Discussion On Your Daily Ride

[jebatdex]

Probably coz it's a more conventional engine & AT, hence FC not as good, plus the car is lethargic so you might tend to press the gas deeper. My wife also even though a slow driver but her throttle control and overall driving technique is not as smooth (I can get better FC than her with that same car despite driving much faster on average). MY X is also a GDi with VVti + 6 speed hence those help efficiency.

Bro, hows your X, satisfied with it so far? Im in the process to get my hand on my X as well, cant wait for that day to come.

Yours is GRX120 or 130? Mine is 2010 GRX130.

 

[DNGFashion]

Lazy to start a new thread so I just piggy back here to share my experience with another of our newly acquired daily driven car.

As some of you might have known, I just bought a 2008 manual ZC31S about 2 months back for my son to learn driving. We absolutely love it! I got the car in almost stock condition with only lowered using Eibach springs and 17' black Lenso rims with super thin 205/40/17 tires. I hate the rims/tire size combo coz the ride is damn harsh so within a few weeks I changed them to white 5Zigen 15x7 using Hankook V12 Evo 2 tires size 195/55/15. Now way much better as the ride is much more comfortable without sacrificing the handling and it accelerates even faster now due to less weight. IMHO it looks better too coz more proportional (small car matched with small rims) and more racing look (white rims on white car).

I also have remapped mine using RRP v2, it's highly recommended as the torque response especially from low-mid rpm is much more punchy. I have mod my exhaust using 4-2-1 headers and Suzuki Sport rear muffler, then use Works drop-in filter. Now the response is even more meaty with more top end while sounding sweet all the way!

For the brakes, I have upgraded to ProRS stainless braided hose, Motul dot 5.1 fluid, and install brake stopper.

I also have tried ron 97 & 100 but currently I'm just filling it up with 95 and it still works fine, just a slightly less throttle response than 97 but not so noticeable and more importantly no knocking. Fuel consumption IMHO is excellent as I can still easily get 10-11km/ltr while driving aggressively most of the time. I have tried to drive smoother and more patient and able to get 12.4km/ltr, but for me it's hard to drive slowly with this car as I just feel I want to floor it all the time coz it's so fun!

What I love about this car:
1. Great, sharp handling with good steering feedback. The handling is surprisingly neutral for a FWD car that makes this car loves eating corners fast!
2. Good engine power for its' size, making it a true pocket rocket and can surprise those with bigger cars!
3. Nice manual gearbox with very short ratios and short throw action too, great for acceleration. Like you said the clutch pedal feel is also just nice.
4. Good fuel consumption.
5. Excellent front seats, hugging the body nicely almost as good as Recaros in Evos or WRXs but easier to live with.
6. Good pedal positioning/alignment.
7. Good brakes.
8. Rear folding seats to allow carrying larger stuff.
9. Last but not least 8 airbags for safety! No other cars in this class has as many airbags s this little baby.

What I think are not so good in this car (but nothing major):
1. Seating position just a bit high.
2. No auto up for driver's window.
3. It needs a 6th gear!

110 kph is already @ 4000rpm. That's why ZC32S has a 6th gear.
4. Even though the braking power is good enough but the brake pedal feel is on the soft side.
5. It's slightly nervous at the rear but if this is the small price to pay for making it so neutral and well balanced during cornering then I'll gladly live with it!

6. The turning radius is surprisingly wide for such small car! It's as wide or even wider than my other much longer cars! Feels almost like doing a U-turn in an Evo.

7. Rattling around the driver's side power window switches.
8. Seems to attract other small cars like Myvi and Ford Fiesta S to cucuk from behind to try test you!

For further upgrades, considering to upgrade the brakes maybe with a 2 pot caliper and later better performance pads once the current pads finished. I'm not considering to install any chassis stiffening bars yet since I think the chassis is stiff and sweet handling enough for now.

As for repairs, I have repaired some small oil leaks from the valve cover seal and underneath from the oil filter area, plus replace the V belt and all fluids including aircon flushing. All the bushings and mountings are all still pretty good. Next repair might be the front absorbers but for now still not too bad, just got a bit noise.

So yeah that's my review and impression so far to the ZC31S.

May I know who is your tuner for the remapping service?

 

[Izso]

1. Good fuel consumption.
2. No auto up for driver's window.
3. Even though the braking power is good enough but the brake pedal feel is on the soft side.
4. Rattling around the driver's side power window switches.
5. Seems to attract other small cars like Myvi and Ford Fiesta S to cucuk from behind to try test you!

Just wanted to talk about these few points.

1. 10-11km/L is 'good' with hooning? How much hooning is hooning anyway? A remapped and lightly modded Jetta with hooning and insane speeding I managed to get 15km/L. Technology is amazing! But I have a feeling your manual lighter car would've been a more entertaining hoon.

2. This might just be a programming thing. Nissans once reset (battery out) don't auto-up and need to reprogram it. Hold down the power window until the window goes down all the way and hold for 10 seconds, hold up the button until the window closes and hold for 10 seconds. See if that works to reprogram the window. I could have the sequence wrong though, try pulling up hold - then push down hold (reverse) and see if that works.

3. Could be your brake pads. What pads you on?

4. Open up the panel and tie everything down. I hate rattles! The Swift is infamous for having very little screws, everything is either clips or plastic clips.

5. I never understood this. I drove a R32 for 2 weeks daily and never once got tail gated except for one time by a Myvi whom I suspect was just in a rush so I gladly obliged by boosting and getting out of his way... by being very far in front.

PS- I liked the looks of the 17". Was it that bad in terms of weight and all?

PPS - I've been thinking a lot about keeping old cars and all. I used to think like that and wanted to keep my Wira forever, but I'd want to do it not because of practicality or whatever - I'd do it purely because of sentimental value only. Having driven newer cars, different cars and other makes for a while now - I understand that I would've missed out a lot if I had stayed with my Wira. Missed on better FC, missed out on more entertaining drives, missed out on more comfortable or practical rides, etc. Whilst I still agree with maintaining older cars, I would question how much sentimental value a car has before dismissing the idea of replacing with a newer/better car.

 

[6UE5t]

Chinese saying: NJHL

What is that??

hahaha,of course man. is your son a petrol head? hopefully that car can teach your son what needed to be taught and do what you intend the car to do. haha, actually learning about cars in depth instead of half past six superficial stuff. i guess that's what all petrol head dad would want for a child.

Not yet, coz he's still not fully using the car as he's still practicing but he's beginning to like cars. Yeah I'm slowly teaching him stuff so later he can take care of it and not do and mod the wrong way.

Bro, hows your X, satisfied with it so far? Im in the process to get my hand on my X as well, cant wait for that day to come.

Yours is GRX120 or 130? Mine is 2010 GRX130.

Congrats! Yeah I'm of course pretty happy with it or else I'd have sold it long time ago. Mine is 2008 GRX120 normal version.
Yours is Sports package, or normal version?

May I know who is your tuner for the remapping service?

SS Engineering & Tuning. He just loaded up the map, nothing else actually.

 

[jebatdex]

Congrats! Yeah I'm of course pretty happy with it or else I'd have sold it long time ago. Mine is 2008 GRX120 normal version.
Yours is Sports package, or normal version?

haha.. yeah make sense. I dont know either sport package or normal. the owner upgraded a few things like GS brake, stiff ring, leather seat, latest facelift, and the most important, its black which i like a lot! first time owning a decent car. before this driving my 1996 satria all the way from johor to terengganu, 10 hours journey... fuh.. now maybe its time to invest some money for the safety and comfortable ride for my family..

 

[RENESIS VIII]

4.The emergency reflective triangle is place at the rear boot in a way that everyime u open the boot the triangle will act as additional safety reflector so other road user will see u.

This is one feature that I noticed is prevalent in the old Mercedes since I was very young. Always noticed that red triangle when I saw any old Merc with their rear boot opened up.

Nice....
the center cap needs to be black in colour and pls restore with 'Proton' wording at the center cap. That cap is getting hard to find these days.

I wanted to find that black round cap too but I'm not exactly sure is it available for sale? If I am not mistaken, that cap is only present in earlier 1990s Iswara while mine is a 1999 model which I think does not come with that cap anymore from factory. I have seen older early batches of Iswara with that black cap but haven't seen the mid batches like mine with light green colour that comes attached with that cap.

Yeah I was pleasantly surprised myself that this ordinary looking little car with just 120-130hp can be this much fun to drive. Will test it one day to Genting to see how it is, should be fun.

I got the rims together with the car. Yeah the stock rims look nice but I prefer the smaller 15' coz more comfortable and slightly lighter for better pick up.

The short gear ratio really helped a lot to maximize the potential of the 120-130hp engine. The trade off is like what you said, high rpm at higher cruising speed. 110kmh at 4k rpm is quite high which is almost like my 4th gear in my Saga/Wira. It probably drones with engine sound when you drive it at highway for long distance?

What is the tyre size for the stock wheels? Is it wider or same as you 15'?

 

[6UE5t]

Just wanted to talk about these few points.

1. 10-11km/L is 'good' with hooning? How much hooning is hooning anyway? A remapped and lightly modded Jetta with hooning and insane speeding I managed to get 15km/L. Technology is amazing! But I have a feeling your manual lighter car would've been a more entertaining hoon.

2. This might just be a programming thing. Nissans once reset (battery out) don't auto-up and need to reprogram it. Hold down the power window until the window goes down all the way and hold for 10 seconds, hold up the button until the window closes and hold for 10 seconds. See if that works to reprogram the window. I could have the sequence wrong though, try pulling up hold - then push down hold (reverse) and see if that works.

3. Could be your brake pads. What pads you on?

4. Open up the panel and tie everything down. I hate rattles! The Swift is infamous for having very little screws, everything is either clips or plastic clips.

5. I never understood this. I drove a R32 for 2 weeks daily and never once got tail gated except for one time by a Myvi whom I suspect was just in a rush so I gladly obliged by boosting and getting out of his way... by being very far in front.

PS- I liked the looks of the 17". Was it that bad in terms of weight and all?

PPS - I've been thinking a lot about keeping old cars and all. I used to think like that and wanted to keep my Wira forever, but I'd want to do it not because of practicality or whatever - I'd do it purely because of sentimental value only. Having driven newer cars, different cars and other makes for a while now - I understand that I would've missed out a lot if I had stayed with my Wira. Missed on better FC, missed out on more entertaining drives, missed out on more comfortable or practical rides, etc. Whilst I still agree with maintaining older cars, I would question how much sentimental value a car has before dismissing the idea of replacing with a newer/better car.

1. Well I have been testing it to just over 200kph and very often driving above 140kph and over 4500rpm, redlining several times. For me if can reach 10+km/ltr driving like that then I'm happy already.

2. I know about that method. No, it just doesn't have that function. Coz for autodown/up, there'll always be an extra click when you press/pull on the button to engage the auto function. So in this case the extra click is only for downward press while the pull has no click.

3. Haven't changed the pads yet, so not sure what pads they are, I'd assume just normal stock/OEM pads. That's why I was asking about the Ultrex in the other tread.

4. If I just bang or press lightly the button panel then the sound goes away. I'll just leave it coz not so annoying for me.

5. Not sure why also. Maybe coz of the sound of the car.

The one in the photo is the stock 16'. The 17' rims are black Lenso about 8kg/pc or about 1+kg heavier than the 15'. Looked nice but I just cannot stand the harsh ride! The stock 16' still not so bad and only about 0.5kg heavier but I'd still use the 15' later coz more comfortable. The 16' tires also almost double the price of the 15' and a lot less choices.

As for keeping older cars or change to newer ones, well for me it just depends on the car. If I still like the car and enjoy driving it, plus there's no new car I'm really interested in then I'll just keep it. I don't feel that I'm missing anything coz if my current cars already provides me what I need in a car then that's good enough already. Once I'm bored with them AND I find another better one that I like, then only I change.

 

[6UE5t]

haha.. yeah make sense. I dont know either sport package or normal. the owner upgraded a few things like GS brake, stiff ring, leather seat, latest facelift, and the most important, its black which i like a lot! first time owning a decent car. before this driving my 1996 satria all the way from johor to terengganu, 10 hours journey... fuh.. now maybe its time to invest some money for the safety and comfortable ride for my family..

Sports package has a comfort/sport suspension mode. If yours don't have that then it's the normal one. Very good then, especially since got GS brakes already.

 

[6UE5t]

...
The short gear ratio really helped a lot to maximize the potential of the 120-130hp engine. The trade off is like what you said, high rpm at higher cruising speed. 110kmh at 4k rpm is quite high which is almost like my 4th gear in my Saga/Wira. It probably drones with engine sound when you drive it at highway for long distance?

What is the tyre size for the stock wheels? Is it wider or same as you 15'?

Yup the short gearing with the short stroke gear shift is perfect for this car. Before I changed the exhaust, the I feel pity hearing the engine note at highway cruising speeds coz it sounds as if I'm wringing the neck out of it! After change exhaust even though louder but sounds more free.

Stock tires is an odd 195/50/16 size, very little choices of good UHP tires. If I opt for a slightly more common 205/50/16, then already a bit too wide for the 6jj rims. That's why I want to change to 15' using 195/55/15.

 

[jebatdex]

Sports package has a comfort/sport suspension mode. If yours don't have that then it's the normal one. Very good then, especially since got GS brakes already.

is that the only difference, or is there any other difference such as engine tuning etc?

 

[LimauKanker]

Not yet, coz he's still not fully using the car as he's still practicing but he's beginning to like cars. Yeah I'm slowly teaching him stuff so later he can take care of it and not do and mod the wrong way.

nice, glad to see you yourself is having fun with the car as well, hahaha.

 

[6UE5t]

is that the only difference, or is there any other difference such as engine tuning etc?

For the GRX120, the Sports one also has VSC while normal none. If GRX130 I think by default all have already, cannot really recall. Other than that, no more difference technically.

 

[6UE5t]

nice, glad to see you yourself is having fun with the car as well, hahaha.

Yeah, after 7.5 years driving auto, it's fun to drive a good manual car again. Keeps me more awake.

 

[RENESIS VIII]

Yup the short gearing with the short stroke gear shift is perfect for this car. Before I changed the exhaust, the I feel pity hearing the engine note at highway cruising speeds coz it sounds as if I'm wringing the neck out of it! After change exhaust even though louder but sounds more free.

Stock tires is an odd 195/50/16 size, very little choices of good UHP tires. If I opt for a slightly more common 205/50/16, then already a bit too wide for the 6jj rims. That's why I want to change to 15' using 195/55/15.

Perhaps the more restrictive nature of the stock muffler made it sound stressed compared to the quicker flow from the aftermarket muffler. Just something that I am wondering, since it is on such a short ratio, will cruising this car at highway speeds for very long distance traveling makes its FC actually worse than city driving? Continuous driving at 4k rpm.

195/50/16 is a weird size. Don't really see a lot of cars with such tyre size. Do you have any idea what tyres this car originally came with right out of factory? Normal tyres or UHP?

 

[6UE5t]

Perhaps the more restrictive nature of the stock muffler made it sound stressed compared to the quicker flow from the aftermarket muffler. Just something that I am wondering, since it is on such a short ratio, will cruising this car at highway speeds for very long distance traveling makes its FC actually worse than city driving? Continuous driving at 4k rpm.

195/50/16 is a weird size. Don't really see a lot of cars with such tyre size. Do you have any idea what tyres this car originally came with right out of factory? Normal tyres or UHP?

Hmm no, highway driving still more efficient coz even though 4000rpm but it's cruising, not accelerating as often like town drive. I can see that on the econometer.

It came with the first version of Dunlop Sportmaxx which is a pretty good UHP tire also, I'm testing it now and still works fine despite the age already >10yrs old! I also saw on some other car that came with Goodyear F1A2 which is even better.