Cooking on Gas

Having got the car back on Thursday 3rd, I then left for a fortnight’s holiday with the family in Scotland. The Coupé won’t carry either the child seat or the roofbox, so I had to leave it at home while we took the Astra on the long trek up North.

I’m back to work this week, so off on my new commute in the Coupé. I’ve had it for nearly a month and a half and only driven it a couple of times, so it was good to get behind the wheel.

I’m no Jeremy Clarkson, so I won’t attempt to go too deeply into the handling characteristics, besides which the A14 (straight dual carriageway, lots of speed cameras) isn’t the best place to test the performance envelope. There are two things I missed from the Astra, though:

The first, strangely, is the rear wash-wipe. With condensation in the mornings and dusty rain in the afternoons, rear visibility is not great. The Coupé is eight inches wider and eighteen longer than the Astra, so I’m still getting used to getting in and out of parking spaces. With five cars in the space previously occupied by four outside the house (not all mine, I hasten to add!), I need all the rear visibility I can get.

The second point is the sound system. The factory-fit Peugeot radio is okay, although the reception on FM isn’t great, but I do miss my DAB and MP3 player.