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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Devon and Umbria
Posts: 2,138 Thanks: 212 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon The 4x4's just brought us back to Pudding Island after its fourth trip to central Italy. We were there for ten weeks and the car did a total of 4550 miles, at just under 40 mpg. I'd normally expect a couple of mpg more in the warmth of Italy - in ten weeks we had a total of five or six days of (torrential) rain but the temperatures were between 25 and 33 all the time otherwise - but the weather was much cooler on the journeys to and from, which make up the bulk of the mileage. Air con was full on all the time. For a change - and to take in a week's walking holiday in the Provence on the way south - we went via Arras and champagne country rather than Belgium and Luxembourg. The champagne area was really weird - we expected to see vineyards but for 30 miles or more we saw not a single vine - just mile after mile of monocultural wheat growing - hideous for the environment. Walking through the country in Provence was also strange - great walking area but Provence was devoid of wild life - we walked for 8-11 miles each day, the countryside was completely silent, we saw a total of two buzzards, not another bird, no mammals, no reptiles, and just one flock of sheep - in Umbria we’d have listened to and watched numerous birds from before dawn till after dusk, seen beech martens, squirrels, deer, boar, porcupines, sheep, goats, lizards, snakes - very odd - eerie. The Panda - which goes in for a 26,000+ miles service next week - oil change plus all the filters as Umbria was very dusty - behaved impeccably. Our normal route is bedevilled by an increasing number of speed cameras in the Epinal-Namur-Nancy area, but the Panda is more than happy to sit at 85 mph all day otherwise. Load coming back was 2 adults with quite a bit of luggage plus about 90 litres of wine, 3 of olive oil - commercial break - the best of Umbria's olive oil is arguably the best there is - because of the altitude of the groves there is no need to spray against olive fly, which is otherwise done almost universally, nasty stuff - organ phosphates, which are much better avoided; flavour and aroma are also exquisite. One of the interesting aspects of the 4x4 is the low rate of oil consumption; also tyre wear is very low. There are numerous Panda Mk 1, 2 and 3 4x4s in central Italy - - our neighbour has a Mk 1 Trekking that's used more or less like a draft horse round the local woods - almost inevitable that you park beside one which emphasises how ugly the current model is, especially alongside the previous one.
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Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Beccles, Suffolk
Posts: 2,629 Thanks: 223 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Great post - very envious of your Panda wanderings - and I'll certainly look out for Umbrian olive oil in future. Agree also with your comments about the styling of the current version. The front and rear end are especially ungainly - fussy and bloated compared to the neat, cheeky simplicity of the previous version - and the Cross is even worse! But in every other respect they are a big step forward, so all is not lost!
__________________ Barchetta LE (no 2468), 1998, Silver with Red Hood/Leather, Hardtop, Wind-stop, Novitec SS Exhaust Panda Cross Twinair, 15 Reg, in glorious Yellow ![]() Talbot-Matra Murena 2.2 (Prep 142), 1983, Aquamarine |
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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Devon and Umbria
Posts: 2,138 Thanks: 212 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Great post - very envious of your Panda wanderings - and I'll certainly look out for Umbrian olive oil in future. Agree also with your comments about the styling of the current version. The front and rear end are especially ungainly - fussy and bloated compared to the neat, cheeky simplicity of the previous version - and the Cross is even worse! But in every other respect they are a big step forward, so all is not lost! The TA engine's a bit odd - as I've noted before I don't think it does anything that a well-sorted normally-aspirated 1.4 4-cylinder couldn't do at least as well - but it is relaxed on the motor way and does have really decent mid-range grunt - I have a "test" section on the A30 just west of Okehampton, where I accelerate balls-out from the slip road - the 100HP could reach 80 mph by a bridge across the road with one gear change from second to third, the 4x4 TA is a couple of mphs slower but that's after two gearchanges, so in slightly lazy driving, where you don't always have the car in exactly the right gear for maximum acceleration, the 4x4 TA is slightly nippier than the Mk 3 100HP.
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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Devon and Umbria
Posts: 2,138 Thanks: 212 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Also, we do quite a lot of driving on gravel roads, and up mountains and so on - where the 4x4's in its element. The picture is the car 5000+ feet up in the Sibillini mountains.
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Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,338 Thanks: 305 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Try a stop over at Beaune next time, it's at the centre of the Burgundy wine region and is very pretty. We stumbled upon it one year on the way back from Savona. Saturdays have their fine food market where you can stuff yourself with local delights, then wash it all down with the local tipples. The town centre reminds me of 'Allo 'Allo. (We spent several hours looking for the Fallen Madonna with the big boobies. Obviously after too much wine tasting!) The villages around (Savigny les Beaune in particular) are stunning, small wine communes where you can see them working the vines, often by hand.
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Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: London
Posts: 59 Thanks: 4 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon I can highly recommend the Bar500 in Cortona for anyone wandering around central Italy ! http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaur...o_Tuscany.html
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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Devon and Umbria
Posts: 2,138 Thanks: 212 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Try a stop over at Beaune next time, it's at the centre of the Burgundy wine region and is very pretty. We stumbled upon it one year on the way back from Savona. Saturdays have their fine food market where you can stuff yourself with local delights, then wash it all down with the local tipples. The town centre reminds me of 'Allo 'Allo. (We spent several hours looking for the Fallen Madonna with the big boobies. Obviously after too much wine tasting!) The villages around (Savigny les Beaune in particular) are stunning, small wine communes where you can see them working the vines, often by hand.
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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Devon and Umbria
Posts: 2,138 Thanks: 212 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon I can highly recommend the Bar500 in Cortona for anyone wandering around central Italy ! http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaur...o_Tuscany.html The picture shows the courtyard of the Castello di Magione:
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Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Guildford
Posts: 1,024 Thanks: 130 Trader Rating: 1 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Excellent update and further confirmation for me that I was right to get shot of my (little used) Audi S4 and just embrace the little 4x4 TA fully. All it was missing was Cruise Control as far as I was concerned, until last Tuesday...... See new thread for quite report and update.
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Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: London
Posts: 59 Thanks: 4 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon I quite like Cortona - it's about an hour and half away from our home in Italy just beyond Lake Trasimeno from our direction - but haven't been there for some years. If you venture past Trasimeno into Umbria there's an amazing ancient hospital in Magione - run by the knights of Saint John, whose capo still stays there for his summer hols. They make great wines, including a lovely red wine introduced two years ago - called Novecento to mark the 900th anniversary of their foundation. The first time we went there I mentioned the Knights Templar in conversation and there was a plumber-like intake of breath as it seems they were sworn enemies during the crusades and haven't started to get over it yet. The picture shows the courtyard of the Castello di Magione: Absolutely agree they are far more attached to their towns than to the nation of Italy (which is a very modern idea)
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Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Oxfordshire
Posts: 55 Thanks: 3 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Interesting, and good to hear the Panda is up to it (not that I'd ever doubt it!) I've got a trip to Tuscany planned for September - via Caen, down through France, over the Alps, back via Med coast, south of France and into Spain back from Bilbao. (phew!) ![]() ![]()
__________________ Pandas!: '15 TA 4x4, Bianca (the white one...) '18 TA 4x4 La Rossa (the red one...) Gone but not forgotten; Primrose, '08 1.2 Bikes: Moto Guzzi V7c, Royal Enfield Bullet C5 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Devon and Umbria
Posts: 2,138 Thanks: 212 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon I did some work in Bilbao many years ago - great city - and went there once "on the way home" from Umbria - it's a long way and (because someone else was paying) I stuck to toll roads, which amounted to a hefty amount by the time I got to Bilbao.
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Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Beccles, Suffolk
Posts: 2,629 Thanks: 223 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon If you can spare the time, the non-toll roads across the south of France into Spain are fine, and you get to see some interesting places en route.
__________________ Barchetta LE (no 2468), 1998, Silver with Red Hood/Leather, Hardtop, Wind-stop, Novitec SS Exhaust Panda Cross Twinair, 15 Reg, in glorious Yellow ![]() Talbot-Matra Murena 2.2 (Prep 142), 1983, Aquamarine |
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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Devon and Umbria
Posts: 2,138 Thanks: 212 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon
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Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Tregaron, Ceredigion
Posts: 82 Thanks: 6 Trader Rating: 0 ![]() | Re: 4x4 TA to Devon-Umbria-Devon Great view!
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