Toledo the Red Torpedo
I remembered in my youth, that there was the 2.0GT, which housed a single overhead cam 2.0 with a rather soggy 115bhp on tap. Boot space was ginormous back then, but the car suffered heavily from the lack of rear legroom. Today’s Toledo is quite the different animal. The car seems a little more nimble, with quite a bit of body sculpting and pinching of sheet metal.
Power for our test car came from a 1.4 litre turbocharged diesel unit. The output of just 89bhp ensures that the Toledo is in the Cat A ranking. Peak torque though is a massive 230Nm, beginning at 1,750rpm, but ends early at 2,500rpm.
When driving under normal conditions, there is plenty of torque, with the 7-speed DSG transmission doing its job of keeping the engine within its optimum torque range. Push the car hard, and past 2,500rpm, which is quite easy to do, you’d feel the huge lump of torque disappear like when you swallow a huge lump of yummy jelly too quickly. You will find that there is some diesel chatter which will intrude into the cabin. On the outside, diesel chatter is audible, but not the old taxi kind of loud.
Century sprint timing on the Toledo is a decent 11.8 seconds, and the 7-speed transmission works well at keeping the revs low. The engine to those who have not driven a diesel car before might come across as lazy, and a good reminder is always to check your speed, as you usually sound slower than you are really going.
Road noise is minimal, from the factory installed Bridgestone 215/45R16 tyres.
Taking the car around a few tight bends did reveal a quite bit of frontal plough, and you can also feel that the rear wanting to shift around as well. Unlike the first generation Toledo, this was not intended as some sort of mixed up driver’s car-cum family sedan thing.
The tuned-for-comfort suspension means that there is a little bit bounce after hitting road irregularities. But this does not translate to comfort, as there can be quite a bit of jiggling. Steering feel is perhaps a tad better than the Japanese competition, but definitely better than what the Korean cars can offer.
I would say that the Toledo is an ideal car for those who do not have the habit of tossing the car around, and they wouldn’t mind the diesel chatter. The reward, is excellent range from the engine and transmission combination, providing 25.6km/l.
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