|
SWMBO's car was hit by a bus last week, when she was stationary. For a variety of reasons we ended up for a temporary period with two courtesy cars: a Fiat 500 1.2 petrol manual and a BMW 318d auto. Neither of us like either car!
Both of us expected to find the Fiat cute, a little like a small puppy nipping here and there and generally sparky. So we anticpated a revvy engine, short quick gearchange, quick reactions to the steering and a slightly nervous suspension. What we got was a huge steering wheel, dull reactions to steering and accelorator inputs and a fairly adequate ride at best. I had hoped for a grown up sort of Citroen C1 and I got instead a cut down 1970s Mercedes.
The BMW is very interesting. I like the short precise throws of the gearlever (i know its auto!), the short arc for pulling up the handbrake and the small steering wheel. The dials are clear and there is a great deal of power if you bury your foot in the carpet....But I just dont like it.
Sure the steering is precise, but I prefer the steering in my S-Max, which seem less filled with novocaine, the engine is gruff at low speed which I thought odd and even though its a saloon, i do not like the low driving position which gives me a poor view of the outside world. The heated seats work well though!
Most diappointing is the dashboard. Both the BMW and the Fiat have narrow LCD screens with limited information and you have to press too many buttons too often to get to the info you want. Neither are intuitive, with too many functions buried in hard find menus that take an age to drill down.
Compared to our S-Max and Juke, both with decent size touch screens in the centre of the dash, capable of dealing with most things within a couple of pushes so you can do things like pair up a phone at the trafic lights, rather than having to sit in the car park for five minutes.
The BMW may drive well once you have set up everything that you want, but unless I was driving over the Snake Pass each day it advantages are lost on me for 99% of the driving that I do and I suspect for most other people as well.
For a cute citycar, the Fiat is a triumph on style over substance. For half the price the Citren C1 does a similar job with more involvement from the driver.
SWMBO is so underwhelmed that despite finding my S-max too big and heavy, she has taken it over the BMW (the Fiat has gone back) and I am now climbing out of the black hole of a Bavarian drivers seat rather than elegantly steeping out of a Euro MPV.
We want our Juke back!
|
