You pay your money...

Driving a Dacia Duster at the moment, the reigning Scottish Car of the Year. According to the judges… “the private buyer wants real value for money and the Duster certainly delivers on that score. Our choice may not set radical new standards in any one area, but we believe it’s completely unrivalled in terms of its mix of ability, space, running costs and pricing.” I think that’s true with the last three of those four, but I would argue the point about ability. To me, it feels the last convincing of Dacia’s three products. I think the Sandero and Sandero Stepway offer far more in the way of acceptable performance. My Duster, a 4WD model, feels heavy and lacks poise on the road. It feels sluggish. I appreciate it’s cheap, and you pay your money and you take your choice. But people have been raving about it and I expected more.

Irritated

Just been into the garage to get the Jeep out because it’s a nice day. It’s been on a trickle charger for the last couple of months, supposedly keeping the battery nicely topped up. Except at some point since I last checked on it – probably a month ago – the charger has failed. It appears to be completely dead. And, yes, you guessed it, that means the car isn’t going anywhere. Arghhh!!!

More on the B-MAX

So to the versatility of the Ford B-MAX, which I think is excellent. The interior has been well thought out, from the curry hooks moulded into the back of the two front seats – why doesn’t every car have these? – to the fold-flat front passenger chair. This latter feature has been particularly useful in transporting my bicycle around. The sliding rear doors have proved their worth in tight car park bays, meaning I don’t have to fret about the kids being forgetful and whacking the neighbouring vehicle. One of the B-MAX’s selling points is the lack of a B-pillar, as promoted in the ‘high-diver’ TV advert. I’m not sure it’s proved particularly beneficial, perhaps because I’m always in the front and because my children, aged 10 and seven, can sort themselves out. That said, it’s certainly not been a hindrance; perhaps if I was still strapping in a baby seat it might be a different matter. The infotainment system, particularly the audio streaming, has worked well, though there’s an issue with incoming text messages to paired phones which needs to be fixed with a software upgrade. All in all, it’s been practical family transport, though the limited size of the boot – this is the B-segment after all – means it works best as a second vehicle. I’m not sure it would cope well with our forthcoming week in the Lake District – it’s spacious inside but it’s no TARDIS.

Ford B-MAX: final report

So the B-MAX goes back to Ford this week, minus a fully functioning door mirror on the driver’s side (see previous update). After three months with me, it’s now got more than 5,200 miles on the clock and has seen every kind of action. There have been plenty of motorway blasts, but also lots of low-speed around-town mileage. The 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine has been genuinely impressive in all environments. It doesn’t sound, feel or perform like something so small. The only downside, as with most new cars these days, is getting anything like the official combined fuel economy is almost impossible. I consider myself to be a pretty economical driver – I’ve done the eco-motoring courses and put the theory into practice. But I’ve reset the average several times and each time it settles around the 40mpg mark, no matter how I drive it. Ford’s figure is a somewhat unrealistic 55mpg. More on the car’s practicality later in the week.

SEAT Leon: it's not an off-roader

Bit of an embarrassing situation last night when picking my son up from Cubs. Rather than being in the village hall they were out at a local campsite lighting fires, and I turned up to collect him the SEAT Leon I’m driving at the moment. Access is via a narrow track and when a car was coming the other way I pulled off to the side to allow it to come through. I failed to spot the boggy area in the verge, the front wheels dug in and I couldn’t get out. Ten minutes later, a fellow dad with a Land Rover Freelander and a tow-rope, and everything was fine again. But not before several others had got out their cameraphones to capture my humiliation for posterity. The stick I’ve taken in the last 12 hours…

Ford B-MAX: update 7

Unfortunately the Ford B-MAX has met with incident. My wife Emma was driving it down one of Suffolk’s narrow rural roads last week just outside our village. When she saw a car coming the other way she slowed to a crawl and kept very left – it’s the way we do things round here. Sadly the other driver did neither of those things and they clashed door mirrors. Needless to say, with a very loud bang just inches from her right ear, Emma was left somewhat shaken by the whole experience and phoned me in tears, embarrassed by the damage that had been caused to a car that’s not ours to damage. But she was also angry that the the other driver didn’t bother to stop, presumably because her door wasn’t hanging off by the wires. Some people don't deserve a licence.