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• Mercedes B class 180d AMG - Quick review. 17 Feb 2018 (Forum)
  Needing both hands to engage gear and release the handbrake is madness, it is not auto release when you engage the gear and start pulling away like the Jaguar and Audis I have driven. The 18 inch wheels and sports suspension handle potholes quite well, but road noise is noticeable. Typical diesel rattle when ticking over, but fine once running. Interior is all black, including headlining and its depressing.
• Volkswagen Eos - Experience of the VW Eos 22 Nov 2010 (Forum)
  If you fancy some DIY then you can of course click it into the "manual" mode and select your own gears with a click of the stick. Very nice, and it's definitely got me looking at the Audi A8 4.2 TDI V8 Quattro as a possible second car when the Zed is paid for.  Actually, I admit that Mr Statham may have already had me thinking along that line:- http://www.audipedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/transporter-3-20081103101900525_640w.jpg   The thing that has surprised me is that the fuel economy on the short runs isn't significantly better than the 3.0 Z4, the computer seems to reset each time I drive it, on a short cold start run to work I get about 31mpg, the Z4 averages about 27mpg.
• Paracetamol or a comfy motor? 18 May 2010 (Forum)
  and another old bloke wearing a leather jacket was speaking to me in German - not realizing in those first few seconds that I could only respond with "blow main ballast tanks" or "surrender" Translated - "American cars arf arf arf - the panel gaps - it`s not ze  Audi" Cars are nothing really are they compared with with human condition? An improbably looking older couple limped up with him on the verge of collapse - decanted into the seat beside me as his wife limped off to shop for food across the way.
• Skoda Octavia II (2004 - ) - Both cars - first service. 14 Jan 2009 (Forum)
  This is a much more reasonable £120, so up to now it looks like they get the business. As far as the cars go I'm pleased with the Octavia. The new 1.8 TSi (as seen in various new Audi's and VW's) is a marked improvement over the old 1.8T 20V in terms of performance and fuel economy. It is also chain cam, so no more 4 yearly cambelt changes. The car looks very plain in Ambiente trim (15" alloys, no exterior chrome, no spots etc) but is fairly quick (139 mph, 0-60 7.8 seconds).
• Vauxhall Insignia (2008 - ) - My day out at Millbrook Proving Ground 2 Nov 2008 (Forum)
  When we got back with this car, all the decent stuff (SRIs and Elites) were out, so out in one of the competitor cars that they'd laid on. Audi A4, BMW 3, Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord, VW Passat - all there for you to compare to the Insignia. Chose a Mondeo petrol for giggles as we'd never driven one before. Very small mirrors, the annoying heated windscreen but a lot more driveable than the Insignia petrol.
• Sports potato! 8 May 2020 (Forum)
  Numb steering, clunky gearbox and rubbery handling. Not worth the money. Volvo 480 Turbo - As above, not worth the money over the ES. Audi 90/Coupe 20v - Hugely expensive things these and very very well made but Audi just couldn’t make the thing fun to drive. It was built like a tank and handled like one. Nice 5cyl warble but for the money 170bhp wasn’t enough.
• Advantages of deliberately size limited cars 5 Jan 2018 (Forum)
  I feel we are in a size race without much end. A desirable family car has gone from a bmw 5 series/Rover SD1 to an Audi Q7 or discovery in barely a generation. One weighs a almost twice the other and takes up probably 40/50% more space. It’s still carrying the same no of people. So I ask would we benefit from at least some cars being restricted in their size?
• Volvo XC90 (2002 - ) - Sold the Outback! 2 Feb 2010 (Forum)
  We knew that we wanted a seven seater and as it was going to be my car, my wife decided I was not going to drive an MPV but a 4x4 as it suited her image of me better [sigh]!. Actually I was very happy with that decision, but it left a conundrum. I don't wan't an Audi Q7 (ugly and too expensive), I can't afford a seven seat BMW X5 (do they make them?), the Mercedes ML did do a seven seat model in the Mk1 version but it was a dog to drive and I will not have a Jeep under any circumstances.
• New car shortlist - down to 3 21 Aug 2007 (Forum)
  Volvo V50 2.0D - I couldn't see what that could do at £21,000 that a VW or Skoda couldn't do for £18,000. Audi A3 2.0 TDI - same comment as the Volvo and too small for out needs. (A4 is too expensive, and not discounted as much as a BMW which might have put it within reach .) SEAT Altea XL 2.0 TDI - similar to VW and Skoda but rear seats don't fold flat and you can't see much out of the back.
• Silly Thread Volume IV 2 Mar 2004 (Forum)
  \" 143 to say \"do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs\" 6 to say light bulbs last longer if you don\'t press the switch so fast. 45 to then turn it round to speed cameras. 457 to complain about non standard bulbs in front fog lights. 7 to complain about the Audi pop ups. 1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again
• MINI Cooper S - New Mini Cooper SD (2014) 20 Dec 2014 (Forum)
  I've been driving it hard and mainly in Sport mode and still I'm getting 50MPG, its a really nice car, if you don't mind losing the sound a Cooper S would provide (although it still sounds like a smooth, sport diesel) and you do decent journeys daily then the Cooper SD is for you, it eats up bends and flys on the motorway, when you put it in to perspective it's a small car with lots of torque, it keeps up and often destroys similar engines in the likes of Audi A3's and BMW 1/2/3 series. Overall, in my opinion this is a great car, it makes me smile everytime I get behind the wheel, you constantly have piece of mind that when you need that extra power it is all there waiting for you.
• Semi-automatics. Real fuel consumption 9 Apr 2011 (Forum)
    (There are cheapish ones eg like on the Toyota Aygo, or more expensive double clutch ones like the VW-Audi Group’s DSG box).   They make great play of being very efficient.   They typically have the same CO2 figures and fuel consumptions as the manual versions, in fact VW claim improvements with their DSG.
• Mini Sony Nav-U70T satnav review 13 Mar 2006 (Forum)
  In one of the others it will be fine no doubt. It's a small point, but the voice is polite and pleasant. The Mercedes and Audi units always sound a bit imperative to me. My Lexus satnav lady is much more natural and pleasant, and this one is too. A plus. The screen is sharp and updates very quickly. Recalculation of the route if you go wrong happens VERY fast - a turn onto the motorway (in fact deliberate) resulted in a new route being worked out by the end of the slip road.
• Bought a new car 1 Dec 2019 (Forum)
  The Skoda Fabia’s didn’t have LED headlights as standard. The Polo only had LED headlights on the GTI Plus. Audi A1 Sport 1.0 TFSI. Very nice car, very well finished car. Had everything I wanted on it. LED headlights as standard (as they are on all the A1’s). Ticked all the boxes. However, it was just too expensive.
• Volvo V60 - The first 10,000 miles 25 Jul 2017 (Forum)
   At least it's not a touchscreen, which would be worse, but I'd much rather have a rotary controller like the iDrive or the Audi system. - Turning circle nothing to write home about, but maybe I was spoilt by the Octavia's. -  The space-saver spare wheel takes up the whole of the under-floor compartment, but at least it was available as an option.
• New car - making a shortlist 28 Feb 2016 (Forum)
  People's views on the following shortlist would be much appreciated!  In alphabetical order: Audi Q3     Nice and high off the ground, but two friends in the village have them and both say there's no fun in driving them.  One calls it a 'lump'.  The automatic, called 'S-tronic- is basically a DSG.
• Celebrating 40 years of the 18-22 series Wedge 27 Mar 2015 (Forum)
  Strictly speaking, we were told - by a Mini factory guide who worked there at the time - that the 18-22 was manufactured on the other side of a bypass on land now occupied by a gym, an Audi dealer and a science park, but the 18-22’s body was made on the part of the site from where Minis emerge today. In case the 18-22 Series doesn’t sound familiar to you, you may remember this car as the Princess, or following a demotion and a sex-change, the Ambassador.
• Fiat Panda 1.1 Review - "slower than a cockroach" 18 May 2010 (Forum)
  " It`s slow away and has no go" (Echoed from the bathroom) Oh dear.... It should be said at this point though, that Mrs O wants a Ferrari - would settle for a large Audi - but found a Grande Punto far too big - before buying the Panda... Anyway, she seems to be right because comparing the speed over the ground - and in particular away from a standing start, the giant oriental cockroach can move it`s own body length in a fraction of a second, where the Panda cannot.
• General poor driving nowadays in Blighty 1 Nov 2008 (Forum)
  I've not long returned from a long weekend in France (and very enjoyable it was too) and the thing that struck me quite noticeably was the vast difference in driving standards between the two countries 'er indoors was quite vocal on the subject too and she's one of those people that very much prefers to sit in the passenger seat and let me get on with it (fortunately) some examples are: when you're catching someone up on the m/way, who they themselves will need an overtake shortly i.e. they also are catching someone up (2 lanes for them, 3 for us which ought to be to our advantage, but due to the CLOG isn't) the accepted practice over there is for the vehicle in the middle of the equation to throttle off a bit and wait for you to pass, then pull out and do their manouevre...yet over here it is pull out early and make you wait absolutely everyone pulls back into the nearside lane after an overtake, whereas over here they dawdle along in the o/s lane mirror usage in France is more than acceptable, over here it seems to be optional when I got back to good old Blighty, pulled out of Dover and went up the hill on the A2, for the whole length of the up hill dual carriageway, some woman in a blue Escort did the whole length of it at 55mph in the o/s lane, thus preventing a queue of us 'popping off' the lorries before the single lane bit at the top, she could have quite easily moved back to the nearside but couldn't be bothered...doesn't happen in France on several bits of dual carriageway and m/way up the M2 there were a number of people unnecessarily staying in the o/s lane (i.e. nothing directly in front of them), to the extent that some motorists started under taking, which although i'm not a fan of I had a degree of sympathy with the final straw was the coach that did a sudden 'signal, manouevre, mirror' despite not being that close to the vehicle it wanted to overtake (thus not giving me much of a chance to realise it was a possibility) and when he realised i was having to brake quite well, swerved back into the nearside lane, then gave me a load of main beam once i'd gone past...marvellous, try checking your mirrors first pal, i wasn't going that fast, had headlights on in the dusk and was fully loaded with my kid in the car, so not willing to push it that much there were others too, like the fool in the green Audi A4 estate that felt it was reasonable to do 4 lanes of the M25 in a high speed swerve from the slip road to the o/s lane in one mad blast ..heaven alone knows what would have happened to a filtering m/c, as the lanes were fairly congested (approaching the toll bit)... and the blue Renault Clio with the young chav that accelerated as hard as he could away from the toll (saw it in my nearside mirror) and thought he could do the double white line lane markings and barge in front of me, but misinterpreted the situation, because by then i'd become Mr Grumpy and closed the gap..which had him accelerating right up to my bumper, revving like hell, then dropping back all the way through the tunnel (the temptation to dab the brakes at a critical moment was severe, but I managed to resist it).
• BMW 1 Series E81/E87 (2004 - ) - 120D SE : 6000 mile ownership report 20 Oct 2007 (Forum)
  When pushed, oversteer is controlled well by the driver aid systems, and the result is a car which is a pleasure to drive in a manner that no competitor ? not even the Focus - can approach. The interior, while not up to Audi standards, is a pleasant place to spend time. The design is contemporary and the infinitely adjustable driving position is perfect. The dual-zone climate control is a thing of genius, and a potential relationship saver if, as in my case, one person prefers to be warm and the other cool.