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Showing posts with label petrol. Show all posts

Road Test: Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI ACT Highline

Posted by Alex Bale Monday, February 11, 2013

Price as tested: €33,642


+ Solidity, comfort, technology, refinement, styling, desirable
– Not as economical as a diesel, not sporty to drive
= Golf cements its position as the best family hatch around


Success, of course, breeds success but it can, without care and attention, also breed complacency. Look at George Lucas. Back in the seventies and eighties he created the original Star Wars movies, which delighted and entertained a whole generation of sci-fi fans. Come 1999, and the return of Star Wars to the big screen with The Phantom Menace, those same fans were frothing with excitement at the arrival of what we all confidently expected to be the cinematic event of the decade. Aaaaannnnd... we were sorely disappointed. Lucas seemed to have spent so much time carefully honing the digital effects (which were, in fairness, brilliant) that he forgot that a great film needs a great script. And characters. And a plot.


So it is we come to the seventh generation of Volkswagen Golf, a car that has transcended the boundaries of its class to become classless. You could just as easily and naturally be seen pulling up in your Golf at Aldi as at the Ritz. It is the epitome of affordable Germanic engineering, a family hatchback with the breeding of a teutonic thoroughbred.



For this Mark VII version, VW has really pushed the boat out in engineering terms. There's an entirely new chassis under there, called MQB in VW-speak, and it will go on to form the basis of almost every car in the whole Volkswagen empire in the future. It's light, sophisticated and makes the Golf fractionally more spacious than before. That really shows up inside, where behind the exceptionally comfortable front seats there's plenty of room for kids in bulky safety seats and lanky teenagers.



From the front seats, the cabin is instantly (and hardly surprisingly) Golf-ish, with beautifully clear instruments, a logical control layout and on our highly-specced press demo car, one of the best sat-nav systems we've ever seen. Not only did it have clear, precise mapping but the screen actually detects when your finger is hovering near it and makes the buttons bigger.



That's not the only example of VW putting some seriously careful thought into lightening the drivers' load. There was also Lane Keeping Assist that actually nudges the car back into lane if you start to drift across, active cruise control that brakes (a little too jumpily sometimes) if a car slows in front of you, active cornering lights, LED daytime lights, automatic parking brake, Bluetooth... The list really does go on, but then at the €33,642 for our test car, it should do. Panic not, for the standard version of the Highline model with 1.4 TSI ACT starts at a more reasonable €26,745 and is still very well equipped.



What's ACT I hear you ask? Active Cylinder Technology, a new gizmo that VW hopes will allow drivers of its petrol turbo cars to achieve diesel-like fuel economy. It works by shutting down two of the engine's four cylinders when cruising on a light throttle, seamlessly firing up all four again when you need more power. It's just about undetectable save for a small logo that pops up in the multi-function display in the dashboard, and the faintest sense that a slight harmonic vibration is coming and going, off in the distance. Very clever stuff. Does it actually work? Well, almost. We managed to average 6.5-litres per 100km fuel consumption over a week with the car (that's 43mpg) which isn't at all bad, but we would have easily cracked into the high fifties, even low sixties in mpg terms with an equivalent diesel Golf. And considering that there's only €200 extra to pay for the equivalent diesel model...



Still, this Golf, as with any Golf, is just brilliant to drive. It feels a touch less sporty and agile than the last-generation model, but the comfort and refinement levels have seriously been amped-up. We honestly think that you'd have to trade up to the likes of a BMW 5 Series to find a car that's as quiet and relaxing on a long journey as this one. The only dynamic complaint comes from the fact that the suspension can occasionally get caught out by the typically bumpy, lumpen tarmac that we endure in this neck of the woods. When that happens, the Golf thumps and shudders in a most unseemly fashion, but the rest of the time all is serene. Perhaps the 17” alloy wheels were at least partly to blame.



So, the new Golf is as Golf-y as it's always been, but more so. The quality levels are higher than pretty much anything else in the class, refinement is off-the-scale good and if it doesn't feel quite as agile and enjoyable to drive as before, then its improved comfort and cabin space present a worthwhile trade-off. Shall we stick with the golfing metaphor and conclude that it's a classy hole-in-one?




Facts & Figures
Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI ACT Highline
Price as tested: €33,642
Range price: €19,995 to €31,645
Capacity: 1,395cc
Power: 140bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Top speed: 212kmh
0-100kmh: 8.4sec
Economy: 5.0l-100km (56.5mpg)
CO2 emissions: 112g/km
VRT Band: A4. €200 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 94% adult, 89% child, 65% pedestrian, 71% safety assist 





Road Test: Dacia Sandero TCe 90 Alternative

Posted by Alex Bale Tuesday, January 8, 2013
 
Price as tested: €11,990

+ Cheap, cheerful, well equipped, ESP as standard
– Rear seat space could be better
= Solid, undemanding and affordable

When Renault’s budget brand, Dacia, launched itself into the Irish market last summer, it did so with just 10 dealers and a single model, the Duster SUV. Except it didn’t really even have a single model, as right-hand-drive production of the Duster didn’t begin until just last week, so all Dacia could do in Ireland was show potential customers some left-hand-drive demos, with an older design of cabin than would be arriving from the factory when Irish cars rolled off the line. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but with that astonishingly low €15,995 price tag (around €10,000 less than most direct competitors) the Duster has already been a success; it’s sold out until April, with 500 orders just starting to be filled. Just goes to show what you can do with a headline-grabbing price.

Of course, price isn’t everything and Dacia has come in for much criticism since the Duster’s launch for its attitude to safety equipment. Many reviewers were upset to notice that the Duster (an obvious family car, don’t forget) doesn’t come with standard electronic stability control, and the Lodgy MPV (currently only available in Europe) was severely marked down by crash test experts EuroNCAP.

So with the arrival of this, the second-generation Sandero small car (the first gen was never built with right hand drive) Dacia has to prove that it can expand beyond the niche appeal of the Duster and take on the big (small) boys such as the Fiesta, Polo and Yaris.

Thankfully, a quick glance at the spec sheet reveals that the Sandero does indeed come with ESP as standard, as are ABS and brake assist. Why the standard ESP on a smaller car when the Duster continues to do without? According to Dacia, it’s because the Sandero sits on an all-new platform, so under EU regulations, has to have ESP as standard. The Duster, based on the original 2004 Dacia Logan, can get away for a while without it.

For a basic price of €9,990 (around €5-6,000 less than most of the competition) the Sandero comes with four airbags, Daytime Running Lights, height adjustable headrests, 60/40 split folding rear seat, electric front windows and Radio with CD, MP3, USB and Bluetooth phone connection alongside its standard safety toys, which seems pretty generous. Step up a level to the Signature trim and you get alloys, air conditioning, a trip computer and more.

That basic model comes with an old Renault 1.2-litre petrol engine developing 75bhp, which looks alluringly priced but whose Co2 emissions of 135g/km will set you back €280 a year in motor tax. You could go for the 90bhp 1.5 dCi diesel engine, but we reckon you’re much better to upgrade yourself to the 895cc turbo three cylinder TCe 90 engine. It’s not only cutting edge (a first for a Dacia, which usually just sticks with older Renault tech) which cuts your Co2 emissions to 116g/km and your tax bill to €200.

Quite apart from which, it’s a terrific engine, pulling cleanly from low rpm and proving both entertainingly muscular and really very refined. It would be an outstanding engine in any car, but in an €11,090 Dacia (€13,090 if you want it in the ritzier Signature grade), it’s close to amazing.

If you’ve ever owned a Renault in the past decade, you can amuse yourself for a few minutes by just sitting in the Sandero’s cabin and playing Spot The Switch. A little bit of old Clio here, some Laguna there and a smattering of Megane over there. Still, while it may be a ‘bitsa’ the Sandero feels well put together and Dacia’s reliability record is generally very good. Space in the front is fine and there’s a 320-litre boot (with a rather too high loading lip) but it would be good to see a touch more legroom in the back. It’s OK back there, but taller passengers, or those loading up bulky child seats, will feel the pinch. There are a few rough edges to the quality of the plastics, and the seats are a little too narrow and perched-up for taller drivers, but otherwise there’s nothing to complain about.

That goes equally for the dynamic performance. Certainly, the Sandero’s chassis case is helped by the performance of that TCe 90 engine, whose 90bhp and 135Nm of torque help to cover up any holes in the cornering deportment, but the plain fact is that the Sandero is perfectly fine, if totally unexceptional, to drive. It rides very well, especially around town where it’s particularly good at shrugging off speed bumps, and on the motorway it feels planted and secure. On a twisty road, well, you’re not going to get up early to drive it for fun, but it’s fine, although the mute, rubbery steering discourages any attempts at enthusiastic driving.

The Sandero is an avowedly simple car, and in an era when car makers are constantly trying to surprise and delight us with yet more gadgetry and gimmickry, that’s a rather refreshing take. It’s quietly handsome (Germanic, claims Dacia, as opposed to its cousin, the more Latin Renault Clio), practical and quite fine to drive. With those temptingly low prices, and now without the caveat of having to worry about trading up to get safety equipment, it’s a tough proposition to argue with.

Facts & Figures
Dacia Sandero TCe 90 Alternative
Price as tested: €11,990
Range price: €9,990 to €14,990
Capacity: 898cc
Power: 90bhp
Torque: 135Nm
Top speed: 169kmh
0-100kmh: 11.1sec
Economy: 4.9l-100km (56mpg)
CO2 emissions: 116g/km
VRT Band: A4. €200 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: Not yet tested

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