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