Author archive
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
Iron Fist, Velvet Glove: The New Caprice V
The Holden Caprice V, in its new 2014 guise, is a combination of street savvy, world champion boxer melded with the smarts of a technical genius. Think Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky sitting down and talking quantum mechanics or relativity with the bushy headed wunderkind that was Alfred Einstein. Chevy’s ballsy 6.0L V8 with Holden’s US sourced electronics with some world class programming delivers what Holden has desperately needed and it’s a cracker.
Distance sensing radar, lane changing awareness, integrated internet radio, remote start from the keyfob, heads up display with multifunction info, blind spot alert, G force readout, voice to text messaging, voice control and reverse park assist add to heated seats, trailer sway control, reverse camera and Active Fuel Management from the 260kW/517Nm alloy block 
power source. Holden’s flagship, along with its Commodore brethren, also receives an interior redesign and electronic parking brake, doing away with the tired and unloved handle built into the centre console, that doubles up as a Hill Hold Control system.
It’s finally what Holden have promised for years, a world class luxury vehicle and I spent a wonderful week with the Caprice V, with a road trip to the mid south coast of NSW, to find out if that promise holds up.
The exterior design is virtually unchanged from the VE based WM model; now called the WN, it makes the new Caprice a real sleeper to those not inside it. The V spec has the V8 as standard mated to an uprated six speed auto with sports shift. The engine/exhaust note is muted, subtle, barely hinting at the animalistic roar the quad tipped exhaust lets loose when the go pedal is pushed in anger. It’s a free swinging engine, ticking over at just under 2000 rpm at freeway 
speed, revving cleaning and gutterally to 6000 as the speedo does indecent things. The potential to be a boulevarde cruiser or street brawler is well within its sphere of influence and the engine does both well. There’s no doubt at all that it likes a drink, especially when provoked, however the economy of the 6.0L comes into play with a judicious right foot (and Active Fuel Management), with over 700 kilometres provided from full to empty, including some spirited driving. The gearbox slurs through the gears, with just a hint of whine as it changes.
The ride is rarely disappointing; the bias towards comfort certainly shows, with roll and tip in towards the outside wheel noticeable. There is a skip across the road on certain bumps and with the roads still damp from (at the time of writing) the heavy rains of late June the traction control system was noticeable hauling in the near two tonne mass of 
the Caprice. The rear compressed hard on some of the heavier undulations but never lost grip. It’s smooth, unfussed 
and handles like a car smaller and lighter in the tight turns of the Kangaroo Valley Road. The interior, in its own way, is also rarely disappointing. A negative standout is the cheap feeling and cheaply fitted plastic shroud for minor storage ahead of the gear lever; the plastics would benefit from more of a suede feel throughout the cabin, including the seat supports, which still betray their low rent origins, as does the leather print plastic on the upper dash. The seats are well padded, supportive without feeling as if they crowded the thorax but the stylistic addition of a fabric strip, colour matched to the fabric on the dash, is questionable. The eight inch touch screen infotainment system and aircon layout is natural, ergonomic and much better overall than the WM/Calais in the preceding model. The view from the driver’s seat is also pleasurable, with a full colour LCD screen providing information such as fuel usage and economy, tyre 
pressures and more. The rear seat passengers, with heaps of rear leg room, can relax with wireless headphones to listen to the DVD playable from the centre dash mounted player but, disappointingly, USB access is from the console storage rather than from the aforementioned lower dash, whilst the same console also has, somewhat un-user friendly, a slot to put the keyfob. Unsurprisingly, there’s loads of boot space, thanks to the extra wheelbase.
Moving to the electronic system available in the US is a revelation and unlocks a bevvy of user friendly features. Collision Avoidance, for example, works on sensors reading the distance between the Caprice and the vehicle in front. Should that vehicle get closer whilst the Caprice is not braking, alarm chirps sound and the distance can be changed through a number of choices. Remote start needs the new electronic handbrake to be engaged, allowing the engine and dual zone climate control to come to life. Reverse park assist also uses sensors to judge angle and distance to help bring 
home the five metre behemoth to a parking space. The HUD (Head Up Display) gives speed, g force, revs and the posted speed limit, integrated with the satnav system whilst the infotainment system works on voice command. A button on the steering wheel is pressed to activate the system.
The much vaunted update to the Commodore range is more about the interior and electronics; with the flexibility and grunt of the V8 in the Caprice V with that level of intelligence, it’s well worth the mid $60K driveaway price with its mix of brawn and brains and certainly holds its own against the European competition.
http://www.holden.com.au/cars/caprice
Popular? Mazda3 launched Internationally, So….Yes.
Mazda’s giant killer, the Mazda3, was launched in its new model guise, in London, St Petersburg, New York and Instanbul, earlier this week. Australia didn’t miss out; hosting the launch was Melbourne, ahead of the other countries.
The company’s new design philosophy was clearly on show, with the 3 gaining the bluff and upright nose of bigger sibling, the Mazda6 and has been redesigned from the ground up, adopting Mazda’s award winning “Kodo- Soul of Motion” design theme plus has been granted the full suite of SKYACTIV Technologies. 
It’s said to evoke a sense of forward motion, with sharp edging leading from the front wings into the headlight cluster also sparking a sense of seeing a predatory animal. It’s a bigger car than its predecessor, being 60mm longer, 40mm wider yet sits 15mm lower. The interior has been revamped, with newly developed materials with a carbon fibre look and satin chrome finishes also. A fully integrated “Human Machine Interface”, allowing phone, sms and email access via a 7 inch touch screen is included along with a Heads Up Display.
Engine wise there’ll be two petrol engines initially, with 2.0 and 2.5 litres capacity, with 114kW and 200 Nm of torque or 138kW and 250Nm respectively. Transmissions are yet to be confirmed however, with four out of five Mazda3’s finding a private home, that hardly matters as an incentive but a price drop is sure to reignite its sales candle, with dollars expected to be sub 20K plus on roads.
Mazda3 is currently scheduled for a first quarter launch next year.
Level 2, 9 Help Street