Thoughts AFter Two Days

SO we have had the car for two days now, well one and half really!!

As stated in my other post the pick up and handover were absolutely fantastic, to the point where we have both decided to email our salesguy and thank him for the excellent service.

Looks - It is Fabulous!! The main thing that hits you is how Chunky it is, almost Tonka Toyish!! The style 5 alloys look Awesome and with the aspect ratio of the tyre really do look HUGE!! We were never tempted by the 20" wheels, to me the style 5's suit the car much much better. The Privacy really looks stunning too, I must admit I have never been a fan of it and don't like the look of it on the majority of other cars, but on this, it really works well, it give the 5 door a more coupe look!!

Inside - Leather and seats are very good and the Vibe looks stunning, definitely made the right choice here as we did leaving the Ivory headliner, I know a few people on here don't like it with the Vibe but it really does work well, it looks extremely luxurious and had we picked the black and then seen the ivory we would have been Gutted!! As for build quality, in the main very good, but there are a few bits that are a bit cheap and nasty, namely the electric seat movement controls on the seats, they are pretty crude but that's being picking really, oh and the glovebox quality is extremely poor!

Driving - Excellent seating position. Ride is a bit harder than I thought but very good. Performance wise I can't quite work out, we have been taking it pretty easy and haven't accelerated hard at all.

MPG - Trip A which I haven't reset is showing just under 33 mpg and that is mainly urban with a bit of dual carriageway, when I filled it up last night it showed range of 479 which I thought was good fornthentype of driving we had been doing, I think on a decent run it will be about 40 ish, which I think is really rather good!

Still haven't taken any pics but will when I get chance but it looks identical to another recent posts car, so nothing anyone hasn't seen before.

Oh one last thing, the boot is smaller than I thought it was going to be, I knew it wasn't massive but I can't see where they get their volume figures from in autocar recently they said it was a good size comapred to the other cars they were pitching it against, but I would be surprised if it is as big as the boot on my 3 series coupe! But will probably be big enough.

So, we are both extremely happy so far, both with the car and the fantastic dealer we have used

Great to read that you are enjoying! Your mpg is better than mine after 500 miles!

Did my regular weekend drive to Suffolk this weekend: a couple of hundred miles round trip from urban via motorway and A road to single track country road covered in farm detritus

Observations:
Seat is v comfy, but the driving position I am struggling with: The window sill is high so resting an elbow is a challenge (arm rest is too low for me) and the wheel is a little smaller than I am used to (coming out of a 1995 C class) so getting a comfy rested elbow/relaxed wrist was a struggle. Right foot also at an angle I am not used to. Better on the journey home as I was more relaxed... I am 6'3" in old money and getting the right mix of knee angle and arm extension was a struggle....

Wife loved it and found it very comfy although we both felt that having no tilt option on the passenger seat squab was a bit "cheap": great on the drivers side but there's no tilt on the passenger side to support thighs better....

Drive is comfy: loved straddling speed humps. The big wheels feel the lumps and bumps and the ride is firmer than the C-class, but not as firm as my old SLK was (which we got shot of as it was hard work on a long trip - loved the car though!). I found the steering twitchy at speed: new car = playing with things and I have a habit of slightly drifting when distracted (wife hates it...) and there really was no latitude in the steering play

Never had a nav system and found the map feature too bright for me in the cockpit at night: not that I need it for that journey and if I do need it, I'll suck it up. Loved the bluetooth/iphone connectivity though. Sound system is a little over the top!

It goes, like a train. Deceptively so, and I found myself at 90mph without bother or fuss, and found myself there quickly. Very happy with that for my first oil burning engine.... Had a slight issue with the gearing coming down to 30mph... a slight shudder on the engine coming close to 30 (decelerating into a village for example), and a feeling of being one gear too high while rolling through said village. Other than that, loved the gearbox/shifts too - v quick and smooth. Using the paddles is fun (unnecessary but fun) but going back to pure Auto mode is something I need to bone up on: I found myself changing the gear to S mode and then back to D to reinstate pure Auto

Odd that the nearside blindspot monitoring came on when driving down country roads (with hedges...)

The auto headlight main beam thing is good but I found it would turn itself off later than I probably would: a car was coming out of a minor road and my main beams were on. I'd normally dip them so the driver didn't have to stare at my brights until I went past. Also found that oncoming cars at certain angles (hilly bits) caused it not to dim until far too late. Not clear how to easilytemporarily override this feature other than flicking the brights off but then that loses the Auto functionality

Carpet overmats really are crap, aren't they? Far too small for purpose

Blindspot Monitoring - I have that a lot living in the sticks, I just don't notice the little orange dot or the icon telling you you have just passed a hedge anymore. You can also switch the BLIS off in the dash menu if it gets too much!

Gear box - the auto box when left in D and using the paddles will return to full auto after about 20secs (not sure exactly) all on it's own, IIRC if you use command shift in S then you will only get upshifts when you reach the rev limiter or pull the paddle. It will automatically shift up when you get to the limiter. I have noticed the slight judder on coming down to 30 too but have taken to manually shifting down a gear and using engine braking rather than the brakes to slow down.

Nav system - there is a variable lighting setting, but if it is too bright at night you can always go to the radio / home screen and the nav will still talk to you if needs be if you are using the guidance.

Yes, the mats are poor. There's still too much muck left inside the car when you take them out for cleaning.

(19-03-2012 04:00pm)Tosh Wrote:  Observations:
Seat is v comfy, but the driving position I am struggling with: The window sill is high so resting an elbow is a challenge (arm rest is too low for me) and the wheel is a little smaller than I am used to (coming out of a 1995 C class) so getting a comfy rested elbow/relaxed wrist was a struggle. Right foot also at an angle I am not used to. Better on the journey home as I was more relaxed... I am 6'3" in old money and getting the right mix of knee angle and arm extension was a struggle....

I had the same problem, took a little playing around with, but finally got a very nice position, just sitting higher than i expected.

(19-03-2012 04:00pm)Tosh Wrote:  Using the paddles is fun (unnecessary but fun) but going back to pure Auto mode is something I need to bone up on: I found myself changing the gear to S mode and then back to D to reinstate pure Auto

Pull and hold the right-hand [+] paddle for a couple of seconds.

thanks, will try that

(19-03-2012 05:15pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Blindspot Monitoring - I have that a lot living in the sticks, I just don't notice the little orange dot or the icon telling you you have just passed a hedge anymore. You can also switch the BLIS off in the dash menu if it gets too much!

Gear box - the auto box when left in D and using the paddles will return to full auto after about 20secs (not sure exactly) all on it's own, IIRC if you use command shift in S then you will only get upshifts when you reach the rev limiter or pull the paddle. It will automatically shift up when you get to the limiter. I have noticed the slight judder on coming down to 30 too but have taken to manually shifting down a gear and using engine braking rather than the brakes to slow down.

Nav system - there is a variable lighting setting, but if it is too bright at night you can always go to the radio / home screen and the nav will still talk to you if needs be if you are using the guidance.

there is a dimmer control down by your right knee