First of all its a very new car, and I'm not used to new cars, it's super nippy, I felt like I was driving a sports car, the car in fact has a 'Sport' button in an awkward place behind the gear lever. After some experimentation I found this button is actually the Overdrive on/off button rebranded. Cuthbert had this button but it was placed in a better position on the gear lever so you could operate it comfortably with your thumb without having to search to it, whereas you have to fumble for it on this model. Being an automatic, the overdrive is a manual override control to go down a gear, useful for overtaking, increasing speed quickly or going up steep hills. The whole 'sport' thing is a bit silly, I saw an advert for a sit upon John Deere 'sports' lawn mower the other day - a sports lawn mower? a cup holder would be more useful. Which brings me to cup holders, there are at least 6 cup holders and there are excellent and all in the right place, this is an improvement. You can never have enough cup holders, and here's the best bit - you don't just have to put cups in them! I put phone in one, sunglasses in another and drinks bottle in the door holder, in fact I could do with more cup holders.
The seats are comfortable and the cruise control is very useful, especially well in most places, avoids leg fatigue and speeding tickets, even though most of the moronic tailgaters in the burbs north of Adelaide will still tailgate to within an inch but Cuthman would just hold his speed steady and everyone could bugger off if they really wanted to, except they were too entranced by Cuthman's beautiful bottom to move. It's really quite splendid.
The speakers are good but Cuthbert had excellent speakers and I think Cuthbert's speakers are in fact better, despite being 18 years older. This model has 6 speakers and you can fiddle about and have it all coming out the rear which is how I found it, this sounds crap but if you're a brainless boy racer, you're half deaf anyway so this maybe sounds good. I changed it back to front speakers.
The radio unit also has a USB outlet, this is a big plus, I could play music from a USB stick directly into the radio and also charge my phone.
The mirrors are very good but the lights are terrible, low beam is practically useless and I would often miss turnings because I couldn't see anything and also Aussie minor roads are written in point size 6 so can only just be read at the best of times and that's only if you have a telescope. Hopeless. I had to have high beam on to see anything but in town this isn't possible. I had to make lots of u turns.
It's a very economical, I figured per quarter tank it would do 175km so 700km per tank. Fuel is under a dollar per litre here, and they still complain (and they call us whinging poms?), it's actually the same price as it was 11 years ago!
Visibility is not very good reversing as the rear window is tiny and in the middle just where you need to see is a Thrifty sticker which I often mistook for an oncoming truck. Also the rear pillars make it a lot harder to see when reserving, so Cuthbert wins on that accounts.
The boot space is good too, plus there is parcel shelf which gives my bags some privacy, considering I had most of my worldly goods in the back. I haven't had a parcel shelf for ages.
Overall this car is great, I really enjoyed driving it, it's fun and easy, very quick, storage is great, the main concern would be the low beam lights and rear visibility.
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