16 Long Term Test Cars on The Road Racing to The Hill
SEAT ARONA FR Two months into Arona ownership and, as a daily driver, we're sold. But can Wales help see off the fug of pointlessness that dogs it? Price as tested £21,270Engine 1498cc 16v turbo 4-cyl, 148bhp, 1841b ftTransmission 6-spd manual, fwdPerformance 8.3sec 0-62mph, 127mph, 115g/km CO2 Miles this month 1382Total 3878 Our mpg 37.7Official mpg 55.4 SUZUKI SWIFT It's spent 11 months impressing us with its flickability and disappointing us with its low-rent interior. Will Wales change an
SEAT ARONA FR Two months into Arona ownership and, as a daily driver, we're sold. But can Wales help see off the fug of pointlessness that dogs it? Price as tested £21,270Engine 1498cc 16v turbo 4-cyl, 148bhp, 1841b ftTransmission 6-spd manual, fwdPerformance 8.3sec 0-62mph, 127mph, 115g/km CO2 Miles this month 1382Total 3878 Our mpg 37.7Official mpg 55.4 SUZUKI SWIFT It's spent 11 months impressing us with its flickability and disappointing us with its low-rent interior. Will Wales change an
- No tags were found...
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
- -
OURCARS.
THINGS WE ARGUED ABOUT
----
The point of the
VWArteon
Notoriously hardto-please
Ben Barry
put the Civic Type
R down just long
enough to take the
Arteon for a spin. And
20 minutes later it
was back, brakes hot
like an F1 car's after
Q3. The verdict? 'It's
just transport, isn't
it?' Ouch. But true.
While the Arteon's
fine lines promise
similarly fuzz-free
dynamics, the driving
experience actually
majors on languid
progress. Thrills
• are in short supply,
so frenzied Welsh
blats don't do the
VW any favours. But
with time, according
to its keeper Ben
Pulman, comes
understanding.
The XC60 is actually
better than the XC90
Nicer proportions,
less cash, less
intimidatingly massive
and nicer to drive -
how badly do you
need that third row of
seats?
The BMW MS being
just too big
Moaning about cars
getting bigger might
be nothing new, but
it's still entirely valid,
and narrow Welsh
roads make it a live
issue. The M5 is right
on the cusp of being
too wide at 1903mm;
the 5cm slimmer M2
makes for far fewer
cold sweats and
involuntary gasps.
Are Audis detached
on purpose?
Time and again we
wish Aud is - and
particularly RS Audis
- were more talkative,
less buttoned-up and
a little more alive.
Last month it was the
TT RS; this month
the RS5. But with the
livewire R8 RWS it's
become clear that,
when Audi wants to, it
can do it: ergo, most
of the time it doesn't
want to. Shame. RS5
RWS please.
Mercedes is on one
hell of a roll right now
Alright, so the All
Terrain didn't shine
here. But, by contrast
with the Audi RS5,
the C43 impressed
everybody. The
Mere range may
be confusing in its
breadth and variety,
but this is no
problem when so
many of its cars
work so well.
The hot hatch as
blunt instrument
Hot hatches used to
be about balance,
playfulness and just
enough power to
make life interesting.
You only need 130bhp
when most of the time
you're mucking about
with lift-off oversteer
and four-wheel drifts.
Now they're like
supercars: deadly
serious, insanely fast
and too grippy to get
out of shape unless
you're very brave or
very talented. ►
2018 I THE BEST CARS AS YOUR CHOICES 8
Change language