The meaning of "nippy"

PeterNem

PeterNem

PeterNem

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The problem of having a Ford Mondeo is that when it goes into the garage you get a Ford Ka as a courtesy car.

I saw the thing in a horrible colour in the dealer car park and my heart dropped. I had to drive it for a day. I was at least hoping for a new fiesta.

Anyway, once in and I could forget a bit about the colour (although not fully, as loads of body coloured metal is visible inside) things improved a bit.

To my surprise it wasn't actually poverty spec and had a CD player and electric windows.

Once on the road I was surprised even more. Obviously it wasn't as fast as my Mondeo, but because you're nearer to the road, it's noisier etc, it really felt like it wasn't that slow.

I drove it like I stole it for the whole day. As there's no rev counter I drove it by ear and I can tell you that little 1.3 8v engine was screaming.

I always thought 8v engines didn't like to rev (I hadn't driven one before), but when giving it a booting coming onto the M1 it got to 90+ indicated in 3rd... I was quite surprised and changed up before finding the rev limiter (is there one?!) as it sounded like the engine was going to die.

Similar for 30mph in 1st and 60mph in 2nd..... the gear ratios are alarmingly like that of a larger car - I'm not sure the engine liked me for it, it certainly didn't sound nice, but it managed it.

I always remember one of my mates had one and would always moan about how slow it was and when I was in the car with him I couldn't have agreed more. Now I realise that while they're slow it is probably made a lot worse by them being driven by new drivers who are scared of pushing the engine, and that coupled with the lack of rev counter means the engines probably never get reved that much.

If you give them a real hard pushing they can about keep up with traffic.

It was certainly nice to get back in the mondeo at the end of the day though.

The main difference when you're driving at a normal pace is not actually at high speeds, but around town. In the mondeo you take it for advantage that 3rd gear is good for about 10mph to about 90.

In the Ka if you change into 3rd much before 30 it really struggles to pull anywhere.

Interestinly ragging the Ka so hard seemed to negate any potential fuel savings of driving a small engined car. When I collected the car it was on 1/4 of a tank and I was asked to return it with the same in. I put £7.50 in it straight away as a guess thinking if anything it's be a spot over. I did 50 miles and at the end of the day the needle was just under a quater... I know fuel guages aren't 100% accurage, but 50 miles from approx £7.50 isn't that dissimilar to the fuel economy you'd get from your average 2.5 litre barge - I guess most people tootle around at 50mph in these and never rev them much which is where the fuel savings come into play.
 
heh - a few years ago i had a Rover 100 Kensington as a courtesy car, and that was hilarious fun (like your experience). Just ragged it everywhere, got an indicated 70 in second etc, and had a real hoot of a day.

Love borrowing little courtesy cars now, as the basicness and lack of resepect you can show them makes up for their shortfalls.
 
I see "nippy" cars as smaller cars with good pickup and torque which starts lower in the rev range so it feels like it's accelerating harder / quicker. Because it's small too, the impression and feel (owing to lack of fatter tyres, more bodywork to absorb shocks, suspension etc...) will feel quicker and more responsive. I just think it's because torque on a smaller car is more preceivable owing to less dampers and so on.
 
The Ka is a fantastic little car about town. Assuming I never had to go above 40mph I'd take one over a Fiesta. :yes:
 
That Rover 1.4i 8v I am driving at the moment definately Revs much quicker and more freely than the Mondeo. The "power" band is really high up the rev range though.

It feels quick as it is much noisier than the Mondeo and also smaller I think.
 
agree with freefaller, this can be seen from driving my wifes punto and my BM, the punto feels nippy when pulling away.
 
I understand nippy to be "the illusion of speed/ acceleration whether it be real or not" usually in smaller cars. An example is the old mini. Seems really quick when you are in it but its not actually that fast.
 
hehe courtesy cars are a laugh...
Taking an day out from my normal duties in the drawing office at work, I had to go and collect one of our engineers company car from a VW garage in preston (from leicester) one friday. The motor I had to get up there was a hire car- vauxhall vectra (new shape) 2.2DTI. Bearing in mind my normal mode of transport is a K reg ford escort 1.8D na, this was a bit of a step up- diesels have come on a long way since my engine was designed. It was really hard to tell you were driving a 'diesel', accelerating off a roundabout and back on to dual carridgeway was great fun- torque, torque and yet more torque with the little dash light indicating traction control active winking at me constantly, and a stereo that I had to turn down because it was just too loud :eek: haha.
All in all I had a thouroughly enjoyable drive to preston. It was only when I got there and collecte the other car that my troubles began.
I collected the engineers VW passat 1.8T and set off back to leicester. about three quarters of the way into the return journey, the oil pressure light came on and stayed on- this was the reason it went into the garage in the first place, so I stoped at the sandback services and ring the boss- I get told to wait for the AA to arrive. Eventually the AA man turns up and loads the passat onto his lorry and off we set to the nearest garrage which is in stoke on trent. by this time it's about 7pm and there's a serious doubt about me getting home that night as there might not be a hire/courtesy car for me to use one the passat is dropped off at the garage.
Fortunately it turns out that there's a new fiat punto 1.3i (or something) with about 6k on the clock, available. Eventually I get on the way back to leicester and arrive home at about 8.45pm. I got to keep the punto over the weekend and I have to say it was a fun little thing to drive, if you can ignore some of the more 'girly' aspects like the button on the dash which makes the power steering 'super light' so parking is easier if you have feeble arms, give the fact that my escort has no power steering and has that heavy oil-burning lump under the bonnet, this is hardly something which was going to be of any reay benefit to me, other than nearly causing an accident as turning the wheel with your little finger and not requiring brute force to get round corners cought me a little by supprise lol.
Hire cars: you gotta ragg them a little bit...
The punto was good fun and nippy round town and the vauxhall was pretty good down the motorway- that big 2.2DTI lump is a great bit of engineering and had loads of oomph left at 90mph. Picking up from junctions was good- all that low down tourque had to be taken advantage of as often as possible :D
 
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I had a Ka courtesy car and it was truely awfull... and i've driven some right heaps in my time :o

It has got a rev limiter but not one like i've heard in any other car.

As for getting it up to 90, your a braver man than me. That thing felt so unsteady at 60+.

I managed to kill the hand brake and pull off no less than three seperate pieces of trim. That wasn't through me being an arse, they genuinly come off in my hand, or got knocked / fell off.

I'm not sure how revvy they are because as you say they are lacking a rev counter but I think its the rough vibration the engine has at high revs that gives the impression your revving the tabs off it.
 
PeterNem said:
Interestinly ragging the Ka so hard seemed to negate any potential fuel savings of driving a small engined car. When I collected the car it was on 1/4 of a tank and I was asked to return it with the same in. I put £7.50 in it straight away as a guess thinking if anything it's be a spot over. I did 50 miles and at the end of the day the needle was just under a quater... I know fuel guages aren't 100% accurage, but 50 miles from approx £7.50 isn't that dissimilar to the fuel economy you'd get from your average 2.5 litre barge - I guess most people tootle around at 50mph in these and never rev them much which is where the fuel savings come into play.
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the only way you will get good mpg(40+) from a small engine is to accelerate gently and stay at a constant speed as much as possible on a long flat road.
 
So you was doing 90mph in 3rd gear in a Ka and then found it interesting that it'd drunk so much? Oooo-kay.... :p;):confused:
 
I'd have told them to shove their Ka - you bought a V6 Mondeo from them, if you were happy with a Ka you'd have saved a fortune and bought a brand new one from them instead of your Mondeo.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I'd have told them to shove their Ka - you bought a V6 Mondeo from them, if you were happy with a Ka you'd have saved a fortune and bought a brand new one from them instead of your Mondeo.
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Then you could think about how you showed that fool at the Ford garage who's boss... during your long cold walk home ;) :p
 
One of my mates has a Ka and he drives it like he stole it too, it is pretty quick as he keeps it in the lower gears, its actually pretty easy to overtake other cars as well, I watched him overtake 2 at once one time, I don't condone that sort of driving though, it's quite scary when you're following behind him lol
 
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lol.... what's scarey/bad about overtaking 2 cars at once?!?! If the road is long enough I'll hapilly see off a dozen cars.
 
lordrobs said:
I had a Ka courtesy car and it was truely awfull... and i've driven some right heaps in my time :o

It has got a rev limiter but not one like i've heard in any other car.

As for getting it up to 90, your a braver man than me. That thing felt so unsteady at 60+.

I managed to kill the hand brake and pull off no less than three seperate pieces of trim. That wasn't through me being an arse, they genuinly come off in my hand, or got knocked / fell off.

I'm not sure how revvy they are because as you say they are lacking a rev counter but I think its the rough vibration the engine has at high revs that gives the impression your revving the tabs off it.
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You must have had a knackered one, never had any issues like that in the three that I've driven.
 
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