Re: RK1 test drive report

sammykwan

Went to test drive RK today.

When I first saw the car, my impression was not very good. It looks very bulky.

Then I had a close look of it. The floor seems alittle big higher than RG, which is not so good for the elderly. But the roof is also higher which give much more head room.

The steering wheel is very cheap looking and touching. No leather cover on the base model, and it feels like made bya big piece of rubber.

On the base model, the seat is covered by peached cloth, which is very nice.

The front panel and dashboard seems a bit old fashion to me. There are alot of open compartment, personally, I think they are better to have covers on it like RG does.

The front seat seems higher, so the sitting position is more up right.

The sliding door is now bigger, which implies the 2nd row has more distance from the front seats. It folds in the same way as RG 8 seaters. With the view of super big glass roof, and big door windows, it feel mores roomy than it actually is.

The 3rd row is about the same as RG, but the big side window which makes me feel it is more roomy again.

Behind the 3rd row, there is a super big trunk which is use to hide the 3rd row of seat. This is big enough to hide my whole body inside it, that's how big it is.

2nd row don't have 2 reading lights as RG, there is only 1 reading light for the 2nd row which is placed at the end of the glass roof, where is a little bit above the middle seat of the 2nd row. It is hardly to be use for those people in the 2nd row.

Air vents with control in the 2nd and 3rd rows are the same as RG which is easy to access.

sammykwan

After checking all the above, I take a short ride on the road with Dicken.......

Keyless control is standard on RK. Although this is turning starting engine type, not push button type, but I think it is still very good to have it.

A big round needle type speed meter is sitting in the center of the dashboard which is very clear and easy to read.

Steering wheel is a little bit too light, but still give very good road feeling when driving. For sure, it can be improve by change to 17" rim

The suspension is solid firm which give very good cornering, no feeling of "boat ride" even the car is higher now.

Sound proof is very well done. I would say it is done as good as Toyota's car. No more DIY sound proof is needed.

CVT is working very good with this 2.0 R-engine. Torque at low-mid RPM is very powerful which give very quick acceleration during urban driving. Especially in "S" mode, it pushs the engine to the aggressive range, 2500-3000rpm. It feels more powerful than my RG3. I would say this car can really fly. But this CVT has no +/- mode (not like RG3). For those who wants to have +/- mode and traction control, they will have to wait and see if these options will be added onto the coming Spada.

When turned on the econ function, the car then changed to another level which give much less response on the gas.

Fuel consumption is also very good,  which was around 10.5L/100km during our urban test ride.

Since the car is now more powerful, but the brake power is not much improved to cooperate with with such powerful machine. I need to step very deep to slow and stop the car.

Side mirrors are now taller, so they are now in square shape which can have better view of the ground.

Overall, the performance is very much better than RG. Just need to lower the car so that it can go into most of the car park, and put on a good body kit to make the looking not as dull, then I will be happy to take it home.

禹聖

Thanks for your test drive report.

It really helps me to judge whether I should trade in my RF3 to Rk1 Spada, especially .......

"Sound proof is very well done. I would say it is done as good as Toyota's car. No more DIY sound proof is needed."

sammykwan

Thanks for your test drive report.

It really helps me to judge whether I should trade in my RF3 to Rk1 Spada, especially .......

"Sound proof is very well done. I would say it is done as good as Toy ...
禹聖 發表於 25-4-2010 02:15

You should go and take a test drive and see if my comments are fair enough.