New car for under $18k driveaway

[roddy1960]

Honestly ....That's a really nice looking car ..Pretty classy actually all round

I'm impressed . Thanks for the shots ..Enjoy the Picanto .

[danzvtil]

That looks awesome, if my boss could give me a car allowance instead of a Cruze, I’d have one of those in a nanosecond ��

[CyberWasp]

Congratulations on the new car purchase Bent 8.

Look up a product from CarPro called Hydro2 Lite which can now be purchased in Australia.
Easiest product to apply and will keep your car looking amazing. There are plenty of videos showing it being applied and the results.

[BENT_8]

Took it out for its first short highway run to St Kilda this evening, not really its inteded environment to be fair, at 100 its singing along at just under 3k rpm.

I didnt take it any faster as the owners manual says to keep it below 3k rpm for the first couple of thousend k's but it took it in its stride and engine noise wasnt what you'd expect for those revs.

Put another 40k's on it and its down to 6.4l/100km now.

Thanks for the votes of affirmation guys, its much appreciated.

I've got to be honest, on Wednesday i felt really sick in the stomach as i wasn't sure that i had made the right decision as at 6'2" and 120kg its a big ask for a little car but i've got to say, its like a bloody Tardis, once your in theres amples of head and leg room, the only place it feels tight is around the shoulders.
Having said that, with a bloke of my dimensions in the drivers seat theres not much room for a back seat passengers legs behind me but we didnt buy it for its space, theres ample room in the Terri for family duties.

The seats are a good fit and the bolsters are quite supportive and theres plenty of room around the pedals, it doesnt feel like a cheap car to sit in.

[jstanovic]

Haha a 6ft2 120kg guy on a moped!!!! That would have been an awesome sight, no wonder it couldn’t do 60!!! You’re a braver man than me....

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by jstanovic

You’re a braver man than me....

Or just crazy, depending who you ask..

[X-AHH]

Originally Posted by Bevsta007

removed post - wasted effort

Glad you corrected yourself, that could have been embarrassing.

[roddy1960]

Two Dad's review on the Kia Picanto GT version ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls0HO--gwUc

Fun .. Who said you can't have a ball in a little city orientated car .

Cool.....

[BENT_8]

Gave it its first run in inner suburban traffic today with my Nephew riding shotgun.

It's a little harsh on some of the poorer maintained roads due to the 16" wheels and short wheelbase, not unbareable but certainly noticeable and manhole covers are best avoided where possible, but on a brighter note its now reading 6.1l/100km and im sure it'll keep going down.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

on some of the poorer maintained roads

sounds like you drove on some of the good roads. Roads in Adelaide go from poorly maintained to not maintained at all

[Sabantien]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

I've got to be honest, on Wednesday i felt really sick in the stomach as i wasn't sure that i had made the right decision as at 6'2" and 120kg its a big ask for a little car but i've got to say, its like a bloody Tardis, once your in theres amples of head and leg room, the only place it feels tight is around the shoulders.
Having said that, with a bloke of my dimensions in the drivers seat theres not much room for a back seat passengers legs behind me but we didnt buy it for its space, theres ample room in the Terri for family duties.

The seats are a good fit and the bolsters are quite supportive and theres plenty of room around the pedals, it doesnt feel like a cheap car to sit in.

I found similar with my gf's little Audi A1. I'm 6'3 and 85kg (on a good day at least) and it's so darn comfy to drive.

Starts feeling a bit cramped on long drives, but that's what the Falcon is for.
If these were available when she was car shopping, she might have ended up with one of these. It's a great looking little car.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

im sure it'll keep going down.

5.4l/100...

Filled it up this morning to see what it'll go through in a working week, had 250km on the clock of which I've done 230, took 13l to fill.
By my calculations thats 5.6l/100km but it sat idling for 15 minutes whilst we went through the delivery handover so that is a little skewed

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Filled it up this morning to see what it'll go through in a working week, had 250km on the clock of which I've done 230, took 13l to fill.

I'd be too embarrassed to put that little amount in

[prydey]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

I'd be too embarrassed to put that little amount in

That's nearly what I get for my mower

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

I'd be too embarrassed to put that little amount in

I put $4.10 in my scooer at $1.48l, thats only 2.7l

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by xahh

Glad you corrected yourself, that could have been embarrassing.

Corrected what? what a pointless post

[BENT_8]

So almost 2 weeks in and thought i'd give an update for those interested.

So i've racked up 450k's and its settled on 5.8l/100km for the driving i do which im happy as a pig in **** about, started last week with a full tank and filled up on the way home Friday for $13.60.
Not happy that it resets the average consumption when you fill it up though.

Decided to check the tyre pressures whilst i was there, 38psi all around, should be 33 on the front and 30 on the rears, dropped them to 35 and 32 and it absorbs the bumps slightly better.

Loving the A/C, 2 minutes after i switch it on its ice cold inside as the cabin is so small.

Loving the tech, no more stopping to take calls etc, i'll probably never navigate my way through all the different features though.

Gave it its first wash on Saturday night, so easy to do when one sweep of the wash mit covers half the car, so much easier than the BF wagon.

Its certainly no rocket ship but its doing what its been asked to do without hesitation so far.

[X-AHH]

Originally Posted by Bevsta007

Corrected what? what a pointless post

Only took you 2 weeks to think of a completely stupid and useless reply hey?

And the actual points of your original and last posts were??

Don't worry, you can post some other sort of pointless get back at me reply, I won't get offended at all. It's just a pitty that not everyone here takes the same attitude.

[Vesper Martini]

what are you on about?

[X-AHH]

Originally Posted by Bevsta007

what are you on about?

Sorry, must have been a misunderstanding.

Wasted effort.

[BENT_8]

Been a bit quiet in here tonight so i thought i might give a bit of an update...

Well, they say time flies when you're having fun and in the blink of an eye 3 months has gone bye meaning the little Picanto was due its 3 month/3000km complimentry service.
It wasnt due until next thursday and has only racked up 2200km's but work ramps up again next week when school returns so i thought i'd book it in for today to avoid any scheduling issues.

Called into the Dealership last fortnight to aquaint myself with their service team and arrange a time, straight up they asked if there were any issues with the car.
The only thing i could report was that the mob who did the window tint didnt replace the door trim and handle surround properly when the had it off to do the job and could they put it right, no problems they said, anything else?
Nope, its perfect.
You couldn't really notice the problem with the door trim unless you were looking for it and i only discovered it the first time i sat shotgun and looked over in that direction

From there i went over to the parts dept. to get a price on an oil filter so i can do an intermediate 7.5k service as i dont believe a service every 15k is good enough, especially the during the running in period, $13 for the filter and sump seal.

In and out in an hour this morning.

Its been hovering around the 40* mark here in Adelaide for the past week and as i've been trying to rack up the k's to make the service worthwhile i've done a bit of running around and the little bugger has soaked it up with the A/C going non stop and has returned 5.7l/100km continuously.
I found out how to switch the auto economy reset when refuelled function off, so im now getting a more accurate long term average as opposed to a weekly average between top up's).

[roddy1960]

That's cool. She seems to be meeting expectations then . I actually spotted one about 2 weeks ago on a 300 km road trip I did . It was at Derby (Tas) where they have a world class mountain bike facility and I was doing some filming for a friend in the U.S. on my way home . The car was parked a couple of bays up from my XR6 . I didn't mind it at all . It was 36 C that day here too .. and 39 C yesterday ..Glad you're enjoying the Picanto .

[EBSXR6]

Bent 8 general rule re small cars don't be surprised if you end up spending extra on brake repairs compared to a big car. Weight saving for fuel economy thin discs and pads etc etc.

[Brazen]

There are some bloody good cars under 20k in Australia. A year ago picked up an Astra R+ as the wife runaround and I have found myself driving it a bit as it’s so fun.

It has the 1.4 turbo, 6 speed auto, all round multi link suspension with 17 inch Michelin wheel and tyre setup. A really nice car to drive.

Great tech, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Safety features like auto wipers, emergency braking, rear sensors and camera, and lane keep assist that will steer the car back into its lane if you start drifting out.

It’s hard to justify used when there are some great deals out there. Mine was a demo at $17,800 with mats and free three year servicing.

Lots of great cars around for the money.

[GT450]

Originally Posted by EBSXR6

Bent 8 general rule re small cars don't be surprised if you end up spending extra on brake repairs compared to a big car. Weight saving for fuel economy thin discs and pads etc etc.

That's not necessarily true. I did 125kms in my Mazda 2 and apart from regular services every 10kms with fully synthetic oil all I did was replace the original tyre at 100kms, averaged 5.5litres per 100kms. My Falcon wouldn't come near that but that's to be expected. The mazda fitted the purpose I bought it for very well. Now on my next one at nearly 60kms with even better fuel economy of between 4.7 and 5.0 litres per 100kms. Don't knock little cars , they serve a serious purpose, it's only those that buy them and expect them to be they are not or never can be that whinge , but then, that's not the cars fault. The GTs for the fun days.
GT450

[ozpacman]

Originally Posted by EBSXR6

Bent 8 general rule re small cars don't be surprised if you end up spending extra on brake repairs compared to a big car. Weight saving for fuel economy thin discs and pads etc etc.

Can't subscribe to your theory sorry EBSXR6.

My little buzz box is a 2008 i30 diesel manual purchased brand new. It's covered 177178 kms to date and it's still running the original pads and rotors on each corner.

If that's the effect of weight saving - I'll take it.

Russ.

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by EBSXR6

Bent 8 general rule re small cars don't be surprised if you end up spending extra on brake repairs compared to a big car. Weight saving for fuel economy thin discs and pads etc etc.

To be fair, having only done 2200km in 3 months and the last 400 of that in about 10 days just to make it worthwhile for the 3 month service, i cant see me clocking up more than 10k per year.
The Wife and i were discussing it last night and we think we'll probably trade it at 2yrs on the turbo GT model, or maybe even the Rio GT Line for a bit more space, so it should be ok with 20k's on it.

[fiestaz]

Originally Posted by EBSXR6

Bent 8 general rule re small cars don't be surprised if you end up spending extra on brake repairs compared to a big car. Weight saving for fuel economy thin discs and pads etc etc.

In all the small cars I’ve been around, never have or heard this before ever. Complete myth

Had a good read of this thread, that Picanto is a great little car. Seen them on the road, I seriously think they look brilliant in the sporty guise.

[BENT_8]

Since i bought the car i've run it on 91ron petrol and never let it get below 1/2 a tank until last week when i ran it right down to 1/8th.
I've never really bothered putting anything other than standard ULP in any of my cars over the years but since we bought the Wifes Focus we've been running it on 98.

As a little experiment I filled mine on Friday with Premium 98 to see if it would make any difference and have been quite surprised at the results.

To set the scene, since taking delivery of the car in late October i'd been averaging around the 5.5l/100km mark for the first 2 months, since christmas we've had some really hot weather here in SA and so the A/C has been getting a workout which pushed the average out to 5.7l.
After filling it with 98ron it is now showing a steady 5.1l/100km with AC on as the weather has continued to be in the mid 30's this week.

Doing the math, with 91ron and using the average of 5.7l/100km with A/C on, it was costing me around $17pw @ $1.18.
With the 98ron averaging 5.1l/100km with A/C on it cost $18 @ $1.38.
(Thats for the average 250k's i do per week to work and back)

Certainly worth the extra dollar to run a cleaner fuel with noticeably improved performance, if there can be such a thing with 62kw on tap..

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Since i bought the car i've run it on 91ron petrol and never let it get below 1/2 a tank until last week when i ran it right down to 1/8th.
I've never really bothered putting anything other than standard ULP in any of my cars over the years but since we bought the Wifes Focus we've been running it on 98.

As a little experiment I filled mine on Friday with Premium 98 to see if it would make any difference and have been quite surprised at the results.

To set the scene, since taking delivery of the car in late October i'd been averaging around the 5.5l/100km mark for the first 2 months, since christmas we've had some really hot weather here in SA and so the A/C has been getting a workout which pushed the average out to 5.7l.
After filling it with 98ron it is now showing a steady 5.1l/100km with AC on as the weather has continued to be in the mid 30's this week.

Doing the math, with 91ron and using the average of 5.7l/100km with A/C on, it was costing me around $17pw @ $1.18.
With the 98ron averaging 5.1l/100km with A/C on it cost $18 @ $1.38.
(Thats for the average 250k's i do per week to work and back)

Certainly worth the extra dollar to run a cleaner fuel with noticeably improved performance, if there can be such a thing with 62kw on tap..

Thats impressive around town. Cant complain with that. I only get those sort of figures on the open highway for a minimum of about 100km in the XV.

Around town is about 7.5L/100 on 91. Just put 95 in it and its jumped to 7.8L. Havent been driving any different. In fact being doing more freeway km to Victor and back. Will probably give 98 a crack and see if it improves or not. If not, happy to go back down to 91.