My 2016 in cars

"FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem" (fuelstratifiedinjection) 01/04/2017 at 08:20 • Filed to: None

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Yep, I only got to drive four cars in 2016 and they weren’t exactly exciting apart from the two Audis. Let’s start with the Mercedes A140. The one I drove was in very poor condition and had an inflated tire which had to be filled everyday. Not kidding.

The two Audis were my personal highlight. Both of them were Quattro models with the 2.0 TDI mated to an automatic. I love to row my own gears but I don’t mind good auto gearboxes; the Audis had them. If you ever considered leasing or buying an Audi, do it.

Now to the car I spent the most time and miles in, my parent’s Golf Plus 1.6 FSI. I guess I did about 1.500km or more this year in it - more than my parents. Maybe I’ll do an Oppo review, though it’s not very Oppo worthy. But with more time spent behind the wheel of it I got to appreciate it more and more.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem 01/04/2017 at 08:41

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My list of last year actually is equally dissapointing:

Renault Twingo 1.2 16v

Ford Focus 1.6 TDCi (Dad’s old lease car)

Peugeot 308 SW 1.6 e-HDi (Dad’s new lease car)

Peugeot 208 1.2 (my little brother’s 3 cylinder ‘coffee grinder’)

Citroën Berlingo 1.6 HDi (Beat up work van, covers how it felt)

Audi A3 2.0 FSI (Great engine, oddly enough in a base model with hubcabs. Complete basket case, due to it being a faculty runabout of which almost everyone knows where the keys are.)

VW Lupo 3L (Terrible gearbox, though that may be due to it being in the same condition as the Audi, only this one is a car used for research purposes.)

It could be I’m forgetting some, but 2014 and 2015 definitely were better, having driven a V60 PHEV, an i3, and a plethora of Opels. I’m hoping 2017 will be better though, my uncle is taking delivery of an A6 3.0 BiTDi Competition in a week, so here’s to hoping I can take that for a spin to start the year properly.

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 01/04/2017 at 08:50

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That’s not all that bad in my opinion. Is the gearbox in the Lupo 3L really that bad? I briefly considered one but they’re still kinda expensive.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem 01/04/2017 at 09:02

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It’s probably not too bad when properly maintained, but it’s not as refined as modern AMTs (or modern automatics for that matter). It’s quite sensitive to abuse though, and this one probably has seen it’s fair share, since the clutch wasn’t fully disengaging any more, which I noticed while doing a rolling resistance demonstration and it only rolled like 30 meters in neutral, while it should theoretically have rolled much further.

Cé hé sin > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 01/04/2017 at 09:07

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Sadly, a three litre Lupo is much less interesting than it sounds!

FSI - alcohol enthusiast with a car problem > BvdV - The Dutch Engineer 01/04/2017 at 09:10

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Ouch. Many people think that automatic and semi-automatic transmissions are there to abuse and treat them bad.

What I forgot to add, 2014 and 2015 were also quite better years in terms of cars for me somehow.

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > Cé hé sin 01/04/2017 at 09:29

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It’s interesting in it’s own way though, just imagine what would have happened if it caught on when new, I’m almost sure that would have caused the whole frugal version of normal car movement to occur way earlier. Funnily enough all Lupo 3Ls we have at university are later imports, because around 2010 the Lupo 3L started to become popular here due to tax benefits (no road tax for ‘fuel efficient’ cars from 2010 till the start of 2014, my Twingo was in this category too). After people lost interest in them the university went from owning 1 Lupo to owning 5 Lupos.