Volvo S60 R-Design

Here it is. My first blog post on the updated blog. We start with a topic brought up by a follower. Car safety: Is there a point where a car has too much in the way of safety features? This is actually a very interesting topic, simply because of the nature of the topic. People who have never experienced a car accident and people who know others who have died in car accidents are likely to have very differing views on the subject.

I believe that car safety is much like clothes. Yes, this sounds strange (who walks around wearing an airbag for instance?) But think of it this way. If you wanted to go into the Arctic on a expedition, you would need some sort of warm clothing. Arctic gear is not cheap, but you could simply duct-tape seven goose down pillows around your body and you would be warm; in the same way as if you fitted your car with an airbag which deployed covering your entire body in a crash, you would be safe in a crash. Sadly, these two solutions come at a price. How do you plan to move around with seven pillows strapped to your body? Where are all the other dashboard components going to go when there are 15 airbags ready to explode at the slightest provocation? And what about style? I doubt that the next fashion craze includes having pillows taped to your body, and I doubt that 15 airbag holders fit into a neat, stylish dashboard very well. I believe that the key to car safety is balance and ingenuity. Many car manufacturers do this, but only Volvo has managed it for the longest.

The new S60 R-Design is probably the best of all the 'safest' cars out there. I believe that it combines style, elegance, sportiness and driver enjoyment AND the maximum amount of safety for the driver and passengers in one excellent well priced bundle. For a start, its Swedish, which is pretty much a by-word for safety in the world of cars (they were the first to fit their cars with seat belts and safety cells for a kick-off) Secondly, the S60 R-Design is really just a normal S60 with a much more highly developed driver-experience. All of the things which keen drivers look for in a car have been improved, such as the suspension, the bushings and the steering. You can even specify a turbocharged 5 cylinder engine which develops 304 horsepower and sounds like a V10 engine.

So what about safety. Well this is where the S60 wins. The main focus on car safety these days is about crash prevention, and this is an area where the S60 shines. I don't think I've ever seen brakes as advanced as the S60's. The on board computer can detect an accident and pre charge the brake servo to full power, so that when the brakes are applied, all of the braking force is applied. The stability control can detect a potential spin and automatically prevent it, but at the same time not interrupt the feel of the drive and the steering. The S60 can also 'see' pedestrians, and automatically apply the brakes even if the brake pedal is ignored, to spare another life in the city.

The best thing about the S60 R-Design, is that all of the safety features are behind the scenes, so that you don't notice them, and they don't hinder the driving experience like other car's safety features. They just do their job very well, without you noticing. The S60 R-Design is the best car for the driver who wants to be sporty, but not scared that they'll slide into a car coming the other way. If you want to use a clotting analogy, think of the S60 as an Icebreaker Merino top. It keeps you warm and dry in the coldest of weather. But not so as you'd notice you were wearing a big Arctic jumper. (Or have seven pillows strapped to you for that matter)

Hyundai i45

The rip-off

The Bargain

It seems we are having a Korean cars festival on WTPMTR. First Ssanyong's prehistoric technology, Kia's only good car, and now Hyundai, with just about the worst priced car in the entire world. 

Value for money. It's what defines a bargain. You get something for much less than you thought. Korean cars are generally about value for money (though that is stretching the definition of "value") and when you buy a Korean car which has been manufactured by emotionless robots to make money, as opposed to lovingly crafted by skilled people to realise a dream, you don't want to part with too much of your hard earned cash. 

At the other end of the scale, is the rip-off. When you get pretty much nothing for an outrageous price. Bottled water, printer cartridges and other expendables are right in this category. And so are many cars. Including today's automotive abomination. The ludicrously overpriced Hyundai i45 2.4L "Elite".

This cement salesman's runabout is priced at NZ$53,000! Yes, your eyes are working correctly (if not, please adjust your monitor) This car is slow, ugly, has a stupidly small engine, and that worthless Hyundai badge, yet Hyundai think its funny to give this godawful donk a near NZ$55,000 price tag. I was scouring their website to try and find anything that would justify the price, and there was nothing. In fact, it even listed three point seat-belts as one of the safety features. 

The number of alternative drives is so large, the i45 is at the bottom of the list. Take the excellent Ford Mondeo XR5 Turbo. This has a 2.5L 5 cylinder engine with turbocharging making it way ahead of the Hyundai, even before I mention that fact that it has styling you may actually want to look at, and that its made in Belgium, meaning it won't fall apart. There's no contest; especially when its NZ$7,000 cheaper.
If you don't need a new car, you could settle for a 2 year old BMW 330i, for around NZ$35,000. This has a 3L straight six engine, and a BMW badge, making even an old car worse than the brand new Hyundai.

In order to justify the stupid price tag, Hyundai can only do one thing. Place a 5.2L V10 engine under the bonnet, and put it on sale. Without changing the price. 

Kia Cerato Koup

As I outlined in my previous post about the horrid Ssanyong Rexton, Korean cars are generally low on power, ugly in looks, and surprisingly low tech considering the century that we are now in. They also suffer from one of the most pitiful features a car can have. Deathly dullness. Apart from Ssanyong's comical ads and ridicoulous styling, most other Korean car manufacturers tend to churn out cars with less passion and flair than a bare white wall. I saw a Hyundai Sonata drive by the other day, and even though it ran a red light (normally a rather exiting road event) I was overcome with the urge to fall asleep. 

The worst thing about Hyundai, is not the dreary crud that comes into the country, but it's the blatently untruthful and downright laughable advertising that gets drilled into the New Zealand people every day on the TV and on massive billboard across the country. A billboard near Wellington airport (which Hyundai sadly owns, meaning it will always be draped in crappy slogans and ugly cars) was showing a huge quote from a National Business Review "executive" The quote read-"By 2013 Hyundai will be NZ's number one brand" 
This quote is not only a white lie, but an expensive one for Hyundai. You can just hear the wad of $100 bills falling neatly into the executive's account.

But despite the dreary cars and pointless advertising, Korea (or more specifically, Kia) recently designed the first ever Korean car that you may actually want to part with cash for. The Kia Cerato on which it's based, is actually not bad looking. I do not however recommend purchasing a standard Cerato, as people will still know that you are driving a Kia. But the Koup is a work of art.

The front of the standard Cerato is very well proportioned. The grille and the headlights all fit together in one neat package. But the looks are sadly weighed down by the upright sedan body. Rather like a supermodel having to model clothes whilst constanly wearing a bulletproof suit. But lose the sedan body and replace it with a fastback, two door body and the results are fantastic. The square and rigid looking doors on the sedan are replaced with two sleek pillar-less doors, which neatly round off the flowing body and forward design.

For a decent Cerato Koup with all of the available features (which is how I would buy a car) the value for money is immense. The top spec model only costs around NZ$33,000. Sadly, the only available engine for the Koup is a 2.0 litre four pot, which really doesn't do justice to the well designed body. But if you are prepared to sacrifice power for looks and value for money, the Cerato Koup is for you. Let's hope Kia puts a V6 in it! 

Ssanyong Rexton

When one decides to buy a new consumer good, be it a computer, a
table, book, anything; one usually expects to take some features of
that good for granted. for example: when you buy a table, it is highly
unlikely that in the advert for it, the retailer is boasting about how
it comes with legs as standard. Or in the case of a book, how it comes
with "pages made of paper"

But I was reading through my local newspaper, and I saw an ad for two
Ssanyong cars. They actually called them offroaders, but even my
mother doubted that they could even attempt to drive over something as
troublesome as a crack in the road. In the ad for their Actyon ute,
they listed the usual features such as air-con and the supposedly
powerful diesel engine, (which was the world's first attempt at
calling an engine which produced less than 200 kW "powerful")
As I read down the list, however, my trust for the car (which was
already pretty thin) vanished completely. The ad boasted that the car
had four wheel disc brakes. Now, I don't know what the brake
technology is in Korea, but judging by the ad, it's clearly very old.
No car manufacturer since around the 1980s has ever boasted about their automotive
creation having such a commonplace feature.
And if you think it couldn't get any worse, you are sadly wrong. I
scanned my eyes across the page and saw the lost of features for their
Rexton model. This car was advertised as having three point seatbelts!
I haven't seen any car ad in my entire life with three point seatbelts
advertised as a feature. This shows Korea's level of automotive
crappyness as being off the charts. In other words, avoid any car from
Ssanyong at all costs. You may find that a feature on one of their
crappier models is doors and a roof.

BMW M6

It's quite common for graphic designers to borrow ideas, shapes or lines from nature. It's also common for inventors to do the same thing. It's clear that the shape of the humble wing fitted to every plane ever made, was taken from the wing of every bird ever born. The same goes for the inventor of the articulated or 'bendy' bus. He or she must have seen a snake and, rather than running away in fear, decided to notice that long things that bend in the middle can go round corners a lot more easily than rigid things. 

Sadly, time has a habit of ruining trends or fashions. Designers and inventors decided to use science and maths to base their ideas on, rather than nature. But when the designers at BMW decided to revive the 6 series, they looked at nature. Or, to put it more accurately, decided to visit the shark tank at their local aquarium. They saw that the shark had a very hydrodynamic shape, and that this would help their new car go fast. But no matter how shapely or hydrodynamic the car is, it isn't going to go fast without power.

The 630ci and the 645ci, with 3 litre and 4.5 litre engines respectively, are not going to set one's trousers on fire, with extreme speed. It's the M6 that does the trouser burning. The Jaws inspired frontal styling on the less sporty models was toned down for the golf club car park. But the M6 has frontal styling turned up for the racetrack. The huge chin spoiler, the flared wheel arches and the trademark BMW double grilles are all from the meat-eating shark. But no shark has ever come with a 5 litre V10 engine under it's leathery hide. 

Even though the V10 is also used in the M5 sedan, the M6 is faster, simply because there is a lot less weight to pull around. But there are a few areas in which the M6 becomes a land beast, as opposed to a fast, underwater carnivore. The styling at the back is more obese duvet, than sleek sea-creature. There are way too many settings for the interior seats and the iDrive computer. There is an insanely complicated gearbox with 11 settings, and there are three power settings for the engine. Why? Can't it be on permanent 507 maximum horsepower mode? There are also 3 settings for the differential, which will mean many trips to the BMW dealer for costly repairs. But apart from these setbacks, the M6 is a true monster. But only when set up correctly. 

Porsche 959

For some reason, or other, most people in the 1980's were thinking about, for, sometimes against, and even inside the humble square. This kind of thinking showed up in many features of society, such as everyday items, buildings, and even cars. Two of the boxiest cars in the world, the Volvo 760 and the Audi 5000 were both cars of this cubular decade. No one really knows what started this square hell, but there aren't many upsides to the square. It doesn't look nice, isn't interesting, and it certainly has no aerodynamic upsides either.

But there was another 80's car with lovely aerodynamic curves and an equally lovely badge. The Porsche 959 (dubbed as a formula one car for the road) looked as though it was designed during a ruler shortage at the head bodywork design centre at Porsche. All these curves made it fast. The top speed was 317kph, which blew many other supercars into the weeds. And these were supercars with twice as many cylinders, and three times the engine capacity!

The 959 had a tiny 2.8 litre flat-six engine, which produced a whopping 450 bhp. This shows how fine tuning and patience can lead to great things. The Americans of the time must have been absolutely gob-smacked, when they were only making cars with huge 5 litre V8s, that produced less than 100 bhp. And the Americans would have been equally amazed at the cornering. To help the 959 around the tight racetrack bends it would inevitably face, it had four wheel drive, and complicated suspension, to make sure it didn't lean during hard cornering.

This also led the 959 to the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1986, which is strange really, considering Porsche didn't dabble in off road vehicles until the Cayenne of 2003. Getting your hands on a 959 was very difficult indeed. For a kick-off, you had to be an existing Porsche owner, and there were only 200 cars to choose from. And some of these were the sports models, with no back seats, no real interior, and no adjustable suspension (making the ride permanently harsh)

The 959 is one great Porsche. The only super-Porsche to follow it, is the amazing Carrera GT, with an equally curvy body. Which means that at least Porsche were thinking outside the box in the 1980's. I'm glad they did.      

Smart Roadster-Coupe

Remember those little pedal cars that you may or may not have had as a small child? I certainly do, seeing as I spent about 1/3rd of my childhood on one. The pedal car in question wasn't actually mine. It used to belong to my cousin, and it didn't belong at my house either. My Grandmother kept it at her house in Napier, NZ, and whenever we went up there for a family holiday, I would literally spend hours on this little yellow car, screaming around the perimeter of my Nan's house, at what I believed to be huge speeds (but were probably closer to slow walking speeds) The car was very basic: It had a simple yellow steel frame, a pair of square hoops to put your feet into (the pedals), two tiny front wheels and two chunky back wheels (only one of which actually turned when you pedaled) This car was so basic, it actually had two little handles rather than a steering wheel.

Sadly, two things ended my joy of driving this car around the place. Firstly, as time went by, I became too tall to fit in the small seat. Secondly, because I loved to crash into pot-plants, pillars and sometimes my dad's car, the wheels eventually decided to fall off. And no bolts or screws could hold them on this time. The car now sits in my Nan's shed, (full of all the other bikes and scooters I've broken over the years) and one day I'll bring it out again, to remind myself of the fun I had with it.

There is one car, that also reminds me of the fun I had with my pedal car. The Smart Roadster. It may be seven years old now, but it still remains the ultimate car to have fun in. It has a tiny 700cc three cylinder engine, two seats and a great looking plastic body. Because the Smart is so light, 700cc is plenty to power this car along. The roof arrangement was brilliant too. You had a canvas electric roof which folded away in seconds, and two small roof rails which were stowed in the boot.

But this is where the only problem of the Roadster shows up. The boot may be the width and length of the car, but it was only 15cm deep. It could hold...air. But this is where the word 'Coupe' comes to the rescue. The Smart Roadster-Coupe has glass side windows and a sort of hatchback bootlid thing where the boot is, meaning you can carry actual objects. This makes the Roadster very practical. 

I would give anything to be able to shrink down in size, so that I can fit back into my old pedal car. I would also give anything to be able to fix the wheels back on. While I can't shrink or fix the wheels, I can do something very similar. I can buy a Smart Roadster Coupe. Although I will take care not to crash into pot plants or pillars.   

Mercedes E-Class Convertible

Yes, it's July, and Wellington just recorded a temperature of 2 degrees C last night, and even then it only got up to 8 degrees C by lunchtime the same day. This begs the question, what on Earth are we doing discussing cars that are strictly summer-only? Surely I should be reviewing the VW Phaeton, a car with central heating, rather than a car that would turn your face into an ice sculpture if you so much as opened the window fully. 

Contrary to what you (Wellingtonians especially) may believe, July and August are the best months to start thinking about buying an open top car. The Winter solstice has packed it's bags and headed north, so the days are getting longer. Spring is on it's way (hopefully) and eventually Summer will be upon us. Convertible buying is like booking a plane ticket. You have to be in early to get the best options, otherwise they'll all be gone by summer. 

Luckily, there are many cars that the manufacturers have decided to take a hacksaw to. There are plenty of great BMWs, Peugeots, Audis and even Bugatti has decided to make a convertible version of their Veyron. But just where the money to purchase the latter is going to come from, is another dilemma entirely. Mercedes has launched an open top version of their very stylish E-class coupe. Almost identical to the hard top car, except without a roof of course.

But I myself would urge caution to those who have seen the photo at the bottom of the page and have already decided to place an order. You see, I went to the Mercedes website a few weeks ago, to check up on their latest offerings, and slap-bang on the first page of the international website, is a picture of an E-class convertible parked outside a nightclub, with the heading "Sex and the City 2" I'm so sorry (especially to fans of the film) but this just turns the E-class cabriolet into a car with such a tiny amount of class, that you would have to be a colossal idiot to buy one.

On the other end of the scale, however, if you enjoy posing in your current convertible, and you need a replacement, then go and buy one tomorrow. And that is another reason why the E-class has no style, elegance or taste. You could say that it's just a disco ball on wheels (especially with the number of chromed surfaces on the bodywork) Interestingly, the old Mercedes C63 AMG suffered from the same discoballitis, but it made up for that, with it's hugely exciting 6.2 litre V8 engine. But here, there's nothing to give the E-class convertible any style, elegance or excitement. It's just a car for posers.

The new BMW 3 series convertible is on it's way soon, but do you really want to look like you're off to the golf course all the time? I recommend the new Audi S5 cabriolet. This has a huge V8 engine, a beautifully crafted canvas roof, and because it's an Audi it has acres of style and elegance. The chances of this car being used to ferry drunks from one nightclub to the next, are nil. 

And that's why I would have the Audi. You can't really pose in this car because it's so quietly styled. People on Oriental Bay in Wellington won't look at you as you drive along with the top down. They won't see the S5 parked up on Lambton Quay and immediately think-'drug dealers car' The Audi is just so composed, and it handles well too, thanks to the Quattro four-wheel-drive system that the Mercedes doesn't have. 

So when you come around to deciding what open top car to buy, think of the classy Four Ringed logo, rather than the posing three-point star.  

The Car for Summer

The car for posers

Ariel Atom

Before we get to the car, let's look at what the car is named after, the atom. An atom is a very, very small thing. So small, that over 20 billion of the little things can fit across the width of a human hair. So the Atom car, is small then. Well, there's another trait to atoms which is the real reason behind the Atom's name. An atom contains electrons (or in the case of a Hydrogen atom, just one electron), which orbit the nucleus (centre) of the atom. The electron has virtually no mass, which makes it fast. So the Ariel Atom is small, like an atom, and contains a very high revving Honda engine, like an electron.

The Atom is practically a road legal go-kart, but with a hell of a lot more power. This go-kart certainly isn't powered by a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engine, like the ones I drove at my friend's birthday parties. The Atom has no doors and no roof. The headlights provide less light than an extinguished candle, and a toilet seat would be more kind to someone's backside than the bucket seats in the Atom.

We'll come to why the Atom is so under-furnished in a minute, but for now, let's look at the engine. It certainly isn't big, (it's only 2 litres) but it's also supercharged, to give up to 300 horsepower! So why are there no doors or no roof? The men in Somerset, England who build the Atom seem to be on a diet. This clearly rubs off on their cars. The Atom weighs in at 612 kgs. This gives it a power to weight ratio of 650 horsepower per ton. The Bugatti Veyron (fastest production car in the world, remember) has a power to weight ratio of 446 horsepower per ton.

If the car's engine has less to tug around, then it goes faster. This is why jockeys have to skip Christmas lunch. If they start to pile on the kilos, their horse has to pull more, and this could cost a win at the Grand National. I also forgot to mention that the Atom has no windscreen. So when driven, even at low speed, people will think that you have turned into a prune. So if you own an Ariel Atom, and want to drive fast, then watch out. Unless you want to become a product of 'Sunsweet' drive slow. (or wear goggles)  

Bugatti Veyron

I am on my three week mid year school holidays at the moment and for my birthday, I got a very large kitset model of the BAC Concorde supersonic airliner. So I started it a few days ago, and it is now finished. While building this incredibly beautiful machine, I couldn't help thinking about the huge challenges facing the English and French engineers while they were developing Concorde in the late 1960's. This brings me neatly onto the car I will be reviewing in this post. 

You see in 2000, when the Veyron was being developed, German engineers at Volkswagen had similar challenges to the engineers at BAC. They had to create a car that could to 400km/h but could be driven by someone who had just passed their driving test; in the same way that Concorde's engineers had to create a plane that could fly at twice the speed of sound, and could be flown by a pilot who didn't belong to an Air Force.

In a way, the Bugatti Veyron and Concorde are very similar. They both travel faster than any machine of their kind. They both took years to develop, and they are both hugely expensive to run and maintain. They both have mind boggling specifications and facts. Did you know that the Veyron has ten radiators! Did you also know that Concorde was the only commercial airliner to use engines with afterburners? Both have become the yardsticks for speed. And both were designed to show the world how good we humans are at overcoming problems such as 'how to cross the Atlantic in under 3 hours' or 'how do we make a car that goes faster than an F1 car, but looks nothing like one'

Sadly, they both will die due to the same fate. Money and environmental safety. It's quite interesting to note that the Bombardier Q300 has had more landing gear malfunctions than any other plane, and that I'll be flying down from Napier in one during these holidays, whereas it only took one Concorde crash for the whole fleet to be grounded, and eventually retired from service. Concorde died because people were so obsessed with air and noise pollution when one flew past, rather than the spectacle they were being treated to. 

The Bugatti Veyron hasn't died yet, but it probably will within 5 years time. Each Veyron costs Volkswagen at least NZ$15 million to build, but they are only selling them for NZ$2.5million. Money will kill the Veyron, in the same way that environmental safety killed Concorde.

Tatra 603

Marques like Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Lotus, Jaguar, etc. are usually so well known, that they become yardsticks, or adjectives. For example: I was recently at home, sick with the flu, and I turned on the TV. One of those incredibly irritating infomercials was on, (the ones that promise so much for so little, but you can't help thinking that there's something hidden) and the announcer said 'blah, blah, the Rolls Royce of knives'

You also hear people say 'as fast as a Ferrari' But I have never, in my whole life heard anyone use the car marque, Tatra, in a sentence.

This is strange, because Tatra is a very old car marque. It was even around before Enzo Ferrari was even born. And yet Tatra made some of the most groundbreaking cars ever. Take the Tatra 603. It was hugely ahead of its time. While most cars had huge great V8s up front, razor sharp fins at the back, and interiors large enough to host rock concerts, the 603had a rear-mounted 2.7 litre V8. It also had a Porsche 911 style profile, because of that rear mounted engine.

But the main reason behind the 603's wonderment, was the coolness of the car. It's a thing that can only really be applied to French and East-European cars only, and it's the assassin factor. In 1953, the 603 was being used as a way of getting Mafia officials to their secret hide-outs in the woods, or wherever. The Tatra's closely placed together quad headlamps gave it a frontal image like no other.

Rarity also plays a part in the 603's heritage. This car is so rare, that you could even struggle to find one in the very country that built them, let alone in NZ. This is sad really, because the 603 is a car that would only suit a small number of people. It may look like a jellybean on wheels with four yellow spots on the front, but it's one that should definitely be preserved in the fossils of automotive greatness.  

Ferrari 365 Berlinetta Boxer

Some cars, are thrown together. Like a pile of dirt or sand is scooped into a pile by a fat bloke in a bulldozer. Some of these thrown together cars include: the Toyota Yaris, the Kia Soul, and the Hyundai i30. They are all rubbish, simply because they have no pedigree, no style, and absolutely no soul (even though Kia tried and failed to give its car some) Then there are half and half cars, that are still thrown together, but do have a small chunk of pedigree and soul. These include, the Ford Mondeo, the Skoda Octavia and the Honda Legend.

After this assortment of cars, there's the top. The cream of the pedigree ladder. The only fully soul and passion cars. Most are from Italy and Britain. Cars like the Lamborghini Countach, the Jaguar XK120, and of course, the Ferrari Boxer. This car was the aristocrat amongst the other 80's Italian supercars. The Countach had crazy styling, fat rear tyres, and massive spoilers and vents adorning its body.

But the Boxer didn't have any of this nonsense. It may have had the Countach's headlight-under-pop-up light configuration (a trend carried on by the Ferrari F40), but that's where the similarities end. The doors, the styling, and even the way the pistons in the engine were arranged, was all different. The Lambo had a V12 engine, but the Ferrari had a much more interesting flat 12 'Boxer' engine. The interior was also unique, and unmistakably Italian. 

When most supercars had fighter cockpits for interiors, the Boxer had a living room. Cream leather and black seats, interesting switches and classically sculpted dials. This is why the Ferrari Boxer is in the soul and passion league. It has the pedigree, the style, and the soundtrack to match.          

1988 BMW 525i

I would think very carefully before doing this to your 525i...

This is my first semi-classic car review.
Many cars in NZ are modified, so they become 'boy-racer' cars. These automotive atrocities are usually just 17 year old Nissan Skylines and Subarus, with ridiculous body kits, spoilers, 157 decibel stereos, and garish paint jobs. These cars are the primary transport of choice for the party-pill eating, cap-wearing yobs, who communicate in a new language involving words such as 'yo', and 'sup'. So far this review has nothing to with the BMW 525i; but I haven't mentioned the other feature of these boy-racer cars. 

Many young drivers (including me, I must confess) want their car to stand out from the crowd. The first thing that many boy-racers do to their cars, is bypass the muffler system in the exhaust. In nearly all of these cars, the muffler is so unused, that colonies of moths and other insects can safely live in it without fear of hot, fast moving exhaust gases charging into their home. 

The reason why the muffler is bypassed, is to make the car loud. Very loud. Many residents living in prime boy-racer territory complain about the terrible noise. And the reason why the noise is so awful, is that the original source of this noise (usually a boring 4 cylinder engine) is unchanged. You can't use a muffler-less exhaust system to improve on a terrible din. 

And this is where the 1988 BMW 525i comes into the picture. In my opinion, all 5-series BMWs from 1988-1994 were the greatest executive sedans of the period. They all had straight 6 engines ranging from 2 to 3.5 litres. And each one had its own, glorious soundtrack. The noise got deeper as the engine size increased, so you could choose what tone of noise you wanted by buying a bigger or smaller engine. You don't need to spend any money changing the exhaust system, because the original one delivers the sound like a world class musician.  

There are thousands of 80's and 90's 5 series BMWs out there, each one available for less than NZ$10,000. I've searched the Internet, and you can pick up a decent 525i (in my opinion, the one with the best sounding engine) for less than 1 grand. And because most boy racers are so obsessed with Japanese cars, you will stand out from the crowd because of the classy styling, as well as the tone-perfect engine note. 

If every boy racer had an 80's 5 series, there would be no noise complaints at all. 

Honda Accord V6

Yes. It's a Honda Accord, and yes, everyone who knows me will be asking the same, three letter question. WHY? Why is a Japanese car on my car blog? To me, Japan has never made a truly good car. Japan's car industry has no racing pedigree, no history to commemorate, and the design teams for most Japanese car firms give birth to cars that are so drearily unstyled, that I often confuse a pile of wet cement with an automotive product from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Suddenly, one day whilst walking to the bus stop, I thought, yes, perhaps Japanese cars are good (i mean, they can't all be bad) They are certainly good value for money. It costs about the same to buy a mid range Ford Mondeo Zetec as it does to buy a top-spec Honda Accord. This particular Accord has a full leather interior, sunroof, smart alloy wheels and a decent array of airbags.

But we are more interested in the Accord V6, which costs around NZ$56,000 You certainly get what you pay for, and most of what you're paying for, is the engine. It's a very clever 3.5 litre V6 but the engine management can turn off cylinders depending on how you are driving at a particular moment in time. It can run on 3 cylinders for city driving; 4 cylinders for low speed cruising, and all 6 for motorways and overtaking.
Sadly, switching between cylinders is not instant.

Lets say you are driving in the city, late for a crucial meeting. You can only keep up with everyone else on the road, who are actually window shopping, so you are using 4 cylinders. You see a gap in the traffic, and an amber light. You stamp on the right pedal, but it might as well be connected to a lawnmower engine. It takes time for the engine to switch to six cylinders. Time that you need for catching amber lights

Apart from that small problem, I am definitively steered towards the new Accord V6. It's bold styling, it's value for money and the excellent engine make it the perfect family saloon for family who chooses their car over price, rather than brand.  

Porsche Cayenne GTS

Well, here it is, my first ever car review.
At last, a Porsche Cayenne that looks good! Most of the range looks pretty awful, and many prospective high powered off roader buyers have been turned away because of the styling. But Porsche must have heard my complaining all the way over in Stuttgart, because they launched the new Cayenne GTS. The "Sports car of four-wheel-drives" has more power, a bigger engine, and similar styling to its sister car, the Cayenne Turbo.

 So what is the point of the GTS? Why do we need a rival model within the same range? The answer to that perplexing question is simple: They aren't rivals at all. In fact, the Turbo and the GTS are very different. The Turbo, is simply a Cayenne with a turbocharger; turbo labels on the dashboard, bootlid and engine cover; and a new radiator grille. It also suffers from turbo-lag. 

Turbo lag is caused when the turbine in the turbocharger fails to get up to speed fast enough, to give extra power to the engine. That's why cars like the Mitsubishi Evo9, which have huge turbos and tiny 2 litre engines, can often be outpaced by cats, dogs and other animals in the first 20 metres of a drag race, while the turbo is getting up to speed.

But the GTS solves the problem of turbo lag. Without a turbo, the GTS has no turbo lag. It also has no turbo bages, which probably make an already heavy car, into an earthmover. So what am I trying to say here? By all means, buy the Cayenne Turbo (a friend of mine already has). But for a similar price, you can have a larger engine, and no turbo lag. But if you want to cut your fuel bill, buy the Turbo. It's less costly, but slower. Quite a dilemma. So what would I buy? Well umm.... Well, here it is, my first ever car review.
At last, a Porsche Cayenne that looks good! Most of the range looks pretty awful, and many prospective high powered off roader buyers have been turned away because of the styling. But Porsche must have heard my complaining all the way over in Stuttgart, because they launched the new Cayenne GTS. The "Sports car of four-wheel-drives" has more power, a bigger engine, and similar styling to its sister car, the Cayenne Turbo.

 So what is the point of the GTS? Why do we need a rival model within the same range? The answer to that perplexing question is simple: They aren't rivals at all. In fact, the Turbo and the GTS are very different. The Turbo, is simply a Cayenne with a turbocharger; turbo labels on the dashboard, bootlid and engine cover; and a new radiator grille. It also suffers from turbo-lag. 

Turbo lag is caused when the turbine in the turbocharger fails to get up to speed fast enough, to give extra power to the engine. That's why cars like the Mitsubishi Evo9, which have huge turbos and tiny 2 litre engines, can often be outpaced by cats, dogs and other animals in the first 20 metres of a drag race, while the turbo is getting up to speed.

But the GTS solves the problem of turbo lag. Without a turbo, the GTS has no turbo lag. It also has no turbo bages, which probably make an already heavy car, into an earthmover. So what am I trying to say here? By all means, buy the Cayenne Turbo (a friend of mine already has). But for a similar price, you can have a larger engine, and no turbo lag. But if you want to cut your fuel bill, buy the Turbo. It's less costly, but slower. Quite a dilemma. So what would I buy? Well umm....                                10/4/09

Correction (Sorry)

I was recently hacked by some internet idiots and had to close my email down and make a new one. Sadly, my old car blog (Automotive Critic Corner) was attached to the old account and I can't remember the password, so I can't edit the blog. Don't worry though: I will be re posting all my old work onto this new blog before writing any new posts. I've also kept the new title I made for the old blog (as Automotive Critic Corner sounds a bit crappy doesn't it?)