Does the panel approve?

Doug informed me of your stance and Scottish talk on MSN hehe :-)

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate DervMan, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Headlamp washers are a legal requirement on anything fitted with HID (from new), but I suppose it makes the car look that bit more exotic when it's parked outside an interview...

Yup. You know Ford and the weird little pack setup. The late spec Ultima 24v has them as standard, but they only made about 1000 of 'em. On every other Scorp it was an option, and not a very common one.

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Iridium, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Scottish chatrooms are inpenetrable. "Och aye ye ken se a wee man the bairn shi-in bricks agin wee twa li'"

edited

It does understeer; the chassis is sadly that inept.

We figured. :)

See above, really...

Yes. Dad's old 190 had this set up too.

Agreed. Saab handbrakes should be on the front wheels too!

With 50bhp - how is it possible to tell? You never have to slow down because you're never going fast enough. Granted the 100bhp versions might show up it's failings - but the 1.0 has FAR more grip than power heh.

Dan, they're pikey. SteveH goes on about how they're good value but point of fact is that they're underequipped unless you go silly on the options list.

My column controls don't work since I need another lead for the aftermarket head unit and I haven't got round to it :) The best piece of gadgetry on my car has to be the shift - and that's just cos it's cool.

Alternatively, VW don't need to throw extra toys at their cars to sell them. The engineering and residuals do that for them.

I do beg your pardon....

My stance will alter once the swelling goes down :-)

But come on, steering wheel stereo controls are a seriously base spec item these days...

From manufacturers that make cars that won't sell unless you load them with toys.

To be fair, steering wheel controls would have me moving my hands just as far to operate them as it is to operate the stereo in the middle of the dash anyway.

The Fiat ones were great - only 2 buttons - volume and source on one side, band and channel on the other. Unfortunately, most manufacturers don't make them that simple - you have to remember combinations of push / pull / rotate etc. to get them to do simple tasks.

(I remember on the Verso, the control that looked like it should adjust the volume, had it scanning radio channels, ffs)

Nice to have, but not essential - I certainly wouldn't trade them for something like the electric handbrake, for example. I've never found myself actively thinking 'I wish I had steering wheel controls for the stereo' - but I would think very hard about picking a car without the leccy handbrake.

Heh - I thought all cars had them these days and for the past some time. The Focus and Astra have them - people are going to buy those anyway regardless of how full of kit they are because they're cheap. 1.2 Clios have them and not much else. Aside from, it appears, VW stuff, not much seems to come without wheel controls...

Oh I don't know so much... depends who''ve got sitting in the passenger seat really, doesn't it? ;-)

-- JackH

I don't get all this importance placed on the quality of cupholders, or cupholders full stop, really.

My car has some... they occasionally get used when I'm stationary to hold a half finished can or whatever - if they weren't there I'd suffer the indignity of having to hold the drink until I'd finished it or risk possibly marking the soft touch dash if I were to place it upon it, and that would never do, would it...

I mean, should you really be drinking when on the move (1), never mind when you're on some choppy mountain road?

(1) Yes, the irony is that in a former life as a courier I used to do this all the time... or at least I did until the day I had to hit the brakes a bit sharpish and myself and the steering wheel etc. ended up covered in Coke (2).

(2) Soft drink, that is...

-- JackH

Have you tried coffee from a service station recently?

Even an hour later it's still hot.