The first new car I've got excited about in ages
- Thread starter Mr_Sukebe
- Start date
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, it's just everyone else's that suck
Apart from mine.
Mine is gospel.
*n
Well the votes are in on the 500.
I spent quite a while in our local dealership today, have to say that they were definitely helpful and had pretty much every model available to have a poke around.
Here's my personal opinion on it.
My initial thoughts whilst in the showroom were:
- dark colours don't see to work well with the exterior, looks much better in something bright, and white looks ace
- the dash uses body coloured plastic (feels high quality) that also looks great in white and nicely sets off the interior
- in black, the interior looks like a poor relation to a VW polo, not a good call
- excluding the most obvious area of the dash, the other internal plastics are no great shakes
- the gear lever is setup as per the Civic, i.e. from the dash. Works well
- black leather is an option, again, just doesn't look right
- the sunroof really cut into the headroom. If you're tall, avoid
- one of the model types (the lounge), has a fixed glass roof, basically a glass sunroof that can't be opened. I rather liked the effect and it would be part of my own choice
- It seems to be just as roomy as a new Mini, i.e. not great, but not terrible for the size of car it is
So in the showroom, I rather liked it, just not when it was trying to immitate a Mini, at which point it came up a little short. Go for the white finish and standard seats, and it was pretty cool.
The chaps were nice enough to let me drive both the 1.3 turboe diesel, and the 1.2 petrol. I wasn't bothered about straightline performance, so wasn't too interested in the 1.4.
Unless you really really must have a diesel, avoid it.
There appeared to be lag any time you went near the throttle and it sounded just as naff as any other diesel on the road, the key difference being that most cars drown out the noise from fairly low speeds, this seemed incapable of it. Note the official consumption is only slightly worse for the 1.2, so the petrol is not only a good deal cheaper to buy, but not much more expensive to run.
The 1.2 petrol actually sounded pretty good and seemed to like being given a bit of a pasting, thumbs up on that.
Then we have the real question, i.e. was it fun?
Errrr, nope, not in my opinion.
The throttle pedal had a shed load of travel at the top, preventing heal and toeing, the steering was synthetic and it didn't seem to have an initial bite on turn in. In short, it felt pretty much like a "generic small hatch", and didn't have any of the excellence displayed by say a new Mini.
So it you're in the market for a small hatch and want something that looks good at a reasonable price, buy a 1.2 white version with louge spec. Want something fun, buy a Mini....
I spent quite a while in our local dealership today, have to say that they were definitely helpful and had pretty much every model available to have a poke around.
Here's my personal opinion on it.
My initial thoughts whilst in the showroom were:
- dark colours don't see to work well with the exterior, looks much better in something bright, and white looks ace
- the dash uses body coloured plastic (feels high quality) that also looks great in white and nicely sets off the interior
- in black, the interior looks like a poor relation to a VW polo, not a good call
- excluding the most obvious area of the dash, the other internal plastics are no great shakes
- the gear lever is setup as per the Civic, i.e. from the dash. Works well
- black leather is an option, again, just doesn't look right
- the sunroof really cut into the headroom. If you're tall, avoid
- one of the model types (the lounge), has a fixed glass roof, basically a glass sunroof that can't be opened. I rather liked the effect and it would be part of my own choice
- It seems to be just as roomy as a new Mini, i.e. not great, but not terrible for the size of car it is
So in the showroom, I rather liked it, just not when it was trying to immitate a Mini, at which point it came up a little short. Go for the white finish and standard seats, and it was pretty cool.
The chaps were nice enough to let me drive both the 1.3 turboe diesel, and the 1.2 petrol. I wasn't bothered about straightline performance, so wasn't too interested in the 1.4.
Unless you really really must have a diesel, avoid it.
There appeared to be lag any time you went near the throttle and it sounded just as naff as any other diesel on the road, the key difference being that most cars drown out the noise from fairly low speeds, this seemed incapable of it. Note the official consumption is only slightly worse for the 1.2, so the petrol is not only a good deal cheaper to buy, but not much more expensive to run.
The 1.2 petrol actually sounded pretty good and seemed to like being given a bit of a pasting, thumbs up on that.
Then we have the real question, i.e. was it fun?
Errrr, nope, not in my opinion.
The throttle pedal had a shed load of travel at the top, preventing heal and toeing, the steering was synthetic and it didn't seem to have an initial bite on turn in. In short, it felt pretty much like a "generic small hatch", and didn't have any of the excellence displayed by say a new Mini.
So it you're in the market for a small hatch and want something that looks good at a reasonable price, buy a 1.2 white version with louge spec. Want something fun, buy a Mini....
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, it's just everyone else's that suck
I have the entire forum on ignore, some people twice, and I simply talk to myself!
.....I just guessed you said the above of course....