Tester’s notes - All Comments

re: Audi's lost quality

Vectra32 — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:35:19 GMT

Reducing Quatro and Aluminium Technology to platform sharing and a large marketing budget was bound to catch up with them sometime.

The good news is that Audi's (arrogrant?) policy of reserving their best 'technology' for the premium brands is starting to strangle their bread and butter brands. They MUST do something SOON.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Audi's quality. It's just the leap that's missing.

re: MG reborn - but should we care?

Robert Lihou — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:08:41 GMT

Nice to see many of the improvements we worked on see the light of day. Disappointed by the bargain basement treatment of the colour and trim design though.

re: Stop this twin-clutch madness now

FORPAWS — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:43:07 GMT

PURELY AS A MATTER OF INTEREST................. WE HAVE TWO MITSIBSHI SPACE WAGGONS WITH 2.4 GDI PETROLS FITTED TO THEIR 4 SPEED AUTO BOX,,,,,,,,,,, A FINER COMBINATION OF POWER /// TRANSMISSION UNITS WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO FIND ..

re: Audi's lost quality

Cherrington — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:48:13 GMT

Perceived quality never meant much to me until recently. I bought a lightly used Fiat Seicento three years ago and despite regular servicing, care and attention, it is possible to feel every one of it's sixty thousand miles and five and a half years now, the suspension, boot, parcel shelf and dash all squeak rattle and groan, time for a replacement

re: Renault Koleos in "not bad" shocker

s4awx10 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:19:27 GMT

I dont like this car in fact all recent renaults have been either ugly or boring since the twingo and making a copy of a 4x4 from a company which no one has heard of is pretty bad. if citroen and peugot can make a decent effort why can't renault. I have always thought renault would be t better than citroen and peugeot i would sooner have a scenic rx4.

re: Chrysler cooler than Chevrolet?

A R Chen — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:06:16 GMT

I like both the Challenger and Camaro. Both are companies are working on modernizing old designs which earned both companies kudos back in the early '70's.

Now what would be interesting is to see them fit turbocharged V6 engines and V8 turbodiesels to make them look 'greener' as well, without losing that one undisputed quality of American muscle cars - massive TORQUE!

re: Cadillac’s back. Again.

A R Chen — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:58:18 GMT

Before the US starting downsizing their cars in the late '70's, Lincolns and Cadillacs were somewhat special and while they borrowed parts from the Ford-Lincoln-Mercury and GM bins respectively, they were stand-alone brands with a unique identity, distinctive designs and feel.

Of late, they have become nothing more than tarted-up Fords and Chevys. But with the CTS, it does look like Cadillac is making an effort to change all that. Efforts to design and build a better cockpit that appeals to the international market are noteworthy.

Will Cadillac ever regain its image of old? They just might if the management of GM will leave them to do their thing.

Here in Asia, the Chevrolet brand is enjoying somewhat of a revival. Of course, these are mostly Asian designed and built models eschewing the Daewoo name in favor of Chevrolet. They focus on delivering value for money and more recently, decent reliability as well. Back in the 60's, that's what the Chevrolet brand represented in the US as well.

re: How loud is too loud?

theoriginalshoe — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:35:36 GMT

Interesting point, well made John

re: Who needs a Prius?

drivenfromtherearplease — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:35:47 GMT

sotw, you are quite right. Driving in and out a city each day (74 mile round trip) lots of stop start on the M4 plus the inevitable city grind - an average over 20k has been 51mpg. Fantastic as a fair bit of the time away from this sees the DTC off! When living in Bristol was using an Aygo - could park in all but the bike SMART spaces, tonnes of character, 60+ mpg. Prius? Eh? Why?

Seriously - if you are in the dealership and you are their to stroke your green ego then you should walk out after signing for the Aygo or save a few quid and nip over to the Citroen/Peugeot dealer.

There is no environmental reason at all to chose a Prius over the Aygo/C1/107 trio. None.

My 120d with stop start works really well in the city and my emissions are a very low 128g/km.

Just to highlight the point made above - adjusting my driving style for a fortnight and relaxing my foot I get 3 extra days worth of fuel! The average now at around the 60mpg mark. Not bad for a car capable of 0-60 in 7.5seconds when you want it.

re: Audi's lost quality

drivenfromtherearplease — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:34:55 GMT

Quality for me is in the way the car drives. Would rather the engineers have the biggest budget for the engine / chassis. I supppose this explains my Clio 182 Cup and Alfa GTV in the past - never noticed any problems as was having too much fun. Thing is now though of course their replacements are far too heavy which means less fun and poor chassis dynamics - you then pick up on the other aspects of the car. Boo-hoo. Rear it is then. Unless you have a lite nimble little thing which has the words tinny and cheap never far away, hmmm my wifes old 1.1L Saxo! Cracking! (Quite literally with some of the plastics!!)

In summary please give us more character before "percieved quality" unless you are producing for the worlds taxi market (MB)

re: Cadillac’s back. Again.

KarlR — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:42:17 GMT

I'm not convinced this car shakes off the 'older' image that has been a problem for Cadillac in recent years - whatever other gizmos it may boast.

I seem to recall Cadillac going through a massive repositioning campaign in the late 90's - focussing on modern technology in their cars, using female drivers in adverts etc - but they were still hampered by the 'mobster' image.

In my mind, this does nothing to reverse the nod to the good old days and I fear this may become a transient fad - a bit like one of those digital radios with an old fashioned design.

If you want old, buy old. Otherwise, let go and revel in the modern!

re: It's time to lighten things up

Cherrington — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:21:01 GMT

I have a Fiat Seicento with bright blue cloth seats which do improve the ambience of the interior, however I have ended up covering them up with black car seat covers with red piping as I don't like them, at least when I come to sell they will be in as new condition

re: Chrysler cooler than Chevrolet?

Straff — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:07:14 GMT

No way guys

Don McLean didn't take his Chrysler Neon to the Levee from what I can remember...

re: Chrysler cooler than Chevrolet?

reidbrand — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:11:28 GMT

Chevrolet has a ace in it's hand and that is a factory Right Hand Drive, maybe a little slow in coming but the finished product is going to be fabulous.

re: Who needs a Prius?

KarlR — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:40:39 GMT

I agree rtwingo. with the funding going into this area the progress will hopefully be rapid.

also, whilst it's great that you can get such good performance if you have the aircon off, keep to the 70mph limit and stay light on the brakes, unless you're going to do this in all the experiments you try i'd like to know if you've done the exact thing in a Prius?

it might be 'scientifically' comparable then; rather than have a hint of trying to make a point.

still, if so, well proven.