Test Drive Tales - Part Six: 2016 Suzuki Vitara 1.6 SZ-T Diesel

It took a long time for me last year to choose the next car to follow my 2014 Chevrolet Cruze diesel. I must have been to around eight different dealerships and driven around the same number of cars before I settled on the right one, and the whole process took two months. It was just as well I had plenty of other vehicles at the time to tide me over... One of the highlights of the process, however, was driving the current generation Suzuki Vitara. This attractively-styled little crossover was launched a couple of years ago and is about to be facelifted, which I am sure will make it even more appealing.

Rather like the Ssangyong Tivoli, my favourite in this segment, at launch in 2015 this generation of Vitara used to have a very simple engine choice: two 1.6 litre units, one petrol and one diesel. This was slightly complicated a year later by the release of the 1.4 turbo petrol Vitara S model, which by all accounts is the motoring journalists' pick of the range, but costs an exorbitant £4,000 more than any other model. I wisely kept to the 1.6 diesel, which is the more sensible choice, as the 1.6 petrol seemed a bit unexciting on paper. As it turns out, however, I was about to be surprised.

The diesel engine, which is apparently a Fiat unit (perhaps unsurprising considering that the previous generation SX4 had two different Fiat diesel engines), was a very sweet unit indeed, especially when coupled with the standard six speed manual gearbox. Incredibly, this little car drove very much like a warm hatch (I am sure the Vitara S is more like a hot hatch) with precise steering, a snappy gearchange and really very controlled body lean. Rather than the remote and sloppy steering which is present in so many modern cars, particularly crossovers, this was accurate and feelsome. It was genuinely a joy to throw around roundabouts and with the extra torque of the diesel engine meant that swift overtaking was no problem at all. I came back from the test drive absolutely astonished, as everything else I had driven up to that point seemed so average in the driving department. They had even managed to have a reasonably comfortable ride to boot, but the driving environment was perhaps a bit less impressive.

The interior was adequately spacious, the boot reasonably large and it certainly easy to get in and out, but the quality of the interior plastics was nothing special, and the fact that the mid-level spec car I drove had a blanking plate where the clock should have been was a major omission. The hard interior plastics were also accompanied by a touch screen which was a little fiddly to use on the move (although with plenty of good features) and a reversing camera, but no parking sensors, which can be a bit disconcerting...

The ownership package I was offered seemed reasonable enough in terms of pricing, and the dealership had a lovely manager who did not pressure me in any way, but ultimately the car had too small a boot and not a long enough warranty compared with many of its competition at just three years. Suzuki make some excellent cars, and certainly understand how to price them competitively and make them drive well, but it narrowly missed out to the Ssangyong Tivoli for me, which is a far more rounded ownership package. It certainly is not as fun to drive, though!

Test Drive Tales - Part Four: 1996 Ford Fiesta 1.25 Ghia

The first time I was looking for a suitable vehicle to head off to Santa Pod for some drag racing in early 2017, I found a very sensible potential option in the local area: a Mark IV Ford Fiesta Ghia within five miles. The car was just over 20 years old, but had relatively low mileage and a Full Service History (so I thought). Arriving at the local station, I was then able to take a test drive in one of Ford's most popular models. The famous Ford gearbox was as smooth as ever, and the 1.25 Zetec engine pulled nicely.

Advertised at just £400, the car seemed well priced. The Mark IV Fiesta was the car which usurped the Ford Escort as Britain's best-selling car in the late 1990s, and it is easy to see why. Easy to drive, with good visibility, and a range of, for the time, modern engines (provided one avoided the entry level 1.3 Endura-E dating back to the 1959 Ford Anglia), it appealed to a wide range of people. The Ghia specification had electric windows, some lovely fake wood on the dashboard, power steering, front fog lights and a unique grille. This one still looked very smart indeed...

The interior was a little cramped, the plastics seemed cheap and the level of noise was much more than a modern car, but all of these things are true for most modest vehicles made in the 1990s. It certainly had the keen steering and handling for which Ford has been famous for the last 25 years, and doubtless the insurance and other running costs were low.

Having completed the test drive, I examined the car more closely, and realised the front tyres were cracked, the car needed a service and there was a potential leak through the sunroof. The paperwork looked complete, but it was all photocopies, which seemed a little suspicious... There was a receipt for new tyres relatively recently, which clearly were not the same ones on the car. I had to walk away in the end, which was a real shame, as drag racing a Ford Fiesta has as much appeal to me as most other people!

Test Drive Tales - Part Three: 2005 Seat Toledo 1.8 SE 20v

In a rather chilly February earlier this year (which seems like a long time ago now), I ventured out to the wilds of Bassett, a suburb of Southampton, to have a look at a second generation Seat Toledo. Of course, this was, yet again, to assess its suitability for taking to the Santa Pod Run What Ya Brung event scheduled for the end of March. The second generation Toledo, based on the Mk4 Golf (all Toledos have been based on a Volkswagen Golf platform of various generations), was released in 1999, and ended production six years later. The third generation was considerably uglier than the second...

Unlike all other Toledos, this second generation model was a saloon, not a hatchback (the first generation Leon was its hatchback cousin), and it was aimed much more upmarket than before. This meant it sorted of competed with the Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class and BMW 3-series at a much cheaper price, although it had nowhere near the badge prestige of these premium rivals.

This particular example was five speed manual 1.8 20v version with 99,000 miles on the clock, and during the test drive it certainly proved its worth. At 125 bhp, it is probably the most powerful car I have ever considered taking to Santa Pod, and still pulled really well. The owner had had her from around six months old, when he had bought her from a dealer where she had been a demonstrator, and so he had looked after her for well over ten years. It was testament to his care that he was still on the original clutch, had kept all the service history (including cambelt changes) and had the original optional roof bars.

The car handled very much like a Leon with more power, and still felt fresh, minus the fact that the clutch seemed to have an unusual length of travel. In the end, due to uncertainties about the clutch, which could have been mashed at Santa Pod, and the fact that someone turned up within five minutes of my arrival to view the car too, I decided to leave it. The new arrival ended up buying the car for the full asking price. Compared with what we had in mind for it, I think it was best it went to a good home, as it was far too good to be wrecked at Santa Pod.

Toledos of all generations are very underrated cars, and worth much less money than other equivalent Volkswagen Group products, but are definitely worth a look on the secondhand market, whether one is going drag racing or not!

Test Drive Tales - Part Two: 2005 Citroen C5 1.8 LX

Last month, when I was looking for a suitable vehicle to take to Santa Pod's Run What Ya Brung event, I came across a 2005 Citroen C5 1.8 LX in Auto Trader. It was within budget, had some service history and an MOT and was less than a ten minute drive away. I contacted the seller (who happened to be a local trader), and visited him for a viewing.

The rather controversially-styled first generation C5 replaced the eccentric and well-regarded Xantia as Citroen's large family car in 2001, and its second generation form only finished production last year. This, a first-generation facelifted model, was in basic LX spec and had the smallest engine in the line-up, a 1.8 petrol producing around 110 bhp. It was, however, reasonably well equipped with air conditioning, climate control, electric windows and Citroen's famous Hydra-Active III suspension, which does away with all springs and dampers in favour of mysterious fluid-filled spheres...

The fluid-filled spheres seemed in excellent condition, and the car delivered a pillow soft ride over the suburban street humps and potholes of the scarred South West London tarmac. The power steering was light, and the car had had a new clutch relatively recently. The gearshift was much better than I remembered from previous Peugeot/Citroen products, despite the car having done 110,000 miles.

In the end, the sheer bulk and complexity of the car, which was full of complicated electronics which seemed to be warning of various things in French (luckily, I have a degree in the language) put me off a bit, but the final straw was the handbrake. Although it worked, the travel was alarming long, and came right up to the top of its range when applied, which was very disconcerting. This, coupled with the fact that the car had an illegal front tyre and needed a service meant that I walked away never to return. It was quite a lot of fun, however, and I would love to have a longer go in one of these ugly ducklings in the future. It is certainly a massive step up from the BX I once drove!

Test Drive Tales - Part One: 2000 Daewoo Lanos 1.6 SX

For some reason, I have had a fascination with Daewoos for almost 25 years. When the company first started selling cars in Britain in the mid 1990s, they had a memorable advertising slogan, "That'll be the Daewoo", incredibly cheap prices and a completely different after sales package from everyone else. I saw an Espero and a Nexia at the NEC Motor Show in 1994, and they really didn't look too bad.

These early cars, despite the fact that they were little more than dressed up 1980s Vauxhalls (General Motors had owned Daewoo for some time by that point) were smart-looking and most intriguing. They offered class-leading levels of standard equipment and three years' servicing, three years' breakdown cover and a three year warranty all included in the price, which was unheard of at the time. Granted, the sales model, where staff were not paid on commission and the prices were fixed, was a bit strange, but it was at least a brave effort from a completely new company to the European market.

Soon, Daewoo divested itself from General Motors, and embarked on an enormously ambitious programme to replace all their models with in house designs (styled by Ital Design in Italy) within a year, and in 1998 the Lanos appeared. This range of three and five door hatchbacks, as well as a four door saloon, was sold in many markets around the world, and whilst it still had a General Motors designed engine, everything else was unique. It was the same size as a Honda Civic, but the pricing was more akin to a Honda Logo, their smallest car at the time.

It was a shame that the Nubira, Leganza, Matiz and Lanos were not ultimately more successful, as Daewoo was bankrupt by 2002 and had to be bought out by General Motors again (buying fellow Korean maker Ssangyong during their independence probably didn't help), but cars from this period do have their own fascination. By 2005, all Daewoos were rebranded as Chevrolets in Europe, and by 2010, every single model designed in their independent period had been replaced by better quality and more stylish Vauxhall and Opel derived products, but ultimately the Daewoo stigma never quite wore off, and in 2014, Chevrolet pulled out of most of Europe. The only remnants these days of Daewoo is in Uzbekistan of all places, where the Daewoo Nexia is still being manufactured (along with several other former Daewoos and Chevrolets) under the Ramon brand. For most of us, however, these vehicles are firmly in the past.

When searching for a suitable vehicle for the Santa Pod Run What Ya Brung event (this means looking in the sub-£500 section of Auto Trader), I came across a Lanos in South London, and decided to have a look. These cars are now extremely rare, and well maintained ones are even more so. This one had done around 70,000 miles and had a nearly full service history with a cambelt change, most unusual for one of these.

On the test drive, the 1.6 litre former General Motors engine was clearly not in the best of health with a rough idle and being low on coolant. This, coupled with a gearbox with a very worn second gear, a steering wheel which had almost disintegrated through lack of use, tracking which was clearly off and a general feeling of looseness did not endear me to the car enough to put in an offer. The fact that it was going to need a service before heading off to Santa Pod for its own sake meant that I handed back the keys and walked away, with my curiosity satisfied but my wallet still very firmly closed to the charms of this forgotten Korean brand.

2014 Chevrolet Cruze 1.7 LT Turbo Diesel

Depreciation can be an absolute blessing or a real problem when it comes to buying a car! In 2015, I was after a new car, as some friends wanted to buy the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 LT which I had owned for the past three and a half years. I looked around for a replacement, and found this 2014 Chevrolet Cruze 1.7 LT Turbo Diesel at a car supermarket in Portsmouth. Costing around £18,500 new, within 18 months and 24,000 miles, the car lost £11,000! This was excellent news for me as I passed on my petrol Cruze to my friends and drove away in my new Turbo Diesel.

Being a post-facelift model (the Cruze was updated in late 2012), this had some minor exterior changes, such as new chrome flashes next to the fog lights and different alloy wheels as well as some interior upgrades. The trip computer, very useful on such an economical car, was also different. This was during a time when four of us were regularly driving both the cars I owned (this and the 1996 Rover 216), and there was always a fight over the keys for the Chevy.

I was quoted when I had got the 2011 Cruze that it had 122 bhp, but it certainly never felt like that. It always seemed like a heavy car, although the over-assisted electric power steering meant that it wasn't hard to drive. It also had poor fuel economy and relatively unimpressive carbon monoxide emissions. Suddenly, all this changed. The annual tax went down from £155 per year to £30, the fuel economy went from 36 to 52 (or more) and the power jumped to 130 bhp with a huge increase in torque. The 1.7 litre Opel diesel engine (the same one fitted to a variety of Vauxhalls and Chevrolets as well) made the car a touch nose heavy in comparison with the 1.6 litre petrol found in my previous car, but it was transformed in terms of performance.

As the new car had a six speed gearbox, as opposed to five speeds, it was also more relaxing on the motorway, whilst also being much more economical. Apart from the extra speed in the transmission, the car also had a much heavier clutch to get used to, and was much noiser at start up. It also took an absolute age to warm up on cold days, but it always started fine, which shows just how far modern diesels have come on.

Racking up an impressive 27,000 miles in my 20 months of ownership (which was brought upon by heavy use from all four of us drivers), the only problems I had with the car were physical damage when it received some parking scrapes, and then wear and tear issues. I had to change all the tyres and brakes during my ownership, as well as ensure that the car was regularly serviced with frequent oil changes, otherwise the diesel particulate filter became clogged, which can be a nightmare...

I did sometimes regret not having chosen a higher trim level (the LTZ came with sat nav, Bluetooth and a colour touch screen with a reversing camera, all of which were absent from this mid spec LT version), but overall these Cruzes are quite well equipped. The seats are generally comfortable, although the fabric can start to wear thin after around 40,000 miles, and the trim never rattled or came loose.

The main issue with the car was actually, once again, depreciation. In May 2017, I heard about the London proposed ULEZ (yes, that old chestnut again: https://www.lloydvehicleconsulting.co.uk/articles/), and realised that as a pre-2015 diesel, the value of my car had plummeted to around £4,000 from the £7,500 I had paid in 2015. This, combined with the fact that the car was not going to be compliant with the new zone, meant that the colossal loss of value (around £200 a month) was unsustainable. Thus, I was very pleased to be able to sell her on to two of those who had racked up the most miles in her, and, as they lived in Hampshire, were well outside the London ULEZ.

I very much miss my old car, but I was able to move on and buy a brand new petrol car (which, perhaps unsurprisingly, also seems to suffer from colossal depreciation), knowing that she had gone to a good home. Chevrolet Cruzes are reliable, strong and stylish cars which, apart from almost complete invisibility on the secondhand market and the aforementioned depreciation issues, have no serious drawbacks. They are much cheaper than the closely related Vauxhall Astras, have more space, generally better standard equipment, and are far less common. I would buy another one tomorrow if I needed it!

1998 Rover 214 (R3)

Those of you who have been following my reviews for a while may notice a common theme: I quite like cars that many other people may not. A classic example of this was a 1998 Rover 214 which I bought as a temporary stopgap in 2009 when I had sold the Seat Leon.

At just under £1,000, I paid far too much for her. The central locking no longer worked, the rear lights had been changed for ones much more hideous than standard, the suspension crashed and thudded over bumps, the tyres were not brilliant and the first gear synchromesh was very worn. There were general design issues with this one too.

The handling was not brilliant, the driving position poor, the rear legroom cramped and the interior quality had barely moved on from the previous generation Rover 200, which was launched in 1989. However, the car had a big boot, the British Racing Green colour scheme was rather nice, and it was compact and easy to park.

Despite what many people say, the 1400cc Rover K-series engine, if well looked over, can be very reliable, and this one certainly had no head gasket issues. The performance was pretty good, but the fuel economy was not great, and when these were new, they were very overpriced. I had her for just a month when I moved onto something else, which again had a familiar theme to it: yet another Rover!

1996 Rover 216 (R8) SLI Automatic

As I may have mentioned before, I seem to have a penchant for acquiring old Rovers, which turn out not to be very long good long term investments... This 1995 Rover 216 SLI automatic (registered 1996) was a low mileage late model 'R8' Rover 200 series, which had done just 44,000 miles when I bought her in 2015.

With a Honda four speed automatic transmission and the same 1.6 litre engine which used to power the late 1980s Honda CR-X sports car, this gentleman's club on wheels (complete with burr walnut door caps, and comfy armchair style seating) would nevertheless accelerate quite fast. Despite being an automatic, I would frequently get wheelspin in her when exiting from junctions, and she also returned up to 40 mpg, which for a 20 year old automatic car with a relatively large engine, was not that bad. It's not hard to see why I liked her so much (as did my lady wife, funnily enough).

She also had a reasonably practical boot, excellent visibility (no need for any parking sensors, as you can see all four corners easily), was very maneuverable in town and even had an electric sunroof (just as well as there was no air conditioning). Sadly, she had to go, as she just got to the stage where she was going to cost more to keep going than her value (I paid just £650 for her, and kept her for just over a year), but I do very much miss my old 'classic'.

In their time, these 'R8' model Rover 200s, based on the Honda Concerto (a type of Civic from the late 1980s and early 1990s) were well loved and received by the motoring press and public alike, but these days are seen as a bit of a joke. This is something of a shame, as they are inexpensive to buy, quite practical, and do exude a fair bit of nostalgic charm.

2010 BMW 320d Touring SE Business Edition

Prior to June 2017, my mother had owned BMWs for the past 16 years, the last of which was a 2010 BMW 320d Touring SE Business Edition (yes, it really is called that). Before this, she had a 2005 car of the same shape, which was the same, apart from a slightly less powerful engine and no satellite navigation. It was a wonderful companion for the four years she owned it, and I personally drove it from South East England to Central Germany twice. On the legalised racing track which is the derestricted Autobahn, it cruised nicely at 85-90 mph, and had a fuel range of over 700 miles.

It is a cliche to say that a BMW is a high quality car with good handling, but this is exactly what one gets with a 320 Touring like this. The boot was not the biggest, and neither was the rear legroom, but the seats are comfortable, the performance and economy were excellent and it was very reliable. Her particular model had lovely light coloured leather seats with a matching interior, and the six speed automatic transmission, which was smooth and complemented the 184 bhp engine very well.

My mother eventually moved her on for the same reason I sold my 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Turbo Diesel: the bottom has fallen out of the diesel market, and new emissions regulations in London coming in from 2019 mean that such cars fall foul of the new legislation. My mother's petrol Mercedes produces around the same power, but it does not seem as fast due to the torque deficit in comparison with a diesel engine. The fuel economy is also nowhere near as good as the 320d, so I think she does miss it to an extent.

As long as one uses a a local non-franchised dealership, rather than an official BMW garage or a specialist, the servicing costs are actually pretty reasonable (apart from the headlight bulbs for some bizarre reason). It is certainly not a vehicle without appeal, although I did find the I-Drive infotainment system pretty frustrating and the lack of space (apart from in the front) a bit limiting. Also, keeping the speed below 70 mph on British motorways can be a challenge, as it definitely wants to cruise at a steady 85-90 mph!

1993 Proton 1.3 MPI GLS

One of the joys of being a petrolhead is going on so called "car capers". Last year, I undertook a rather interesting trip in this ilk to Shoeburyness in Essex to see a friend. A retired friend of his was giving up driving and selling her car. This 1993 Proton 1.3 MPI GLS had done just 45,000 miles from new, and had been owned by her and her husband ever since.

The bonnet lacquer was have completely gone, some of the door locks did not work properly and there was a bit of rust somewhere, but this little car, originally built as Malaysia's national car in 1985 as the Proton Saga, was something of a gem. We checked the MOT history, and she had been doing around 100 miles a year over the last few years. With a completely flat battery and plenty of moss around the window seals, she took a little bit of coaxing to get going, but after a jump start, the 1.3 Mitsubishi Orion engine fired into life.

My friend tried to keep his slightly embarrassed face covered up as we cruised down Southend sea front on this exotic Asian automobile (they are pretty rare these days), and we ended up at a hand car wash. The clientele consisted of BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes and Range Rovers, and so the Proton fitted in perfectly. Once she was cleaned, we took her for a longer drive, and tried out the still functioning Blaupunk cassette stereo system (although I was convinced I was going to blow the speakers on the rear shelf) as well as the slick five speed manual gearbox.

Being a later car (this is post the so-called 'Iswara' facelift), it had a multi-point fuel injection system, so runs very sweetly. The engine bay was amazingly clean for a car its age, with only a very slight oil leak, a brand new battery, and oil that was a lovely golden honey colour. She drove remarkably well, apart from an issue where she would sometimes cut out when coming to a stop after a long drive and had been kept in really good condition with virtually no mechanical maladies at all.

Whilst probably being the least fashionable car of the moment, the lack of rev counter, electric windows, central locking, air conditioning, electric mirrors or really anything over than power steering mean that it was strangely appealing. We ended up taking her to Santa Pod (although was not drag raced, unlike several other temporary acquistions I could mention), after having had the bonnet resprayed.

Eventually, she was sold to a family from Croydon who needed a reliable temporary car, and was the sole first generation Proton on Auto Trader at the time. I don't think I have seen another in quite a while, but given how cheap they are, I don't think it is the last one I will have. Maybe next time I won't get one with a squeaky fanbelt which deafens the neighbours, though...