Car Reviewing

[Valleriani]

Nice reviews so far

[Cheeseman]

2014 FMC C-T RUNNER
The C-t Runner is a supermini from the Portuguese manufacturer FMC. It has a little 0.9-litre 4-cylinder turbocharged engine and is attempting to claim the supermini throne as well as the fuel economy king throne. How good is it?

C-t Runner-1.png (688.37 KiB) Viewed 5752 times

C-t Runner-2.png (701.36 KiB) Viewed 5752 times

Performance
This car uses a tiny 0.9-litre turbocharged engine produces 79 bhp @ 5800 rpm and 90 lb-ft @ 3300 rpm, which generally speaking is enough for a small car. The car however weighs an awful lot more than the majority of its rivals at 1200 kg, meaning that it doesn't have the best performance. The 0-62 mph sprint takes 13.2 seconds and the top speed is 111 mph. Because of its minute size and the fact it uses a turbocharger, the engine needs a few revs in order to be able to get going, but once it does it is brisk enough for most situations. Overtaking does require downshifting, but cruising along on the motorways is more than happily done in sixth gear and accelerating in any other situation doesn't require massive revs as the turbo starts to work at roughly 2500 rpm. The engine is reasonably smooth, but it can take a while before there is acceleration after you have put your foot down on the pedal to the right.

Ride Comfort
The C-t Runner does a reasonable job at soaking up bumps. At low speeds the ride can feel a little bit firm and can get a bit fidgety over poor surfaces, but to be honest it does do a reasonable job at ironing out the imperfections in the road surface. At higher speeds the ride becomes very smooth. The suspension does its business whilst the occupants inside barely feel a thing. On poorer surfaces at high speed it is even reasonably good and when there are big bumps in the road it doesn't take that long for the car to settle down. It does bounce a little bit, but it isn't going to make anybody feel queasy. The body roll is kept fairly well under control too.

Handling
The C-t Runner handles pretty well too considering the good ride comfort. The car has an incredible amount of grip and can go around corners as fast as some sports cars and feels reasonably sporty. The steering is set up just right and the car remains reasonably flat around the corners which is a nice confidence boost on top of the fact it has grip in abundance. Although the car does achieve some sort of a sporty feeling when pushed, it doesn't quite feel as sporty as some of the best handling cars in the category though.

Refinement
The C-t Runner couldn't be more refined and wouldn't go amiss in the most luxurious of cars. The engine is almost impossible to hear at idle and even more so when cruising along, but the most impressive thing is that you can barely hear it when accelerating as well. Wind and road noise is kept completely under control at all speeds as well. You know it is good when at motorway speeds you can't hear a single thing the car is doing and you can see that the engine is revving at just over 3000 rpm and you are travelling at 80 mph.

Equipment
This car doesn't come particularly well equipped. This is a bit like the Lystex Amatista when it comes to it. Everything you expect to see in a supermini is there such as air-conditioning, radio, CD player etc. but no more than that. On top of this, there is only what you expect there to be when it comes to safety equipment as well and the same goes for driver aids. It is all rather average and not special in this area.

Quality
The interior of the C-t Runner is poor and almost got just 1 star. The interior on the inside looks like it is going to fall to bits in next to no time. The plastics used on the inside are all extremely cheap feeling and fell hard and rough. In the upper areas there are just masses or rough and scratchy feeling grey plastics that look dreadful, and when you look in the areas that aren't as visible or that are hidden away, the plastics become so fragile you could break them or make them snap off simply by putting some pressure on them, and on top of that there are huge gaps between panels and so rough and sharp looking edges. On the plus side, the dials and instruments are good looking and the buttons and controls feel reasonable.

Reliability
This is another area where the car excels massively. The engine in this car has been through extensive testing and so far it is the best we have seen. The engine is capable, according to the manufacturer, of over 50000 miles without needing any servicing (on average, some fare better than others). When you look at the engine it does look extremely well put together and over 100 hours of work is put into every engine. The electronics are brand new and should therefore be very reliable. The interior plastics are very prone to breaking and falling apart, but we found out that they are so cheap to replace it doesn't really make much difference.

Running Costs
This is another area where the C-t Runner very nearly scraped itself a 5-star rating and there was only one thing holding us back from giving it. The engine is extremely efficient. The car manages to achieve a whopping 71 mpg and emits just 92 grams of carbon dioxide every kilometre, therefore meaning that fuel bills are exceptionally low. The insurance doesn't come to too much either thanks to the small engine and very cheap interior (the turbocharger does make it a bit more expensive though). The one thing that stopped us from giving this car the 5-star rating though was the servicing costs, which are just too much for a car like this

Safety
The C-t Runner could do with being a bit better in this area. The safety tech that it comes with, as mentioned in equipment, is only what you expect to be seeing in a car like this, in other words, it meets the minimum requirements. There are airbags, yes, but not many, and there aren't any special safety systems to save you in the event of having a crash. It does come with electronic stability management, which is a plus, yet misses out on traction control, which is a bit weird because most other manufacturers do it the other way round when they only have one of the two.

OVERALL
For: Costs peanuts to run, astounding refinement, bulletproof reliability
Against: Ghastly interior quality, average equipment and safety

The FMC C-t Runner is a very reasonable small hatchback that excels in many areas and fails in a couple of others. The very good ratings make up for the areas where it hasn't done so well, yet the interior could simply do with a little bit of improving. King of fuel economy? Yes. King of superminis? Not quite so sure.

[UltimateBMWfan]

Congrats on the cool Idea! I'd think that if/when this picks up, more people would be needed to offset the workload

Looks great so far, very detailed! Keep up the good work mate.

EDIT: What are you doing in terms of extra engines within a car? will you just test one, or will you test all of them?

[USDMFTW]

Looking foward to mine and the rest of the reviews!

[Cheeseman]

Congrats on the cool Idea! I'd think that if/when this picks up, more people would be needed to offset the workload

Yes, most likely.

EDIT: What are you doing in terms of extra engines within a car? will you just test one, or will you test all of them?

I have already done a review like this, the Morgan. If you send in the whole range of engines it will be all under one review. What I will then try to do is pick the engine best suited to the car in the bit I do after the cons and pros, something I didn't do with the Morgan because I was completely unsure.

[KielEire]

I would be more than happy to help you Cheeseman! I am looking to become a lot more active on the forum. PM me if you have any questions for me.

[Pleb]

I'd also be willing to help out when you need it.

[EnryGT5]

I'd like to help you too, so that your list of cars to review doesn't get super long

[Cheeseman]

Just a quick thing I would like to put in here:

Firstly, apologies for there being no reviews today, but I haven't been feeling my best again. Hopefully things will pick up again tomorrow so I can catch up on the huge amount of reviews that are coming in.

Secondly, I would like to thank everybody. Those who sent there reviews in, those who have said kind words about my idea and also to the devs for giving us this wonderful game that allows me to do this and also for mentioning me in a post on Facebook. I feel extremely honoured and I can't thank you all enough.

Finally, I will sooner or later be wanting people to join the reviewing team as the work is piling up and things are only going to get wilder. As soon as I am ready for people to join I will let you know here on this thread on what I what people to do and how to apply (this sounds like I am the boss of a real company here )

That's the random rant over. Thanks again everybody!

[nialloftara]

Good luck CEO of Cheeseman's Auto Review and and feel better!

[Manche]

Get well soon Cheesy (on a personal note I'm a bag of nerves about my luxobarge)

[utopian201]

Maybe when we have enough, we could make roundups or group comparos?


The Morgan: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4044&hilit=FMC&start=10#p34785
Lystex Amatista: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4044&p=34353&hilit=lystex#p34353
FMC C-T Runner: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4044&p=35486&hilit=morgan#p35424
Montes Urban: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4044&p=35136&hilit=montes+urban#p35136

[UltimateBMWfan]

Would definitely be fun to do group comparisons. Car expos would be a great idea too! I'd be willing to setup something every month/few months where new cars could be sent in, some allowed to be driven, and others not.

[KielEire]

Like Like Like Like Like!!!!!! LIKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Paid for by KielEire.
I am KielEire and I approve this message.

[Daffyflyer]

Maybe when we have enough, we could make roundups or group comparos?

That's pretty goddamned awesome..