Archive for 2013
Beyond the Sticker Price
When it comes to new car ownership, the cost of owning the car for the first few years is a significant factor worth considering before you hand over the money. Running costs from one car to another can differ dramatically. Costs like the replacement of parts, tyres, oil filters, fuel and even registration all factor into the equation that reveals how costly it’s going to be to run your dream car over time. For 2013, Australia’s cheapest car to own and run is the new Suzuki Alto. The car looks pretty cool and, for the second year running, has come out as the clear winner in a survey of Australia’s most economical vehicles.
Obviously, if you’ve seen a Suzuki Alto, you already know the car is small. It looks cute and is powered by a zippy little 1.0-litre petrol engine. No surprises then that the Suzuki Alto finished ahead of 109 other vehicles and was found in the Light Car class.
Owners of a Holden Cruze Equipe , Volkswagen Jetta 118 TSI, Audi A4 1.8-litre Turbo, Holden VF Evoke LPG, Nissan Dualis ST , Hyundai Santa Fe Active or Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo should also be very pleased with their cars. According to the survey, these cars came up as the least expensive cars in their class to own. Now, did I notice the Toyota’s name in the list? Australia’s top seller wasn’t a feature, I’m afraid!
Interestingly, LPGs, hybrids and EVs were also included in the car survey and all vehicles were checked for their affordability during the first five years of ownership. Things like purchase price, fuel use, servicing and depreciation featured among the factors that added to the cost of owning the cars.
Now who reckons hybrids ought to be a cheap vehicle to run. Rather amusingly, the Honda Jazz Hybrid 1.3-litre was the most expensive car to own in the light car class. In the small car class, the Honda Civic Hybrid 1.5-litre was the most expensive car to own. This survey made for some hard reading if you happened to be the owner of a Mazda6 Touring (hey, that’s what my brother-in-law drives), Mercedes Benz C200 , Ford FG Falcon XT MK2 (my next-door neighbour’s latest new toy), Mazda CX-5 , Toyota Kluger or the new Nissan Patrol . These were the most expensive cars to own in their respective classes.
According to the RACQ Vehicle Running Costs survey, the hidden costs of vehicle ownership meant motorists were paying a lot more than they needed to when purchasing a brand new car. RACQ’s safety policy executive manager, Steve Spalding, said that “The real cost of owning a car is much more than just the sticker price and the wrong choice could set you back thousands. Servicing, fuel consumption, spare parts, insurance and depreciation play a major role in how much a financial burden your vehicle will be.”
Now that’s got you thinking!
Take a look at the RACQ website page if you want to know how they figured it all out: http://www.racq.com.au/motoring/cars/car_economy/vehicle_running_costs_2013
Kia's Cerato Si and SLi are value plus.
Some years ago, to say Kia and their countrymate, Hyundai, had quality cars, was stretching the truth just a tad. A succession of pretty average cars such as the Spectra and Mentor barely troubled the tallyboard and Kia was in danger of being seen as an also ran Korean supplier. Come 2008 and a stylish, reasonably well sorted car hit the market. Called Cerato, it flagged 
promise and delivered it. 2013 sees a revamp of the small mid-sizer; sharing its basic architecture with Hyundai’s i40, it’s immediately quite a pretty car to look at. From the curvy
headlight cluster framing Kia’s corporate grille, down the lithe and subtly scalloped flanks through to the neon look taillights (SLi) and looking proportionally pretty bloody good, the question is then asked: does it go as good as it looks?
I back to backed the Si with six speed manual against the SLi with auto, both with the two litre GDI (gasoline direct injection) engine. Up front, the manual gearchange in the Si is
a shocker. The clutch is light, not unexpectedly, but the gear lever in the test car had no spring pressure, leaving the feel of it as vague, indecisive, unsure and unwilling to be hurried. As a manual preferred driver, this was simply yuck. Sitting mid pack in the Cerato sedan range, the 
Si deserves better. The auto in the SLi supplied is well ratioed, smooth and quick changing, with the choice of sports shift via the lever or paddle shifts. Gear shift aside, both transmissions work well with the bigger engine (there’s a 1.8L MPI available) and with 129kW/239Nm @ 6500/4700 rpm on tap (roughly 10 kilos per kilowatt), the Cerato’s near 1300kg kerb weight gets hustled along pretty reasonably.
Somewhat oddly, the SLi has the more sporting ride; shod with 215/45 tyres riding on gorgeous 17 inch wheels (vs 205/55/16s), it’s a little harder, a little more grippy thanks, one can presume, to the slightly lower sidewall. Not, by any measure, is it unpleasant, quite the opposite but one would expect the middle car to be more the sport. Both turn in quickly, bumps are absorbed a touch softer in the Si and there’s no tramlining or disconcerting bumpsteer.
The interior is tidy to look at, very up to date and has a mix of material look in the 
plastics, from a matt finish through to a faux carbon fibre look (Si/SLi), it’s a class impression. Not so are the seats. You sit on, not in them, adding a feeling of not being connected to the car via the classic seat of the pants. Having heating in the SLi seats is one thing, at least there’s a touch more give in the cloth in the Si as opposed to the manufactured leather in the SLi. Both cars 
score the 4.3 inch touchscreen radio, with a larger 7 inch setup only available with a Navigation Pack. The dash on the Si gets a less colourful dot matrix look with the SLi providing a full spectrum animated screen, including a welcoming musical tone as the graphic comes to life. Another lovely SLi touch is memory seating (two position) and extra access provided for the driver by the seat sliding back on engine stop/door open and resetting when the driver sits back in. Externally, folding mirrors unfold before the car is unlocked by reading the remote keyfob (Si/SLi and push button start) and lights up under the wing mirrors and doorhandles. Class, again. All three levels cop front and rear parking sensors, the Si and SLi get auto headlights with the SLi showing off stylish LED running lights with the S dipping 
out on a reverse camera…which is useless after rain or condensation from a cold morning. As befits its top of the ladder status, the SLi offers open skies via a sunroof and will cool your soft drinks inside the glovebox. All three levels get Bluetooth streaming and Auxiliary/USB input via the sensibly located (ahead of the gear lever and not in the glovebox/centre console) lower central dash.
Quite simply, for 30K plus on roads, the SLi auto is the pick. Packed full of features, a great 
ride, a poky engine and a pretty decent auto, plus its svelte, lithe body, it ticks the boxes and the woeful manual shift (as much as I prefer manual) seriously discounts that transmission as a serious choice. With Kia making serious inroads into Australian sales and up globally by 2.6%, the once ugly duckling has grown into a serious contender for being a favoured swan.
For more info on the new Cerato sedans: http://www.kia.com.au/showroom/cerato#
Bad Habits or Missed Tech?
A long time ago, in a musical galaxy far, far away, an Aussie singer had a minor hit with a song called “Bad Habits”, with the refrain “Can’t help myself, bad habits” becoming part of the vernacular at the time. Sitting down with a well earned cold one, after a lightning trip to motorsport’s hallowed ground, Mt Panorama, to test (show off) the new Holden VF Calais V (go buy one, it IS that good), it became impossible to not notice the major bad habits Aussie drivers.
Inside each and every vehicle are pieces of metal and plastic that are designed to help you, the so-called driver, do your best to avoid crashes and in doing so, perhaps show a bit of common courtesy to those that share the road. When you sit down behind that big, black circular thing that tells the car which direction to go, you should be able to see, left and right of the big column that holds the wheel, two sticks. One of these has the amazing power to, when moved up or down, make little amber lights flash on the left or right hand side of the car. It’s truly startling how many people don’t see it.
Most brand new cars have a short range wireless system called Bluetooth fitted. This nifty bit of kit allows a person to receive and make mobile phone calls whilst not, theoretically, touching said mobile phone. Hmmmm, another missed piece of technology, it would seem.
When traversing the roads and motorways of this big, brown land, eventually (and sometimes too often) a driver will come to a piece of road that intersects with another. Tall, strange looking poles with a rectangular box on top abound; said box hides three lights, one green, one amber, one red. Now, I’m slightly colour blind but I can tell, clearly, the difference between each. It would seem that colour blindness and a lack of reaction time have spread, virus like, throughout the brother and sisterhood of drivers, judging by the amount of cars that should have stopped safely and haven’t. 
When one is in a two lane situation, occasionally one is able to move from the left lane to the right, in order to overtake a vehicle that is slower than you, for whichever reason. When one does so it’s expected that when you move right, you go faster and then pass the aforementioned slower vehicle. It’s not expected, nor is it a courteous thing, to move right and then…not pass.
Along with technology comes bad habits; tailgating, applying lipstick whilst supposedly driving, not turning on your headlights under dark skies and just being plain rude and ignorant of the road rules. Yes, there are rules that govern how our roads should be driven, believe it or not and they cover more than simply having your chosen chariot exceeding a posted limit. Having driver aids is one thing, having bad habits is another and it seems that way too many people either have bad attitude or they just can’t help themselves. The following link is a cure for insomnia but it DOES share what each and every driver in NSW (and, no doubt, the other states will have their own similar ideas) should know: HOW TO BE A BETTER DRIVER BECAUSE BETTER DRIVERS DRIVE BETTER.
What bad habits to you have and which bad habits on the road really tick you off?
http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/viewtop/inforce/subordleg+179+2008+fn+0+N
The Lion Roars: Holden VF Ute Sets Nürburgring Record
When reviewers want to say that a vehicle handles well, they often mention how the designers did the testing at the Nürburgring. The “Ring” is considered to be one of the most demanding and difficult race courses in the world, and to get around the track in one piece is a sign of a good car and/or a good driver.
Not many utes have been tested at the Nürburgring. This is partly because these aren’t common vehicles over in Europe (which raises the question about what tradespeople use to haul their gear around – do they all use lorries and vans? And does every single farmer in the European Union use 4×4 motorbikes and tractors to do the rounds?). But back in February this year, when the design team at Holden were just putting the finishing touches on the new Holden VF Commodore, they decided to put the ute through its paces on the (in)famous Nürburgring.
Only two utes had been put through their paces at the Nürburgring before: the Dodge Ram SRT rigged up with the 8.0-litre V10 engine from the Viper, and the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor with a supercharged 6.2-litre V8. It was rather lucky for Holden that a VF Commodore was in Europe already when they had this bright idea: a pre-production model was undergoing a bit of testing in Spain. Time was short: this model would either have to be crushed in Spain or sent back home to Australia within six weeks.
There was no time to book a famous professional racing driver. Instead, the best driver they had on hand was Rob Trubiani, a member of the chassis design team who had been on hand for the testing in Spain, which included calibrating and fine-tuning the ESP. Trubiani was not and is not a racing driver, but he was a certified Nürburgring test driver. After all, what better way to ensure that the chassis you’ve designed works brilliantly than to see how it goes through the Nürburgring?
The team at Holden selected ANZAC Day (Australian time) as the day to put the Holden VF Commodore SS-V Redline Ute against the clock. However, they managed to get it out onto the track in the hands of Rob Trubiani before then, as the track had some of their industry pool days on (days when the track circuit is kept for manufacturers to test cars on). This nearly spelled disaster, as the Holden had a close brush with an Audi that sent the ute off the track onto the dirt at the exit. But what’s a bit of dirt to a ute? Even with this close call, the Holden still managed to do the track in under the 8 mins 40 seconds Trubiani thought it capable of doing.
ANZAC Day dawned in Australia as Trubiani lined the Holden VF Commodore Ute up ready to go. The ride is better seen than merely described, which readers can do at this link, complete with Rob Trubiani providing the commentary on his drive. He gets airborne at one part and dodges debris from a prototype Jaguar that exploded during the industry pool days, but still picks up a time of 8:19:47. And now, the Holden can proudly claim that it’s the fastest time for a ute to complete the Nürburgring. Sure, “utes, pickups and commercial vehicles” is a new category for the Ring, but a record is a record!
To quote Shakespeare, “Well roared, lion!”
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