The reason I divided this into two parts is that people told me that long posts are tiring to read. Thats funny because I can't wait to write more! But thats okay, before you read this part, go have a glass of water or something. GO, NOW!
Alright now that you're back, let me continue whining:
2011 Mazda 3: This was the first Zipcar I drove when I got my membership. Generally, I don't think of Mazda as one of the Jap Giants; Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Mazda's experiments with the Wankel engine and their happy and cute styling in the recent years, don't make them seem a formidable sporty company. But that being said, Toyota and Honda have almost completely backed out of the sporty everyday car market in my opinion. But that's a rant for another time. Remind me to tell you why. The Mazda 3, like almost all other Mazdas look like a little puppy dog which makes girls go "awww" or whatever. The gentle curves of its wheel arches and smiling front grill give it a 'gay and friendly look'. But under that hood hides a 2.5L 4 cylinder engine. That may not sound like much but team that with a semi auto transmission and you can make this puppy morph into a Rottweiler. That being said, unlike the Ford Focus, the Mazda won't be overly eager to flex its muscles by revving unnecessarily. A girl, charmed about its looks, can drive it to the store or salon or wherever it is that girls drive to usually, without worrying about what happens if you shift the gear lever into manual. Now I would be much more specific about how fast this car can go if I had access to a track. But I did notice how quickly I can get off from a Stop sign if I want to. The car will be at 60 mph without you really trying. and if your windows are up you will have to look at the speedometer to realize that. It handles like a champ too. So do I have a complaint about the Mazda? It would have to be the styling. Mazda needs to decide. Sporty or cute? It can go down the Toyota path and get rid of all their excellent sports cars and cater to hippies by bringing out a overrated hybrid, or it can use the last few drops of petroleum left on the planet to raise some hair and race some hearts!
Alright now that you're back, let me continue whining:
2011 Mazda 3: This was the first Zipcar I drove when I got my membership. Generally, I don't think of Mazda as one of the Jap Giants; Honda, Toyota and Nissan. Mazda's experiments with the Wankel engine and their happy and cute styling in the recent years, don't make them seem a formidable sporty company. But that being said, Toyota and Honda have almost completely backed out of the sporty everyday car market in my opinion. But that's a rant for another time. Remind me to tell you why. The Mazda 3, like almost all other Mazdas look like a little puppy dog which makes girls go "awww" or whatever. The gentle curves of its wheel arches and smiling front grill give it a 'gay and friendly look'. But under that hood hides a 2.5L 4 cylinder engine. That may not sound like much but team that with a semi auto transmission and you can make this puppy morph into a Rottweiler. That being said, unlike the Ford Focus, the Mazda won't be overly eager to flex its muscles by revving unnecessarily. A girl, charmed about its looks, can drive it to the store or salon or wherever it is that girls drive to usually, without worrying about what happens if you shift the gear lever into manual. Now I would be much more specific about how fast this car can go if I had access to a track. But I did notice how quickly I can get off from a Stop sign if I want to. The car will be at 60 mph without you really trying. and if your windows are up you will have to look at the speedometer to realize that. It handles like a champ too. So do I have a complaint about the Mazda? It would have to be the styling. Mazda needs to decide. Sporty or cute? It can go down the Toyota path and get rid of all their excellent sports cars and cater to hippies by bringing out a overrated hybrid, or it can use the last few drops of petroleum left on the planet to raise some hair and race some hearts!
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| A happy little puppy that can deliver quite a bite! |
2011 Nissan Sentra: This was the car I drove most recently and boy I was not expecting what I got. As a company, I think of Nissan as the last remaining Japanese car company who can take on German and American cars. It keeps making the Z bigger and bigger. While Honda and Toyota were selling out disgracefully and discontinuing the NSX and the Supra respectively, Nissan brought out a car that would shake the world. The GT-R. Godzilla. Easily the greatest car of recent times. Thats not just me saying it; Google and you'll know. So you can imagine what I was expecting when I got behind the wheel of the Sentra. Of course I knew that this wasn't a Z or a GT-R. I also knew that this costs about half of that of a Z and about 1/6th of that of a GT-R. But as soon as I got in, all the cheap plastic knobs and vents jumped at me. I can safely say that a 14 year older Honda had better craftsmanship than this almost brand new car. The air vents were almost nonadjustable. The stereo display looked like a bedside alarm clock (although this could be Zipcar being cheap). The gear lever looked like it came from an over sized toy car. All this I could have lived with. After all Nissan made a car which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini from 0-60, and costs less than a third of the price of a Lambo. But this one time I turned right on red (as Clarkson says, America's only contribution to the civilized world), and a car was coming down behind me. He wasn't very close but I would hate to make him slow down. What I do at this point step hard on the gas which makes an automatic transmission downshift and give you a burst of acceleration. But nope. Nothing. The Nissan just groaned on at the 20mph accelerating at about 1mph a minute. The guy behind me came right up to my rear bumper expecting I would move faster soon. But nothing so he just changed lanes and overtook me probably thinking I was an old lady. Okay so maybe the Nissan doesn't have that much a sensitive throttle response. But then the gaps between gears are also massive. As James May once spoke of an old BMW Z4 he drove in the middle east, "the gaps between the gears are so big, I could fit an entire gearbox in them." It literally took 4 seconds to change from 2nd to 3rd at 4000 revs. "Change already!", I snapped and my roommate in the passenger seat who was changing the radio stations, looked at me like I was bipolar. "Not you, man, the car!", I explained. I have to say I was thoroughly disappointed. I have never waited so eagerly to stop driving a car as I did with this one!
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| I would rather have an auto rickshaw. well maybe not/ |
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