1 Toyota Aygo - 13 countries - 18 days - 4500 miles
Discussion
vikingaero said:
Isn't this the age old myth about cars. We Brits still have a notion that the only car for long journeys are C-Segment 2.0 diesels. Superminis have come a long way since and apart from overtaking oomph are acceptably comfy.
Agree - the Mrs and I have done numerous runs down to the south of France and northern Spain in her Yaris with no discomfort whatsoever. Put the aircon on, put some music on, get to 80 and sit there all day -basically the same as any other car. Despite this I'm sure I remember being told on PH that an hour's commute in a modern supermini (which granted is a bit smaller than a Yaris), is akin to running multiple marathons!
I've visited Krakow as a child, can't say I remember an awful lot, but it was too far a detour on this particular trip unfortunately. Budapest was indeed one big traffic jam, we decided to take the car one evening to some baths rather than walk the mile and a half - it took us well over an hour in the car and would actually have been quicker walking.
The lack of overtaking oomph is the only thing that on long drives becomes frustrating on occasion. Especially on busy motorways, it can take a while to find a gap big enough to pull out without impeding someone else's progress. But for a car designed to primarily function in the city, its not bad at all.
This Aygo is also a lot calmer to drive at 70 than 80, it does begin to feel a little stressed at 80 and does become noisy. Some long hills on the motorways in Italy and Switzerland did require the car to be in 3rd for a few miles. The torque delivery also means that cruising at 80 can result in no drop in speed on hills as opposed to cruising at 70.
I will make the effort to better photograph any future road trip and put more threads together in the future. The little thing has been all over the place already with several forays into Europe as well as Wales and as far north as the Isle of Skye. Below is a picture on Applecross Pass in May.
IMG_6124 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
The lack of overtaking oomph is the only thing that on long drives becomes frustrating on occasion. Especially on busy motorways, it can take a while to find a gap big enough to pull out without impeding someone else's progress. But for a car designed to primarily function in the city, its not bad at all.
This Aygo is also a lot calmer to drive at 70 than 80, it does begin to feel a little stressed at 80 and does become noisy. Some long hills on the motorways in Italy and Switzerland did require the car to be in 3rd for a few miles. The torque delivery also means that cruising at 80 can result in no drop in speed on hills as opposed to cruising at 70.
I will make the effort to better photograph any future road trip and put more threads together in the future. The little thing has been all over the place already with several forays into Europe as well as Wales and as far north as the Isle of Skye. Below is a picture on Applecross Pass in May.
IMG_6124 by Kamil Burczyk, on Flickr
Hi Kamil - lovely write up - which brought back memories from 1996 when myself and girlfriend (now wife) did a similar trip in a 1.2L four speed Vauxhall Corsa!
The shot on the Autobahn doing 104mph was particularly reminiscent of our trip - we reached an indicated 105mph, which felt okay until we had some Merc or Beemer flashing us from 0.35 miles away telling us to get out the way.....
Happy Days!
Mike
The shot on the Autobahn doing 104mph was particularly reminiscent of our trip - we reached an indicated 105mph, which felt okay until we had some Merc or Beemer flashing us from 0.35 miles away telling us to get out the way.....
Happy Days!
Mike
Roger Irrelevant said:
vikingaero said:
Isn't this the age old myth about cars. We Brits still have a notion that the only car for long journeys are C-Segment 2.0 diesels. Superminis have come a long way since and apart from overtaking oomph are acceptably comfy.
Agree - the Mrs and I have done numerous runs down to the south of France and northern Spain in her Yaris with no discomfort whatsoever. Put the aircon on, put some music on, get to 80 and sit there all day -basically the same as any other car. Despite this I'm sure I remember being told on PH that an hour's commute in a modern supermini (which granted is a bit smaller than a Yaris), is akin to running multiple marathons!Great little write up - unfortunatly I am one of the snobs - I like to do it in a bigger car. Driving my missus 1.2 2008 over to france for four hours did leave me more tired than doing it in my 11 plate 2.0 derv astra. It can do it - I just don't find it as nice.
That said we are hoping to do lake garda and more tours of europe such as south of france etc when our little one starts school next year - its far cheaper to use tesco vouchers for eurotunnel and then drive, than get the plane. Although hopefully her travel sickness will clear up!
After doing a few trips in the USA (fly drives) I am quite happy doing long drives, its more flexible and the airports now are getting very frustrating.
The advantage of my astra is 550 - 600 miles to a tank of devil juice at 80 mph (130KM/H).
There is so much to see in Europe, and the advantage of the car with little ones is not getting ripped off for car seats, sat nav etc by rental companies!
That said we are hoping to do lake garda and more tours of europe such as south of france etc when our little one starts school next year - its far cheaper to use tesco vouchers for eurotunnel and then drive, than get the plane. Although hopefully her travel sickness will clear up!
After doing a few trips in the USA (fly drives) I am quite happy doing long drives, its more flexible and the airports now are getting very frustrating.
The advantage of my astra is 550 - 600 miles to a tank of devil juice at 80 mph (130KM/H).
There is so much to see in Europe, and the advantage of the car with little ones is not getting ripped off for car seats, sat nav etc by rental companies!
kamilb1998 said:
Luckily for me, we both travel rather light. We left with just a boot full of things, though by the time all the frivolous junk was bought in every country this ended up covering the back seats too.
Youth does help I imagine but I don't really remember becoming achy or uncomfortable on the trip.
The new shape ones do come with a fair bit of kit, and I almost wish I had the patience to wait for a factory order rather than buying a car from stock so I could have specced it exactly as I wanted. Lacking CarPlay in these unfortunately, they come with some MirrorLink system but it rarely works and only with about 5 handsets.
May I ask who the Mrs was, I may well remember? To be quite honest, I'm probably more likely to recognise what you drove at the time!
In the future, we would probably not pre book hotels but try and find an overnight halt where it fell naturally rather than pre booking. We found some of the places we had planned to stay at didn't have enough to fill our time so a little time was wasted sitting around in hotels with nothing to do.<snip>
She worked one to one with a guy called Kane? I think? for a year and then general teaching assistant stuff and helping a few Y7's who couldn't read/write well enough. Double barrelled surname.Youth does help I imagine but I don't really remember becoming achy or uncomfortable on the trip.
The new shape ones do come with a fair bit of kit, and I almost wish I had the patience to wait for a factory order rather than buying a car from stock so I could have specced it exactly as I wanted. Lacking CarPlay in these unfortunately, they come with some MirrorLink system but it rarely works and only with about 5 handsets.
May I ask who the Mrs was, I may well remember? To be quite honest, I'm probably more likely to recognise what you drove at the time!
In the future, we would probably not pre book hotels but try and find an overnight halt where it fell naturally rather than pre booking. We found some of the places we had planned to stay at didn't have enough to fill our time so a little time was wasted sitting around in hotels with nothing to do.<snip>
You've mentioned you run your own company, what is it?
Tinkerton said:
She worked one to one with a guy called Kane? I think? for a year and then general teaching assistant stuff and helping a few Y7's who couldn't read/write well enough. Double barrelled surname.
You've mentioned you run your own company, what is it?
Certainly rings a bell but my memory isn't brilliant! I've based a part time business around the Sinclairs - restoration and parts. It pays for petrol and holidays so satisfies my needs at the moment. I am at college studying A levels during the week. You've mentioned you run your own company, what is it?
Love this. It shows that PH is a way of thinking not the actual car and it annoys me when people say you can't do a roadtrip without a V8 and 400hp.
I did a shorter trip in March but still quite intense (11 countries, 2,500 miles in 7 days) in my wife's Seat Ibiza 1.2 Tdi Ecomotive and friends questioned why I didn't take my TVR. Well, it was -13 in St Moritz when I was there.....
It's not the car, it's the journey.
Thanks for sharing.
I did a shorter trip in March but still quite intense (11 countries, 2,500 miles in 7 days) in my wife's Seat Ibiza 1.2 Tdi Ecomotive and friends questioned why I didn't take my TVR. Well, it was -13 in St Moritz when I was there.....
It's not the car, it's the journey.
Thanks for sharing.
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