Yet Another New Jam-Jar

[hilldweller]

I swopped the big Octavia for a smaller Fabia Estate last year. I thought it might be easier to get in and out of when parked in the garage.

Big Mistake !

My wife suffers badly from balance problems after a brain operation many years ago and she is now suffering much pain due to a arthritic condition in her upper spine and neck.

Since we bought the smaller car she's hardly been able to travel in it.

I've just swopped it for a new mark 3 Octavia Elegance and the difference in the ride is astonishing. I got a VERY good deal on the trade in.

This new car has a wheelbase 4" longer than the last Octavia and is about 3" wider.

I can just about get in and out when in the garage and I'm going to bolt some grab handles on the garage wall to make it easier.

The thing that struck me is the amount of extra equipment that is now included as standard compared to the last Octavia.

The car now has lights that turn themselves on when the light level falls, main beams that auto dip when a car approaches, auto dipping rear-view mirror, tyre pressure monitors, and a fiendish device that works with a radar

transmitter/receiver in the front valence and a camera mounted in the front of the rear-view mirror to provide anti-collision protection. If you get too close to the car in front it first bleeps at you, then pulses the brake and if you don't start braking it brakes for you, to a standstill if necessary.

I can see that this might stop you hitting the car in front only for the car behind to hit you if it's not fitted with a similar device.

The thing I don't like is the start stop. As soon as you stop at a tee junction the engine stops within about a second and starts virtually instantly as soon as you take your foot off the brake. However this device can be disabled by pressing a button but resets the next time you drive.

It's got a 6" touchscreen sat-nav which is something I said I'd never buy, but at least it picks the exact routes I would chose so far.

With the next model I shall be able to give it a shopping list and send it off to Morrisons on it's own.

Great fun so far.

HD

[RichardB]

Sounds fine except the stupid stop-start stuff. I'm just happy with a car that has the required number of wheels.

[hilldweller]

Sounds fine except the stupid stop-start stuff. I'm just happy with a car that has the required number of wheels.

Thankfully this one does have the required number of wheels, it was a pre-built car, waiting in Emden, Germany, but had only been built about 3 weeks before.

I didn't fancy waiting for a custom built one from the factory.

It came with a spare wheel this time rather than the tin of gunk. This is classed as an optional extra but all the high tech gubbins is standard fitment.

My tax disk came in the post today, part of the new arrangements from DVLA, new cars can now be driven without a disk for up to 14 days from date of registration. The local DVLA offices close over the next few months.

HD

[Stuart0742]

Sounds fine except the stupid stop-start stuff. I'm just happy with a car that has the required number of wheels.

We had a BMW hire car this year with Stop/Start stuff was impressed with it

[RichardB]

I'm used to half dead cars, having to get out and turn the handle at traffic lights would do my head in.

We had a BMW hire car this year with Stop/Start stuff was impressed with it

[SteveHB]

I have a Valksall, I valk all the way there and valk all the way back

[Bayleaf]

I have a Valksall, I valk all the way there and valk all the way back

Boom Boom! A bit like the Rolls Kinardly?

[hilldweller]

Boom Boom! A bit like the Rolls Kinardly?

Puts me in mind of an article in a spoof newspaper that used to be published by the Star on the occasion of the Press Ball.

It was called The Stare & Telegram and contained daft reports.

In one edition there was a motoring report by the motoring correspondent Leslie Skiver (Driver), on the Rolls Kinardly.

He mentioned that the braking performance left much to be desired.

"I applied the brakes motoring through Hope and came to an impressive halt in Castleton"

Funny the things that you remember from more than fifty years ago.

I had an Austin A35 with similar problems in the early seventies, that would have probably stopped forward motion when it hit the slope of the Winnets Pass.

HD