Tuesday 16 August 2011

Road - Dawdling Down to Dundrennan


When the Volvo V60 RDesign was delivered last week I took one look at the 17 inch alloys and the twin exhausts, and thought: “Ya Beezer!” 

It looked just the business in its gleaming bronze suntan.

Then I noticed the ‘DRIVe’ badge on the tailgate. Joy was shortlived.

The good thing about the V60 DRIVe is that according to Volvo it will do more than 900 miles on one tank of diesel. The not so good thing is that it won’t do it very quickly.

The car has a 1.6 litre turbo diesel, so quick it ain’t. That means overtaking has to be planned well in advance.

I took the car down to Dundrennan for the Solway Coast Rally on Sunday and cruising south on the M74 it was returning nearly 60 mpg. It didn’t drop much either when I got on to the A701 down to Dumfries. Then I took the A711 down to Dalbeattie.

There was little traffic about early in the morning, but I thought if I did encounter any late night revellers returning home or early morning churchists, then there’s a couple of good long straight stretches on that road to get out and get past.

It’s a good job they were long too. The first time I pulled out to pass slower traffic I thought I was in the wrong gear. Even switching off the ‘e’ button on the dash made no difference.

In other words, the car’s looks promise more than the car delivers, but if you want a comfy fuel miser whose looks will impress the neighbours, it’s well worth a thought.

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