To kick-start the series of posts on test-drives on 800rpm, featuring today is Hyundai Avante
Engine: Rating -4
At the heart, Avante's engine is a beauty! 1.6L engine produces a mind-boggling 121 BHP - at a very efficient BHP to engine capacity ratio. The engine is power-packed resulting in fairly good acceleration. To top it all, Avante's engine is extremely refined. It can provide you with the fun of driving at high rpms. At the other end of the spectrum, Avante's engine can run with minimum fuss and very low decibel levels. Get the car to 50-55km/hr in top gear (though automatic), decibel levels go down to minimum.
Avante's engine has a fairly decent lower-end torque, returning decent power and acceleration at lower rpms. This was a major factor in my buying decision. It returns a very impressive 14-15 kmpl on highways and 10-11 in city drive.
Performance: Rating - 4
Moving backwards from the engine, Avante is a great car to steer and drive. Optimum power steering with a decent turning radius makes it a good car for city drive. Braking is excellent with disk brakes on all 4 wheels - most cars have drums at the rear. ABS braking is a good add-on feature. I am not an expert at ABS, so will reserve my comments - in the entire 6000 kms of driving Avante, I think ABS has been activated only once.
Suspension system of Avante is another thing that stands out. While on one hand, it gives a gliding feeling with shockers absorbing almost every bump on the road, on the other, at high-speeds, tyres remain firmly gripped to the road - a very good balance between the two extremes. I have driven the car on a twisting hill-road once and Avante did behave very well on the bends and felt in complete control.
Design and styling: Rating - 5
Avante is a real beauty! Very modern looks with aggressive headlights at the front, a well desinged curve (and not a line as in most cars) at the side and a very impressive rear. To sum it all up, Avante is blessed with a design that I would consider far superior compared to most cars in its class. It's a car that you can take to office and feel "yep, it is refined enough". Later in the evening, the design could easily result in turning and twisting a few heads around! :-)
Interiors:
There is a lot of thinking and effort that has gone in designing and manufacturing Avante. Interiors of the car perfectly reflect this theme - space utilization and convenience has completely exceeded my expectations. There is a place for everything, right from sufficient CDs storage space to special place to store your shades to very well designed seat pockets to sufficient place to store cans and an intelligently placed rear arm rester at the centre of rear seat. The boot can store sufficient luggage for a world tour - all this in a car that still manages to give a compact feel from outside.
Benefits to price ratio:
800rpm verdict:
Friday, September 7, 2007
Sunday, September 2, 2007
A series of test drives
This post marks the beginning to a series of test-drives on 800rpm as this blog starts to gain momentum.
I have been following Indian auto industry and test-drives for like ages now. If 800rpm was India focused, it would have made my job a lot easier. In Singapore, it was a bit of a challenge to get understand and evaluate different car models – I had to get myself into the zone of comfort with brands and models I had not even remotely heard of. Building up this abstract database was a challenge but I cherished every moment of this process. From January to March this year, I spent a fair bit of my weekend and late evening time doing research on cars in the bracket that I was looking for. Given how the cars are priced in Singapore and my budgetary constraints, I decided to focus on two segments:
Segment C: Entry level 3-box sedan – essentially ruling out hatch backs as there was very little price difference between the two. Segment C cars were essentially Chevrolet Aveo, Hyundai Verna, Toyota Vios
Segment D: One segment higher than the above featuring Subaru Impreza, Honda City, Chevrolet Optra, Nissan Sunny, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Avante, Nissan Latio
The next few posts would provide more detailed information and assessment of above mentioned cars. Keep idling at 800rpm as we start to throttle a bit more!
I have been following Indian auto industry and test-drives for like ages now. If 800rpm was India focused, it would have made my job a lot easier. In Singapore, it was a bit of a challenge to get understand and evaluate different car models – I had to get myself into the zone of comfort with brands and models I had not even remotely heard of. Building up this abstract database was a challenge but I cherished every moment of this process. From January to March this year, I spent a fair bit of my weekend and late evening time doing research on cars in the bracket that I was looking for. Given how the cars are priced in Singapore and my budgetary constraints, I decided to focus on two segments:
Segment C: Entry level 3-box sedan – essentially ruling out hatch backs as there was very little price difference between the two. Segment C cars were essentially Chevrolet Aveo, Hyundai Verna, Toyota Vios
Segment D: One segment higher than the above featuring Subaru Impreza, Honda City, Chevrolet Optra, Nissan Sunny, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Avante, Nissan Latio
The next few posts would provide more detailed information and assessment of above mentioned cars. Keep idling at 800rpm as we start to throttle a bit more!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
800rpm at crossroads!
This blog was intended to be unique and different in some ways. In the short period of time since this blog first rolled out of the "manufacturing plant", it has already been to the service centre a couple of times with the co-drivers/ bloggers wanting to redesign this blog entirely!
After the fanfare surrounding the initial launch ceremony, Maharaj and I entered a phase of cold war. While I wanted this blog to be christened 800 rpm giving it a refined-and-cool-feel-with-just-enough-power, Maharaj wanted a more aggressive image with name closer to being 6000rpm and the blog’ image around roaring-engines-producing-full-thrust-power. With diametrically opposite preferences and tastes governing how we envisaged this blog to be, Maharaj and I officially declared the war on!
Over the next couple of months, we will leave no stone unturned to prove our respective blog-name preferences. The battle sparked-off with a few rough email exchanges, followed by a chat and call to prove how disgusting 6000rpm as a name was, etc, etc.
In the coming few months, we are considering both legal and illegal steps to help us reach a conclusion. On legal front, we have approached IUPAB for the rules governing the latest blogging nomenclature (IUPAB is International Union of Pure and Applied Bloggers). We have also appealed to the wing jurisdiction to come-up with its point of view. Needless to say, 800 rpm is likely to emerge as the winner in the process given how nerdy 6000 rpm as a name is.
On the illegal front, our first instinct was to say “pen is mightier than a sword” and a “keyboard is mightier than a pen” – so let this battle be fought over blog posts. However, that didn’t sound like war enough, so we got back to fighting the battle with a sword instead. In the process, Maharaj ended up with a wounded left hand and had to undergo an operation to set it right.
While this was the opportune time for me to take over and declare 800rpm as the eventual winner, I am a firm believer of war ethics. Maharaj was therefore granted time to recover before we continue this battle further! In the mean-time, I will go ahead and compose a few posts for this blog – And you Mr co-blogger, recover soon buddy!
After the fanfare surrounding the initial launch ceremony, Maharaj and I entered a phase of cold war. While I wanted this blog to be christened 800 rpm giving it a refined-and-cool-feel-with-just-enough-power, Maharaj wanted a more aggressive image with name closer to being 6000rpm and the blog’ image around roaring-engines-producing-full-thrust-power. With diametrically opposite preferences and tastes governing how we envisaged this blog to be, Maharaj and I officially declared the war on!
Over the next couple of months, we will leave no stone unturned to prove our respective blog-name preferences. The battle sparked-off with a few rough email exchanges, followed by a chat and call to prove how disgusting 6000rpm as a name was, etc, etc.
In the coming few months, we are considering both legal and illegal steps to help us reach a conclusion. On legal front, we have approached IUPAB for the rules governing the latest blogging nomenclature (IUPAB is International Union of Pure and Applied Bloggers). We have also appealed to the wing jurisdiction to come-up with its point of view. Needless to say, 800 rpm is likely to emerge as the winner in the process given how nerdy 6000 rpm as a name is.
On the illegal front, our first instinct was to say “pen is mightier than a sword” and a “keyboard is mightier than a pen” – so let this battle be fought over blog posts. However, that didn’t sound like war enough, so we got back to fighting the battle with a sword instead. In the process, Maharaj ended up with a wounded left hand and had to undergo an operation to set it right.
While this was the opportune time for me to take over and declare 800rpm as the eventual winner, I am a firm believer of war ethics. Maharaj was therefore granted time to recover before we continue this battle further! In the mean-time, I will go ahead and compose a few posts for this blog – And you Mr co-blogger, recover soon buddy!
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Creation of 800rpm
Welcome again to 800rpm. While the first post was a flamboyant launch simulation, this post is to provide some background to creation of this blog and a realistic picture of how this blog could potentially shape up.
What is 800rpm all about?
800rpm is a blog focusing on the automobile world, particularly cars, though we have no strict boundaries of the overall scope. I have posted a couple of posts on auto before on my primary blog, but this blog would essentially provide greater focus on auto posts as opposed to being 'just another blogging topic'. Additionally, it would help me structure the posts a bit more - more on this later in this post.
The most interesting part is that Maharaj would be my co-blogger to take this blog forward - to pump in his zeal and auto passion apart from his strong technical auto fundaes.
Additionally, we will be more than glad to accept auto posts from our readers! - yeah, yeah, recent blogger survey revealed that most bloggers have an illusion that their blog is the read by more people than one! On a serious note, we will try getting this blog to some sorta decent level in the months and posts to come.
As such we don't have any commercial aspirations to start with. This blog is essentially to share auto fundaes and nothing more! :-)
Why 800rpm?
800 rpm is the idle speed of most car engines. In very basic terms, idle speed is the minimum speed at which the engine functions (rpm is rounds per minute). So when you start a car in neutral, without pressing the accelerator pedal, the speed of the engine slowly gets down to idle speed once the engine is heated enough.
Idle speed for most engines is between 600-1000 rpm - differs from one engine to the other based on displacement size, number of cylinders, etc. So, why did we choose 800rpm?
1) 800rpm is a simple average of the overall range (600-1000rpm)
2) The 'involved' funda is that for a 4 cylinder mid-size car of say 1.5L engine or so, 800 rpm is sufficient to not only keep the engine running at idle, but is also sufficient to power the air-conditioning system and the electrical dynamo.
3) My personal choice of engine sound is as close it can get to idle speed - modern engines make very little sound at low rpms - to the extent that if you stop at a signal and pull your gear to neutral and allow the car to idle, there will be absolutely no sound and vibrations - the only sound, if you listen very carefully, would be of the engine belt!
Categories of posts
This blog is going to be all about auto and driving world. We don't intend to over-complicate things by having a major structure of the blog - just about any auto post is fine. However, the very broad categories of posts would be:
What is 800rpm all about?
800rpm is a blog focusing on the automobile world, particularly cars, though we have no strict boundaries of the overall scope. I have posted a couple of posts on auto before on my primary blog, but this blog would essentially provide greater focus on auto posts as opposed to being 'just another blogging topic'. Additionally, it would help me structure the posts a bit more - more on this later in this post.
The most interesting part is that Maharaj would be my co-blogger to take this blog forward - to pump in his zeal and auto passion apart from his strong technical auto fundaes.
Additionally, we will be more than glad to accept auto posts from our readers! - yeah, yeah, recent blogger survey revealed that most bloggers have an illusion that their blog is the read by more people than one! On a serious note, we will try getting this blog to some sorta decent level in the months and posts to come.
As such we don't have any commercial aspirations to start with. This blog is essentially to share auto fundaes and nothing more! :-)
Why 800rpm?
800 rpm is the idle speed of most car engines. In very basic terms, idle speed is the minimum speed at which the engine functions (rpm is rounds per minute). So when you start a car in neutral, without pressing the accelerator pedal, the speed of the engine slowly gets down to idle speed once the engine is heated enough.
Idle speed for most engines is between 600-1000 rpm - differs from one engine to the other based on displacement size, number of cylinders, etc. So, why did we choose 800rpm?
1) 800rpm is a simple average of the overall range (600-1000rpm)
2) The 'involved' funda is that for a 4 cylinder mid-size car of say 1.5L engine or so, 800 rpm is sufficient to not only keep the engine running at idle, but is also sufficient to power the air-conditioning system and the electrical dynamo.
3) My personal choice of engine sound is as close it can get to idle speed - modern engines make very little sound at low rpms - to the extent that if you stop at a signal and pull your gear to neutral and allow the car to idle, there will be absolutely no sound and vibrations - the only sound, if you listen very carefully, would be of the engine belt!
Categories of posts
This blog is going to be all about auto and driving world. We don't intend to over-complicate things by having a major structure of the blog - just about any auto post is fine. However, the very broad categories of posts would be:
- Car reviews and test drives
- Auto funds - technical details on just about any car part. We might even consider car manufacturing funds at some stage
- Driving funds
- Auto industry trends - this will be market, company, customer specific
- Miscellaneous auto topics
Ofcourse, with time, these broad categories would evolve as well.
In the next few weeks, hopefully there will be enough spare time to get this blog up to speed. Do keep visiting and if you have any interesting inputs on this blog or if you would like to contribute to the world of auto knowledge, do let us know!
Keep idling at 800rpm!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Launching 800 rpm!
Dear readers,
Welcome to 800 rpm - a blog for auto followers, fans and fanatics! This post is to launch this very special blog in some sorta special way.
... however, a few checks before the launch...
Ignition on... check
Petrol gauge... check
Engine oil level... check
Radiator coolant level... check
Power steering oil level... check
Wiper wash fluid level... check
Engine belt flexibility... check
Battery water level... check
Spark plugs ready to fire... check
Fuel pump... check
Air filter clean... check
Engine idle speed tuning... check
Engine assisted braking system... check
Gear and transmission system... check
Suspension response... check
Tyre pressure... check
Wheel alignment... check
Wheel balancing... check
Headlight and full beam... check
Tail and brake light... check
Indicator bulbs... check
Aircon gas level... check
Spare wheel pressure, jack in place... check
Road map/ GPS system... check
Side rear view mirrors at optimum angle... check
Music system ready to blast... check
With all checks in place for the launch of this blog, lets get into the "zone" to launch this blog...
Engine on, allowed to idle for 20 seconds
Air con temperature set at 22 degrees
Seat-belts fastened
Central locking activated
Music system on...
... insert a heavy bass rock CD...
... preferably Metallica... preferred song... "One"
... system set to high bass,
... increase volume till there are sufficient vibrations visible on the side rear view mirrors
It's all set to launch this very special blog. Shift gear to 1st/ down, pick up engine revolutions and vrooom we go...
800 rpm goes live... launched!
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