Archive for May, 2017
2017 Kia Rondo S: A Private Fleet Car Review.
Once upon a time, before the rise of the SUV machine, there were people movers. This particular kind of vehicle has, more or less, disappeared off of the face of the motoring world, however Kia continues to burn the flame with their excellent Carnival and the criminally underrated Rondo. It’s the latter that a rewarding week was spent with and Private Fleet comes away musing why the Kia Rondo S isn’t in more driveways.
Up front, literally and metaphorically, there’s an issue, and one that may be part of the Rondo’s near invisibility. There’s just one engine choice and that’s a two litre petrol engine. Peak oomph is 122 kW and peak twist is just 213 torques, at 4700 rpm. It’s a people mover, but there’s no torque. There’s no torque because there’s no diesel. Here, right here, is the arrow in the heel for the Rondo. The Carnival has a stupidly thirsty petrol V6 or a frugal and more sensible diesel. The Rondo needs, badly, a diesel engine with the torque to do what a people mover does.
Why? The Rondo starts with 1520 kilos in five seater form, and 1546 kg for a seven seater. Lob in people (it is a people mover, remember) and let’s say 4 x 100 kilos. Straight up there’s a two tonne mass. Diesel. Please. There’s a further anchor, unfortunately. The Rondo lacks real feedback from the opposite of go. The brake pedal just seems to lack bite and feedback to the driver via the 300 mm and 284 mm discs. There’s a press and…nada…press harder and THEN there’s something. Given the role the Rondo has, it needs a better communication between foot and brake.
Back to the front: Kia quote 10.8L/100 km in the urban cycle. That’s using standard unleaded and from a 58L tank. Given that the urban jungle is the natural environment in which the Rondo will prowl, a sub six hundred kilometre range isn’t up to par. However, if doing country commuting, that figure drops to a quoted 6.2L/100 km.
Ride quality in the S is good, not great. It’s a touch too soft at the torsion beam rear, squishy at the MacPherson strut front with a twenty kph roll over a school sized speed hump having the suspension crash out on the far side, and feels as if it bottoms out just a little too easily. That’s with just the driver on board. There’s a need for a more Aussie tuned suspension, with higher spec variable rate suspension that will dial out the softness and not bring an excessively sporty feel to the car. However, it’s a good handler, with mild understeer from the 205/55/16 rubber when pressed, otherwise it’s pretty neutral and responds, for the most part, quite well to steering wheel input. Kia stay with the three mode steering option and it’s best left in Normal.
There’s plenty to like inside the near $27K (RRP) Rondo S, with a tidy and ergonomic interior. There’s the 35:30:35 split fold rear seats, 536L of cargo in the five seater which increases to a massive 1694 litres with the seats folded, plus a hidden storage section under the cargo floor. 
The grey trimmed seats are comfortable enough, with good lateral support in the front. The dash itself is typical Kia with a clean & simple look, a smallish (4.3 inches) info screen in the centre dash, a pleasing contrast in plastics in both colour (a satin silver garnish on the dash) and feel, and decent audio quality but the tuner lacked sensitivity for FM in some areas. There’s also dusk sensing headlights, reverse sensors and camera, Hill Start Assist, and a full suite of active & passive safety features including six airbags.
Being a people mover oriented vehicle, Kia have loaded the Rondo S up with four 12V sockets, five cup holders, and four bottle holders. There’s map pockets for both front and rear doors, even a second row fold out “table” that’s mounted in the centre seat back. There’s plenty of breathing space inside the 4525 mm long car, with a wheelbase of 2750 mm endowing the Rondo with enough elbow, leg, and hip space for most people.
It’s not an unattractive car, the Rondo. There’s a longish pedestrian friendly bonnet, considering the overall length, which slopes into a steepish windscreen. This, though, gives a huge amount of frontal crash protection, with front passengers seemingly located halfway along the Rondo’s overall length. There’s a resemblance more to the Picanto than any other of the Kia range, with bulbous headlights sitting above the driving lights whilst the rear is clean, if not overly eyecatching.
Warranty is Kia’s industry leading seven year coverage, with a rolling service cost over the seven years, with the first twelve months or fifteen thousand kilometre at $299. Over the seven years, you should be looking at a cost of just under $2600.
At The End Of The Drive.
By no means is the Kia Rondo S a bad car. It does seem to suffer from anonymity with an inoffensive design, one that doesn’t scream “look over here”. In my opinion, a diesel option and some sharp pricing when advertising that engine option may go some way to raising the profile of this otherwhile earnest performer. Book yourself a test drive here: 2017 Kia Rondo range
Toyota Funds Flying Car Project
Artist’s impression of the Skydrive. Image courtesy of Cartivator.
“Where are all the flying cars?” Those who are either old enough to remember the old movies or retro buffs raise this question from time to time when they look at the technology of the early 21st century (i.e. now). The rest of us shrug our shoulders and may have the attitude that smartphones and the internet – something barely imagined by the majority of sci-fi writers of the 1950s–1970s* – are a fair substitute.
However, not all of us have been shrugging. Earlier today, Toyota announced that it would be backing a project that aims to develop a flying car. The team working on the flying car project, known as Cartivator, is made up of about 30 people who have been working on it for fun with a bit of crowdsourcing help so far. These 30 include several of Toyota’s up-and-coming employees, plus experts in the area of drones and video games. Click Here To Read More
2017 Subaru Impreza Sedan and Hatch: A Private Fleet Car Comparison.
It’s called “the trickle down effect”, where technology and design filter through from the top to the entry level models. Such is the case with the slightly reskinned and revamped 2017 Subaru Impreza sedan and hatch, in L and S specification.
It’s been pretty simple for Subaru; refine, improve, sell. And it’s worked, with the 2017 Subaru Impreza copping mild but noticeable sheetmetal changes, interior and specification upgrades, and subsequent exposure on road. For example, their hatch looks different to the sedan. No, not because one has four doors and the other five, there’s different approaches to the rear doors, with a taller look to the fixed window in the hatch.
The fuel filler lid is closer to the tail lights in the hatch and the hatch had plastic inserts in the front bumper for what overseas markets get, washers for the headlamps. All of this in a length of 4625 mm in the sedan, 4460 mm for the hatch. Even height is slightly different, with the hatch 25 mm taller than the sedan.
It’s also a smoother and somehow better looker than the previous version. There’s a redesign to the rear light cluster that tidies things up and at the front it’s…just better. Smoother, cleaner, less fussy, definitely easier on the eye. C shaped LEDs bracket (and mirror the tail lights) a chrome strip in the grille and sit nicely above halogen globe driving lights.
Inside, it’s subtly different from the previous model, with a different look to the screens located in the centre and upper dash. Information for the upper section has been reformatted and is still accessible via the steering wheel’s buttons. The eight inch touchscreen is cleaner in layout, making it more driver (and passenger) friendly, and both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are on board. The hatch in S spec has an array of buttons just above the driver’s right knee, which includes tyre pressure adjustment, blind spot warning, and SRH or Steering Responsive Headlights.
The L sedan received charcoal and grey cloth pews, with the S spec running up to leather and heated (only, no ventilation, a must for the Aussie market) seats, with both test cars being given black and ivory trim. The S also gets rain sensing wipers, 8 way power seats, and satnav over the L specification, plus a glass roof. The sedan also gets a reasonable 460L boot, with the hatch starting at 345L before looking at 790L with seats down.
All variants receive the 2.0L flat four, with 115 kilowatts @ 6000 rpm, and 196 torques @ 4000 rpm. Transmission options are simple. There aren’t any. You’ll get a CVT with seven programmed ratios and you’d be forgiven for wondering if that’s a good thing. The simple answer is yes. Subaru’s CVT setup works best with light to medium throttle from a standstill, as there’s instant grab from the system.
A heavy right foot really makes no difference until you’re under way. It’s here the pair come alive, with that all paw footing and the CVT’s linear delivery of torque really combine to imbue a genuine sense of that technical word “oomph”. Brakes work efficiently too, with almost just the right amount of travel before bite and a lovely, well modulated, feel as you increae pressure which doesn’t leave the driver wondering if they’ll pull up in time.
The S also picks up Active Torque Vectoring, which Subaru says: Subaru Active Torque Vectoring (ATV) applies light brake pressure to the inside front wheel as your Subaru car carves a corner, which pushes more power to the outside front wheel, reducing wheel spin and sharpening handling. It’s unnoticeable until you think about what it’s doing when you pile into corners and curves. It’s then that the handling aspect of the S shakes your hand and introduces itself to you.
But by no measure does the L spec feel underprepared, as it rides just as nicely, with perhaps a touch more tautness across the yumps, lumps, and bumps found around Sydney’s highways and freeways. There’s the same rolling diameter to help, with the S getting Yokohama rubber at 225/40/18 whilst the rest of the field go down a size wheel wise, and up a size tyre wise, at 205/50/17 from Bridgestone.
You’ll find that you’ll get good economy along the way, with Subaru quoting 7.2L per 100 kilometres on the combined cycle. Punch it around town, though, and potentially you’ll see north of 9.0L per 100 kilometres. That’s on the specified 91 RON from a smallish fifty litre tank.
Safety is ANCAP rated five stars, with front, curtain, side and knee airbags, along with ISOFIX child seat mouts, seat belt height ajusters for driver and passenger, and Subaru’s “Ring” safety cell. You’ll also receive the three year/unlimited kilometre warranty, three year capped price servicing, and twelve months roadside assistance.
At The End Of The Drive.
Subaru really don’t seem to be doing anything wrong at the moment. The Outback and Forester range are selling well, the BRZ is doing fine and the Liberty sedans seem to be more prevalent on the roads. There’s a new XV on the way and in between them all is the mainstay, the Impreza.
Both sedan and hatch, in 2017 guise, have raised the small to mid sized sedan and hatch bar even further. Under withering fire from the Focus, i30, Cerato, Astra and the perennial Corolla, the “other” Japanese car company continues to win hearts and adherents to the star flagged brand.
Naturally there’s a price to pay for these standout vehicles and you can talk to your local Subaru dealer to find that out or go here: Subaru Australia pricing
How To Repair A Scratch In The Paintwork
If the scratch is this bad, it’s probably best to take it to a professional.
#$%^&*()$%^&*!!!!!!! You left your car in the supermarket carpark looking perfect with nicely polished paintwork, and when you got back, you found that some clown opened their door and nicked the paintwork. Or the dog was just so pleased to see you and jumped up trying to lick your face through the car window with scrabbling paws and left marks of their affection all over the panelwork. Or (worst case scratching scenario) some pillock (and that’s using mild language) decided it would be funny or appropriate to key your car and leave marks all down the side.
It doesn’t matter how the scratch got there, whether you missed the keyhole with the key or whether your toddler rode a tricycle too close to the car in the driveway: it’s got to be fixed. And yes, despite what dodgy used car sales people will tell you, even a teeny weeny little scratch does matter. It lowers the value of your car and it makes your car’s paintwork look ugly. What’s more, not bothering and not caring about the scratch can lead to a general attitude of neglect and can’t-be-stuffedness about car maintenance, which can lead to you eventually not bothering about or putting off essential maintenance tasks like topping up the fluids and checking the oil.
Most importantly, scratches allow water, chemicals, grit and dirt to get to the metal beneath the paintwork. This means that the metal is going to corrode more quickly, and we all know how once rust starts, it doesn’t stop easily without a lot of hard work, either by you or your local friendly mechanic.
Small scratches, if they’re not associated with dents, are easy enough to fix at home with equipment you may already have or that is easily picked up at your nearest automotive supply shop.
First of all, clean the area on and around the scratch. There’s no point sealing grit and dirt under new paint.
Next, assess how deep the scratch is. If it hasn’t gone all the way through the paint or it has only gone through the top layer, it will take a lot less effort to fix. Did you know that car paint involves four layers? Lightly run the tip of your fingernail across the surface (making sure you don’t scratch the paintwork any further). If the tip of your nail snags a little bit in the scratch, you’ve got a deeper one to deal with. If you can’t feel it, you’ve got a surface-only scratch.
We’ll assume that you’ve already washed the area thoroughly, rinsed it and dried it. Now you need to roughen the surface so that it will take the new paint or filler. Small scratches that have just taken off the top coat or so can be prepped with toothpaste – apply whatever’s in the bathroom cabinet to a soft damp cloth and buff away. Rinse thoroughly after you’ve enjoyed the nice minty smell and dry the area. If you’ve got a deeper scratch, use very fine sandpaper (2000 grit) to work gently over the area. Then wash and dry the area like heck to get all the dust away.
Now the road divides. If you’re dealing with a more serious scratch that gets into the colour layer, the base coat or even (horrors!) the metal of the vehicle body, you need to go to the next paragraph. If you’ve got a small scratch, then just read on. With a small scratch, you get rubbing compound and wax from your local automotive supplies shop, apply a little bit of the rubbing compound and buff it like heck in small surfaces. If you’ve ever buffed a floor or your nails, you know how this is done. After this, apply wax and you should be all good.
With a deeper scratch, you’re going to have to replace the coloured paint and possibly the primer below it as well. Here, you’ll have to spend a bit of time doing your homework, as you will need to get the right sort of paint or you will have an odd patchwork spot on your vehicle that looks worse than the scratch. If you know where to look on your car body (it varies from marque to marque), you can find the code number for the paint type. Try the door jamb, the glove box, in the bonnet by the VIN sticker, in the boot by the spare tyre, the owner’s manual… Yes, there are websites that have databases of the codes, but you have to be sure that you search on an Australian site (US and UK ones don’t have some Aussie favourites like the Ford Falcon). It also pays to know the name of your paint colour – there’s a lot more than 50 shades of grey out there… Do your homework, get that number and march down to the automotive supplies shop with it and ask for it (or you can try ordering it online).
Use a scuffing pad to roughen up the surface immediately on and around the scratch so it will take new paint. Don’t do too wide an area. After brushing surface dust away (blow on it), apply the primer and let it dry.
Once the primer has dried, it’s painting time. You can apply it with a brush, a pen or as a spray. A spray gives the nicest finish, but you’ll need to mask off things like headlights and bumpers. Let it dry for at least 15 minutes, then apply another layer. You may need to apply several layers until the scratch area looks like the undamaged paint around it.
Finish off with a spray-on clear coat, then a good waxing after the clear coat has dried. Wax the whole car while you’re at it so you don’t get funny looking patches of dull and shiny.
More extensive scratches, such as those inflicted by pillocks keying your car, may be better dealt with by a professional. It’ll certainly be less hassle.
Level 2, 9 Help Street