Well the trip is done and I thought I'd post some impressions of the trip and how the little car behaved.
The journey up was split in two with a stay in Newcastle, so doesn't count so much!
First of all it isn't as comfortable as a slightly larger car like a Civic or a Mazda 3, and it's a lot noisier. It is also very bouncy on undulating roads and the motorway surface that you are on contributes significantly to the noise in the car.
Performance from the 1.3 is perfectly adequate for our congested roads, although they certainly seem to be less congested now than they were a year ago, I attriubute this to the cost of fuel. There was not one jam from London to Newcastle on a wednesday going up the A1 and none coming down on a Sunday either.
The economy below 70 mph amazes me. I left Edinburgh at 9am and took the road to Newcatle via Jedburgh. I had reset the trip 24hrs before and was reading about 55mpg. By the time I hit Jedburgh, the Av MPG was reading 78!!!
Of course this didn't last long for the climb out of Scottish border country to Newcastle. But we were now at an average of 68! The roads then opened up, and I cruised at sometimes an indicated 84mph (actual 80 on the satnav) for long periods. This is where the economy suffered and by the time I'd reached north London, the trip was sitting at 60mpg. This still isn't bad.
Other issues included the coolant level dropping to an inch below minimum... will have to keep an eye on that and a significantly noisy period in the rev range from 2500 to 3000 rpm, which unfortunately is exactly on 70 mph.
Still, I only do this trip once or twice a year and the car was more than up to the job. Its economy is stunning for the performance available.
The journey up was split in two with a stay in Newcastle, so doesn't count so much!
First of all it isn't as comfortable as a slightly larger car like a Civic or a Mazda 3, and it's a lot noisier. It is also very bouncy on undulating roads and the motorway surface that you are on contributes significantly to the noise in the car.
Performance from the 1.3 is perfectly adequate for our congested roads, although they certainly seem to be less congested now than they were a year ago, I attriubute this to the cost of fuel. There was not one jam from London to Newcastle on a wednesday going up the A1 and none coming down on a Sunday either.
The economy below 70 mph amazes me. I left Edinburgh at 9am and took the road to Newcatle via Jedburgh. I had reset the trip 24hrs before and was reading about 55mpg. By the time I hit Jedburgh, the Av MPG was reading 78!!!
Of course this didn't last long for the climb out of Scottish border country to Newcastle. But we were now at an average of 68! The roads then opened up, and I cruised at sometimes an indicated 84mph (actual 80 on the satnav) for long periods. This is where the economy suffered and by the time I'd reached north London, the trip was sitting at 60mpg. This still isn't bad.
Other issues included the coolant level dropping to an inch below minimum... will have to keep an eye on that and a significantly noisy period in the rev range from 2500 to 3000 rpm, which unfortunately is exactly on 70 mph.
Still, I only do this trip once or twice a year and the car was more than up to the job. Its economy is stunning for the performance available.
