The State of The Car

[f6fhellcat13]

Aston Martin range increasingly difficult to comprehend.

Aston Martin Virage discontinued after short lifespan

Honestly, can anyone make any sense out of Aston Martin? As far as I'm concerned it looks like like they've been introducing, producing, discontinouing, reintroducing, reproducing, rediscontinouing, rereintroducing,... slightly different versions of the same car since the 1640s...

They do have one ugly swanling (har har) that looks different from the rest of the range…

[NSXType-R]

I couldn't make ends or tails of the Aston Martin range either and I practically gave up, especially when they look alike.

Even the V8 Vantage eventually got a V12.

[Ferrer]

World Car, Ford edition. Part II.

Ford Europe goes further with American vehicles
Ford Edge going to Europe, will be joined by EcoSport
Ford Mustang headed to Europe

I'm not sure it'll work out for Ford, though...

[henk4]

New Ford Mondeo, fitted with a 1 litre, 125 BHP three cylinder engine...

[Matra et Alpine]

I struggle to understand how this Ford plan makes sense.

So the European designed cars were used as "global platform" a few years back and saved them but they didn't really bother keeping the European designs up-dated so lost market share.

Now they surmise that a world car based on a US platform will win it back ?

hmmm, confusing cause and effect methinks

Will wait and see how they handle on the twisties !! Hope they listen to the design team in Germany for more than just cosmetic changes

[Ferrer]

New Ford Mondeo, fitted with a 1 litre, 125 BHP three cylinder engine...

And it's actually much, much bigger than the outgoing Mondeo, thanks to being the same car as the USDM Fusion...

[Ferrer]

I do not know if we have discussed this before, but anyway, here we go.

The recent test drive of the new Merc A-Class, my own MX-5 and MoS's review of the Scenic has made me think about something. Are new cars simply too hard and sporty these days?

First of all I have to say that I like great handling cars and that a stiff suspension helps control bodyroll and therefore aids handling. Handling is one of the most important attributes for me when buying a car. That's the main reason why, in late 2011, I bought a rear wheel drive, two-seater, sportscar; the Mazda MX-5.

Little did I know when I collected it from the dealer that I was in for a big shock. I was expecting a character similar to the Mini Cooper S. In short, a hard riding, hard charging, fire breathing monster with an insatiable apetite for oversteer and I-want-to-kill-you antics as long as you didn't do everything perfectly.

What I got instead was one of the best riding cars, this side of a Jaguar, I've ever driven. It rides so nicely, that if it wasn't for the road noise due to the open roof and the small fuel tank it would make for a great GT car, this. However, in long open corners it also rolls a bit (for a sportscar, that is) and the small(ish) and high(ish) profile tyres make it a tad imprecise.

So I was confused - did one of the icons of petrolheads actually not handle properly? Had I bought the wrong car? If the handling was no good, then what was all the fuss about? But I was wrong, it wasn't the car's fault, it was mine. Take it out of the open roads with long sweeping corners and into the narrow, twisty country lanes (MX-5 territory, really), keep the revs up, go for it and suddenly everything starts to make sense.

The steering is comunicative (if a tad light for my liking), the front end is incisive and low weight makes direction changes instantaneous. The imprecision is replaced by nobility at the limit; even if you over step it, it won't bite you back. And the soft suspension also has other advantages, like full confidence when attacking a bumpy road, unlike other cars with stiffer suspension (*cough* Mini *cough*) where you seem to jump from bump to bump.

Even if perhaps the suspension is a bit too soft, if the Mazda has taught me anything over the last 9 months is that you don't need a needlessly hard suspension to make a car handle properly. Which brings me neatly to the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class.

This car is the exact opposite of the Mazda. Grip is plentiful and handling doesn't seem to be particularly interesting. Furthermore we are speaking here about a front wheel drive diesel hatchback with an automatic, not a mean sounding V8 engined AMG car; so why the hell does the ride have to be so hard? Most of the time you are not going to "use" the suspension, and yet the bumps will be felt all the time, even the 90% of which you don't want to go experimenting with the laws of physics.

I knew that there are "sports" packs and "sports" suspensions which always have had preposterpus rides - I've always thought that people who ticked them in their spec sheet needed urgent psycological assistance... - but it seems that this epidemy is infecting everything. The Merc I drove had the standard suspension (or so I was told), albeit with optional 18 inch wheels, and the ride was simply unacceptable. A Q7 I rode in a while ago made you feel bumps like you were in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Why?

I'm sorry but this so-called sportiness has to stop. It is unnecessary to make all cars pointlessly "stiff" to make them "handle". It's far more important to develop a proper chasis to make it good most of the time rather than make the suspension needlessly hard, something which you won't be able to appreciate unless some very specific conditions are achieved.

And this way I can round it off nicely with MoS's Scenic review. Yes it's soft. Yes it feels a bit like a boat. But at least it's not pretending to be what it isn't. At least it knows what it is. And for this we have to be thankful.

[NSXType-R]

Well you can't assume that all cars are becoming more sporty because of one poorly tuned Mercedes A class. Who puts 18 inch tires on a subcompact (?) car? Styling trends like that make no sense and even worse sense on an engineering standpoint. Your sidewalls are very tiny, you get rock hard ride and you end up with a lot of unsprung weight because of the huge and heavy tires. Plus you eat up interior room with large tires. Tires are more expensive to replace and the rims are astronomical in cost.

The 2nd gen Accord in my family has 13 inch tires. We got around just find with smaller tires.

In my opinion, I think cars have become too rubbery and desensitized, but hey, what do I know?

[RacingManiac]

Big wheels are tires are a fix for the trend of the elevating beltline and nose of the newer car. Pedestrian safety means hood has to be higher and that necessitated a shift up for basically all the side profile. The wheelwell to top of fender distance got bigger, so they made the wheelwell bigger to maintain the old profile, look, and thus needs bigger wheel/tire to fill it out...

As far as ride goes, I have no idea why all the new cars ride the way they do. My car is pretty choppy for the roads around here, but for what it is the car is pretty composed over bump even midcorner when the tires are loaded up. But day to day on the broken MI pavement its pretty harsh. Strangely people comment this is one of the better riding(in US's rather limited sporty compact market) hot(-ish) hatch. I dread to think whats a poor riding one...

Rubbery, old cars are rubbery....try driving that Accord with the 13" wheel at speed...my Camry was a POS in anything related to actually driving it, every other aspect its pretty good...

I think the desensitized aspect is overblown. The limit of the modern cars are much higher, as a result you do feel "less" as you need to be going quite fast to upset it. Its the reason why they make something like the Toyobaru with less than great tires. They try to make the limit lower so you can actually get to the limit handling....

[Man of Steel]

And this way I can round it off nicely with MoS's Scenic review. Yes it's soft. Yes it feels a bit like a boat. But at least it's not pretending to be what it isn't. At least it knows what it is. And for this we have to be thankful.

Wow, that's deep. I can only judge from my own car history and to be perfectly honest I have not driven many different cars besides that. The cars I had though always had a modest number of horses under the hood and were front wheel driven. As it were compact cars their weight was modest too, which added to a still acceptable performance in daily traffic.

I must say that with the '99 Fiesta and Ka I owned I actually got a bit spoiled as the handling of those cars could almost be described as 'dynamic' and 'sporty'. Although there was a total lack of horsepower I enjoyed driving them. This related to the overall feel of the suspension (the Fiesta had 14" alloys with slightly wider tyres then standard which might make a small difference).

In the class of small cars, it is not all about stiff suspension settings I think (although I have not driven newer small Fords). But after that we bought the '08 Twingo and I was in a completely different world. Same conditions but a totally different driving experience. Sure, it does the job perfectly. But the steering is just too light, designed for ladies it seems (reason I drove a purple Ka was that my wife missed the power steering).. You can park it with your finger tip but at 130 km/h it feels plainly unnatural after having driver the likes of Fiesta, Ka - plus my first car was a 3rd generation Starlet.

Well, what can I say. My first car bought with the heart was the Alfa. I have told too much about this car already. Needless to say I am very happy with the handling. The handling of the 147 is a perfect balance between sporty and comfort and gives me the same "fun factor" feeling as with the Ford's. Having 2,5 times more horses also helps of course. The steering feel is perfect, not overpowered and steady as a rock, also at 160 km/h. Only disadvantage is that it is certainly no light car, but in the corners it feels much lighter. The standard 16" alloys give the best ride comfort I have been told, when going to 17" you will feel the difference. Even bigger wheels on the 147 are ridiculous by the way.

Of course, as stated in my "review" it is non-sense to compare the driving experience of an Alfa with a French comfy MPV. It just made me aware that I do appreciate a more sporty ride, as I have driven a few cars which gave me a smile on my face which is my general rule of comparison. This does not mean that I am longing for a broken back when I am passing the roadworks in a lowered racemonster, but I need a car where I can at least feel what the wheels are doing, not a waterbed. I think there should be a way in between.

I like driving other cars and I realise they can not all give my desired ride quality of preference. Some people may like the comfy rides or not notice even the vague steering. The ride in the Scenic just convinced me that I missed my own car. And made me realise I will not buy a stupid MPV, even not when there is a newborn. We will just keep the Alfa, it has 5 doors (or get an Alfa station?)

[Ferrer]

Rubbery, old cars are rubbery....try driving that Accord with the 13" wheel at speed...my Camry was a POS in anything related to actually driving it, every other aspect its pretty good...

It's true though that most have lost the mechanical connection between the car and the driver.

I think the desensitized aspect is overblown. The limit of the modern cars are much higher, as a result you do feel "less" as you need to be going quite fast to upset it. Its the reason why they make something like the Toyobaru with less than great tires. They try to make the limit lower so you can actually get to the limit handling....

I like low limits. This way you can play and if you get it wrong it's more difficult to get killed to death.

Of course, as stated in my "review" it is non-sense to compare the driving experience of an Alfa with a French comfy MPV. It just made me aware that I do appreciate a more sporty ride, as I have driven a few cars which gave me a smile on my face which is my general rule of comparison. This does not mean that I am longing for a broken back when I am passing the roadworks in a lowered racemonster, but I need a car where I can at least feel what the wheels are doing, not a waterbed. I think there should be a way in between.

I think the key is striking a good balance between handling and comfort. There's no point in having a great handling car if it breaks your back everytime you go over a bump and like wise a comfortable car with a suspension so soft it makes you sick is no good either.

Sometimes it also depends on the car you are driving. You see, I'm more inclined to forgive the Mini's rock hard ride because it's actually a hoot to drive in the corners. However, I cannot forgive the bounciness of an Abarth or the harshness of the new A-Class. For an everyday car, I'm more inclined to to stray a little bit more towards comfort and cars like the Hyundai i30 or the BMW 1 Series show that you are not necessarily giving up on handling.

[jcp123]

The last Astons I liked were powered by straight sixes...

[Ferrer]

The last Astons I liked were powered by straight sixes...

DB7 it is, then...

Anyway.

For different reasons I've been driving a lot of new cars lately, and this weekend I've had a DS4 from Citroën. As a result of this, I've decided that all this array of new Infocarentertainment Bluetooth-sensing Satnav I-Drive MMI system things are all far too complicated and completely unfathomable, aside from being utterly annyoing.

These days most of the controls that govern all those gadgets have been grouped on dashboard and on the steering wheel as well as on the centre console sometimes. This means that the inside of your car no longer resembles the inside of car. It looks more like the controls of a space shuttle.

So if you want to change a radio station you've got to go into the computer, into the radio submenu and then try to find the radio station in a list, which is just impossible. And of course you cannot change the dial manually because that's so 20th century. In the Citroën, once I found one that I more or less liked, I decided to stick with it the entire weekend...

And the radio is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't know yet how the sat-nav works or how to change the screen, and connecting the mobile phone to the car's bluetooth system was a nightmare - thank god nobody called me whi le on the car the entire weekend because I wouldn't have known how to pick it up.

Basically you'd spend the entire life to learn how it works only to find that your car has gone old and you have to change. But you'll think - aha! car makers have had to more or less standardise these things. Except that they haven't. So once you get in a BMW 1 Series you have to start all over again, and you realise that you do not find any of the buttons, and that you cannot change the radio stations or the cruise control because well you are moving and you take the time to search the buttons and find out how they work you are going to have a horrible accident.

And then there are the buzzes and lights. At night, the inside of the Citroen DS4 is shinier than a disco glitter ball. Thankfully Citroen have fitted a button that darkens most of the screens and dials (which later on I discovered was duplicated...) for more comfortable driving when it goes dark. The only problem is that the only dial available is the speedo, so you don't know anything about the revs or how much fuel you have left... Great! If you want to see it you push the button to switch on the screens and everything and the whole thing lights up like a supernova! So most probably you'll be blinded, you'll crash and die.

But it's not all lights, cars these days also make noises. And not all of them are mechanical. The DS4's sat nav shows you the speed cameras and traffic light cameras, which is very nice but it also buzzes when you go past them. Even if it's not necessarily the road you are in but one that crosses it... Nevertheless the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class is even better. It has a systems which detects when you approach a slower moving object at a high(ish) rate of speeds and it flashes a red triangle on the dashboard to warn. It also emits a beep if it considers the accident is about to happen. In a short 10 minute test drive I heard the damn beep three times (mostly due to overtaking maneouvres). And don't even think of trying to find the button that switches those systems off, because you won't find it. So these might help you stay alive, but you might want to have a crash on purpose just to stop them.

Have cars gotten to complicated and annoying with thinkgs that are not related to driving? The answer is clearly yes.

Thoughts?

[RacingManiac]

Yes, new cars have way too much crap in them...strangely I still don't have a car with a color screen....

[jcp123]

Nobody will be surprised that I also agree that interior ergonomics have passed their zenith and have too much complication these days...