Just back from a whirl around Scotland. Car hired from Glasgow was a new Astra.
I'm not really into reviewing cars; these days it's quite difficult to tell the difference between them. It had loads of oomph, but you did have to work to get it. At 70 in 4th it didn't really pull, you needed 3rd for that; etc. And you sat 'on' the seat, rather than 'in' it - nothing like as comfortable my Accord, for all the 160k miles of the latter. It was an 'Ecoflex' in petrol. No idea on the engine size, it didn't say. No FM2R either, which in a car with bells and whistles was *very* annoying. Doubtless one is available online, but you'd need internet for that... The satnav was of dubious benefit, gave the wrong directions a time or three.
That said, in 650 miles it didn't hang about and it proved remarkably good at overtaking; only three cars overtook me: an Imprezza, a Quattro and another Astra (glad I wasn't a passenger in the last, wondered whether it was making a getaway from a bank robbery).
On the overtaking point, the three cars that passed me all passed within 90 seconds of appearing in my rear-view mirror. It's not very difficult to slow down or pull in to let somebody past. And hey, I'm on holiday in a remote part of the world; I don't want to share it with somebody else so I'd rather you were well ahead of me than stuck behind me. So I really don't get the mimsers who are happy to bimble along at 20mph on single-track roads (where is it *very* easy to pull in for a second) with me (and often others too in a queue) behind them. A complete lack of awareness of others, or just a lack of courtesy.
Had some really lovely weather too, and couldn't have enjoyed it more. Though I confess I was getting quite bored of the tight narrow roads by the time we reached Kilchoan one evening. Favourite road: Blairgowrie-Braemar-Speybridge-Nairn - few other cars; easy overtaking. I didn't realise there were roads still like it in the UK!
|
Round Scotland in a new Astra Ecoflex new
Round Scotland in a new Astra Ecoflex new
