I went for a test drive today in a touring base model (no sports pkg). Here are some small observations from sitting in the showroom demo and driving the auto 7AT.
1-clutch feels a bit heavy to me (floor demo car was a touring + sport 6MT). Everyone has been saying its light. Maybe I need to work out my legs more...
2-shifter felt great. precise is how I would describe it. Can't comment on vibrations since it was the showroom demo.
3-Interior quality was acceptable for the cost of the base car at $30K. One you start adding touring to the car it becomes over priced, imo.
4-ride quality with the base 18-inch wheels is great for this type of car. BMW-like is how someone else described it in this thread. I'm a little worried about how the 19-inch rims might affect the comfort quality, then again this is a sports car afterall.
5-noise levels were acceptable to me as I've never owned a Lexus or BMW so dont know what it's like to have a quiet ride. it was no more louder than my girlfriend's highlander or my old 2002 Acura TL.
6-Rear view and blind sports didn't bother me too much. I can see moving the mirrors out a little to cover blind spots or getting a convex mirror.
7-acceleration was not as fast as i had hoped. everyone has said it was linear and I agree. because of that you don't get the head jerk acceleration like from turbo charged cars like the subarus or evos. I remember my friends old M3 was also like this.
8-the auto / manual mode seems to work as advertised. didn't really test it as the dealer was situated around a small town so I could not get up in speed to try more gears.
9-at 6K rpm the engine was rough. I was able to push the car once, from 20mph to 60mph and the engine revved to 6K rpm and i had to let go of the gas because it was a 50-mph zone and the engine baulked. the dealer said it would have shifted smoothly if I had continued to give it gas for it to pass 6K rpm but I didn't want to chance getting a ticket for a test drive. his theory was that it shifted down two gears because I let go of the gas, hence this engine braking. call it whatever you want but I think everyone has already read that this engine is rough at high rpms.
10-didn't test braking much as I could not go fast enough to really see how fast they would stop the car
11-didn't test the radio or gadgets since I was more concerned with the drive and feel.
12-rear view mirror is so big it takes up 20% of your front windshield visibility. No joke. Go to the dealership and get into one to see for yourselves.
In conclusion did i like this car? Yes. But I will have to test drive some others first. The main thing that stuck in my mind after the test drive was the high rev issue and somewhat heavy clutch (subjectively heavy) of the showroom model. Overall the car looks great, feels good on the road, is comfortable enough for daily drives, and can go pretty fast (although you wont feel it). I would go with the base 6MT, but the touring seems over priced.
just my 2 cents.
I'm going to try and test drive a 2009 Subaru WRX next. Priced between $25-31k, it may be the poor man's answer to cheap speed (assuming the engine doesn't blow up on you). I was also going to test drive a BMW 135i but rumors of fuel pumps going bad and poor product quality has me leaning towards the 370z even more. i just hope it doesn't start to develop the buzzing/whining or creaking problems that others have reported in other threads.
-H-
|