My daughter's Alfa 147 having succumbed to its high oil consumption and failed the MoT one emissions - pity that, it was quite a nice jalopy - her car-freak husband has found her a Mercedes A160 dti (I think that's what it says on the back). It is apparently a 2 litre diesel.
Drove it less than 10 miles yesterday. It was parked so close to another car that what with the very raked screen pillar and the seat right forward to suit my quite small daughter, I had some difficulty getting in. Running, I was amazed by the almost total absence of torque compared to our own 2 litre petrol car. The Merc usually needed to be at least a gear lower than the Chrysler in slow going. However once rolling it seemed perfectly all right, much higher geared than the Chrysler and its narrow torque band probably the result of tuning or engine management for economy. It's in silver with about 60,000 miles on it, and immaculate inside and out (not for long though if I know my daughter). I didn't much like the steering but it didn't seem dangerous. The SiL says it gets 50 mpg in daily local use. Just as well given the cost of diesel.
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