Sunday, November 23, 2014

Mercedes Benz CLA class

You see, people likes to relates things with something. 'Japan'? A modern and hi-tech country. That, is how I perceive the auto maker. For me, the brand BMW just screams 'youth, wild, and rich' all in one go. Buy a decent BMW 318i , tune up a bit, and it still does looks badass. You can go even backward, buy an older version of 5 series, tune it up, and believe me, it still does look badass. Wanna go more badass? You can just buy BMW S1000RR superbike, tell your friend you bought a BMW and laugh when your friend ask 'how much does the car cost' .On the other side of it is, oh well…Mercedes Benz. 'The uncle's car'. Rich, but already old. Cheaper version of Rolls Royce, where luxury appeal is the only thing that matters. Any attempt to tune up older version of Benz is like trying to force old folks to to play rugby. Even to set up a complete team is far from possible, and even if it does, the possibility of winning any match is miles distant away. Every time I see a Merc on the road I just go 'meh'.

Well.I've been enjoying myself writing about car recently, so why not give Mercedes chance? And that's how I came up with the CLA class. Be reminded that this IS the only model that appeals to me, while other models does not, AT ALL. If Merc is owning shoes brand, other line up will most probably be Armani or Prada, while for CLA class, it will be Converse.

Why? Lets start with the looks. Okay, lets say you're in the middle of a quiz. The instructor give you a bunch of cards with photo of cars, and he want you to group together photos of cars that looks 'sporty'. You've collected BMW M4 series, lexus RC350 so far, and all of a sudden you see a card of the CLA. Well, since there aren't any other photos of car that looks sporty, and although Merc brand doesn't really resonate to the sporty end, you pick the card anyway. Because that's what it is designed for, to lure young buyers to move up to their brand.

At the front, you'll see this massive bonnet hood with bulging  parallel line that looks more like the bodybuilder's muscle veins in flex. This time they just use the emblem instead of the standard hood ornament, and another big circular 3 point star at the front of the grille. And the dotted shaped grille, in my eyes, is absolutely, stunningly, gorgeous. The 3 separated wedged shaped air intake just add charm to its look. And the light is made up of matrix LED, with eyebrow that flashes into turning signal.  While the front really looks aggressive, the back end, with stylized rear light and curved hood looks more like a fashion statement. It is as if the Ford Mustang engineer had their hands designing the front, while they let Jimmy Choo handle the rear. Or maybe Jimmy designed the grille, too. Viewing the front from the side, its as if someone had cut off the remaining reclining shape. Refer to the Saber fighter jet's nose.






























Getting in aboard, there are no such thing as luxury insufficient.  Your eyes will be attracted to the big Merc logo on the steering wheel, and it starts to flow to other instruments and panel. You'll get the decent speedometer and rev counter with smaller fuel and heat indicator in the respective circle. Tesla model S owner would notice something similar with this one, especially the drive selector and seat control button at the door, as it is know that Merc actually supply those to Tesla. While the air cond and button configuration does look well arranged, the Becker®LCD monitor panel just look like someone bought carozzeria navi panel and use 3M to stick it right.. there. With a size of 8.5 inch, it looks very much isolated, try see LCD panel in BMW i8 , you'll get what I mean.
 
Comfort wise, the front row does looks and feel spacious. A person of 170cm tall like wouldn't have any problem at all driving in a long distance with this. But the rear seat just feel cranked and squeezed up. It's easy to get your head rubbed by the roof sometimes. Merc guys maybe thinking people who bought their cars likes to read, so they have a separated rear reading light attached. While I thought most who sits at the back sleep most of the time.

The second major reason I choose this model is what lies in the engine room. Get this folks; an inline, 4 cylinder, inter-cooled turbo premium 2 liter 208 horsepower engine. Yup, 4 cylinders. That's something you wouldn't have in a typical Merc,







 



, but they did it anyway. Since its an I-4,  transversely mounted , saves in transmission friction when you already have the crankshaft in the same line as the drive shafts. Reminds me of the good old MINI. By default it's in FF configuration, but you can have the optional 4MATIC® all-wheel drive system for better stability.


Most recent germany car nowadays are equipped with idling stop function, and this one is also included. Transmission is more of a 7 speed dual clutch transmission, that gives ample torque configuration in any given speed. Plus a pair of paddles strategically positioned behind the upper steering-wheel spokes allows you to manually upshift and downshift the 7-speed DCT transmission with just a flick of your fingers. There you go, luxuriness overload.

Since it's a 4cyliner, I'm not sure if you're exited about how fast this CLA goes in 0-60. Ok, for about 6.7 seconds. For comparison, Tesla Model S goes in about 4.Urm.. I think its not fair to compare with the battery-powered zombie. Its quite hard to say that this sporty look sedan have the power of Ford Focus or Honda Civic. And if you want the best of both world, CLA 45 AMG version option is always on the table. But before that, bear in mind that the even the fuel consumption of the standard one is 8.4 km per liter.


Remember what I mentioned about the engine? The small size of it does partly contribute to the overall price of this model, as it is the most affordable sedan ever available. The most basic one cost around 3 million yen and upward. If you want the looks of a sporty looking merc sedan without sacrificing too much money, this is the one to go with.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Mini crossover clean diesel

Mini crossover clean diesel

 The mini! In my eyes it's the brand that best reflect youth, cute,fresh  and energetic personalities. If driving a lambo will help you attract beautiful woman, driving mini will help you attract cute young,cute  girl. Don't drive this one, old, grumpy man. Any way,the crossover clean diesel is the 6th car that I've test driven so far, and as always, the brand live up to its reputation.
I choose the crossover more because of the powertrain other than anything else. Wel'l get to that later, but first, lets talk about appearance.

The looks




While most other model line up looks cute, crossover have more masculinity blend in its appearance. Note the shape of the headlight, which swells out above the body line. The best way to looks the car maybe from its side, where you can see the whole car's dimension which resembles more of a SUV.

It's a no surprise to notice that the crossover's size have increases in millimeters more. It has a length of 4105mm , 400 mm longer and a width of 1790mm, 100mm longer than the standard one. Bigger mini, bigger space.

Check out the side signal light which looks like a glow stick with the stripe accent. While  other have interchangeable signal accent, which can be changed with other design, crossover have a fixed one, so be sure about choosing the color. What's interchangeable is the side mirror cover , which comes with tons of options.

The interior


















 The interior haven't changed much with the standard model. Keyless slot underneath with push start button, rev counter at the counter and speedo at the dashboard. It uses more round shape as the mini visible trademark, as the hexagonal shape in Lamborghini .Monitor navi screen come as an option, but I strongly suggest you  take as it's really a necessity to use navi when you live in intergalactic, super pack crowded area like Tokyo as it is really unforgiving if you miss the turn. Oh, and did I told you the handbrake looks more like a paper cutter's lever?








You pay more for the crossover for reasons. Obviously space is one of it. This one comes with 4 doors, with the rear seat have the standard space as any other sedan, means a 6 feet adult can fit in perfectly in the seat or you can put in the baby seat.to be precise, the front and rear seat have a 40.4 in and 33.8 in leg room. The bonnet has a 44.2 cubic feet of space, so unless you're stuff in your surfboard which you need to fold the rear seat, a standard medium size luggage shouldn't be a problem. It took a while to figure out how to open the rear gate, when actually you need to push on the emblem to open. 17 or 18 inch worth of tires should fit perfectly for those crossover's shoes.














The Muscle




I don't have any experience whatsoever driving neither truck nor lorry, but I know very well the sound of that engine. That loud, violent thumping of the piston usually followed by chunks of smoke.  And the engine in this one have the same pitch too. The difference is that they've figured out how to reduce the volume, so you'll know you're not driving a lorry. But you'll have torque as the lorry, as the diesel engine squeeze 270Nm at 1500-2500rpm, and 305Nm at 1750-2700rpm for D and SD model respectively. For comparison the gasoline only produce 160Nm torque at 4250rpm, so with the diesel engine a little push on the gas would translate faster acceleration. The engine is actually a BMW N47 used in BMW 1 series, 2.0L  inline 4 cylinder engine, with average fuel consumption of 15km per liter. A full tank can get you from Tokyo to Aomori in one go. Apart from the engine there isn't much change on the transmission, so you'll get either the 6 speed auto or 6 speed manual transmission.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Audi brand experience

Audi brand experience
20141030日木曜日
6:47
'Vorsprung durch technick'. I'm not sure what that means, maybe it's the English equivalent of ' I love you in ' in German. Maybe not you, but automobiles cars.
I'm lucky enough to check my mailbox when Audi make sent me an invitation for the Audi brand experience event at Audi Ikebukro. It's only a half day event, but nevertheless, the tentative was full packed with presentation about the brand itself, safety driving instruction and test drive on the new model of RS5 and A6.
Though I tend to be a BMW enthusiast, I don't limit my option there as I love cars, beautiful looking car (only). And Audi seems to fit in the Boolean diagram, so this time I'm gonna explain a bit about Audi.
It all started with a person called August Horch. In 1899, 13 years after the birth of combustion engine,he established an automobile company called Horch. In 1909, he then made another car company, specializing in luxury vehicle. He can't use the name Horch again, so he choose to use latin synonym of the word horch(which mean listen in germany), which is 'audi'. Now you know.


The 4 rings on the grille actually has its own underlying meaning. Horch began persuade other company to join and form a union. DKW, auto bike specialist, and Wanderer which happen to start its business as a bicycle repair shop join forces and formed a new company called Auto Union. Fast forward, the name audi replaces Auto union,and became the well known auto manufacturer today. Since 1966 Audi was owned by Volkswagen Group, so there are some similarities you would find with volkswagen in terms of technology.


In 1983, audi founded a whole new subsidiary, quattro GmbH. The name quattro itself actually came from the  It's the equivalent of TRD of Toyota and Nismo of Nissan, specializing in high performance luxury vehicle, with its core product include Audi RS4, RS6 and R8, and this one too is part of volkswagen group.


While other auto maker have their own complex and hard way of representing their model line-up, Audi has a way much more simpler method. Most of their models(excluding TT, and Q) came with alphabet, followed by numbers.



The pyramid represents roughly the ratio volume of the model produced. Any model that starts with A,S or RS is the core model, with the high end RS model is a relatively low production, high performance car. Anything outside the pyramid would be the limited production vehicle, with R8 as the flagship model in terms of performance, TT as its little brother, and Q as the SUV. Bear in mind that the line and area colored orange is actually made by quattro, in other words the subsidiary produce only high performance version. See? I told you its easy to understand Audi's lineup.


Though different in terms of performance, all recent Audi models share the same DNA in terms of looks and configuration.  Here I have these photo of Audi RS5 cabriolet.


Even without the 4 rings, Its easy to recognize that its made by Audi. What's really stand out in this model is the shape of the headlight. That's just looks so muscular, angry and serious at the same time, you wouldn't even dare to scratch the car even a tiny bit. And of course, the signature reverse trapezoid grille, which just add up perfectly with the chrome coated 4 circles.



Yes, I'm really attracted to how the car looks either in exterior and interior. But somehow , the looks doesn't appeal too much for me to consider buying one(if I have the right amount of cash).  The looks just seems to be too formal, for me its resemble much of the corporate looks. Try drive this one at a drive-through,  and someone will give you a glare like ' he should have enough money to go to a 5-star restaurant'. Maybe after I'll be a CEO of a company, then I'll consider buying one.


There's so much thing I wanna write about Audi's tech, especially quattro, e-tron and TFSI cylinder on demand. But lets just keep it simple here, as I'll post another more detailed article next time.