Driven: Renault Zoe

So finally we have the Zoe, the fourth model in Renault’s four-pillared plan to be the dominant force in electric vehicles. And finally we have EV that you would actually want to own. It's got characterful supermini styling, it's good to drive, it's packed with desirable features, it has decent usable range, the price is affordable - from £13,000 - and it's just about free of compromise. The only downside is the lack of a domestic three-pin charging option, so you can't power it up anywhere other than at a proper charging post. Renault is getting round this by offering a free wall-box to all buyers, but there's no doubt the flexibility of a 240v option would attract more customers. The Zoe also has a sense of fun; the flush rear door handles carry the actual thumbprint of the designer, to tell you where to push to use them. Cards on the table, it’s the best EV by far. 

Driven: Mitsubishi Mirage

Drove the Mitsubishi Mirage today and had an experience that is unique in 15 years of doing this job. The steering on my test car was so awful that I felt sure it couldn’t be how the company had engineered it. So I quietly swapped to another vehicle to find out if they were all as bad, and it’s a good job I did. Thankfully the second one was much better – the steering wheel actually felt connected to the road wheels – and I pointed out to the PR people that I felt there was a technical issue with its predecessor. It quickly disappeared from the fleet. The Mirage isn’t a direct replacement for the Colt because it’s slightly smaller on the outside, though actually they’re an indentical size inside. As a rival to the Suzuki Splash, Nissan Micra and Chevrolet Spark, it’s perfectly acceptable, and on paper it’s got plenty of ‘best in class’ credentials, including fuel economy of 68.9mpg and CO₂ emissions of 95g/km. But I would say it doesn’t come close to matching what I think is the ‘best in class’ as an overall package, the Kia Picanto.

Ford B-MAX: update 5

Interesting how different elements of a car appeal to different drivers, and how some elements put people off. We’ve now had the Ford B-MAX for a couple of months and both my wife and I are enjoying its many virtues. Chief amongst them for her is the fuel economy. The trip computer says we’re averaging 40mpg, with my wife saying that it feels like there’s a proper period of time between fill-ups. But she’s not taken to the sliding doors, one of the car’s key selling points, as I thought she might. Her fear, and she admits it’s a pretty irrational one, is that our seven-year-old daughter will somehow trap her leg as front and rear doors come together at roughly the same time when everyone is getting in. And yet in a packed car park on Saturday, I backed into a narrow space that a couple of other drivers had turned down simply because I was confident the kids could get out via the sliding doors (I nearly put my back out but, hey, the kids were okay!). Last Friday night I also appreciated the moulded plastic hook built into the back of the front seats. It was the obvious place to hang the takeaway bag on the way back from the curry house. Why doesn’t every car come with one of those? 

Driven: Skoda Octavia

Drove the all-new Skoda Octavia yesterday, hence no blog. Picked the likely top-seller as my test car – the 1.6-litre 1.05bhp diesel – and overall I think it’s a decent bit of kit. It’s certainly comfortable, roomy and with plenty of standard equipment on it. The big disappointment for me was the ride. I found it unsettled on anything less than the smoothest tarmac, and didn’t feel it soaked up the bumps and lumps of back roads very well at all. My other concern is how it fits into the Skoda range. The company puts the Rapid in the C-segment and the Octavia in the D, but with only 17cm in length between them that’s an ambitious segregation. I wonder if potential customers will notice at all.

Get your eyes tested

As someone who has had poor eyesight for as long as I can remember – I started wearing glasses for short-sightedness aged eight – I realise the importance of being able to see for driving. But I don’t think my history makes me any different to anyone else. I’d have thought every driver, knowing they’re in charge of a potentially lethal weapon, would appreciate the importance of their eyesight. I know when my prescription changes and I need to visit the optician because there’s a big giveway – it’s that I can’t see stuff as well as I used to. This is not rocket science. This is topical because as of this week new minimum medical standards, including eyesight, apply to bus and lorry driving licence holders. Call me old-fashioned but I’d have thought, given they’re driving a much larger potentially lethal weapon, this would be very heavily policed already. It’s also topical because I’ve been analysing some Government stats about causes of car accidents. Where a contributory factor has been listed, in a quarter of crashes it’s a failure to see or failure to look properly. Staggering. 

Ford B-MAX: update 4

There’s clearly an issue with the connectivity of my iPhone to the Ford SYNC system. I know this because I’ve a problem with the B-MAX, but it was exactly the same on the second generation Kuga that I drove a couple of weeks ago. Once the phone is paired – which is very easy and happens automatically every time I get in the car – you don’t know that you’re receiving texts. Each SMS message arrives and appears the phone’s screen. However, the audible alert that would normally accompany it stays silent. I assume it’s supposed to sound through the car’s audio system because of the paired status of car and phone, but it doesn’t. Turns out I had three texts during a two-hour drive yesterday – one of which was rather important – and didn’t know about any of them because the phone was in my pocket. Bit annoying. Ford are working on an update.