Merc=broken. Rental company chucks me a 2.0CDTI Astra SRI.
Good bits? Engine. Quite perky. Nice dials on the dash. Nice interior illumination. Lots of grip. Looks nice on 18s.
Bad bits? Seat base too high. Steering lightness ruins handling. Can't feel changes in road surfact through steering. Monster torquesteer in second. Gearbox still as slow and sloppy as astras always have been. Lots of wind noise at speed, though that helps mask the engine noise.
And finally - how did they make a car that big with a boot that small?
Drove a mate's A3 - ruined for me by over-light controls. Especially the brakes. Although IIRC Audi are renown for this.
My A3 had brakes that felt over-servoed to me.
That's a lot of words to say "s**te".
BTW, you forgot to mention that the rear view is as bad as on a 1970s Lotus Europa.
Oh - and the rear view is as bad as on a 1970s Lotus Europa.
Briefly back in UK, hired a 10 reg but old-shape Astra (think it's SXi)
Totally gutless, to the point at which you need to change down on the motorway if you need to speed up. Engine doesn't seem happy in 5th until about 85mph.
Very figure-hugging sports seats are quite nice (if your waist is 34" or less) but you have to lift your thigh quite high over the bolsters to get out. Despite the sporting intention of the seat, the car is not very communicative and appears to provide almost zero road grip. Had a lot of hairy moments in it, even on dry roads. Wet roundabouts downright dangerous.
Usual GM indicator weirdness, same system for wipers is ten times worse!
SWMBO's old 2000MY Clio 1.2 base model is better. Disappointing as I really like the styling, the new one looks s**te.
They have learned, and gone back to the normal stalks.
Wasn't it BMW who kicked it off with the previous shape 5 series?
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