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Posted by Alex Bale
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Price as tested: €40,733
+ Sexy looks inside and out, quality, image, badge, refinement, engine– Not sporty enough to drive, cramped rear seats= As classy and desirable as it ever was
There is a checklist of qualities that you can bring to a road test of pretty much any new Audi, and almost every model in the range will quickly have a full complement of tick marks. Handsome good looks? Check. Beautiful, and beautifully made interior? Check and check. Frugal engine? Check. And a chassis that falls on just the wrong side of the line marked ‘entertaining?’ Um, yeah, check.
So, does the new A3 hatchback fill in the check list blanks? Yup, every single one. Dubliner David Caffrey, who holds a starring role in Audi’s design studio, is the man behind those George-Clooney-good-looks, and while the A3 doesn’t do much to separate itself from its predecessor (or indeed from most of the rest of the Audi range) it’s undeniably good looking and desirable.
That’s a story that gets even better on the inside. Audi has long been considered the one and true master of car cabin design and execution and with the new A3 the Ingolstadt meister is truly playing at the top of its game. Considering that the A3 is a (relatively) affordable model within the Audi range, the interior style is even more impressive. From the way the ultra-thin sat-nav and infotainment screen rises from the dash top, to the lovely twist and click motion of the air vents to the wonderfully comfortable seats, this is a class act that makes most rivals look clueless. Quite apart from the clear instruments and the lustrous levels of quality, there are the little touches. Check out the circular air vents. Pull out the little knob in the centre of the vent, and the air flow switches to a radial pattern that distributes air evenly around the cabin. Push it in again and the flow switches to a more direct pattern for when you just want to get cold or hot air to your face. Brilliant.
The cabin isn’t flawless though. The biggest problem is simply a lack of space in the rear seats. I know that the A3 is only a three-door, and that a more spacious five-door Sportback version has just arrived on these shores but still – the A3 is a car pitched at upwardly mobile families as much as it is at trendy singletons, so the fact that having my 2-year old in his car seat behind me made me crank my seat uncomfortably far forward is a pretty poor performance.
Under the bonnet, the performance is rather more rounded. Yes, most customers will go for the more frugal and affordable 105bhp 1.6-litre TDI diesel engine, but our test car came with the gruntier 150bhp 2.0-litre TDI diesel – an engine somewhat more befitting of the company that brought us the original Quattro and the bewitching R8 supercar. You may be aware that for the past decade Audi has been crushing every rival at the legendary Le Mans 24hrs race with an unbeatable squadron of diesel-powered racing cars that are not only more frugal than the opposition but more powerful too. That’s the kind of patth the A3’s 2.0-litre engine treads. Not only does it provide invigorating motive thump (100kmh comes up in a GTI-esque 8.6secs) but it can return a genuine 55mpg and its 109g/km Co2 emissions puts it in the new Band A3 for road tax, with an annual bill of €190. That’s little short of amazing performance and the fact that it does it in such a quiet, refined fashion is just the cherry on top.
Which makes it all the sadder that the A3 just can’t quite provide a truly engaging dynamic performance. It’s a long-standing Audi issue, but it remains true that the cross-town rivals from Bavaria, BMW, invariably give more to the driver. The perspective only of the committed enthusiast? True, but then if you’re not bothered about how it drives then why are you shelling out all the extra on a premium brand? There’s nothing wrong with the way the A3 drives – its steering is nicely weighted, its ride just the right amount of firm, its grip levels unimpeachable – but the final spark of enjoyment is missing. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it is.
That fact makes the A3’s price list an uncomfortable read. Our test car, in Sport trim, carries a price tag of €31,500 which the options on our car (including leather and Alcantara seats, sat-nav, 18” alloys, climate control and parking sensors among others) pushed to north of €40,000. That’s a hefty price for a compact car and one made an even tougher sell by the fact that Volkswagen’s hugely impressive new Golf is now on sale, offering an even better driving experience and similar levels of quality for a lot less cash.
That said, the A3 is impressive and I have no doubt that it will find many firm fans amongst those willing to spend extra on a shinier badge. And hey, how many expensive German cars can truly claim Irish heritage?
Audi A3 2.0 TDI 150 Sport
Price as tested: €40,733
Price range: €25,100 to €39,820
Capacity: 1,968cc
Power: 150bhp
Torque: 320Nm
Top speed: 216kmh
0-100kmh: 8.6sec
Economy: 4.1l-100km (68mpg)
CO2 emissions: 109g/km
Road Tax Band: A3. €190
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 95% adult, 87% child, 74% pedestrian, 86% safety assist.
Posted by Alex Bale
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Price as tested: €28,695
+ Sexy looks, improved cabin quality and space, comfort, quality, engine
– Cheap rear suspension spoils the dynamic performance, expensive
= Grooviest looking car on the road today, but Golf is still superior
How do you review an icon? How do you pass judgement on something that's already a pillar of history? If you went on a date with Scarlett Johannson (or Brad Pitt, take your pick) would you spend dinner assessing their skin tone, their haircut, the cut of their clothes? Or would you just revel in simply being in their presence?
That's the problem facing this bitten, cynical car critic when it comes time to review the new Volkswagen Beetle. The original Beetle was the first car to break the Ford Model T's record as the best-seller of all time (a mantle since passed to the Toyota Corolla) and made a remarkable journey from being the apple of a cruel dictator's eye, to being the car of choice of the California counter-culture to its final resting place as a revered classic and a beacon of simple, rugged engineering.
Then Volkswagen attempted to have its cake and eat it. Based on a concept car, the second generation Beetle launched (with, shock, front engine and front wheel drive) in the late nineties to acclaim for its cute, cartoony styling but to criticisms for its poor interior packaging and a deeply lacklustre driving experience. Not to mention the fact that it was more expensive than the more practical Golf which replaced its ancestor, but which shared engines and chassis with the new Beetle.
Now, the record has come around again, and there's a third generation Beetle. Again, it's based on the same platform as the Golf (albeit the last-generation, MkVI Golf, not the current car) and again it's trading heavily on its iconic past.
It's very, very hard not to be sucked in by those retro lines. The overly-curved, cartoonish look of the second Beetle is gone, replaced by a car with a flatter, more aggressive roof and square, straight lines to add tension. Frankly, it's brilliant and I was instantly suckered. There are few, if any, other cars on the road right now as good looking as this and it draws a more obvious line between the original Beetle and the Porsche sports cars it inspired.
Inside too, things are better than before. Out goes the silly flower vase and in comes a neat instrument pack and a touch of the Fiat 500's cabin ambience. Obviously retro but still modernly functional. There's much better space in the back and the boot is far more practically sized and shaped than was the case on the last Beetle.
The engine's a belter too. VW's 2.0-litre 140bhp diesel engine has been around for a while, but in the Beetle it proves itself still a youthful performer. Theres's as much punch as you could wish for through the gears, yet it will still return a 50mpg average without too much effort. Stop-start would be nice for traffic duties, but hey, you can't have everything and it's refined enough to make you believe, just for a moment, that it might be petrol.
It's just a pity that the chassis isn't up to the standards of the engine, especially when the new Golf is able to provide such a classy driving environment. The Beetle's not bad, it's just not as good as it could be. The steering (which communicates with you through quite a big wheel) is nicely, even sportily weighted and the Beetle turns into corners with alacrity and precision. The problem comes from the rear suspension. The Beetle is, primarily, designed and built for the US market where price is king, so to keep costs down, VW has stuck with an old-fashioned torsion-bar rear axle. It's mechanically simple, compact (which helps with the boot space) but it cannot provide the sophistication of a more modern multi-link setup. Hit a mid-corner bump when rounding a fast corner and you'll see what I mean. The rear end thumps, kicks and even skips a little a times. It's never actually unstable, but it feels and sounds uncomfortable and discourages you from enjoying the drive.
Which is a shame, as the Beetle is a remarkably charming car. It's not just the styling this time around, as the cabin, engine and, for much of the time, the driving experience are up to snuff. The problem is, as ever, that the Golf is more capable, more spacious, more affordable and better to drive. There is a reason that the original Beetle was replaced by the original Golf and that reason hasn't really altered in the past forty years. Yes, it is a bit like taking Scarlett Johannson out and asking if there are any more at home like her, but that's the simple truth.
Facts & Figures
Volkswagen Beetle Sport 2.0 TDI 140
Price as tested: €28,695
Range price: €20,695 to €30,445
Capacity: 1,968cc
Power: 140bhp
Torque: 320Nm
Top speed: 198kmh
0-100kmh: 9.4sec
Economy: 4.9l-100km (57.6mpg)
CO2 emissions: 129g/km
VRT Band: B1. €270 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 92% adult, 90% child, 53% pedestrian, 86% safety assist
Posted by Alex Bale
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Price as tested: €31,795
+ Handsome, frugal, fab to drive, solid– Pretty much nothing= As good a mid-size saloon as you'll find
An expensive Swiss watch has become a deep desire for so many of us. The thought of the expensive weight of all that carefully assembled stainless steel and titanium, our wrists tingling at the very thought of being topped by the logo of Omega, Rolex or Tag Heuer (delete according to taste), it's a status symbol we'd all love to have. But sadly, few of us will ever afford such a timepiece. Shame.
But what if I told you that you could have something just as good, possibly even better, for a lower cost, simply by trading in your timepiece's Swiss postcode for one from Japan? It's well known in high-end watch circles that, proud though the Swiss boys are of their products and movements, they collectively weep with jealously at the carefully crafted work of Seiko. The famed Japanese watch maker can produce wrist-wear of staggering reliability and accuracy, and no small amount of beauty, for a fraction of the cost of a Rolex.
There's something similar going on in the motoring world, too. Many of us desire a slick German sports saloon; we want our driveway to be adorned with the star of Mercedes, the four rings of Audi or the Munich colours of BMW, but their prices are just out of reach. So what if I told you that you could have a car as good to drive as a 3 Series, better looking than an A4 and more reliable than a C-Class, and all you have to do is pop into your Mazda dealer?
Most of the new 6's rivals come with 1.6 or 2.0-litre Diesel engines with outputs of around 115 to 120bhp, Band A emissions and a price tag circling the €26,000 mark. The Mazda, by contrast, has a price tag of €31,795 (for the diesel Sport model, which Mazda Ireland reckons will be its strongest seller), has a 2.2-litre engine with a muscular 150bhp and 380Nm of torque (an even more powerful 175bhp, 420Nm version is also available) and yet still hits that Band A emissions target, with 108g/km costing you just €180 a year to tax.
How has Mazda done this? Carefully, is the short answer. Its SkyActiv programme, which debuted on last year's very impressive CX-5 SUV, isn't one big whizz-bang fuel saving system but rather, like BMW's EfficientDynamics, a series of incremental improvements in every area. A little less friction here. A saving of a kilogram there. A touch less wind resistance somewhere else. It all adds up and the final sum of these parts is that low Co2 figure and a commensurately low fuel consumption of, claims Mazda, better than 65mpg on average. Part of that efficiency comes from a combination of i-Stop that kills the engine when you're waiting at the lights and a new system called i-ELOOP which uses a capacitor (like a battery; it reacts faster than a conventional battery but won't hold a charge for very long) that can power the electrical systems for up to a minute, independent of the engine, and recharges in just seconds from leftover braking energy. Clever stuff and the re-start time of the i-Stop is impressively fast.
Even so, I doubt you'll be able to match that fuel figure in real world driving, partially because almost no car ever does match its claimed figure, but partly because it's very hard to resist driving the new 6 in a somewhat brisk fashion. The last generation of 6 felt solid, planted and even a touch hefty to drive. This new one continues that tradition in part, but there's also a new-found litheness, a sense of fluidity and a truly engaging driving experience. The steering is the outright star here, feeling almost Jaguar-like in its combination of weight (except at parking speeds when it can occasionally get oddly heavy) and with great levels of feedback. It's a very confidence inspiring car, the 6, and even at very high continental motorway speeds, feels safe, secure and reactive. The ride quality, as long as you don't go for the optional 19" wheels, is also exceptionally supple.
Refined too. There's a rustle of wind noise around the mirrors at 120kmh and a touch of road and tyre noise on coarser surfaces, but the SkyActiv diesel 2.2 is impressively quiet and even manages to sound a little bit entertaining at higher rpm, with a gruff warbling noise rather than the usual bland diesel blare.
The cabin marks a particularly high point for the 6. It's very similar to the CX-5's to look at, but the quality of the materials has kicked up a notch and while it's a touch dark at times, it's also a terrifically comfy and pleasing space in which to spend time, helped in no small part by a well-located driving position and expensive-looking, clear instruments. There's good space in the back too although the boot is a touch smaller than much of the competition. Family buyers will be pleased to see that Mazda is emphasising the safety levels of the 6, with a host of new electronic aids including a city braking system that slams on the anchors if it senses you're going to run up the back of the car in front, a lane keeping warning and a blind spot monitor, as well as radar guided cruise control.
It's also a very good looking car, much more obviously so in the flesh (so to speak) than in photos, where the sweeping lines are more obvious and the muscular stance more noticeable.
That €31,000 price tag may hurt the 6's chances though. Its rivals all have significantly lower price points, even if they are for lesser engines with less equipment. Mazda is effectively competing with bottom-end versions of the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 at that price too, and while it's a lovely car, that's a tough battle for any mainstream car maker, and Mazda has as yet no plans to try and match or beat the Koreans in the warranty war; three-year unlimited mileage is your lot.
But just as a Seiko will have true watch afficionados nodding in quiet respect, so I reckon this new Mazda 6 will have true car fans doing the same. Gorgeous, lithe to drive and solidly built, and with astonishing fuel efficiency, it's an early nod for one of the best cars of 2013.
Facts & Figures
Mazda 6 2.2 SkyActiv-D Sport 150
Price as tested: €31,795
Range price: €28,745 to €38,895
Capacity: 2,191cc
Power: 148bhp
Torque: 380Nm
Top speed: 211kmh
0-100kmh: 9.1sec
Economy: 4.2l-100km (67mpg)
CO2 emissions: 108g/km
VRT Band: A3. €190 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested
Posted by Alex Bale
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Price as tested: €47,670
+ Sharp chassis, more welcoming interior, practical, plenty of poke from smaller engine– Still looks a little awkward, pricey= Really quite a sweet carIn just two and a half years, the BMW X1 has notched up sales of more than a quarter of a million units, and that it without it being sold in the massive US car market, a situation BMW is well on the way to rectifying. If you ever doubted the massive current global appetite for classy, compact SUVs, then doubt it no more.
There is a massive slice of my brain that rails against these cars though. Take the specific car we’re testing here; €47k’s worth of X1 18d Sport. Yes, it’s chunky, good looking (if you appreciate the current BMW design idiom) and both decently spacious and practical. But for the same money, you could be in a lower-slung, better looking, better-driving BMW 3 Series Touring, a car that I believe to be just about perfect. Yet people will continue to flock to the X1.
Which should be abhorrent to me (I just love estates) and yet, with a few days in the X1’s company it easily charmed its way into my affections.
The styling has been updated for this year, with a new bumper, front airdam, tweaked lights and some other small adjustments. Cleverly, the converging lines of the bonnet’s power bulge and the upsweep of the front bumper actually makes a subtle X-shape. Clever, that.
Inside, the quality of materials used and the fact that the centre console has been redesigned (it now faces more obviously towards the driver) is genuinely welcoming. The Sport spec helps here, with figure-hugging seats that, in spite of a distinctly offset driving position, mean long journeys are very comfy experiences. In spite of being an X1, it’s pretty close to the 3 Series in space terms, and the boot out the back is large (420-litres), deep and square. A shame that the X1 doesn’t get a separate opening glass window in the tailgate (as does the 3 Touring) but hey, you can’t have everything.
Having some cake and eating it is the very point of the newly-fitted 18d diesel engine though. In spite of the name, it’s actually a de-tuned 2.0-litre (1,995cc to be exact) and pumps out 143bhp and 320Nm of torque. Those aren’t exactly ground-shaking figures, but actually the X1 feels plenty brisk and only starts to struggle when you get into the upper reaches of the rev band. Happily, with that much low-down torque, you won’t need to do that very much, so progress is swift and relaxed.
Thanks to BMW’s clever EfficientDynamics systems (a battery of fuel-saving tech including stop-start, brake energy recovery, a low-drain air conditioning compressor and more) the X1 18d returns impressive official figures of 5.4-litres per 100km (that’s 52mpg) and 143g/km of Co2. Impressively, those figures are attained with the optional 8-speed automatic gearbox fitted, as it was to our test car. It costs a whopping €2,191 but it’s so smooth, unobtrusive and effective that it just might be worth it. An auto that genuinely calls the need for a manual into question.
BMW has also clearly been at work on its suspension setups. A few years ago, a large-wheeled (17” alloys), stiffly-sprung BMW SUV in Sport spec would have been a recipe for loosened fillings and shattered spines. This time around though, although Germanic firm-ness is still the name of the game, there is a subtle suppleness that makes everything much more relaxing. And yet the BMW traditions of sharp handling and a balanced chassis are still there in spades. Meanwhile, the X-Drive all-wheel-drive system gives you terrific confidence in changing conditions. Or just when it’s chucking it down with rain. You can get a cheaper S-Drive version with rear-wheel-drive, but if you’re buying an SUV, shouldn’t it be 4wd?
One caveat though; the steering, which although communicative and brilliant at speed just weights up too much around town and at lower speeds. It’s just too darned heavy and surely that’s not good for the likely target market for these cars.
Still, with that one small flaw in the diamond, I’ve come away from the X1 really rather liking it. No, it’s not perfect and yes, I’d still overall have a 3 Series Touring for similar money, but if you’re into the whole SUV thing (and many, many of you are) and you fancy the famed Blue and White flag of Munich on your driveway (again; many, many) then this is a good place to start.
BMW X1 X-Drive 18d SportPrice as tested: €47,670Price range: €35,160 to €49,010Capacity: 1,995Power: 143bhpTorque: 320NmTop speed: 195kmh0-100kmh: 10.1secEconomy: 5.4l-100km (52.3mpg)CO2 emissions: 143g/kmRoad Tax Band: C. €330Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 87% adult, 86% child, 64% pedestrian, 71% safety assist
