So, it's been three months of mostly uneventful motoring.
It's a big, lumbering barge that wallows over bumps around town and you can feel the weight when you're starting from a standstill. It doesn't turn on a dime like the Skoda did either. If you're looking for a little econobox for tooling around town in, this is not it. :lol: It also has a surprisingly small trunk for an estate car this big. The diesel noise is always present at lower speeds and it clatters like a 350,000km 1.9 TDI when idling. This is unusual for a car this new. GM brought out some new "WhisperDiesel" engines around the time my car was made, but the biturbo is not one of them. It quiets down completely once you're on the open road, though. Which is where this car belongs.
Like I said, it belongs on the open road and that was one big thing I missed when I had the Skoda. It's quieter and the (active) suspension sits planted and soaks up bumps a lot better. It also doesn't care if you hook a trailer to it and load it up with passengers and their luggage, unlike the Skoda which didn't like any of that. The climate control has way better brains than the VAG partsbin Climatronic. The rain sensor is a lot better as well. I really like having a proximity key and push-button start. The motorized tailgate is, however, useless. I'd rather just open and close it myself than stand in the rain waiting for it to do its thing. If it had the wave-your-foot-under-the-bumper thing I would get it, but I still have to put my groceries down to press a button. At least I can do it from the remote so it's done by the time I get to the car.
I have yet to really see how competent it is in snow, but I don't doubt for a second that it'll be night and day compared to the Skoda, or any other FWD car with a small aluminium engine for that matter. For the first time in forever, I'm actually looking forward to winter. :lol:
As for faults, well... it's a GM product.
The HVAC fan motor is making a barely noticeable bearing noise, which is unusual for a car this new and with less than 140,000km on the clock. The fan motor has way more "kilometers" on it than the rest of the car since it's used to defrost and heat the cabin for 20-30 minutes every morning during winter. It looks like it's easy to replace so I'll do it myself in a couple of weeks when I'm a bit less swamped with stuff and things. I have yet to do anything under the bonnet except to top up the screenwash, but it's cramped in there. Good thing the cambelt was replaced around 10k ago.