Parking Hazards

[donkeykong]

hi,everybody.

took delivery of my D4D just over a month ago.being a father of 3 the car is perfect in everyway.the only worry i had prior to driving the car was that in some reviews,the car was deemed alittle under-powered,but having driven it for awhile now i find the diesel engine both responsive but yet frugal.so maybe it wont beat your hot hatches but it was'nt design to do so,and i will go on to say that most families own at least 2 cars now,and if you want to re-live your boy racer days then choose a sporty little number as your 2nd car.

but now onto my main point: being a full size MPV,the previa felt alittle intimidating to drive,but thanks to its light steering and excellent driving position it felt no bigger than a normal hatch,but unfortunately thats exactly how other drivers treat it as too.since i specified the ever-useful parking sensors on my car parking has been a doddle,but on 2 occasions now i have returned to my car after the weekly shopping to find that the side of the car has been scuffed,this is obviously due to the mis-calculation of the driver reversing out next to me.i know **** sometimes happens so i just take it on the chin,and to be fair its nothing a 'chipsaway' handyman cannot fix,but my advice is this: when searching for a parking space try to look for one where the cars either side are already parked butt in first,so when they do leave its just a simple case of pulling out & away.with todays ever-decreasing parking bay,it makes sense to park alittle further away where its open & free than to opt for a tight squeeze near the main entrance,the extra walking exercise will do us good too.

the only complaint i have about the car is the lack of a sunroof.lets face it,its a big car,there will be kids inside,so why no standard sunroof?after all it cost me in excess of £22k! to be honest,i would gladly trade in the cruise control inlieu of 2 decent sunroofs,not only will the air be fresher,the cabin would look much better with sunlight too.

btw,has anyone ever used the 'power-heat' function located near the bottom of the steering column?i was wondering if it makes any difference?

thanks for reading.

regards,DK.

[jaysback]

if you are looking for a little more oomph try superchips

they do diesel chips and there are afew more companys out there aswell.

before we got the previa we were going to get an alhambra PD130 diesel and as i recall they chip up to 160 bhp and loads of torque.

but the previa is a much better looking vehicle and the petrol still returns nearly 30mpg on a run.

you are right about parking, atm we have baby passes for the shopping run but when that runs out i will be parking well away from the entrance.