The "I just drove a..." Thread

[jcp123]

...Toyota Echo.

[jcp123]

Got to drive my Dad's '08 F150 FX2/Sport Crew Cab the last couple of days. Here is the short review.

Outside, this is a good-looking truck. The '05 redesign of the truck has worn well, with slab sides and a "muscle bulge" in the front doors giving it a confident look. It has not been lowered from the regular 4x2 F150's height, but it wears 20" graphite-coloured fake-powdercoat wheels with relatively low-profile, white-letter Pirelli Scorpion rubber. Those wheels give the truck a more aggressive, lower look without sacrificing its capabilities, and the scorpion painted on the sidewalls adds a subtle hint of aggressiveness. Paint-matched running boards and an aggressive grille, unique to this trim, with a colour similar to the wheels add cohesiveness to the design.

Inside, the picture is not quite as rosy. The basic styling isn't bad. The wide black seats are emblazone with red "SPORT" logos and are weaved with red to continue the design theme. They are nicely padded and feature ergonomic bolstering at all the right places. They offer little side bolstering for hard cornering - not that it's really necessary. But I digress. The materials are mediochre at best, though the interior as a whole is laid out well and gives a good first impression. Biggest gripes here are the fake carbon-fibre trim (I am not a carbon-fibre fan), which really doesn't look that much like the real thing. Not sure what else they would have used - the black and grey interior is austere to begin with and mimicking the vents' fake aluminum would not have helped that, wood would also be out of place. Improve the look of the plarbon-fibre, and you might be in business. The gauge trim is also cheesy-looking, consisting of some more badly-done fake aluminum and a small dash of chrome effect. The gauges themselves, consisting of a tach, speedo, fuel gauge, temp gauge, ammeter, and oil pressure gauge, are easy to read, however, and informative enough to be effective. They sit on top of yet another red "Sport" logo. The last niggling thing is the console shift - yeah, I know, most people prefer a console shift. In a truck though, it feels out of place, my hand naturally gravitating to a column shift. It is effectively a stick which towers straight up from the console, meant to be modern but honestly there's not a way you can place your hand on it which is not awkward-feeling. Not only that, but the console takes the place of a bench seat up front, lowering the available passenger space (not that you need it, necessarily). None of this, however, detracts from its capabilities. There is good room up front and in back, and all your basic controls are close at hand and easy to decipher. Audio quality is also quite good and the stereo system features an auxiliary input for iPods and the like.

Driving it isn't that bad, but let's be clear - the only thing sporty about it is the logo plastered all over the truck. Its 5,4l SOHC V8, rated at 300hp, is responsive enough but hardly makes it quick. The spark plugs in this three-valver are also notoriously difficult to change. On the upside, fuel economy isn't that bad for its ilk - I managed about 18mpg or 13,07l/100km over two days, about as good as its smaller 4,6l brother. You have to be delicate with the pedal - throttle tip-in is relatively aggresive. The engine is otherwise smooth and quite capable, giving just enough of a hint of V8 growl to keep you interested, and the aggressive throttle tip-in makes it feel more meaty than perhaps it actually is. The 4-speed automatic also shifts VERY smoothly under any circumstances and is geared suitably tall. Handling, doubtless aided by its 20" meats, is still all truck. It feels tippy and too easy to find its limits. Drive like a sane person, though, and all is well. It drives about its size, the truck feeling neither small nor as terribly large as it could. Steering is pretty good for a truck, with a heavier touch and more feedback than I am used to in a truck. Braking is OK, but the pedal at least has decent feedback. Ride is typical truck - that is to say, a lot better than it used to be, but still firm and a bit jiggly minus cargo. Haul about 150lbs in the bed, though, and it settles down nicely. The bed, by the way, is a shortbed as you would expect in a crew cab. It'll swallow most anything you need if you are a homeowner, but you will be disappointed if you are a contractor.

Overall it's a pretty good truck. It does all that I have asked, is pretty comfortable, and looks pretty good while doing so. The issues I have with it don't relate much to its capabilities, which is after all where you need to deliver in a truck. Not sure I'd want one for myself, but if I did want/need a truck, this one would be a fine choice.

[Ferrer]

Interesting.

As it used for work or just as a private vehicle?

20 inch wheels sound ridicolous, though.

[jcp123]

Interesting.

As it used for work or just as a private vehicle?

20 inch wheels sound ridicolous, though.

Mmm, sorta both. My mother-in-law has 5 rental properties here. I am managing them while she is gone as a courtesy (and also because I would like to inherit them lol), so I was picking up an appliance for a tenant which had gone out.

I can see where you are coming from, I am not a huge fan of really big wheels. On cars my limit is usually 17", depending on what the styling will hold comfortably. The 20 inchers work pretty well in this case, mostly since this truck is one of the vehicles which has been styled for them. The proportions of this truck are macho and pretty large. Visually they look smaller than they are, my impression was that they were 18 inchers until I looked and confirmed that they are 20" wheels.

[Ferrer]

Oh, usually big wheels look better, I agree with that. I personally prefer the smallest wheels avalaible for both ride comfort and progressive reactions.

But on the sort of car that big wheels should perform the worse is on trucks/SUVs/off roaders. Why go for them, especially if it is partly a work truck?

[jcp123]

In this case it is partly looks, the FX2/Sport package is meant to be a cosmetically sporty package. Also, though, these are apparently light truck rated tyres despite the absence of the LT designation in the tyre size. Per the owners manual, this trim package is not singled out as being adversely affected in either load or towing capacity. It's not uncommon here - Dodge was the first to push the envelope with offering 20" wheels on trucks. Pretty much everyone in the fullsize truck category has followed suit in some way or another. They seem to be designed so as to not diminish the capabilities of the truck. It's still expensive to replace them though...about $200/tyre not counting mounting, balancing, disposal, or tax.

[jcp123]

I should add that this truck has a mere 15k miles, and was formerly owned by the service manager of the local Ford dealer, so it's in cherry condition. The managing partner of the dealership, David Irwin, who also participates in a local radio car show, even tossed in an extended warrentee on their dime, so confident were they in the truck. All that for a smidge less than half its purchase price at only 3 years old.

[f6fhellcat13]

My faja was visiting me at school and rented a Focus in a pretty nice shade of blue.

Unfortunately, I only drove it in town over upstate NY's lurvely potholed streets so I did not get to truly wring it out. The suspension was somewhat oddly-tuned. It was somehow jerky over the bumps and squidgy and rolly when making 90° turns at intersections. I almost got the impression that it was made stiff to seem European and sporty, while still being made soft to suit American tastes. Maybe Ferrer is right about world cars...
That all being said, the chassis was fun and lively at six tenths, though the steering was in no way connected to the front wheels. The fastest I went was about 55mph, so maybe it has progressively-weightier steering that I didn't go fast enough to utilize.

The brakes were quite nice and stopped the car very well, though the pedal was a bit touchy for my tastes. I had to make a panic stop at one point and they performed adequately; I did not crash.

With the lively chassis, I can imagine the car being fun. Sadly, this car was saddled with a stupid automatic trans. Like the steering, the cogswapper did pretty much as it pleased with only passing input form the helmsman. It didn't feel like kicking down going up hill and liked to loiter just outside the engine's powerband. It came with a manual mode which was accessed by a button on the shifter; the button is located just out of the comfortable reach of the driver's thumb. It wasn't comfortable or any more fun, so I threw the car in D and left it there. For comparison:the manumatic on the T&C/Grand Caravans I drove last year felt better, which is just silly.

I didn't find out much about the engine. The car climbed hills slowly, but that may have been more down to the gearbox than the engine. I never really gunned it because, although he approves of going around corners quickly, my dad/passenger does not approved of high straightaway speeds in town.

Lastly, the interior was modern and chintzy, which I guess is what the kids like these days. The design itself was fairly unobtrusive, but with the car on a bunch of blue LEDs sprung to life. I was unimpressed.
As for seating position, I left it in my dad's position and he is 4-5" (10-13cm) taller than I am, so I wasn't able to see if the wheel and pedals could be made to fall more naturally to my limbs.

All-in-all, it was a fairly-competent package that did little to excite me. A manual would have made it a little more fun, but with one it still couldn't travel faster than the speed of bland and escape its milquetoastiness.

It has the stupid high and rising beltline of many a modern car, which I hate. It also has another styling trend that I dislike; the snubtrunk. Despite having an impressive depth, the aperture through which you load the trunk was excessively small because the rear glass extends almost to the back of the car, meaning that the trunklid was kinda small as was its opening. (attached)

Stupid shifter:

[Kitdy]

Beautiful diagram and use of the word aperture.

Your father actually deemed you important enough to visit?! Shocking. How was seeing the old man on the best coast?

Car and Driver had an article about bloat recently which was illuminating. A lot of it has to do with Asian and European pedestrian crash regulations, and how designers are compensating for this.

[Kitdy]

... an R-Class 350 Blutec that I will be driving every weekday at my new job as a shuttle driver for a Mercedes dealership. Full time hours, woo! I started Thursday.

The R is comfortable. The ride is nice, the steering is crap, but I have all sorts of fancy luxuries; the seats are very nice compared to our TL and Golf. COMMAND is garbage. I don't care about any kind of excitement as long as I am comfortable and can navigate my way around.

A Maybach came in for service yesterday and was parked behind a smart in the shop. Trololol. It's been two tiring days so far, but I quite like it! If I do get a chance to drive something more exciting on the off chance the car jockeys need a hand, I will let y'all know. We have a pretty nice showroom. I visited the Canadian HQ once when my friend worked there and it was damn fine.

I will keep you in the loop!

[alstylez]

cayman R

[henk4]

cayman R

and??

[Ferrer]

Quick Spin.

2013 Mercedes-Benz A220 CDI 7G-DTC

A family member has bought the top A-Class diesel model. Today it has been delivered and I've been able to drive it for some miles. With it I have driven all the diesel engines in Mercedes' A-Class diesel line up.

• Premium cars feel just better than normal cars. It's difficult to explain, but they are simply nicer places to seat in. This feeling doesn't come cheap though. The car (admiteddly with extras) costs 37.200€ which is a significant amount of money for a C-segment hatchback.

• The bigger, older engine is faster than either of the 1.8 litre units. It's not explosive, but it is relentless. It is however quite lot noisier, far more unrefined and harsher than the newer, smaller enignes.

• I'm still not convinced by low speed maneouvres with dual clutch gearboxes. On the move it feels fine, but when crawling it can be often difficult to be smooth. It also for some reason like to for the highest gear possible which exacerbates turbo lag.

• While better than cars equipped with 18 inch wheels the ride is still a tad too firm for my liking. If the road is smooth it's not so bad, but it crashes about if the surface isn't perfect (like expansion joints on bridges).

• Stop-Start systems in automatic cars are annoying. If you arrive at a roundabout or a merging lane and you have stop because there are cars coming your way it decides you are at a set of trafic lights or something and it turns the engine off. And then it doesn't want to be rushed to start again, so it is a bit of an unconfortable situation. And unlike a manual car there's no clutch pedal to stop. Solutions: turn Stop-Start off.

[Ferrer]

2001 Audi A6 Allroad 2.5 TDI Quattro

From the Oh no, that's another rather nice Audi series.

Before actually getting with it, I have to say I already have had experience with a similar car; an A6 2.5 TDI Quattro saloon family used to have ages ago. Back then I was still too young to notice understeer or dead steering wheel feel, but I remember vivdly the massive turbo lag.

I have to say, as all my meeting with different Audis (and I have driven some of them by now...) I set my expectations nicely low, expecting a car with a good interior and not much else really.

First things first, it felt suprisingly tight for a car that had done 213.000km and that, I was later told, had lived a not particularly pleasant and relaxed life. Everything worked, and there were no strange noises or rattles.

But let's cut straight to the chase. Ther car won't me over almost instantly. It felt a bit like an aircraft carrier to drive (it was massive in the city) and the slightly elevated but-not-quite-SUV-like elevated driving position felt odd but everywhere else, it was comfortable to drive, very refined, power was plentiful and available and the gearbox-clutch action was smooth and easy to operate (nerd fact, there's a small red button on the gearbox which apparently engaged a low range mode).

I started to think, I didn't remember Audi's weren't so anawful. What if I've been wrong all the time relentlessly hating them? So we drove to the open road, where the general smoothness and utterly comfortable ride continued. Was surpirsed me most of all what the very un-diesel NVH charactestics of the engine; an engine we affectionally used to call the tractor's lump in relation to its catastrophic NVH performance.

But then all sort of started to make sense. At higher speeds turbo lag was preposterous (for a 2.5 litre 180bhp engine). Basically if you are past third, there's no engine below 2.000rpm; so it's best to keep above there.

Then we showed it some corners. The steering is not so bad, but I soon discovered that the car rolled badly and that understeer showed up early and in large doses. Clearly a car that doesn't like corners at all.

As a large estate car, it is cavernous both for people and things.

In conclusion, I have to say it wasn't bad at all. It was very, very comfortable, easy to drive, had a nice smooth engine, and if you keep above 2.000rpm you make progress nicely. It also had stood up the test of time remarkably well.

Was it worth it what it cost when new? Probably not; but if you take that out from the equation it wasn't a bad car at all. Who knows maybe Audi aren't that useless at making cars...

[Ferrer]

2013 Mercedes-Benz CLA 220 CDI

Today I have driven the recently introduced small (actually not that small) sports saloon from Daimler, the CLA-Class. I was expecting to drive the 1.6 litre turbo petrol engine with a manual gearox, but apprently the only combination available was the 2.2 litre diesel with the automatic, which I already know well from the A-Class.

I have to say, ever since I saw the first pictures of the cars I have liked it rather a lot. In the real life those positive impressions continue. The proportions are somewhat odd (massive overhangs) but the car looks stylish and has presence. The interior is pretty much the same as the A-Class, except that display between the dials is now in color. The rear seats are more cramped and the entry is more difficult than in A-Class, a result of the sloping roof, and the boot is much bigger.

I'm not going to say much about the drivetrain, since the A220 CDI and C220 CDI road test are posted elsewhere in this thread. Basically not an explosive engine and some alternatives are smoother and more refined. The gearbox changes are smooth and fast but it doesn't like much being told what to do.

The big question was ride and handling. Would it be as terrible as the A-Class is? Well the veredict is that not. The test car had the AMG apperance package (complete with 225/45 R18 wheels) but crucially it had the Comfort suspension option. Result? The ride is much improved from the A-Class. It is possibly not quite as good as it should be in a Mercedes-Benz but at least it doesn't make you want to stop driving. There's also a side benefit; body control is much improved and the car flows much better in the corners. There's even a whiff of lift off oversteer, but understeer is the usual behaviour with the torquey engine giving the front tyres a tough time to put all the power to the ground effectively sometimes.

So, it looks terrific and it doesn't go as catastrophically bad as I thought it would be. You may be wondering what the price for all of this. Well, I have to admit I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come straight out with it. It's 45 thousand. And the car I drive didn't even have sat-nav or a rear view camera, or full leather.

So yes, it's very stylish and goes moderately well. But it costs as much as a BMW 520d.

A shame.