IMOA
September 13th, 2016, 02:41 AM
Into Europe so into little hatchbacks, all petrol engines, the Astra a 1.6 NA and the other two small turbos. Astra I had for 9 days and included a fair bit of backcountry roads in Wales and Scotland the gold and fiesta were just for a day, the golf in the south of England and the fiesta in Germany.
Astra
In the early 2000's the Astra was a pretty good thing, really good handling and quite good quality for the price, in general arguably the class leading little hatchback of the time and so popular it lived on for a number of years after being superseded. I had a quick look on the phone and the reviews were saying this current model was back to its past heights so I thought what the hell, I'll give it a go.
First thing you notice is the engine, OK, I wasn't expecting miracles from a NA 1.6 but it was really lacking. I originally thought that it might be a bit of fun to have something you could get stuck into on the back roads but the lack of torque through the midrange meant you had to really beat on it and even then it didn't reward you with much.
In terms of handling it was not as good as what I remembered the old Astra as being. Wheel control wasn't bad but body control was really poor, you had to be very careful giving it a set through a corner and getting on the power to steady it but any correction, no matter how minor, would really throw it so you learnt to leave a lot on the table. Once it had its set it was kinda ok and you could have some fun with it but it was always in the back of your mind that if you had to do something it would turn into a willowy mess. What really bought this home was breaking from highway speeds (say about 75-80mph), if you stood on the breaks hard it wasn't happy. Ultimately not a bad car but more in common with a corolla than a focus which is a bit sad for a European model.
Golf
Fucking VW and their soft touch materials. You can make all the jokes but a Golf really is just a nicer place to be than anything else in its class. The golf I had was a easy able spec, didn't have leather but had lots of electronic goodies like Nav, radar cruise etc. first impression is hey this is really quite nice. Second impression is whoever speced the material on the steering wheel deserves a medal. Third impression is fuck me, I haven't felt a gearshift action that tight and 'snick y' since I drive an S2000. Genuinely, everyone should drive a current model Golf with the 6 speed to see how good a manual can be in a mid priced fwd hatchback.
I kind of like to rag on golfs as i see them, and particularly their performance models, as a what happens when the engineering-passion scale slips way to far into the engineering side of the equation but bugger me if they don't just do everything really well. The last time I'd driven a golf was 6 months back in NZ and the car before that I had been driving was the GT4 so it kinda left me a bit cold but this time coming in the middle of a bunch of more normal cars it impressed me a hell of a lot more. Handling is very composed, feels quite solid and can cope with adjustments throwing in the towel, steering is really nicely weighted, somewhat devoid of feel but really not too bad, engine is really good. Made the Astra feel like something from the 80's (which I suspect it was) but it was much better in traffic and a diddle to go from 60-80mph which was quite hard work in the Astra.
As much as I like to pick on Golfs there's a Eason they sell so many of them, they're just a very very good car to get around town in and will also work perfectly well on a freeway or a back country road all while having an interior which is a price bracket better than it should be. Damn those Germans and their brilliantly engineered cars.
Fiesta
When I was picking this up they first offered me a mistsubishi space wagen, that sounded suspiciously like a mini mpv to me (I found out later it isn't) and frankly when I see a Mitsubishi key my thought is 'crap'. Next she said how about a Citroen C4 Picassa, that I know is a mpv and I don't want any part of that. Finally I get a 'well we have a fiesta but that's a class below what you booked'. Yep, I'll take that because I do rate euro fords pretty highly.
What a cracking little car. I'm not sure exactly what the engine is but I assume a 1.0 or 1.3 turbo but around town it could get up and play in traffic and on the autobahn it was perfectly happy to cruise around 100mph and while it didn't have a lot of acceleration I did manage to cruise at about 125 for a bit and it was still Roark solid on the road and not about to blow.
Handling wise it was pretty good, confidence inspiring and more palyful than the others, unfortunately I didn't really get a chance to have a bit of a proper go because I only had it for a day and spent most of my time in autobahns or city streets. Interior wasn't as good as the golf but still what you would describe as 'hey, that's pretty good' for a car in this price range. My one complaint, and actually it's a big one, is the drivers side mirror wouldn't go wide enough so I had a small blind spot on that side. While I often have to get a mirror right out to extremities of its movement I haven't had a blind spot in any other car I've driven. That's not good enough Ford.
All up three very different cars and while the Golf and Fiesta lived up to their reputations the Astra, while not a bad car in the way I'd describe a Corolla as an overpriced piece of shit, just doesn't match the promise and is noticeably a step back from its heyday of 15 years ago.
Astra
In the early 2000's the Astra was a pretty good thing, really good handling and quite good quality for the price, in general arguably the class leading little hatchback of the time and so popular it lived on for a number of years after being superseded. I had a quick look on the phone and the reviews were saying this current model was back to its past heights so I thought what the hell, I'll give it a go.
First thing you notice is the engine, OK, I wasn't expecting miracles from a NA 1.6 but it was really lacking. I originally thought that it might be a bit of fun to have something you could get stuck into on the back roads but the lack of torque through the midrange meant you had to really beat on it and even then it didn't reward you with much.
In terms of handling it was not as good as what I remembered the old Astra as being. Wheel control wasn't bad but body control was really poor, you had to be very careful giving it a set through a corner and getting on the power to steady it but any correction, no matter how minor, would really throw it so you learnt to leave a lot on the table. Once it had its set it was kinda ok and you could have some fun with it but it was always in the back of your mind that if you had to do something it would turn into a willowy mess. What really bought this home was breaking from highway speeds (say about 75-80mph), if you stood on the breaks hard it wasn't happy. Ultimately not a bad car but more in common with a corolla than a focus which is a bit sad for a European model.
Golf
Fucking VW and their soft touch materials. You can make all the jokes but a Golf really is just a nicer place to be than anything else in its class. The golf I had was a easy able spec, didn't have leather but had lots of electronic goodies like Nav, radar cruise etc. first impression is hey this is really quite nice. Second impression is whoever speced the material on the steering wheel deserves a medal. Third impression is fuck me, I haven't felt a gearshift action that tight and 'snick y' since I drive an S2000. Genuinely, everyone should drive a current model Golf with the 6 speed to see how good a manual can be in a mid priced fwd hatchback.
I kind of like to rag on golfs as i see them, and particularly their performance models, as a what happens when the engineering-passion scale slips way to far into the engineering side of the equation but bugger me if they don't just do everything really well. The last time I'd driven a golf was 6 months back in NZ and the car before that I had been driving was the GT4 so it kinda left me a bit cold but this time coming in the middle of a bunch of more normal cars it impressed me a hell of a lot more. Handling is very composed, feels quite solid and can cope with adjustments throwing in the towel, steering is really nicely weighted, somewhat devoid of feel but really not too bad, engine is really good. Made the Astra feel like something from the 80's (which I suspect it was) but it was much better in traffic and a diddle to go from 60-80mph which was quite hard work in the Astra.
As much as I like to pick on Golfs there's a Eason they sell so many of them, they're just a very very good car to get around town in and will also work perfectly well on a freeway or a back country road all while having an interior which is a price bracket better than it should be. Damn those Germans and their brilliantly engineered cars.
Fiesta
When I was picking this up they first offered me a mistsubishi space wagen, that sounded suspiciously like a mini mpv to me (I found out later it isn't) and frankly when I see a Mitsubishi key my thought is 'crap'. Next she said how about a Citroen C4 Picassa, that I know is a mpv and I don't want any part of that. Finally I get a 'well we have a fiesta but that's a class below what you booked'. Yep, I'll take that because I do rate euro fords pretty highly.
What a cracking little car. I'm not sure exactly what the engine is but I assume a 1.0 or 1.3 turbo but around town it could get up and play in traffic and on the autobahn it was perfectly happy to cruise around 100mph and while it didn't have a lot of acceleration I did manage to cruise at about 125 for a bit and it was still Roark solid on the road and not about to blow.
Handling wise it was pretty good, confidence inspiring and more palyful than the others, unfortunately I didn't really get a chance to have a bit of a proper go because I only had it for a day and spent most of my time in autobahns or city streets. Interior wasn't as good as the golf but still what you would describe as 'hey, that's pretty good' for a car in this price range. My one complaint, and actually it's a big one, is the drivers side mirror wouldn't go wide enough so I had a small blind spot on that side. While I often have to get a mirror right out to extremities of its movement I haven't had a blind spot in any other car I've driven. That's not good enough Ford.
All up three very different cars and while the Golf and Fiesta lived up to their reputations the Astra, while not a bad car in the way I'd describe a Corolla as an overpriced piece of shit, just doesn't match the promise and is noticeably a step back from its heyday of 15 years ago.