Short Straw - Vauxhall Mokka

[irc]

Drew the short straw at work today. A Mokka hire car to drive. Shocking forward visibility. The A pillar is about 3cm wider than on my Skoda and even worse for a tall driver the rearview mirror is directly in line of sight. In my Skoda I see underneath the mirror in the Mokka I need to crouch or move to either side for a full ahead view.

[Riley Blue]

I had a Corsa hire car for a month following an accident last year. I drove it a total of about 75 miles in it as the visibility was so bad. I too had to duck to see under the interior mirror even with the seat at its lowest and I'm only 5' 11" so not particularly tall.

[Export56]

I too had a mokka as a hire car, the lack of visibility for me vowed never to get one again. The rear 3/4 was especially bad.
Awful things to be honest.

[NAAHD]

Had a grandland as a loan car and although I didn’t find the visibility this poor, I found it to be the most soul crushing experience I’ve had in a car. Steering was so numb and the gearbox felt like stirring a bowl of porridge. Hated the Vauxhall experience

[RammyMP]

Are all Vauxhalls not st? My Dads had several over the past 30 years and they’ve all been rubbish. My lads got a 2 year old Corsa, it’s woeful. It must have been designed for tiny people to drive, my feet are too big to work the pedals (I’m a size 10), the pedals are too close together.

[Monkeylegend]

Oh, we haven't had a Vauxhall bashing thread for a few months.

I have had both a Mokka and Grandland as hire cars and found them both more than acceptable.

Where is George when you need him.

[ChrisCh86]

If you think the Mokka is bad, I had a Crossland last year as a rental. The gearbox was appalling, but otherwise the rest was serviceable.

Not something that I'd buy!

[TeeGTI]

RammyMP said:

Are all Vauxhalls not st? My Dads had several over the past 30 years and they’ve all been rubbish. My lads got a 2 year old Corsa, it’s woeful. It must have been designed for tiny people to drive, my feet are too big to work the pedals (I’m a size 10), the pedals are too close together.

My wife bought a DS3 Crossback against my advice - can lead a horse to water, but a Golf is too boring apparently and the Mazda3 it replaced was "old" at 44000 miles. My "new" car has 58000.

I struggle to press the clutch without fouling the footrest on the DS3 - it is genuinely dangerous. The gear change is like stirring a big pot of scotch broth and the steering is like one of those old Xbox/Playstation steering wheels with a bungee cord to re-centre it.

And being the time of year that it is, I have been on taxi duties from nights out etc which I am usually more than happy to do. Unfortunately it means using the DS3 as her friends/colleagues lose too much dignity getting out the back of the GT86 after a night out.

[PositronicRay]

TeeGTI said:

RammyMP said:

Are all Vauxhalls not st? My Dads had several over the past 30 years and they’ve all been rubbish. My lads got a 2 year old Corsa, it’s woeful. It must have been designed for tiny people to drive, my feet are too big to work the pedals (I’m a size 10), the pedals are too close together.

My wife bought a DS3 Crossback against my advice - can lead a horse to water, but a Golf is too boring apparently and the Mazda3 it replaced was "old" at 44000 miles. My "new" car has 58000.

I struggle to press the clutch without fouling the footrest on the DS3 - it is genuinely dangerous. The gear change is like stirring a big pot of scotch broth and the steering is like one of those old Xbox/Playstation steering wheels with a bungee cord to re-centre it.

And being the time of year that it is, I have been on taxi duties from nights out etc which I am usually more than happy to do. Unfortunately it means using the DS3 as her friends/colleagues lose too much dignity getting out the back of the GT86 after a night out.

Am I missing something here? How is a DS3 related to a Vauxhall thread?

[LuS1fer]

My Insignia B is surprisingly good for such a large car and I commend it to the house in 200hp form, obviously.
Far better to drive than a Skoda Superb 280 I tried at the time.

I haven't tried any modern Vauxhalls since an Adam, which I liked (didn't much like the last Corsa even though it was based on it) and the last generation Mokka X which I despised.

I regret to inform Vauxhall that I don't like SUVs and don't particularly like their new "Visor grille" either so I won't be troubling them even though, at 5'6" it seems I may be their target audience...

All that said, I despair at the banal styling of current cars. I quite fancy changing the Insignia but haven't seen any cars that have struck me as being even remotely interesting to look at, let alone drive. I dare say it's a generational thing where some younger than I might think a Tesla looks good when it really looks like a melted Tupperware box.

[RammyMP]

PositronicRay said:

TeeGTI said:

RammyMP said:

Are all Vauxhalls not st? My Dads had several over the past 30 years and they’ve all been rubbish. My lads got a 2 year old Corsa, it’s woeful. It must have been designed for tiny people to drive, my feet are too big to work the pedals (I’m a size 10), the pedals are too close together.

My wife bought a DS3 Crossback against my advice - can lead a horse to water, but a Golf is too boring apparently and the Mazda3 it replaced was "old" at 44000 miles. My "new" car has 58000.

I struggle to press the clutch without fouling the footrest on the DS3 - it is genuinely dangerous. The gear change is like stirring a big pot of scotch broth and the steering is like one of those old Xbox/Playstation steering wheels with a bungee cord to re-centre it.

And being the time of year that it is, I have been on taxi duties from nights out etc which I am usually more than happy to do. Unfortunately it means using the DS3 as her friends/colleagues lose too much dignity getting out the back of the GT86 after a night out.

Am I missing something here? How is a DS3 related to a Vauxhall thread?

Is it not the same chassis as a Corsa, Peugeot 208 and all that?

[Master Of Puppets]

I've had a few of these in the garage for work and can confirm they are rather poor shall we say, there are more derogatory terms available,
at 5 or 6 year old the underside corrosion looks like it has spent 5 or 6 decades at the bottom of the Clyde estuary.

[PositronicRay]

RammyMP said:

PositronicRay said:

TeeGTI said:

RammyMP said:

Are all Vauxhalls not st? My Dads had several over the past 30 years and they’ve all been rubbish. My lads got a 2 year old Corsa, it’s woeful. It must have been designed for tiny people to drive, my feet are too big to work the pedals (I’m a size 10), the pedals are too close together.

My wife bought a DS3 Crossback against my advice - can lead a horse to water, but a Golf is too boring apparently and the Mazda3 it replaced was "old" at 44000 miles. My "new" car has 58000.

I struggle to press the clutch without fouling the footrest on the DS3 - it is genuinely dangerous. The gear change is like stirring a big pot of scotch broth and the steering is like one of those old Xbox/Playstation steering wheels with a bungee cord to re-centre it.

And being the time of year that it is, I have been on taxi duties from nights out etc which I am usually more than happy to do. Unfortunately it means using the DS3 as her friends/colleagues lose too much dignity getting out the back of the GT86 after a night out.

Am I missing something here? How is a DS3 related to a Vauxhall thread?

Is it not the same chassis as a Corsa, Peugeot 208 and all that?

Ohh my bad, I did not know that!

[Fermit]

Monkeylegend said:

Oh, we haven't had a Vauxhall bashing thread for a few months.

Yep. It's pretty boring. They're like any other mainstream brand, there will on occasions be some shockers, some average, and some good-very good models.

[911Spanker]

irc said:

Drew the short straw at work today. A Mokka hire car to drive. Shocking forward visibility. The A pillar is about 3cm wider than on my Skoda and even worse for a tall driver the rearview mirror is directly in line of sight. In my Skoda I see underneath the mirror in the Mokka I need to crouch or move to either side for a full ahead view.

Oh yippee, another Vauxhall thread.

How tall are you? It looks like you are a giant with your head almost poking out of the roof. Hardly the cars fault.

[911Spanker]

Fermit said:

Monkeylegend said:

Oh, we haven't had a Vauxhall bashing thread for a few months.

Yep. It's pretty boring. They're like any other mainstream brand, there will on occasions be some shockers, some average, and some good-very good models.

Yep. A man with a Skoda talking about Vauxhalls. Amazing.

[119]

And yet a Dacia Duster is the best thing ever according to PH.

[kambites]

I tend to find the visibility appalling in pretty much all modern mainstream cars. I can't say I'd noticed Vauxhalls in general, or the Mokka in particular, any worse than anything else.

I'm six foot and my head is nowhere near as high up in a Mokka as that picture you've taken.

[SkodaIan]

911Spanker said:

irc said:

Drew the short straw at work today. A Mokka hire car to drive. Shocking forward visibility. The A pillar is about 3cm wider than on my Skoda and even worse for a tall driver the rearview mirror is directly in line of sight. In my Skoda I see underneath the mirror in the Mokka I need to crouch or move to either side for a full ahead view.

Oh yippee, another Vauxhall thread.

How tall are you? It looks like you are a giant with your head almost poking out of the roof. Hardly the cars fault.

Another Vauxhall thread ..... complaining about a rebadged Peugeot 2008!!

If you think the Mokka is bad, try combining that lack of forward visibility with a tiny steering wheel which can only be down near your knees, which is what you get in the 2008.

[Mr.Chips]

I’ve had 6 Vauxhalls over a 45 year driving career, ranging from an original Viva HC through Novas, both basic and GTE, 2 Astra GTE’s and a Corsa B Sport. I loved driving all of them. At various times, I have driven similar Fords and have always found them to be either inferior or certainly less characterful. My current daily driver is a Skoda Fabia and, although it does everything it should very efficiently, it is nowhere near as much fun as any of my Vauxhalls.
I appreciate that not everyone will enjoy driving every car they ever come across and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I don’t remember there being as many Vauxhall bashers before Clarkson slagged off the original Vectra. That man has a lot to answer for!