An Opel Zafira Tourer Ecoflex diesel (1.6 I guess). Picked up at Geneva, Sixt kindly stayed open late as our sleazy-jet was delayed. The reg. documents said it was 2 weeks old and it only had 500km on the clock. So after a wiz up the A40 to the French Alps and 2 days pootling between chalet and ski lift I was rather surprised to see the DPF full warning light come on. After 500 km? What on earth is going on?
Compared to our S-Max it is smaller and not as nice to drive, the steering being over light. The headlights were truly awful - not what you want when driving up unlit alpine passes in the dark in pouring rain! The suspension is OK and clever packaging makes the most of its smaller dimensions compared to our Ford. But the dash board is overly complex and not at all intuitive. The 12v for the sat-nav was well and truly hidden - found it eventually, of course, but it shouldn't be so difficult, should it? The heater/demister controls took some getting used to, as well.
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Hope the skiing was ok. Not particularly good lower down, in fact very poor Spring conditions when I flew home on the 22nd. On the live webcams you can almost see the snow disappearing in front of your eyes at the base areas. Unless you are at VT or somewhere high.
Glad I went when I did...at one weeks notice.
My bro recently bought a 3yo ex mobility Zafira. Auto box. Very practical for his purposes, but so is a Transit. Truly awful thing with hard plastics, sluggish. Better than walking though.
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We were at Les Carroz, near Flaines. High up the snow was good, but low down they were relying on snow canons which was very sticky under my snow-board. Still, as the accommodation was free, it was hard to say no!
Funnily enough, I found the actual quality of the interior of the Zafira Tourer to be better than I expected, having read road tests. But the design/layout let it down. Was your brothers Zafira the older model or a Tourer (with the boomerang headlights)?
Last edited by: Boxsterboy on Tue 31 Mar 15 at 18:57
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Did you notice what else they had?
I'm picking up from Sixt at Geneva tomorrow. Booking is for a 1 series or equivalent. Oddly the 1 series was the same price as an astra
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Snow board?
Dear Lord...
;-)
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>> Did you notice what else they had?
>>
>> I'm picking up from Sixt at Geneva tomorrow.
Didn't really notice what else they had - we booked to collect from the French sector of the airport as the rates were cheaper than the Swiss side!
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Les Carroz, I was there on a school holiday in 1982.
It was summer time, we jogged up and down the mountain to the nearest bar for a beer at 16 (that's what we told the guy behind the bar we were). It would probably kill me now.
Is the pool still down in the village ?
Last edited by: gmac on Tue 31 Mar 15 at 23:48
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A friend of mine owns & operates Chalet Morillon at Les Esserts. Part of the Grand Massif which includes Les Carroz & Flaine, which from memory was a dump. I cannot remember Les Carroz, but it rained a few days we were there so we spent more time in Sam Owens & Annecy than we did skiing.
Beautiful part of the world in summer, having backpacked through Samoens a few times on the GR5.
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Yes, Les Carroz still has a pool, but it looked like it has been rebuilt since 1982. Indoor and outdoor pools, hot tubs, etc. Our chalet was about 1/4 mile along the road from it.
Flaine still looks hideous - unless you like brutal, ugly 1960s concrete block flats, rather than traditional alpine architecture.
Apparently mountain biking is big there in the summer, and I could be tempted back to try that - I can imagine it would be beautiful there in the summer.
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>> My bro recently bought a 3yo ex mobility Zafira. Auto box. Very practical for his
>> purposes, but so is a Transit. Truly awful thing with hard plastics, sluggish. Better than
>> walking though.
Amazing that they sold any really.............
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Nice lady at Sixt gave me a Merc A180. Nicely kitted out with Sat Nav and Leather.
Odd car really - it was an auto, and I always thought that Merc autos were amongst the best, but not this one. I can only assume its one of those robotised jobs as some changes were really quite rough - reminded me of the citroen ESG box.
The engine was perky enough, but also a bit thrashy, and the auto box didn't really flatter it - it was often out of the torque curve so found itself hunting around the 7 gears, unless you selected sport mode where it just held the gears to long. Quite a few times if the traffic caused you to slow to 100 to 120 kph it just sat in 6th rather than 7th
Very comfortable though, nice ride quality and I did like the interior, so maybe with a different drive train could have been a really nice motor.
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The other week mine was a Ford Focus eco dynamic petrol. Not sure if it is was a 1.5 eco boost, it had a 6 speed gearbox so I don't think that came with the 1.0 L.
Bit OTT having a 6 speed g/box at times I found you had to work the g/box hard across country to make sure you stayed in the right gear. Handling and ride were good no problems at all. The stop start system was very good, not the first time I've driven a Ford with this system. If there needs to be a template for SSS it's this one. No need to faff about with leaving it in gear or leaving your foot on the brake. Just come to a stop as normal. I never once felt caught out by it.
Fuel wise it was worse than I thought, bit of cross country and then main roads with light traffic late at night. It said 37 mpg which is pretty poor, but I think there might have been something wrong with it. On the return identical car in worse traffic conditions it av 48 mpg.
Inside the seating was ok, after 3 hours in the seat I felt I needed a good strech and a walk about but nothing too bad. The radio was a bit of faff to get the DAB tuned in. I'm not techophobe but not computer geek either. The controls seemed abit confusing, nothing I couldn't eventually work out.
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>> The other week mine was a Ford Focus eco dynamic petrol. Not sure if it
>> is was a 1.5 eco boost, it had a 6 speed gearbox so I don't
>> think that came with the 1.0 L.
>>
Think the 1.0 125bhp has a 6 speed box
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I didn't know that, thought it was just the 4 cyl that had 6 sd box. Didn't sound like a 3 cyl though.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Sun 5 Apr 15 at 20:06
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The 1.0 Focus hire car I had at the beginning of the year had a six speed gearbox. Nothing wrong with that bit of it, though the engine broke and the interior was lamentable. I pity anyone who spends their own money on one! Take a look at a Skoda, VW, Hyundai, Kia or Vauxhall before inflicting a Focus on yourself. Or buy a Fiesta - suffers from some of the same interior issues (more excusable as its a lot cheaper) but is a joy to drive!!
The Merc A class is a nice car, but i think a lot pricier than the Ford. It has a regular auto box though AFAIK - not driven an auto as all of Avis's (so far) have been manual. As with most cars of this size now, I prefer the turbocharged petrol engine to the diesel. Much more refined, less weight over the front and, if driven sensibly, pretty economical too!
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I thought the interior fine bit fiddly but that was it. 6 speed box was a bit unnecessary, often it was struggling in top even at mway speed, not as bad as th vx astra but noticeable still.
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I didn't like the cheap plastics, in particular round the stereo and HVAC controls, which were reminiscent of a 1992 Escort I had the misfortune to be given as a company car once. I also thought the LCD display were cheap , though higher spec / newer ones have much improved ones. The drivers seat lacked lumbar and thigh support for me as well, though seats are always a personal thing. It's biggest failing however was an engine that broke!! The 1.6 auto I had later was muxh more reliable, but while the gearbox was good the car lacked any sort of 'go'
Last edited by: PeterS on Mon 6 Apr 15 at 22:06
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Cant say I touched them much. Set the controls for both then just used the buttons on the wheel the rest of the time. They worked and felt like err plastic. Unless I'm in constant contact with it, not an issue for me how expensive parts of the dashboard are, although I know this matters to some, each to their own.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Mon 6 Apr 15 at 22:13
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Amazing that they sold any...
Not really. Some buy a badge, some choose on capability - and some just look at the price. GM has known this for years.
Of course, there's always the odd one who forgets he's in Poundstretcher and pays a Selfridges price. That's how the dealers pay for their holidays. One's going to the Seychelles this year, I hear.
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>> Not really. Some buy a badge, some choose on capability - and some just look
>> at the price. GM has known this for years.
>> Of course, there's always the odd one who forgets he's in Poundstretcher and pays a
>> Selfridges price. That's how the dealers pay for their holidays. One's going to the Seychelles
>> this year, I hear.
As easily the best selling 7 seater mid-sized MPV of its day in the UK I guess the Zafira A & B ticked all three of those boxes for many buyers. Not you of course, but we know you're in a different league.
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Whatever makes you happy, VB. What I don't get is that I make fun of a multinational company and its unattractive products and you take it personally. (Your scowly, I presume.) What do you owe them (and I don't mean financially - they had to close down the finance arm that used to control the car maker when the whole lot nearly sank in 2008, and its bought-in successor is just getting going, contributing only a sixth of the group profits) that you keep going out to bat on their behalf?
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>>Some buy a badge, some choose on capability - and some just look at the price. GM has known this for years.
Do the other manufacturers not know this? Surely they are all aware?
>> forgets he's in Poundstretcher and pays a Selfridges price
Do you really simply look at the name above the door to decide how much you will pay for something? I would have thought that the value of the product might have featured.
Bit of a brand slave, are you?
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An acquaintance of mine almost bought a second hand VXR8 a few years. A dealer contact had one and was not brave enough to send it to auction! In the end he chickened out and bought a 'sensible' M3 saloon. He now drives an M3 coupe. He tells me that cheap as it was, it would have been sheer madness. Too ''in yer face'' for his liking, and the understated M3 variants suit him perfectly.
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The VXR8 would be something I'd love to play with, but I don't think I could live with; just too full on for day to day pootling.
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You'd need to tone its badging and chrome down a bit to make it blend in. Ugly it up a bit to look like an ordinary rough Vauxhall. I would expect it to be a very nice easy murmuring pootler actually.
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>> You'd need to tone its badging and chrome down a bit to make it blend
>> in. Ugly it up a bit to look like an ordinary rough Vauxhall. I would
>> expect it to be a very nice easy murmuring pootler actually.
>>
The Commodore upon which the VXR8 is based is still relatively commonplace in Australia although fading in popularity. The SS (with V8) can be had in a number of guises - Ute (why oh why), Sedan (saloon) and Sportwagon (estate) but also in the Calais luxury derivative where it looks really quite tasteful imho.
You can get a 'mere' 3.5l V6 lookalike called the SV6 too.
www.holden.com.au/cars/commodore
The commodore was heavily face-lifted in 2013 (the VF looks pretty elegant to my eyes) but the UK VXR8 appears to be still based on the old VE model.
Still, when tempted I tell myself 'get a grip, it's a GM product and will be inherently unreliable', still tempted though, actually by the SV6 lookalike Sportwagen/estate with the factory LPG engine.
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Do you really simply look at the name above the door...?
No, and I don't think my comment implied that, although there are certainly places I'll go for that'll-do shopping (I miss Woolworths for that) where the name above the door effectively puts an upper limit on what I'll have to pay. Doesn't stop me looking for a deal in John Lewis but I'll pay for quality and service where those things matter. Not in Poundstretcher, though!
Bit of a brand slave, are you?
}:---)
I hope not, but probably - as we nearly all are to some extent. When we met last year, you gently made fun of my iPhone; true, it's an Apple but when I chose my first smartphone that was the only game in town, and it worked for me so I've stuck with the system. I keep a generation or two behind, though, to let the hardcore brand slaves pay the development costs.
Car-wise, I tend to keep cars quite a long time, so I choose carefully, and I've only chosen one brand twice. I'd like another Volvo but I'm not sure they make one to suit me any more. Capability has to come first.
And buying something because it's the biggest seller is very poor reasoning. Are the other buyers anything like you? Or are they fleet managers who can get discounts that would make your eyes water, but don't really care how the thing is to live with?
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This all looks amusingly in danger of turning into an automotive version of that preposterous old Cleese, Barker and Corbett "class" sketch !
I've had many different cars, some of which were Vauxhalls and those sadly have fairly consistently ended up being less reliable and more disappointing than most so I'd not rush to have another purely on that basis. The Fords ( arguably the brand with the most similar perceived values ) I've had have, on the contrary, in the main been a delight to own and drive and I'd have another of those in a heartbeat.
Nothing to do with "status" or "image" just personal experience and preference.
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Runfer, you should try to get SWMBO into a C-Max if she likes the Qashqai. Similar height off the road and more fun to drive. And you'd have a Ford in the family again.
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Well, funnily enough, when the newest model C Max came out. Would that have been about 4 or possibly maybe even 5 years or so ago? I had one as a renter in Italy. Not sure what model it was but it was a nicely equipped manual and had a small Diesel engine.
What a nice little car. A pleasure to drive. You are of course quite right, much nicer than the Nissan to drive, but my wife is ( perhaps unsurprisingly ) a woman and would think of a Qashqai as looking better and therefore by default being better.
I know, I know.
Might get away with a Kuga ( don't start Dave...)
;-)
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I'm a woman and I don't think the Qashqai is better looking than the C max. I think they are both ugly!
Kuga is even worse..
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Aye, but she's a Cheshire lass...Things are different here. Subtle is more or less illegal.
;-)
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Opel - Today's hire car is... - legacylad
