I had been planning to buy an Aygo as my 2nd ”commuter” car, when the falling petrol price and unwillingness to take out further loans in the face of the ”financial crisis” decided me to buy something old and cheap instead.
Hence the 1991 Peugeot 405, bought for less than the deposit on a typical 2 year old Aygo+.
The 405 is far better than expected, but time will tell how cheap it actually is to run compared to an Aygo. Needless to say it also needs more money spent on it (as always with a car like this). A decent radio, new brake discs, a cambelt change soon, with new shocks and new tyres coming up. Sigh…
Anyhow, all this nonsense made me miss out on trying out an Aygo, so, on leave and bored last week I decided go and see some small cars.
I took a look at a Picanto at my dad’s insistence, but it even he had to agree it seems obsolete now, as well as cramped and tinny after the new Ford Ka. Albeit less tinny than the Aygo…
The Ford Ka is very pretty, and quite comfortable inside for such a car. While it feels rubbish compared to the new Fiesta (or any car I currently use) it is leagues ahead of the Picanto or Aygo. However, like the Picanto, they didn’t want us to test drive one as the weather was lousy and a snow storm was about to start.
We skipped Hyundai as the i10 was bound to be much like the Picanto, and went to Toyota. After getting over their puzzlement that we didn’t want to see the new Avensis, they hauled out a Aygo+ 5dr, into the snow and muck and said “Why sit a showroom model, drive this one”.
(Before you ask about the Twingo2, there is no Renault dealer in my little town in Sweden.)
So it began…
Initially the Aygo was disappointing. Even tinnier than the Picanto it seemed a massive come-down after the Ka.
Then we started it. Very few new small cars sound like anything these days, unless they are pushed hard, then they sound horrid. This sounded interesting. The unpleasant Toyota/Daihatsu VVT whine so prevalent in the Sirion/Yaris 4-pot is completely overshadowed by the off-beat 3cyl thrum. The difference in sound is far more obvious than I would have believed!
Then off we went. Obviously it is not fast…but it feels quick around town. The willingness of the little engine makes up for a lot, although the gearshift is, like on the Sirion, awful. The electric power steering is lifeless, but unlike the Sirion, the car is so small and easy to “read” and place that it doesn’t seem to matter.
I then had the very interesting experience of taking it down the windy Åkersberga-Waxholm road. Full on snow now and there I was roaring along at great speed. (ok, I got to just over 70…that doesn’t sound like a lot [unless you are Swedish, they drive like sissies], but that speed on that road in my 405 would have had me in a ditch fast. I know…I have tried this road in the 405 a few times.)
The handling of Aygo is amazing. Simplicity and lightness and all that, well we knew Chapman was right, this just confirms it.
I have driven few cars more enjoyable and few cars better in the snow, which was the real surprise!
The newly fitted ESP system is also excellent. I have to say I have never driven anything in such bad weather and snow/slush like I drove that Aygo. Sliding all over the place to be sure, but controllable and damned fun. Amazing. The 405 requires great care in winter, my old 900 was equally clumsy in all conditions (in this case that’s a compliment), and snow/ice can cause some white knuckle moments in the 320i (admittedly due to it being a far faster car), but this was just crazy gratuitous abandon.
What a car, I love it!
(Remains to be seen if it is as much fun in the dry/summer. Perhaps then its lack of power would be a bigger issue…)
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
SAAB 99 Turbo, why there should be a new one!
From CAR UK's website:
----
Help CAR find the best hot hatch of all time
By Tim Pollard
19 January 2009 15:09
You've been voting over the past fortnight for your greatest hot hatch of all time – and there are still two weeks left to influence our poll. At the time of writing, the top ten is led (perhaps curiously!) by the Saab 99 Turbo, followed by the Lancia Delta Integrale, VW Golf GTi Mk1 and Peugeot 205 GTI. Have you voted yet? If not, scroll down to the poll at the foot of this page and click on your favourite pocket rocket. Voting closes on 1 February 2009, so spread the word and get your mates to vote too.
----
I don’t know if putting the SAAB 99 in was really in the spirit of the thing…but then again is the Delta Integrale?
My vote goes to the 205 GTi.
Honorable mentions should go to the Golf I GTI (for inventing the genre), the Golf 5 GTI (for making GTIs and Golfs cool again) and the Honda Civic VTI (flat one, just after the pop-up headlights, don’t even think it was on the list.)
This does however prove that lots of people liked the 99 Turbo, which to me atleast means that SAAB should be making a car in this class, yet they don’t! And havnt since the early 80s.
OOOOOPS.
Give the people what they want!
SAAB needs to make a Golf sized car, and it needs to be available in a turbocharged version 3-dr version.
The stupid thing is (stupid considering SAAB hasn’t don’t it) is that it would be easier to recreate the 99 Turbo than any other car on this list.
The day for things like the Golf 1 GTi and Pug 205 GTi is, lamentably, over. Maybe a turbocharged Aygo, but otherwise everything they try (207 GTi anyone? Polo GTi?) just winds up being boring or daft or both.
BUT we are currently firmly back in a turbocharged era, and the mainstream C-segment cars are now the size that the 99 was.
Everyone is already making powerful C-segment turbocharged cars…but only SAAB can do it with some pedigree and heritage.
Everyone makes a Golf sized FWD turbocharged 100kw+ hatch back now, how many can say they were doing it in the ‘70s? (No really, who?)
SAAB is in the unique position were they can shamelessly pawn their heritage (as everyone else has done: Beetle, PT Cruiser, Thunderbird etc), hark back to former glories (as many other keep trying: Polo GTi, 207 GTi etc) while still making a contemporary car!
A new 99 Turbo would be sellable purely on merit as a GTi competitor (they all sell, even the so-so ones) and as a retro mobile for those who miss and love the 99.
----
Help CAR find the best hot hatch of all time
By Tim Pollard
19 January 2009 15:09
You've been voting over the past fortnight for your greatest hot hatch of all time – and there are still two weeks left to influence our poll. At the time of writing, the top ten is led (perhaps curiously!) by the Saab 99 Turbo, followed by the Lancia Delta Integrale, VW Golf GTi Mk1 and Peugeot 205 GTI. Have you voted yet? If not, scroll down to the poll at the foot of this page and click on your favourite pocket rocket. Voting closes on 1 February 2009, so spread the word and get your mates to vote too.
----
I don’t know if putting the SAAB 99 in was really in the spirit of the thing…but then again is the Delta Integrale?
My vote goes to the 205 GTi.
Honorable mentions should go to the Golf I GTI (for inventing the genre), the Golf 5 GTI (for making GTIs and Golfs cool again) and the Honda Civic VTI (flat one, just after the pop-up headlights, don’t even think it was on the list.)
This does however prove that lots of people liked the 99 Turbo, which to me atleast means that SAAB should be making a car in this class, yet they don’t! And havnt since the early 80s.
OOOOOPS.
Give the people what they want!
SAAB needs to make a Golf sized car, and it needs to be available in a turbocharged version 3-dr version.
The stupid thing is (stupid considering SAAB hasn’t don’t it) is that it would be easier to recreate the 99 Turbo than any other car on this list.
The day for things like the Golf 1 GTi and Pug 205 GTi is, lamentably, over. Maybe a turbocharged Aygo, but otherwise everything they try (207 GTi anyone? Polo GTi?) just winds up being boring or daft or both.
BUT we are currently firmly back in a turbocharged era, and the mainstream C-segment cars are now the size that the 99 was.
Everyone is already making powerful C-segment turbocharged cars…but only SAAB can do it with some pedigree and heritage.
Everyone makes a Golf sized FWD turbocharged 100kw+ hatch back now, how many can say they were doing it in the ‘70s? (No really, who?)
SAAB is in the unique position were they can shamelessly pawn their heritage (as everyone else has done: Beetle, PT Cruiser, Thunderbird etc), hark back to former glories (as many other keep trying: Polo GTi, 207 GTi etc) while still making a contemporary car!
A new 99 Turbo would be sellable purely on merit as a GTi competitor (they all sell, even the so-so ones) and as a retro mobile for those who miss and love the 99.
Monday, 1 December 2008
e90 vs 405
My 2nd car shopping continues.
I found an implausibly cheap 1990 SAAB 9000 for sale, I think it was a 9000CD 2.0 but not sure, very very old people who can’t drive anymore. This happens fairly often here and sometimes you can get a really amazing car. My old 900 was a similar story. Old guy bought it in 1985 with a bunch of extras, spared no expense maintaining it, got too sick to drive (or died, don’t recall) in 2000 and the car was taken it off the road. Grand daughter “found” it in the garage in 2005, a whole bunch of money was spend getting it back on the road, she got her license in it, drove it just other a year, then bought a new car and wanted rid of it. And I got a decent car for minimal money…
Sadly this wonderful 9000 was sold about 20mins before I got there. As they say in Swedish: “Fan men jag var så jävle arg!” (This is very rude, far ruder than the direct translation into English would imply and adequately expresses my emotions at the time.)
Anyhow, on Sunday went to go check the next car on the list. A 1991 Peugeot 405 GLX. I am a fan of older Pugs but at the same time scared of French cars.
This was owned by one little old lady (yes, really) from 1991 until the end of 2007. Then some other guy has had it nearly a year but doesn’t need it anymore.
First surprise: Keeping in mind I have only sat in 406s and 407s, the 405 seems so small and unassuming.
Second surprise: The spec…despite grandiose GLX badge: there isn’t any. Everything is manual, there is no rev counter, just a giant clock. Steering takes about a million turns lock to lock, very light though.
Third surprise: Slow. This is an 81kw 1900, the engine from the 205 GTi 1.9, and this 405 is not a heavy car, but it seemed very slow to me. I suppose considering the owner came with on the drive and there was no rev counter I probably didn’t rev it high enough.
Of course it is very difficult and totally unfair to drive somewhere in my 320i, then get out and attempt to objective about 10-25 year old cars. Obviously they all seem shockingly awful. (And vague, and worn, and spongy, and rubbery, and, and)
But this 405 was rather nice. Very very comfortable, more so than my 320i infact, and excellent visibility. For want of a better analogy it put me in the mind of a (much) more charming Toyota Carina E.
This week I have borrowed “my” old 85 900i back. Partially I am doing this to keep mileage off my 320i (on nearly 28000kms already) and partially I am doing this as it helps me be more reasonable when I go and test drive 9000s, 405s, 309s etc…
Very little in current production measures up to the e90…it’s just too hard to fair when climbing straight from it into some 20 year old relic.
Actually, my search may be over, I do like that 405…
I found an implausibly cheap 1990 SAAB 9000 for sale, I think it was a 9000CD 2.0 but not sure, very very old people who can’t drive anymore. This happens fairly often here and sometimes you can get a really amazing car. My old 900 was a similar story. Old guy bought it in 1985 with a bunch of extras, spared no expense maintaining it, got too sick to drive (or died, don’t recall) in 2000 and the car was taken it off the road. Grand daughter “found” it in the garage in 2005, a whole bunch of money was spend getting it back on the road, she got her license in it, drove it just other a year, then bought a new car and wanted rid of it. And I got a decent car for minimal money…
Sadly this wonderful 9000 was sold about 20mins before I got there. As they say in Swedish: “Fan men jag var så jävle arg!” (This is very rude, far ruder than the direct translation into English would imply and adequately expresses my emotions at the time.)
Anyhow, on Sunday went to go check the next car on the list. A 1991 Peugeot 405 GLX. I am a fan of older Pugs but at the same time scared of French cars.
This was owned by one little old lady (yes, really) from 1991 until the end of 2007. Then some other guy has had it nearly a year but doesn’t need it anymore.
First surprise: Keeping in mind I have only sat in 406s and 407s, the 405 seems so small and unassuming.
Second surprise: The spec…despite grandiose GLX badge: there isn’t any. Everything is manual, there is no rev counter, just a giant clock. Steering takes about a million turns lock to lock, very light though.
Third surprise: Slow. This is an 81kw 1900, the engine from the 205 GTi 1.9, and this 405 is not a heavy car, but it seemed very slow to me. I suppose considering the owner came with on the drive and there was no rev counter I probably didn’t rev it high enough.
Of course it is very difficult and totally unfair to drive somewhere in my 320i, then get out and attempt to objective about 10-25 year old cars. Obviously they all seem shockingly awful. (And vague, and worn, and spongy, and rubbery, and, and)
But this 405 was rather nice. Very very comfortable, more so than my 320i infact, and excellent visibility. For want of a better analogy it put me in the mind of a (much) more charming Toyota Carina E.
This week I have borrowed “my” old 85 900i back. Partially I am doing this to keep mileage off my 320i (on nearly 28000kms already) and partially I am doing this as it helps me be more reasonable when I go and test drive 9000s, 405s, 309s etc…
Very little in current production measures up to the e90…it’s just too hard to fair when climbing straight from it into some 20 year old relic.
Actually, my search may be over, I do like that 405…
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
The yawning chasm
Last week I needed to travel from my office in central Stockholm, to my boss' house in one of the southern suburbs. Fixing computer problem at her house...this is a common occurance for IT personal in smaller companies. You get used to it....best to view it as a perk.
In order to make this trip I walked a few hundred meters to the nearest tunnelbana (read subway for your English speakers) station, waited the inevitable few minutes, took the next subway train one stop to T-centralen, the central hub of the Stockholm "metro". Then I walked another few hundred meters to the central train station, waiting a few more minutes and them climbed onto a commuter train. Very nice, very clean, very comfortable and fast enought that the trip only took 20mins. Now I was at the train station for the correct suburb, getting to her house was my own problem.
All sounds very civilised doesn't it? Perphaps a little strange if you are South African and not accustomed to a functional public transit system.
In my previous job in South Africa I also often travelled out to directors houses to fix their errant home computers. But it was a very different trip. I walked out into the parking lot, got into a car and drove there.
The car I used depended on what was avaliable, sometimes as a I perk I got to drive the directors car itself to their house. This afforded me the opportunity to drive such beyond-my-means machines as a Audi A4, MG TF160 or Land Rover Freelander. The rest of the time I used whatever company pool car was avaliable, occasionally a bakkie (read 1ton pickup truck) or a VW Golf but most often a uniquely South African car called a Toyota Tazz.
From 1988 (a year late) the Toyota Corolla E90 was built in South Africa. Thoughout it's career it was the top selling car in the country. In 1992 when the E100 was luanched in the rest of the world, the E90 continued with some modifications. It was finally laid to rest in 1995 and replaced by the E110. Or was it? The hatch back version was allowed to live on as an entry level overrun model. To avoid confusion and for other reasons it was renamed the Toyota Tazz and was built, with minor revisions (like finally getting a 5-speed 'box in 2001), until 2006.
A 5-dr hatch back version of a Toyota Corolla E90, with entry level spec, powered by a carburettor-fed 1300 SOHC 12v "2E" motor developing 55kw. It produced this peak power at a heady 6000rpm, which interestingly was also it's red-line. Torque peak is a bit of misnomer for this engine, it implies that there was some, so I forget the figure but it was high up in the rev range.
Most people drove/drive Tazzs very slowly, the combination of the peaky engine and heavyish body led to pedestrian performance. It was possible to drive it slightly less slowly, you just had to rev it right to the red line (or rather appoximately to the redline, there being neither rev counter nor rev limiter) and keep it there. Provided you didn't mind the appalling fuel consumption and sounds of mechanical distress that resulted, it was possible to make respectable progress. Well it would have been it wasnt for the handling, which was awful.
Predictable early onset understeer till almost right on the limit. I say almost because just as you felt you were reaching the limit, there was a sudden onset of terminal oversteer. Hmmm...no oversteer is the wrong word, I am complicating and adding needless and underserved richness to the handling experiance this car supplied, I shall rather put it like this: Just when you thought the ever-present understeer was beginning to result in a front-end washout, the back snapped around and you died. Or ended up in a ditch or something.
I am getting carried away here describing the car. I could carry on about the lack of features and the bland interior and...and, but you get the point, it was a dull car.
Driving the same route, to do the same boring job, in the MG TF160 however was amazingly different. Wow. The proverbial gokart. It really did feel like one. I have heard/read this description applied to many vehicles, from small FWD hatch backs and Minis to the Ford Bantam Mk3 bakkie. Rubbish! However, a small, light mid-engined rear wheel drive sports car IS almost a gokart. Pointy, bouncy, urgent, instant, seemingly without inertia.
The combination of the excellent brakes and exteme nimbleness allowed one to achieve hightly illegal speeds on tiny suburban roads. (provided one could see far ahead: I am not stupid.)
I remember fondly these trips-to-bosses-houses I did, I think I remember all of them. Nice long trips, as rich people in SA tend to live far out of town. (for good reason...) Obviously the best ones were the two I did in the MG TF160. The Audi A4 2.0TDI Tiptronic lags rather behind this, the Land Rover Freelander Td4, Golf 4 1.6 and Ford Ranger 1800 1-ton pickup must lie a great distance away even from the Audi, far towards the lower end of this scale, were the Tazz also resides.
However, and now I finally come to the point (finally!!!), long as this linear scale must be, great as the distance between MG TF160 and Toyota Tazz 130 is, it shrinks to a single dot, a point, a spec of ink on a chart, when one zooms out far enough to see the see the difference between the Tazz 130 and public transport!
The Tazz may stink, it may have been a lousy driver's car, but the worst car you can drive yourself is still whole worlds better than the best train you can't. (Nevermind all the standing and bloody waiting!)
In order to make this trip I walked a few hundred meters to the nearest tunnelbana (read subway for your English speakers) station, waited the inevitable few minutes, took the next subway train one stop to T-centralen, the central hub of the Stockholm "metro". Then I walked another few hundred meters to the central train station, waiting a few more minutes and them climbed onto a commuter train. Very nice, very clean, very comfortable and fast enought that the trip only took 20mins. Now I was at the train station for the correct suburb, getting to her house was my own problem.
All sounds very civilised doesn't it? Perphaps a little strange if you are South African and not accustomed to a functional public transit system.
In my previous job in South Africa I also often travelled out to directors houses to fix their errant home computers. But it was a very different trip. I walked out into the parking lot, got into a car and drove there.
The car I used depended on what was avaliable, sometimes as a I perk I got to drive the directors car itself to their house. This afforded me the opportunity to drive such beyond-my-means machines as a Audi A4, MG TF160 or Land Rover Freelander. The rest of the time I used whatever company pool car was avaliable, occasionally a bakkie (read 1ton pickup truck) or a VW Golf but most often a uniquely South African car called a Toyota Tazz.
From 1988 (a year late) the Toyota Corolla E90 was built in South Africa. Thoughout it's career it was the top selling car in the country. In 1992 when the E100 was luanched in the rest of the world, the E90 continued with some modifications. It was finally laid to rest in 1995 and replaced by the E110. Or was it? The hatch back version was allowed to live on as an entry level overrun model. To avoid confusion and for other reasons it was renamed the Toyota Tazz and was built, with minor revisions (like finally getting a 5-speed 'box in 2001), until 2006.
A 5-dr hatch back version of a Toyota Corolla E90, with entry level spec, powered by a carburettor-fed 1300 SOHC 12v "2E" motor developing 55kw. It produced this peak power at a heady 6000rpm, which interestingly was also it's red-line. Torque peak is a bit of misnomer for this engine, it implies that there was some, so I forget the figure but it was high up in the rev range.
Most people drove/drive Tazzs very slowly, the combination of the peaky engine and heavyish body led to pedestrian performance. It was possible to drive it slightly less slowly, you just had to rev it right to the red line (or rather appoximately to the redline, there being neither rev counter nor rev limiter) and keep it there. Provided you didn't mind the appalling fuel consumption and sounds of mechanical distress that resulted, it was possible to make respectable progress. Well it would have been it wasnt for the handling, which was awful.
Predictable early onset understeer till almost right on the limit. I say almost because just as you felt you were reaching the limit, there was a sudden onset of terminal oversteer. Hmmm...no oversteer is the wrong word, I am complicating and adding needless and underserved richness to the handling experiance this car supplied, I shall rather put it like this: Just when you thought the ever-present understeer was beginning to result in a front-end washout, the back snapped around and you died. Or ended up in a ditch or something.
I am getting carried away here describing the car. I could carry on about the lack of features and the bland interior and...and, but you get the point, it was a dull car.
Driving the same route, to do the same boring job, in the MG TF160 however was amazingly different. Wow. The proverbial gokart. It really did feel like one. I have heard/read this description applied to many vehicles, from small FWD hatch backs and Minis to the Ford Bantam Mk3 bakkie. Rubbish! However, a small, light mid-engined rear wheel drive sports car IS almost a gokart. Pointy, bouncy, urgent, instant, seemingly without inertia.
The combination of the excellent brakes and exteme nimbleness allowed one to achieve hightly illegal speeds on tiny suburban roads. (provided one could see far ahead: I am not stupid.)
I remember fondly these trips-to-bosses-houses I did, I think I remember all of them. Nice long trips, as rich people in SA tend to live far out of town. (for good reason...) Obviously the best ones were the two I did in the MG TF160. The Audi A4 2.0TDI Tiptronic lags rather behind this, the Land Rover Freelander Td4, Golf 4 1.6 and Ford Ranger 1800 1-ton pickup must lie a great distance away even from the Audi, far towards the lower end of this scale, were the Tazz also resides.
However, and now I finally come to the point (finally!!!), long as this linear scale must be, great as the distance between MG TF160 and Toyota Tazz 130 is, it shrinks to a single dot, a point, a spec of ink on a chart, when one zooms out far enough to see the see the difference between the Tazz 130 and public transport!
The Tazz may stink, it may have been a lousy driver's car, but the worst car you can drive yourself is still whole worlds better than the best train you can't. (Nevermind all the standing and bloody waiting!)
Friday, 14 November 2008
Dredging the archives: Further on the 9000
More on our hypothetical 9000 driver...
Actually he loves the 9000 and chose it. He just told me to find some cars in a given price range and a given milage and all that. At a certain time. My final list contained the 9000, a 1994 Toyota Carina E 2.0, and a 1998 Octavia 1.8.
Considering that he feels the Carina E and Octavia Mk1 are boring enough to cause death he went to look at the SAAB first. And based on the condition and a spirited test drive, he just bought it.
The Carina E is a good car actually. Fast, powerful, reliable, and economical. (as opposed to most SA built Toyotas which could only tick one of those boxes.) But sitting in one does slowly rob one of the will to live.
The other factor that influenced him was my 900. Cost almost nothing, works all the time without trouble, is so full of character and so wonderfully made.
I also slightly distrust the 9000 based on the fact that I see so many FUBARed up ones driving around. And they WANT to rust. But the main effect of the Fiat/Alfa/Lancia involvement was actually to make them more conventional (much) than my 900 and so easier to work on
Actually he loves the 9000 and chose it. He just told me to find some cars in a given price range and a given milage and all that. At a certain time. My final list contained the 9000, a 1994 Toyota Carina E 2.0, and a 1998 Octavia 1.8.
Considering that he feels the Carina E and Octavia Mk1 are boring enough to cause death he went to look at the SAAB first. And based on the condition and a spirited test drive, he just bought it.
The Carina E is a good car actually. Fast, powerful, reliable, and economical. (as opposed to most SA built Toyotas which could only tick one of those boxes.) But sitting in one does slowly rob one of the will to live.
The other factor that influenced him was my 900. Cost almost nothing, works all the time without trouble, is so full of character and so wonderfully made.
I also slightly distrust the 9000 based on the fact that I see so many FUBARed up ones driving around. And they WANT to rust. But the main effect of the Fiat/Alfa/Lancia involvement was actually to make them more conventional (much) than my 900 and so easier to work on
Test and dredging the archives: On the SAAB 9000CC
Then he just bought another car (ok, I had something to do with this, I cant help it) a 1992 SAAB 9000CC. (don’t know if you know anything about 9000 bodyshapes but the CC is the shortest of the three…you got CC, CS and CD)
2.0 16v non-turbo, done about 106000kms, showroom condition, lovely grey velour interior, very nice onboard computer and computerised climate control (amazing for 1992, way ahead of what my 95 E36 320i had),
Massive inside.
Reminds me of my Mondeo quite frankly. (if my Mondeo had been machined out of a piece of solid steel, instead of 2nd hand coke cans, Tupperware and spit.) But even bigger inside, much smoother engine and doesn’t handle quite as well.
2.0 16v non-turbo, done about 106000kms, showroom condition, lovely grey velour interior, very nice onboard computer and computerised climate control (amazing for 1992, way ahead of what my 95 E36 320i had),
Massive inside.
Reminds me of my Mondeo quite frankly. (if my Mondeo had been machined out of a piece of solid steel, instead of 2nd hand coke cans, Tupperware and spit.) But even bigger inside, much smoother engine and doesn’t handle quite as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)