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Home  JST's Cornered Test Drives JST and TD's Excellent Adventure
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JST and TD's Excellent Adventure |
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Written by JST
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Saturday, 19 February 2005 |
...through the various car dealers in Sterling, VA.
4 cars driven; quick thoughts follow.
05 Mini Cooper S
This car had a variety of options, none of which I was particularly
paying attention to. It did NOT have the LSD, and it had 17" all-season
run-flats.
The power increase over 04 seems noticeable to me, though it has been
almost a year since I've driven an 04, so maybe I'm making that up. The
Mini continues to impress me with its very BMW-like control inputs--the
shifter is solid and precise and the steering is firm, direct and
communicative. There is more than a whiff of torque steer, especially
when you give it a lot of gas right ouf of a tight corner. The
supercharger whines like a lost puppy.
Of course, the thing with the Mini is handling, and it does that well,
even on Eagle RS-As. The body control is excellent, and in an impromptu
slalom the rear wants to rotate, which is pretty cool in a FWD car.
The inside is small, but there is good headroom and as long as you are
only taking two people (maybe 2+1), it's not too bad, unless any of
those people have luggage. The interior, which was sort of cutesy when
the car was introduced, looks frankly stupid after a couple of years of
familiarity. Its full of gimmicks, and the center mount speedo remains
the dumbest interior design decision since the CRT-equipped Buick
Reatta.
Fun car. Worth 26K? Mm. Probably not.
05 Volvo S60R
Volvo presents a car designed by IKEA, which is not a bad thing. The
interior is very well executed, the seats supportive and comfortable,
and there are lots of nice details like the extended leather on the
dash and the blue metallic gauges.
After romping on the gas through the first two gears, the only thing I
could say is "Huh." It's fast, yes, but the engine has absolutely no
soul. Imagine an industrial power plant, like one of the MAN diesels
that they put into freighters, and you get an idea of what this engine
is like. It delivers substantial power, but there's no joyful buzz to
the redline, no surge of boost, no buzz and clatter from the
valvetrain--just a somewhat pronounced roar and good acceleration.
The shifter is surprisingly good, close-coupled and slick, despite the
strange "Spaceball" shift gaiter. The suspension has three modes,
Comfort, Sport and Advanced, which roughly translate to "Buick," "ZHP"
and "Fuck Your Kidneys, Bitch." Handling in either Sport or Advanced is
acceptable; on the slalom course, it's clear that the S60 is a lot more
car than the Mini, and it resolutely refuses to do anything like rotate
its tail, but roll control and response are generally good.
The steering is much, much better than on the T5, but has variable
assist that is annoying at low speeds. Steering feel at higher speeds
is muted. The brakes, which are multi-pot Brembos with decent rotors,
stop the car with authority.
Drive this car at 8 or 9/10s, and it feels like you are beating on it.
Drive it at 5/10s, and it gains some fluidity, and it starts to become
a willing partner. In wagon form, as family transport for someone who
likes to drive fast on the street, this car makes a lot of sense. At
the same time, thinking about it a bit more, the Legacy GT is hugely
cheaper, just as fast or faster, also has AWD, and has a nicer engine.
The interior in the Leg GT isn't as nice, but it isn't a penalty box,
either.
Jetta GLI
I was hoping for a lot more from this car. Torque steer is the order of
the day, especially exiting tight turns, and it has an even greater
propensity for barbecuing the inside tire than does the Mini. The
suspension feels a lot better and more composed than my old 02 GTI, but
the 18" wheels might be too much for the car, because it also feels a
bit more sluggish than the GTI did. The engine has a bootful of torque
at low speeds, which is good for darting around in traffic, but it runs
out of breath at higher speeds. The seats are very good, though.
As a last hurrah for the old chassis, the GLI is nice. But the old
chassis really is old, and it wasn't that good when it was new. The new
GTI cannot come soon enough for VW.
04 R32
The dealer had a used one, with 7500 miles on it. Between puffs on a
crack pipe, the salesman managed to choke out that they were asking 29K
for it, which (because it didn't have leather) was almost MSRP. Maybe
there is a market for this car at this price, but I am not in it.
That said, the R32 is really a special car. It was instructive driving
the R32 back-to-back with the GLI--I've always thought that the
20thAE/337/GLI lighter-is-better approach was preferable to the R32's
TT-esque hardware, but I was wrong. The R32 is more fun to drive, much
faster in real-world conditions, eliminates the torque steer of the
GLI, and just feels sporting in a way that the GLI doesn't.
Lots of guys knock this car, and it is not as inherently balanced as
either the E46 or the E36. But as a daily driver, you could do much,
much worse. The R32 provides very willing performance, an engine that
likes to rev, seats that are the best OEM units I've ever sampled,
tight, controlled handling, and a spacious interior package--this
combination is unique in the market.
To sum up:
Learned some things, confirmed some other things, still haven't bought a car.
Originally posted on carmudgeons.com.
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