Driven Today!!!

[Xer0]

TLX V6

My cousin just leased a new TLX and I finished up a 30 minute spin in it.  The car is powerful and I think looks great.  Its also very roomy and spacious and for the 35k it sticker-ed, a great deal.  But, as much of a Honda fanboy as I am and really really wanted to love this thing, the whole time I kept thinking that its 85/90% of the way to being truly great.  The 9spd was lazy and slow to downshift in all but Sport+ but Sport+ was too aggressive and not smooth enough in regular city driving.  Taking maters into your own hands with the pedal shifters alleviated a lot of these problems, and the transmission was very quick about following your commands, but going through 9 freaking gears is just excessive.  The interior was nice and the seats comfortable, but it really felt too much like a nice Honda.  The car handled well and there wasn't any torque steer that I could detect, so that was nice.

I have a feeling that the 4 cylinder is the better car, but both will suffer from not feeling special enough.  I wish Honda would let Acura go ham and make something truly unique because as it is the TLX is just too close to the Accord for comfort.

Oh, and two more things; Acura's current styling choice of hiding the exhaust looks stupid, and the fact that that the transmission stalk in the V6 is replaced by buttons is dumb.  Its just trying to be different for no fucking reason.

[Laconian]

The interior on the TLX is so so so so much better than the TL.

[Xer0]

The interior on the TLX is so so so so much better than the TL.

I can't comment on the TL, but the brushed aluminum and the infotainment system graphics looked like they were pulled straight out of my Si which made it feel a bit cheap.

[Colin]

Today's rental car: Lincoln Navigator.

What can I say? It was certainly an interesting experience.

[ifcar]

Have you ever driven an Escalade, or is this your first experience with the genre at all?

[Colin]

I did drive a T900 Escalade a while back. I just re-read my conclusions on that, which you can read here . As I suspected, the Escalade was significantly "better", or should i say "less bad" than the Navigator - which was soft and wallowy and did not even do luxury very well with lots of cheap fittings in it.

Full report to be published in due course.

All being well, I should have a Panamera today. 

[hotrodalex]

I didn't even know they still made the Navigator, to be honest.

I'm not sure if I'd rather drive the Panamera or ride in the back.

[Colin]

Panamera was an S e-Hybrid, which made it more interesting, seeing how the hybrid system cut in and out.

Overall a fabulous car to drive, or to ride in, but not look at. Oh, and there are 33 buttons (and 6 blanks) on the centre console! Takes more than a few minutes to work everything out. 

[MX793]

Got a quick drive in a 2015 Mustang GT today.  6MT with the Performance Pack

Loved it!  Got to sample it on a stretch of fairly choppy/frost-heaved back road with a few decent curves.  I was concerned that the stiffer PP suspension would be too harsh for the rough roads we have here.  It actually soaks up the bumps and chop better than my V6's secretary-spec suspension.  Particularly the rear suspension.  The rear on mine tends to deliver a lot of jolt (and bucks a little) on sharp, transverse bumps like speed bumps or big frost heaves/dips.  You felt it with this car, but if wasn't as harsh.  And yet it's much more taught, with less dive under braking and roll and float in general.  Cannot stress enough how impressed I was with the ride and suspension compared to the S197.

Steering was good.  I left it in standard mode, not sport mode (which is supposed to stiffen up the steering resistance), and was pretty happy with it.  A bit firmer than my car.  Like my car, it's precise, but feedback seemed a bit better than my car.  Smaller steering wheel was also a plus.  I think the rim is a little more slender than in my car too.  No big deal, but someone with bigger hands than mine might prefer a fatter wheel.

Interior is a HUGE jump forward from mine.  Switchgear is much nicer and greater use of soft-touch and more premium materials throughout.  Dizzying array of buttons and switches, though, compared to my car.  Standard buckets were comfy but I think they actually have less lateral support than the seats in mine.  The bolsters seem softer than mine as well.  But the leather seemed a little nicer/softer than in my car too.  The seats are power adjustable, heated, and cooled.  They offer Recaros if you want more lateral support, but they're a $1500 option and you give up power adjustment, heating, and cooling.  I'd have a hard time paying that much more money to get that much less.  If I were buying a base GT which has power cloth seats (no heating or cooling), springing for the Recaros is a much easier decision.

Outward visibility was quite good.  Overall, comparable to the S197.  They shrunk the side mirror housings, so forward quarter visibility (like where you'd look to see a pedestrian waiting to enter the crosswalk) is actually better than my car.  Rear visibility is about the same, helped in part because Ford ditched the headrests on the rear seats (which I leave folded down for better rearward visibility).  I was on 2-lane back roads, so I didn't really need to check my rear-quarter view.  The side glass is a bit smaller than the S197 as you move rearward, so I suspect the rear quarter view (head turned 90 degrees and further back) would be a little worse.

Love the powertrain.  This is the first Coyote-powered Ford I've driven.  I didn't redline it, but got it to about 5000-5500 RPM.  Torque is strong right from 2000 RPM on up.  It really felt a lot like my V6 in terms of power delivery character, just stronger across the range.  Smooth, too.  I will say that I was expecting it to feel faster.  Don't get me wrong, it's plenty quick, but it didn't feel as much quicker than my car as I was expecting.  Then again, having a liter-bike in my garage I think has numbed me to some degree as far as acceleration goes.  It also may have been one of those deceptively quick cars that are faster than they feel.  The muted engine note in the cabin may have contributed to that.  It's such a great-sounding motor, I wish they'd let more of that sound into the cabin.  My V6 has more engine noise in the cabin (and is better for it).  The performance pack gets you 3.73 gears and they almost felt a bit too short.  Like first gear was really only needed if starting on an incline.  I have a similar complaint, if you can call it that, with my car (which has the optional shorter gears).  Kind of makes me wish you could get the performance pack with 3.55s.  The car will still hit 60 in 2nd gear, though.

Clutch and shifter were both very good.  Clutch was about perfect.  Pretty easy to find the friction point and the action was light enough that it won't punish you in stop and go.  Seemed a bit chattery right at the friction point.  Not sure if it was just this car or if it's due to a heavier-duty clutch with the V8.  Shifter throws were short and precise.  I think slightly shorter than in my car.  A little less notchy, too.  Like maybe the synchros are better.  Also, this car doesn't hang onto revs like mine when you lift off to shift.  With mine, I have to hesitate a moment between shifts before letting the clutch out to shift smoothly at higher RPMs.  I could really run through the gears pretty quick with this car.

Brakes were good.  More immediate than mine and with better initial bite and a bit firmer pedal.  Granted, mine have seen some heavy use via several seasons of autocross and probably aren't as good as they were out of the box.  I seem to recall mine being better when new.

And while there is too little engine noise in the cabin, there is also very little road or wind noise.

This car was loaded up with a lot of goodies.  I didn't get a chance to really play with a lot of the features and amenities like the Shaker 500 stereo or fiddling around with the MFT touchscreen system.  I've used it a little bit on a rental car I had last year.  I didn't hate it, but didn't really have enough exposure to get a sense of how buggy it is.  MFT is supposed to be replaced by Sync3 for the 2016MY and if I get a new Mustang, I'll hold out and order a 2016 model.  The dealer did a quick search for any cars that met what I was looking for and everything at any nearby dealer was loaded up similar to this car, so there's not really anything out there spec'ed as I'd want it anyway.

Trunk is supposed to be the same size, if not a hair larger than mine, but seemed smaller.  I think because it's shallower at the opening (and what appears to be a smaller opening), but is deeper as you move towards the back of the trunk (front of the vehicle) since they don't need to raise the floor to clear the live axle anymore.

So, pros:
-Ride quality
-Good steering
-Great engine/transmission combo
-Nice interior
-Good outward visibility
-Still decent trunk space

Cons:
-Needs moar engine note!
-Standard seats could use a little more lateral bolstering (or they should offer the Recaros at less of a premium).
-Trunk opening seems kind of small and may pose issues getting larger objects like suitcases in and out.

[ifcar]

Cool -- are you considering one, or will you hold on to yours longer? And are you interested in the new 4-cylinder also?

[MX793]

My plan now is to order a 2016 when the order books (mid May based on what I can find).

I have zero interest in the Ecoboost model.  In my opinion, it's an inferior motor to the 3.7L V6.  Worse engine note, narrower power band (signs off well before redline), requires premium fuel, and only marginally more fuel efficient.  If they still offered the V6 in the premium trim with the performance pack, I might have considered another V6.  Though I still probably would have lusted for the V8.

[MexicoCityM3]

MINI JCW Convertible Automatic

A good friend got one. Definitely a mid life crisis buy, he's going through a separation.

I just drove it for a few blocks, no pushing it since its brand new and in the break in period.

The interior is really nice, does have the go kart feel. The exhaust sounds made me giggle. It felt a bit more solid and slightly less bad riding than I remember my R53 being.

Drove around with the top down. And no, I am not gay, being that is all the rage here.

[Laconian]

I drove a Citroen C3 1.4 diesel in Greece. Power was decent around town but you could really feel the car petering out around 120kph. Fuel economy was great. We could do a lot of driving per 10-15 euro mini-fillup. (We were supposed to return the car *empty*. LOLgreece)

[Colin]

Abarth 695 Biposto.

Suffice to say you would not believe a 4 cylinder 1400cc car could sound so good.

Full report to come.

[MexicoCityM3]

Abarth 695 Biposto.

Suffice to say you would not believe a 4 cylinder 1400cc car could sound so good.

Full report to come.

Nice! The regular Abarth already sounds great, so I can imagine!

[MexicoCityM3]

Last night we had a club meet. After dinner I rode in an '89 E34 535i in very good shape. Was a load of fun. Comfortable, super agile, great flexibility, classic old school free revving torquey BMW inline 6.

The difference between that 5er and the current one is huge. Definitely the 3 is now what was formerly the 5.

[ifcar]

My fiancee's car, a 2007 Hyundai Atos Prime. One whole liter of four-cylinder glory, with a whopping 61 horsepower. I'd driven it once before a couple of years ago, but only for a few minutes around town. This week I drove it for several days around the mountains of Tuscany, then on a long drive back to the Rome area on the highways.

It's quite a pleasant car for puttering around in tight spaces, with a fair bit of low-speed pep, great visibility, and decently comfortable high seats. But it's not really at its best on the mountains or the highway -- there just isn't enough power, the handling and brakes didn't inspire great confidence, and the ride got pretty stiff at high speeds. Not unusable, but certainly not the sort of thing that would thrive in the typical American environment. It's great for Prisca, though, whose typical drive is 12 minutes on low-speed roads to the train station.

[2o6]

I keep hearing the latest i10 and Kia Picanto are the bees knees to drive and own.

[ifcar]

I see them around here a lot, they look pretty nice.

[Colin]

Possibly the coolest rental car, evah!

A Mercedes G550.

You would not believe the noise this thing makes............ a deep throaty rumble more or less all the time. Just fabulous. And this was not even the AMG version. That one must be utterly epic.

Hertz have a few at LAX. They are expensive, unless you can get a deal (which I did, of course)......... but for what I paid, worth every $, though. I could not stop grinning all day, this thing was just such a giggle.  Far cooler than the Macan Turbo I had a few days ago (which was nice, but just a beautifully finished, very fast SUV if I am brutally honest). 

A full report will appear on Themotor.net in due course. 

[ifcar]

Neat! Is it the sort of car where you think the novelty would wear off after a rental period, or do you think it would remain charming?

From a (literally) outsider's perspective, it's also been kind of fun to watch MB consistently swap its latest engine into this relic.

[Colin]

Well, the 12 mpg might cause you to reconsider.........  but if your pocket was deep enough to buy in the first place (G Wagens are extremely expensive considering that development costs would have been recouped about 30 years ago!), and to run it, I think you could live with it on a daily basis. The noise is a deep throaty rumble, and I could certainly live with that, as it is a bit like a V8 version of the noise form my new Abarth Competizione with its Monza exhaust. Otherwise you are getting a luxury car. For sure, you can tell it is old: the doors thwack shut, they have push buttons to open them, the windscreen is almost vertical, it still has guttering around the edge of the roof etc, but it has lots of modern stuff too, like XM and HD radio, blind spot assist, rear view camera, dual zone climate, headlight washers, all sorts of things which were never thought of in the 1970s when it was designed, and it is quite spacious for 5.

Sadly, I have to take it back tomorrow. I got a good deal on it, but it was not so good that I can keep it for several days!

[93JC]

I drove a new Mercedes-Benz B250 last night. What a turd. Things I liked: the ride is okay, the interior is okay, and it's very quiet.

It has a 208 hp 2.0 L turbocharged four, and you wouldn't know it had any more than about 130 hp when driving about town. All of the blame can be laid at the feet of the atrocious 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Daimler can't design a good transaxle for transverse applications to save their lives. First gear is too short and the throttle response is terrible; you have to put your foot three quarters of the way to the floor to reasonably keep up with city traffic from a standstill, whereupon the transmission will do a herky-jerky dance into second gear at about 18 km/h. Once in second it starts to pick up some steam. As a result every single stoplight is a rope-a-dope attempt at building speed.

People who buys these things must be desperate to have a Mercedes-Benz badge on the hood of their car because anyone who cross-shopped it with anything else would be hard-pressed to justify spending money on one. For the $32,000+ this thing costs it ought to be "good", and the kindest judge would give this car a verdict of merely "okay" at best.

[Laconian]

Those entry level BMWs are pretty popular around where I live, the buyer base seems to be heavily skewed towards Asians. I don't understand the appeal. They're expensive for what they offer, and to me, they scream "status seeker" not "status".

[Laconian]

I do like the GLA45 because it looks pretty sharp, and WOW, dat specific output.

[2o6]

Those entry level BMWs are pretty popular around where I live, the buyer base seems to be heavily skewed towards Asians. I don't understand the appeal. They're expensive for what they offer, and to me, they scream "status seeker" not "status".

320's are OK, though.

[93JC]

Those entry level BMWs are pretty popular around where I live, the buyer base seems to be heavily skewed towards Asians. I don't understand the appeal. They're expensive for what they offer, and to me, they scream "status seeker" not "status".

For some that is enough, perhaps.

[MexicoCityM3]

Yesterday.

991 GT3 RS
GT4
Carrera GTS
Carrera Targa 4 GTS
Cayman S
Boxster S
Macan Turbo
Cayenne GTS

[GoCougs]

Jesus, what a list.

[Eye of the Tiger]

What the fuck, dude.