£95 Paid Car Test Driving - Milton Keynes

[AMGeed]

I got this in an email: -



So I got acknowledged at least.

More than I got :evil:

 

[turbopete]

why do they never have these things up north? less congestion, more potential to really 'test' the cars etc

 

[daveenty]

Scared of us Northerners Pete.

 

[turbopete]

Scared of us Northerners Pete.

wouldnt surprise me! either that or the cars would be falling apart after a couple of times the suspension bottoms out or the car gets a whiff of air under the tyres!! :evil::evil::evil::evil::evil:

a trip to my native Cumbria and a good shakedown there would reveal a lot about the cars!

 

[bigasotonuk]

I got excepted to do this and did it today.
Anyone care to guess which cars we did the test drives in?

 

[davidsl500]

Well they have Jaguar on their client list so I was thinking along those lines especially as I think the questionnaire said they would be auto's. Milton Keynes could mean its MB? Though Honda is not that far away - I give up !

 

[Crazycarb]

Were they hybrids by any chance?

 

[daveenty]

I was sort of hoping for Jaguar/Mercedes, though my questionnaire seemed to put the emphasis on manual boxes, asking if I would be OK with them.

This led me to believe it would be more of a shopping trolley type motor...

Was it a good day Andy?

 

[markg14]

why do they never have these things up north? less congestion, more potential to really 'test' the cars etc

Milton Keynes is "up North"

 

[bigasotonuk]

Milton Keynes is "up North"

Oooops, I never had my shots!!

The afternoon started with showing my driving licence, and filling in a questionaire which was mainly about myself, the car I currently drive etc.
The cars were a BMW 320i Touring, Petrol, 8spd Auto, BMW 220i Coupe, Petrol, 8spd Auto, both equipped with "ECO PRO mode" (i think thats what they called it), a Ford Focus and Nissan Qashqai.
There were four people to test drive the cars, 2 men, 2 women.
The course was on the main highway, and of about 30 miles in length including some motorway.
Each of us would drive one of the BMWs twice around the course, once in Comfort mode, once in ECO PRO Mode, with one of the researchers explaining what he needed from us it was mainly about acceleration to and from certain speeds, from standing, coming out of junctions, roundabouts etc. and the differences between modes on how much we had to use throttle in each of these scenarios.
In my case I drove the BMW 220 Coupe, twice then the Qashqai followed by the Focus.
In the case of the Nissan and the Ford they were looking for similar things regarding acceleration, and were asking how the two compared acceleration wise to each other.
It turns out the BMWs were equipped with what they were calling a "Coast" function, which seems to completly disconnect the gearbox and allowed the car to "coast" so to speak when the throttle was lifted.
The day ended up with us filling in another questionaire regarding our experiences of the BMWs and then of the Nissan and the Ford.
Finally with us all around a video camera with one of the researchers asking eah of us questions and encouraging discussions between the four of us to how we found the cars, with regard to the coast function in the BMWs, and the power and acceleration of the Nissan and Ford.
They specifically didnt tell us the engine sizes of the Nissan and Ford until the discussion around the camera at which point after we had given our views of the cars it was announced that the Ford was a 1.0 litre and the Nissan was only 1.2. Which indeed shocked us all as we all thought that they would be at least 1.6 or 1.8.
That 1litre engine of the Fords I am totally amazed at unbelievable, an the Nissan being or seeming to be such a heavy car was even better.
Overall quite a good afternoon and being paid £95 for my time was even better though it probably cost me £40 in diesel to get there.
Would I do it again, yes I think I would.

 

[Rory]

Everone seems to be amazed by the Ford and Nissan engines, but the Ford one is reported to be awful for fuel consumption and I've seen a few (although I guess they've sold loads) reports of the engine overheating and destroying itself - it's so small it only contains a small amount of water so gets into trouble very quickly.

 

[turbopete]

the 1.0 ford engine is a 3 cylinder lump i heard. the engine is 1 of a range of 'ecoboost' engines and has won engine of the year for 2 or 3 years i believe, now. and yes, whilst amazingly quick for their size, as is always the case with small engines, they have to be worked hard to keep them going well, and economy suffers. however if used on motorway runs etc cruising, they are alleged to come into their own, giving diesel like economy and very low (free road tax levels) emissions