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Tekne posted:Here's the first Maserati Looks hot, doesn't sound as good as the quattroporte though. Also i think the Gran Tourismo is one of the prettiest cars around 
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Jun 1, 2013 19:11
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TrueChaos posted:I was in a 2013 Hyundai Sonata rental car with the cloth cream/black interior over the last few days and was absolutely blown away by how comfortable a place to be it was. I wasn't driving, so I can't comment on that aspect of it, but the interior materials were great. Everything you touched felt good. New Hyundais and Kias are really great cars. I had a 2010 Kia Optima as a rental for a week when my GTI got totaled. This was the last-gen body style, but it was very comfortable, got good mileage, and the stereo was excellent. Really nice little family sedan. My wife is considering a 2011+ Sonata or 2012+ Optima for her next vehicle.
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Jun 2, 2013 13:50
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I'm in a 2013 sonata rental right now as it happens (at a rest stop, not driving), and it's uncomfortable as hell. Spongy seats with zero lumbar support, so my back is all slouched over. The stereo is weedy, the suspension is wallowy, and the steering is way light. The interior is nice enough, but overall I wouldn't rate the car over the impala I rented last summer.
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Jun 2, 2013 18:55
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:Looks hot, doesn't sound as good as the quattroporte though. Also i think the Gran Tourismo is one of the prettiest cars around It looks like an Infinity G/M series, but in a good way. Sounds not bad.
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Jun 3, 2013 02:06
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Well this is fun, because of how apparently "influential" that website Klout thinks I am, GM is flying me from Montreal to Toronto in 2 weeks to go to Canadian Tire motorsports park for three hours dicking around with a stunt driving trainer in the new Sonic RS, putting me up in a hotel for the night, then giving me the car for four days and I just have to drop it off back in Montreal. Anyone here have one? Apparently the RS is new for this year but from what I'm reading it seems to be just the normal turbo car with leather and bigger wheels.
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Jun 3, 2013 21:49
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DoesNotCompute posted:Well this is fun, because of how apparently "influential" that website Klout thinks I am, GM is flying me from Montreal to Toronto in 2 weeks to go to Canadian Tire motorsports park for three hours dicking around with a stunt driving trainer in the new Sonic RS, putting me up in a hotel for the night, then giving me the car for four days and I just have to drop it off back in Montreal. Yep. At least they look nice and it's turbo. I'm sure you'll wring some fun out of it.
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Jun 3, 2013 23:22
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TrueChaos posted:I was in a 2013 Hyundai Sonata rental car with the cloth cream/black interior over the last few days and was absolutely blown away by how comfortable a place to be it was. I wasn't driving, so I can't comment on that aspect of it, but the interior materials were great. Everything you touched felt good. Linedance posted:I'm in a 2013 sonata rental right now as it happens (at a rest stop, not driving), and it's uncomfortable as hell. Spongy seats with zero lumbar support, so my back is all slouched over. The stereo is weedy, the suspension is wallowy, and the steering is way light. The interior is nice enough, but overall I wouldn't rate the car over the impala I rented last summer. I'm apparently squarely in the middle of you guys on the rental Sonata. I had one when I was in Indy for the 500 and overall I'd say it was a good car, but it seemed to miss on some of the details. The seat fabric itself just felt...strange to the touch, and I still can't figure out what the patterning on it was supposed to be. The default throttle programming drove me loving insane since it's set up to open big time on tip-in, to make the car feel faster than it is. Fuel mileage seemed lacking when it barely racked up any better than my larger CR-V.
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Jun 4, 2013 00:15
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IOwnCalculus posted:I'm apparently squarely in the middle of you guys on the rental Sonata. I had one when I was in Indy for the 500 and overall I'd say it was a good car, but it seemed to miss on some of the details. The seat fabric itself just felt...strange to the touch, and I still can't figure out what the patterning on it was supposed to be. The default throttle programming drove me loving insane since it's set up to open big time on tip-in, to make the car feel faster than it is. Fuel mileage seemed lacking when it barely racked up any better than my larger CR-V. I think that's the lovely cvt transmission. I haven't got much experience with cvt's, but this one is definitely worse than the one in the Honda fit. The rubber band throttle is severe. Stomp on it an you've got 1+ seconds before anything happens, then the tach jumps to max all of a sudden and the beast lurches forward. I ended up rolling up my jacket to stuff behind my back to deal with the horrible seats. My partner also doesn't like how deep you sit in the passenger side as well (passenger seat non-height adjustable). All in all, 1 star, would not rent again.
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Jun 4, 2013 00:50
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IOwnCalculus posted:I'm apparently squarely in the middle of you guys on the rental Sonata. I had one when I was in Indy for the 500 and overall I'd say it was a good car, but it seemed to miss on some of the details. The seat fabric itself just felt...strange to the touch, and I still can't figure out what the patterning on it was supposed to be. The default throttle programming drove me loving insane since it's set up to open big time on tip-in, to make the car feel faster than it is. Fuel mileage seemed lacking when it barely racked up any better than my larger CR-V. You were in Indy for the 500? You jerk! If I'd known that I would've actually gone to the race stalked you through the city.
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Jun 4, 2013 02:28
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:Also i think the Gran Tourismo is one of the prettiest cars around I was biking on a rail trail in a kinda rich area of the state on Friday and one passed me at a road crossing. I don't give a poo poo its not as nice a drive as a Ferrari or Porsche. It's drop dead sexy and sounds amazing.
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Jun 4, 2013 03:12
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Linedance posted:I think that's the lovely cvt transmission. I haven't got much experience with cvt's, but this one is definitely worse than the one in the Honda fit. The rubber band throttle is severe. Stomp on it an you've got 1+ seconds before anything happens, then the tach jumps to max all of a sudden and the beast lurches forward. Perhaps I'm revealing my ignorance on this, but why would this happen? Good automatic transmissions can physically shift gears faster than the blink of an eye; certainly, a well-designed CVT should be able to adjust to the proper gear ratio in a competitive time. I even thought that CVTs had been banned from certain motorsports because they were too effective. Given many of the rather amazing strides we've seen made in many consumer-level cars, I just can't believe that CVTs continue to be so unforgivably lovely. Is it purposely being tuned for people who don't like driving? Is this the sort of thing that would be fixable with a handheld tuner or similar?
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Jun 4, 2013 05:01
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Probably the weird tuning is for emissions and fuel mileage. Delayed throttle response and going straight to open throttle are pretty common in that respect. CVTs also have a lot of technical limitations, and their increased complexity might mean that corners are cut in terms of things like shift speed in order to control costs. Though I suppose going to full rev and then staying there is actually ideal CVT behavior.
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Jun 4, 2013 05:07
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What car are we talking about here? No version of the current Sonata uses a CVT, not even the hybrid. The Honda Fit is not sold in NA with a CVT either, only the Japanese model, maybe EU too.
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Jun 4, 2013 05:37
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Throatwarbler posted:What car are we talking about here? No version of the current Sonata uses a CVT, not even the hybrid. The Honda Fit is not sold in NA with a CVT either, only the Japanese model, maybe EU too. Hmm, seems you're right. I assumed it was a cvt on the sonata just because of the way it performed. The tach stays at a set rpm and varies very little during acceleration or coasting. A mid-throttle input causes the tach to jump to midway and hold there, and full throttle causes it to rev extremely quickly to redline and hold there. Maybe it's just the tach not necessarily telling the truth about what the engine is doing, or just some heavy handed computer control in the transmission. Whatever it is, it is pretty bad. I have been using the "eco" setting, however. I don't know what the current Fit uses, but I test drove a mid '00s UK model that definitely came with a cvt. Another gripe, though related more to the car being rental spec, is that the sonata really needs parking sensors or a rear camera. Rear visibility is really bad for maneuvering and you can't tell where the back of the car ends. Backing into parking spaces requires a second person to check your clearance. Owning the car would probably be different, because eventually you'd get a sense of the dimensions, but initially you have no idea and no way to tell how long the car is at the back.
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Jun 4, 2013 14:27
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Linedance posted:Whatever it is, it is pretty bad. I have been using the "eco" setting, however. Problem spotted. Seriously, "eco" settings that remap the throttle and mess with shift points are usually pretty bad, and are probably the cause of your complaints of weird throttle response and odd shifting. I say this because I've rented a Sonata before too and thought the actual driving part was pretty unremarkable but not bad.
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Jun 4, 2013 14:35
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Cream_Filling posted:Problem spotted. This. I switched off eco mode and it started behaving exactly like a normal automatic. Now I only have the seats and rear visibility to complain about! 
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Jun 4, 2013 22:19
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See, I actually preferred it in Eco mode, because it got rid of the ridiculous throttle sensitivity. Same reason I like it on my CR-V. I get the feeling a lot of automakers are getting away with four cylinders in more cars where V6s used to be, because they're using DBW so that even though you think you're just giving it a little bit, you're actually getting half throttle. On the CR-V at least, Eco mode does make the part-throttle shift points ridiculously low (<2500RPM most times) but if you goose it a bit, it will hold the shifts even with Eco mode still on, and WOT feels the same whether or not that switch is enabled.
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Jun 5, 2013 05:55
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My wife's commuter car is a Prius and this is the same thing basically. Eco mode just changes throttle response so that pushing half way on the pedal approximates half way on the throttle. I think Eco mode on the Prius might be a little more aggressive when it comes to shutting off the ICE, but the only really noticeable thing is throttle response. I prefer having more granularity in my throttle control, not less.
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Jun 5, 2013 18:22
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IOwnCalculus posted:See, I actually preferred it in Eco mode, because it got rid of the ridiculous throttle sensitivity. Same reason I like it on my CR-V. I get the feeling a lot of automakers are getting away with four cylinders in more cars where V6s used to be, because they're using DBW so that even though you think you're just giving it a little bit, you're actually getting half throttle. It could be this or partly this, but couldn't it also be using DBW tuning as an efficiency and/or emissions thing? I vaguely remember that it's preferable for an engine (especially a high-compression engine) to be at WOT or close to WOT versus part throttle.
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Jun 5, 2013 19:00
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Cream_Filling posted:It could be this or partly this, but couldn't it also be using DBW tuning as an efficiency and/or emissions thing? I vaguely remember that it's preferable for an engine (especially a high-compression engine) to be at WOT or close to WOT versus part throttle. Kinda sorta but not really - yes, in a gasoline engine a lot of the inefficiency is the pumping loss by pulling a vacuum against the mostly-closed throttle plate. However, most gasoline engines also enrich the mixture considerably during heavy throttle application - from the ideal 14.7:1 to around 12:1 (or 10:1 if you're Mazda  ).I do see better mileage on Eco mode on the CR-V, though I didn't drive the Sonata long enough in Eco mode to say for sure on it. I also manage to continually forget my biggest gripe about the Sonata. Blue loving backlights with lovely diffusion. When hopping in that after a long flight, the uneven blue backlighting on the controls made them absolutely unreadable. It's like they didn't diffuse it enough so that instead of seeing an evenly lit "CRUISE" you saw a bright spot of light roughly shaped like "RU" and the rest of the word considerably darker. At a glance down it all looked like just blue specks.
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Jun 5, 2013 19:24
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Blue lighting is probably the worst loving thing ever. It's the perfect example of placing dumb fads over function. This stuff has been studied pretty extensively due to its military applications, so we know blue light causes eye strain and is bad for your night vision. Yet people still do it. I also dislike headlights with too high color temperatures - there's a reason selective yellow is a thing.
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Jun 5, 2013 19:34
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Bright blue/white is horrible for night vision, yet everyone seems to be doing it. The new 3 series has white instruments during the day that turn red at night, which is probably the best compromise.
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Jun 5, 2013 19:35
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I had a Kia Rio hatch in the UK for two weeks last month and drove it from London to Iona and back, and was very impressed with everything about it. Of course it had a 6-speed. 
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Jun 5, 2013 19:35
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I miss my old 80's Accord's Green numbers orange needles setup. Do any new cars have that look these days?
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Jun 5, 2013 19:48
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sanchez posted:Bright blue/white is horrible for night vision, yet everyone seems to be doing it. The new 3 series has white instruments during the day that turn red at night, which is probably the best compromise. As a F30 scumbag I can attest that this is a nice feature. 
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Jun 5, 2013 20:36
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sanchez posted:Bright blue/white is horrible for night vision, yet everyone seems to be doing it. The new 3 series has white instruments during the day that turn red at night, which is probably the best compromise. After a bunch of experimenting with the Ford® MyColor™ settings in my Mustang, that's what I settled on too.
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Jun 5, 2013 22:25
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Better than my Protege. Red-backlit numbers against a silver faceplate. Dark-on-light lettering during the day, light-on dark at night means that with the headlights on at dusk, there's an outside light level where the contrast basically drops to zero and I have to look close at the gauges to see what the number reading is.
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Jun 5, 2013 22:29
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Cocoa Crispies posted:After a bunch of experimenting with the Ford® MyColor™ settings in my Mustang, that's what I settled on too. Yeah, me too. Red's the only sensible way to go for lighting things at night. Ships and aircraft commonly have red lighting in the bridge/cockpit for the same reason.
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Jun 5, 2013 22:31
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All the instruments and controls are red at night and my friend's Mercedes is an orange-red at night.
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Jun 5, 2013 22:55
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sanchez posted:Bright blue/white is horrible for night vision, yet everyone seems to be doing it. The new 3 series has white instruments during the day that turn red at night, which is probably the best compromise. I still prefer the always red-on-black gauges from my Mazdaspeed3, but white-on-black is fine as long as they go to lengths to make it readable without making it blindingly bright. Honda seems to have gotten that right on the CR-V, since nearly everything that lights up is white on black, but done so in a large and crisp enough font that it needs relatively low light intensity to be easily read. They also seem to get 'less is more'. Both the CR-V and the Sonata have a little display between the tach and speedo, like so many cars have these days. In the Sonata, it's a little monochrome LCD, but it's low resolution and somewhat poor contrast so everything looks like a mushy anti-aliased mess. On the CR-V, they actually went with a cheaper segmented LCD - but with some nicely-cut actual letters for the labels, so the only part that looks like a segmented LCD is the actual digits in the odometer / trip / MPG / etc. So even though it's a vastly cheaper solution to implement, it looks better.
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Jun 6, 2013 00:00
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Cream_Filling posted:Blue lighting is probably the worst loving thing ever. It's the perfect example of placing dumb fads over function. This stuff has been studied pretty extensively due to its military applications, so we know blue light causes eye strain and is bad for your night vision. Yet people still do it. I also dislike headlights with too high color temperatures - there's a reason selective yellow is a thing. Yea but race car https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAvN0EzEacU
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Jun 6, 2013 04:47
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Muffinpox posted:Yea but race car https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAvN0EzEacU Which also has headlights far in excess of what would ever be allowed on public roads, obviating the need for night vision in the first place.
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Jun 6, 2013 04:58
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Muffinpox posted:Yea but race car https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAvN0EzEacU They at least have some excuse because blue-green is by far the brightest color for EL panels by a much larger margin than between different colors of LEDs, and you need the backlight on that lcd to be visible under different lighting conditions. I'm assuming there's some sort of engineering issue why they are sticking with EL backlighting instead of LEDs. What looks like a blue LED backlit display on the steering wheel, though, is arguably still bad, but maybe this is also because it's an off the shelf component and it might be some type of LCD that just shows blue instead of it being blue leds.
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Jun 6, 2013 05:20
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Looks like the entire interior is fired up with a blue led of some sort, probably so he can see the map on the steering wheel.
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Jun 6, 2013 15:19
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Keyser S0ze posted:Looks like the entire interior is fired up with a blue led of some sort, probably so he can see the map on the steering wheel. There were a few cars at Le Mans that had that, mostly the Ferraris, this one was the brightest.  
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Jun 6, 2013 16:22
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They say blue light keeps you awake by inhibiting melatonin production, etc. Maybe that's why.
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Jun 6, 2013 16:28
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They should start lining the edges of race tracks with bright rear end led light strips. Red for the right hand side of the track, yellow for left hand side. That way on 24 hour races the edges of the track are easier to identify.
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Jun 6, 2013 18:26
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They should also paint FZero speed up chevrons leading up to crests.
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Jun 6, 2013 19:23
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Coredump posted:They should start lining the edges of race tracks with bright rear end led light strips. Red for the right hand side of the track, yellow for left hand side. That way on 24 hour races the edges of the track are easier to identify. quote:They should also paint FZero speed up chevrons leading up to crests. I would stay up all night and watch any 24 hour race that did that.
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Jun 6, 2013 19:27
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http://tvr.co.uk/  I guess earlier it said "never say never"
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Jun 6, 2013 19:38
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