a tank. Unfortunately there's no readout so I will have to report back on exact numbers after I fill up.
 
The second to third is typical for small engines, petrol and diesel alike, in cars like this. Sadly... probably due to emission regs.
 
Been a while, time to update the holiday rentals :D

March, a certain Mediterranean island: a diesel Cascada

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Fairly decent for an Opel, but still feels cheap and Opelish. Was fast enough to keep up with these in the mountains:

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...but then they were filming...

Wouldn't buy, but okay for some cheap sunny cruising.



April, US Pacific Ranges and coastline: a Camaro RS

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A good step up from the previous model that I drove in 2014, especially for the gearbox. Makes for a nice drivetrain now, though the Sixt app did claim it'd be an SS while I was taking the historic SF streetcar on my way to pick it up :shakefist: but then I wasn't paying for an SS so that's fine. Makes quite a racket beyond 5k :music:

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OR/CA border... California didn't bother to plough, and Oregon stopped at the border :shakefist:

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Seeking asylum between Canadians :ninja:

Would consider if I lived in a place with bigger roads.


May, a certain Mediterranean island: yet another 595 :driving:

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...you know what it looks like, otherwise go back to one of the other 595s I've posted here... wasn't me with the black streaks on the front left wheel arch :p

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quite a dirty car after a week :yucky: but then it already is pretty dirty from the factory, aurally :music:

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Had some friends on the island overlapping who rented bikes, much fun was had showing them around as it was their first time in the Tramuntana mountains :driving:

Still the same opinion on the 595 - would never daily, but it's buckets of fun for a week of hooning around.
Can definitely recommend the bike rental place if anyone's interested in making the trip and lusting for two wheels.
 
a ShittyCarReview tm of Hyundai Kona Electric 64kWh.
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Today I had little test drive of the Kona ev, as I have thought about buying one for to be used as work vehicle, and I had the car for about 2 hours.
first impressions of the Kona EV Style:
  • seating position was in perfect height to get in and out of the car (for me and my mom who was with me on the test drive),
  • for me the wheel seems too far away
  • interior felt cramped (comparing to both of my current cars),
Radar cruise is a feature I desire on my current cars, it brakes gently when it detects cars in front of it, and when coming to stop it brakes until 6 km/h, and then gets offline, which I was not expecting (maybe I am looking into the radar cruise being like ones on really expensive cars).
The flappy paddles are the “engine brake” or regen for the battery pack and shows the amount of km’s renegerated using it on the dashboard. And like someone form some YT video said, keeping the left one pulled will stop the car, but I had couple times when I forgot the setting on max and I was surprised when I disengaged cruise.

EDIT 1. Forgot about the HUD, its small and just over the dash so its kinda acward placing to look at it, but shows allowed speed, if there is car in the blind spots, if there is car in the radar cruise area, and speed. Its a tad too much info on the screen that small.

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As it was top range (pun eh) one the infotainment had android auto and best sound system, which sounded really thin with no base (probably someone messed with the controls), other than that the touchscreen felt like it was lagging (slightly more when using android auto).
Car had 250km range when we got it at 3/4 charge on the battery, and after the drive on motorway (80km/h to 100km/h) for 80km, the range was 150km. I also forgot to reset the trip computer, so it shoved 23,3 kWh and 8300km driven, but I managed to shuffle through the dashboard views to show current consumption of 16,7 kWh while driving 100km/h (on studdless winters).

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Trunk looked small, but the whole car is smaller than its Kia counterpart, and at 361 L it is about the same as my previous car DS3, but I could manage with it on my work.
As for charging the car, well my current apartment complex has denied charging of electric cars using the plugs meant for preheating, so my only current option would be using the free chargers from 2 different supermarket chains, or even paying for the DC fast charging near my home. And I would have to top up the car every say after work so extra 30 mins to 1 hour of commuting back would be the downside.

I might get one, but currently it has 8 month waiting line and there might be other cars coming.
Will have to see in the near future.
 
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Has this morphed into Rental Car Roulette?

Anyways....

So earlier this month my company car went from a 2012 Jeep Patriot to a 2019 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack. Base model but not what you'd think in a base model. I'm posting now before it gets wrapped with the company colors and name.

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This week was my first road trip in it. I drove 430mi today which now puts it in the 1100mi range so this is probably time to give an "expert" review. :D

2019 VW Golf Alltrack S 1.8TSI 6-Speed DSG. What do you get in an S trim Alltrack? Heated seats, leatherette seats (which in mine is a creamy bright tan), carplay/android auto, blind spot awareness, front assist which as far as I can tell just warns you if someone is too close in front. I haven't tested if it brakes for you and I'm not inclined to try. I imagine it does but I chickened out letting cruise control accelerate up behind somebody on the highway so I guess I did try...

Ride is a little harder than the Patriot but more controlling where bumps in the road don't make the rear end step out sideways from the front. Steering is nice and tight, not as much as a GTI but its good enough and not too twitchy for long distance driving. Currently I have steering feel in normal mode sport mode is too much for normal driving. Acceleration is good and the engine/trans combo leaves enough torque available for lane changes and speeding up to pass without the need to drop a gear. Turbo will kick in if you press a little harder then whats really needed but it seems to want to hang in gears better which is welcomed. Something I also noticed is, I've got a decent hill while leaving out of the "back" of my neighborhood, if you're driving up, you hang in a gear so that you're not down at 1,000RPM bogging the engine which is a nice touch. Pulling away from a stop light causes you to feel the clutches engaging 1st gear. Kind of weird but I've gotten used to it. There's still enough low end power that it doesn't feel like you're holding people back. I've had to reprogram how I accelerate because once the clutches engage, you feel more power so, I've had to learn to not push the throttle down so far to achieve the same desired effect. I've heard you're not supposed to "creep" in traffic where your foot is on the brake but just lightly enough that the car pulls you along. A torque converter transmission is totally ok with this as you slip against that to balance low speed driving like in traffic. I've read that you really shouldn't do this as the car is trying to maintain the speed and the clutches are engaged. Due to this information, I've just been learning to create more of a gap so that I can creep without brake or throttle which hopefully is fine. All that said, gear change is nice and smooth otherwise. Road noise is similar, a bit more quiet though the frequency I think a touch lower in tonal resonance so less white noise and more pink noise than the Patriot.

I'm really enjoying this so far. After my 6.5-7hr drive, I had no tailbone pain, and little to no stiffness everywhere else (huh huh). Maybe this is because it's a new car but I've never been able to drive this long without being in some sort of annoying stiffness or lower back pain. This does have lumbar support so that's most likely why things were good.

I averaged 30.7 MPG with an average speed of 64mph. Most of the way I was sitting at 75MPH but was slowed down due to road construction all through Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. It's that time of year folks!

Trunk space is slightly narrower than the Patriot but the Alltrack is deeper (giggity). I'd say its a wash for trunk space especially for the miniscule amount of junk I drive with compared to other people in this field. I think this was probably a better option than the 1.4L and 8-speed auto. Only time will tell for reliability... So far, 1,000+ miles and no check engine lights. I hope I have a legit VAG product. :D

P.S. Are Alltracks supposed to have silver mirror caps on an otherwise white car?
 
Last fall, we got a new company runabout. A 2018 Opel Vivaro Biturbo to replace a 2012 Renault Trafic.

Pictures stolen from the internet, but it's the same nice shade of blue.

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You’re probably dying to learn about the complicated mess that is the commercial vehicle market in Europe. Pretty much everyone is competing in the van segment but usually with the exact same product as several of their competitors.

The Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro came out in 2001 and was identical to the Nissan Primastar and Renault Trafic - all made by Renault in a factory in the UK. This is the second generation that came out for the 2015 model year, but it got axed recently when GM sold their European Opel/Vauxhall operations to the French. You’ll still be able to buy it as a Nissan or Renault (and now also Fiat) for years to come, but PSA is obviously going to use their own products for the Opel van lineup going forward. This means the 2019 mk3 Vivaro is identical to the Peugeot, Citroen and Toyota that's been on sale for a number of years already. But I digress.

Our previous Trafic was a bare-bones model in Van White with black plastic bumpers, base engine (2-liter diesel, 90hp) and zero creature comforts except of course for the air conditioning and parking heater. The new one is actually a fairly well specced model with the range-topping 150hp 1.6 liter biturbo diesel, color coded bumpers, rain sensing wipers, automatic headlights, rear park assist, touchscreen infotainment with bluetooth and GPS, LED daytime lights, front cornering lights, cruise control, alloy wheels and what have you. It also obviously has air conditioning and a diesel powered parking heater because no road-going vehicle should never be sold without these two options. Ever.

The rain sensing wipers weren’t included on the offer but I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to have them anyway, mostly because this feature means you also get automatic headlights that come on when it’s dark enough. There are so many clueless drivers these days that trundle along with only the front daytime LEDs on even in rain, snow or way past sunset, It’s mostly Asian cars that seem to lack the auto feature, and that’s bad because Asian cars tend to be bought for their perceived reliability by people that don’t care about cars and don’t understand what half the buttons do. I know there are knowledgeable drivers of Asian cars out there but there are so many that feed the stereotype that it isn't even funny.

The interior is as usual for a vehicle of this sort really well thought out. There are plenty of places to put your stuff including several cup holders. It’s a 1+2 person cabin but the middle part of the backrest (closest to the driver) folds down and becomes a little desk for your laptop etc with a detachable clipboard. Most things are located where you expect them to be and work as expected, except the cruise control which first has to be engaged with a three-position rocker switch hidden on the dashboard next to your right knee. If I was my dad I would just leave the cruise on all the time, but turning it on makes a green idiot light come on next to the speedo, so it goes off every time I'm done using it. After you find the hidden rocker switch and figure out how it works, you control the cruise via steering wheel buttons that sadly aren’t backlit.

Most things you look at, feel and touch are from the Renault parts bin and everything works fine. My only complaint is the dipped/main beam function on the indicator stalk which is very flimsy, vague and notchy to use. When you're living in a country with long, dark winters, unlit roads and little traffic, you spend a lot of time switching the high beams on and off. This van is going to spend its entire life with us tooling around town, so it's not important, but I noticed it right away the first time I took it out for a longer drive.

The USB jack is easy to find because it's right there in front of you on the face of the infotainment unit. I would rather have it in the cubby hole above to reduce cable clutter a bit. It doesn't have Carplay or Android Auto, but Bluetooth and normal USB integration works flawlessly with my iPhone.

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When we bought the van I asked if we could have a driver-side sliding door, but apparently this is considered rocket science in the van market. This Vivaro was sitting somewhere waiting for delivery, but if we wanted dual sliding doors we had to wait months. To me it’s pretty obvious that you want a door next to the drivers door to throw small items like shopping into the back without taking a walk around the entire bloody van every time. I also asked if you could retrofit the OEM reversing camera since it already has the GPS screen, but apparently that was impossible. A friend that works at a different dealer that sells Renault claims it’s easy to do, so who knows.

Driving this thing is easy as always with vehicles of this type. You sit high and upright, the controls all fall straight to hand, the engine is quiet and refined and with a very broad powerband that moves the big box on wheels along at a nice pace, especially considering it's only 1.6 liters. This is far, far from the peaky turbodiesels from the turn of the century where nothing happens before 2000 or after 3000 rpm. Being only a 1.6 in a heavy vehicle means it's unusually easy to stall, so you need to give it a bit of throttle when you pull away. I’ve stalled it a couple of times when, for example, doing a rolling start in second gear. This is something that diesels of old used to handle just fine. Thankfully, the stop-start system kicks the engine back to life if (or when) you manage to stall. Other than the stalling issue the engine is perfectly suited for the van, I think. Gets great fuel economy, too.

Mercedes-Benz used the engine in the C180 and C200 BlueTEC btw. Could you ever imagine a compact German executive sedan being powered by a Renault van engine? :D

Sadly, it’s saddled with a remnant from the Industrial Revolution called a ”manual transmission”, a deprecated means of power transfer where you need to stir cogs back and forth with a lever while operating the vehicle. If you know me, you know I’m very much a fan of automatics but the only 'box on offer for this model was the six-speed manual. Lots of vans are used in urban areas, often for towing, and their drivers are either sipping takeout coffee, talking on the phone or checking their e-mail if any new jobs have come in. Yes, it’s illegal. No, nobody cares. A basic six or eight-speed torque converter auto should be an absolute no-brainer in a vehicle like this but manual is still the norm.

So would I buy one for myself? Well, no, not really. If I was going to make it my daily driver I would want an automatic gearbox and AWD, and better headlights than the basic halogens on offer here. This leaves me with Volkswagen Transporter and Mercedes Vito, and since the Transporter is a Volkswagen I would have to buy a Mercedes. I specced one in their configurator the other day and ended up with a 70,000€ van. :D Twice what we paid for the Vivaro and the same sort of money that'll (for comparison) get you into a 340hp E400d Avantgarde.
 
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I've meant to post this for a while. My father has replaced his aging Renault Grand Scénic II with something that is also French: a 2019 Peugeot 5008 (2nd generation) in "Allure" trim with the 1.8 l petrol engine (133 kW, 250 Nm) and 8-speed automatic gearbox. Supposedly good for 218 kph and thus marginally faster than my MX-5. Theoretically. Also, loaded with many gadgets.

I triggered my father into lending me that "car" (I still have a hard time thinking of massive SUVs like this as cars) for a long weekend by telling him that I needed passenger and luggage space. Oh well - I almost had a guilty conscience. :D

What can I say - I don't like SUVs and still don't, but for what I used it for it was so much better suited than my own car.
But first - picture time. Yes, it has a colour. :)
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Ride-wise, this thing is just great as a cruiser for the Autobahn. Has enough grunt for the traffic, although acceleration especially at higher speeds is not its strong suit. The weight and air resistance are very noticeable, especially if you're used to something far smaller, lighter and almost as powerful. It is hilarious when you floor it at 100 kph and the car drops five gears. ?
For a relaxed drive to the coast on a long weekend, it was very fine, though. The adaptive cruise control, together with the automatic, is a killer feature for cruising along - it's a completely different and very relaxing way of driving. I needed half an hour to learn to trust it (and configure it to use "normal" distance, not "close" - how is it even legal that cars can be configured to automatically go below the mandatory minimum safety distance?), I basically only used the steering wheel for the next two hours. The car brakes when needed, and accelerates again to the desired speed when traffic clears up. Only when the car stops completely (and it does), you need to manually set off again. I even used ACC to go through roundabouts - as long as there is another car in front that triggers the ACC to slow down, it's fine. :D
With ACC, you need a different kind of situational awareness though, otherwise you end up slowing down unnecessarily because you just forget to overtake when reaching a slower car.
So, Autobahning is fine, city driving actually too. Front and back cameras help tremendously with parking - seeing out at the back is hopeless as usual in modern cars, and the front is so high that you don't see anything close in front of you neither. Country roads on the other hands, not ideal terrain. Well, not so bad in the Netherlands - there aren't any meaningful corners there anyway...

Now for the interior:
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Comfortable seats (no leather because my father doesn't like it), and Peugeot's fancy digital "i-Cockpit". I actually like it. Some say you can't see the instruments properly above the steering wheel, but I found it no more difficult than through the wheel on other cars. The steering wheel itself is annoying in city traffic though. Why don't they just make it round, like a wheel is supposed to be?

Some things are not thought through completely though - I didn't find out what the different "driver profiles" actually do. They definitely don't save the configuration of the digital dash (you can choose different display modes, which I found something between a nice toy and actually useful sometimes), which would be the most obvious thing. Or the seat position (that's a classic memory 1-2 switch set). Or radio volume.
Navigation works great, but we couldn't get the voice navigation to work. The car told us voice navigation was not available in our country, so consequently I christened it Jacqueline, because perhaps it only wants to listen to you if you're in France... No biggie for me though, I am too old for voice commands. Give me buttons and dials (or touchscreens where applicable).
I also got to try Android Auto. Really nice. I am thinking about getting it retrofitted to my MX-5...

Boot is big, we needed that. Also, electric tailgate even with the sensor thingy.
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Luggage for three people (left back seat converted) plus a big-ass barbecue. Later we also transported a fourth person with luggage and three cases of beer.
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And of course, because it looks like such a massive car - for European standards anyway - I had to find out for myself just how big it is and tried to fit it into my garage. That wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't a motorcycle living in there. It turned out to be a tight fit - I got out of the car three times to check how much space was left in the front before crawling forward another few centimetres (fun to do with an automatic that you're not used to). The result:
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About 2 cm space left at the front...
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.... and 0 cm at the back.
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Yes. The garage door could still be closed. I wouldn't do that parking job daily, though. For once just for shits and giggles it was fine. :D

It turns out the car isn't even that long at 4.64m. It just, well, looks massive because SUV format.

Verdict: I'll probably borrow it again next year for my short vacation with friends. :D Personally, I'd rather have a 508 sedan instead of this. Even if I knock my head on the roof when I sit in the back in that one. Because gorgeous. Peugeot did a lot right lately. And I'm glad my father found a car that he really likes. :) (It only took him five years or so.)

Funny story from my father at the end: He managed to confuse the electric parking brake by accidentally pressing the button while driving. I don't know what he did exactly, because the car overreacted massively and totally hilarious: It desperately wanted to go to a Peugeot dealer, automatically setting the navigation target to the nearest one. One or two reboots of the car got rid of the error and the self-thinking navigation. The next day, someone from the Peugeot assistance called via the phone assistance function in the car and asked why they didn't go to have the car repaired. Welcome to the future...
 
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Funny story from my father at the end: He managed to confuse the electric parking brake by accidentally pressing the button while driving. I don't know what he did exactly, because the car overreacted massively and totally hilarious: It desperately wanted to go to a Peugeot dealer, automatically setting the navigation target to the nearest one. One or two reboots of the car got rid of the error and the self-thinking navigation. The next day, someone from the Peugeot assistance called via the phone assistance function in the car and asked why they didn't go to have the car repaired. Welcome to the future...

...

 
I've been curious about the Peugeot 508 for a while now. I tried it in the showroom once and decided it wouldn't work because the steering wheel rim blocks the gauges. Someone I know that works at the dealer told me to try again, so I did... and yes, with enough messing around with the seat and steering wheel I could see the gauges properly. Driving with the steering wheel basically in your lap feels weird. I have long legs and I'm used to always having the steering wheel as far out and up it'll go. If I do that in this car, I can't see the gauges at all. I know @larswey has the same issue.

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This is a pretty car. Like, properly pretty, inside and out. It's lovely to look at and a nice place to spend time in. It's such a huge leap forwards from the dark ages of the 307 and 407 that it isn't even funny. Where have PSA been hiding all these people, capable of designing things like this? And why didn't they bring them out sooner?

I only had a short spin in it because the dealership was closing in 25 minutes, so I don't really want to comment on handling or anything like that. I would need more time behind the wheel.

This was a brand new 508 SW (estate) with what I'm assuming was the base engine, a 180hp turbocharged 1.6 with the 8-speed automatic. I'm very much a fan of technology taking care of tasks I find tedious and repetitive, like changing gears, and I really like where the industry is heading. Case in point: this is a car from France, a country known for economical hatchbacks and for insisting on having manual transmissions in absolutely everything. Yet the 8-speed auto is the only transmission available in the 508, except the poverty-spec diesel where manual is optional. I guess that even the French have realized that you can't do adaptive cruise control properly with a manual transmission getting in the way, and as everyone that's ever tried adaptive cruise will tell you, it's the best invention since sliced bread. See above. :)

The PureTech 180 was reasonably quick on the on-ramp I tried, but I'm used to a diesel and can't say I liked how it had to drop a gear (or two) every time I wanted some acceleration. I drive a diesel myself and I've floored it on the same on-ramp countless times. My Insignia usually doesn't even downshift, it just pulls and gets me up and above the 100km/h limit with no fuss. That's the way I like it. Having to wind out the little 1.6-liter to achieve the same thing feels very... un-worthy of a modern car. It's hard to explain. I would like to drive the high-output diesel just to see what it's like in comparison.

The steering wheel is small, with lots of stuff going on behind it. At 8 o'clock there's a pod with everything related to the adaptive cruise control, none of which you can see without pulling over and having a proper look. It didn't occur to me to have a look before I set off from the dealership, but I had no luck in trying to engage the cruise during the two-minute stint I did on the overpass close to the dealer. It said "not available during these conditions" or something when I tried pressing random buttons. I have no idea if the car had self-driving tech in it or not, but I know it's available on the 508. It did have adaptive cruise because I accidentally found the button that changed the following distance. Apart from the cruise control pod, there's a flappy paddle and obviously an indicator stalk. There's a learning curve here, believe me.

So would I buy a 508? No, not really. It's waay too low and cramped for me. I'm also not the least bit convinced that frameless windows that automatically drop down half an inch when you open the door is a good idea in a country that's frozen over for several months every year.

A 3008 or 5008 (again, see above) is more my style. I guess Peugeot figured that since families and people that value practicality are busy buying SUVs, they could afford to build a sporty low-slung sedan/wagon. And there's nothing wrong with that, especially since I can get the same interior and similar exterior styling in a package that works for me.

There's also a "Hybrid4" PHEV drivetrain that's just now coming out across a whole bunch of PSA group cars. With that, you get a 200hp ICE and a 100hp electric motor driving each axle. The combined system output is 300 hp. I'm hoping they'll depreciate quickly enough for me to be able to afford one in a few years. Ideally in a 3008.
 
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2019 Volkswagen Jetta GLI

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No, I didn't buy another car. My boss needed my wagon to transport stuff so we traded for a few days and this is his car. :D

It has the same drivetrain as a Golf GTI with different transmission programming and no hardware limited slip (more on that later).

Interior is typical VW, it has an electronic parking brake compared with the North American Golf (excluding Golf R) that has a handbrake. Seats are decently supportive but there is no plaid, this model is also leather though I'm certain you cannot get plaid. I can't get the seat low enough and feel like I'm in a crossover yet I feel like if I lower the seat anymore, I wont be able to see over the dashboard. Headroom is good with this model having the big sunroof. The sunroof creaks when you go over bumps and there is no actual slide hatch to help dampen rain. It's a thin perforated shade that shields nothing. steel wheel feels nice however it seems to be pulled form the Golf GTI with GTI scratched out and GLI put on instead. The infotainment display is in a higher spot than the Golf but they've been able to integrate it in the dash and not look make it like an afterthought as everyone else has done. The problems I have here is this model has the digital dash gauges and for whatever reason, VW chose not to make the infotainment UI text font uniform with the digital gauge cluster. This model has auto climate control, heated/cooled seats, auto headlights, and auto wipers but no radar cruise control. Instead it has forward collision, blind spot monitoring, back up camera, and rear cross traffic warning. regarding the digital gauge cluster, I found it to be redundant. There isn't a single thing (execpt for phone mode) where you're not seeing duplicate information. Speed for example is always displayed digitally on the lower 1/3rd with the ability to change to an analog style gauge and put digital speed in the "center display" portion of the digital cluster. You can have your speed displayed in 3 places on the digital cluster at once. Who thought that was a bright idea?

This has Beats Audio which I think is the new Bose. There's a chunk of frequencies missing in the low mid range which is quite noticeable and the sub has no punch. You hear bass and you hear the kick drum beater hit the head but no response from the sub. Bass guitar and long notes like that are fine but a punch sub this is not. There's also a boost of high frequencies above the "treble" adjustment that is annoying. It's at least higher than 12khz and you can't get rid of it.

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Exterior, the front end is a tragedy with a weird gloss black strip where the hood meets the front clip, weird. The rear is ok but the tail lights are a mess, I'll try and get photos, you've got what looks like white for backup, red for stop, and amber for turn signal, this is mostly true however the white bit on the outer edges is in combo with the stop light, the pattern looks different and to me clashes making the tail lights appear as though 2 different teams were working on them. The rest has been redesigned to make it more plain. Its on the MQB platform which is amazing as it looks so big and it's overall dull appearance as a generic sedan with a VW front clip. The interior is the most exciting part of the car.

This does have an electronic sound symposer speaker like the GTI and its funny how you can toggle quickly from normal to sport mode and hear the speaker amplify some throaty noise of an engine. I can't tell if its actually what a 2.0L turbo engine sounds like but I don't like it. I've had the speaker disabled in my Golf GTI for so long I forgot what it sounded like. I don't miss it.

The transmission is interesting as it seems VW is protecting the Golf GTI's crisp driving experience. Much like my Alltrack, VW has chosen to tune the 7-speed DSG (Alltrack has 6-speed DSG) with a sort of rubber band feel and sound to gear changes. Instead of a nice 1 - 2 - 3 bang bang shift you get in a GTI, it sounds like a halfass attempt at making it sound like a manual trans quick gear change. I'm guessing this is down to making sure the driver doesn't set off alarms that they have to be a boy racer hatchback with pops and bangs that the GTI has. I noticed that the drivers wheel had way more brake dust than the front passenger which I'm guessing is the electronic diff braking one wheel more to manage the power. Steering is tighter/sharper than I was expecting which was a nice touch, I like that a lot. VW was able to make it not feel twitchy at high speeds while still feeling like you had a small turning circle at low speeds.

Trunk is massive, it feels like something you'd get out of a full size sedan, much bigger than the previous generation which also is my problem with this new Jetta. Why is this car so much bigger in appearance and slightly inside than the predecessor? The US Passat now looks to be a pointless buy and honestly I would advise against it (unless you can score a VR6 Passat GT) as it is so old. It came out in 2011 for fucks sake and doesn't resemble a nice VW passat at all, it's a stretched mk6 Jetta as far as I'm concerned. Right now, I'd opt for either a higher spec Jetta (this doesn't have fog lights for some reason) or an Arteon, the US Passat is a joke.
 
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2020 honda civic 1.0 turbo

You know they're desperate when I get a few messages asked to go on a test drive. So why not? :D

Visually I'm not sure how I feel about this car, the last good looking civic was made in 2000. What I was interested in was how have they managed to sort out the turbo engines. Being a fan of the old n/a engines I was eager to find out have they managed to capture the old feeling of the old engines. The R18 n/a in the egg shaped civic was already one I didn't like.

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The interior felt nice, quality was surprisingly good everywhere except the one place you touch the most. The steering wheel. It felt very cheap and plasticky . Shame, since everything else was very nice. I was told that a "sport package upgrade" will give you a better steering wheel(that and stiffer suspension, other wheels and tires). Coming from older cars the whole startup routine of the gauge cluster felt a bit gimmicky. It does this animation where it shows you the honda badge and then goes to the cluster.
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The engine is a 1.0 turbo 3cyl making 129hp. It felt gutless and the turbo seems to work between 2k and 3k rpm. There's a little burp of effort and then nothing. On the car I drove I suspect they forgot a cover off the engine, it's not even that pleasing to look at. The driving experience was also a bit of "meh". Nothing much to say about it other than the steering is very light and somewhat vague. Over assisted in the lower speeds too. I suspect that no sports package can help this. But fort the price of about 20k€ it's not bad value for money. Just not for me.

The engine sound was a bit rough at times, and I think they're channeling it in to the cabin as they tend to do nowadays. That and the steering wheel were two thins I found a constant annoyance.

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This plaque has to be the most japanese thing on this car.
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I’m currently on vacation and decided to kill some time by driving to the next town over and buy a pair of pants. Of course, this shopping center has a used car dealership that does mainly european cars priced from like 20k-30k and up (and up and up and up)... and electric fiat 500’s, apparently.

I noticed a Mercedes S212 that looked interesting and walked up to it. Facelift S212 E350 CDI 4Matic in white equipped with Distronic Plus, the best adaptive LED headlights on offer, orthopedic leather seats, webasto, a nasty scratch on the tailgate, base model looking wheels and a badge delete. Excellent. The salesman was quick to offer a testdrive even though I told him I wasn’t in the market for a new car.

I’ve always liked the S212 in facelift form, and this was no exception. After getting seated everything fell right to hand, down to the lovely little gearshift stalk that only requires a flick of a finger to put it into D. The ”getting seated” part proved difficult because I couldn’t find the switch to make the seat go backwards. It took several minutes until I realized there was something called ”a lever” that I needed to pull that allowed me to manually scoot the seat backwards and forwards. How quaint, especially on a car with like 6-way electric adjustment for everything else. Another quaint feature was that you have to insert something called ”a key” into a slot on the dashboard and twist it to the right to make the engine start. Meanwhile, my Opel at a bit over half the price has a drivers seat that adjusts itself based on which of the proximity keys you have on you when you grab the door handle to unlock the car. But I digress.

Off I went, with the V6 diesel rumbling under the bonnet. Mercedes pedal travel is a thing, I can confirm that now. Pressing the right pedal aaallll the way into the engine compartment made the 7 speed AMG SpeedShift MCT drop a cog. I was then flung down the onramp with only a distant growl from somewhere on the other side of the firewall and a couple of seamless gearchanges I only noticed because I looked at the rev counter. A couple of seconds later I looked at the speedo, went ”oh.” and got on the brakes. According to Google it has 260bhp and 620Nm (457 foot pounds), all of which is delivered in a distinct ”zero fucks given” fashion with no drama. This kind of drivetrain makes a lovely smooth daily.

The SpeedShift MCT is apparently a ”slushbox without the slush”. It’s the normal 7G-Tronic coupled to a multi-plate clutch in place of the torque converter. I’m a bit allergic to robotic clutches after owning a DSG, but this fooled me completely. I thought it was a normal torque converter until I went home and started researching the car a bit. It first appeared in the AMG cars and allows for 100ms gearshifts, apparently.

Thankfully, the car is out of my budget, at least if I have my sensible hat on. I’ve been battling a huge case of car fever for the last few days but it’s going away now. I don’t really need a new car that’s the same year as the one I’m currently driving, and with 30 000 more km’s on it, and more expensive parts and maintenance. But it was a lovely car in a lovely shade of unassuming white, with exactly the right drivetrain. I want one.

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Good news! I drove a Dacia Sandero today. For several minutes.

It was the "Stepway" trim which means it gets slightly taller ride height and some black trim around the wheelarches. This is a good thing because it's not a sporty car and might as well have a bit of extra ground clearance. It was also well equipped for a Sandero with air conditioning, the Renault parts bin touchscreen satnav, cruise control and power windows. The window buttons were logically placed on the vertical dash next to the heater controls. Hidden behind the steering wheel rim at about 4 o'clock is the usual remote pod for the stereo, as found in most Renault products since the 1980's. I've driven many cars with this including our company van. It has many buttons that probably would make sense if you took 30 minutes out of your life to fiddle around and learn what they all do. I only ever use the fingertip pull buttons that adjust volume, and I've been driving Renault products for the better part of a decade...

Below the window switches on the dash was the logically placed rocker switch that turns on and off the cruise control. The rest of the cruise buttons are on the steering wheel. This wasn't a surprise because our company Opel Vivaro is a Renault product as well and has the beforementioned rocker switch on the dashboard somewhere to the right of the ignition barrel. I think there's some other model that has it next to the handbrake. No, I don't get it either.

The door weighed nothing and felt hollow. Closing it produced a cheap and nasty "clonk". I don't think you will want to have a side impact accident in one of these.

On a more positive note, I expected a 900cc triple but as I turned the key I realized it was a diesel. The 1.5 liter oil burner makes the same 90hp as the 0.9 liter triple in the base model, but many more torques much lower in the rev range. I'm sure the 900cc sounds way nicer and is probably fun in a "slow car fast" kind of way, but I'd rather have the diesel. Obviously the diesel engine is a pricy option and I'm sure the take rate is abysmal since most people won't consider a diesel unless they drive enough for it to start making financial sense. When you are at that point chances are you aren't considering a Romanian econobox anymore.

As for actual quality... well, they seem to hold together fairly well. As do Renaults too over the last decade or so. You can probably do a lot worse than a Sandero as a cheap walking deterrent device.
 
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When I had my car serviced two weeks ago, I asked for the new Mazda MX-30 as a courtesy car from the dealership. Because why not? I was curious.

So I got this beauty:

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Yes, you all know now which dealership does my car services. I don't care. It's obvious they want the advertising. :D

Because Mazda had the fancy doors from the last gen RX-8 lying around, they decided to use them again:

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Good thing: The front doors don't need to be as long as they would on a 2-door setup, and the whole car doesn't have to be as long as with a normal 4-door setup. Bad thing: people in the front need to undo their seatbelt if someone want to enter or eit the back seat. I don't know how relevant that is in daily life.

Also, have a Mazda-ish dashboard:

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I was frankly appalled at how cheap and empty the instrument cluster looks. All that real estate! And the middle console... the lower screen was apparently only for climate controls, and was useless at that.
It also had a nice, simple but nice head-up display though. I like those.

Anyway. It's an electric car, so how does it drive? Well, as I brought my car in for service in the morning, then had a normal workday before retrieving my car again in the afternoon, I only had the two drives across town between the dealership and my place, in more or less bad rush hour, to assess the car.
The only electric cars I've driven before were @leviathan's Tesla Model 3 Performance and I think two of @Adrian's Tesla Model S over the years. This Mazda is considerably more prudently motorized with only 107 kW. So it accelerates like a normal car. Which is fine once you've dialed back your expectations. :D Apart from that, it drives and feels like a crossover/SUV - not special at all. Or said with good will, it does its job of getting your from A to B well. As long as B is no more than... 160 or so km from A, of course. I can understand Mazda's approach of putting in a small battery that will fulfill the overwhelming majority of daily drives of most people, because it also means that the car weighs "only" 1750 kg. Still, it makes this a second car and I think a small car like the Honda e is more fit for that purpose than a fucking crossover.

The electric-ness of the MX-30 was apparent once I found the adjustment for the recuperation, which was on a low setting when I got the car. I set it to the highest setting for the second drive, and that was much better, one-pedal drive for the win. Together will ACC I coasted through the rush-hour traffic jam hardly using the throttle pedal at all (only to set off again after coming to a complete stop) and used up only 3 km of range on a 14 km trip.
But what does it say about a car when it shines the most in traffic jams?


Bonus (or malus, rather): A few days later I had to bring in my car again (due to lack of spare parts the week earlier) and got a.... Mazda 2. No pics of that, because it was just a Mazda 2. It had a small engine paired an automatic gearbox that was just... sad. The throttle pedal was more like a volume adjuster, as on "acceleration" the car felt like it went through at least one slipping clutch a day.
Oh, and the 2 had basically the same controls as my MX-5 - climate controls, handbrake, infotainment etc. But it had catastrophic ergonomy because those controls where so far down and away, while I'm used to resting my arm on the armrest and only needing to move my hand a bit to reach everything.
It's a car for people who don't care about anything that makes a car good to drive. And they will never come around to liking to drive when they use this car.
 
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So it accelerates like a normal car.
Which is more due to the accelerator curve / programming that mazda specifically put on the electric motor! 107 kW electric is plenty, even at that weight (more on that below). But mazda specifically tailored the motor response to be more in line of what would be expected in an ICE car. to me, that's dumb. but it may as well be smart in regards to the general population. same with the tiny battery tbh: to me, that's dumb (because the car is neither light nor cheap because of it).

it also means that the car weighs "only" 1750 kg.
ONLY!? :eek: my car is only ~1850 kg in comparison and has more than twice the battery! that mazda abomination is heavy as **** :D

having never driven or sat in one, the mx30 reeks of "lowest possible effort EV to show people ICE is king"... but from your review it seems, despite the designed-in drawbacks, it's actually ok to drive and would be a fairly competent commute / everyday car, so fair enough!
 
ONLY!? :eek: my car is only ~1850 kg in comparison and has more than twice the battery! that mazda abomination is heavy as **** :D
This baffles me about the MX-30 and the Honda E as well. They have tiny batteries, yet manage to be similar to or heavier than a SR Model 3, a Kona, a Bolt and a whole bunch of other EVs with much larger battery packs. And at least the Honda is a bespoke EV platform, so it's not even a packaging problem with stuffing EV into a ICE chassis... I don't get it really.
 
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