MurphyTheElf
02-01-2010, 10:42 PM
I took my better half down to Margaret River in South West WA for the Xmas/NY holidays. Packed up some food, clothes and the dog and drove 300km or so to a nice big dog-friendly cottage - and invited a few friends to join us. Here are a few thoughts on the car:
RNS510
- navigation was useless in the country. the maps only had the main highways. no roads were shown even in the major tourist towns.
- dvd override: to view dvds while driving, insert the dvd, then wait for error message "function not available" to appear, then press "i" button followed by "tone" button. the timing has to be right for this to work. its not great though because its very easy to the screen to blank out again. for example, the volume cant be adjusted without the tone menu appearing and you can't get back to the viewing screen without ejecting the disk and the starting process again. kept the missus entertained on the 3 hour trip there and back, though.
gravel
- car handled very well. 80kmh on gravel was quite good on the comfort setting, but corrugations made it feel unsettled. deep corrugations were tooth-rattling so we had to slow right down to about 30kmh. i was paranoid about rock chips but i have none on the side panels despite a lack of mudflaps. i have one small paint chip on the front bumper - probably from oncoming traffic.
fuel economy
- 7.1l per 100km for the return trip. fair amount of traffic. i didn't check the average speed, but i sat on 120 for large chunks. a bit of foot-flat overtaking and heavy acceleration after stopping. the car is now nudging 4000km.
oil temp
- maxed out at 106 degrees for the return trip. outside temp was between 34 and 37 degrees.
luggage room
- we carried a large aluminium eksy, two suitcases and a dog. we folded down the rear seats, put the esky on the back of the seats longways, then shoved the suitcases on their sides via each rear door. prefect fit. the dog then had the entire boot space - we have the golf boot tub, which is just brilliant for him. he's a big male boxer, but had plenty of room. a couple of other items were shoved in the rear passenger footwells.
rear seats
- we did a few day trips with another couple and their 4 year old. the toddler seat took up a lot of room, but the isofix child restraints are in a better place than their 3 series wagon so we actually had more room. since the child seat took up the left hand rear seat, two males just under 6 foot were in the middle and right hand rear seat. we fit, but couldn't both sit back at the same time because of our shoulders. two adults plus a child in the middle could be done comforably - even a small adult might be ok for short trips.
performance
- overtaking and acceleration even with a loaded car was an absolute cinch.
That's all I can think of for now. I might add to this if anything comes to mind. Any questions or feedback is welcome!
RNS510
- navigation was useless in the country. the maps only had the main highways. no roads were shown even in the major tourist towns.
- dvd override: to view dvds while driving, insert the dvd, then wait for error message "function not available" to appear, then press "i" button followed by "tone" button. the timing has to be right for this to work. its not great though because its very easy to the screen to blank out again. for example, the volume cant be adjusted without the tone menu appearing and you can't get back to the viewing screen without ejecting the disk and the starting process again. kept the missus entertained on the 3 hour trip there and back, though.
gravel
- car handled very well. 80kmh on gravel was quite good on the comfort setting, but corrugations made it feel unsettled. deep corrugations were tooth-rattling so we had to slow right down to about 30kmh. i was paranoid about rock chips but i have none on the side panels despite a lack of mudflaps. i have one small paint chip on the front bumper - probably from oncoming traffic.
fuel economy
- 7.1l per 100km for the return trip. fair amount of traffic. i didn't check the average speed, but i sat on 120 for large chunks. a bit of foot-flat overtaking and heavy acceleration after stopping. the car is now nudging 4000km.
oil temp
- maxed out at 106 degrees for the return trip. outside temp was between 34 and 37 degrees.
luggage room
- we carried a large aluminium eksy, two suitcases and a dog. we folded down the rear seats, put the esky on the back of the seats longways, then shoved the suitcases on their sides via each rear door. prefect fit. the dog then had the entire boot space - we have the golf boot tub, which is just brilliant for him. he's a big male boxer, but had plenty of room. a couple of other items were shoved in the rear passenger footwells.
rear seats
- we did a few day trips with another couple and their 4 year old. the toddler seat took up a lot of room, but the isofix child restraints are in a better place than their 3 series wagon so we actually had more room. since the child seat took up the left hand rear seat, two males just under 6 foot were in the middle and right hand rear seat. we fit, but couldn't both sit back at the same time because of our shoulders. two adults plus a child in the middle could be done comforably - even a small adult might be ok for short trips.
performance
- overtaking and acceleration even with a loaded car was an absolute cinch.
That's all I can think of for now. I might add to this if anything comes to mind. Any questions or feedback is welcome!