Fun in a Toyota Corolla

[AlanD]

But It would have been better in our Mondeo

Let the sniping begin

Spent 9 days in New Zealand's North Island and found the road between Wellsford and Helensville by accident. (Being a cheapskate I was avoiding what I believe is the only bit of tolled pavement in NZ at the northern end of the motorway. It wasn't the $NZ2.00 toll, but the Thrifty $40.00 admin fee if I got it wrong and you know how sometimes registration plate numbers get mis-transcribed after you pre-pay a toll fee )

If you get the chance, then drive this road. Undulating country, sweeping bends, reasonable surface, open road speeed limits and damn all traffic in either direction at about 2:00 pm on a weekday. Lots of fun was had by me. At one stage the gutless vehicle was drinking fuel at $NZ0.50 per km!!

I could compare the Corolla with the Mondeo , but I won't it would be a gross mismatch.

But I will say that there was very little to like about the Corolla, starting with the fact the hatch version can not accept two medium sized cases in the "boot". It had 19,000 km on it at pick up and 21,000 when we gave it back. I'm assuming the 10.2 l/100km figure at pickup was the result of short term city use because it was showing 6.8 l/100km at drop off time. So the fuel consumption was not too bad.

Every panel on the thing vibrated to the point it felt like we were inside a snare drum with a demented drummer using those swish sticks vigorously. Added to this the plastic interior fittings kept up a continuous squeaking - it was difficult to have conversation without shouting. Also gutless. Pickup at any speed over 80kph was woeful and if you really put the boot in the downchange was harsh and the resulting acceleration was slow. I'm relieved that overtaking lanes were frequent because I would have been guilty of holding up traffic otherwise. Trying to maintain 100 kph on the main roads was tiresome owing to road and vehicle noise.

The car was shod with Goodyear excellence rubber - anyone who is riding on these day to day might care to tell me if they experience lots of road noise. At the moment they are not on my shopping list as replacements for the Mondeo's Bridgestone RE050s.

It is a really, really nice country, and if you get the opportunity then pay them a visit - at the moment some overseas currency flowing in would be most welcome I'm sure. The list of things we did not like is short:

1. Corollas - but this isn't NZ's fault.
2. Coarse chip road pavements. They really make cars noisy inside - but perhaps it is just the car we had.
3. Fuel was expensive read $A1.64 /litre for standard unleaded - but constant at that level everywhere we went.

The weather was good
The people are friendly and courteous
Prices of fresh produce was low
Scenery continuously changing and picturesque
Attractions everywhere and reasonable entrance fees.
Only two speed limits: Open road = 100 kph everywhere else 50 kph (except where road works were in progress or sometimes not)
No speed cameras or stop light cameras (at least non that I noticed)

I could go on ... and on ....... and on - but I'll stop.

Go on - take that holiday - you know you deserve it. Visit with the other branch of the family across the ditch.

But it was nice to plonk the *** into the Mondeo's driving seat for the trip home from the airport - quiet, responsive etc etc but you all know this anyway

Cheers

[allanv6gt]

I'll second opimion on Corolla.
Had this misfortune to have my '88 Prelude stolen (then bent), and was given a near-new Corolla hatch as an in-betweener. I swear it used more fuel than the Prelude or our Outback wagon...and gutless (auto)...so maybe thats why it used more fuel trying to get it to shift along.

Anyway, my Mondeo XR5 is great to live with, comfy and extremely economcal sitting on avg 8.6l/100km after 17000kms (almost same as prev Outback @8.3l/100km). trip to Tas in Jan and 3000kms - all passengers happy, bootload of 'stuff', and CBR>MEL without fuel stop, just people pit stops.
Vastly underrated in this land of Oz.

[NZ XR6]

Yeah, isn't that a great road Alan. It's the only alternative route to State Highway 1 from the north into Auckland so is well maintained. It's even better on a motorbike! And there are better roads than that in NZ - try Highway 22 in the Waikato or 4 between Whanganui and National Park.

But be careful - there are mobile speed cameras. They have new ones in Hyundai people movers that don't set off my radar detector, even as I drive past them. And there are unmarked cars also. Basic advice is keep to the limits near towns and watch for cops on the main roads. Mind you, you'd deserve some kind of award to get a ticket in an auto Corolla! I've had manual Corollas with a 6-speed box a couple of times which are much more fun to drive.

Our chip seal is truly horrible, I always laugh when I read an Aussie road test complaining about tyre noise on your roads.

I had Excellence tyres on my last Mondeo. They are a bit noisy on chip seal plus the wet grip goes off once they're about half worn and they can aquaplane badly. Otherwise they're OK, and are a good ride/handling compromise on the Mondeo.

[AlanD]

Update,

I found the fuel receipts and used 119.63 litres for 1703 km of travel.

That works out at 7.009 litres per 100 km. I guess that's OK for a petrol engined 1.8 litre(?) displacement engine with an automatic gearbox. On that basis the average fuel consumption readout in the car was way off being correct, and the DTE readout was hopeless. With a 55 litre tank the car ought to be able to travel in excess of 700 km but the greatest DTE figure I saw was less than 500! (about 440ish from memory)

I'd guess that 85 to 90% of the driving was country at an average speed of 65 kph (including breaks - on the road would have approached 80 kph)

In similar circumstances I would be hopping mad if the Mondeo returned higher than 6.0 litres / 100 km and would hope for mid 5s.

But you pays your money and you take what you get. Next trip has to be soon (Both SWMBO and I want to get to visit more attractions in NZ) and I'll be using Avis since QANTAS now only provides FF points for hires from Budget (who I won't use, PM me if you want to know why) and Avis.

Cheers

[Fast Eddie]

I'll be in the North Island from 10th April and unfortunately hire car company couldn't supply me with a Euroford (Mondeo or Focus). Stuck with a Camry. I know the Mondeo boot will swallow my 'chair and some suitecases EASILY so here's hoping that the car they supply will be ok.

Oh, and radar detectors are legal in New Zealand!

[nstg8a]

lol, you have to remember 19000km in a rental is like 100000 kms in a privately owned car. noone respects a rental.

also nz does have more than just 50/100km speed limits, might wanna pay better attention next time, you got lucky this time but nz police seem to me to be far more pro active re catching speeding drivers than qld police.

course chip roads do suck, but they do theyre job in winter. just dont do any burnouts on them lol, they rip up your tyres fast.

[MAGPIE]

I take it your talking about SH16 and if so yes it is a great alternative to SH1 (Gateway Toll Road) and SH17. I used to enjoy it often in my WRX.

As for the Corolla, agree completely I had the misfortune of driving a brand new rental and hated every minute of it.

If you want some more good driving roads get to the Coromandel and the South Island but use Hertz and you'll get Fords.