Thank you for your report on what is an underrated car. Also thanks for that photo because damn these do look absolutely fantastic.
Thank you for your report on what is an underrated car. Also thanks for that photo because damn these do look absolutely fantastic.
Quite interesting, I've driven a Golf R and that accelerates hilariously fast from a standstill (because AWD obviously). It seems the extra couple of k? spent on the Golf do make a bug difference
Back to this car: Today I was at the Ring together with its owner - and the car, obviously, as he was finally ready to do a lap. This car is quick: 10:29 BTG on the driver's first ever Nordschleife lap, with four people in the car. Not bad at all.A friend of mine drives a 2014 Opel Astra Sports Tourer (Generation "J") with the 2.0 l Biturbo Diesel (143 kW).
I had the opportunity to drive some Autobahn kilometres in it on our journey to Croatia and back recently, so here's my short and entirely pictureless review.
Verdict: 6.5/10. Good car, but far too heavy which worsens fuel economy and driving.
- Exterior: Well, it's an Astra Caravan. I admit I like the styling, but it's also very visible that Opel wasted some interior space and visibility to design features. Also, the car already looks as heavy as it is: 1701 kg according to the papers. One thousand seven hundred and one kilograms for a compact car! This is ridiculous. It's about 400 kg heavier than my old Focus (which was admittedly neither an estate car nor a Diesel).
- Interior: Nice place to be in, good sports seats in the front row, back row spacious enough except for sleeping, but the car wasn't built for that anyway. I'm impressed how far the driver's seat can go back (if no one with legs sitting behind it). Lots of places to put things. Also lots of buttons on the center console and for the on-board computer. The operation of that and the infotainment takes some getting used to.
Space-wise, we had no problem fitting luggage for four persons and a one-week trip without obstructing the view through the rear view mirror.- Driving it: Well, nearly 200 horses and 400 Nm of torque do their job quite nicely, and the car as a whole is quite quiet - but on this, I'm not really qualified to judge because just about every normal car is noticeably quieter than my MX-5.
On the Autobahn, the car feels at home. 130 kph is very relaxed, 180 or even faster is not a problem. But it has a very sluggish gearbox and the pedal travel for clutch and especially the brake pedal is frighteningly long. Again, my judgement may be impaired by driving an MX-5. Cornering is about as good as expected for a compact estate car.
Incidentally, the very same car stands in front of my house waiting to be driven back to its owner. With the back seats folding down very easily, my road bike fits into the boot without any problem, so can can cycle back and make good use of the fine weather toda?. Sometimes I miss having a practical car.
So, being on vacation in the south of France for a week, I got to play a round of rental roulette. And I lost, badly:
View attachment 18755
What I actually booked was a Fiat 500 or "a comparable 2-door small car". What happened is they apparently ran out of the really small ones (despite there being 3 perfectly serviceable looking 500's in the lot...), and "upgraded" me for free to the old people's version, the 500L. Which really didn't improve the quality of this vacation. Some cold, hard facts:
- 2017 Fiat 500L, brand-new (had 400km on the clock)
- 1.3 diesel, 5-speed manual
- 85 hp, agonizingly slow (14.9s 0-100)
- Very basic trim, the only option present was a small-screen GPS with a menu so badly structured that I couldn't find how to switch it to a language I speak on the first evening, and didn't bother any more. Oh yeah, and electric windows in the front only.
Well, what can I really say. I wanted a small chuckable car to enjoy the twisty roads around Nice and Cannes, and possibly go further inland into the mountains. I got a blown-up family econobox barely capable of moving itself and nearly falling over when taking a serpentine corner at any sort of speed. On the positive, it was quite spacious on the inside (drove my parents around a bit), the gearbox wasn't bad (quite short and precise shifts... if only there was any power in the engine), and the steering was unexpectedly direct and with good feedback, once I figured out how to turn the "city" mode off (which erases any feedback completely when enabled). The negative... it was slooooooow, seating position was uncomfortable, AC was impossible to set to a comfortable temperature (no climate control, only basic AC in the car, meaning that in 30? heat it had to be adjusted constantly), and did I mention how slow the thing was? I had normal 500s, Clios and other tiny econoboxes pull away in front on the seaside serpentine that I drove every day. Trying to take a corner at any sort of speed resulted in huge body roll and terrible understeer, even in the dry on factory new tires the thing just would not change course without first slowing to a crawl. Probably the least fun to drive car I've ever used.
To add insult to injury, when I returned the car earlier today there was a small queue of people getting their cars before I could return mine. Four of them drove off in shiny new 2-door 500s, one of them a cabrio. I wanted to murder somebody.
So, being on vacation in the south of France for a week, I got to play a round of rental roulette. And I lost, badly:
View attachment 18755
What I actually booked was a Fiat 500 or "a comparable 2-door small car". What happened is they apparently ran out of the really small ones (despite there being 3 perfectly serviceable looking 500's in the lot...), and "upgraded" me for free to the old people's version, the 500L. Which really didn't improve the quality of this vacation. Some cold, hard facts:
- 2017 Fiat 500L, brand-new (had 400km on the clock)
- 1.3 diesel, 5-speed manual
- 85 hp, agonizingly slow (14.9s 0-100)
- Very basic trim, the only option present was a small-screen GPS with a menu so badly structured that I couldn't find how to switch it to a language I speak on the first evening, and didn't bother any more. Oh yeah, and electric windows in the front only.
Well, what can I really say. I wanted a small chuckable car to enjoy the twisty roads around Nice and Cannes, and possibly go further inland into the mountains. I got a blown-up family econobox barely capable of moving itself and nearly falling over when taking a serpentine corner at any sort of speed. On the positive, it was quite spacious on the inside (drove my parents around a bit), the gearbox wasn't bad (quite short and precise shifts... if only there was any power in the engine), and the steering was unexpectedly direct and with good feedback, once I figured out how to turn the "city" mode off (which erases any feedback completely when enabled). The negative... it was slooooooow, seating position was uncomfortable, AC was impossible to set to a comfortable temperature (no climate control, only basic AC in the car, meaning that in 30? heat it had to be adjusted constantly), and did I mention how slow the thing was? I had normal 500s, Clios and other tiny econoboxes pull away in front on the seaside serpentine that I drove every day. Trying to take a corner at any sort of speed resulted in huge body roll and terrible understeer, even in the dry on factory new tires the thing just would not change course without first slowing to a crawl. Probably the least fun to drive car I've ever used.
To add insult to injury, when I returned the car earlier today there was a small queue of people getting their cars before I could return mine. Four of them drove off in shiny new 2-door 500s, one of them a cabrio. I wanted to murder somebody.
So, being on vacation in the south of France for a week... *shitty car*
Why would you do this to yourself? Sure, I assume the main goal of the vacation was time with the family on the beach and not 24/7 hooning a rental, but still.