Car Reviewing

[vmo]

Nice idea. I shall try to implement this once I have enough cars to do it with

Anyone can make a review of my car, please?

Only I will be able to do the review as I am the only one with the "formula". I will do your one as soon as I possibly can. Expect it to be done some time tomorrow at the earliest

My car compite with the Golf and company, but is the most comfortable version.
If you need the more sportive version, send me a MP.
Thanks.

[Kubboz]

That was a very nice review. It definitely fits what I expect from a Cossack.

[Manche]

whould you like to review this luxury sedan from the 60's?

[Cheeseman]

THE MORGAN

The Morgan is a modern high-end sports car with all the latest tech squeezed into a tiny little old-style body. This comes with three engines all in this review: 2.6-litre 4-cylinder, 2.6-litre 4-cylinder turbo and 4.3-litre V8.

Morgan-1.png (770.16 KiB) Viewed 7151 times

Morgan-2.png (723.94 KiB) Viewed 7151 times

Performance
The 4-cylinder engines available in the Morgan are already capable of firing this car along at massive pace. Acceleration from 0-62 mph is under 4 seconds on both of the engines, partially thanks to the 1000 kg weight and partially down to the AWD system. The top speed is quite low for a car that can accelerate in the low down area this quickly because of the high downforce and odd shape, but the thrill you get at legal speeds when you put your foot down is amazing. The V8 engine is just mad. With over 400 bhp and a kerb weight of just 1100 kg and AWD, this car fires from 0-62 mph in under 3 seconds and travels all the way on to 176 mph. The way the V8 responds is just amazing it is amazingly smooth. It is just a massive shame that all of them suffer from having a dreadful gearbox with 3 really short gears and 3 gears with huge gaps between them.

Ride Comfort
The Morgan doesn't have ride comfort. The ride is like driving over a rumble strip constantly no matter what speed you are travelling at and how smooth the road surface is. You could be driving over perfectly flat ice or a newly surfaced road and you will feel every slight imperfection there is and it will feel as if the road was covered in braille. At low speeds it is unbearable, at high speeds it is unbearable and any large bump sends a large shunt through the car and makes the car shake and go unstable. It is dreadful.

Handling
Thankfully, the Morgan has slightly better handling than ride. The amount of grip this car has is exceptional and it is capable (if the road is flat) of flying around bends with almost no drama. If you do get too excited and put your foot down to the floor and corner, although it has AWD, it will get a bit out of shape. The faster you go as well, the better it sticks to the road and the more it grips. It also corners almost completely flat. The steering is also very well weighted and responsive which boosts your confidence and it does feel positively sporty.

Refinement
The engines that the Morgan comes with make some great noises. The 2.6-litre 4-cylinder engine rumbles and makes a very fruity noise, the turbo version adds a glorious turbo noise to the mix, and the V8, which is very loud indeed, roars like mad and sounds great. Unfortunately these engines are always loud no matter what revs it is doing and what speed you are travelling at. Going along at motorway speeds it is constantly rumbling and groaning and it becomes very tiresome. Thankfully, road and wind noise are reasonably well kept under control, well, it is that or you can't hear it under the engine racket.

Equipment
The Morgan, unlike the real one which has the tech from the 1950s, comes full with modern tech and other gadgets that you would expect in to find in some of your more expensive saloon cars and SUVs. Climate control, sat-nav, Bluetooth etc all come as standard, however it doesn't come with anything you would find in luxury cars. It is even more surprising that it has this level of tech when you consider this is a lightweight sports car, and in most of these cars the tech is usually all either stripped out or not even considered in the first place.

Quality
Something else that is shocking that can be added to the mix is the interior quality. Although it isn't your typical materials that you expect in a nice quality interior such as leathers, metals and wood, it still is a very nice place to sit with some nice materials. Carbon fibre is spread all around the cabin and unpainted too, as well as some other lightweight metals. The whole thing feels very well screwed together, but if you do go into the hidden away parts of the cabin at the front and the lower areas of the back, you will discover that there is basically nothing there at all or maybe just a very cheap and incredibly flimsy, lightweight plastic.

Reliability
The amount of time and effort that is put into the creating the Morgan is outstanding. It takes Morgan 300 hours to make the V8 engine and it has been said that their engine will be capable of a fair amount more than 40000 miles without servicing and still be able to run perfectly fine. The attention to detail when you look at the moment and the way everything feels just assures you that the engine is probably going to live longer than you are. The interior all feels very nicely put together apart from the bits where the isn't actually anything there in the first place. We have no idea what the electronics are going to last like, but as they are new I expect them to be reasonably reliable.

Running Costs
The engines in the Morgan, as well as being extremely nice to look at, listen to (when you want to) and very reliable, is very fuel efficient. The 2.6-litre turbo is capable, under careful driving, of achieving over 40 mpg, which is great for a 300+ bhp engine. The V8 does cost a fair bit more to fuel and the NA 2.6-litre engine is almost as good as the turbo variant. What is expected is that it will cost an awful lot to insure and the servicing costs that Morgan quote are eye-watering.

Safety
As well as having a lot of equipment to help make journeys a bit more enjoyable, it also comes with a reasonable amount of safety tech. There is no traction control or electronic stability management which can mean that sudden movements could make the car a bit unstable, but in the event that you do crash there is more than enough to help keep you safe. There are airbags all around the cabin and as long as you don't crash too hard (because I do wonder if the body is structurally secure) you should walk out completely unscathed.

OVERALL
For: Ballistic acceleration, good fuel economy, bulletproof reliability, well equipped
Against: Dreadful ride, poor refinement, dreadful gearbox

The Morgan has proven itself to be a very decent top of the range sports car. The modernity added into an old body is a pretty fun concept and it has been done pretty well here. If the car had a better ride and the engine noise was kept out a bit better it could be a contender for a 5-star car, because that way the whole car would improve. Good job there!

THE BIT THAT ISN'T A REVIEW

whould you like to review this luxury sedan from the 60's?

Please send me a .zip containing the engine, platform and model and not just the model please. It would also be better if you sent it to me by PM (rule added in original post). Thanks

If you need the more sportive version, send me a MP.

I would love to have the sportier version and it will probably be best if we spoke about it in PM as then that way you can speak to me in Spanish

[Pleb]

I have sent in one of my amazing machines

I'll look forward to seeing the review!

[Cheeseman]

--- Post deleted ---

[nialloftara]

Newly reopened Centauri Industries has submitted it's sporty 1992 personal luxury coupe the Knight GT for review.

[Cheeseman]

1992 CONAN COMPACT F 1.6L
The Conan Compact F 1.6L is Conan's small hatchback model that rivals cars such as the MKIII VW Golf GTI.

1992 Conan Compact F 1.6 L-1.png (695.16 KiB) Viewed 7432 times

1992 Conan Compact F 1.6 L-2.png (731.13 KiB) Viewed 7432 times

Performance
The Conan Compact comes with a rather sporty sounding and high revving 1.6-litre 4-cylinder engine that produces 128 bhp @ 7000 rpm and 106 lb-ft @ 4700 rpm. Thanks to a almost completely flat torque curve and the fact 85%+ of max torque is available at 1000 rpm, the performance is pretty good from the word go. This also means that the engine is a very reasonable smooth performer, however it could do with being a little bit more responsive to throttle inputs as you can feel a slight delay between flooring it and actually performing. The gearbox is geared pretty well and there are no large jumps between the 5 gears that you have available. At motorway speeds it is more than happy to cruise along in top gear and although some speedy overtaking maneuvers make require a downsift, the car has more than enough welly to get accelerating if needed. The 0-62 mph time is 9.9 seconds and the top speed is 131 mph, similar performance to the MKIII Golf GTI.

Ride Comfort
The suspension set-up of the Compact F is very firm. The front suspension is a bit more forgiving, however the rear suspension is overly firm. At low speeds the whole car shakes and fidgets about over the road surface, be it well surfaced or not, and it can become tiring. As speeds increase though, the car does begin to settle down and although it remains firm, the front suspension is capable of soaking up almost all bumps and the rear suspension is reasonable, and this is also helped by the fact that the tyres aren't too low profile. The suspension does do a good job at settling down after going over a large bump at higher speeds and it doesn't bounce around at all. The body roll is kept extremely well under control, keeping you from leaning over in the cabin around the bends.

Handling
Where the suspension is bad it is made up for with the handling. The handling was very almost given a 5-star rating however it wasn't quite worthy. The car grips on around bends very well and it takes an awful lot of pushing before it starts to run out of grip and understeer. The steering feels well-weighted, precise, responsive and gives a good level of feedback, boosting your confidence further around bends. The addition of traction control also helps keep the car more under control, however it would feel more and fun and more sporty if it didn't have any like most other cars in this category. As we know this car manages to corner very flat.

Refinement
The Compact F also does a rather good job at shutting the outside noises from getting into the cabin. The engine is quite at idle and the same goes for when it is cruising, however when travelling at motorway speeds it is doing 4000 rpm, which does spoil its ability to keep quiet. It also does a reasonable job at getting the volume levels just right for when you are accelerating. It makes noise but it doesn't make your ears hurt. The road and wind noise is kept pretty much silent up until higher speeds when it begins to intrude a bit, but it isn't enough to make you raise your voice or turn up the radio.

Equipment
This car does have a reasonable level of equipment however it is lacking somewhat. All the basics come as standard on this car and it comes with a few other things you expect there to be, however it doesn't come with any more than that. It is fine for you to go from A to B, but you may find you will have found life with the car easier after doing a number of long journeys or having the car for a while. It does come with good safety equipment though

Quality
The Compact F, as well as having a rather mediocre level of equipment, only has a rather mediocre interior as well. The materials used in the interior aren't very special but they are reasonable enough, especially those in the higher up and more visible areas. There are rather large areas of rather boring looking solid black plastic around the cabin and in the lower areas, as expected, these plastics become hard, rough, flimsy and cheap feeling and looking. It does feel very well screwed together, which is a bonus.

Reliability
This is another area where the Compact F does a very good job and almost got a 5-star rating. The engine has been through a lot of testing and it has proved to be very reliable and requires little servicing, however this may be down to the fact the Conan spend 175+ hours making the engine in this car making almost impossible for it to be unreliable and costs a lot to build. If it does go wrong, this may mean you will be facing a big bill. There aren't many electronics in this car which means there shouldn't be much to go wrong and Conan also spend a lot of hours working on them as well. That does mean, yet again, that if they do go wrong a large bill may be on its way.

Running Costs
The Conan Compact F is only really considered acceptable when it comes to running costs. As mentioned previously, in the event that something does go a bit wrong with the cars components (which shouldn't happen) you could be facing large repair bills, which also means that you will also be forking out a lot more than the equivalent car when it comes to insuring it. This car is claimed to do in the region of 40 mpg, which is acceptable, but not much better than its rivals which also get around this figure as well. The servicing costs the Conan claim are reasonable.

Safety
This is the one area where the Conan Compact F excels. This car comes with every single piece of safety kit you could imagine, some of which that are more at home in luxury saloons and not small hatchbacks. Everyting from airbags to crumple zones has been taken very carefully into consideration on this car and it does make you feel confident that when you do have a crash you are going to be able to walk out in a reasonably good state. The car also has the welcome addition of traction control which adds a further sense of security, however misses out on stability control.

OVERALL (yet again)
For: Good handling, lots of safety tech, good reliability, quiet cruiser
Against: Poor ride, stingy equipment, mediocre running costs

The Conan Compact F 1.6L is a very decent small and fast hatchback. It performs well in many areas, and reasonably in others, but it performed in the areas that count most in a car like this and that is what managed to scrape it a 4-star rating. The fact that Conan spend many hours making this car (an awful lot more than its rivals) does make you wonder how they manage to make this a mass-production small hatchback and also causing concerns as to how much it costs, which we don't know yet. Until then, a recommendable car.

[conan]

This is a great review! It's just what I had in mind when I made the car.

[EnryGT5]

Seishido Motors will send you a brand new Seishido Proxima 1.1 LX to review as soon as possible

-EnryGT5, Seishido Motors CEO

[WizzyThaMan]

Here is my model:

Silvano Sport



Edit: Sorry, didnt read. I'll PM.

[Cheeseman]

Please

Anybody can submit any car for a review simply by putting the engine, model and platform in a .zip folder and sending it to me via PM.

I will accept this one, but any future ones will not be accepted.

[NormanVauxhall]

Soon I hope to send a Znopresk or a BMMC.

[Cheeseman]

2012 MONTES URBAN
This is a small hatchback developed by Spanish manufacturer Montes with a rather powerful 160 bhp engine, making it almost the version before the hot hatch. It also is RWD which is a bit different. Is it any good however?

Montes Urban 2.0 MZR-DIiIn -1.png (733.35 KiB) Viewed 7298 times

Montes Urban 2.0 MZR-DIiIn -2.png (708.46 KiB) Viewed 7298 times

Performance
The 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine pushes out 159 bhp @ 7500 rpm and 144 lb-ft @ 4400 rpm. The power delivery isn't as good as you would hope it to be looking at the figures as the torque curve isn't the flattest and there is a definite increase as revs rise and then it reduces slowly after peak torque, but it still does perform quite nicely. It just doesn't perform very smoothly. Otherwise, the car is very rapid indeed. The cruising ability this has is brilliant and it doesn't even require a downshift for overtaking as it has more than enough power to pull it along. The engine is also reasonably responsive. The 0-62 mph sprint is done in a rather quick 7.8 seconds and the top speed is a very rapid 149 mph, faster than a lot of more powerful cars.

Ride Comfort
The Urban doesn't ride particularly well. The suspension set-up, front and back is rather firm. At low speeds, as expected, it jiggles and fidgets about quite a lot and can become rather uncomfortable for those who do a lot of town driving. Out on the open road however, the car begins to settle down a lot and manages to soak up the bumps reasonably well. The car can still feel a bit too firm over poorer surfaces but at these speeds it is never tiring nor uncomfortable. The car's suspension does do a good job at keeping the car sturdy though. It doesn't bounce around at all after going over larger bumps (however it does jolt a bit) and the body roll is kept very well under control,

Handling
The handling, considering that it has a firm suspension set-up, isn't as good as we hoped. The steering is nice and precise, quick to react, well weighted and has enough feedback and, as we already know, it keeps body roll under control, but apart from that it isn't exactly brilliant. The grip is alright, but it is no more than that. It manages to get up to the point where you are just about to go around a corner reasonably quickly and it will run out of grip and understeer. If you put your foot to the floor, you may think that as it is RWD it would spin up its rear wheels somewhat and give you the ability to have some tail-end happiness fun, but because there are so many traction aids on this car it is next to impossible.

Refinement
The Urban is rather disappointing is this category for a simple mistake. The engine is very quiet at idle and when cruising and only makes a bit of noise under acceleration, but Montes seem to have forgot to work on sound insulation. Road noise and wind noise can be heard at considerably low speeds and it doesn't even need to be over rough surfaces, and once you get the car up to higher cruising speeds the road noise and wind noise becomes really rather vocal. The wind noise is almost so bad that it makes you wonder if a window is open slightly. On poor surfaces it can become really rather annoying and requires you to raise your voice to have a conversation or turn up the radio in order to be able to enjoy listening to music.

Equipment
The Urban only comes with a rather standard level of equipment and not much more than that. Although it comes with every traction aid under the sun and the amount of safety tech is reasonable, the car fails to come with the equipment you would expect from a top of the range hatchback. What you expect to find in any hatchback is there however it misses out on some options we are beginning to find more and more often in hatchbacks such as cruise control and touch screen systems for the controls. It is reasonable, but could be better.

Quality
The interior of the Montes Urban is only reasonable as well. There are some nice soft-touch plastics in the upper areas of the cabin and the rest of the materials in the visible areas do feel reasonably nice and very well put togther, however when you get into the back of the car and look in the less visible areas of the cabin, you discover that the plastics start to become rather scratchy and rough feeling. These poorer plastics do remain to feel nice and solid and it looks like it will be able to support plenty of rough treatment. This sounds alright, but in a 160 bhp hatchback that isn't what is to be expected.

Reliability
The Montes Urban impresses a lot more in this area and almost scraped itself a 5-star rating, but it didn't quite get there. The engine is very reliable and should be able to undergo 40000 miles of driving without running into a single issue, however this is no better than what we expect an engine to do nowadays. It is still good. Thanks to the fact that the interior feels sturdy and well built enough to withstand poor treatment and the fact that there are not many gadgets to go wrong, we reckon you shouldn't be facing bills any time soon after buying it and even then it won't come to much.

Running Costs
This is another only reasonable area for the Montes Urban. Most 160 bhp engines nowadays are turbocharged and smaller than the 2.0-litre engine that is seen in this car which makes them more fuel efficient, however even then the 42 mpg claimed by the 2.0-litre engine doesn't sound that great. The MkVI Volkswagen Golf GTI has 60 more bhp than this car yet that is claimed to achieve 47 mpg. This, therefore just isn't good enough. Another downside is the fact the servicing prices Montes are asking for aren't exactly cheap either. On a good note, insurance shouldn't cost much and may be cheaper than rivals due to the fact there isn't much tech to go wrong and there is no expensive turbocharged engine inside.

Safety
The Montes Urban comes very well equipped in the safety area. All the safety equipment you would need is in the car, including multiple airbags and pretensioning seatbelts. It doesn't have anything super special like pedestrian detection or automatic brakes, but these aren't really necessary. The traction aids are all there, inculding ones that aren't even really needed such as launch control (more of a performance thing, but still). In the event you do crash it into something then, you are more than likely to walk out unscathed, unless of course it was a hard crash.

OVERALL
For: Good safety equipment, decent reliability, wonderful engine
Against: Many mediocre areas such as driving, refinement, quality and equipment.

The Montes Urban 2.0 isn't as good as hoped. The engine is very nice and the amount of safety tech is comforting, but everything was not quite up to scratch and with some cheap and simple improvements it could have been a much better car, which is a shame really considering it had so much potential.

[Cheeseman]

2013 MONTES URBAN MSR
The Montes Urban MSR is the hot version of the Montes Urban. With a 290 bhp 6-cylinder 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine and AWD, it means it rivals the likes of the Audi S3 and BMW M135i.

Car -11.png (735.29 KiB) Viewed 7238 times

Car -12.png (704.69 KiB) Viewed 7238 times

Performance
The MSR version of the Urban has a 2.0-litre 6-cylinder turbocharged engine with 290 bhp @ 7800 rpm and 224 lb-ft @ 5700 rpm. This does mean that it takes quite a while before the turbo begins to spool and kick in, which means performance low down feels like a normal 2.0-litre engine. When cruising along it is more than powerful enough, however if you decide you want to make an overtaking maneuver you will need to change down until you have the revs high enough to get the turbo spooling. This also means that the engine can be a bit unresponsive. When flooring the car though, it feels like an absolute monster. 0-62 mph happens in a supercar rivaling 4.1 seconds and the top speed is 158 mph. We think the car could do so much more than this as when testing we discovered that the car was still pulling strong beyond 150 mph, but the gearing is too short. The engine is also extremely smooth.

Ride Comfort
The MSR's ride comfort is even harsher than the standard version, as expected. At low speeds the car transmits every single bump and imperfection in the road surface straight to the car making it feel fidgety. Worst of all, after long periods of time not only does it become uncomfortable but it also becomes tiring being jiggled about inside the car continuously. As speeds increase the car does begin to calm down a bit, but even at motorway speeds it still continues to fidget about somewhat over poorer surfaces and only really calms down properly when on smooth roads. Over big bumps there is a big jolt and a thud, but at least the car takes next to no time to settle down after going over the bump. As a plus, the car doesn't roll going around corners and the extremely smooth engine makes the drive more pleasing.

Handling
The Montes Urban MSR's handling is much improved over the standard version of the MSR however it still seems to be missing some ability. The tyres on this version are wider but nowhere near as wide as those on its rivals, yet it still manages to have a lot of grip. The steering is all correctly weighted and gives enough feel and feedback as well. The firm suspension does help, as mentioned previously, to keep the car pretty much dead flat around corners and also to keep the car stable, but on poor surfaces it can upset the way it handles quite a lot. The car has an awful lot of cornering potential, but it is ruined somewhat by the amount of driver assists preventing you from taking it too far.

Refinement
The Montes Urban's main flaw was the refinement and on the Urban MSR it is even worse. Yes, it is nice that you can hear the 6-cylinder turbocharged engine roaring and whistling when you want to, but when cruising at motorway speeds at 3500-4000 rpm it can be quite annoying hearing the engine rumbling. Thankfully, the engine is reasonably quiet. Wind and road noise is even more vocal in this version of the car and it begins to intrude when driving through villages and it doesn't even need to be on poor surfaces. When at motorway speed the car fills with the sound of roaring wind and tyres on tarmac.

Equipment
The Montes Urban MSR is exactly the same as the Montes Urban when it comes to equipment. There is what you expect there to be in a hatchback but no more than that, but it does come with a lot of safety equipment and driver assists.

Quality
The interior in the MSR version is pretty much the same as in the standard one but with some extra sporty touches. The interior doesn't look particularly special and the materials used aren't exactly what you call posh, but they are reasonable enough.

Reliability
The Montes Urban MSR remains pretty much as reliable as the standard version. The electonics in this car are exactly the same as those in the normal version, so it is expected that they are going to be just as reliable. The engine in this version of the car is an awful lot sportier than that in the normal version and, as expected, the car won't last as long as it if not serviced. We do reckon it is still going to be able to last a very long time when serviced regularly and shouldn't cause any issues though.

Running Costs
This is one of the most shocking aspects of the car. The 290 bhp engine is just as economical as the 160 bhp engine as it manages 42 mpg as well, something that matches its rivals in some cases and beats them in others. Don't expect however that the insurance will be cheap and the servicing prices that Montes are claiming are more than eye-watering.

Safety
The MSR has exactly the same safety tech and the same driver assists as those used in the standard model. In other words, more than safe enough.

OVERALL
For: Wonderful engine, great handling, safe, good fuel consumption
Against: Unrefined, dreadful ride, average equipment and quality

The hot version of the Montes Urban only just about scraped the 4-star rating and that is only because it is good in the areas that count when it comes to these cars. It is a reasonable hot hatch, but rivals like the Audi S3 and the BMW M135i do it better as they don't have the flaws that this car has.