Category Archives: cars

2014 Mercedes-Benz A200 (W176)

Posted on by
Reply

So after saying goodbye to my C350 earlier this year after a short three months, I switched back to my Audi, but last month got my hands on a new A200. Which I’ll most likely be driving for the next year. And it’s nice.

The model I have is pretty much stock. It’s got the 7 Speed dual clutch auto (7G-DCT) (although I would have preferred a manual), and cruise-control, but otherwise as stock as it gets. It does not have a spare tyre, not even a space-saver. Which isn’t great for our roads, but I’m hoping to not have to test out the run-flats in any case. They didn’t have stock of tow-bars when I ordered it, but a Westfalia fold-away-able ball was installed shortly thereafter.

benz badge

The car goes well. Front-wheel drive, with a 1.6 litre turbo-charged engine producing somewhere around 115kw. A good 20 more than my Audi, although it does weigh an extra 200kg, putting it at close to 1.5tons. It still manages a 0-100 speed of 8.6s though and has plenty of umph for overtaking.

The car itself is comfortable. At 6’2″ I fit in quite nicely, with enough space for an equally sized person to sit behind me (although preferably only two people in the back). Manual seat adjustments are adequate along with the steering adjustment, pretty standard on current day cars. I’ll be doing a 1,000km trip at the end of the year so I’ll see what it’s like for extended periods then, up till now I’ve done a 200km trip without hassle.

2015-01-07 19.33.46

Fuel economy is not as good as I expected. Obviously how you drive does affect this. The car only has a 50l tank, which is a bit frustrating for me coming from the 65l in my Audi. Around town I’m usually only getting around 10l/100km, maybe slightly less. If I put some effort into it I can bring that down to 9. This is not necessarily only my driving style, but the type of driving I have to do.

On the open road I managed 7.9l/100km, but I’m quite sure I can improve on that, and will be testing it out again this coming weekend (EDIT: Got it down to 6.8l/100km). This is better than what my Audi got :)

A200 Instrument Panel

In typical Mercedes style, the ride itself is comfortable and rattles and wind-noise are minimal. At highway cruising speeds you don’t notice anything and the car feels like it can handle much higher speeds with ease. With a top speed of 220km/h, it’d be nice to get the car on a track some time.

The steering wheel, radio and much of the controls are straight out of the previous C-Class (204). So I felt right at home. Centre console and armrest are slightly different, with the gear lever now located off the steering column on the right, following the latest Merc trend. This gives a bit extra space for compartments. There are also small compartments in front of each of the front seats, as well as a nice sunglasses pocket by the review mirror which my sunglasses don’t fit in.

keylights

A moderate boot can be expanded immensely by the 60-40 split rear seats, large enough for a MTB bike without its wheels, or large TV. Ski’s may still provide a challenge, alas not one I will face. Climate control is a R7 500 extra, something I didn’t think I’d miss until I started driving this car. It handles well enough, sticks nicely in the corners, although body roll is noticeable at speed. It has a sensor for if it thinks you are driving too close behind someone. A red light comes on on the dash. And it beeps at you if it thinks you are going to crash into them. It has beeped at me many times, not always because of my ‘bad’ driving style at the time.

It’s a nice car. I’m really enjoying it. Visibility isn’t great, but I suspect the car will handle a roll quite well with the massive C pillars. Fuel consumption isn’t as good as I was expecting. I would have to spend more time in the Audi and BMW competitors before I could make a decision, But the ‘new’ A-class is definitely a hit and well up to standard.

Car buying

Posted on by
Reply

A friend and I decided to have some fun a few weeks ago, so we went off to test drive a car two. He had just purchased a new bakkie for his work, so I was the potential customer. Although I had no intention of purchasing a new vehicle when I went in, after leaving the second dealership I was seriously considering it.

We first went to Audi, I’ve always liked their cars, and having driven one for the past 6 years, figured I should give their newer range a go. They’ve got a nice dealership up on the hill, but with a relatively limited range. Only about 5 vehicles in their ‘new vehicles’ section, and an equal amount of second hand vehicles.

When we arrived a lovely second hand S3 (2012 8P) immediately caught the eye. We anyway went to look at what new vehicles they had and were shortly joined by a salesman. After chatting for a bit we mentioned our interest in the S3, he mentioned that it had been sold already, and shifted our interest to two A3 1.8T sitting on the floor. While it was cool to see what cars were available, what we really wanted was a test drive. And this is sadly where Audi fell short this day.

Apparently the branch was sponsoring a golf day and all the managers were out at said golf day. Apparently the guys on the floor can’t take out any of the cars in such a situation as the keys are all locked away, and a manager is needed to access the keys. This was frustrating and sad at the same time. In any case, he said I could come back any time during the week and he’d organise a drive, even following up with several phone calls a week later.

Time was running out for our Saturday, so we had a quick look over the neighbouring VW dealership, which sadly had no Golfs on offer, only a large array of polos and a couple Amaroks. A quick drive brought us around to the BMW dealership. With a similar display of vehicles, we quickly spotted a 118 and 323 which caught our eyes. The 323 was 50 grand cheaper, but was sitting at 80k km, as opposed to the 30k km on the 118. Realistically the 118 (2012, F20) was a more likely choice, so we took it for a drive.

The car was an automatic, white leather seats and white interior. Although I’ve never been a fan of the looks of the 1 series, it has been improved with the more recent iteration, and, in my opinion, the shortening of the bonnet. Getting in it was comfortable, and there was still enough space behind me for the average passenger, although the drive shaft going to the rear wheels will make it a bit awkward putting a third person in the back seat.

I liked the interior. It was modern and neat. Minimal buttons and nicely designed. The auto gear-lever works well, as does the ‘manual’ shifter, which has a forwards/backwards action as opposed to the sideways motion of the Mercedes I have previously driven. The centre console looked a bit overly complicated, and it was awkward to navigate it and drive at the same time, this is possibly something that just comes with time. But I found it less easy to use than the Merc C-Class’s.

click for source

click for source

Driving itself was great. The 1.8t pushing out a good 120kW in a relatively small car gives it plenty of umph with a nice little turbo-boost, something that’s great to experience having previously only really driven naturally aspirated engines. The car handles the corners with minimal body roll and comes equipped with standard run-flat tyres which gave a pleasant ride around town with sufficient grip.

I had follow up calls from the saleswoman the following week, even knocking 10 grand off the price. Ultimately there is very little she could have done to get me to buy a car with that white interior. I’m off the beaten track far too often to even consider white carpets. Otherwise a very nice car, and definitely a good first experience with the 1 series and BMW in general.

So the following week the salesman from Audi gave me a call. Or four. I wasn’t good at answering my phone. But in any case, I took a trip out to see what the Audi A3 was like, and ended up taking an A3 1.8T out for a drive. As mentioned I have an affinity for Audi. Their designs have always been my favourite. Getting into the car however I was slightly disappointed. The interior was nice enough, but it was more chunky and less refined than the BMW.

click for source

click for source

It drives well enough though. This was a manual 6-speed with a similarly powerful engine to the BMW. It was easy enough to get an accidental wheel-spin at the first intersection thanks to the front-wheel drive nature of the car. But traction control was quick enough to kick in and get the car going in the right direction.

The car is great, handles equally well and I had some fun round a couple circles and up the freeway. Sufficient power to get you going and the manual gearbox works nicely. This specific car had an odd clicking noise whenever the clutch was depressed and the clip on the armrest lid was broken. Not the kind of thing you want when buying a car.

What disappointed me the most about the car was how uncomfortable I was. At 6’2 I’m not the shortest person, but I really battled to get a comfortable driving position. No matter how many different levers and buttons I pushed on the seat and the steering wheel I sadly couldn’t get comfortable. The armrest also just annoyed me.

So for me, the 1 series takes the comparison hands down. Although I prefer the look of the A3, the two cars I looked at the BMW had a better interior, it was rear wheel drive, and I was actually comfortable in the car. Also to note is that the Audi I drove was at the end of it’s model lifespan, compared to the relatively new 1 Series model. The new Audi (8V started production in 2013) would realistically offer a better competition to the BMW (F20 started production in 2011).

Things to take home. Cars are really expensive :( Car salesmen are really friendly, they laugh at your jokes, phone you at work etc. There are some really nice cars on the market. Car choices are really subjective. Also I don’t know how people decide what car to drive. Personally I’ve always been fond of a station wagon, gives you space, but still the handling of a sedan. But SUVs are better for the offroad, something useful in this country, but then they don’t necessarily drive as nicely on the road in the same price bracket. At least this is not a problem I have to deal with now.

Audi – Built in FM Transmitter

Posted on by
Reply

Instead of replacing the head unit of my car I decided to rather just get an FM Transmitter. I ended up with a cheap one from ebay, one that looks like this. It has a USB port to charge things from and a 3.5mm male audio jack to plug into MP3 players, cellphones etc. The only problem, is that the cigarette lighter in my car is located just infront of the gear lever, this gets in the way and the wires there annoy me.

This got me itnerested in building it into the car. I eventually decided to make use of one of the “button” covers in the row of buttons. I have two blanks, so went about mutilating it to achieve my goal. It wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, the blank has a hole lot of junk on the back, but I sawed and ground it off to be left with just the right amount of space to mount a button, a female 3.5mm audio jack and an indicator LED.

Original Blank on the right, and my modified one on the left, hot glue and all

I trimmed the power lines going to my radio just behind it, and added two connectors so I could easily plug in and remove the fm transmitter if need be. It’s more convenient and also a bit safer/neater than soldered wires all over the place.

I added two wires with clips from the radio’s wiring harness for power.

One unfortunate thing, is the way I put everything together, it required me to push the FM transmitter through the hole of cover. This was problematic as it was too large. In the end I discarded majority of the case, and wound some insulation tape around the circuitry just to protect it. Not what I had wanted, and not particularly neat, but it works.

Neatly in place above the radio. USB, LED (off), 3.5mm audio plug and power button visible

Hooked it all up and it’s up and running. The FM transmitter is a cheap one, not that great quality and only transmits on 2 set frequencies, but it does the job. I have found however that the 5V it supplies for USB isn’t that great. My GPS doesn’t seem to like charging from it, although my cellphone is fine. I think the current may be rather limited, so may look into repacing that part of circuitry at some stage.

With a GPS plugged in to charge and the 3.5mm audio plug in as well. LED On

Audi Remote Control

Posted on by
4

So, when I got my car (’96 Audi A4 B5) the remote control for the central locking didn’t work. We replaced the batteries and did a series of tests to try sort it out but nothing worked.

We took it in to the local Audi dealership who after a morning of having it returned it to us with a quote for R8000 (excl). We said thank you and I have used the key ever since.

It seems that something went wrong with the Infra-Red system my Audi used (I know from 1997 they switched to RF remotes) and the previous owner never bothered to fix it.

If your Audi came out before the IR remotes, this approach should still work, if it came out after the RF remotes, check here.

Now the Audi’s whole security system, the alarm, the pump for the central locking etc are all contained in one neat little box located in the boot under some panels. So although 90% of my box still worked (everything except the infrared circuitry) they would have to replace hte entire unit. Thus the huge cost. I’ve seen 2nd hand units advertised for about R3000, so it is just an expensive component.

So recently I got thinking, couldn’t we just try and install a conventional wireless system around the current system.

Because the infrared system was stuffed, we decided to go at it a different way, and use the signal that gets sent to the alarm system when you manually unlock the driver’s door.

This invloved taking the panelling off and finding the wires that go from the lock to the alarm system. 3 wires were found, a brown one (we think it’s some form of check to see if the door is open or closed) and the two important ones, a red & brown cable witch is shorted with the car’s earth when the key is used to lock the car, and a grey & white cable for unlocking.

To get at the security box in the car open the boot and remove the mats covering the side wall and bottom area off to the right of the boot. I had to remove a little storage box by just lifting it up and unclipping it. There are also two plastic caps which keep the mat in place, remove those, then you just need to use a bit of force to work the carpet out from behind the plastic fascia. You shouldn’t have to unscrew anything.img_0853-large img_0849-large img_0852-large

Once removed you should see a foam box to the right, lift the cover and a plastic box should be lying there. There are 3 wiring harnesses, the two outer ones can be pulled straight out, but the middle (power) one needs a screwdriver or something to unclip. There is also the air pipe which can just be pulled off. You can then quite easily remove the security box. This is just to make soldering easier.img_0848-large

Of the two outer plugs, one is smaller than the other. This is the one that takes signals from the lock in the driver’s door. You will find two wires that correspond to the two we found in the driver’s door. The grey & white and red & brown ones.img_0846-large

And voilà!

Connect these onto a remote control receiver and you’ve got yourself a new remote control.

Power for your receiver can be taken from the middle wiring harness. Check your polarity with a multimeter, but for me the brown cable was earth (which I used as the earth for the lock and unlock signal as well) and the red one next to it was positive. This gives you the necessary 12V.img_0847-large

I haven’t connected my remote control yet, as I’ve had to shop around for a decent one at a cheap price. I eventually found this on ebay for R240. At a local security shop they sold a 3 channel receiver (for garage doors) for R310 and a remote with two buttons is R150 rand. Those are code hopping ones, which are more secure than the ones I bought, and will work fine in a car.

note: When you use the key, turning it once turns off the alarm, and physically unlocks your door. That means that if you push your remote control once, it will turn off the alarm and NOT unlcok your front door. If you turn the key twice in succession it unlocks all the doors. Likewise, pushing the remote’s button twice will unlock all the doors.

If someone manages to hack the infrared section of the circuitry, you would not have this problem. I may get round to looking through it one day, but at the moment this works :)

When I get my remotes I will see if I can build a small circuit to send two signals instead of one, so I don’t have to push twice each time.

I have already soldered all the wires in place that I need to install my receiver, and have checked that they work by shorting them. I will repost once I have received my package and installed it.