As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve bought myself a new car, and picked it up last Monday morning. On the whole, I’m impressed! Here are the good and bad points:
The features I like:
- I’m averaging 54mpg out of the car. This is really impressive, considering the sort of driving I’m doing. My journey to work is half motorways and half hilly country roads. I’ve driven a couple of hundred miles in it so far, and only used about a third of the tank!
- The car is comfortable, easy to get in and out of, and looks fantastic.
- There’s a warning beep if you drive away without putting your seat belt on.
- The trip computer. This is the first car I’ve had that’s had one of these on, and it’s interesting to find out what the instant mpg is, the total mpg for the trip, the trip time and so on.
- You can set an alarm to buzz when you go over a certain speed.
- There’s a useful “mute” button on the steering wheel for the radio.
- The lights turn off when you switch off the ignition, this means it’s impossible to leave the lights on and wear the battery flat.
The things I’m not so keen on:
- It doesn’t have Blue&Me. This is because it’s a 2008 model, and Blue&Me was an optional extra last year. So I still have to use the wireless radio adapter for the iPod. I’m not overly bothered about the bluetooth thing, I hardly ever need to use the phone when I’m driving, but the iPod functionality would have been nice. My fault this one, I should have checked before I bought the car (not that it would have stopped me, probably)
- The Astra had wider door pockets, with a curve at the front big enough to put a bottle or can in. The Punto has drinks holders, but I’m not convinced they’re deep enough to hold a bottle upright when going round a sharp bend!
- The clock in the Astra was connected to the radio’s RDS system, so it always kept itself up to date. I don’t think the clock in the Punto does this.
- There’s no light in the boot.
- There doesn’t seem to be a spare wheel, only some sort of compressor to fix punctures by the side of the road. I’ll have to check this with the dealer.
- I can see part of the dashboard trim reflected in the tinted windows when I look in the wing mirrors.
But these are minor quibbles (well, everything but the spare wheel is a minor quibble!). So far, though, I think I’ve made a good choice with this car.
