The "I just drove a..." Thread

[jcp123]

I just drove a Nissan Versa hatch. 1,8l auto. Work car. Bleagh. More vanilla than vanilla pudding with vanilla sauce washed down the hatch with vanilla milk. Gas mileage sucks so far too.

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by NSXType-R

What you should do go to a BMW dealer test drive a 135i, drive that to an Audi dealer, get an RS4, and then bring that to a Lamborghini dealer to test drive a Gallardo, and then bring that to a Ferrari dealer to test a F430 Scuderia.

I've heard of laddering up, but good god man!

[LeonOfTheDead]

Fiat Marea 2.0 20v
F**k yeah.

I feel you enviousness, and I bet half of you don't even know what it is.
It's the old sedan based on the old Fiat bravo platform, see here:

Fiat Marea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fiat_Marea

This is a car a dear friend of mine is about to inherit from his grandfather, it has a 2.0 liter petrol, 20 valves, 155 bhp engine. 1999 model.
The point I'd like to make is that after 10 years, but only 70.000 km, the car is rock solid, the interior is perfect, there is no noise, the handling is good and the engine revs quite happily too. The brakes are a bit lazy, I suspect they need to be checked as even braking hard doesn't provide a strong deceleration.

If I had to compare this with my mother's Stilo, which is just 2 or 3 years older, there is no way I would win.
The Stilo is noisy, not very well assembled, roll is very evident and when you close the door it seems something could break next time.
I was very surprised to see how good it was, and how nice it was to drive. Everything was perfect, apart from the brakes.

That makes me miss even more the Alfa 156 we used to have...

[Ferrer]

So basically as time goes on italian car quality is going down...?

It must be a great sleeper though. IIRC in Brasil they sold Mareas with the turbocharged five cylinder. And that must from sleeper to Q-Car rocket.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Originally Posted by Ferrer

So basically as time goes on italian car quality is going down...?

It must be a great sleeper though. IIRC in Brasil they sold Mareas with the turbocharged five cylinder. And that must from sleeper to Q-Car rocket.

I could defend my Stilo saying it was a factory car, and the first 6.000 km were done by a Fiat manager, god knows how he drove it...
The car has some scratches and the interior was quite dirt when ti arrived from Turin, but the dealer agreed to repaint the car and clean it perfectly for the same price.
It also was one of the first cars built, I would be surprised if it was actually a pre-production car refurbished for their own workers.
It's now like 96.000 km btw.

The Marea on the other hand did 2/3 the miles in 10 years instead of 8, and was one of the last car, so it features all the updates and corrections each car receive during its marketing life span. Oh, and perfectly kept as well. I can't say so of the Stilo, my mother isn't exactly a petrolhead.

The Croma is much better then the Stilo fortunately. I can't say if it's better built than the Marea, as I'm still surprised on how well the Marea was after 10 years, really rock solid.
Now I need to get my hands on the 159 SW they just bought...

[Ferrer]

Originally Posted by LeonOfTheDead

I could defend my Stilo saying it was a factory car, and the first 6.000 km were done by a Fiat manager, god knows how he drove it...
The car has some scratches and the interior was quite dirt when ti arrived from Turin, but the dealer agreed to repaint the car and clean it perfectly for the same price.
It also was one of the first cars built, I would be surprised if it was actually a pre-production car refurbished for their own workers.
It's now like 96.000 km btw.

The Marea on the other hand did 2/3 the miles in 10 years instead of 8, and was one of the last car, so it features all the updates and corrections each car receive during its marketing life span. Oh, and perfectly kept as well. I can't say so of the Stilo, my mother isn't exactly a petrolhead.

The Croma is much better then the Stilo fortunately. I can't say if it's better built than the Marea, as I'm still surprised on how well the Marea was after 10 years, really rock solid.
Now I need to get my hands on the 159 SW they just bought...

Well all I can say is that after 94,000km and five years something expensive has broken in the Mini and now it needs a 775€ repair. So I guess that reliability myths are relative...

[LeonOfTheDead]

Originally Posted by Ferrer

Well all I can say is that after 94,000km and five years something expensive has broken in the Mini and now it needs a 775€ repair. So I guess that reliability myths are relative...

Yup, for how noisy the Still can be, it never had any major failure...oh no wait, once the powersteering had something wrong, I think it costed 350 €.
The the stealership changed one of the ECU, which was supposed to be an under warranty recall, just he forgot to say that before the warranty expired...
That was about 500 €.
That's among the main problem with Fiat over here, the dealers network is sh*t, they are still pissed because they are not selling the only brand available anymore, and still think they can screw every customer with the stupidest things, as if we don't know a damn thing. Fortunately they are changing, or better, Fiat is changing dealers.

[Revo]

Originally Posted by LeonOfTheDead

Fiat Marea 2.0 20v
F**k yeah..

That could be taken as a truly sincere and blunt-spoken reaction.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the car, my Fiat Coupe had exactly the same engine. Did you notice the sweet engine note from 3000 rpm and up?

About the poor quality in your car vs solid feel in others people cars. Car owners tend to notice all the niggling faults, strange rattles and annoying details in their car as they drive it every single day. You don't notice these little insignificate "things" in a car that is unfamiliar to you. Hence the rock solid feel, which can be deceptive.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Originally Posted by Revo

That could be taken as a truly sincere and blunt-spoken reaction.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the car, my Fiat Coupe had exactly the same engine. Did you notice the sweet engine note from 3000 rpm and up?

About the poor quality in your car vs solid feel in others people cars. Car owners tend to notice all the niggling faults, strange rattles and annoying details in their car as they drive it every single day. You don't notice these little insignificate "things" in a car that is unfamiliar to you. Hence the rock solid feel, which can be deceptive.

I did floor the throttle just to hear the sound, and it was just right.

I thought about the fact I'm used to my cars and therefore I notice all the small issues, but when I drive his Toyota Yaris, that's just chunky.
It's a good and funky car, but the quality is quite low, inferior to our old Clio (gone since a long time).

[Runfromcheney]

I think the last car I drove that wasn't mine was a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. Not that shabby of a car.

[clutch-monkey]

just drove IB4R's old E30, and a Mk V R32. <3 that noise

[ruim20]

The last 2 weeks i drove my father in law Megane 1.5dci SW, yes it's a Station wagon, not really my cup of tea, what i really was interested in was the engine. It has about 170.000kms and i shows a bit, specially in the gear linkage, nothing to serious. The engine is great, the perfect engine to run around, nothing sporty, but enough to get you moving in a safe way, economical to, 5.4/100km. It's the 100bhp version with 'only' 5 gears, the new megane offers 110Bhp and has 6 gears, it's a new gen turbo diesel, this version engine pics up from about 2000 to 4000, very confortable driving.
It's got bluetoth, cruise control, Auto AC, a card that works like a key and a start button, and a very nicely designed hand brake lever.

It helped in narrowing down the two cars i'm looking for, a new Megane Coupe '3 door' or a Mini Cooper D.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Originally Posted by clutch-monkey

just drove IB4R's old E30, and a Mk V R32. <3 that noise

How be Claudia?

Still in Blackface?

[clutch-monkey]

matte black, lowered on simmons, running smooth. kids done well for a P plater, imo. handles nice!

[IBrake4Rainbows]

It always did....Memories.....

I need RWD now, Damnit.