I really liked it. The interior is much nicer than the previous generation and the outward looks are a lot better too.
The performace was really nice as well. The turbo lag is very slight but winds up quickly.
The pull is strong around 3-4k but falls off a bit after 5k rpm. It put a stupid grin on my face though. It's no v8, but they squeeze an awful lot of power of that 2.0 litre.
It corners like it is on rails. I drove as aggressively as I dared. I didn't want to push it since it wasn't my car and I had the salesman sitting there with me. He said he could drive it if I wanted to see how it handled when pushed more. We swapped seats and he took off down a twisty road near the dealership. He was throwing it hard into the turns and it didn't complain once. Barely any tire squall. Had I tried that in the wife's TL type S, it definitely would have been making some noise.
At one intersection (with no one around) he made the turn at about 45 and the car hugged the corner the entire way. No wiggle, no pushing out or sliding the rear. It just hugged the road and made the turn. I was seriously impressed. The active yaw control really does the job well.
There are a couple of things I didn't like though. The seats and the trunk. The seats are almost completely race oriented. It's just missing a 4 point harness. The bolsters are large and keep you planted, but it really lacks comfort. I don't think I would want to take it on a long road trip to the beach or to visit granny. Also, there isn't a power option. I think for a $35k+ car, there should be a power option for the driver. It wouldn't add too much weight.
The trunk is quite small. The battery and the sub take a lot of the room. Sub enclosure is located on the right and the battery it located on the left. On the right had side, there is the window washer resevoir as well. That caught me by surprise. I don't know if the previous iterations had it in the trunk as well. I can understand them putting the battery in the back but I don't see why it couldn't be placed lower in the trunk, like BMW does. It would free up a bit of room.
The 650 watt rockford fosgate stereo can do some serious damage to your ears. It really does kick. The salesman had a cd with various songs and demo'd a few. It was starting to get a little painful.
All in all, I was impressed with the thing.
The performace was really nice as well. The turbo lag is very slight but winds up quickly.
The pull is strong around 3-4k but falls off a bit after 5k rpm. It put a stupid grin on my face though. It's no v8, but they squeeze an awful lot of power of that 2.0 litre.
It corners like it is on rails. I drove as aggressively as I dared. I didn't want to push it since it wasn't my car and I had the salesman sitting there with me. He said he could drive it if I wanted to see how it handled when pushed more. We swapped seats and he took off down a twisty road near the dealership. He was throwing it hard into the turns and it didn't complain once. Barely any tire squall. Had I tried that in the wife's TL type S, it definitely would have been making some noise.
At one intersection (with no one around) he made the turn at about 45 and the car hugged the corner the entire way. No wiggle, no pushing out or sliding the rear. It just hugged the road and made the turn. I was seriously impressed. The active yaw control really does the job well.
There are a couple of things I didn't like though. The seats and the trunk. The seats are almost completely race oriented. It's just missing a 4 point harness. The bolsters are large and keep you planted, but it really lacks comfort. I don't think I would want to take it on a long road trip to the beach or to visit granny. Also, there isn't a power option. I think for a $35k+ car, there should be a power option for the driver. It wouldn't add too much weight.
The trunk is quite small. The battery and the sub take a lot of the room. Sub enclosure is located on the right and the battery it located on the left. On the right had side, there is the window washer resevoir as well. That caught me by surprise. I don't know if the previous iterations had it in the trunk as well. I can understand them putting the battery in the back but I don't see why it couldn't be placed lower in the trunk, like BMW does. It would free up a bit of room.
The 650 watt rockford fosgate stereo can do some serious damage to your ears. It really does kick. The salesman had a cd with various songs and demo'd a few. It was starting to get a little painful.
All in all, I was impressed with the thing.
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