The Golden Rules For Passengers
Usually, we write for drivers. However, as most of us have noticed at some point, the typical car has more than one door and more than one seat (with the exceptions of a few extreme race-inspired units such as the Abarth 695 Biposto . One of the main attractions of cars is that they can take the whole family or at least another person as well as the driver.
Plenty has been written about good behaviour when driving and how to be courteous to other drivers. Not much has been said about the way passengers ought to behave. Without further ado, then, here are the golden rules that all passengers ought to obey.
Private Fleet Car Review: Car Review: 2016 Toyota Corolla Ascent/SX/ZR hatchbacks.
It’s the world’s best selling car with over 41 million sold since being released close to half a century ago and has been seen in three, four and five door versions. Australia was the first market outside of Japan to receive the Corolla and Australia was the first country to build it outside of Japan. A Wheel Thing had the rare privilege of being able to review three versions of the hatch, back to back, with the Ascent manual hatch, the SX hatch and rangetopping ZR hatch with both fitted with a seven ratio CVT.
Sitting comfortably amongst its competitors, such as the Hyundai i30, Kia Cerato, Honda Civic, Mazda 3 and Ford Focus, the Corolla sports a 1.8L alloy blocked four cylinder. Peak power is 103 kW at 6000 revs, torque a decent 173 Nm at 4000 rpm, with a handy amount of that being felt once the tacho swings past 3000. Toyota claims the hatch will sip from the 50L tank at a rate of 6.7L (manual) to 6.1L (auto) per 100 klicks on the combined cycles. The ZR hatch finished on 7.3L/100km and that was virtually all freeway.
The manual transmission is a delight; sweet shifting, an almost perfectly balanced take up point for the clutch but a perhaps too light feel for the travel itself. This, of course, depends on the strength of the leg pushing the pedal and with far too many cars in Australia being of self shifting means, it’s not likely to trouble a buyer. Speaking of self shifting, the SX and ZR came with a constant variable transmission, programmed with seven shift points for those that like a manual auto.
There’s a well weighted shift mechanism for the auto’s gear selector, it’s not flimsy in feel to move it, plus there’s the paddle shifts on the column. In order to extract the most from the engine with the auto, it does need to be taken up to around 4000 rpm, with that noticeable change in attitude at about 3000, but it’s better done with gradual to moderate acceleration, as a heavy right foot has the engine “slipping the clutch”, with the CVT feeling as if the power isn’t fully utilised.
The changes are reasonably sharp, using the paddles, but forward motion is much more noticeable, with response from the engine at a higher plane than using the right foot alone. The manual has a completely different character, the tacho zipping around nicely and with no feeling of losing power to the transmission when pressed, unlike the CVT.
Back To The Future: The DeLorean DMC-12
I’m writing this on 20th October 2015, which means that tomorrow is Back To The Future day. For those of you who managed to miss out on watching Back To The Future II and don’t quite get what’s the big deal about tomorrow, the date 21st October 2015 is the date to which the time-travelling De Lorean hops forward to.
In honour of the occasion, it’s time to take a little look at the car that this movie series pushed into the limelight: the DeLorean. To be more specific, the DeLorean DMC-12.
You're On Course: Golf Stars In The Suburbs.
It’s not quite the age old question: in the rich and the poor suburbs, around Australia, what do people drive? It’s fair and reasonable to presume that the “toffs” are redolent in their Beemers, Mercs, Jags and maybe even the higher end stuff like Astons, Bentleys or Maseratis. One of Australia’s biggest online presences has dug into the archives, “crunched the numbers” in regards to enquiries on cars and has come up with some very surprising answers…
To start of, let’s look at what are Australia’s wealthiest suburbs. In NSW, there’s a few, such as Edgecliff, Rushcutters Bay, Vaucluse, Spit Junction. Victoria has St Andrews, Toorak and Hawksburn, whilst Perth sees beachside Cottesloe and riverside Peppermint Grove. In fact, NSW has six of the listings (multiple suburbs) with Victoria taking three of the other four. The guideline was pretty simple, what’s the mean incomes of the suburbs?
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