Motorway...

[whenisayjump]

So. I'm still deciding on my next car. I am reallly liking the Aygo, I just have a slight hesitation.

What do you find it like on the motorway, around 70/80 ? I quite regularly drive from London to Cornwall, and want something that won't bre too bad. I usually do it in a 1.5D 106.

What do you think? Is ity crappy at quicker speeds? ...also, do they have good brakes?

Much Love

James

[Everpain]

I've been doing a lot of driving to and from Reading from Egham. This involves stints on the M25 and M4. The Aygo is terrific. It's a bit slow to start off with, if the engine isn't warmed up (seems to accelerate at 1mph/per second from 65mph upwards), but once it's been motorway bound for a minute or two, it really kicks in. There's almost no perceptible difference in engine noise upwards of 65mph, and it's not that noisy then. At 95mph (the fastest I've gone thus far ), it's absolutely fine, and you barely realise you're going that fast.

The only slight issue is wind. If it's a blustery day, because the car is small and light, you get knocked about a bit, but it's not nearly as bad as a Smart car.

Oh, as for brakes, I had to slam mine on the other day after the Z3 in front of me realised belatedly that he was about to crash and braked suddenly. I could feel the ABS kicking in (makes an odd, crunching noise), but the car dropped speed very quickly, and saved me from ruining that guy's BMW...

[SMW]

I do 120 miles a day - about 75% motorway. It is fine in all aspects except for wind - you can pushed about quite a bit - we not talking all the time, just on very windy days. It wouldn't put me off though.

[whenisayjump]

All seems rather encouraging! :D

Thank you for your replies!

[Aygo Black Cat]

I've just "downsized" from a VW Lupo 1.4/100bhp engine and the way Aygo handled the motorway (particularly a two-lane uphill stretch I use daily) was a concern of mine also. I have to say, so far, I've been very pleasantly surprised! :)

[BadBoyVTEC]

yep fine except for days with gales. normal driving conditions its fine. engine noise is not that loud. etc. etc.

[matty_aygo]

I drive a small strech of the motorway everyday and its fine, i usally just leave it in 3/4th down the slip road and u seem to get to 70+ by the time your at the bottom. For overtaking it still quite responsive at in 5th but if you need to you can always drop into 4th and push it.

As for the brakes they are really pretty good! saved me a few times, but they do sound like they are grinding when u slam them on.

matty...

[Plusser]

I drive my Aygo between Worcester and Birmingham every day (M5 and M42). The car cruises very well at motorway speeds and has about the same noise levels as my previous Rover 216Si (although the tyre/road noise is less on the Aygo). But as reported earlier in the post, the car is horrible in side winds above 65mph (due to the lightness and side profile of the car).

The real fun thing is watching BMWs fly past you at 80mph+ on a busy motorway, only to catch them up a couple of miles down the road in a tailback. I remind myself that they have spent loads of money on a car that may be faster, but drinks a lot more petrol and doesn't necessarily get you anywhere any quicker.

[igo-ugo-wego]

my aygo is pretty speedy in 1st gear! ;) poor car gets ragged a lot, it has become a little rattly on the engine side of things, but i do 60 miles a day in it on motorways so its to be expected as its only little! good little cruiser at 80mph :)

[AyGOTH]

in 2months ive done 5k miles NO problem gettin from North-South manchester everyday, 2-3times a day sometimes, it does 90mph in 3rd Gear! its a monster, be sure to use premium petrol every now and again, i use it every 5times i top up, it keeps the pipes clean and the Injection sweet, can feel when it gets clogged up now, it sucks.

When i took the car at a steady pace i got 115miles out of 1bar which is just over 1gallon? its got a 7gallon tank if im not mistaken? i bet i could get more out of it, i hit 100+ more than once during that trial ... this ... for me is an amazing car, wind is the only problem i find, but get behind some silly :censor: in a X5 or RR and you wont get this problem and you can save a few quid on petrol too

Cheers

Austin

[Dorza]

The aygo in short is amazing on the motorway, it will comfortably do 70+ even with a full load of passengers, the only other small car that I know of that will do this without gasping is the Ka, which anyone who knows their cars will tell you is probably one of the best small cars you can get for motorway driving.

Despite the aygo having 10lbs per foot (there abouts I think) less torque than the Ka, the difference is not noticeable in anyway shape or form - my previous car was a ka. Oh and don't listen to some of these stupid magazine reports of it being noisy on the motorway, its not that loud, certainly not loud enough to warrant a negative mark. I think some of these reporters forget that their not in their ultra expensive luxury cars when their reviewing these cheaper cars.

Granted like the ka its slow to 60 but once your there you'll have no problems getting the power to move at above 60, and you won't need to thrash it to do it. However I will admit that it doesn't handle side winds as good as the ka, it will get thrown around a little, but that shouldn't put you off getting one; the handling is still brilliant. The aygo is an amazing little car for what they are, I was surprised when I went for a test drive.

As for the brakes, I've never had to slam on yet, but I have braked firmly and their pretty responsive I think that all the models have EBD aswell, i know the black has form what I've read.

[Moley]

I have just been to bristol (about 2hours away from me) in mine on thursday and on the way home I nearly cried cause the wind was so strong I thought I was gonna lose control of the car! My boyfriend thought it was great and decided that it put the thrill in to driving! Other than that the car is great on the motor way. Cause of it being so cheap to run I end up taking the car everywhere. It's so smooth to drive and nippy to get about. Its also great fun over taking great big fast cars and waving as you go past!!!!

[morton75]

It fine on the Mway, except when there is a strong wind, i struggled to control ours last night when the storm force winds were at their highest, in normal conditions though its a breeze, pardon the pun.