donk.'s Past Time Car Review Thread

[dark0821]

Originally Posted by AstulzerRZD

I managed to get rated mileage but it was a LOT of work.

1) have to tap the brake a lot to get it into regen and shut the engine off, even when going downhill where it should really be more aggressive with EV mode. Toyota does this automatically

2) HVAC has to be off, else the engine really won’t shut off.

Haha, good to know.

I am curious if the Sonata uses the Tucson system or Elantra system.

Tucson hybrid system - paddles at the back of the steering wheel in eco/normal mode = control the level of regen braking there is (4 levels = 0, 1, 2, 3)... then when in sport model... the paddles act like paddle shifters again

Elantra hybrid system - no paddles at all, so the regen is stuck at 2 forever....

[EvoFire]

I wish the X5 let me control regen. It's either on or off, and it's not particularly strong when it's on.

[Badhobz]

So i just tried Donk's c7 corvette yesterday and i cant get over how excellent that car is.

The best thing about it is the MagneRide suspension. You can take corners perfectly flat, without any harshness even over bumpy uneven roads. This GM product is like voodoo magic or something. No wonder ferrari licensed it for their cars. Im totally in love with it! so much so that i looked up the list of cars that has Magneride

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagneRide

my god is this ever excellent. You get all the comfort and sportiness with absolutely zero drawbacks. The one time it went kinda crazy was going over railroad tracks where it suddenly became insanely stiff and jarring.

its a huge car, but it shrinks around you. That engine has a lot of character. sitting at idle it just buzzes and burbles like a real american V8 would (so much so that you feel it through the shifter). Redlines not bad too at 6500RPM though it doesnt need to be up there, can easily sit comfortably in 3-4 gear doing 2-3k rpm and still fast as hell.

Steering is good, pretty much standard EPS feel like all modern cars. Not too much texture, but accurate and nicely weighted.

Clutch point is VERY VERY high and the effort is heavy. The gears themselves are nicely notchy, but for some reason the shifter felt vague and inaccurate to me. I couldnt go down from 5-6 without it popping back into neutral first. Maybe you gotta just man handle it more. Same with 1->2, it would sometimes pop out of 2nd. Its not a honda unit thats for sure.

What a beautiful car. I dont know why more people dont buy these things. Its a fantastic sports car that can grand tour as well as my LC.

[AstulzerRZD]

Originally Posted by dark0821

Haha, good to know.

I am curious if the Sonata uses the Tucson system or Elantra system.

Tucson hybrid system - paddles at the back of the steering wheel in eco/normal mode = control the level of regen braking there is (4 levels = 0, 1, 2, 3)... then when in sport model... the paddles act like paddle shifters again

Elantra hybrid system - no paddles at all, so the regen is stuck at 2 forever....

Has paddles, I keep it set to Auto, Level 0 because coasting is always the most efficient, but the auto feature brakes if there's a car in front and keeps distance.

[AstulzerRZD]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

The best thing about it is the MagneRide suspension. You can take corners perfectly flat, without any harshness even over bumpy uneven roads. This GM product is like voodoo magic or something. No wonder ferrari licensed it for their cars. Im totally in love with it! so much so that i looked up the list of cars that has Magneride

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagneRide

my god is this ever excellent. You get all the comfort and sportiness with absolutely zero drawbacks. The one time it went kinda crazy was going over railroad tracks where it suddenly became insanely stiff and jarring.

its a huge car, but it shrinks around you.

+1, Magneride is insanely good that the leaks and replacement around ~100k kms is worth it.
In the Escalade, the body control makes it drive smaller than an X5/6 unless you're realllly hustling.
No on center dead zone in the steering is really just a bonus.

[AstulzerRZD]

Almost drove this Hyundai off a fucking cliff.

Was playing Tetris with my girlfriend's family cars so we could get the nephews and nieces to tennis camp or whatever





We're on an edge of a cliff, I step out of an MB to move the Sonata. I get in the car, nudge the shifter down and HOLY SHIT...







In their INFINITE wisdom, Hyundai is the only brand where flicking the shifter DOWN puts the car in reverse and not drive. Every MB, pickup truck, GM EV, Tesla, wahtever.

Thing is, I LIKE rotary, push button, and column shifters - there's a benefit in ease of use esp in when driving in traffic without auto hold (looking at you Stellantis).

But THIS shit? This is the first car I've filed an NHTSA complaint on

[Badhobz]

Ugh i still dont know why automakers keep messing with the shifter. Just make the straight line one that EVERYONE knows how to use, P R N D, or use the indented one with the same P R N D.

STOP REINVENTING SHIT THAT DOESNT REQUIRE REVINVENTING !

[AstulzerRZD]

I'm not even mad at the Tesla steering wheel turn signals - there's a cost saving & we won't be touching the turn signals in 5-10 years.

But this shit? it's just stupid and unsafe.

[AstulzerRZD]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

So i just tried Donk's c7 corvette yesterday and i cant get over how excellent that car is.
its a huge car, but it shrinks around you. That engine has a lot of character. sitting at idle it just buzzes and burbles like a real american V8 would (so much so that you feel it through the shifter). Redlines not bad too at 6500RPM though it doesnt need to be up there, can easily sit comfortably in 3-4 gear doing 2-3k rpm and still fast as hell.

Interesting you feel this way, the LT1 IMO is kind of boring compared to the really free revving Coyote or the 392/Hellcat motors that have a much more interesting exhaust note.

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Clutch point is VERY VERY high and the effort is heavy. The gears themselves are nicely notchy, but for some reason the shifter felt vague and inaccurate to me.

Same story with the Getrag MT82, not sure why the Tremec and Getrag boxes be like this.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Ugh i still dont know why automakers keep messing with the shifter. Just make the straight line one that EVERYONE knows how to use, P R N D, or use the indented one with the same P R N D.

STOP REINVENTING SHIT THAT DOESNT REQUIRE REVINVENTING !

Anyone who’s driven the new EVO Prius will know this but their system has got to be one of the dumbest, not sure if Toyota has done this with all the next gen

You still have the shifter, which at best is awkward and weird as you need to bring it out of the “neutral” position as you would a manual almost

But then to park the stupid car.. it’s a separate button… so you leave it in drive, park, then press the “park” button..

Wife got in an Evo the other day and someone had pushed the park button back into the dash, so you could no longer press it to park.. she pressed the help button and they were just like “oh yea just shut the car off it’s fine” lol ok..

[AstulzerRZD]

I mean Prius been that way since 1st gen

Low key the real issue is if you're trying to do 3 point turn or rock the car, the delay between drive / reverse if you're not on the brakes at the perfect time is kinda dangerous

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by AstulzerRZD

Interesting you feel this way, the LT1 IMO is kind of boring compared to the really free revving Coyote or the 392/Hellcat motors that have a much more interesting exhaust not.

In fairness to Badhobz, we have to assume he didn't have another Corvette or Challenger to compare with. If I recall, he had a Challenger rental but I don't think it was a Hellcat? (I could be wrong.)

[noclue]

Have you guys tried the touchscreen gear selector on the tesla model x/s? Now that's aggravating.

[Badhobz]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

In fairness to Badhobz, we have to assume he didn't have another Corvette or Challenger to compare with. If I recall, he had a Challenger rental but I don't think it was a Hellcat? (I could be wrong.)

i had that charger SRT. I think the hemi engine is a bit more rumbly than the vette, but the vette v8 sounds a bit higher pitch and thus more motorsporty.

[68style]

Hobz didn’t get to rev the Vette, too much traffic… when I drove it o found it to be unusually low in torque in low revs, which I wasn’t expecting given the rep of pushrod V8’s… but you hit 3500rpm and suddenly there’s more than you can handle / the rear tires can barely contain it and that engine screams.

[Badhobz]

Originally Posted by 68style

Hobz didn’t get to rev the Vette, too much traffic… when I drove it o found it to be unusually low in torque in low revs, which I wasn’t expecting given the rep of pushrod V8’s… but you hit 3500rpm and suddenly there’s more than you can handle / the rear tires can barely contain it and that engine screams.

^same. especially in first gear. You need to step a bit on the gas or else it feels like it'll stall out. Which is weird considering how much torque it has.

I wonder if its artificially limited by the ECU to make it more controllable for the typical geezer demographic.

[bcrdukes]

Does it that that fuel saving option where it only uses half of the cylinders?

[Badhobz]

yes but donk told us to not use it. so i dont think it was activated.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by noclue

Have you guys tried the touchscreen gear selector on the tesla model x/s? Now that's aggravating.

The fucking what? I thought the stupid individual buttons down on the center console in the Hyundai something or other were bad enough.

[68style]

Originally Posted by AstulzerRZD

In their INFINITE wisdom, Hyundai is the only brand where flicking the shifter DOWN puts the car in reverse and not drive. Every MB, pickup truck, GM EV, Tesla, wahtever.

Thing is, I LIKE rotary, push button, and column shifters - there's a benefit in ease of use esp in when driving in traffic without auto hold (looking at you Stellantis).

But THIS shit? This is the first car I've filed an NHTSA complaint on

You know every single column shifter from like 1960-almost 2010 was down for R right?

[AstulzerRZD]

Ya and thing is when ur in a rush and just pull down on the thing, ur going forward

[68style]

I think Korean cars have a habit of this, my gf’s Soul doesn’t have remote locks and I make fun of her endlessly about it because even my 94 MR2 does… but you lock and unlock the doors in the complete opposite direction of literally every other manufacturer, I always turn the key the wrong way every time.

[bcrdukes]

Weird.

I was driving to work the other day and on the highway, I see a Kia Niro (spelling?) that's trying to change lanes to make the exit. I can see on the front passenger side the turn signal flashing to signal he's turning right, but once the car got ahead of me, the driver side rear is only flashing left?

[underscore]

Originally Posted by 68style

I think Korean cars have a habit of this, my gf’s Soul doesn’t have remote locks and I make fun of her endlessly about it because even my 94 MR2 does… but you lock and unlock the doors in the complete opposite direction of literally every other manufacturer, I always turn the key the wrong way every time.

Which way is normal? On my Toyotas it's always been turn towards the rear of the car to unlock, but my Jeep is the opposite. The control for the front vs rear wiper are flipped too.

[EvoFire]

Oh boy. I'm surprised Audi sells many of these things

We got a 2024 Audi A4 as a loaner while the X5 was at the dealer for some dumb self inflicted pain.


The goods:
It fits car seats.


I'm not joking. I genuinely couldn't find anything that was outstanding with this car in the 2 days I drove it.

The neutral:
It is VERY anonymous.


The base plain white really didn't help. I couldn't find fault with most of the car, the seats were fine. The EA888 was fine. The S-tronic dual clutch was fine. It burned some gas and we averaged 11l/100km, which was fine. It could very well have been a Camry. Or Accord.

The bad:
Nothing was really bad either, except this


I expect a bit better build quality for a W vin A4 with only 19k on the odometer.

Actually I lied, there's one more bad thing


All these nonsensical random holes and nooks in the center console that doesn't fit anything or does anything particularly useful. The square ahead of the shifter? Useless. The rectangle behind the volume knob? Useless. That little tray ahead of the cup holders, useless.

Other complaints.
The design of the car is very form over function. The glass is surprisingly small coming from driving BMWs.

The car itself is not big, but somehow it drove big. Down the streets of Fraserview where it's very tight, zero issues with the X5 from day 1. I was actually uncomfortable and unsure if I was gonna hit something with the Audi.

I haven't driven a MB product in quite a while, but from what I remember the Audi would sit in between BMW and MB. While inoffensive, I feel like BMW has got suspension tuning of their regular cars more downpat than Audi has. BMW manages to be marginally sportier and yet still compliant. MB has the soft everything market cornered.

I'm not a huge fan of the G20 3 series after driving it multiple times, especially after comparing it to my G01 X3. To me, it felt like BMW put all their development monies into the G01 X3 while they phoned in the G20 and it got some crumbs and any material and cabin economies of scale.
Despite that evaluation, the G20 3 series has the A4 beat. It's not leaps and bounds better in any way, but a nose here, and an extra step there, overall the package was just better.