CIRCULATING IN WANGARATTA, BENALLA, MYRTLEFORD, BRIGHT, MT BEAUTY, BEECHWORTH, YACKANDANDAH, RUTHERGLEN, CHILTERN AND DISTRICTS
NORTH EAST
May 29, 2015
available online - wangarattachronicle.com.au
PRINTED FORTNIGHTLY — VOLUME 474
Classy Sonata Storypage3
MAZDA’S BABY: It is the best drive of the company’s passenger range.
Mazda2 really is an excellent little car M
azda’s 2 has been doing the business in the light car segment for a long, long time. The previous car felt like it had been around for yonks, almost as long as Toyota’s seeminglyunchanging Yaris. The old car was quite good, but shared the failings of its bigger brothers, namely sub-par noise suppression and some dodgy interior materials. Mazda has slowly been sorting that out across its entire passenger range, with big gains in the Mazda6, the Mazda3 and CX SUVs.
By PETER ANDERSON The new ‘2 has to tread the line between affordability and respectability in a fiercely fought part of the market. At $16,990, the base model Neo automatic is $2000 more than the manual, comfortably under-cutting most of its French and German rivals, while also crowding the more expensive versions of cars like the Mitsubishi Mirage. It’s about right when compared with its compatriots. Your money buys you a four-speaker stereo
with Bluetooth and USB, airconditioning, cloth seats, keyless entry and start, power windows all round and a basic black interior. The wheels are steel but have reasonably attractive covers that make you look twice to check they aren’t actually alloys. When new, anyway. There are just two options - the very pretty Soul Red metallic for an uncommonly reasonable $200 and Smart City Brake Support for $400. Kodo design is a terrific look on almost everything Mazda makes. There’s some lovely
creasing and surfacing on the ‘2 that, if the designers had got carried away, could look busy. But in typical Mazda style, it’s restrained, resulting in a fine-looking little car. The chrome grille surround and bodycoloured bits and pieces ensure that you don’t look like a cheapskate. Inside is well-constructed, with a hardy cloth trim that polarised opinion. Some liked it, some found it a bit coarse but all agreed the front seats were especially comfortable, with good adjustment options.
Continued page 2
NORTH EAST
2
May 29, 2015
NORTH EAST
SOLD
Selling your car has never been easier or cheaper!
CLASSIFIEDS HYUNDAI i20, 2012, manual, red, 38,000 km, excellent condition, town use only, reg (ZIV780), $11,500. Ph 0488 136 415. 2011 Holden Cruze manual, grey, (YJX240), 85,000km, leather, heated seats, 12 months rego, alloys, cruise, regularly serviced. $11,990. Ph 0418 129 367.
FORD Ranger 2012 XLT 4x4, ARB bullbar, steel tray, excellent condition, full service history, 120,000km, RWC, Reg (ZCV234), $40,000. Ph 0419 523 587.
SOLD
WHITE Mitsubishi Magna reg. 27/3/2016 (RCU090). 294,000km, log book, regularly serviced, major service just done. Manual. $1600 ono. Ph. 0449 088 044.
ALUMINIUM dinghy Savage, 12ft, $450. Ph 0407 996 098.
4WD camper trailer, good canvas, new tarp, independent suspension, Queen bed, good condition. $3500. Ph 0428 335 919.
SUBARU Brumby GL, 1992, 123,743 k's, reg (NVH842), excellent condition. $4500 ono. Ph 5721 4669, 0402 146 603.
1969 Toyota ute, FJ45, PTO winch, no rust, 105,000 genuine miles, engine no: 287064, no roadworthy, $3000. Ph (03) 5766 6371. 1983 Toyota HJ60, 4x4, no reg, (ZZV719), $750. Ph 0407 996 098.
FORD ute, RTV, 2005, 86,000 km, reg. till Jan 16, (TYD819), excellent condition, as new tyres, $12,500 ono. Ph 5722 2830.
VS ‘97 wagon, new tyres, brakes, battery. Less than 200,000 km, (ZWH462). Drive away $1800. Ph 0426 834 280.
HOLDEN Combo 1999, low kms, good condition, ideal tradies van, reg (PSX036), $1750. Ph 0400 215 636.
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2000 Holden Rodeo 4X4 Turbo Diesel Manual, 229,000kms, bull bar, tow pack, canopy, roof racks, 9 mths rego (WGY976), good tyres, runs well. $6200. Priced to sell. Ph 0417 322 488.
Call Tony 0418 132 056 Wangaratta.
Mazda2 really is an excellent little car founder Colin Chapman’s advice with their range - ”adding lightness,wherever it can be found”. The result is a fantastic car. The low mass results in a good power to weight ratio and a well-matched transmission. It begs to be thrown around - the electric steering’s weighting is city-light but not vague like the Mazda6’s. The ‘2 loves changing direction, hopping over roundabouts and darting into gaps. Sport mode is a bit pointless as it just makes the engine rev too high and make a racket. There are lots of good small cars out there now, but the Mazda2 has lifted its game to now lead the pack, beating even Renault’s Clio for on-road fun. Where the Mazda really impresses is in overall refinement. The old car had an excellent ride for its size but even small bumps sent a “clonk” through the cabin, an irritating feature of all of Mazda’s hatches and sedans. While the Mazda3 and ‘6 are better than their forebears, the ‘2 has finally banished that failing to history - it’s so quiet in normal driving, you could be fooled into thinking they’ve dropped the shell on to a Peugeot 208s rolling gear. Piling in the people doesn’t really agree with the engine, but the ride maintains composure and if you forfeit the traffic light drag race, nobody will be any the wiser. Good looking, up-to-date tech (the old model was well behind the eight-ball for tech toys) and great to drive, the Mazda2 is an excellent little car. It’s main competitor in the race for number one, the dowdy, ageing Hyundai i20 shouldn’t stand a chance against it. With a massive improvement in every area, the seven year wait for this new Mazda2 has been worth it.
From page 1 Front seat occupants will also find things less cramped than the old ‘2 - the front wheels have been shifted forward 80mm, giving a less 70s-era Alfa Romeo driving position. The rear seat is obviously tight for legroom but has good headroom and a comfortable bench, but almost no storage. Mazda sadly decided to put the same instrument pack as its bigger cars. The ‘2 shares the silly, too-small central dial with a pair of ‘wings’ that cram too much info into not enough space. There’s two drinkholders up front, a few cubbies for odds and ends and somewhere to put your phone, too. The okay-sized boot (250 litres), also has a cargo cover. Six airbags, ABS, brake assist, stability and traction controls, hill holder, load-limited and pretensioned front seat belts. The Mazda2 was awarded four EuroNCAP stars. The four speaker stereo is perfectly adequate and features USB and Bluetooth. The LCD screen is easy to read but isn’t exactly super high tech. Having said that, it does the job well. Mazda’s engines are impressive and this new one, while buzzing like a demented bee under load (they all do), it produces a handy 79 kW of power and 139 Nm of torque. These numbers look better when viewed against a highly-commendable kerb weight of just 1045 kg. Mazda claims a combined fuel consumption figure of just 5.5 litres per 100 kilometres. Given our numbers of 6.7 L/100km in an enthusiastically driven week, that looks more than achievable around town. The automatic has six gears to choose from. Mazda seems to have stolen a bit of Lotus
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NORTH EAST
3
May 29, 2015
Hyundai Sonata adds more style BY DEREK OGDEN
K
ey changes to the Sonata have put the seventh generation of the Hyundai sedan in harmony with its classy upscale cousin, the Genesis. Not only that, the car also takes advantage of some firstrate Australian engineering input. So what’s not to like about the car? Not much, really. Maybe the old-fashioned ignition key with no keyless entry and engine start; the awkward foot-operated parking brake in lieu of an electronic one, or lack of factory satellite navigation in the entry-level model. The new Hyundai Sonata comes in three variants – Active, Elite and Premium. Active is powered by a 2.4-litre naturally aspirated fourcylinder engine, while Elite and Premium take advantage of a 2.0-litre turbocharged four. All make use of a six-speed automatic transmission. Pricewise, the cars score well, with the Active 2.4 GDi opening the innings at $29,990, plus onroad costs. First wicket down is the Elite 2.0 Turbo GDi at $36,990, while tail-ender, the Premium 2.0 Turbo GDi, follows on at $41,990. Hyundai owners benefit from lifetime capped price servicing, Australia’s first five-year unlimited kilometre warranty, a three-year MapCare Plan, complimentary roadside assist for 12 months on, plus 1500km complimentary first service. As mentioned, the Sonata has taken styling cues from Hyundai’s luxury Genesis saloon, featuring Fluidic Sculpture 2.0, the second tranche of the South Korean manufacturer’s award-winning advanced design philosophy derived from nature.
SONATA ACTIVE: It is following the leader... at a distance. The sedan has the appearance of European luxury with a pronounced grille and wider front air intake making way for smooth flanks and Sonata’s signature beltline. Its predecessor’s coupe-like roofline is continued but is now complemented by larger side windows. Seventeen-inch twin-spoke alloy wheels fill out their surrounds. The car carries a full-size spare. A flat underbody enables the Sonata to come up with sports car-style aerodynamics in the form of a 0.27 co-efficient of friction, which successfully does its bit for fuel economy. As with the shape, Hyundai has gone all philosophical with the interior, designed with three core Human Machine Interface principles in mind: safety, by minimising visual distraction; simplicity, by presenting concise and relevant information; and intuitiveness, through improved user interfaces. Quality cloth upholstery, soft-touch materials on the dashboard top and door trims, as well as textured metallicpainted garnish panels complete the stylish interior decor.
With 25mm more rear legroom over its predecessor, the new Sonata is up with its Australian-market competitors, such as Camry and Mazda6, in most dimensions. Convenience abounds. A nifty touch is the mechanism for folding the rear seat backs to increase the 510 litres of luggage space. A couple of tabs attached to the boot roof can be pulled to release the seat back locks while standing behind the vehicle, that’s after unlocking the boot electronically with the key fob. Hyundai Active comes with a touchscreen Multimedia System with 4.3-inch colour display and offers a wide range of connectivity, including USB, AUX, digital iPod, and Bluetooth, and six speakers, including two front tweeters. A 3.5-inch OLED display among the dash instruments shows average fuel consumption, distance to empty, service intervals and a range of vehicle settings. The 2.4-litre Theta-II Gasoline Direct injection (GDi) engine of the Active produces 138 kW of power at 6000 rpm and 241 Nm of torque at 4000rpm, the latter tuned for optimum low-end torque, resulting in improved
driveability and take-off. Powertrain engineers also trimmed the engine’s peak power to shift its band downwards for better low-rev responsiveness, while Hyundai’s own electronically controlled six-speed Shiftronic automatic transmission with lock-up torque converter and sequential manual shift mode has been added to the mix. A rigid, energy absorbing body structure, plus plenty of active and passive safety measures, including vehicle stability management, have
won the Sonata a five-star ANCAP safety rating. The reversing camera projects a clear image on the multimedia/navigation screen in the centre stack, while rear parking sensors indicate any obstacles in the dash cluster display. Rated as a medium-size car in Australia, ironically in the USA the new Sonata is officially classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a large one, which puts a friendlier light on the fuel figures, a rated 8.3 litres per 100 kilometres on
the combined urban / highway cycle. The test car wasn’t exactly economical, it ranged in the low to mid-teens litres per 100 kilometres tripping around town and 6.4 litres on a highway run. The above results were gathered in the car’s Drive normal mode, which can be altered by flicking between Eco, Normal and Sport with a switch on the centre console. Through powertrain management, performance is altered accordingly. Normal produces a comfortable, cruisy kind of going; Eco is the ‘guilt trip’ default mode aimed at cutting fuel consumption, hence nasty emissions; while Sport adds revs and noise to the engine, plus a little more get up and go. I’m ambivalent about it all. Fuel consumption and emissions are greatly a matter of how the driver behaves with his or her foot on the gas pedal, anyway; and Sport, unless it can get the true car lover’s heart racing, is wasted. So, Hyundai, why bother? A calm, largely noise-free cabin, is the result of increased use of sound deadening material in the dashboard, more sound absorption materials under the floorpan, and a new underbody tray, which helps reduce unwanted road row and aerodynamically helps on saving petrol. Hyundai may regret having made such play on similarities between the Sonata and its superstar Genesis, for while it has some of the outward glamour of the would-be automotive A-lister, the new mid-size sedan is short on the technical brain power and clobber needed to cosset demanding owners. Well, what do we expect for half the price? It’s up to the market to focus on looks rather than the latter.
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NORTH EAST
4
May 29, 2015
Suzuki Celerio: a size up in class BY EWAN KENNEDY
I
t used to be called the Suzuki Alto, now it’s the Suzuki Celerio. Why the new name? Because the Japanese feel that significantly improved products deserve a new name. Virtually all-new from the ground up Suzuki Celerio is bigger, smoother and quieter than the Alto. Indeed in many ways Celerio feels more like a car from the next class up. Rather than feeling like a $12,990 driveaway car it edges into the market segment occupied by cars with price tags starting at $16,000 plus on-roads. You wouldn’t exactly say there’s stretch-out limo-like comfort for four adults in a Suzuki Celerio, but try for yourself and you will find it comes closer than you might expect. The doors are large and
open wide so even those who are getting on in years will find ingress and egress simple. Boot space has been trimmed to 254 litres in capacity to make space for exceptional rear legroom, but it will still take a medium-large suitcase. The low loading lip makes for simple loading. Naturally, the rear seat backrests fold down to give added room. With everything down and the Celerio loaded to the roof there’s just over 1000 litres on offer. Celerio’s power comes from a 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine developing just 50 kW of power, and 90 Nm of torque at 3000rpm. Obviously this is a long way from being a sporting hatch, but the outputs are enough to push along a car weighing a mere 830 kilograms of car (add 60kg if you specify the auto) along briskly enough to keep
SUZUKI CELERIO: Its voluminous body should attract many buyers looking for a practical small car. up with the traffic. Hills and heavy loads require that you keep working at the five-speed manual gearbox or Celerio struggles. Six speeds would have been nice but keep in mind the ultralow price.
The automatic is a CVT with all that means in the way of added efficiency because it can keep the engine at optimum revs all the time. The auto adds $1500 to the price. The manual is so easy to use,
and the enjoyment in buzzing the little three-cylinder unit well into the rev range is really good fun. Ride comfort is generally good, though big bumps and dips can catch Celerio out at times.
Handling is competent, with light steering and the car having a tight 9.4-metre turning circle. The body has a tight feeling that’s almost European, something that’s not easy to do in a light vehicle of this size. Suzuki has long been regarded as a global expert in small cars, Celerio takes it one step further. Impressive. A hard cornering sports machine it’s not, but it’s unlikely the typical owner will get anywhere near the car’s limits. And if they do sophisticated electronic aids will get it all back onto a safe track again. Build quality is high from the Suzuki factory in Thailand the Celerio is definitely a car that should sit high on your list of possible choices in the lowcost field. Indeed, you may to care to add it to your list of cars a size up - and save yourself several thousand dollars.
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