Saturday, March 31, 2007

Our first impressions

We've had the Roomster ten days now. I am now getting used to it and feeling at home with the way it drives.

The plus points over the Fabia are
  • the higher seating position
  • the gearbox which feels a lot smoother - fifth is further away and so can't be mistaken for third
  • the engine noise which sounds less like a diesel (having four cylinders rather than three obviously helps there)
  • the higher torque which translates to fewer gear changes and means you can change up sooner to save fuel (I only changed into 5th in the Fabia on long straight roads)
  • the front seats which are sports style and therefore hug you better
  • the amount of leg room the passengers get
  • the huge amount of luggage space even with the rear seats in place
  • the beautiful colour - as I said bright blue is more us than the sedate grey of the Fabia
On the negative side
  • it does consume more diesel than the Fabia which easily averaged over 50mpg. In fact I used to get better than 60mpg on airport runs without the air con on
  • it isn't as easy to see where the front of the car is when you are parking
  • the insurance cost me an extra 36€ for this year
  • the road tax is 65€ more per year but is still only 125€

1 comment:

Pete said...

The torque is an interesting point Keith, but does it have an electronic throttle? Back in the day, the accelerator pulled a cable, which opened a butterfly flap in the throttle body. If you pressed the pedal halfway you got half throttle.

Most brand new cars now (and certainly those in the VW group) use a drive by wire throttle with non linear mapping. They are set to give something like 60% throttle for only 30% pedal depression. This is a bid to make the car feel much more torquey, but you'll see it in your fuel bills.

Interesting.