Canada Auto Information
Drive over smooth and rough pavement. Hit a few bumps. Drive over some railroad tracks. Find some expansion joints on the highway and run the car over them at your usual cruising speed. Excessive bouncing over bumps could indicate worn shocks, struts or springs. But keep in mind that, when assessing the ride quality of [...]
If the suspension and alignment is in good shape, you should be able to remove your hands from the wheel without the car darting off – do this on a deserted road at moderate speeds. Freeplay in the steering wheel could indicate problems with parts of the steering linkage. Dering steering wheel usually indicates a [...]
If you haven’t already done so, take a few moments at the end of your test drive to put your thoughts and impressions on paper. Don’t leave anything out. These notes are vital to your mechanic. Even if you think a certain sound, smell or vibration might very well be nothing at all, write it [...]
Run the transmission through all four or five forward gears (and don’t forget to check Reverse). A manual transmission should shift easily without grinding gears. Some transaxles may lightly grind the lower gears the first couple of shifts on a cool day before the fluid warms up enough to allow the synchronizers to slide smoothly [...]
WHAT WE DISLIKED: The lower-end model doesn’t handle like a charm with such a soft as a marshmallow suspension, and there’s a whole lot of shaking going on. Steering is terribly over-assisted, so it robs the driver of any real feel for the road and it’s far too volatile, so driving is no quiet Sunday [...]
