Take Care
Paul

cheers, have a happy easter

Here the drivers are not well trained as they should, and alongside this lack of training there are many odd preferences, this “short gear” is one of them.

I personally remember 1994, when VW launched a 5dr notchback called Pointer, based on Escort MK5, its GTi version had shorter gear ratios in a way that when in fifth gear you reached the top speed at 6300 rpm with the engine cutting, this absurd fact was proved in that time when some local Auto magazines compared the GTi against the GLi version

Not surprisingly, and fitted with the same 120 hp engine but with longer gear ratios, the GLi was faster by 8 or 9 km/h, and revving a lot less, with the top speed (195 km/h) being correctly achieved at the max power rpm (5500 rpm, I think) and not at the cut, 0 100 km/h times were a fraction slower, but still acceptable given the better top speed, silence aboard at cruising speeds, and consequently better mileage on highway

Back to the “used car” subject, we never had the Mk2 Golf here, we only had the Mk3, Mk4, and now the Mk4.5, a partial restyle done in their brazilian design center

Usually here when a guy comes to buy his first, used car, the obvious choices provided by our market are the Fiat Palio or Uno Mille (Mille stands for its 999 cm3 displacement, 53 to 59 hp) VW Gol, GM Corsa or Celta (based on mk2 Corsa, but with a nasty, poorly assembled, plastic filled interior) and the Ford Ka or Fiesta

The old mk3 Fiesta and Clio models range from £300 to around £2,000, depending on condition.

My current budget is £1,000 and I’ve spotted a couple of nice mk2 Volkswagen Golfs for well under that price…

Stay tuned and I’ll let you know what my first car is when I buy it. Maybe I’ll upload a picture so you can see how old it is!

This is a point of our “automobile culture”, cars here usually have their gear ratios completely screwed, execssively shortened, as the carmakers here are forced to cease in favour of the brasilian “taste”

the preference here is a car with more acceleration and momentum, and with short ratios even in fifth gear, because the drivers here have some “lazyness” in roads, choosing to overtake in higher gears instead of reducing to fourth ou third gear

The result is a Polo 1.6 screaming at almost 3600 rpm when travelling at 120 km/h in fifth gear, the first series (MY ’03) of this particular Polo (9N) were even more short, 3900 rpm at 120 km/h, simply pointless

In our market we have the 2000-2002 1.6 95 hp Duratec (known here as “Zetec RoCam” RoCam stands for “Rollerfinger Camshaft”) and it is a reliable, nice, nimble, fun to drive car (given it limitations, hehe)

I don’t know the UK market scene, prices, so, what’s the price range of these 2 cars ? (Clio and Fiesta)

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Thanks,

Edu

Mine was a Fiat Brava 1.6 16V ’01, which was given to me after m parents bought a C3 1.6 16V Exclusive, in 2005

I have great memories of it, very good times aboard it, despite it’s excessive soft ride (coupled with the 185/60 R14 tires resulted in some scary moments on tight turns) some lack of low rpm torque and low gas mileage, the best average, combined hwy/city was 26 miles per (imperial) gallon, or 9 km/l

anyway, it was a great car, great time

And now I’m without a car, but I have plans to replace it with a Punto (here it is not called Grande Punto as it is in EU) so I’m just waiting for Fiat Brasil to decide if they’ll keep the 1.8 8 valve 112/115 hp (originary from GM/Opel/Vauxhall) or replace it with a new 130 hp 1.9 litre (1.85, exactly) based on their own 1.6 16V (they enlarged bore and stroke)

I would happily own a Grande Punto, they’re terrific value for money and I’m impressed by the 1.9-litre diesel model. But at the moment I’m still saving up for my first car – I think I’m going to go for something old but reliable and affordable. Maybe a ’97 Clio or Fiesta.

What would you recommend? What was your first car?