Bongo Fury

hello,

well our search for the bongo continues. test drove a 2wd 2.5 diesel one today that was again very nice. the only comment driving wise was that it seemed a bit underpowered. In the test drive I'd put my foot down on the accelerator and the rev counter would shoot up but the actual acceleration didn't seem to match it.

Not sure that's the best explanation to be honest but I guess i'd say that there was a difference between the accelerator pedal/rev counter & the actual accelation of the van. I have driven others and not found the same affect.

now the bloke who was selling said that they'd had it for 4 years and only done 3000 miles or so bu that it had been serviced once a year by the garage he worked at. Could the 'underpower' be due to that or would it be some other reason? or is it quite a common occurence?


thanks in advance,

tom

I've often read comments on here about how powerful the engine is & what good acceleration it has. I think last time I measured it, 0 - 60 took about 16 secs which I wouldn't call especially fast. I think the only way to tell for sure is to drive another one, or maybe a few of us could find a quiet bit of road & check out some timings.

Slightly off topic - a friend of mine has an old VW Beetle with a 2.2 litre race engine in. That does 0 - 60 in 4.5 seconds & I can say that is very fast & very scary

Not got a diesal myself but the ones i test drove were quite rapid as i remember

The revs will rise faster than speed until the autobox locks up in 4th.
Or at almost any speed if you accelerate hard and it kicks down.

But if that is happening and it isn't an auto it has problems.

Hi
I agree with Simon, there, The Bongo ISN'T a sports car...Mazda make faster cars for those folks that want them, and the Bongo for us folk who enjoy a leisurely ride. No Bongo that I've heard of will pin you to the seat and distort your face with the G-force....it's a blinkin' VAN, after all...but an extremely useful one, and rather likeable

Regarding your friend's VW, Simon, yes, they do some highly powerful VW motors....'twas the reason for selling my Type2, as I had started to cost up such a 2 litre motor for it, and hydraulic suspension.......ridiculous money, I thought, so I sold it before I started spending more...I'd already spent a king's ransom on it!!!
Cheers
Helen

thanks for the replies.

I'm not expecting it to perform like a sports car!! But I'm fairly sure that the other ones we've test driven seemed to have a little more response to the accelerator pedal.

It is an auto model.

thomasw88 wrote:thanks for the replies.

I'm not expecting it to perform like a sports car!! But I'm fairly sure that the other ones we've test driven seemed to have a little more response to the accelerator pedal.

It is an auto model.

It could be the auto box that is the problem, if it isn't locking up it could be short of fluid or the throttle position sensor could be faulty/maladjusted.

Clutch slipping if it's manual?

Again if your gut feeling is it ain't right leave it alone.

Lack of turbo boost?

Let us know how you get on, and good luck.

I would walk away.........

Body swerve if i was you

Could it simply be that the engine and box were still partially cold, so the 'box didn't change up as it would when warm - and it won't even go into 'top' until warm, so the engine will feel as tho' it's revving pretty hard?

Bob wrote:Clutch slipping if it's manual?

He has already confirmed it is an Auto.

Trouble at t'Mill wrote:Could it simply be that the engine and box were still partially cold, so the 'box didn't change up as it would when warm - and it won't even go into 'top' until warm, so the engine will feel as tho' it's revving pretty hard?

That's the point I was making - it isn't certain how far the test drive was how cold it was etc.

Mine is like a slug on downers until it gets properly warmed up.

The test drive needs to be at least 30 mins on all types of road.

it was very cold yesterday, and the test drive was not particularly long so am interested in that comment about the engine needing some time to warm up. still going to see some more although this one is on the shortlist at the moment.

Be worth going back for a decent test drive before ruling it out, check the state & level of the auto box fluid after the drive, dipstick's under the drivers seat, check it while the engine is running, handbrake & footbrake on (hold it down with one hand) range through the selector positions & check in drive.

thomasw88 wrote:it was very cold yesterday, and the test drive was not particularly long so am interested in that comment about the engine needing some time to warm up. still going to see some more although this one is on the shortlist at the moment.

In that case the box probably didn't even lock up.
On Saturday I set off straight out onto a dual carriageway and it was between 2 and 3 miles before the box warmed up enough to allow lock up.

At least 10-15 miles and 30 mins needed to be properly sure how it drives.