Living in a household of four women plus me, I get very used to the 'it's just something to get you from A to B' and 'I don't know how you can tell one from the other..' stuff that's thrown at me.
Over time I have learned to ignore it and to simply form my own opinions based on many years of driving experience in lots and lots of different vehicles. 'Say how easy it is to fit a pushchair in the boot..' says Mrs C.
In their all-female world all cars would be yellow or pink and look like a VW Beetle or a Fiat 500 and it wouldn't matter in the slightest if they were powered by a 1960s Russian Lada power plant or even an elastic band. Taste obviously plays a far greater part than form and function in their assessments from what I can gather.
However, much to Mrs C's continued disbelief, I can still get in a car, drive it, play about with it, scrutinize it and then tell you what I think of it. 'Say how easy it is to fit a pushchair in the boot..'
Some cars grow on you with time, others simply don't do it for me at all. On the other hand, every so often I have an encounter with a car that makes me quite literally fall in love with it. That's just what happened with Mitsubishi's new crossover-class vehicle, the ASX.
I had a few days in which to draw my opinions, but in reality I didn't need that at all. My mind was made up in the first 20 minutes of driving this beautifully engineered, easy-to-drive, versatile and smart looking car. 'Say how easy it is to fit a pushchair in the boot..'
Even with its 1.8 diesel power plant it offers an amazing turn of acceleration, albeit delivered in quite an exciting, back-thumping way. It whistles up to speed effortlessly and quietly and cruises along at extremely low revs, keeping the cabin noise low and very relaxing to be in. 'Say how easy it is to fit a pushchair in the boot..'
Another thing that grabbed me after I'd been driving for an hour or two was its unbelievable economy. For a big car it seemed to offer an amazing number of miles for your pound. The MPG figures it was indicating on the dashboard seemed completely infeasible at first glance, but when over 200 miles of driving had used such a small fraction of the tank then it must have been true. This is all helped by the stop-start technology, which switches off the engine when sitting in queues and re-starting automatically as soon as the clutch is depressed again. Referring to the official specifications confirmed this economy too. It would put many a small hatchback to shame! So if you want a BIG, useful family car that has loads of the latest gadgets and gizmos, is a pleasure to drive and a level of performance that seems completely alien to both the size of engine and the size of car, then this is the one for you. 'Say how easy it is to fit a pushchair in the boot..'
Due to its height, getting in and out was very easy and access to the back seats was also particularly easy, making the use of child seats a breeze without involving contortion and back strains. Likewise the luggage bay was wide and accessible, with a good flat waist-high load bay. No squatting beneath a low hatch to pick things up from a shin-high boot floor and then twist and turn to get them out. 'Say how easy it is to fit a pushchair in the boot..'
Ah, yes, the pushchair! I have to say how easy it is to fit a pushchair in the boot.... So I unloaded the golf bag, with its full set of clubs, the golf trolley, three holdalls, two food boxes, the suit carrier, numerous overcoats, and finally the cooler box to check. And guess what! I have no idea if the pushchair will fit, because I don't own a pushchair any more. But I think you get the gist....
Nigel Crawford
April 2011. |
The Volvo C30
