Perhaps, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you're not going to be blasting to 62 as quickly as you can, but spend most of your time on major routes behind other vehicles, it's irrelevant to the great chunk of your driving.
I know where you're coming from, don't get me wrong.
That's not a problem, though. Most people are not going to get confused over a five door hatchback and a two door supercar. Water it down a little, I don't see anybody going into a Vauxhall dealership wanting a five door Astra diesel estate and driving out in the turbocharged VX220.
I can see somebody going into a Vauxhall dealership wanting the Astra turbo and driving out in the turbo VX220.
"Seems" springs to mind. But you'll note that they're biased towards almost all mainstream "as seen on every street" brand.
I guess that depends on your perspective. On the one hand, any vehicle with a maximum speed over the speed limit may only be properly enjoyed on the racetrack. Any vehicle that has a grip limit exceeding the visibility limit (this meaning you can drive around a corner much quicker than you would be able to stop) has the same issue. When I'm driving, it's the maximum obtainable speed, the speed limit and visibility limits that curtails my speed way before the abilities of the Ka.
On the other hand, if you're driving in something that costs twice the national average house cost, you're going to be enjoying some attributes of that no matter where you are and at what speed. You'll have those people gawking, those people looking and my favourite, those people who are admiring your car but don't want to be seen admiring it, so they give you a sideways look and walk into things (hehehehehe).
We could take these apart though. Safety, if that were really your number one priority you might go for the largest car you can get, something the size of the Ford Explorer and be thinking nuts to anybody you hit, you'll be okay. Or you might be wanting the largest "ordinary" car you can get, something in the 607 7-series clbutt. You have waaaay better stability than the SUV type of vehicles.
sarcasm As for the last three points, why didn't you get a Rover 75 diesel automatic? Best car in the world. :-) -sarcasm
Aha but you don't always even have to do that. The bosses' old M5 (only the V8 not the current V10 model) was capable of achieving over 30 mpg. No no, I should elaborate. His overall average fuel consumption was a shade over or under 28 mpg. His commute to work, almost always two up, typically produced 27 to the gallon. If more than two people were going somewhere and the M5 driver was going along, we tended to use it :). This consumption is only a shade lower (as in one or two miles per gallon) than the 328 we also had on the fleet. And that was only one or two miles per gallon thirstier than the 407-sized 2.0 automatic we had on the fleet...
And there's no accounting for taste, too, which works both ways.
Heh that's certainly subjective *cough Ford Ka rules cough*. :-)
They have been known to do so if the steering is especially light. This is because there's usually no feel with light steering. I guess it's a "fast road going car review" thing, really. Our buttisted steering on the Ka has about the perfect amount of weight. It has feel and feedback, Charlie asked me one winter why the steering had gone all "light and funky" (don't worry, she's from another world and in that part they don't do snow - the middle of the Californian desert).
The two rally cars that I've had the privaledge of driving have both had really, really light steering. As in, you could turn the wheel with your hand. Feel? Absolutely no feel as far as I was concerned... Mind you, they turn the wheel half a dozen times for the one corner...
Yup. I don't think it's a special case either. My future mother in law has back problems. She should drive an automatic with light steering. She's also a real fan of driving too, but has her own tastes. Finding the ideal vehicle wasn't easy. Actually, she never did, heh.
No, you're mistaken. Although the show is called Top Gear and they discuss car things, it's not meant to be the definitive show about cars. It's entertainment. The impression on the show that it's three blokes having a laugh with some fine examples of cars. Meet them on and off set together and it's just the same.
I have spent a lot of time reading reviews of cars, doing them myself, mostly buttociated with the fleets I've helped managed. I wouldn't be able to justify watching Top Gear on that basis (although since the old boss has had his V10 M5 delayed I could poke fun at the car for being hard to live with without the M button). But would I really want to watch a television version of "What Car?" magazine? No, not really. It wouldn't work.
Working for Top Gear has got to look like one of th best job in the world, though?
-- The DervMan www.dervman.com
