Floating in the shallow end...
Jun 4, 2021 14:08:15 GMT
Post by WDB on Jun 4, 2021 14:08:15 GMT
...of the car pool.
First proper outing in the Aygo today. Boy2 has managed to secure a few introductory hours next week, and Boy1 will be home in a few days and is probably ready to try it, so I thought I ought to make sure I could drive the thing. So, having replaced the cracked door mirror glass with a new one, I threw - well, squeezed - a couple of boxes of garage junk into the boot and took it to the tip. Then - because some HGV driver had left bits of broken tree all over the obvious route back - I went the long way home.
And it's great! After four years without driving a manual, I wondered how I'd do, but I needn't have worried. Remembering the clutch when stopping became natural soon enough, and everything else is really easy; I can understand now why Humph enjoys borrowing Humphling's.
68bhp is about what my Escort 1.3 had 30 years ago, and 890kg is a similar weight, albeit in a much shorter car. I was a bit concerned that after years in cars with surplus power and torque, this one might be a struggle to manage in busy traffic, but not so. It's perfectly happy at 60 on an A-road, and doesn't take all day to get there. After one right turn on to a major road, I noticed another car appear in the mirror from round a bend and gave it a bit extra to get up to speed and it made it with no undue fuss. Conversely, it's happy to potter in third at town speeds, without constantly demanding gear changes, and it will pick up from barely moving in second to get on to a roundabout. It drives, in other words, like a proper car, just a rather small one.
No problems with the clutch. Yes, the bite is on the high side but it's consistent and positive enough when you get there. No stalls or problems emerging from junctions, and it did the hill start near home easily enough. The engine doesn't seem to need a lot of revs either, so my manoeuvring got less noisy, although you never forget there are only three cylinders in front of you; the throb isn't unpleasant but nor does it ever quite fade into the background. There's exhaust noise too - possibly exaggerated by having the back seats folded and there not being much else in the way. And I could hear the rear tyres swooshing through the water - again, perhaps because they're not very far away.
Yes, it was raining, and I was a little anxious about how the pot pourri of tyres would cope with the standing water. No alarms, but a couple of scrabbles from the front end when emerging from T-junctions, so I do still think a fresh set of rubber would be a good buy. But I love the single pantographic front wiper, which cleans right up to the edges and the top corner, just the bit I most need to see through. Less impressed by the rear one, which seems to have been left where it was for left-hand drive and leaves most of my view still obscured by raindrops.
Speaking of rain, best not to rely on the tailgate to keep the boot dry. It kept the rain off me while was loading up, but the water just ran off the unguarded top edge and through the gap into the boot. This is not a car for serious load carrying, but you probably knew that.
I'm not sure what I was expecting - probably some aspect of the car that required a serious effort to work around - but I'm quite improbably impressed. Of course, this isn't really a car for me to drive, but I can foresee grabbing it for the odd local trip when MrsB1 has the i3 (as today) and the CLS would be overkill. The young masters will be just fine with it.
First proper outing in the Aygo today. Boy2 has managed to secure a few introductory hours next week, and Boy1 will be home in a few days and is probably ready to try it, so I thought I ought to make sure I could drive the thing. So, having replaced the cracked door mirror glass with a new one, I threw - well, squeezed - a couple of boxes of garage junk into the boot and took it to the tip. Then - because some HGV driver had left bits of broken tree all over the obvious route back - I went the long way home.
And it's great! After four years without driving a manual, I wondered how I'd do, but I needn't have worried. Remembering the clutch when stopping became natural soon enough, and everything else is really easy; I can understand now why Humph enjoys borrowing Humphling's.
68bhp is about what my Escort 1.3 had 30 years ago, and 890kg is a similar weight, albeit in a much shorter car. I was a bit concerned that after years in cars with surplus power and torque, this one might be a struggle to manage in busy traffic, but not so. It's perfectly happy at 60 on an A-road, and doesn't take all day to get there. After one right turn on to a major road, I noticed another car appear in the mirror from round a bend and gave it a bit extra to get up to speed and it made it with no undue fuss. Conversely, it's happy to potter in third at town speeds, without constantly demanding gear changes, and it will pick up from barely moving in second to get on to a roundabout. It drives, in other words, like a proper car, just a rather small one.
No problems with the clutch. Yes, the bite is on the high side but it's consistent and positive enough when you get there. No stalls or problems emerging from junctions, and it did the hill start near home easily enough. The engine doesn't seem to need a lot of revs either, so my manoeuvring got less noisy, although you never forget there are only three cylinders in front of you; the throb isn't unpleasant but nor does it ever quite fade into the background. There's exhaust noise too - possibly exaggerated by having the back seats folded and there not being much else in the way. And I could hear the rear tyres swooshing through the water - again, perhaps because they're not very far away.
Yes, it was raining, and I was a little anxious about how the pot pourri of tyres would cope with the standing water. No alarms, but a couple of scrabbles from the front end when emerging from T-junctions, so I do still think a fresh set of rubber would be a good buy. But I love the single pantographic front wiper, which cleans right up to the edges and the top corner, just the bit I most need to see through. Less impressed by the rear one, which seems to have been left where it was for left-hand drive and leaves most of my view still obscured by raindrops.
Speaking of rain, best not to rely on the tailgate to keep the boot dry. It kept the rain off me while was loading up, but the water just ran off the unguarded top edge and through the gap into the boot. This is not a car for serious load carrying, but you probably knew that.
I'm not sure what I was expecting - probably some aspect of the car that required a serious effort to work around - but I'm quite improbably impressed. Of course, this isn't really a car for me to drive, but I can foresee grabbing it for the odd local trip when MrsB1 has the i3 (as today) and the CLS would be overkill. The young masters will be just fine with it.
