Let us know. I still kick myself for not getting a FiST a few years back. Even new they were not expensive, and while they didn’t put up super impressive numbers per se pretty much everyone who had one thought they were a hoot. IIRC they seemed to have pretty good reps for reliability, better than say the Focus RS for sure.
About as quick as the Mini (plenty quick to be fun), although I’m a little surprised it’s not faster, given an extra 30hp on only 400lb more of curb weight. Gearing, maybe; the Mini has a really short first.
Good to know on reliability; I guess it doesn’t take very much reliability to be more reliable than a Mini, either.
Reliability these days is sort of a matter of RNG, because across the board cars are pretty reliable. My wife’s Ford Escape has been bullet-proof, and the three other Fords I’ve had over the years were all solid. The thing to keep in mind with hot hatches of course is the owners. Make sure it hasn’t been tuned or ragged out.
I bought a ‘new’ car 9mo ago and never got around to posting about it. New as in new to me, I don’t buy new cars, so it’s a 2011 vintage.
For reference, I was coming from this:
400rwh 2007 Holden VE Calais (Commodore variant). Cammed, tuned 6L LS based engine, pretty much bought as is at 120k kms and driven for 50k kms over several years. Mostly bullet-proof, aside from an hydraulic lifter failing that resulted in an engine teardown to identify. This car sounded fucking amazing. Just bonkers good. Not obnoxiously loud, slightly lumpy, no drone at any speed, but on full throttle would just open up and bark in that American/Australian V8 way. I liked that car, but it was getting old and though it was not skipping any beats, I figured it was time to let any future problems be someone elses. And it was thirsty. Like, um, 12mpg thirsty. It was rarely on highways so generally stuck idling in traffic or stop starting at low speeds.
I didn’t want my next car to be that thirsty, but still wanted decent to excellent performance. In an ideal world I’d be on the electric bandwagon, but options in Australia are limited and expensive, so I’ll have to wait a few more years for that.
So I went mid-sized German turbo. And Diesel. 110k kms on the clock 2011 BMW 330D, picked up for what turned out to to be an absolute steal from a private seller: No Msport trim package, but it’s all leather, comfort access, paddle shift, etc.
Straight 6 turbo diesel, the second gen N57, 180Kw, 520Nm torque paired to ZF six speed auto. And it’s a genuiniely amazing drive-train when paired to the 3 series chassis. You’d pretty much never know it’s diesel, certainly does not idle or rev like one, it has torque for days and returns 30mpg, even with my lead foot. Paired to the much slicker ZF trans, in practice it is as quick as my Calais in everything but a dedicated 1/4 mile run, but feels much more planted to drive. Calais was a bit soft and heavier and had a very lazy tranzmission in comparison. BMW did a remarkable job with this car.
I have since had it tuned (DPF retained), water/meth injection installed, trasmission flash tuned with XHP and done various bits of body trim work, mainly deleting chrome and replacing the factory 17’s with some 18’s from a Z4 finished in bronze.
I haven’t had it dyno’d, but it should be in the vicinity of 220Kw/650Nm with no change to fuel economy and can be descibed as genuinely quick and super fun to drive. And even though it’s an oil burner, It should still be an environmental improvement over the V8 and serve as a nice interim step until I can get to an electric once that market matures over here.
Cool pics, and great info! We don’t really do diesels here, something I have mixed emotions about. Living in Europe I got used to diesel being common, but in the US, they never caught on. Partly that is because gasoline/petrol was so cheap comparatively, and partly I think because the diesels we did get were often dreadful. Like the all-time king (knave?) of slow, slug-like diesels, the almighty Chevrolet Chevette Diesel! It managed a 14 second 0-60 which actually was faster than the original Chevette with a gas engine, which took like 17 seconds I think. But cars like this, and the ubiquitous Mercedes 240D (nicknamed “The Slug”) sort of made Americans view diesels with about as much fondness as Australians view Captain Bligh.
That 330D looks like a nice car all around. The newer mainstream BMWs have drifted from their enthusiast roots into a sort of homogenized blandness. With the exception of a few M models and the 2-series coupes (not the abomination that is the Grand Coupe or whatever they call it), much of the line up is less than inspiring, especially in the chassis department. I guess it’s not surprising, really. I read that something like 70% or more of German luxury cars in the US are leased, and for years BMW flooded the roads with pedestrian stripped-down 320i models leased to yuppies who wanted the badge but had zero clue about the marque or really about driving. The base 3-series offered the roundel and little else IMO.
I almost bought a M240 a few years ago but I could not get a manual with the AWD, and RWD where I live is a non-starter. I guess where you are a foot and a half of icy snow is not an issue.
O.O
Diesels, man.
As I think I’ve said several times in this thread, my first car! It was a 1979 that came into my possession in the mid-2000s. 69hp (factory-new) in a 3000lb car. In the winter, it always started fine at home, thanks to the block heater, but leaving school in the afternoons always came down to as many cycles of the glow plugs as I felt the battery could bear, followed by prayers, followed by cranking until enough cylinders caught to get the engine running, or the battery died and I had to call someone for a jump. It also had an untrustworthy vacuum system, so I frequently had to use the big ‘stop’ button under the hood to cut fuel.
My dad was a big diesel Merc enthusiast: in addition to the 240D, we had three separate W123 and W124 station wagons over the years.
Back to the present, I came home with this today:
A 2018 Mazda3 Touring hatchback. It’s much quieter than the Fiesta ST I drove, or indeed the Mini, in both decibels (the memory of putting down the Mini’s window and flooring it through underpasses/in tunnels will bring a smile to my face long after the buyer comes to pick it up) and personality. That’s not to say it lacks personality, though: it’s not substantially slower than the Mini when I put my foot into it, it handles well (although it’s not quite as go-kart stiff and snappy as the Mini), and it can fit nearly as much stuff behind the back seats as the Mini or Fiesta can fit with the seats down. Oh, and it gets 35mpg to the Mini’s 25, on standard gas instead of premium.
One little thing I appreciate about the Mini that the Mazda lacks: perfect pedal placement. On the Mini, I could work the brake with the left part of the ball of my foot, and blip the throttle with the right. I have to be a bit more heel-toe with the Mazda if I want to nail the downshifts. Even so, I’d rate the transmission excellent. Short throws, positive engagement, and good choice of ratios. Altogether, I’m delighted with it.
Next thing on the list is having a dealer put in the Android Auto kit.
Congrats! I have always liked the 3s, even if I never actually bought one. Came close in 2012, but went with a GTI instead, largely because the local Mazda dealer ( we only have one dealer per brand in town, if that) was uncooperative. Test driving it though showed me how nice it was, and yes, the transmission/shifting was very good even then. I’m sure the 2018 is at least as good, and probably far nicer inside.
Love that Mazda red , hope it treats you well. :)
Same car same year I have! Bought it new and it only has 5000 miles on it. Thanks covid.
My only regret is that the dealer only had white. Looks much better in red or blue.
Seems a little nicer to me in terms of fit and finish than the occasional late-model Hyundai Elantra I always seem to get when I have need of a rental car.
Me too, on both counts. It’s a really pretty red in motion—lots of depth to it. I’ve always liked brightly-colored cars.
This one just ticked over 28,000 on the drive back from Cleveland, so it’s still the newest car I’ve ever owned by about 40,000 miles. <.<
I guess, depending on both 2021 COVID restrictions and changing norms re: working from home, it might end up being a low-miles car in the long run, too. That would be nice.
Congrats on the Mazda 3! Super fun cars to drive. My CX-30 is essentially a raised Mazda 3 — same interior, same power train/chassis, just taller.
And I love the red. The 2016 Mazda 6 I have that I’m passing on to my son (just passed 100K miles) is the original version of that red. Since then they’ve added even more layers to the clear coat and it’s even cooler.
BTW, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can install the Carplay/Android Auto kit yourself. You just have to replace the USB module and flash the latest firmware. Alas, that does generally require pulling apart the entire dash, but I did it on my Fiat 124 (uses the same module as the Miata) in about 90 minutes. You can get the module for about $150 online, and then you just need some foam and a tool from Amazon that makes it easy to pull apart dash panels. Instructions
That said, I only did it myself on the Fiat because it’s not a supported upgrade on that car. But don’t let them charge you for more than two hours of labor — I would imagine a tech who’s done it more than once can do it in an hour easily.
Thanks for the tip! I’d heard it wasn’t too bad to DIY, but the instructions and your figure give me a much better idea of the difficulty level. If the local dealers are trying to squeeze me, maybe I’ll spend a Saturday afternoon on it one of these weeks.
I hate mucking with interior trim. I’d rather work on just about any part of a car than the interior, except for the electronics/electrical.
May I inquire as to what model of mini drone that is? :)
Exhaust/suspension are my particular bugaboos, or at least were on the Mini, given that I started my association with it after all the bolts had ten years to rust.
Corvette Racing begs to differ. The primary team color has been yellow for 20+ years, racing in the US and going to and winning Le Mans. Here is a pic of a c5r from 2001 Daytona 24hrs.
And the c8r at the 2021 Daytona 24
Came across this today, while reading about new technology changes in vehicles.
I think touch sensitive controls are a bad idea. Especially on the steering wheel.
I’m trying not to become a full-on Luddite, but touch sensitive applications often (not always) strike me as ill-considered solutions to non-existent problems.
I had no idea what one would do with touch sensitive controls. I found some Mercedes car that has it, and seems like a reasonable idea:
The steering wheel’s rim has a two-zone sensor that can tell if the driver’s hands are on the steering wheel, meaning movement isn’t required to tell the vehicle’s driver-assist systems that the car is under control
I guess that works if you’re driving on straight roads and don’t need to steer? You can probably poll that very frequently to know when the hands leave the wheel - hope they work well with gloves on.
VW has switched from buttons to touch sensors for steering wheel controls for the Infotainment and cruise control, etc. stuff already, on the GTI for instance. I agree it’s a terrible idea, if only because when I’m doing something by feel I need to feel something. The whole point of steering wheel controls is to keep your eyes and attention on the road, and let your muscle memory switch tracks or take a call. If you have to look at something for confirmation, seems to defeat the whole idea.
I suspect it’s a combination of one, they think it looks neat and high tech, and two it’s probably cheaper to make, with fewer/no moving parts.