Better than Top Gear
I've started this page..... not because I think I can do better than
Top Gear! More that I'm not enamoured by the presenting that occurs on
Top Gear, if you want to listen to Jeremy spitting his opinion they go
ahead, if not maybe you'd prefer to be here, the choice is yours!
That's right with the BBC you get a pompous jerk instructing you as to
what you do or don't like & here you get to listen to some of my
thoughts & make up your own mind.....
Feel free to email me if you think I have a good idea with this page,
feel free to email me if you'd like to add some interesting information
onto this page.
sspidermann at tiscali dot co dot uk
This page is about the cars that I have driven, beginning with the most
recent;
Skoda Fabia: It's my
current vehicle. I just can't help comparing it to my old Xsara &
being a little dissapointed. The space is ok.... just, it's a squeeze
and needs logistics when getting shopping in, pushchair, suitcases etc.
The fuel economy... on a run, on the motorway the fuel economy seems
good, and towards very good; around town.... I don't think it's so
good, the unleaded petrol seems to get used up quick, compared to the
Xsara which was fuel efficient whether on a run or round town. The
Skoda is set up in the European style, and the controls are O.K, the
controls are fairly bog standard and are managable, but the car does
like to chime... when the petrol is low, "CHIME!!!!!!!!" What is it?
what's wrong? is my oil low? engine overheating? No, just the petrol is
low, not desperatley low, just a bit low! & this was soooooo
bad.... Switch the car on & the oil indicator starts
flashing... Why? So check the oil no problem.... still the oil
indicator flashes... So a few days later, I've read the manual from
cover to cover & if the oil flashes it means the car is due for a
service....... I give up, & the manual describes how to stop the
oil sign flashing.... it's one of those cooker clock situations... you
have to hald buton a whilst patting your head and rubbing your tummy
& then it hasn't worked anyway! The car doesn't need a service, but
the oil sign still flashes! Dispicable is what it is. The space inside,
again the Xsara had lots of space, but the Skoda although roomy enough
not to feel claustrophobic, the door storage is minimal. Skoda Fabia
does however have a nice secret couple of compartments, one down to the
right which nicely fits a notepad and has a pen holder! & a secret
compartment within the glove compartment (Any body ever found gloves in
the glove compartment?). The air conditioning and the electrics are
just annoying.... too cold air con, too yucky feeling air con... how to
switch the air con on/off it's a fiddle and how many times I switch the
engine off and then the windows won't shut..... it does have the switch
the engine off & you have two minutes to close the window, but it
doesn't allways seem to work... The car doesn't handle as well as the
Xsara, it steers violently around corners, no gliding round corners.
The steering wheels too small/uncomfortable, the horns awkward and in
the wrong place and makes a terrible little .....honk? hardly, it's
like it want's to honk, but doesn't quite manage it, and with my drive
being on a slope... somehow water manages to collect & as I open
the car door, the water dribbles on me! This car is like an annoying
little puppy!
Volkswagon Jetta: Well.... who can picture me
in a Volkswagon! Yuck! It was a courtesy car.... It's a big deisel car,
noisy like a tractor. The boot space is big.... well it goes in alot
& at the end of your shopping run, you virtually have to climb into
the boot, cos your shopping has slid to the back. The car has some
performance..... coming of a roundabout on a dual carriageway & I'm
at 70 in 4th! What is the 5th gear for? The car likes to "bong" at
you... the person in the passenger seat hasn't got thier seatbelt on...
well, it's not a person, it's my shopping! Cos I don't want to have to
use the boot, so I take two tins from the shopping & put them on
the back seat, this stops the bonging! Then the bonging.... what is it?
low on deisel? something wrong with the car? No, the car is informing
me that it thinks it might snow!!! What??? There is no snow, there is
no sign of snow. The hand brake was horrid on this car... awkwardly
placed and took an effort to raise it up... so much so that one
evening, I parked up, tired after work, then later found the car had
rolled down the driveway! This car was a big lumbering idiot of a car!
Fiat Panda (Diesel): I really enjoyed driving this car :)
It's a small car.... having said that, enough room for my wife, myself
& my son in the back. the boot was roomy.... for the size of the
car. I could park the car in most places, where I'd usually struggle in
another car, the steering is light to handle. I drove this car in Costa
Brava, alot of winding roads, & it did make me feel a bit queesy,
but then I don't know if I've encountered such winding roads & they
go on forever, difficult to keep above 20Mph (I'm guessing the speedo
shows Kmph), into third, down to second, swapping gears alot.
Seat Ibiza:
A good car, comfortable, reasonably roomy, fuel
economy seemed good, no
performance quarms!
Ford Focus: I
drove this car in Costa del sol. What do we want to know? performance,
this car is quite scary...... six gears and 0 to 60 I'm sure in less
than 5 seconds, I got a speeding ticket! The car was damn
uncomfortable..... usually it feels a little odd driving on the right,
as I'm used to driving on the left in the UK, but this car just was
really uncomfortable to drive.... and the handbrake was quite
convenient..... for my wife! We joked that this was the manafacturer's
idea to get man and wife working together, but ultimatley a really
silly design.
Fiat Punto:
I drove this car in Tenerife. a small car, it struggled to
keep up on the motorways. I got shoulder ache after a week of driving
this car. The steering wheel is large. Still the car was fairly old and
marked, but it did the job for a week.
Seat Cordoba: My
first hire car! a beat up old Cordoba. It was comfortable to sit in and
got us from a to b to c around Lanzerote for a week. It would struggle
when
going uphill, whichwas a problem in Lanzerote with it being made from
volcanic mountains.
Citroen
Xsara (Owned from
Dec 2004 to Apr 2009)
squirrel