From XC60 to Porsche Macan or BMW X3?

[Gilesme]

Audi dealers staffed with brash, arrogant people ?

I wonder why.

[isleaiw]

Originally Posted by Gilesme

Audi dealers staffed with brash, arrogant people ?

I wonder why.

Enlighten me - I am an Audi driver but I have had more Volvos than Audis, a Merc or two, a few BMWs and Minis and lots of Vauxhall and Peugeots (I still have a 206 for the station run...)

[isleaiw]

Well, back from an almost 600 mile weekend jaunt in my SQ5, a trip from Hampshire to Liverpool to do the uni drop off for a friend...

Over 540 miles, leaving at 9.40 am yesterday and setting off back at 8.50am today. A bit of traffic on the way up, the customary race away from the toll booths on M6 toll, and some city centre sightseeing - as well as leaving the M6 at the A5 to head up the A41 to Whitchurch to avoid long delays on M6 - saw fuel consumption at just under 30. Less traffic today, more motorway and less childish behaviour at the toll booth saw an average at 33mpg with an average speed over 60mph...

As for the car, refined, quiet, very comfortable, discrete but fast enough, well equipped, well behaved and enough noise when you put your foot down (away from booth or in the Birkenhead tunnel) to keep me happy. Sat nav avoided queues well, the HUD is very helpful, the sound from the stereo great.

Very happy with my choice!

Really impressed by Liverpool too - went out to Albert docks and had a great time. Nice multi storey for sound purposes too...

Edit: dirty car pic on return attached

[NigelDay]

In the interest of keeping Arianne's epic thread going, here is an early (positive) review of the Alfa:
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/alfa-ro...rce=newsletter

[norco]

The shape grew on me after seeing a few in Italy. Nice cabin too but car seems smaller overall but shape is probably deceptive. Hopefully the quality is better but cars sent out to press pack testers seemed to have troubles to the extent a high up from Alpha personally apologised, mainly software related. The quadrofoglia did sound nice but est £60k price!

[Arianne]

Originally Posted by NigelDay

In the interest of keeping Arianne's epic thread going, here is an early (positive) review of the Alfa:
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/alfa-ro...rce=newsletter

Well that's the painful bit done. I spent the last few days transferring funds to the car dealer in bite sized chunks and, as at today, that's it - paid! Sadly, my pot of gold looks somewhat smaller than it was last week. It's a shame us folk can't have the joy and fairytale of a new car without the real-world truth that they cost money!

However, pick up of our RR Velar is booked for 12:30pm on Saturday. We originally had it booked for 9:30am but, such is the nature of our busy lives, we needed to bump it back! Still, we have waited 18mths for this day so a few additional hours won't do any harm.

Pics, full report and some unreleased material of what we learned since April 2016 about car buying will follow!

Have a good couple of days people.

Arianne

[Rocinante]

Arianne,

What could possibly go wrong ?

Good Luck !!!

[MikeIOW]

I'm dizzy with anticipation and excitement.......can't wait for The Review !!!

[Arianne]

Originally Posted by MikeIOW

I'm dizzy with anticipation and excitement.......can't wait for The Review !!!

Well, despite having had one of those really, really tough weeks that left me completely knackered last night and unable to sustain any notable performance on the right wing in footie last night through exhaustion.....

..... I have still woken up at 6:30am simply because of a little twinge of excitement! Decent morning out there - light autumn mist and clear skies as I peer across at the rolling hills that are Gattonside Heights and The Eildons.

The plan is to head north to Pitlochry, Queens View and maybe Loch Katrine (my personal favourite) but time may be against us for the full itinerary. We will get to drive across the new Forth Road Bridge for the first time too. Happy to get back late so we can check out the fully configurable interior mood lighting and see what the cabin looks like at night with all those Panasonic display screens up front.

I will get a couple of pics today but my plan is to spend Sunday afternoon working out all of the settings, popping in my new data SIM so I can check out the connectivity and setting up my account with Land Rover and the car itself as well as my smartphone and iPad (so, let's be realistic, that ain't gonna work properly then is it!). So please bear with me while I do this before getting a full report up on here.

Next weekend we head down the Kent as I am attending a conference in London so we have decided to rake the Velar which will be great.

Sadly, I now need to head off to The Study to finish a RemCo report although a bacon sandwich awaits!

Have a super September Saturday people!

Arianne

[janusz]

Arianne you should consider writing a screnplay for a thriller movie! This thread is that good! This is probably the most interesting and exciting thread I have ever read on any forum (well ok, ther is also that aviation forum that I go love).
Nonetheless, enjoy the day! Good luck!