A Honda Jazz, a Focus, a C4 and a Forester walk into a pub....

I have driven a few more cars in the search for something that fits my lifestyle. Still on the search for that perfect car in my price range. I'm still looking, here's what I have looked at this time.

The Honda Jazz

Impressive back seats. Good Honda finish. Very quiet and smooth. Engine lacks any power what so ever. The sales guy took me on a test drive, we parked half way through some nice twisty roads, which I happened to ride down when I use to be a postie, having delivered mail in that area.

Cornering was nice, expected from a Japanese supermini. The 15 km/h uphill turn sucked. In second gear, sitting on about 2,500 RPM planted my foot, and the car continued to slow down. I felt like I was in 3rd or 4th. I went to gear down, realised 1st was the only choice, I didn't think the sales guy would appreciate hearing a small crunch from me attempting to double clutch it into gear. So I rode the clutch with the V-TEC engine being caned up the hill. Had to rev it to the red line to get into the power band in the next gear. But there wasn't enough power, and it slowed down to a crawl again. If a car can't get up a road in Sydney then you can pretty much throw it away now. Keep looking...

When we got back I was asked what I thought. I said "Brilliant. It just needs about 40kW more power and about 50Nm of torque. I'd hate to take this on my country trips. Some of the roads I go on have steeper hills we just went on, and I don't fancy gearing down that far down the gearbox. It's a nice car. But not for me. Thanks very much for the opportunity to test drive the car".

Ford Focus

I'll just start off by saying that the dealer I went to was shocking. I well known Ford dealer in Southern Sydney. The guy kept pressuring me to buy a ZETEC Focus. Constantly trying to get me to buy it. When I mentioned more the once that I wasn't ready to buy yet, I was still looking. And that by pressuring me, that isn't working.... [EDIT: A friend recently went to that same dealer, traded their near new car in for a new turbo Falcon. Which is faulty from new, some sort of major engine issues. I am told the service department are treating them very poorly and they will probably never buy a Ford and visit that dealer again].

The car itself was very nice. I must say. The 2.0L engine is harsh when reved, but it had some power and I test drove this before the Jazz, so it wasn't like it was just better because of what I previously drove. It was just better. Build quality was excellent. Hills didn't cause any harm, there wasn't any thought, here's a hill... add more throttle. Wow, it accelerates or maintains speed. What a difference 500cc's makes.

Indicator stalk is on the correct side (the left). The model I drove was an auto, I'm after a manual. I figured I'd still test drive it so I could atleast feel the dynamics of the car. The auto box was actually nice. Putting in manual shift mode was good too. I instantly noticed the up/down direction was the right way around too. Gearing up, you shifted backwards towards the rear seats. Gearing down, you shifted the stick towards the engine. When I drove the auto C3 I constantly geared down when I needed to gear up, and visa-versa too.

The cornering wasn't Citroen comfy or Peugeot sporty, but it was good. Steering was pointy! :) What I mean is it went where expected without concern. In all aspects, it was a damn sight better then my mate's girlfriend's Corolla

Subaru Forester 2.5 X (the base model)

I test drove this because it is in the same price range of what I've been looking at. $25K - $35K mark. One of my requirements is that the back seats fold down nice and flat, so I can put my mountain bikes in there and not have a concern about locking up the car and walking away to pay bills, bank, fill up fuel, visit a mate, shop, etc. Rather then having the bikes on racks in plain sight and easier to take. I also wanted enough room to put my music gear (bass amps, guitars, etc) in the back. I've rarely heard people complain about Subaru. Except one mate who has a Liberty and apparently the engines in those had some known issue, using too much oil. They can sometimes burn 1L of oil per 100kms. He's had three engines put in it. And the last one was working fine for a few thousand km's. Now it's showing the same symptoms as the others did. Subaru knows of the issue, and apparently it's pretty wide spread. But they're basically replacing the engines with engines that have the same issue.

Now, I've got two other mates with Foresters, and their engines are fine. Looking at forums, it appears the Liberty was the only model with the issues. So it shows that Subarus don't share engines (exactly).

Anyway, to the car.... The car had balls but not as much as the capacity depicts, but being new it felt strangled, as if the throttle worked, and it reved all the way, but when driving my mates he said the same thing about his when he first got it, now that it's loosened up it revs very freely and responsively. The power delivery was very smooth. It had decent torque. It was very quiet and smooth. Massive room when the rear seats were down. I didn't have to shift the front seats forwards to get the back seats down (just about all the cars I have looked at needed this). The buttons on the dash were nice, quality feel to them. Steering was very direct and nice. A little body roll, but the Forester is high up compared to a regular road-vehicle.

The clutch was weighty, but very easy to use and the car itself was very easy to drive. I left at home as soon as I got in the car. Everything was in the correct place, and I was familiar with the location of what I needed without having to take my eyes off the road. Besides the C4, this is the only other car that topped my list. Unfortunately, the wife didn't like the C4. And I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be with the HDi.

I think the Forester is the best value for money car that I have test driven so far. The fuel economy isn't what I'd consider great. but looking at the Forester's competition, it's on-par. I considered looking at the Suzuki Grand Vitara. But I think the Subaru has better build for the same price. And at the moment [EDIT: Back then] Subaru is having some nice specials.

SteveC