Drove some cars today
From Bellybuttonporn
June 3, 2006 Today my friend Justin from West Corp and I went out to test-drive some cars. We weren't going to buy any; we just wanted to see what we could get away with driving.
Cars Test Drove:
- Dodge Caliber
- Dodge Magnum
- Ridiculously Large GMC Truck
- Porsche Boxster S
- Ford Freestyle
- Ford Focus (hatchback)
Contents |
Dodge Caliber
I was really looking forward to this. As you all know, I fell in love with the Magnum when it came out. The Caliber promised to be the Magnum Lite: All of the sporty fun and storage space, at 1/2 the cost.
There were plenty of doodads. Lots of nooks, lots of crannies. The flip-out mp3 holder was just the right size for my cell phone. This car was equipped with the pop-cooler in the glove box. Under the hood the engine was so fancy it was covered in a plastic cover. Every user-servicable part (fluid filling, basically) was up top and super easy access. This is perfect for someone who's comfortable changing his or her own fluids but not comfortable tinkering and fixing bigger stuff. In fact, I bet it'd be hard as hell to do anything else under the hood due to the crampedness.
I was really impressed with the car.
And then we went for a test drive.
It has a 2.0L under the hood with a CVT Transmission. Acceleration was very sluggish, often I would floor the accelerator and wait for the engine to rev up and the car to accelerate. The salesperson explained that the weird feeling was due to the CVT not switching gears. However, the spedometer didn't lie.
The Caliber was a total lazy bitch under the hood.
It would be the perfect car to give to my 18 year old daugher who is just graduating from high school: With such a shitty engine there's no way she could get in trouble in it.
Dodge Magnum R/T
I get the feeling I'm going to have to custom order a Magnum SRT8. But hey, an R/T, still with the Hemi engine, gave me a pretty good impression of the car.
There were fewer doodads on the interior than the Caliber, but a few things I liked. There was a power outlet near the liftgate, which was cool. Also there's a small storage area under the floor (between the floor and the spare tire cover) to hide stuff. It'd be fine if you, say, went out and bought a few DVDs or books, and wanted to go get food afterwards. It's hard to explain, but the cover opens up and folds in the middle like this: /\ and there's notches in the side so it'll stand up in two positions to be perfect to hold something against the tailgate. Groceries, for example.
Inside there was ample room. From the outside it looks like a fairly respectable mid-sized station wagon (like a Taurus, only meatier), but somehow it's bigger on the inside. It felt like driving a huge car, like a crown vic. I wasn't cramped by any means, and the spartan interior felt very substantial.
Under the hood (and under the plastic engine cover thing all new cars seem to have) the engine was mighty impressive. It featured the same "up-top" engine maintenance stuff as the Caliber. About the only complaint I had about the car was that it featured the rat-maze style gear shifter. What the fuck's wrong with the simple forward-and-backwards kind?
And then the test drive.
The sales-person warned me to "take it easy on the tires, please". Once traffic permitted, I really opened it up. Hell yeah!
While getting onto the freeway on a particularly tight cloverleaf on-ramp the salesman told me not to hit the gas till halfway up (i'm sure if I'd done so earlier I would have spun us off the damn ramp). So about halfway up I followed his directions and stomped on my new best friend: the pedal.
We were pushed back in our seats. By the top of the ramp we were doing 80. Not that I noticed; the car was quiet and aside from passing all of the cars on the freeway proper, I didn't even notice until I glanced down at spedo.
That car is fucking crazy.
Ridiculously Large GMC Truck
(Note:I think that's the truck. Jesus, it was huge)
We went to a Chevy dealer to look at SUVs. Chevy hasn't made an interesting car in years. So just for fun I asked the salesperson for a truck. Not for work, just for fun. He showed me this huge monstrosity with a 6.something liter diesel and an aftermarket customization job with ridiculous bolt-on wheel flairs and a silly "NASCAR-style" gas cap.
So out on the road, I sat a full two heads higher than other trucks. The engine had plenty of power, of course. The ride was very rough. This would be the perfect truck for someone who works for the DOT: You can feel every bump, every pebble out of place.
I have no idea why rednecks would pay $42,000 for this piece of shit...
Porsche Boxster S
When for $3,000 more you can get a used Porsche. I didn't actually drive this thing, my friend did. Since it's a two-seater I couldn't go along :-(
Ford Freestyle
Go check it out, first: http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/freestyle/
From the front it looks like a car, but from the back it looks like an explorer. I wasn't sure what to think, but since it's a competitor to the magnum for my station wagon dollar, I went in to a ford dealership to drive one so I could rule it out.
Holy crap, folks.
I know it looks kinda goofy. But if you're looking for an SUV but don't want the huge size, go drive a Freestyle.
The 3rd row seats fold flat amazingly easy, the 2nd row seats fold down too, and flip up for easy access to the 3rd row. From the driver's seat there's a variety of storage space available, including a neat bin up top of the dashboard in that wasted no-man's land in the middle. The top of the car sorta bubbles up towards the back (it looks like some Monster Garage result of welding the front of a car to an explorer back-end), but the result is that the 2nd row seats has amazing headroom. Also amazing leg-room according to my tall friend. The rear seats also have great head-room, but the legroom was a little cramped (not for me, since I'm only 5'5")
I was skeptical of the engine and transmission. All models have a 3.0L V6, incidentally the same size engine as my Taurus Wagon. However, this one gets a bit over 200hp, whereas my taurus gets about 140. This is coupled to a CVT, so I was prepared for heartbreak as I drove it off the lot.
Wow. Fuck Dodge for saddling the Caliber with such a shitty engine. The 3.0L was able to accelerate well (not sports-car well, but better than you'd expect for a wagon or SUV). The car handled very well and was much more nimble than you'd expect from a car it's size. I was extremely impressed. The CVT allowed for a very smooth ride (no jerking around during the gear changes, etc.)
It's times like these I'm glad I have shitty credit. If I had good credit, I'd own a Freestyle right now.
Ford Focus (hatchback)
I wanted to test drive a focus wagon (5-door), but they didn't have any. I drove a 3-door hatchback instead.
The car might as well be a 2-seater. There's almost no room in the back seats. However, there was plenty of space in the back, since it was a hatchback. Honestly I wasn't really paying much attention aside from thinking over and over again "This is way not as cool as the Freestyle".
The little engine did a great job moving the car around. It had plenty of pep and was fun to get on the freeway and off, and did just fine with it.
Summary
I'm definitely torn between the Magnum and Freestyle.
I really want a magnum for the power and total coolness of it. However, the 10 g's price difference between that and the also-cool Freestyle is really tugging at me. The power in the Magnum was scary. No, I don't mean it's got a lot of power, I mean that I was actually frightened by the amount of power under my foot. I'm sure I could get used to it, but dayam. The Freestyle, on the other hand, seems perfectly reasonable. I'm really not sure what to do. I don't really want to buy a "reasonable" car. I want to buy a monster and pretend it's reasonable (see? it's a wagon!). Driving the Freestyle didn't feel like a soccer-mom thing to do, though. If they had different engine sizes of Freestyle so I could at least get the fastest version, I'd probably be sold. It's all still up in the air. I really don't know what to think.
Anyone else interested in SUV space and car handling, go check out a freestyle. Even if you think it looks silly, go test-drive one. You will love it.
