as the title says:
Cars you've driven recently that you were impressed or dissapointed by and why.

Try and pick a good one and a bad one. Poorly maintained cars are disqualified on the basis they aren't an accurate representation of that model and it's characteristics. Try and stick to modern/new/newish cars

my two:
Good: 2009 Hyundai i30 slx turbo-diseasel manual. Sweet donk, smooth gearbox, comfy seats, very well appointed for a hatchback. Extremely direct steering. Freak on the fuel - 6L/100klms

Bad: 2009 Mitsubishi Triton GL turbo-diseasel auto. Who has a 4-spd auto these days? Hose out interior. Turbo-lag that went for eons. LSD but spin em up at every takeoff from a t-junction. No cruise. Thirsty - 12.8L/100klms. Rough suspension. Hard seats. Roly-poly ride. Just plain s***.

your turn

Shit Thread Punk.

ive driven a new triton but it was the 4cyl manual, jeezus worst ute ever

Drove an Audi TT (2010) the other day. Seriously wow @ the comfort level and power.

Evo X MR - felt pretty good but wasn't too keen on the flappy paddle gearbox. fuel use is atrocious for a 4 banger. it also feels laggy compared with the s3 (below).

VW R32 - great car, sounds absolutely fantastic straight from the factory...but never gave you the feeling of big power you think it would

Current model MX5, felt great in every way - can't fault it.

Current model Audi S3 - was impressed enough to buy one :)

Looking forward to see what loan car audi give me in a couple of weeks. hopefully not a diesel a3 heh.

*edit*: oh, forgot some:

2008 HSV Clubsport: felt reaaaaaally big, and interior was awful. it was hella fun though.

2005 Audi S4: pretty awesome, fantastic sounding V8. Nice gearbox, good handling but felt kinda nose heavy. Came within a bees dick of buying this over the S3.

ford focus CL hatch. drives like an angry bee, worst engine i've encountered.

mitsubishi magna sedan V6, extremely smooth ride, not too comfy or speedy.

2009 FG XR6 Ford falcon - not bad, auto downshifting under heavy braking is a cool feature. shifting is firm and happens when you want it to in tiptronic mode, comfortable typical falcon with more gadgets also has some balls and looks alright. Smooth ride but not something i would do a nebo run in.

ford focus 2009 - very uncomfortable seats, not very powerful and the tiptronic gearbox is just awful. looks ok handles ok.

nissian silvia s14- awesome sports car, cant fault handling except that its over steer happy but i like that, a little more torque would be nice but is very well balanced. not the most comfy car but when you buy a car like that comfort is not what your after. it was also manual which adds to the i like to drive my car, not i like the car to drive for me feel.

last edited by eightyeight at 22:47:45 19/Mar/10

eighty-eight - 5- or 6-speed auto?

5 speed auto in the fg i think it had.

I drove the American version of the new Ford focus and I was really quite disappointed. The interior looks like it's made out of snap lock card board. The whole car felt cheap and nasty. I just hope that the Australian/euro version is better.

Previous generation Mazda 6 I quite liked: handling, fuel consumption, ride and interior were all good.

VW Golf GTI MKVI DSG - seriously impressed. very responsive though somewhat lacking in top end. Interior and build quality very good.

Evo X GSR SST - undecided. transmission needs a interim setting between the docile normal mode and abrupt sports mode. very quick point to point though still feels like a $30K car on the inside.

I don't really drive many cars but:

Good: Current base model Golf, electric smooth motor and good handling - not as much urge as an i30 CRDi but still impressive for a 1.4.

i30 CRDi that's why we bought one. We get 4.7 l/100km on freeway. It ticks over at about 2,500rpm @ 110 so it's right in the sweet spot of its 255nm @ 1,900 - 3,000 rpm (which is more torque than a 2.5 petrol at much higher rpm) so still plenty of power while delivering the 4.7 l/100km. It would definately benefit from a 6 speed manual though, this would lower fuel consumption further.

Bad: Haven't really driven many other late model cars to comment :(

Disappointed: both of mine.

Good: VW Golf. Was under-whelmed when handed the keys by carpool. Little s***s got quite a kick to it though.

Bad: New Triton Ute. Seriously pissy little engine, stupidly long lag time for turbo to kick in. Gear ratios seem f***ed for Australian standard speed limits, Like 60 is too slow for 4 but too fast for 3. 60,000 left on my old Triton till I have to switch over to the new one :/

im loving my audi s3
amd i loved the s5. v8 sound was awesome, looks awesome. spacious inside, all leather etc so nice. fast off the lights :P

last edited by Sc00bs at 00:18:41 20/Mar/10

transmission needs a interim setting between the docile normal mode and abrupt sports mode.

There is, it's called Sports mode, then you get crazy mode Super Sport above that :)

Seeing as I'm in Japan at the moment, I didn't drive it but I sat in the new R35 GTR in the Nissan Gallery and it was magical. One button press and I think I could have driven it out of the subway haha.

you got an s3 too scoobs? post details. we should like hook up.

Audi A6 was terribly disappointing to drive

Mazda 3 Neo Auto Hatch. Lacked power, slow to shift gears, extremely difficult to see out the side/rear, hard to judge length of bonnet, low driving position.

Subaru Impreza RS. Bland.

I ended up buying a Mitsubishi Lancer RX Sportback. Couldn't fault it. In hindsight the only downsides are that it kinda sounds like a lawnmower.

I'd love an Audi A5 Sportback, but they're $50,000 more than the Lancer, so... yeah, not going to happen.

yer orbitor :) got it just after xmas, very impressed so far, even with fuel economy.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7128/car5r.jpg

nice, nogaro ftw. here's mine:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~m.holmes/s3/s3_2.jpg

That is a fine automobile

I'll get back to this thread after the car is up the driveway.

I got an S3 too, in yellow.....

bmw x6 m, twin turbo 4.4 litre v8 - f***in sweet car. 555 hp, 680 nm torque from 1500 thru 5600 rpm
weighs 2300kg and sits high/suv style but handles more like an exceptional midsize. zips from 0-100 in a respectable ~4.5 seconds and with it's massive brakes, pulls up like it only weighs 900kg.

leave it in D and don't use M-mode and it'll just trundle along in a mild manner and behave like a comfy coupe using ~10.5 on the highway and about 14 around town. will still respond nicely to some right boot though

if you want a bit of incredibly addictive fun flick the gearshift over to sport mode or manual shift and press the M button to stiffen the suspension, remap the ecu, open the second pair of exhausts, remap the transmission, and the various electronic safety systems like traction control, per-wheel torque distrubution, stability control etc (most of these changes can be adjusted/toggled via idrive) then just listen to the sweet sweet noise. needless to say you'll start chewing fuel to the tune of 19L/100 which all things considered, isn't too bad. you never want to park it and get out cos driving it is too much fun even on australian roads.

creature comforts and features would result in a massive wall of text but a couple of nifty ones worth a mention are the hud remap in m-mode which swaps to a digital tacho at eyeline on the windshield but retains the digital speedo, and the ability to stick in a cd/dvd/usb and rip them to local storage whether they be cd format or already mp3. brief blurb about the 16 speaker sound system here

some pics of the car here


as for the bad, I haven't really driven anything I would call bad in a while. the closest would be a 2008 statesman hire car about a year or so ago. it was ok on fuel but felt sluggish, wallowy and loose to drive. the interior felt pretty cheap and nasty and if I had to sum up the experience, I would say it was like riding in a taxi. it only had a couple thousand k's on the clock too. I think a nice toyota or honda would be a better benchmark for holden to aim for with their flagship model.

^ Jesus, bit of over kill maybe? lol

heh that's a 200k car

well played sir

EDIT: Well 180K + on road costs and options.

christ that bmw is uglier than lara bingle

good: 1997 da(v)ewoo lanos
european styling, 4 gears (with bonus 3rd and 4th thrown in for free), cost $1500
running costs $50 petrol every 3 weeks
no other costs, NO OTHER COSTS!?!?!?!?!??!?!!??!!? IS IT SOME SORT OF MAGIC CAR?


bad: 1993 skyline
awesome handling, awesome performance, awesome looks, great paintjob, costs, ridiculous, everything costs money and s*** is always breaking down, money is never seen again, you dont get any of it back, any, i repeat any of it, would never purchase again;

just fill it up with deep fry oil

That SmugMug site is quality.

I drove my housemate's Honda Accord lately (not sure what year, late 90's). Nice drive but the first gear is kinda odd; you really have to gun it to get it off the mark.

We have a diesel Holden Astra wagon at work which I drove for the first time a few days ago; I was well impressed. Surprisingly gutsy and feels a lot bigger inside than it really is. If I were buying a new car I would definitely consider this.

Good: 2009 Hyundai i30 slx turbo-diseasel manual. Sweet donk, smooth gearbox, comfy seats, very well appointed for a hatchback. Extremely direct steering. Freak on the fuel - 6L/100klms

I have been thoroughly impressed with every Hyundai I have ever driven. For a cheap, no-frills brand of car the build quality, efficiency and power tends to be pretty good for the price.

Drove a Renault Clio R27 a few weeks ago and what an amazingly fun car. Just feels so bare to the bones and superb to drive. If only I could take it over Mt Glorious for a drive I would be in heaven.

Though I will say my 306 S16 is not far behind in the handling stakes and it's more powerful than the clio but there was soemthing about that car....

last edited by Ospi at 13:46:05 20/Mar/10

u done anything to it orbitor?

i been looking around at custom sub boxes from overseas, so it can still stay invisible in the boot. been looking at front intercoolers aswell but they are ridiculously expensive. =(

I love how Jim goes from talking about his 200k bimmer (indicators optional amirite guys) to talking about how crap a statesman is

scoobs: only mod is an APR chip - 230kW and sub 5-sec 0-100. Those sub kits look the business but yeh, $$. If you haven't got a chip then do that before fmic.

tequila, thanks for the video..

now watching milo on youtube.. ha

Been in the market for a hot hatch or something similar for a while now - did some comparisons of several and narrowed it down to two;

Mk6 Golf GTI - awesome car, awesome interior trim, power is reasonable... torque steer is well amusing? Feels a bit heavy for me, but that could be just me, almost no turbo lag as well, and frig me it pulls hard mid range.

Lancer Ralliart - I bought this one, I love the grip it offers, I love the transmission, I love the traction off the line, some ppl dislike the interior... I don't mind it tbh, I got mine with leather and the media center which is freaking awesome. I've always loved fast Lancers... I owned a GSR and an Evo7, I think the RA offers a nice balance. BUT, the reviews are right you need better rubber the tyres they give you from the factory are hopeless.

how much was the chip and where from?

nice work on the lancer ralliart! they are such an awesome idea as a more realistically priced alternative to the evo.

2010 camaro: incredible. having driven the VE commo you could tell that they come from the same bloodline in terms of the hud and feel of things. awesome leather interior, responsive 6spd paddle shift, 400hp 6.2L v8. incredible torque from low revs, very pointy, neutral and obedient through the twistys. huge brakes were by far the most impressive part, a heavy stop would throw you forward against your belt like iv never felt before.

nissan s13: awesome car.

Sc00bs: http://www.goapr.com.au/

all cars are s***. large passenger thingies with boat like handling

rofl, nice troll. plenty of cars will out-handle even superbikes. though the bikes usually win with their crazy acceleration.

lotus exige with that performance pack - was kind of crappy, felt like a two dollar whore on the inside, the gearbox was s*** and notchy. The worst thing was the horrible turning circle coupled with no power steering makes it quite hard to do u-turns. Didn't feel quick, certainly not 100k+ car quick. The good? Obviously the look and sound of it, when the dealer says hey let's strap it through surfers well you strap it through surfers.

oh and all the electrics were rooooted, warning lights coming on and off, fuel guage going whacky.

rofl, nice troll. plenty of cars will out-handle even superbikes. though the bikes usually win with their crazy acceleration.

Cost vs performance ratio, bike always wins.

I do love that my $5000 supermoto can outhandle any car on the roads

your bike wouldn't handle queensland raceway as well as a gtr ^

bikes cant corner for s***

bikes cant corner for s***

I'm just going to lol at that. especially the GTR comment. those cars are boats.

Pretty much every single person that I know that rides a motorbike has had at least one serious accident, including two people in my office in the last ~12 months (in which they were both hospitalised). How does the cost/benefit ratio change when you add in hospital care costs?!

(I just dropped in to fix the subject typo: dissapointed -> disappointed)

bikes cant corner for s***

Pretty much every single person that I know that rides a motorbike has had at least one serious accident, including two people in my office in the last ~12 months (in which they were both hospitalised). How does the cost/benefit ratio change when you add in hospital care costs?!

Single vehicle or was a car involved?

My workmate rides 120KM round trip every day through sydney traffic, and every accident has been the cars fault.
But he has never been injured.

Ive been riding to work 6 years, and never been injured. Had a 4WD intentionally try to hit me though.

and every accident has been the cars fault.

that makes everything ok then

bikes cant corner for s***

being a car driver i understand you want to believe that, but inaccurate.

now if we want to get nitpicking, an F1 will beat any bike. Yep, but they have slicks as wide as your mum's arse.

Street legal though, a bike will win every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Man0X0bf8vk

and that's on a safe track.

go to a typical australian goat track and the car will eat the bike by a bigger margin cause you can't go balls to the wall on the bike in case you hit a pothole/oil/loose surface, get a corner wide and go off a cliff or get introduced to a tree/pole, etc.

cliff notes:

bikes cant corner for s***

wow, i havent seen an owning this good in a long time;

vash, you need to start posting much much less

I think maybe he was thinking more like the 18 year olds in their first skyline that is 15 years old? I know through the streets my old supersports could eat those things up easily, however the most impressive I went against was a bloody starlet....holy s*** those things have power!

Actually there is 1 car the bikes cannot beat

Its the ariel atom!

go to a typical australian goat track and the car will eat the bike by a bigger margin cause you can't go balls to the wall on the bike in case you hit a pothole/oil/loose surface, get a corner wide and go off a cliff or get introduced to a tree/pole, etc.

Depends on the vehicle & track.
Check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qegU2t2bxEU

the bike is just playing with the car. and those are real corners, none of this open sweeper crap you guys are into.

ok I didnt' realise what you meant by this:

I do love that my $5000 supermoto can outhandle any car on the roads

and this:

Street legal though, a bike will win every time.

was that in very specific conditions on a very specific sort of track/road, a bike is always faster. I stand corrected.

Crossing the line first isn't everything orbitor, by merely competing aren't both vehicles winners in a sense?

I was going to buy a VW but didn't want something as big as the Passat and found the Jetta s***house. So my dissapointing car was the Jetta for sure, absolute rubbish.

I bought the Audi A4 instead and couldn't be happier. Much nicer drive than the slightly more expensive BMW 320's I was looking at, and cheaper and more spacious as well.

I did buy this for fuel economy, but find myself using the sports paddles way too often, which probably smashes my economy!

1993 holden nova.

f*** all your new s***.

Nice to see a few Audi owners on here. Best car I've ever had.

2005 Porsche Carrera 4s turbo convertible.. cruised around in it all day topless.. the gold diggers and picking up sluts was enough fun.

1988 R31 pintara auto. Handles like a yacht. So I painted it up to be a pirate ship.
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/4528/img0170uj.jpg

No doubt the engine is tops, but otherwise can't say I like the X6 much, a couple of the reasons shown in this vid:

you idiot

I was going to put in my original post that I reckon if top gear reviewed the X6, it would cop a hammering, guess I wasn't wrong :/

x6 is a stupid ugly car, but for some reason i want to cruise around in one anyway for a bit :D

1998 180SX SR20DE+T, coilovers, sway bars and some phat bridgestone semi-slicks. Unbelievable cornering and grip for $13k all up (inc car purchase price) good for a 60.55 on the sprint track @ QR :)

2007 WRX (tuned by sti) - barely any turbo lag at all, nice torque from low rpm's compared with older 2.0L's. Handles very nicely for a street car with factory STi suspension all round and some extra bits. Can get oversteering relatively easy, overall good fun but still miss the RWD action. <3 boxer sound cant beat it !

cars are s***.
I don't understand why half the cars on the market are even built.

Pieces of s***, over rated crap.
Most would only fit into a niche market anyway, so some douche can buy to feed his own ego.

that top gear clip is hilarious
haha

ahah, top gear have the best job in the world :(

I just dont see the point of X6... if you want a 4WD get a proper 4WD, if you want a sports car get a proper sports car...

As for new cars driven recently drove a new hire car - Toyota Corolla (2009) i think - handles terrible, shocking torque steer, cant put ur arm on the window shelf cause its up near ur ears, totally retarded car and my gf cheap and nasty Getz is much nicer to drive.

Haha, nice clip. You'd have to be burping barnacles to buy an X6.

what do u fags think about nissan 350z?

1985 Toyota Corrolla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

All of toyotas big ideas in one small car it is!

You buy an x6m if you have 2 kids or 3 friends! With no luggage..

I hate clarksons reviews of BMW. iDrive is pretty intuitive and once you have had the car for more than 5 minutes it becomes immediately obvious why things are the way they are.

For example when he clicked the AC button all the useful AC indicators are on the actual AC controls on the dash and the NAV information would still be talking to him + be available on the head up display which is much easier to view than an out of FOV map.

When he reviewed the M5 he couldn't even get the NAV to stop talking which is either click right and push the button in the nav screen OR hit the speech button and say 'navigation mute'. In fact everything in these cars is easy enough to figure out through speech recognition without any prior knowledge of voice commands or calibration.

Now I think about it, when he reviewed the M5 he couldn't even figure out the indicator stalks!

last edited by Ross at 01:29:34 22/Mar/10

I love clarkson but yeh he does fail pretty hard at reviewing bmw's, even after you take him with a grain of salt. it's still entertaining but it'd be good to see just a bit more objectivity in the mix to keep it real

I just dont see the point of X6... if you want a 4WD get a proper 4WD, if you want a sports car get a proper sports car...

not sure what 4wd has to do with it - neither the x5 or x6 are marketed as 4wd's, they're marketed as sporty utility vehicles which is exactly what they are. they are a decent size, provide plenty of interior space and comfort, plenty of luggage space, a little extra ground clearance and an all wheel drive system. the primary difference between the two are slightly larger luggage area and third row seat option in the X5, plus the obvious difference in appearance with one being a wagon and one a 4-seater coupe. fit them with a couple of options like adaptive suspension/active steering and they can corner better than most family vehicles on the road despite their weight and centre of gravity. george brabham lapped this car around phillip island at only ~half a second slower than he did in an M3, to give you an idea

anyway as it happens, I already have a proper 4wd and although I thought about a 'proper' sports car, I decided I didn't want one yet. I still like the size and seating position I had in my X5 but wanted something that pushed the boundaries of the category a bit more in terms of power and handling. the other deciding factor was the engine choice - I was keen on this engine but it's not available in the M3 or M5 yet

Can't really comment on Australian cars, since I only drive my own V6 VT, and a Prius but I try to drive different cars each time I'm overseas.

Bad: Hummer H2. Looks like a tank, feels like a tank, drives like a tank, parks like a tank. Utterly s***e.


Good: 2006 Viper. I got to take one on a test drive for 30 mins while I was visiting the inlaws in Maryland. There were no interstates around so the fastest I could manage was 95mph, and still barely got into 3rd gear. When I put my foot down: RAWR!
I almost wanted a speeding ticket in that thing so I could have it framed.
http://adam.lundie.com.au/viper.jpg

last edited by Furgle at 12:05:19 22/Mar/10

i saw an x6 M series today, was pretty flash

cool where was it / what colour etc
I've only seen one other so far, it was white, at indro

XWGT 450 BPH awesome s*** , brakes were a bit poor ( yes its an original GT )

I drove a Turbo-Diseasel Hyundai Santa Fe yesterday
I loved it. Smooth 5-speed auto, leather bound wheel, woodgrain, sufficient power, direct steering, smooth ride. Only gripe i had was the cruise control was a little imprecise.