Cruise control and traffic sign recognition

[Cyker]

18 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Ashamed to admit it but the best driver display was on my Peugeot 3008 hybrid4 GT 300 (PHEV). It sat above the dinky steering wheel. The ergonomics and displays were great on that car. Shame about the drain train and a host of other major issues!

Funnily enough I noticed that too - When I was looking for alternatives to my Mk1 and Mk2 Yarisuesieueses, one thing I wanted was a digital dash, but I could find hardly any cars that had them... except for French ones!  

Not all of the, but a lot had some really nice digital dashes that were big and clear. Alas I wasn't desperate enough for a good digital dash to deal with the shock of going from Toyota reliability to French reliability...!

I do wish they'd have more partnerships with Toyota though - They can come up with the concepts and design, and then let Toyota do the engineering and make it work reliably  

 

[Nick72]

5 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Funnily enough I noticed that too - When I was looking for alternatives to my Mk1 and Mk2 Yarisuesieueses, one thing I wanted was a digital dash, but I could find hardly any cars that had them... except for French ones!  

Not all of the, but a lot had some really nice digital dashes that were big and clear. Alas I wasn't desperate enough for a good digital dash to deal with the shock of going from Toyota reliability to French reliability...!

I do wish they'd have more partnerships with Toyota though - They can come up with the concepts and design, and then let Toyota do the engineering and make it work reliably  

 

It looked gorgeous inside and out. Display was great. 3D Tom Tom maps on the driver display and zoomed out map on the infotainment display. Live traffic and speed cams warning. I actually stopped using Waze etc. Had many amazing innovative features like turning the passenger front sports seat into a table or just for carrying a long load (I did get a whole tree in it once). A massaging drivers seat. And even things like the cooled centre console which was deep enough for your pane au jambon. Plus a mains plug in the rear console. Spec sheet was excellent. Lane Assist worked mostly flawlessly including on regular roads. Sound system marginally better than the RAV. As fast if not very slightly faster than the R4P. Equally distributed electric motor power between front and back wheels (this helped put power down when accelerating from a standing start). Superb off road, much better than the R4P.

I went for it because the R4P hadn't been released for sale in the UK so it was the closest car to my needs. And had to be a PHEV to get what amounted  to 34% off with the Gov company car tax incentives.

Except it spent 6 of 9 or 10 months I had it in the dealer getting fixed or not fixed as it transpired. Probably well over a dozen trips to the dealer. This isn't an exaggeration. I literally put no more than about 1k miles on it. EV and Hybrid mode failures at random. Huge clunk changing from EV to hybrid. Rough gear box. Often in the 8 to 17 miles EV range bracket despite a 37 mile claim which impossible to get even close to about 32 miles. I did a lot of testing to prove Peugeot's own temperature, speed, range table wrong. Water pouring into the roof console between passenger and driver. Wet through every time I accelerated as the water poured out all over the drive train controls. Probably 5 attempts to fix it with different types of attempt. Company car folks accepted it back and forced it back on Peugeot who were the shoddiest most incompetent dealership and head office for a car company I've ever come across. Nasty.

And wasn't just me with an unlucky lemon. Most folks were having similar nightmares.

Fortunately, or unfortunately for many, it was through COVID lockdown so I had very very few business trips, armed with a letter from Boris to say do not stop, and mostly short local personal runs supporting elderly family. I ended up with a Vauxhall petrol Mokka and Hyundai loaner for most of that. They worked better than the Pug 😂.

I'm sure the standard petrol 3008 is a reasonably good car but they clearly didn't have a clue on hybrid tech. Though I'd still never get one because of the horric dealer and head office experience. On hold once for 4 hours, typical hold was over an hour. Said they'd do things and didn't. Denied I'd ever contacted them despite having an email reply from them. Long list of shockers.

That was an important lesson and why I went to Toyota, even ahead of Mercedes where I had been in the past. I just needed a car that worked every day rain or shine and did all the basics well. Though my Toyota dealer is a little incompetent, but not in the same lower league as Peugeot!

 

Ah the memories. 😅

[Cyker]

Good grief! Good to know they're keeping up the stereotype  

That is the thing with Toyota though - They're generally not as nice to be in as other marques, but they are reliable workhorses and will get you where you need to go.

While other marques are plusher, things like soft-touch plastics, fine-grained calf leather and contrast stitching are of scant comfort when you're 2 hours late and stuck by the side of the road in the pouring rain waiting for recovery  

 

[Nick72]

47 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Good grief! Good to know they're keeping up the stereotype  

That is the thing with Toyota though - They're generally not as nice to be in as other marques, but they are reliable workhorses and will get you where you need to go.

While other marques are plusher, things like soft-touch plastics, fine-grained calf leather and contrast stitching are of scant comfort when you're 2 hours late and stuck by the side of the road in the pouring rain waiting for recovery  

 

Exactly.

And I've never seen a broken down RAV on the roadside but have seen SUVs from most other brands. Particularly JLR!