1.2 Clio puts MR2 ownership in perspective!

[Club Tropicana]

I know this is going slightly off topic but i felt i had to pass comment on someone elses "Focus" comment.

I honestly believe the focus to have the best handling of any car in its class. My dad has the 1.8 zetec with the alloys and "sports" suspension pack and the thing handles like its on rails. Its seriously seriously underpowered but there is no roll for that type of car. Obviously there is a bit more roll in it than the 2 but for a family hatch i think its xxxx hot.

Scott =op

(aplogies for being off topic) Underpowered?! Mate, you dont know the meaning of the word till you've driven the 1.4. It is a superb car, really is. But its also quite a bit car with a 1.4 Duratec 80bhp engine. You floor it and not much happens apart from the needle creeps up on the rev counter... 0-60 in 14.1 secs - not much gets past me .

But it is beautifully balanced through corners. You can tell its had millions & millions of pounds and thousands of man hours developing it.

[Scotster]

I know this is going slightly off topic but i felt i had to pass comment on someone elses "Focus" comment.

I honestly believe the focus to have the best handling of any car in its class. My dad has the 1.8 zetec with the alloys and "sports" suspension pack and the thing handles like its on rails. Its seriously seriously underpowered but there is no roll for that type of car. Obviously there is a bit more roll in it than the 2 but for a family hatch i think its xxxx hot.

Scott =op

(aplogies for being off topic) Underpowered?! Mate, you dont know the meaning of the word till you've driven the 1.4. It is a superb car, really is. But its also quite a bit car with a 1.4 Duratec 80bhp engine. You floor it and not much happens apart from the needle creeps up on the rev counter... 0-60 in 14.1 secs - not much gets past me .

But it is beautifully balanced through corners. You can tell its had millions & millions of pounds and thousands of man hours developing it.

I've got a feeling i'm going to find out. We are either going to get a 1.4 or a tdi focus and a tdi mondeo in a few months. My fiancee will be driving the focus mostly but i'm sure i'll get a shot or 2 in it lol.

I'm hoping we can afford the TDi as the torque from the diesel must make one hell of a difference.

Scott =op

[Andy Champ]

I'm hoping we can afford the TDi as the torque from the diesel must make one hell of a difference.
Scott =op

Not that topic again!
I suggest you try it and see. Don't forget to be fair with the revs - many diesels feel good until you realise that your "normal driving" is much nearer the power/torque peaks, and that you don't get anything more by letting it rev up. If it will.

I must admit I was surprised by how little the fuel use difference was, after all the diesel hype.

Do your sums carefully too - higher initial cost, higher resale value on the diesl, vs better fuel economy makes a complicated sum.

Andy

[mattcambs]

Controversial, but here goes......


...diesels seem to be popular with people who don't know how to actually drive fast or use a petrol engine effectively because, as was said, their peak torque is low in the rev range. Basically they seem fast to the average driver.

Admittedly I would consider a big german diesel as a daily motorway driver, but a straight 6 BMW would probably worth the -10mpg

[Andy Champ]

Controversial, but here goes......

Scott and I have disagreed over this before. You have a go!

Andy

[Lauren]

I know this is going slightly off topic but i felt i had to pass comment on someone elses "Focus" comment.

I honestly believe the focus to have the best handling of any car in its class. My dad has the 1.8 zetec with the alloys and "sports" suspension pack and the thing handles like its on rails. Its seriously seriously underpowered but there is no roll for that type of car. Obviously there is a bit more roll in it than the 2 but for a family hatch i think its xxxx hot.

Scott =op

Try a Mini.

[Club Tropicana]

I know this is going slightly off topic but i felt i had to pass comment on someone elses "Focus" comment.

I honestly believe the focus to have the best handling of any car in its class. My dad has the 1.8 zetec with the alloys and "sports" suspension pack and the thing handles like its on rails. Its seriously seriously underpowered but there is no roll for that type of car. Obviously there is a bit more roll in it than the 2 but for a family hatch i think its xxxx hot.

Scott =op

Try a Mini.

Not in the same 'class' though, is it?

[Lauren]

Not in the same 'class' though, is it?

Hmm, i guess not. What about the new astra?

Had one of those as a courtesy car, thought it handled very well.

[Scotster]

Not had a go in the new astra but its certainly getting a good reputation. If i could afford a new astra along with a recent mondeo i would go for it. For now the 3k focus is winning lol.

Totally agree that the diesel won't be as fast as the petrol once they are going but i don't mean when trying to drive fast. I just mean when trying to drive normally ie staying in 5th for overtaking etc. My dads car has a serious lack of pull for a 1.8 regardless of how hard i try to drive it. It also doesn't seem to like high revs that much, doesn't sound great when going hard at it. The diesel is effortless at lower revs so, for normal driving, its much harder at pulling at the rev ranges where it will be getting used most. I still maintain that after 40mph my diesel vectra was faster to 120 than my petrol AFter that the diesel ran out of puff lol.

Scott =op

[nakamura]

The corolla 1.4 diesel is very quick off the mark and very good to drive. Still hate diesel engines tho. Sound awful and less the 5000 rev limit is no good for me.

Back on topic last year was using a friends 1.2 old punto and was driving it like i did the 2 ie fast round the twisties and roundabouts. Stupid i know but had tyres slashed so was very angry!!! Anyway my point is and this is no lie, i approached a roundabout going to fast, took it at speed, was ok but due to the camber of the road the car leaned so much i nearly fell out of the massive open window!

Oops! Glad i had my belt on.....

Martin.

[toxo]

Lol - you lot should try my daily runner... wait for it... 1995 1.1 Fiesta Classic! I have to rev it hard as you like to get it to do 70 and it was a whopping 48 bhp when it was new! You're now talking around 18 seconds 0-60... the only thing it has going for it is that it's only done 40,000 miles and the mechanics are still quite sweet which makes it really low maintenance. A good thing when you do 1500 miles a month! It is the cheapest bag of scum I have ever driven.

[James Junior]

I recently had a hire car while my new 2 went back to the garage to have a few niggles ironed out under warranty and I ended up with a Fiat Marea.

Oh my god it was aweful - I was on the motorway doing 70mph and came to a slight bend, I htought the car was going to lurch into the next lane.

Everything was plastic city and I was so high up with sucha massive steering wheel I felt like a bus driver...

[Amelio]

I took my tubby in to Toyota for some work when I first got it, and they gave me a 1.0L automatic Yaris.

I could have moved faster by just farting.

Sorry, but that made me giggle.

[vodkaprince]

after a year of driving around in my wifes 106 Pug, I finally gave up searched some forums and found a Tubby 2 close by.

Spent the last 2 days in it since i bought it.. all I can say really is damn... I had forgotn what it was like to drive a drivers car! rather than pilot a small boat with wheels...

[Polypedates]

You're not trying hard enough then. We've got the 1.0 CVT Micra, I drive it to work to keep the miles down on the SLK. I don't think it handles too bad actually, but you do need to be brave...I've overtaken plenty in that, people just don't drive that fast round my way it seems. Mind you, a downhill slope certainly comes in handy....

This is true, whilst I hated driving the Micra I managed to overtake plenty of things. Conservation of momentum is the key, that and knowing the road. Then, if you are prepared to get well outside your comfort zone in the preceeding bend to build up a head of speed for the following straight (just keep telling yourself it won't really roll will it...? ) you can surprise quite a lot of machinery.

Just hope the traffic prevents them trying to redeem themselves on the straights and their evident agitation in the rear view mirror is priceless

[FizzyBlueMr2]

Not exactly power related but I've been driving a Kia Sportage recently and my MR2 has been off the road for months - expecting to get it back soon. So, when I do get it back after a high driving position, I expect to have that feeling of "what am I doing down here !"

Anyone else drive Jeeps and a 2 ?

My mate drives a bus and then a 2 - some difference !!

I've had to rent a few transit vans in the past, for helping various people move, lugging large items that won't fit in a car etc...

.....and getting back into the mr2 after driving a transit van for a week is like that. Seems sooooo looooow afterwards.

[Spacey]

I jumped out of my freshly mapped tubby that sits on Tein flex coilovers and into a 1.4l Seat Ibiza today.

The Ibiza felt like a van!!!

[Negativvv]

Ive had a few cars but the most "performance" related ones would be a string of BMW E30s and a Ford Puma

Had an E30 with an M50 engine from a newer car dropped in and boy was that fast. We got 6.5 reliably and 6.1 once on silly G-Tech timer, but it was somewhat hard to get off the line; improved a bit with the LSD we found tho! I actually found it got rather boring after awhile as all it was possible of doing was straight line speed. Did try my hand at drifting but deemed it too dangerous to keep doing on rainy nights on empty roundabouts

Bought a Ford Puma afterwards which was pretty much the definition of on rails driving. Its engine is pretty poor tho, despite what mags and owners tell you. A 4A-GE blows it into the ground for revvyness and delivery, also Ford put in a torque limiter in 1st and 2nd so its p!ssy Fiesta derived gearbox doesnt fall to pieces within a few thousand miles Im too hard on it tho (oh the driving position sucked too, was like you were raised up on a platford). It was refined and comfortable and painless to own. If i had to pick a car to go from A to B id pick that, its got just enough power to make rapid progress and theres no learning curve, you just get in and start giving it some!

Mk1a is just so sweet to drive but i suspect it isnt actually that fast around the twisties Speaking of which i need to drive it, its been busted since it blew up its alternator belt on the RR last week

[peterc]

Got given a brand new focus 1.8 ghia as a courtesy car recently my wife and son were so excited. you must drive it dad its wonderful.So not really ever driven a new car and wondering how quick it was i decided to use it to pick my son up from Stansted.
BORING BORING BORING is the best way to descibe it think we are all spoiled with our 2s and to think you could buy 3 for the money!

[SuperRedMR2]

It took 6 weeks to finally get my engine replaced in my mk1a. I had gotten lifts to work, and used a hired car (2.0 vectra) a few times from local garage at weekends.

When I got back in my '2 for the first time, I forgot how to drive! Stalled everywhere. But as soon as that back end went out on a roundabout, I knew what to do!

They are amazing machines. I'm on my second, and id not settle for anything else!