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Have just racked up about 1,100 miles since 3rd November. Basically two very long trips and a bit of my usual commute and driving around Manchester.
First trip was a 300 miles day long trip from Manchester; Melton Mowbray, Warwick, Birmingham City Centre and back to Manchester. Mostly open road with a couple of stop start roadwork type blockages and the usual clogged motorway drive back up the M6.
The scond trip was over 600 miles. Manchester to Cardiff, then onto Bournemouth yesterday (about 320 miles) for an overnight stay and today it was Christchurch; Blandford Forum; Yeovil and back to Manchester.
I have filled up twice and although the car says I am averaging about 40mpg, I think it is more like 38mpg (keeping an accurate record using an Excel spreadsheet on my phone). Still very impressive for a large heavy car with the turn of speed it has.
There is little I do not like about the car - as mentioned previously there are a few idiosyncrasies but I have found out how to work around them or even now I understand how and why they work, I like them. I do find it odd that the front seats are electric for the height and recline but not for front and back movement??penny pinching or what. The driver 'drowsiness' system has worked well (it sets off an alarm if it thinks the driver is nodding off) and the effectiveness of the speed control/cruise control is good. The biggest annoyance is the Satnav not accepting seven digit post codes, but I use Waze most of the time which is far more up to date and more effective at combatting traffic jams.
The adaptive headlights are clever and make a real difference to driving on dark roads. Unlike my S-Max the sport setting on the gearbox makes a difference when driving on fast country roads so the flappy paddles are almost an unecessary extravagance. Being RWD it has a very small turning circle given its length.
This car is not for everyone. Clearly large and expensive it really suits long drives, and excels away from the motorway. Wafting around suburban Manchester it is very nice, but I can imagine wanting to drive a much smaller and nippier car (handy I still have the Captur around for a short while and can also use my father's Sirion). However I remain very happy with my purchase. This is a keeper.....
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