Month: April 2014

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Nissan 370Z Nizmo – Easter Funny

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More tasty than a hot cross bun with lashings of butter… Yes, the 370Z is just the sort of coupe that makes you long for a sunny, dry weekend to engage with a British country road.

If you want light steering, easy to park and good visibility, then try a Golf GTI and blend in the with crowd. The Nissan is an absolute monster of a car but it has one extra missing from most hot hatchbacks – it’s fantastically great fun and will put a smile on your face. Guaranteed.

I can even forgive it the crazy rear spoiler, which I’ve decided is a lot prettier than it appears on first sight. It’s big, large enough to take a suitcase strapped to the top, but you have to be a big, bold character to own a car like this is the first place.

Of course, all this fun has a price and I’m watching it happen in front of me. The fuel gauge is dropping at an alarming rate. Like 22mpg, ouch.

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Nissan 370Z Coupe Nismo – Brute Force

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It’s the last day before Easter and it feels like I’ve been driving a Scaletrix car. In fact, the 370Z Nismo not only looks like a crazy toy coupe, it performs like one as well.

In Nismo clothing, the 370Z is equipped with a huge rear spoiler that harks back to the 1980s. In fact, it actually gives the 370Z negative lift, or downforce, and therefore does serve a purpose. Quite important in a car capable of 155mph and 0-60mph in 5.2 seconds.

First impressions of the Nismo? Well, the styling means it’s not for the shy, retiring type. It’s reminds me of a retro muscle car, bristling with macho appeal, loud, slightly offensive and raw, in a refined ‘Nissan’ way, of course.

And because of all that grunt under the bonnet, it goes well too! There’s a long throw on the manual gearbox which only adds to the retro appeal but wind up the V6 and the Nismo really does feel fantastic.

Nissan, it seems, still know how to build a brute of a sports car. The downside? The price…

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VW Scirocco GTS – Fat Bottom, Small Wonder

 

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In an age when we have come to accept the ‘fuller’ figure as a matter of course, the VW Scirocco fits in perfectly with the human demographic. Yes, it seems the svelte 1980s Scirocco has been replaced by a car with a large behind.

Nothing wrong with that, of course. The current version is still a very pretty car, it just appears to have eaten far too many buns when you view it from the rear. Quite why that is, who knows. Maybe to distinguish it even more from the Golf GTI?

We think the GTS is especially pretty, with a sublime interior too. It’s just a shame the GTS has to come with those two, wide stripes plastered over the bonnet and roof. If it was my car, I’d be out there with a hairdryer right now trying to remove the decals.

If you want to stand out from the rest of the Scirocco crowd, the GTS is a great way to do it. It’s just a shame that it costs so much and therefore competes head-on with  the latest GTI itself. A car built on a better platform, that goes even faster and offers more practicality.

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VW Scirocco – The Naughty Button

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I love ‘Sport’ mode on automatic gearboxes. It’s like pressing the naughty button. Let’s face it, we don’t want to be penny-pinching economy misers all the time, do we?

I’ve driven the Scirocco GTS in sensible ‘normal’ mode for 90 per cent of the week, so today I gave the VW what it had been waiting for. The chance to open up on a winding Cotswold road and blow the cobwebs out of those twin exhaust pipes.

The result? A totally different car. The Porsche 911 and Aston Martin Volante both have similar buttons but I didn’t realise how much a performance tweak the Sport button on the Scirocco accounted for. It was quite a different car.

The gearbox sounded very sweet, holding on to the revs much higher up the range and, when changing down, it sounded amazing too. Now, I don’t expect them to start fitting a naughty button to a Polo or Up! but let me tell you, it’s the most fun you can have in a Volkswagen these days…

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VW Scirocco – Inside Out

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If the paintwork on our GTS leaves you cold then the interior is pure, refined and functional. Classic Volkswagen, in fact.

Just look at the picture above – this could be any top spec car from the VW range. Every button, dial and switch is at your fingertip. Jump in for the first time and it feels like you are have been driving the Scirocco for years.

Even the sat nav is simple to use and connecting a phone via Bluetooth is also straightforward. It’s even possible to get the perfect driving position with the help of electric seat adjustment and adjustable steering column.

Faults? Rear visibility is poor through the tiny rear screen and our GTS has a panoramic sunroof, which opens about an inch and seems rather pointless. We put a couple of adults in the back over the weekend and they were comfortable enough, but anybody over 6ft might be struggling.

 

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VW Scirocco GTS – A Zebra In Any Other Language

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Yes, it’s still the fancy paintwork that is proving the main topic of conversation with the GTS. Now know as ‘Two Stripes’, the top spec Scirocco has whizzed us down to Cornwall for the weekend and a trip to a show jumping competition.

The GTS looks totally out of place, parked among the Land Rovers and horse lorries – we have obviously been branded as ‘Londoners’ because the locals are looking down their noses at the bling thing crawling over the field. Oh dear.

Slightly more disturbing for me was the fuel consumption on the journey down here, averaging just 32.3mpg at a steady motorway speed, with no rapid acceleration. After a string of diesel cars returning 40+mpg, it reminds me why, even the best petrol engines lag so far behind derv these days.

Which may explain why I almost ran out of petrol too. It got to the point where the on board computer registered zero miles left in the tank. Perhaps we should have gone for the TDI model instead…

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VW Scirocco GTS – You Can’t See The Colour When You Drive It…

 

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My mother taught me not to stare – so why is everybody looking at the GTS like it’s just landed from another planet? Truth is, I can’t decide whether it’s because the GTS is the ultimate Scirocco, or because this test car is white with two black stripes down the roof and bonnet.

Maybe it’s a combination of both but I’m sure that to afford this car in the first place, you need to be reasonably sound at the bank, probably 30+ and no longer a tyre squealing teenager. I don’t know anybody in that category who would want this paint job.

It’s Saturday and the Cotswolds is awash with some seriously cool cars, classic and new. The VW is turning heads but I think I need to do a vox pop and get the views of a few other people on why. At least they do the GTS in a more sober grey, or there’s plain black.

I once went to buy a Saab convertible and was about to sign on the dotted line when the salesman told me it wasn’t available in the grey colour I wanted. I protested and refused to proceed. In desperation, the salesman looked at me and said: ‘At least you can’t see the colour when you are driving it’. He must be working for a VW dealership somewhere…

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VW Scirocco GTS

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Hmmm, stripes on cars. Discuss. The GTS comes in either white, black, grey or red paint and ALL of versions have the twin stripes slammed over the bodywork.

It may be that I’m now a gentleman of a certain age but to me, this is akin to putting a sun strip on a Bentley windscreen displaying the words ‘Jez and Jess’.

Our ‘Candy white’ model is perhaps the most bling of the lot, not helped by a personalised VW number plate. Oh dear, I think this car was men for the sweaty palmed youngsters at Evo magazine.

It’s a shame the stripes are what most comments pertain to when people first see the car because underneath, the Scirocco is a coupe of some distinction.

The fat bottom styling might put some people off but I, for one, am looking forward to throwing it around some bends and enjoying the standard Adaptive Chassis Control system to the full. Off we go then…

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Thursday – Red Zone

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I don’t mind blending in with the crowd sometimes. The CR-V may be unremarkable to look at but it has the sleek, angular looks of the rest of the current Honda line-up.

Our test car, in a light metallic, looks especially good from the rear. The small back screen may make reversing tricky but the SR model parked on the driveway features a reversing camera to help out.

Unfortunately, the previous driver had turned off the audible warning while in reverse – so I nearly ploughed into another car when slipping into a parking space yesterday! It just shows how much we have come to rely on such features in modern cars.

And there’s something else remarkable about the i-DTEC CR-V too – it does, eventually, run out of fuel! After a week and 450 miles of hard driving, the needle has finally hit the red zone. Time for a new car…

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Wednesday – Greenest CR-V Yet

 

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The greenest CR-V in the fleet is also the lightest. The 1.6 i-DTEC diesel is 47kg less than the 2.2 diesel and removing the four-wheel drive system cuts the weight by an additional 69kg. Impressive.

It has to be good because if the Honda is going to compete with the ubiquitous hatchback, it has to be worth the £27,000 price tag too. So, what else can the CR-V offer, above the excellent fuel economy?

The boot space is best in class, with back seats that are simple to fold with one pull and a low loading lip. Rear headroom is plentiful, although rear visibility is restricted by the small back screen.

This is also the best CR-V to look at – a big step up from the previous model which looked overweight and dull. You will also find the dashboard lay-out first class, especially the high-mounted gear changer, which is perfectly placed for easy use, flicking through the six-speed gearbox.