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as a loan car while the head gasket, water pump et al are being fixed. Have to say I'm a lot more impressed than I expected.
It's a 2-litre Ecopower SE automatic, about 8 years old. Only 60,000 miles but lots of little dings and dents, seems to have led a hard life. But the ride is better than my 9000, and there is less understeer than I was told to expect, though I can make the front tyres squeal which never happens on my car. Pretty composed in corners and when changing direction quickly, though definitely no sports car.
Seats are very comfortable, front and back, and there is much more headroom (I have a sunroof, of course). Wind noise is lower, so is road noise and motorway cruising is more relaxed. The AC is effective and easy to control. However, the wood dash looks cheap by comparison with slimy grey plastic panels, dash top has too many styled elements for my taste. Indicators and top of speedo still masked by the wheel, no progress there. Door pockets too small and harder to reach in past the door handles, but centre armrest is clever, slides forward but the storage inside it is not obstructed by the lid. Cup-holder too grippy for my coffeee mug (you're not supposed to use two hands to get it out!). Fewer rattles and groans. Radio/EDU display is failing, central locking/alarm bleeped, sent me a message and failed too.
Trunk could be taller, thanks to rather annoying folding parcel shelf - I'd prefer a roller blind arrangement. Plenty of room underneath for a full-size spare (present).
The engine is supposed to have 150 bhp, I think, but it feels pretty lively up to a point, especially if you press the Sport button, which seems to change lots of gearbox and ECU parameters. There's little turbo lag, good throttle response generally.
However, when the chips are down my 200bhp 2.3 has substantially more grunt, and most of the responses are sharper despite the fact my car has twice the mileage. The 9-5 Ecopower ran out of steam above 80.
On balance - wouldn't mind looking at a newish one of these if the supply of 9000s runs dry. This example is definitely better than I'd been led to believe. It also uses substantially less fuel than my car, about 20% less in fact!
, Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:52:00
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