Viaggio in Islanda

On Saturday, I went to The 18th Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS) in Jakarta Intl' Expo Kemayoran. The ticket is quite cheap, IDR 30K for weekend (Fri-Sun) and IDR 20K for weekdays (Mon-Thu).

I went there to see Ford Fiesta! I'm so in love with that car. It's the launch of Ford Fiesta in Indonesia. Well, I'm about to sell my Chrysler Neon A/T 2.0 to buy Ford Fiesta. But before deciding to buy Ford Fiesta, first of all I compare Ford Fiesta with other hatchback cars even not a head-to-head comparison. I've tried Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Spark Transformatic, Hyundai i20, and Suzuki Splash.

Let's start the review with Ford Fiesta.

Actually, I'm totally in love with this car since the first time I saw it in the online news. I collect as much info I could get about this car, I even follow the group in Facebook. After I took test drive of this car, it still the best option for me. This car has a very comfortable cabin. It's not tiny but not too wide either. The space is just perfect. The safety feature quite satisfying. Beside it already has 2 airbags, secure locking feature, secure fuel door, the best part that interesting me the most is the marking blind spot on its rear-view mirrors. Because I often almost got incident in high way caused by this dangerously blind spot. The other interesting future of this car is the voice command feature. The rear-view mirror is also integrated with the door lock remote control which it will be automatically close when we remotely lock the door and it will be automatically open when we remotely unlock the door.

Ford Fiesta offers 4 types in Indonesia, Trendy with 1400cc engine which only available in manual transmission (M/T), Style with 1400cc engine which available in both manual and automatic transmission, and Sporty with 1600cc Ti-VCT engine which only available in automatic transmission (A/T).

Let's move to Chevrolet Spark Transformatic.

This cute car quite stealing my attention because it's one of transformers icon and the transformer robot also displayed right beside this cute tiny car. When I test drive this car, I told the sales that I want to drive the automatic one. But when I get into the car, I was confuse because the gear seems manual. Then I asked the sales and the sales told me that this car is transformatic. Which means it's not totally automatic but it uses EZ Clutch. So we can switch whether we want to drive it manually or automatically by click on the provided button.

The manual transmission is quite comfortable for me whose been years driving automatic transmission. Then I tried to switch it to automatic, I found a bit clumsy because we still drive it manually, we need to switch the gear along with pushing the button on the gear, but our leg no need to hit the clutch. So the button that we push on the gear is to replace the function of our leg to hit the clutch. Quite interesting and unique but it needs time to fit in. Overall I love this car, but the cabin is too small. If it sized like Chevrolet Aveo, I might consider to buy this car.

Now it's time for Hyundai i20.

I think Hyundai i20 is the first city car that offers diesel. With its 1200cc, it's very unique to offer the Diesel engine. It definitely consume very economic fuel. After I tried this car, the manual transmission is quite comfortable but I haven't tried the automatic transmission. Overall, it's so average, nothing really special about this car except one, it has a cool box in the dashboard! The cooler comes from the air conditioner. Well, have no idea how it works in tropical Jakarta which more to hot. Will the air con that cool? The space is just fine, not too small and not too big. But it's so average.

Suzuki Splash!

First impression, it looks good from the outside but not from the inside. It has a very minim feature. The interior is very standard, it doesn't have the automatic transmission and the manual transmission is kinda tough for people who used to drive automatic transmission. But I think this car is perfect for the first driver who wants city car with not too big body but has a spacious cabin.