The Outback went in for service yesterday. I also had to go to Glasgow for a funeral, so I got a courtesy car from the dealer (a Micra- combined nissan subaru dealer) and a Pug 207 for Avis. In both cars I did about 35 miles of motorway driving. Impressions....
Externally - couldn't care less!
Internally - the 207 was much smarter, but the dials were harder to read and looked as though they had been shunted up the casing by 1cm. I was much more comfortable in the 207 as I couldn't move the tilt of the Micra seat (it was the basic model I think). Overall, I would have preferred to spend more time in the Micra, had it not been for the seats.
Driving - The 207 is cleary a slightly larger car and to that end, has a larger and more confortable feel. Both had very light steering (almost too light). My main gripe with both was the gearing - too low. They are both geared at about 21mpg per 1000rpm in fifth. At that ratio, 70mph is noisy and also the cars can acclerate too quickly in top gear. If you want a great deal of acceleration, drop down a cog. Both cars were very lively and I would have been very happy with 10% longer gears overall. This would surely have improved the rear world fuel economy.
For what it is worth, I put in less than a gallon of fuel in the Pug for 37 miles (90 motorway driving- rest city centre).
Would I have bought either of them to replace the Outback - no, but I could be tempted by a high class high quality smaller car. The Nissan Note looks the kind of thing, but I found the seat too uncomfortable in the showroom. Whilst waiting for my car to be cleaned, I sat in a Cashcow as well - I like it! - but thought that the rear seat room and boot space sparse given I was in a 2wd car.
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Your 207 views are similar to mine following the Portugal trip. Light steering and too noisy at motorway speeds. I forgot about the dials, but I now remember they didn't look right. Not being able to see or judge where the front corners of the car were was also a problem for me when manouvering.
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"21mpg per 1000rpm"
Wow! Keep the revs up, then... :-)
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