My Motoring Month

As he branches out into a wider monthly piece for Riddle, Marc Stickley considers what’s been exercising him behind the wheel

Commuting: As part of my daily grind, I am lucky enough to have to commute a very short distance over a very long time. Yes… traffic is my constant companion. Getting across, or around Bristol, is rapidly becoming an epic undertaking. I now regularly leave my house with a packed lunch and a change of clothes…

In all seriousness, I have – as the crow flies – a 12 mile each way commute. This can take 90 minutes to complete. I can go around the hotspots, utilising the regions wonderful motorway network, but this extends the one way distance to 16 miles and may only shave 10-20 minutes off the wretched undertaking.

So I am resigned to my lot. Where I can, I take the most freely moving option – I prefer to drive, rather than crawl in first gear. The longer route for my commute keeps me moving better, so fuel economy is actually improved, but the extra distance almost negates the savings made. If only I could drive something more economical like my wife’s Golf TDI… But, if you read on, this could be downright irresponsible of me.

Hire Car Mini Reviews: Occasionally, I am “lucky” enough to need to utilise a hire car to get me from A to B for meetings away from the office. I’ll tell you what cars I have been given and what I think of them - this might help you gauge whether they will meet your needs. This month – Skoda Fabia 1.2 TSI DSG, Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 SRI and Fiesta 1.25.

The Fabia would not be deserving of the old-skool Skoda jokes. It was a solid car, big enough for a small family, solid enough to crack walnuts. It is, after all, a VW Polo in a slightly less well cut suit. That said, this model was fitted with the 7 speed DSG gearbox. Because it was a Skoda (and not a sporty one), it didn’t come with de-rigueur flappy paddles. It did have a bit of get up and go, from the 1.2 litre, 105 bhp petrol engine. It handled quite well and was adequately comfortable and appointed in a manner you would expect from its price (about £13,000 with this engine/gearbox combo). The disappointment for me was the dash material – hard plastic, of the type your school chairs were made of. All in all, a pretty sound small car, that made the journey easy to complete, with a well-rested left leg (no clutch pedal) and thoughts of how a faster model might fare…if they brought back the VRs model, I’d be interested!

The Vauxhall. Now there is a juxtaposition. For me, the SRI moniker adorned the flanks (and rumps) of the sportier offerings of the Vauxhall stable. Boyhood memories of the Cavalier SRI, SRI 130 and Astra SRIs offering range topping performance and equipment (before the GSI was launched), were clearly not evident to the good folk of Vauxhall when this rolled off the line. Sure, it has an unfathomable infotainment system (Bluetooth, DAB, probably more, but no Nav and no CD that I could find – but then even my Granddad utilises MP3s) and glossy black wheels in contrast to the gloss white paint, but it was in no way sporty.

Five speeds made it go forward. Eventually… It felt asthmatic. I wondered if I was driving it wrong – perhaps expecting diesel like torque, or petrol like top-end grunt. But no, it was just uniformly slow. At all revs, all day. It moved about ok, but it felt downright frustrating to be stuck behind some of the South-West’s finest dawdlers (35mph in a 60mph limit – normal down these parts, not good when running late), without the firepower an SRI should possess. You could wind on the revs. It would get louder. But it would not accelerate. Shuffle the gearstick about, try again. Nada. So, unless you really want what a reasonably priced Vauxhall (about £12,000), with those coveted “sports” badges, perhaps look for something different. Or go diesel – you get torque with diesel.

In contrast, the Fiesta was all things the Vauxhall wasn’t. It felt bigger (but is a similar sized car) and less stingy on the materials. The equipment was pretty similar, but the biggest difference was its va-va-voom (to borrow Renault’s term). It actually responded to throttle inputs, with a corresponding acceleration. It handled the 100 mile round trip, mostly on A and B roads and was pretty nippy doing it. You could feel the chassis felt more willing to drive eagerly. Yes, at just over 1 litre, it wasn’t going to scare any Porsches, but at least you could keep up with traffic and use dual carriageways to overtake dawdlers. So miles better than the Corsa.

Getting there: In the previous paragraph lies another of my automotive bug-bears. Dawdlers. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not a hoon-about, driving everywhere flat out, challenging speed limits and generally in a rush always. But I have experienced a fair bit of irrational driving this month, with drivers mystifyingly driving at 35 mph everywhere. Drivers stoically sitting at seven mph under the notified speed limit (broken speedo?). Other times I saw a mix of the two. The trouble was, most of the places I encountered the dawdling phenomena were somewhat twisty. Coupled with hire cars that could not leave black lines at the lights if towed away by a Typhoon fighter jet, the twists mean the dawdler will get there just as quick. The tortoise really can beat the hare… So, just for now, I have placed my McLaren P1 order on hold. The drivers around here just wouldn’t let me enjoy it. Oh, I’m also a tad short on the deposit for the £1m…

 

In the News

The VW scandal broadens: Petrol engines may now be affected by emissions cheating software. Wider than the US breaking NO scandal, Euro CO2 emissions may have been fudged, so VED (Vehicle Excise Duty – “Road Tax”) may now be affected if EU emissions figures are wrong. As this doesn’t just affect diesel cars any more, more VW Group products could be in the line for errors – VW, Audi, Skoda, SEAT and Porsche, but probably not Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti (although I doubt the supercars are affected, or if so, the owners won’t lose much sleep over remaining in the highest VED band!).

Porsche’s CEO became the internal candidate for VW Group CEO upon Martin Winkelhorn’s stepping down, but now that Porsche engines are affected as well, how high does this scandal go and who should be held responsible? Is there a culture of deception within VW Group? How could they fix this? I am on standby to be asked to take the reins. VW Group – if you’re reading this, I will have to work from the Bristol area - but can travel…! I also have a vast back catalogue of VW products in my motoring repertoire (‘95 Audi A4, ‘98 VW Golf GTi, ‘07 Skoda Octavia TDI, ‘09 Superb TDI and ‘12 Fabia Monte Carlo, ‘12 VW Golf TDi – yes, with the software fitted…).

Cameras for Cash: One Police Commissioner is having to make a stark decision – does he reintroduce the use of speed cameras on motorways as a fund raising exercise, or lay off Police staff? The Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Olly Martins is facing budget cuts and the re-introduction of the cameras, to rigidly enforce the 70mph speed limit on motorways could result in £1 million in revenue generation. Is this approach morally indefensible, or a sound business move? Mr Martins, crack on. I never drive in Bedfordshire anyway, let’s just hope it doesn’t catch on…riddle_stop 2