Fixed.

The very reason why the Mazda 3 was the first one out of my list when deciding to get a car at the beginning of the year.
Plus it's underspec-ed at the price where I can get a top range Forte.

Don't be fooled by the 308T. Seriously it's not fun to drive at all when you're constantly stuck in heavy city traffic.

The 308T is a huge and bulky car with pretty heavy steering, but the main letdown is the unresponsive box. Sure, 4 speed is relatively adequate for city driving, however it's tuned towards high-revvings and it simply refuses to upshift to 4th gear, even with shift-tronic, unless your speed is above 70kmh. Which means most of the time you'll be stuck at urban speeds (50-60kmh) while revving beyond 2000rpm. As a comparison, the Forte cruises at a relaxing and silent 1.4K rpm in the final 4th gear.

Moonroof is a fancy gimmick which is impractical in Malaysian weather. You'll end up pulling the interior cover all the way to block the scorching sun.

Anyway this is not a 308T bashing post as it is still a fun car to drive under certain circumstances, but for practical reasons the Forte would be a better choice.

Can't comment on the Fiesta since I've never driven nor sat in one before, but most reviews give thumbs up for its driving experience but not so much for kit and equipment.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Jun 24 2010, 08:14 PM

I don't own the 308T but my mum does. And I've driven it long enough to be able to compare it to my own Forte. My experience is that it is very reluctant to upshift into the final gear even at 60kmh; using tiptronic might "force" it to do so (most of the time it doesn't) but the moment the car slows down it drops straight back to 3rd gear to keep the revs and torque high. It is after all, tuned to be sporty and hence don't expect it to provide a relaxing ride.

As for other aspects such as cabin noise insulation, I totally agree. Turbo charger whirl alone adds more exhilaration to the overall driving experience.

The one thing I don't understand is the air con comparisons. I certainly don't think that the air con is not cold enough; drop the climate control settings to "Lo" and it'll become a fridge... cold enough for me.

Indeed, most reviews of the Fiesta have praised its ride, yet one can't help but feel that the reviewers focused too much on the ride aspect and overlooked the cons of the car such as its lack of equipment. Not sure what goodies the Malaysian Fiesta provides, but according to the readers' comments in this Australian review it seems that it's very, very basic.

Funny, my experience is that it drops to 3rd at 65-70kmh, never below 60 let alone 50. Oh well. I've suffered the same thing as the part I bolded, hence I usually leave it in full auto mode while driving the Pug.

For the Forte, it downshifts from 4th to 3rd at approx 40-50kmh. Most of the time it's closer to 40 although if you're rolling at 50kmh in 4th gear you'll lose most of the torque. You're still able to accelerate using the 4th gear, but for quick sprints you're better off manually dropping it to 3rd via shiftronic.

I'm using shiftronic full time for the Forte; mostly to time my upshifts to the appropriate speeds although I do manually downshift early to take corners quickly. One noticable bad thing about the Forte's box is that it often is indecisive at 40kmh - it just doesn't know whether to downshift to 2nd or remain in 3rd... most of the time it stays in 3rd and causes the car to lose acceleration when exiting the corner.

For the air con issue, I suppose it's just because I never really had experience with Protons so can't compare; but the Pug's air con is already cold enough. Just need to turn down the temperature settings and it'll becoming freezing.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Jun 25 2010, 03:29 PM

The latest episode of Driven reviews the Fiesta, although I must say it's not a very good review and the total score of 9/10 doesn't seem to be based on anything (especially when cars like Forte, E90 got 7/10).

Good decision to wait for the Fiesta in August... gotta see what kind of stuff they throw into the Malaysia version.

Honestly the B-segment market in Malaysia is really messed up... you're either stuck with Protons/Peroduas, or you're forced to pay actual C-segment prices for the City/Vios/Latio. Even worse, the price Toyota/Honda charges for Yaris/Jazz is absolutely ridiculous.