AwwwwComfort:
Sweetness. Total sweetness. It's the most comfortable car I've ever driven, nay been in! Electric adjusting, heated leather seats, armrests, such smooth suspension, and heating/aircon that can be subtle if you tell it to be. It's just a pleasure to be in.
Sound:
What sound? It's incredibly well insulated against road noise and there's virtually no difference in sound between standstill and around 100mph unless you're accelerating hard. After then the sound of wind turbulence kicks in a bit. It's not loud, just noticable. I'm guessing it's due to the fact it's an estate. I drove through rush-hour traffic for hours today cursing the fact that it only has a tape player and radio. When I got to the parents for a quick break I read the manual a bit and discovered the CD autochanger in the boot. DAMN! ;) As soon as I get the fascia I bought off ebay I'll be transferring my JVC stereo to it. Can't live without my MP3 CDs
Drive:
Wow. It's a petrol that thinks it's a diesel. So much torque!!! It's so easy to drive, so docile, so quiet. It just does everything you ask of it smoothly without making a show. Pulling off in 2nd? You won't even notice! I didn't... But it has another side. Push the pedal down further and you can feel the turbo kick in. The quiet purr of the 150bhp turbocharged engine turns to a deep growl and you get catapaulted forwards. Not neck-snappingly so (that wouldn't be comfortable, which is what this car's all about), just very forcefully. Gear not an issue - it's happy to out-accelerate most cars from 40 to 120 ALL IN FIFTH GEAR! It's just such a relaxed, relaxing and restrained car. I love it to bits.
As far as cornering goes it's not quite on par with a Golf, BMW or the sublime Peugeot 407, but it's really not far off. It's very confident taking corners at speed and it's so far resisted my attempts to get it to understeer out of roundabouts. The steering is a bit lighter than I'd like at high speed; I think it may lack variable power steering, but it's easy work to manouvre it into parking spots.
Economy-wise it got me 250 miles on about 36 litres of unleaded which works out to 31mpg. That's about half crawling in traffic jams and half cruising at 70-100mph, with some bouts of heavy acceleration in there. For such a powerful engine that ain't half bad! I think I'll be going to the pub quiz in Sheffield on Sunday, cruising at 70mph all the way to see what mpg I can get out of it.
Condition:
I'd have to say it's been well used, as you might expect from an 8 year old car that's clocked up 110k miles. Quite a few mild scratches and the small hard to spot dent are pretty expected given the dirt cheap price of the car, but the chipped paintwork on the front edge of the bonnet will probably need sorting soon. Inside it's a little dirty but really not that worn and there's no rips/stains on the upholstery.
All in all, a great buy. I love this car!
Now where shall I drive tomorrow?
Well I was wrong on the variable power steering, and acceleration from 40-50 ain't too hot in 5th, but it's still the car I fell in love with
