27 Sep, 2005
For Four....
I have replaced my roadster - After a short and pointless search I have come to the conclusion the obvious vehicle to replace the roadster is a Smart ForFour.
It is nice Blue and Silver Colour. The only annoyance so far is I can't find an iPod kit for it yet...
While picking this car I had the pleasure of test driving a wide range of cars in the extended text bits are random thoughts on them!
Note all opinions below are my random prejudices based on test drives therefore they could be (and probably are) completely wrong.
Toyota Prius
I test drove this first. It is shockingly quiety at low speeds and oddly noisy as it accelerates. The engine really rev's. It is very smooth (a bit too smooth for my taste). It is quick for a car in general and the inside is great. The exterior looks a bit funny.
The main thing that put me off was the combination of the exterior and the price. It is quite a bit more than normal car and the fuel economy - especially on Motorways is not that good. Most diesels are in the same ball park.
Toyota Corella Diesel
Nice outside, noisy engine, horrible interior.
Mazda 3 D
Nice outside, quiet engine, nice interier. Little weak road holding - felt amost too comforable going round corners too quick.
Citroen C4 1.6 (110) D
Nice outside and in. Quiet engine. I though slightly better than the Mazda 3 but I had quite a short and limited test drive. Full of hi-tech toys!
Mini Cooper
Boooooooooooooooooooring.
Sorry - slight chip on my shoulder. Ever since I have had a Smart Roadster people compare it to the Mini. So I thought I would give it a try. Interior is great. Exterior great (but common as muck around here). Equipment options etc great. But the drive - it's just not fun. I was a little jaded after having had an extremely good test drive in a brabus the day before - but the mini just was missing the fun stuff.
It cornered ok, acceleration was ok - but not great, it struggled on a hill with 3 of us in it.