Well this weeks hire car has hit an all time low (or high...) in terms of fuel consumption. The car was a pretty high spec petrol turbocharged Mokka. Almost brand new, and, I think, a FWD version. Over an admittedly low mileage of around 140 miles it averaged 27.7mpg according to the OBC, confirmed by the fact that it took just over 20 litres to fill it up before being returned.
However, putting that to one side it was a very nice car. Well equipped, with dated leather seat, heated steering wheel (!), bluetooth, cruise etc. it looked same in a bright blue metallic, with graphite alloys, blacked out rear windows and teh odd bit of chrome here and there.
Performance was pretty good, and it was comfortable, and very solid. No rattles, but then it was new. Reassuringly stable at pretty much any speed, and crisp handling. The ride was a touch firm though...
I thought it looked smart, and the interior was well though out. Nice dual zone climate control that worked, and bluetooth connectivity that wasn't fooled by iOS 8.0.2...
Seats were comfortable, with an extending base for thigh support. Lacked lumbar adjustment, but I didn't actually miss it. Boot a good size, and rears seat legroom OK. Teh raised seating positions meant that what looked like tight legroom was actually OK.
No idea how much they cost, but assuming it's around £20k, with an actual transaction cost a chunk lower, I'dbuy one if I needed a small, chunky, slightly raised kind of car...
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Apologies for the typos in the above. Should say 'heated leather seats' not dated! They were brand new. It also looked smart in bright blue, not same. The last one (diesel) was black ;-)
And a quick peruse of Vauxhall's website while waiting for a, delayed, flight from Edinburgh indicates that it's list price was just under £22k. So I assume around £18k new to a private buyer and sub £14k as a lightly used sub 1 year old one. Pretty good value I reckon.
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Hated the one I had a couple of weeks back. It had the long in the tooth 1.7 diesel unit that was noisy and clattery. Big alloys gave huge roar on the motorway.
I walked past our europcar office in the week and was a bit disappointed to see they have 4 or 5 of them so I may get another next week :-(
Have 3 rentals booked back to back for a trip to Bordeaux next week - would be nice to get something different
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Good write up for a very nice car - probably the best in its class at the moment.
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What is it about this forum that brings out the Vauxhall fanboys at the slightest provocation?
};---)
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>> What is it about this forum that brings out the Vauxhall fanboys at the slightest
>> provocation?
>> };---)
clearly you never spent your formative years in a barry boy corsa
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The Corsa vies with the Polo for the worst hire car to date, in terms of how it was to drive at least! But it was better equipped. Give me a Fiesta in that class any day, though the new 206 was an nice car. The most Barry boy hire car to date has been a white Citroen DS2, but even that was a nice enough drive (diesel version)
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I had my first few driving lessons in a 1987 Nova, Z. Then my mum bought a 1988 one, so I had some early solo experience in that. (The pass-the-test bit in between was in a Ford, though.)
Anyway, my little aside was aimed at VB, who coined the phrase 'Vauxhall haters' in the Corsa Steering thread, and leapt in here to praise the Mokka and ignore Peter's report of a flaw that would cross it off any objective buyer's list.
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To be fair Peter's report is mostly positive.
The car he hired was almost brand new and I assume the reference to 'FWD' means he thinks it was the 4*4 variant. If it settled down to upper 30s/low 40s I'd have thought it OK for a car in that market sector.
Never owned a VX myself and last I drove was the MIL's 1.3 Astra well over 10yrs ago. My feel for the brand may though be coloured by being frequently car sick in various FB and FC101 modelss my Father's firm supplied him with.
The Simca 1500 estate he got in 1966 was a complete change - I suspect better suspension and a lower window line meaning I could see out made the difference.
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Big if, Bromp! Even in the days when engines did need serious running in - 20 and more years ago now - did any ever use a third less fuel after than before?
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I'd imagine that low thirties is the most anyone could ever hope to get from a turbocharged petrol one of these faux by fours, based on their weight and aerodynamics. I can't see the Ford, or any other manufacturers, petrol versions being any better based on my Focus experience!! And it was a hire car - in normal use I'm sure it'd be a bit better :-) Sure a diesel would be more economical, but also more expensive and less refined. And if you only do 9,000 miles a year how much are we actually talking about?
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Wife's 1.6 petrol Qq gets North of 40mpg easily. Not turbo charged of course. Anything but...
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Octavia vRS petrol turbo - low 30s in town but 38-42 mpg on a long run.
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I have not been in a Vx showroom for 25+ years.
1989- 2 yr Company Cavalier breaks down at house and phone the local Vx garage - can you come and fix/pick up car that will not start?
SIR - It is the 29th (IIRC) July and we are so busy with Aug 1st Regs we cannot come until 2nd/3rd Aug at best!
I was sitting that day with a new car order form, tick the boxes and you could get the usual suspects 2 ltr cars................I ticked Peugeo t rather than Vx after the experience a few days earlier - bad buy - nice to drive but it was a common sight @ the Pug garage.
Saw a Mocca 1.7TD (Is that the Isuzu of yesteryear's Astras etc?) in Costco - £1000 off to Costco customers - bringing it down from £24,000 to £23,000............I don't see many people paying their own £23K for a Mocca - surely this is a theoretical price with 25% off for anyone who asks.
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>> £1000 off to Costco customers - bringing it down from £24,000 to £23,000............I don't see
>> many people paying their own £23K for a Mocca - surely this is a theoretical
>> price with 25% off for anyone who asks.
Probably - although Mokka might be a bad example as apparently Vauxhall/Opel can't get enough of them from the factory to meet global demand.
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>> >> £1000 off to Costco customers - bringing it down from £24,000 to £23,000............I don't
>> see
>> >> many people paying their own £23K for a Mocca - surely this is a
>> theoretical
>> >> price with 25% off for anyone who asks.
>> Probably - although Mokka might be a bad example as apparently Vauxhall/Opel can't get enough
>> of them from the factory to meet global demand.
>>
Surprised at that as they are dumping them onto the daily hire fleets
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Based on my experience over this summer, all manufacturers are dumping cars on the hire fleets. I've had Audi, BMW, Merc, VW, Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Skoda, Hyundai and Vauxhall I think!!
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Renault seem to be the thing round here. Clio, Megan's and Scenic, all with the tell tale green e sticker on the bootlid.
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Hundreds of pre-reg Mokkas on Autotrader with under 100 miles on clock.
If that is the number on AT - How many are there actually sitting on Vx forecourts?
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twenty three grand for a Mocca? the name alone puts me off.What is so special about them is it the bloke with the beard advertisement and lousy music.
15 thousand max for what it is.
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I don't really like any of these hatchbacks on stilts. Like driving while sitting on a wobbly bar stool.
Fashionable though I suppose. My wife would rather have her Qashqai than say, a Golf. I'd be the other way round.
Strikes me these sorts of cars are for people who like cars but don't really know much about them.
( he says mildly patronisingly )
;-)
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>> Strikes me these sorts of cars are for people who like cars but don't really
>> know much about them.
Which is about 90% of the car buying public who see cars in the same light as a fridge or TV.
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So if 90% of buyers are pig-ignorant and effectively buying blind, how does it make sense to use sales figures (as you did in the Corsa thread) to support your Vauxhall fanboy position?
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>> Strikes me these sorts of cars are for people who like cars but don't really know much about them.
>> ( he says mildly patronisingly )
I suppose Mokka is like Qashqai, knobbly looking thing with pumped-up shoulders and haunches? Sort of faux desert-racer look. They look as if they should be able to sail over all forms of speed bumps at undiminished speed. But I bet they can't.
I imagine if you waft about in them gently they are all right in the modern manner and probably quite economical. But then you might as well have something more ordinary and less garish looking.
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Having just been for a stroll with the dog around "our" estate it struck me how there is a sudden proliferation of Nissan Jukes around here among the wifies. Used to be Mini convertibles and Qashqais. Quite pleased that we're slipping quietly into being out of step again.
The men, most of whom seem to be something in IT or work for Bentley, are fairly resolutely sticking to their A4s, Q5s, 3 series or 5 series. Although having said that, one of them has just had a new Evoque. Married too, just goes to show.
The old frats, like me of course, have Mercs. Far fewer MPVs these days too I notice, with the exception of the downtrodden looking souls with multiple kids who default into slightly attacked looking old Zafiras.
There is just the one diesel Golf on the street but of course he's an accountant. All diesel Golfs round here are owned by accountants it seems.
There is also one Skoda across the road, nice chap but he's German y'see so being a bit odd is ok.
One guy has got rid of his Volvo XC70 and had a new BMW coupe thing. We think he's having an affair. He's started wearing jeans and going to the gym too.
Funny what occurs to you on a dog walk.
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>> One guy has got rid of his Volvo XC70 and had a new BMW coupe thing. We think he's having an affair. He's started wearing jeans and going to the gym too.
Do you mean I can't buy a BMW coupé thing to go with my jean-like trousers, stylish and seriously filthy white shoes and relatively trim figure, for fear of being suspected of having an affair by curtain-twitchers like you and your dog Humph?
Tsk. Another avenue of self-fulfilment closed by the Mrs Grundys...
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So maybe that's quite reassuring if you look at it the other way. Having moved to a Dorset village two months ago, as I drive a Skoda it'll be safely (and correctly) assumed that I'm not having an affair.
Or perhaps they might think that SWMBO has the Skoda and I have the Mini Roadster.....No, what girl would have an affair with a man who drives a Mini?
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You mean I can no longer open the windows as I drive slowly through Sonning and hope to catch a snatch of your Sheep May Safely Graze, Avant? Not that I ever actually did, of course, but I feel an era has ended.
Hope you're finding Dorset to your liking.
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No, what girl would have an affair with a man who drives a Mini?
Funny moment on the opening night of this year's The Apprentice: one of the contestants - no more of a puffed-up tossbag than any of the others, to be fair - described himself as something like 'the ultimate alpha male'. This - as one of the You're Fired commentators pointed out - we heard as a voice-over to a shot of him cruising in his Mini convertible.
Happily, of course, we no longer judge people as we once did, but it seems a pity that some still feel the need to pretend. Like the leather-obsessed midlife-crisis bikers. Rob Halford can be open now, boys; so can you.
};---)
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>>as I drive a Skoda it'll be (correctly) assumed that I'm having an affair.
>>
Sorted that for you.
;-)
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I am of course now trying to envisage the sort of woman who'd have an affair with a man who drove a Skoda.
It'd need to be an estate I guess.
The guide dog would have to have somewhere to sit.
Cue AC getting huffy !
;-))
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The implication being that a Skoda driver would have no chance against a German taxi driver....
But what chance has either of us up against someone who drives a Physical Training Cruiser?
:)
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Vauxhall - Vauxhall Mokka - a new low in hire car mpg! - PeterS
