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REVIEWS 2.2: GETTING THERE
Reviews for:
@Arn38fr - Aileron Automobiles Carcane C60
@Bbestdu28 - BMA Somptueuse Break de Chasse
@ChemaTheMexican - Garland-Varion Majesty
@Conan - Brampton 3500S TC
@Executive - Hakaru 1000 Premium
@GassTiresandOil - Armor Valencia Country
@Interior - Schnell New 3000
@Knugcab - Saarland Adjunkt
@lotto77 - P&A Sportsman Mk.III Flat 6
@LS_Swapped_Rx-7 - Mercer Lancaster 365
@Madrias - Kasivah Vyrada 2600 + VFC3
@MrdjaNikolen - Kolondra 1400
@Texaslav - Arlington Alpha S64
@TheYugo45GV - IVERA 70 (4XT)
This round of reviews is all around commuter cars, family cars and the like. More specifically, everything that isn’t a coupe, van or a ute.
So… Let’s start with the entries which didn’t hold up, did we?
These two cars ran into the same big issue. Terminal oversteer. Now, one of the two entries, the Garland, is… kinda acceptable, I guess? On the one hand, it’s a rear-engined car. On the other hand… Well, it’s clear that you got most of the way there, and then you just sorta stopped. The car has all the hallmarks of a successful, driveable rear-engined car. The tyres aren’t square. The front wheels have positive camber, while the rear tyres have a lot of negative camber. It doesn’t have a ton of oversteer until it goes terminal - but it still goes terminal. If you look past the terminal oversteer, you run into two major issues. First of all, the car could be six km/h faster if it weren’t for the gearing. Just go a tiny amount longer, and you get more speed. Not great. Second of all, though, there’s the tyre situation. See, it’s running radials… With the fronts being 140mm wide, and the rears being 165mm wide. This is generally not great, because radials ending in 0 don’t usually exist. It’s not mentioned in the post, but it’s a thing that happens with realism. Even worse, that massive rear camber means the tyres wear out incredibly quickly, and you can’t rotate the tyres. If you ran 135mm tyres in the rear - just one click down - the terminal oversteer goes away and you are using more common tyres. Not great.
Okay, now to the Schnell, shall we? See, this is a case I just can’t excuse as much. It runs into terminal oversteer too… and it’s front-engined. Here, its issues arise from a simple issue: The roll bars. See, the Schnell has the default “2000/2000” rollbars… Which is bad here. The car ends up with too much front grip and nowhere near enough body roll. So, this means the car suffers in terms of, well, every stat. The terminal oversteer kills cornering performance, harming drivability massively and harming sportiness more than the low body roll helps. Comfort is harmed by the issues with body roll too. Not great. It gets worse though. See, the brakes are designed with an almost 50/50 brake bias. This means there is way too much force on the rear wheels and nowhere near enough force on the front wheels. This causes major issues with brake fade, and a missed opportunity for increasing sportiness and drivability by properly calibrating the brakes. Finally, we come to the third major issue: The engine. The block is made of aluminium, and the head is made of cast iron. This combination has the lowest reliability, making the overall car less reliable than any other car - despite having standard intakes, and a standard interior. The car is replete with other strange decisions, but these are the ones which really sink it.
So, here’s three cars with a few common features. First, they all have a post-tax purchase cost above 25 grand. Second, they all have comfort above 30. They also have top-tier prestige.
I honestly have no idea how the BMA Somptueuse’s engineering was handled. That top tier comfort? Yeah, it’s a case of brute forcing it, throwing money at the matter. It’s the second most expensive car - not just in the sector, but in the entire round. Barely. However, it’s clearly a step down from the other two entries here. This comes despite using a handmade interior, in contrast to the “mere” luxury interior of the other two. No, it comes due to the reduced-size rear seats, functioning as 2+3 rather than 5 seats. This is the only car beyond sporty coupes to use these types of seats. Sporty coupes use these reduced-size seats because, well, they don’t have a ton of space. This car, though? It has so, so much space back there. It’s a wagon, for crying out loud! Indeed, the engineering of the BMA is closer to one of those sporty coupes with a wagon grafted on, from the price to the performance intakes (complete with low reliability), to the sport compound tyres… But if you want sport, why not buy a sporty GT? As we will see in the next section, there are sportier, cheaper, more comfortable options in that sector. But hey, it looks groovy, and that orange is a nice colour that really pops.
Okay, so, moving past that, where to next? Well, now we get a legitimate contest between the P&A Sportsman and the Mercer Lancaster - and I do mean a contest. The pair both came out in 64, and they have exactly the same 36.6 points of comfort. Thanks to the displacement tax, the smaller engine of the P&A allows it to come in 2500 AMU cheaper. Annual costs are a bit of a wash. Servicing is the same, and the P&A’s better economy on premium gas is outweighed by the Mercer using standard. The P&A is harder on its tyres… I’d say the taxes put the P&A a little ahead, but it’s debatable. This brings us to driving. For normal driving, the two are super close. Trying to go fast, though? Well, the P&A lives up to its name this year, bringing actual sport to the Sportsman. The Mercer, meanwhile, takes the American route by having a massive engine and hoping you have bigger balls if you wanna drive it fast - zero sportiness score. It’s only a few seconds faster than the Mercer, thanks to shaving off a little bit of time while accelerating, handling just a little better on the skidpad. The P&A edges out the Mercer, but they’re both sweet cars.
In terms of aesthetics? Well… They’re both sweet. They both have intricate, ornate front fascias. The Mercer looks sporty, while the P&A doesn’t look anywhere near as sporty as it really is. I haven’t shown the rear of the two cars, but again, two different cars - one muscle, one sporty.
I swear this isn’t going to be a pattern, but we once more run into the same “two cars good, one car bad” pattern. We’ve swapped from the high end to the low end.
Ohh Kolondra, where to start? How about with the, uh, interesting seating layout? It’s modelled with staggered seats, which honestly would be less comfortable than a conventional bench, with the models’ legs clipping into one another. Not great, but hey, it seats six? Like the Schnell, it has nowhere near enough body roll. Also, the suspension is way too stiff for this category. The brakes are way too strong as well, which doesn’t help either. It’s also less reliable than the other two here, which really matters at this end. Crucially, though? Besides being bigger and seating six, it doesn’t offer much for the extra… Two grand? Oof. Where did the money go? Making the car lighter, way lighter. The sound insulation is stripped out and lots of work has been put into making the car light. Why? If you kept the weight slider in the middle, you’d have a cheaper, more comfortable and more interesting car.
Okay, so, battle of the bargains. Both these cars are the cheapest outside of the commercial sector. The Saarland is the most reliable entry… by 0.1 points. The Hakaru just barely gets beaten. Entertainment in the Saarland is cheaper and the seats aren’t quite as well-made, but it has such better suspension and such that it’s probably more comfortable. Indeed, if you only care about a car which gets you from here to there, well, the lower purchase price and the marginally better fuel economy probably wins for the Saarland. Of course, if you want fun or safety? Well, the Saarland is a slug with rather basic safety options, while the Hakaru has advanced, cutting-edge safety, and performs so well on the skidpad that it’s well and truly enjoyable. Cheap fun, or just cheap? Take your pick!
And aesthetics? They look cheap, to be frank, and I personally do not like the Saarland and Kolondra. Setting aside the rather boring colours which aren’t too popular in Araga… They both use the cliche, early 50s jet-inspired rear flares, in cars nowhere near the right shape for them. The Kolondra makes them extra flat and mounts the lights to them. Both these cars were made in the early 60s. The rear flares do not belong. The Hakaru, meanwhile? It’s cute cheap. Just simple enough to look like an inexpensive little car from the era.
Okay, now we come to the part where I have issues dividing cars into nice, easy chunks. Prices are all similar. They all use premium interiors, and all but one entry uses a premium AM radio. The big difference, though? Three are “sporty”, three are more comfortable. So, the sporty ones first. No, not as sporty as the P&A, but not zero. So, let’s start with… The Arlington.
The Arlington has some good elements. It’s the best to drive… if you know what you’re doing. If you’re going nice and fast, it comes as alive as a car in this segment can. Going slower? Well, even those budget options are easier to drive. It’s incredibly thirsty and uses premium fuel. It’s the sole car with a standard AM radio… But, due to using sportier tyres, it doesn’t quite need to rely on harder suspension to get decent sportiness. This makes it just a little more comfortable than the other two entries here. It’s blisteringly fast around the circuit, faster even than most of those sporty coupes. If you need two rows of seats, plenty of speed and you don’t want to spend tons of money on a high-end GT? The Arlington may be what you need. In terms of aesthetics, meanwhile? Maybe it’s the split grille. Maybe it’s the hood’s slope and scoop. It looks nice and sporty. It’s a proto-muscle, in looks and performance.
Okay, so we have the fast car… Now for the slow cars. Wait, what? Wasn’t this meant to be sport? Well, these cars are legitimately fun to drive fast… once they get there. Neither car is high on power, thanks to smaller, low-tax engines. The Aileron, thanks to weighing less, accelerates better - but even premium fuel can’t help it hit a higher speed from its tiny 1.2L engine. Throw hard tyres onto both cars, and they have issues on the track.
The Aileron, however, has a saving grace. See, that tiny engine has a couple of key benefits. Service costs are somewhat low. Tax is even lower. Tax and servicing is as cheap as those budget buys… While fuel consumption is positively modern, at just 6.7 L/100km. If you are fine spending a bit more now for a more comfortable car, it keeps all your other costs super low - and it costs roughly as much as all these other premium sedans. The Ivera, though? Well, its somewhat high purchase cost renders the low running costs a little moot. Being a hatchback is nice though, as it makes it nice and usable.
For aesthetics? Well… The Aileron is… fine? It certainly looks like a premium sedan. Yes, everything fits together well. It’s well made. It certainly looks like a 60s sedan. I guess I just don’t like 60s premium sedans, because it isn’t clicking for me. Perhaps my modern, hot hatch sensibilities are why I like the look of the IVERA so much. Bright, bold and oh so orange, with a boxy hatch shape that was snuffed out oh so quickly by CFD. What can I say? I’m biased.
From one too-expensive car to another, we come to the Armor Valencia Country. You know, the offroader that’s only an offroader for tax purposes. Except for the fact that, you know, it’s heavier due to being a wagon, so the engine is larger… Fuel eco suffers too, wheelspin isn’t too fun, but that nice powerful engine does help around the circuit, so… Good job, if you need to store stuff in your car, there’s really nothing like it. You’re paying an extra few grand, and paying more to run the car, but you get something legitimately good for your money. For aesthetics? Well… It feels a lot like a Volvo. It’s, uh… It’s a boring, sensible wagon for boring, sensible people who want a boring, sensible, practical wagon. What can I say? It looks like what it is. Good job.
Now, we compare the last two cars. Anywhere else, the Kasivah would be more expensive - but hey, displacement taxes make it cheaper to buy. That higher tax cost, especially with worse fuel economy, makes the Brampton more expensive to run. Why does it have worse fuel economy? Well, it’s squeezing out more power from its engine. This makes it a bit faster, sure, and medium tyres do help it around the track… Just watch for wheelspin. The Brampton is a nice and drivable car, it’s a little more comfortable than the Kasivah. If it weren’t for the Kasivah, it’d be the easiest of our 5 seat sedan-like cars to drive, at 43.3. The Kasivah? 51.6. Yeah, I know. That’s a pretty high score, don’t you agree? Especially for 1962. Add in cutting edge safety, and yeah. It’s selling like hotcakes. It’s easy to drive, and both these entries are the most affordable premium cars.
Remember what I just said about not liking how I don’t love the Aileron because it’s a premium 60s sedan and it looks like a premium 60s sedan? Well, what do you know, there’s two more premium 60s sedans that look like premium 60s sedans. I like the way the Kasivah wraps its trim all the way around the car. I like the hood bulge and the vinyl roof of the Brampton. I just don’t like 60s sedans, I guess. What can I say?
Okay, so, OOC notes:
- Holy cow, I hate how safety works. I have written a complaint elsewhere but, to summarise:
– Larger cars are given a massive safety bonus, with both weight and footprint contributing heaps. I want to re-configure and re-score safety, but that’s be unfair, so… Safety score is kinda irrelevant.
– Decades don’t give enough benefit to safety score. Another issue here.
- The Schnell and BMA were actually sporty, better than the Sportsman. They were good there… But the Schnell disqualifies itself by virtue of its terminal oversteer. The BMA, well, those plus seats really hurt too.
- You know that phonograph option? Well, you should have used it more. Phono is more like “Luxury FM Radio”. It has the same engineering time, weight, reliability, production units… Yeah, it’s weird. No, I didn’t comment much because the game doesn’t really explain that because the name is weird and it’s a weird option. This brings me back to the Schnell. It uses a standard interior… and luxury entertainment. Weird.
Ok, now onto the changes to market sentiment:
- Hey, so, remember how I mentioned a lot of cars were close to the rev limit? How that was an issue before? Yeah, that was still too common here. It’ll tie into an issue later - and I will explain why it wasn’t mentioned here in a later review portion.
- Wow. Premium cars are back, and in a big way. There are actual, real benefits to comfort around premium and luxury cars, much more comfortable than the cheaper options.
You may notice I haven’t mentioned modifications. Yeah, that’s coming too.
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