Saturdays ramblings from RF.
Well after the motor show I decided it was time to fully valet the Laguna to try and recapture the new car feeling. So after sitting in the newly valted interior, admiring my work and sniffing the cleaning fumes I thought thus.
Over the last year I have done 16000 miles. The trip computer tells me I average 40mph. Now that works out at 33 12 hour days.
Thats a long time. I then mused about NW's post on current car styling. I then looked around me at the light pleasant shades, the pleasing lines of the furnishings in the Laguna, and then thought about the huge slabs of poo coloured plastic in the new golf, or the slabs of dark black plastic in the Touran,
and I thought that 33 days in there would have me slitting my throat.
I have to admit that 33 days in the Audi A6 i sat in in the motor show (all light sexy and tactile) would be like a vacation.
So my musing of the day is, Did you realise how long you spend in your car, and what makes it bearable for you.
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I don't spend as long in Polo as I used to (not so homesick any more!) but there are two things that make long journeys and traffic jams more bearable...
1. The CD player the Passat Driver bought me for Christmas. I usually arrive at my destination with a sore throat from singing to pass the time.
2. The bag of mini eggs that live in the driver's door pocket. (On the look out for a replacement now that they've stopped selling them for this year and I discovered mini eggs and hot weather don't mix!)
However, I am constantly niggled by the marks that are still on the interior from the shoddy repair shop, and the fact that after almost three years I'm still not comfortable with the seat belt in any position. Oh and I'd love a sunroof.
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PG, I hope that you sing in the acr cos you enjoy it, rather tan my problem of it being one of the few places I can sing without risking arrest for a breach of the peace!
The hot-weather mini egg famine sounds serious.
The closest I came to it was when some very hot weather reduced my jelly babies to a congealed mush, and I began to think that there might be a purpose to those extravagant air-conditined gloveboxes .. until I realised they are on the wrong side of the car for safe snacking.
It seems that there is no solution to the great crisis of melting mini eggs/jelly babies which wreaks havoc in cars every summer, except perhaps doing without. But the prospect of being deprived of jelly babies is just too horrible to accept without protest
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I think the main criteria in choosing a car in present conditions is not how fast does it go, how well does it corner etc..
Number one is, how nice will it be to sit in it doing little else for long periods?
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Seat's got to be comfortable. If my driving position isn't perfect it means backache. And a perfect position means the perfect distance between seat and clutch pedal, for seamless upchanges and ditto double-declutch downchanges. (And why do so many brake and accelerator pedals prevent you heeling and toeing?)
And a nice dash with cool design.
BTW, I'm OK with any colour dash as long as it's black. Black/dark grey seats are great too. You like other colours? Get some taste, people!
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I really like the interior of my car, its one of the reasons I chose the car. It's asthetically pleasing, everything is to hand, and there are lots of buttons to press to pass the time.
But the best things for me are the CD changer, ensuring I always have my favourite music, and the Air conditioning for a nice, cool cabin.
Btw Pologirl, why do you keep calling your boyfriend 'The Passat Driver'? Doesn't he have a name? Seems rather strange.
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Btw Pologirl, why do you keep calling your boyfriend 'The Passat Driver'? Doesn't he have a name? Seems rather strange.
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I could ask why you all call your other halves SWMBO!
Yes, he does have a name, but no, he's not my boyfriend! He just happens to be the lucky man who has had the pleasure of sharing a flat (and the last collision - we were collecting HIS holiday snaps at the time) with me for the last two years. And he drives a Passat, christened Dora by me (don't ask why, it just suits her).
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I could ask why you all call your other halves SWMBO!
mine's called SWDAST.
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>> I could ask why you all call your other halves SWMBO! >> >> mine's called SWDAST.
Come on then, tell us.
Regards
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S he
W ho
D oes
A s
S he's
T old
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Well I only spend about 1-2 hours a week in mine so I haven't really been in it long enough to notice how bearable it is. I guess if you're doing hours of driving every day some things must get quite annoying though. Frankly, rattles and squeaks are things that bother me more than what my gear lever knob's made of. Thankfully none to report yet. Touch wood :)
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I find that virtually everything is in the right place in my Leon - the volume knob for the stereo is on the left rather than the right and the recirculate button for the climate control is a bit fiddly/easy to miss, but apart from that, the cabin is an exemplary piece of ergonomic design. Rattles are non-existent, squeaks sorted out long ago with a bit of silicone spray. The important things are all as they should be - driving position, seat support, pedal position, position of footrest (crucial for long trips), adjustable steering, etc. Also, the car itself is a joy to drive, with the right combination of power and handling enabling me to treat the back roads on my way to work as my own personal rollercoaster. Wheeee!!! ;-)
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmmm, doughnuts
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