New wifey mobile

I had a Forester once for a couple of weeks, expecting it to be quick. It was a 2002 model I think, and turbocharged, but felt really rather slow. I liked the driving position though.

Was it an auto? Was it the GT with the turbo? It is pretty quick for a

4wd. The auto makes it lose a lot of power. The seats in it are great. They have the fold down armrest thing that gives you an almost perfect driving position. And it has a storage bin for everything. And great cupholders.

Fraser

It was a manual. To be honest, I've had a few 'temporary' cars from numerous places that never seem to be as quick as i'm expecting them to be. I had a Vectra GSi (2.6 V6 ~200bhp) once for a week and it seemed slower than what was my real car then, a Vectra SRi (2.5V6 170bhp). Maybe they detune them before they give them to me!

Back to the Forester, yeah it was damn comfortable, a really good mile-muncher!

I used to own a Vectra SRi 2.2, I had looked at getting the 2.6 but the performance figures weren't a hell of a lot different + the 2.6 had a lot poorer fuel consumption. It wasn't especially quick, but the 2.2 is a nice smooth engine to drive.

[snip]

The 2.2 is a wonderful engine!

Perhaps they've heard about you? Or they're newer and haven't been as run in as yours? :-)

My mate had a 53 plate Astra SRi with that engine, and it was very nice, could of done with a bit more out right poke tho, it wasn't as fast as you'd want a 2.2 to be really, up to sort of 3rd gear speeds, it was no quicker than my 206. Looked quite nice tho, came from the factory with the SRi Turbo body kit. So he traded it in. For an 04 plate Corsa SRi 1.8... He thinks that lighting up the inside tyre on roundabouts is the sign of a good, powerful car...

2.2s are geared quite tall - makes them good motorway cruisers - they're quick but not outstandingly so 0-60.

I hold my liverpool - hull record in a 2.2 vectra, and if I ever had to buy a petrol vectra it would be the 2.2 - as mentioned elsewhere it's as quick day to day as the V6 but cheaper to run and insure, and it's not as heavy.

New 2.2 SRi vectras are actually very good cars.

I've heard that too, but a mate of mine had a hire car with, I think, that engine, and said it was gutless. It was an Oldsmobile somethingorother, and quite a recent model, so I was half-assuming it'd be the same engine - were they detuned for the US market?

Dunno if they detuned them but they probably coupled them to a slushbox and seven tons of all american metal. That's gonna make a difference.

Quite possibly, if not in output figures, in the throttle respect. Four cylinder cars are the economy versions and are deliberately made to feel sluggish compared to their V-engined cousins.