Archive for March, 2016
Private Fleet Car Review: 2016 Peugeot 308 Tourer Allure Premium
France’s car making industry has a long relationship with Australia. Renault, Citroen and Peugeot have raced and rallied here, sold some highly regarded cars and shown us a legend or two. Peugeot resonates with us because of these three letters: GTi. They’ve also stayed true to naming their cars with numbers, such as the 308 Tourer Allure Premium that that A Wheel Thing spent a week with.
Take Dr Who‘s TARDIS, slap on four wheels, paint it white, and slide a turbocharged 1.6 litre petrol fed engine under the control stack. Sure, a stretch of the visual imagination, but that’s an idea of what the Peugeot 308 Tourer (European fancyschmantz for a station wagon) is like.
Stand outside and gaze at its curves and think about how compactly designed it looks, then you open the doors, park your bum on the super comfortable seats Mistral black faux leather and Alcantara cloth and suddenly the realisation that it’s roomier than it looks hits you.
The Tourer is just under 4.6 metres in total length and looks it, yet squeezes in a 2730 mm wheelbase. It hides the spacious interior with a stubby nose, long and slightly downward curving roof (with full length glass) over a low set, bum dragging looking, rear bumper.
Inside there’s that TARDIS interior; boot/cargo space starts at 625 litres then hits 1740 litres with the 60/40 folding pews flat, plenty of rear seat passenger leg room and headroom, plus loads of shoulder room as well. One almost feels as if a bed could pop out or a fridge would appear.
Peugeot’s gone (some would say) typically French in design aspects for the interior. Sit down and look forward, you expect to see the dash dials hiding meekly under the top half of the steering wheel. Cue Family Feud’s wrong answer noise. There’s a trapezoidal binnacle housing the instrument cluster staring back at you, with the tiller set lower and…it works, as does the unusual location for a USB charging port, with enough room for a smartphone.
The speedo and tacho (which spins anti-clockwise) are closer to the driver’s forward looking eyeline, providing a better safety factor. Each dial is partnered by a small fuel and temperature gauge, with a simple yet classy monochrome information display bisecting the main dials.
Simple and classy stays with the Peugeot’s centre console, with a 9.7 inch touchscreen offering a slightly different take on things. There’s no aircon controls, they’re all on the touchscreen and accessed via an icon, as are all options, surrounding the screen. Think of each main item such as radio or navigation being accessed via one simple touch with all operations for them taken in hand from there. There’s also a 6.9 gigabyte hard drive to store music.
The downside is not a deal breaker; if you’re listening to the radio and want to check another station but the screen is showing the navigation, you need to touch the radio icon to bring that up. It’s not 100% user friendly but really only an issue if you need to continually change the temperature or station.
The gorgeous eighteen inch diameter Diamond Sapphire wheels, as fitted to the review car, clad in 225/50 Michelin tyres (natch!) fill the wheel wells, looking almost as if a decent bump would rub the tyre inside. It’s a sporty ride, but more about that later. 
The nose is sweetly curved, hiding the 1.6L turbo four (a bigger oil burner is available), which punches out a seemingly modest 110 kilowatts (6000 revs are required to see them) but a handy 240 torques at 1400 rpm. It’s enough to see a zero to one hundred time of just under nine seconds. 
At the rear is a small 53 litre tank, which, with the 110 kilowatts, doesn’t seem much BUT the car starts at just 1315 kilograms, meaning it’s just 11.95 kilos for each kilowatt. Bang it all together and it’s a reasonable 8.8L of go-juice consumed for every 100 kilometres covered in a suburban environment.
The overall look of the Tourer is a mostly a harmonious, wholistic approach; the nose is superbly integrated as a design feature, with the headlights, lower air intake and grille reflecting each other in the angles. A direct rear view gives the viewer an exercise in French pertness with slimline tailights wrapping around into the rear fenders (a look shared with the Renault Magane wagon).
In profile the rear drags the overall look down, by dragging the bum down. It looks heavy, overweight and unbalanced. in comparison to the neatly tapering windowline.
The ride is sharp, tight, more akin to piloting a dedicated two door convertible than a compact family wagon. It almost feels as if a corner will lift, ala the GTi, when brought hard into a turn. The wheelbase and weight make it a sparkling performer, with a rapid response from the turn of the tiller, and that relative lack of weight means it’ll stop and quickly. But because the suspension is wound up tighter than a watch spring, the pea in the princess’s bed is far more noticeable.
Give the accelerator a prod from Stop, there’s a hesitancy before the little engine that could springs into life. That low rev point for peak torque then spools in, giving a surge that is at odds with the claimed one hundred kilometre time. On the highway it’s the easy access to that torque that allows for safe, comfortable overaking although the front does get a bit raucous.
The Wrap.
Dr Who would be happy with the room inside the Tourer. You’d have to be a snob to not be happy with the interior features. Performance wise, well, it IS a family wagon but there’s plenty of verve and joie de vivre as well. It’s economical enough tom placate the nervous wallet and brings Peugeot back to forefront of a car company to consider
Pricing is competitive:
Peugeot 308 Touring RRP* Full Driveaway
308 Touring Allure 110kW THP automatic $34,689 $38,787
308 Touring Allure 110kW BlueHDi automatic $36,543 $40,698
308 Touring Allure Premium 110kW THP automatic $38,393 $42,602
308 Touring Allure Premium 110kW BlueHDi automatic $40,622 $44,900
For more details: Peugeot 308 Tourer
Private Fleet Car Review: 2016 Holden Commodore SS-V Redline
It’s a quirk of automotive manufacturing that makers leave their best ’til last. Ford recently unveiled their Sprint Falcons, in both turbo six and supercharged V8 guise. In late 2015, Holden released the series 2 update for the VF Commodore range. Not unexpected was the lack of any real change, with minor bodywork and some under the skin electrical modifications.
In the case of the SS-V Redline, the American sourced LS3 6.3L V8 was massaged slightly, with power bumped to 304 kilowatts at 6000 revs, while peak torque of 570 Newton metres arrives at 4400 rpm. Make no mistake, there’s plenty of urge below that number.
Fuel consumption finished on 14.4 litres per 100 kilometres, with a solid combination of rural, suburban and highway driving undertaken. Driven gently and with no inclination to bury the welly (to hear that glorious V8 soundtrack), it’s reasonable to presume a sub 12 litre figure could be achieved.
Inside, the SS-V remains unchanged, mostly, with the most notable change for trainspotters being slightly amended dash dials. There’s the charcoal coloured seats, complete with pointless fabric inserts down the centre, the same fabric covered slab of a dashboard, balanced by the off white colour of the pillars and sunroof fitted ceiling.
There’s the MyLink navitainment system with Pandora and Stitcher apps, a Bose sound system with pretty decent quality (some high end audio makers just don’t sound right in some cars) and a sub menu to adjust settings, including the exhaust baffles for the bi-modal exhaust, allowing Aunty Mavis to tiptoe around town or utter a feral roar when the right slipper goes down.
It’s underneath where the changes you feel but can’t see have been made. The car was fitted with 19 inch black painted alloys, with different width Bridgestone tyres front (235/40) to rear (275/35).
Yes, that’s monstrous grip, but those tyres would come to naught unless the suspension worked hand in hand with them.
The ride quality is superb. Low profile tyres on big wheels on an Aussie car normally spell three nights prone on a hospital bed with a sore back, however you’d be well and truly forgiven you were piloting a luxury German speed wagon.
Small bumps are flattened, larger ones smoothed, ripples and undulating roads are communicated to you with an air of indifference, as if the car has sniffed and said “I suppose I should tell you…”.
The steering ratio allows for fingertip precision and the power assistance allows for fingertip guidance, such is the balance and feedback.
The size of the car certainly helps in the spread of weight across track and wheelbase (1593/1590 mm front/rear and 2915 mm) with the fluidity and stableness of the chassis making it an absolute delight and simple enough to drive around town for anyone with a license. Yep, even Aunty Mavis could drive it.
It’s helped by that silky smooth torque delivery, delivered to the ground via a paddle shift equipped six speed auto.
It’s a shame that the SS-V won’t see anything like a seven or eight speed auto before local manufacturing wraps up in late 2017.
There’s more safety equipment than before, so Aunty Mavis can be told of oncoming traffic from behind, with blind spot monitoring. Should her attention (and car) wander, Lane Departure Warning will bring her back to the straight and narrow, and if it’s raining there’s Remote Engine Start to get things warmed up inside. She can reverse safely thanks to the standard camera, or leave it all up to the car due to the auto parking system on board.
Parking sensors front and rear will let her know if the wall is too close and if she’s of the mind to look straight ahead, the HUD (head up display) will tell her what speed she’s doing, how many revs and even how much G-Force she’s getting through the long sweeping turns or tight corners the SS-V will do without so much as a blink.
Traction Control and Stability Control programs are standard, just in case Aunty Mavis wants to get a bit frisky and see if she can match the sub five second time to 100 kmh that Holden quote for the 1800+ kilo machine.
If she’s nervous about her speed, the Brembo brakes (four piston callipers front and rear)will haul her and the SS-V down to manageable speeds safely, smoothly, and efficiently time and again, with the brake pedal telling her she’s got bite and plenty of it as soon as she lays the slipper on it.
For the fashion conscious, Holden have fitted working bonnet vents into the aluminum bonnet; which although lightweight, did flap around somewhat on certain road surfaces. There’s a decent sized rear wing, at just the right height to block out, in the rear vision mirror, any following cars ergo plates and indicators. The VF2 update gave the car reprofiled bumpers front and rear as well.
At just over 60K for the manual, with an extra 2K for the slushbox, people will question that ask for “just a Commodore”, yet the SS-V really is a greater car than the sum of its parts. It’s a big car, yes, (4964 mm in length, 1898 mm wide and stands 1474 mm tall) and offers rear seat passengers 1009 mm of legroom, plus a cargo volume of 495 litres. Weight is over 1800 kilograms, making the ride quality even more amazing to consider.
Bearing in mind the donor car, built and engineered to deal with a wide variety of Australian road conditions, from flat tarmac to ripped up surfaces, from gravel to turf, the end result has provided possibly the best hi-po Holden badged car Australia has seen. It’s quick, it’s comfortable, it’s poised, it has a brutal personality when pushed yet is as dainty around town as Aunty Mavis needs it to be.
It’ll sip like a baby from a cup or drink like a sailor on their first night of shore leave but it’s never anything less than a truly brilliant car to drive and a startlingly sad reminder of what Australian car manufacturers could deliver.
Factor in a nine month/15000 kilometre service cycle and capped price servicing and there’s numbers Aunty Mavis can live with.
Head to www.holden.com.au for details and download a brochure.
Where In the World?
When I look out over the busy city streets, I often am left asking the question: where on earth do all these new cars keep coming from? Did you know that around the world there are over 70 million new passenger cars produced every year? If you break that down further, you could say that around the world 191,000 new cars are made every day. Literally, where on earth are the cars being made up? And, which country produces the most cars?
You may already be in the know, but China is the greatest producer of cars. Over a quarter of the world’s new cars, that are produced in a year, are made in China. This number over doubles that of the second biggest new car manufacturer: Japan.
Why such the big numbers from China? China continues to grow its economy; and where there is more money for spending, the Chinese people want to own their own cars. Most of the Chinese made cars are being sold locally in China; however, around 1 million cars are exported from China around the globe. You may be familiar with Chery and Great Wall vehicles that are sold here in Australia. Export sales for China are still much lower compared with other countries, but China’s exported car numbers are continuing to grow rapidly. In Australia, new car sales would suggest that we all love our Japanese made cars, but let’s just get to grips with the fact that China is making cars at a rate that outstrips all other countries around our globe. So, it would be reasonable to suggest that in another decade or so Chinese made cars may be the top sellers in our country.
As far as the quality of product goes, Chinese made cars are rapidly becoming as well-made as cars made elsewhere around the world. Some predict that by 2018, Chinese made cars will be as good as any other equivalent model made elsewhere in the world. Chinese indigenous automobile brands include: Beijing Automotive Group, Brilliance Automotive, BYD, Dongfeng Motor, FAW Group, SAIC Motor, Chang’an (Chana), Geely, Chery, Jianghuai (JAC), Great Wall, and the Guangzhou Automobile Group.
So what about the rest of the world? New cars are made in Japan, Germany and South Korea at a high rate compared with other global manufacturers, but they still, individually, trail well behind China in production rates. The next tier of high automotive production includes India, USA, Brazil, France, Spain, Russia and Mexico. Iran, UK, Czech Republic and Canada produce around 1 million cars each year. Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, Argentina, Indonesia, Belgium and Thailand produce over half a million cars each year. Malaysia, Italy, South Africa, Romania and Taiwan produce between 250–to–500 thousand cars each year. Hungary, Australia, Sweden, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Portugal and Austria produce between 125–to–150 thousand cars, while the Ukraine and Egypt produce between 50–to–100 thousand cars each year. The Netherlands and Serbia produce between 25–to–50 thousand cars each year. Finland produces around 2,500 cars, while numerous other countries put together all add up to around 350,000 cars each year.
Toyota Motor Corp. has retained its position as the world’s best-selling automobile maker, saying that it had sold over 10 million vehicles worldwide in 2015. Toyota, Volkswagen and GM account for roughly a third of the vehicles sold world-wide. The top five car manufacturers who sold the most cars worldwide in 2015 were: Toyota 10.8 million, Volkswagen 9.5 million, General Motors 8.9 million, Ford 8.6 million and Hyundai 7.3 million.
Level 2, 9 Help Street