Our "own" car reviews

Additionally: the model 3 isn't really an exercise in weight reduction, at all. There's a lot of steel parts that might have been aluminium on other makes/models.
 
Thanks for the review, had actually forgotten I was the one who started this thread 427 years ago.

My eGolf (which is a regular Golf with the engine ripped out and an electric engine + batteries stuffed in) comes in at 1600 kgs, which is still heavy as hell for a car this size. It does however, do pretty well with regards to range / battery size. I guess a tall SUV with big wheels and tyres is just not efficient by design?

My car has pretty much the exact same battery size and gets between 160 and 250 kms depending on speed, weather etc. From what I hear the Mazda’s range is between 100 and 170 kms which is quite poor....
 
This thread is really ancient and it's great to see it still going :p

I actually also did some short testing this weekend as I noticed the facelifted Suzuki Swifts are quite affordable at the importer's short-term lease site. I keep having these ideas of getting a cheap lease for my commute as the available 25k km cap is enough for me per year and I'd really like to drive something with a warranty and two sets of manufacturer provided tires etc. However, that would likely be an econobox and those rarely have anything near the highway comfort my beater Volvo offers. Still, what needs to be taken into account is a significantly smaller yearly road tax for a small petrol car and the fact the gap between diesel prices and 95E has shrunk this year, and that one major repair for the Volvo is worth at least a month or two of lease payments for a new econobox.

But, the Swift!

zqXYAH3.jpg


Brand-wise, I think Suzuki is one of the more likeable brands currently. The Ignis and Jimny are big favorites, but I also have a soft spot for the Swift (which has interestingly evolved its "Discount Mini" look yet kept the design recognizably close to the early-2000s new shape car). The demo car at the local Suzuki dealer, however, was the manual Allgrip model, and the cheap lease offer is for the 2WD CVT which is likely to be a little suckier.

lMKqojw.jpg


I tried to keep in mind the "50 meter test", in that it's said you can evaluate if a car's any good in the first 50 meters. The Swift has really nice and alert, alive steering, which I enjoy, and the throttle response is certainly OK. In the urban area the car felt really positive and at least on whatever summer rubber it wore, it wasn't too bad in the NVH sense. General useability was quick to get a hang of, the steering wheel buttons are not incomprehensible and the lane-keeping assist can be switched off from a separate button left from the steering column – the most important button in a car right now. I also really liked the Mazda style two-bucket gauges with similar fonts and lighting as Mazdas do. The infotainment on this car was the same touchscreen unit I saw in the Jimny, and it's fine for what it is.

After driving the requisite stretch of badly surfaced highway at highway speeds, I did the freshly surfaced twisty backroad I sometimes use for driving cars vigorously. The Swift really turns nicely and the manual shifter felt perhaps characterless, but free of complaints. It’s just there, and while it’s rare for a hybrid car (albeit mild hybrid) to be manual, it’s worth applauding that Suzuki offers it. Just five speeds, though.

efEC0Hn.jpg


What the Swift felt overall, though, was heavy. It’s said to weigh around 1000kg, but it felt heftier than that. With a 1.2-l three-pot turbo and 90hp, I had to drive it quite a bit more vigorously than I had expected a small car to need. Suzuki quotes something like 12 sec 0-100, which is on the slower side of things, and neither the turbo or the mild hybrid system seemed to give the car any extra assist. The 3-pot sounds good when you use the upper rev range, but it’s tedious to have to go there all the time. I don’t know if it’s because of the 4wd system it hauls along, and I’m sure that’ll have advantages in slippery junctions in wintertime, or on the usually icy road I take to work. But I’ve driven a bunch of small, light cars that are great when you’re beating on them by yourself and which immediately become gutless when someone rides along with you. There was a feel of having a fat passenger with you in the Swift even if I was testing it alone. Of course it might be the Volvo corrupting my persdyno, but I think it’s known here on the forums that I tend to drive the lesser specified cars as well :p

I don’t quite know how the 2WD CVT would compare here – I would be fine with an auto, but if the CVT just drones along it might not be pleasant on a long drive. However, from the Swift's competitors I've driven the (similarly lease priced) Peugeot 208 most recently, and truth be told I'd really rather pick the Swift in a jaunty metallic yellow than live with the 208's cockpit and steering wheel setup.
 
That little thing has 4WD? Rallycar!

Well it would be if it had any power, a ton and only such little horsepowers it would make my old Smart seem nippy. A real shame that you have to go to the Swift Sport for more power as I think the standard car looks better, especially with the carbon look trim that they offer. That's standard on the Sport but it looks like it has taken too many 'roids. The Sport isn't available with 4WD too so no rallycar. Such a shame.

Their configurator site is awful, the interior options seem confusing and there are no previews.

Edit: I'd get an Ignis instead.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I'm not sure if the Swift Sport is part of the palette here. Apparently they're hybrid now too. Suzuki would probably like people to buy hybrid offerings to offset Jimny sales :p
 
Nice review. Looks weird though, I thought Swifts were small hot hatches and this one looks like a crossover thing?

You’re right about cvt though, they work in some cars but not in small light nimble cars...

Edit : Also : its’s the end of april and you have snow on the ground what the hell dude?
 
Yeah the rear quarters sort of stick out even if it's a hatchback. Not sure if the All_Grip has a taller ride height than the 2WD.
 
Nice review. Looks weird though, I thought Swifts were small hot hatches and this one looks like a crossover thing?

You’re right about cvt though, they work in some cars but not in small light nimble cars...

Edit : Also : its’s the end of april and you have snow on the ground what the hell dude?

Swifts aren't hot. The Sport is warm I guess.

And yes the snow was gone already but we got a huge burp of it over the weekend.
 
Haha yeah! It was cycling season and all for a good while and then suddenly we got 10cm of snow and a couple more this weekend. I lost a jallu bet.
 
Honda CR-Z 2011 1.5 hybrid

I had a chance to drive a cr-z (thanks Kikki ;) ), a car I was curious about since I knew the specs on the car and on paper it didn't make sense. I remember looking at the numbers when these came out and they weren't anything to brag about(1.5, combined power of about 124hp, 0-100kmh shy under 10s). They were selling it as a follow up to the legendary CRX, a car that's techically identical to mine. As a hybrid it also didn't make sense because it's manual. Hybrids tend to be automatic in one way or an other probably to get the best out of the system.

The car has three drive modes, economy, normal and sport. Taking off in economy the throttle response is relatively slow and steering is light. After a few kilometers I put it in normal, throttle response is slightly better and the steering tightens up. Sport, naturally has the best throttle response and fastest steering. Not sure how much I'd play with these if I owned one. I'd leave it in sport.

In sport mode the car started to make sense. The driving feel was very similar to my car. It felt like you could throw it around just like my car or the crx. The whole driving experience was very very similar, at least up to one thing. At this point the hybrid system started to make sense. The way I felt driving it is that it's not so much there to make it more economical, but to fix the problems that are always there with small engines and not that much low end power. Down in the rev range the electric motor would help you get going a lot easier. This was clearly a big change in how the car can be driven compared to the crx or civic that are both lighter and more powerful, when looking at the 1.6 models. Now that said, the older cars re still faster. Just that they're a lot harder to get the speed out of due to the nature of the engines. Fuel mileage was relatively good, even when I was not trying. Based on discussions with the owner it's decent in daily use.

The interior is nice, it feels like a nice place to sit in. Comparing to the 2020 civic I drove it seems to have slightly better materials, at least that's how it felt. This one has been driven a good deal and that was showing on the steering wheel. But it was still better than the 2020 wheel by a country mile. The seat upholstery pattern was a clear call back to my car with the gray chequered flag and the seat shape was somewhat a modern take on the seats they put in the crx and my car. Back seats are there for emergency situations only. The trunk is surprisingly big, folding down the seats you get a good deal more space. If you don't need rear seats the car works as a daily driver well.

Over all I was more than positively surprised. I would say this is one of the cars where it's more than the numbers on the paper, it was clearly tapping in to that old honda feel and it is indeed a worthy successor to the CRX. Shame that 200hp Mugen version never made it in to production. :D

lgCOpgg.jpg

sEFIEG1.jpg

AMEkxzZ.jpg
 
The way honda does (or did) hybrids was a helper motor on the flywheel of an otherwise normal engine. This makes it possible to put a normal manual transmission behind if you so wish, but it also means the car can’t do normal hybrid tricks like move on electric power only or turn the engine off while going downhill.

I drove one of these when they came out. Sadly I never dared to give the dealer demo any real shoe. It’s also the only CR-Z I’ve ever seen. Maybe it’s the same one? Same color, but I never took any pictures with the plate visible.
 
For some reason I had convinced myself that those CR-Zs were EVs. No idea why. Never driven one but I've always liked the brave design since one was used during our races on Forza. I particularly like that big button for the traction control, it's bigger than other buttons with more important functions. :p
 
A couple weeks back I took a couple jobs back east. It required flying and getting a rental. As always, Hertz didn't have the car I rented and I got this instead, a 2020 Infiniti QX60. Powertrain is a 3.5 liter V6 and a CVT that thinks it's a regular automatic.

20210712_085137.jpg


I put almost 400 miles on it over a 4 day period. Driving through some of the worst traffic the US has to offer (remind me to stay off of I-95 if at all possible). Overall, it's a fine automobile, but predictably, the CVT sucks. It also had this peculiar habit on twisty roads (the road in and out of one of the tracks was quite winding), I guess it thought I was about to go off the road or I was overdoing what the stability control would allow and grab the brakes to keep the vehicle on the road. I was no where near the limit of the vehicle. No idea what that's about.

20210712_141248.jpg


(Cecil County Dragway near Rising Sun, Maryland)

20210712_141308.jpg


It was handy to have an SUV in this case. I put my tool box in the back, pop the hatch and could work straight out of the back of the vehicle.

20210713_103711.jpg


(Sumerduck Dragway near Sumerduck, Virginia)

20210713_130417.jpg


Acceleration was brisk, but you really had to bury the throttle otherwise it was actually quite pokey out of the hole.


Non review related content below.

20210712_155937.jpg


Spotted this Land Rover on I-95 between the two tracks in the DC area.

20210714_175217.jpg


@93Flareside is down there somewhere...
 
Last edited:
Slightly different kind of rental/loaner/driving experience. Due to current situation and associated extra measurements for traveling while not fully vaccinated with it, I left my decision to join Ringmeet very late. Like, a week before the roadtrip started late. But I was keeping an eye on flight prices, just as costly Finnish antigen test prices, rental options etc. Around the same time @thomas started the donation program, to help Ahr valley flood victims with some cars. This suited my needs, as the premium for anything even remotely interesting from a rental company is rather costly and I was toying with the idea of buying something cheap for the roadtrip, even if it would be very impractical for just few days. This was better use for my money than financing global rental companies.

Anyway, once I decided I'll join Ringmeet, we agreed with Thomas I'll pay for plates and insurance for one of the donor cars and drive it to Ringmeet / flood area, to be given away for someone who needs it. I originally wanted to take the boy-racer Astra, with badly tinted windows, fart can and a lowering kit. But due to the tight schedule it couldn't be made roadworthy in time. Fortunately, an Peugeot was ready to go. Sort of.

As soon as Thomas picked me up from the train station the sound of the exhaust worried me. Also, as we quickly found out, it was running rather low on oil (and intact dipsticks). 3.3l oil capacity and adding a litre only brought the level up to just above minimum. But the oil in the engine was still fresh and clean, so I wonder what had happened. And after quickly patching up the exhaust I set of for the delivery drive, slightly detouring through the Black forest.

Plenty of forewords, so what did I end up with, then. After the Astra was out I got another very basic transport from the 90s, a 3 door Peugeot 106, with 60hp from a 1.1 powerhouse. I got to choose between this or a 1.6 Laguna II estate and decided smaller, lighter car would be preferable.

AM-JKLWDmWVvQ9iBdmiDaUPgYrmx_3XIHgyy3gaoBA1zQpW0Awjbh8TwkqmTCioub5o3wslhAfHFcSWDJYO35wrLxAUI-TKEb2YPel9ARX7Wv4eCmIlV2cYVDG1X_Hl0I_O8KENzsiV6tuDCZ_-bbGSX875f2A=w2052-h1154-no


Also light on equipment, as one would expect. Manual sunroof, electric windows and a radio missing the security code was pretty much it. Very lightly equipped on the tyre front as well, with worn 155 wide some season tyres. But apart from those tyres and quite BMW-esque rip on the driver seat side bolster, it was in good condition overall. Very little rust, very few cracks or creaks in the interior. What wasn't too light was the non-assisted steering. Wasn't much of a bother, but something you had to be aware of in tighter turns, especially as the seats don't offer too much support and I had to sit further back than I'd prefer.

AM-JKLWaXmwqgL9JUJauMsTyeg9qNcu9wkOzPuGs6pGtxUDA4l7F65aMkykcRfXLEQgKiX46eOC4FeLHy7bdgi65RYFntWa306CcOoVwGWocr2Q_lELhmy5de8d3aVMCbX04m_aBj6VeavFycSdm6VC2E5bE1A=w2052-h1154-no


The seat was set surprisingly high, even for me and wasn't adjustable. The whole setup felt quite close to ISA spec, but wasn't as bad. But I had to make a compromise with how I'd want the position set and how badly my leg hits the centre console. Cushioning was very soft and reminded me of some Renault seats and was surprisingly supportive (or easy to hang in), despite being very flat. Pedals and shifter very typically French from my experience, i.e. horrible. That was somewhat irritating, as you need to shuffle the gears a lot with that amount of power and some hills in the way. Instead of heel'n'toe I resorted to head toe braking when some throttle was needed, to reach both pedals. Clutch cable seemed to be sticking a bit, so smooth takeoffs needed some getting used to. Otherwise the surprisingly long pedal travel was fine. Gearbox felt the same as any manual Peugeot I've driven, the lever is too far forward and too low. Finding correct gears is still easy, but I hate the feel of the whole thing.
Those bad tyres made it good fun to drive though. The grip limit was reached way before speed limits and there was no need to cause excessive stress to brakes when driving more dynamically. After all, this car was to be donated, so I didn't want to stress it too much. The very mildly boosted brake feel was very much to my liking though. The visibilty was magnificient, like you'd expect and almost everything else felt like a pillar box when switching cars. To conform to the French stereotype it was rather comfortable to drive on bumpier roads. I thought it was quite bouncy at first, then I tried the 309 GTI on similar roads. And then the Fiesta ST... I sort of got used to the comfort wobble, something I also associate with any French car, even if I would prefer the more direct feel Japanese and some Germans at least usually offer. And while out of these 3 mentioned cars the Fiesta suited me best from what I'd want from a drivng experience, I probably had most fun in the 106, due to performance limits being so low. And of course it had the Peugeot gearing of 1-2-3-3.5-4, so it was screaming all the time and 130kph felt like the maximum speed you'd want to do. Fortunately no rev gauge though, so it could be left in the background to do its thing.

Size advantage. We were wondering if there's anything on the Porsche you could option at the price of the Peugeot.
AM-JKLUbhtqlms06FkNwTZnt4azAFsnhlPblVFbjSezvSQCA9NtQOYqoiC8h5I2idcCLWjIAt2Wzrb910ePJTtwYWPScYs-l-NPbar92W79k_O1euDi9Wj76hRnuULO5MzgHzxTyksZt1B8rQqMkFbqHZkMmpA=w2052-h1154-no


That color works well in the sun
AM-JKLXMiN20hx_MSw-kiNQLC9CGs2T1rTKeuEXMjf6PpSEtRQWSWnSn4hZIogLs5-5Dp4H96k8_RIEglIPKJI4asRvexH2ZZ4pks-A7Djgy2fG40-wSayqV68Ea8NM7ymABevsHW-YMqrwDy79jmvIW4ykOig=w2052-h1154-no


Overall it did well and even our quick fix exhaust held on, fortunately, as new parts didn't make it in time even for Ringmeet. My estimate of the consumption was around 7.2-7.5 l/100km, despite either going flat out or downhill, no other options. I would've wanted to do a ringlap with it, but that exhaust was too big a risk for it. Overall, not a class of cars I'm terribly interested in and would probably pick almost anything Japanese over the 106 if I had the choice. But it did everything that was asked for it and will hopefully continue do the same with its new owner. And of course the related video, to remind why this car came along in the first place.

 
I has a Polestar 2. Don’t really like it so far, range is a joke (260 out of an advertised 440), is slower than an equivalent Tesla but has larger boot. Will report back when I have more miles under my belt
 
I has a Polestar 2. Don’t really like it so far, range is a joke (260 out of an advertised 440), is slower than an equivalent Tesla but has larger boot. Will report back when I have more miles under my belt

Hmmm. May have been overly negative. It is supremely comfortable on long journeys, the boot is massive. The android system is a bit weird and counterintuitive, and apple carplay doesnt see to work. If you dont drive like an idiot you can get it to do 300 kms, but that’s still wat less than the advertised 440 on the GOM. However the frunk is tiny and hard to open…

Styling wise I think it’s hideous, but many people came up to me with ‘Cool car, bro’

Also, picdump!

8154ba82e3a380b7f6bc5033e9cc10d2.jpg


ca95008269584e606c249736dc5efbe5.jpg


389ca8d51aca9e0b87f1efdd72d3bedb.jpg


3a4a4a55ca7651068010bf78a3669d14.jpg


00ca49161e8fe9f341f2616016da1466.jpg


4018118bacdd5c2ecba7801de637ff41.jpg


d70a310ecd6b31ade09f78fc701115ef.jpg


bfc7046f38aad495572d2a13e27efcb4.jpg


f5f674111b5af9fd81f46e09bc619b8f.jpg


8331fceae5ce5d00c3f04bcf4f8a7f34.jpg
 
Last edited:
Had a sixt rental for Ringmeet2021, which me and 93Flareside shared.

We had some discussion via discord and grams of tele about what vehicle to get, i bounced around M5 or similar (had e63 omg Ringmeet2019), but we had the perfect idea to ruin everyones day!

Enter the BMW 440i xDrive convertible!
(so finnspec awd 440i, with heated steering wheel) :D




As you can see the side profile is typical bmw, but the real trolling effect came with the front!



It was the perfect car for trolling even @D-Fence liked the idea :D
(but some shall-be-un-named finalgearing told me, the car should be keyed, but didn't since the car didn't have "sport's package" )



Back of the car looked nice, but the real kicker with the convertible, is that the trunk opening is tiny, much tinier than a Z4 o_O
And i hit my head twice on the trunklid, since it opened really low.



When the manual mechanism for the roof is on the "more-space" position, the trunk can fit 2 hockey bags, barely.



And when the mechanism is on the "can open roof" position the trunk space is halved.

As for driving position, i could get it set perfectly, and was confortable to drive long distance (fraport to campsite).
But for me, getting into the car and out was really hard with too narrow of an opening (think Fat man gets out of BMW i8 kinda maneuver).


The infotainment had apple carplay (which wanted @93Flareside to install an app to his iphone, which we didn't since the music worked fine) and android auto (whic required me to fiddle with it like 15mins to get it to work after that, but that could be issue with my phone).
I tested android auto with wireless one and worked fine.

Managed to do vmax run once, and at 255km/h it just stopped accelerating, like hitting a brick wall.


Rental had about 900km after the 4 day rental period.

If was fun for a rental, but i dunno if i'd get one for daily driving, since getting to the driving position took me awhile and some clown maneuvers.
 
Besides the trunk opening being basically at chin height, I could get over that. For me it was a really nice car even if it was spec'd weird (who gets an AWD convertible?). Good speed, plenty of torque, enough space inside to not feel like a little Miata, but not so big it felt like a big Cadillac. I didn't get the reason why it needed about a metal roof size amount of space for a cloth top, but anyways. Auto start stop was pretty seamless, though I feel like it was a bit over the top in killing the engine any time you were off throttle, even if only for a moment.

There was a neat feature that when you get into the car, the hook for the seat belt pushed forward so you're not doing the typical 4-seat convertible thing and searching far for the seat belt. The weird bit was when you started driving, about 15-20km/h the seat belt would tug slightly on your shoulder, I guess going into the driver mode so that the tensioner worked.

The moment I knew we got the right rental was when said FG member came charging up to @Galantti the next morning saying "I know you got this intentionally!"
 
Top