A Duo of Rondos

Thule racks fitted.

The rondo form as a musical genre emerged in the baroque period and became increasingly popular during the classical period.

I'm not sure if there is any connection between music and motoring, but the Kia Rondo, as a vehicle, was never really given a chance to become popular in the Australian market, as Kia stopped selling them here early in 2019.

This has never made sense to me. They sell well in Europe and Canada, although under the name "Carens", which derives from the word "car" and "renaissance". That nomenclature makes about as much sense as calling a car after a musical genre, but there you go....

The reason to stop selling them in Australia, according to Kia, was slow market take up, claiming to have sold only 150 buyers in 2018, and 226 in 2017. Our household has two of them.

Come to think of it, I can't recall any promotion of the model, either online or in the print media. They didn't sell, because buyers weren't aware of them. They're not SUVs, so by definition, were not trendy. This state of affairs defies logic, as the Rondo had more interior space and a smaller road footprint than the Sportage, and cost about $5000 less.

Perhaps posing as a four wheel drive vehicle was the rationale for the extra dollars. Bigger wheels and more expensive tyres was really all you scored for your extra.

So now, our household owns two of them.

There are a number of good reasons for this. First, they came with a seven year warranty, which is always a good sign. If a manufacturer has enough confidence in the product to provide this, you can be pretty sure the thing has been well engineered and well put together.

Kia has made massive strides in quality in a very short time. Early Kias were sound, but boring. Current models have cutting edge styling, and are very well equipped. The styling of our two are a result of the head-hunting that Kia employed in 2006 when it stole Peter Schreyer as chief design officer from BMW.

Apart from the appearance of the vehicle, which disguises its people mover attributes, the body styling ensures good aerodynamics, which becomes apparent on long open road journeys, when subseven litres per one hundred kilometres are par for the course.

The other one.

The volumetric capacity of the interior, with seats folded, is 1650 litres, and it can seat seven. I have carried large items of furniture (dressers) without too much trouble. The Rondo was second only to a ute in practicality when we moved house a few years ago.

They handle well, and the high seating position makes placing them on the road very straightforward, and entry and egress is kind to my aging (and damaged) spine.

The fitting of a state of the art stereo compatible with Apple Carplay has made the white one much more user friendly, although I'm not keen on touch screens. The magic wheel, as fitted to my CX-3 was a better proposition.

Before

After

There is sufficient room in the Rondo to create a sleeping space, and that is the next project. I have designs on converting the white one into a minimalist camping wagon.

The plan is to avoid any permanent installations, and I have a way of doing that.

The Thule pack racks are the first step.Watch this space.  

Near Miss

I'm posting this dashcam grab, gentle reader, in the hope that it might be instructive.

At about 1:10 in you'll notice a dark grey Toyota Corolla approaching on a downhill sweeping curve, and getting into a lurid oversteer situation.

I was a bit lucky, as the slide hadn't developed sufficiently to get into my lane until she (was a female driver) had passed me. She did end up in my lane, behind me, facing the way she had come.

Fortunately there was no other traffic at that instant, the road was wide, and there was nothing to hit.

I stopped, and walked towards the car to see if she was OK, but she took off. Embarrassed, perhaps? Anyway, the instructive bit refers to damp roads, downhill bends, and driving to the conditions.

My car was the Rondo I have just purchased.

 

Project Rondo

For some time now, I've been looking for a Kia Rondo with low kilometers.

Last week I found one; a 2017 model, with 34000 on the clock, and the best part of one year's warranty left. 

The low kilometers is a product of Covid, as the car was used by a local health service for outpatient transport. It sat in the depot for the duration, and averaged only about 5000 kms annually.

The only downside was that it was located in Nowra, so a 2000 km round trip was necessary. 

After much swapping of photographs and negotiation over the phone, the deal was done. The CX-3 was my trade, and in the end, no actual transfer of funds (except for the deposit) was necessary. The transaction cost me only travel and accommodation expenses. 

The reason for swapping a perfectly good Mazda CX-3 for a base specification Kia Rondo, is very simple. You can't sleep in a CX-3, but you can in a Kia Rondo.

The project will involve a very minimalistic conversion. 

Here are the details - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3cfH39yPIg

Wish me luck....

A Blast from the Past

My rego was PDS 332

I came across this piece of motorised nostalgia whilst visiting a local museum. 

It's nostalgic for me because I owned an almost identical vehicle from 1971 until 1974. My dad sold it to me after he bought it new in 1967. We arrived at a price by getting two trade-in valuations from a couple of Holden dealers. They were a dime a dozen (Holden dealers) back then.

They have now disappeared.

I write "almost" identical, because although it was the same colour and year, and had the same red upholstery it differed in engine and transmission. My car had the smaller 161 cubic inch engine. (That's 2.6 litres). This one was a 186 (3.04 litres).

This museum piece also had the optional disc brakes, and an Opel 4 speed floor shift from the GM parts bin. My car had drum brakes and a three on the tree shift. PDS 332 was very reliable in the three years I owned it, but those drum brakes were a problem once when they went out of round causing grabbing, and a pull to the right if applied vigorously. That was exciting.

Some detail on this car

In every other respect it was completely satisfactory and surprisingly economical on a long trip, although with fuel at 30 something cents a litre at the time, that wasn't really an issue.I undertook some remarkable trips in it, including Brisbane -Townsville - Mount Isa - Darwin - Alice Springs and return. It performed faultlessly and rescued my mate's near-new Toyota Corolla when it chewed up a fan belt between Katherine and Darwin.

Rescuing the Corolla

I'd love to drive this one. Not possible....

A Superior Household Appliance?

Appearance is pleasing

On a recent tour of FNQ* I had the opportunity to spend a week driving a hired Toyota Corolla. 

It was the barebones hire car version, but nevertheless was equipped with just about every conceivable feature, some more useful than others. Apple Carplay was extremely useful, especially as I have become used to what you can do with it based on experience with the CX-3.

Toyota interior finish is solid

We are in the habit of watching the ABC's Insiders on Sunday, and we were able to do this on the iView App playing on the audio. Sound is all you need on a panel show, and I was surprised how well the signal held despite negotiating at the time the convoluted and relatively remote Palmerston highway.

One feature I did not appreciate was the lane keep assist. It seemed to kick in over 60 kph as we headed North from Townsville, and nearly drove me bonkers as we proceeded along the Bruce Highway. It is supposed to prevent the car wandering out of its lane, but seemed to cantankerously want to take over the steering at the most inconvenient times. My guess is that it is engineered for your well-designed dual carriageway, and there aren't too many of these in FNQ. 

Plenty of space here

I pulled over, grabbed the driver's handbook and figured out how to turn it off. this transformed the car, and made it almost enjoyable to drive. Even the CVT (which I did not appreciate at first) managed to be in the right gear most of the time, and actually provided quite respectable engine braking in the mountains.

Full size alloy spare is a bonus

The seats were comfortable, the road noise less intrusive than in the Toyo Kogyo competition, and it was very economical. We saw 6 lit/100km cruising. It seemed to handle a lot better than Corollas I have previously driven, and is a little bit further along a continuum with household appliances at one end, and fun driving machines at the other.

I don't know that I could ever own one, but it was a very pleasant little thing, and served our purposes well across a wide variety of roads and conditions.

Eight out of ten I reckon....

*Far North Queensland - generally North of Cardwell. 

 

Trusting the Tech

 

Pic courtesy Mazda.com

In my most recent post about the CX-3, I made reference to the I-Stop feature.

This is just one example of the digital technology that came with this car, and is typical of many vehicles produced during the last five years.

For a boomer who was first licensed to drive in 1964, old driving habits die hard.

So when the I-Stop feature stops the engine, I feel very uneasy. But once you get used to it, it works very well. Whether it actually saves any fuel of consequence is another matter, but it is indeed a reliable piece of tech that functions as intended.

Then there's the "Auto Hold" gismo.

P for handbrake

This is a button the is located below the hand brake actuator (more about that later) on the centre console. When you're waiting at the lights on a slope in neutral, pressing this prevents the car from rolling back. It is a very useful feature, although it comes with a brief delay before it locks on, which is a little disconcerting.

But there's more....

The handbrake (mentioned above) is not one of those sturdy mechanical things typical of Mazdas of old, which made a welcome ratcheting sound when you pulled them on. Instead there is another (not exactly a button) device which you activate by lifting it slightly, and release by pushing it down. It does work very well, and even makes a slight clunking noise when you set it to "on". I find the mechanical noise reassuring.

Mirror folding switch

One piece of tech that caused me some alarm is the tyre pressure warning system. This is makes a buzzing noise when one or more tyres has lost pressure. Not long after I bought the car, I adjusted the tyre pressures. I always do this, as experience has taught me that some dealers have a very eccentric idea of what constitutes correct tyre pressures.

To my alarm, when I drove away after setting the pressures to slightly above Mazda's recommendation, the buzzer sounded and the warning light stubbornly stayed on. A check with the War and Peace sized instruction manual was not useful, as it simply acknowledged the presence of the feature, so I went to Google.

This showed that after tyre pressures were adjusted, the thing had to be reset. This was a very simple exercise (holding the button down for two seconds until the warning light flashed twice) and it has been happy since. Replacing the tyres elicited the same behaviour, but I was now wise to this particular quirk.

The blind spot warning system and the reversing warning buzzer that kicks in if any vehicle is within cooee when you're backing out of a parking spot is a very useful thing, although it tends to over compensate more than somewhat. But that's OK. 

Lastly, I accidentally discovered that the rear vision mirrors fold. Because they didn't automatically do that when the car is locked, I had no idea the feature was present until I had a quiet read of the driver's manual. It simply isn't automatic (or maybe it is and I haven't set it properly).

Tyre warning reset button

This model of the CX-3 doesn't have a lane-keeping feature or radar cruise control. The latter is probably useful, but experience I've had test driving vehicles with the former confirm my belief that they're an abomination. 

If you're too dozy to keep the car in the lane, you shouldn't be driving.

Mazda the Fifth

 

These things (Mazdas) are becoming an addiction.

This CX-3 is the fifth example of the marque that I've owned. It replaces the Mazda 3 that I hocked to pay for renovations in our new home. 

I've never been good at sharing cars. My bride would tell you that if you asked her.

The list of machines in our family emanating from the Togyo Kogyo plant at Hiroshima in the land of the rising sun include three MX-5s (all NBs, and one of them an SE) and my daughters 323, and my recently sold Mazda 3.  

To be completely truthful (and regular readers will know that I always am) this latest member of the Zoom Zoom family wasn't actually made in Japan. Mazda is now outsourcing manufacturing to an Auto Alliance factory in Thailand (Rayong province) and that is where the CX-3 was built.

Following my practice of avoiding new cars, as they depreciate as soon as you drive out of the showroom, I sourced this local 2019 example with 30000 kms on the clock locally. It's the cliche; with one local lady owner. It's a manual, and I was lucky to find it. Manuals are like hens teeth these days, as fewer and fewer millennials (and whatever the generation after them is called) can drive them.

It really does remind me of my MX-5s, but it has the actual advantage of being accessible. My 75 year-old back is these days incompatible with sports cars. The higher hip point of the SUV body style is a real boon. There is very little adult room in the back seat, but generally I sit in the front to drive it, so am not bothered by that.

The drive train has some strong similarities to the MX-5, and both road feel and steering feedback are similar. The higher driving position gets you away from reading the sidewalls of B-double tyres whilst waiting beside them at the lights.

There is lots of whiz-bang tech which I'm getting my head around, including a feature called i-stop which cuts the engine when you're waiting at the lights. I can disable it, but it sparks up again every time you start the car. 

Is this my last Mazda? Most likely - so I'll do my best to enjoy it.