2o6 Driving impressions - flip cars

Started by 2o6, January 16, 2017, 09:08:22 AM

Eye of the Tiger

Quote from: veeman on June 14, 2019, 09:36:29 PM
You can modify a diesel car so that it runs on used cooking oil.  Can you do that with a hybrid :lol:

I don't see why not, since you can use a potato to power a light bulb.
2008 TUNDRA (Truck Ultra-wideband Never-say-die Daddy Rottweiler Awesome)

cawimmer430

Quote from: 12,000 RPM on June 14, 2019, 11:53:43 AM
Diesel really has no advantages over hybrids except the battery... but hybrid batteries are so small sourcing them is no biggie.

Highway cruising. A gasoline-hybrid will still need to lug around the extra weight of the electric motors and batteries.

Also, the urea fill-ups are not a big deal. Buy the urea, dump it into the urea tank. To my knowledge on newer diesels with larger urea tanks this needs to be done every 15,000 km. Not a big deal.
-2018 Mercedes-Benz A250 AMG Line (W177)



WIMMER FOTOGRAFIE - Professional Automotive Photography based in Munich, Germany
www.wimmerfotografie.de
www.facebook.com/wimmerfotografie

FoMoJo

Quote from: cawimmer430 on June 16, 2019, 04:19:53 AM
Highway cruising. A gasoline-hybrid will still need to lug around the extra weight of the electric motors and batteries.

Also, the urea fill-ups are not a big deal. Buy the urea, dump it into the urea tank. To my knowledge on newer diesels with larger urea tanks this needs to be done every 15,000 km. Not a big deal.
I suppose, in a pinch, you can just pee into the tank :huh:.
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." ~ Albert Einstein
"As the saying goes, when you mix science and politics, you get politics."

cawimmer430

-2018 Mercedes-Benz A250 AMG Line (W177)



WIMMER FOTOGRAFIE - Professional Automotive Photography based in Munich, Germany
www.wimmerfotografie.de
www.facebook.com/wimmerfotografie

2o6

2009 Mazda 6i (2.5L, 6MT)


Here's a quick write up I did on facebook.


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This is a 2009 Mazda 6i with the 2.5L four cylinder, and a six speed manual. This car is one of the reasons I've been disillusioned with most online car commentary and reviews. A great deal of them focus so much on armchair quarterbacking, and spec sheet racing, it forgets that cars are products and sometimes people just buy things because they like them. If something is slightly *worse* than what you perceive to be the better product, it doesn't make the "worse" product completely terrible.

This car, when it came out, was constantly derided as being "too big" and "too soft" and online enthusiasts LOVE to dump on this car, for some reason. They regard the generation one Mazda 6 as some sort of paragon of automotive midsized goodness.

I have owned a Gen 1 Mazda 6 (2.3L, automatic) - it was a fine car. It was pretty fun to drive, but it was a little bit sloppily made, and the 2.3L has never been a great engine - lots of them have top and bottom end problems and it's pretty easy to find a broken Mazda with a snapped connecting rod or some other catastrophic failure.

In short, the old one was ok. Not the second coming of Jesus like they try and say.

This new one (generation 2) was actually built in response to Mazda listening to their clientele, who liked their old cars but thought the old Mazda 6 was a little too small. (It was.) So, when Mazda revised the old platform for its second act, the US got a special version. Ours was slightly longer and wider than the car the rest of the world got. (And thus got a slightly different exterior, but I think a lot of the interior design and parts are shared between the car). There were also a few mechanical changes to the chassis as well; the front suspension switched from MacPherson struts to a double wishbone setup, and the dumpy 2.3L was changed to the better 2.5L. (The 3.7L V6 also made it into the car as well)

With that said, it is roomy - but as far as physical size it's between the contemporary Toyota Camry and Honda Accord of the day.

I don't understand why this "flopped". Maybe this was an early sign of the "sedanocolypse"? The car is definitely sportier than the Camry, and feels as nice as the Honda. I didn't find it to be "too soft" like people kept saying - this is actually one of the more enjoyable flip cars I've owned!

Things I like:

- the 2.5L has more torque than the 2.3L and seemingly is better made.

- despite it having a bigger engine, I'm averaging about 27MPG mixed

- it looks good

- the interior is easy to use, and fits together well

- the steering is nice

- the shifter feels pretty precise and well made

- loads of room, legroom for all passengers, and it's got a big trunk too.

Things I don't like:

- it feels big, but that's my own personal aversion to cars of this type. A Camry and accord feel just as large.

- the clutch engagement point is kind of high and abrupt (typical Mazda thing)

- the doors don't lock automatically when you start moving

It's a really solid car, and you should not believe the hype about what people online say. Go and test things out, form your own opinions.