The idea was to spend some real seat-time in a 5 and see how we like it. The old 1 mile around the dealership TD isn't nearly enough. Fortunately I can just hop on the L train to Ohare and choose from quite a few different cars at the car rental companies. Last Friday I picked up a 2010 Sport (I think) and we drove it to Indianapolis. we had 4 people in the car, overnight bags for all, and a bunch of extra stuff we brought for the party we went to.
The interior room was great. The fact that we are all relatively slim helps out, I'm sure, but no one was wanting for any more space. I liked the slightly elevated view of the road, and the more chair-like seating position. The handling was shockingly good, at least based on what I was expecting. 60+ mph on- and off-ramps were virtually unnoticed by the passengers. The power was certainly not Fast n Furious approved, but I never found myself disappointed in the performance as a people mover. Merging, passing, cruising, typical city light-to-light acceleration was plenty sufficient. The auto trans shifted smoothly and I never noticed it hunting for the right gear.
Everyone loved the sliding doors. Loading and unloading people and stuff was very easy. For part of the trip we had five people on board and again, no complaints, either regarding power or space. Just slid one of the middle seats forward a bit, and no problem for an adult to sit in the back. There was quite a bit of squeaking coming from what seemed to be the rear suspension though. While it wasn't overly loud or offensive, it was still there, and I could see how some people could be bothered by it. I have hunted down and eliminated a few of these squeaks on my 'speed3; I imagine I could do the same on a 5.
The wind noise was a fair bit higher than either my 'speed3 or our turbo Jetta, although the road noise seemed to be less intrusive on the 5 than our cars. And now for the really good part
: the gas mileage. I realize that this trip was mostly highway, but it was hardly a hypermiler's trip; our first half-hour was at about 10mph, stop and go all the way through the city. Then we got nailed again in another traffic jam on 80-94 across NW IN. Once we got to I-65 though, I set the cruise control at about 72 and let it run. After 212 miles with the AC on the whole time, I stopped in Indy for our first fill up (about 7 gallons) and noted a MPG of 30.47 for the first leg of our trip. Nice!
The next day I had some solo runs to make around Indy, mostly highway, and mostly maniacal. I was really pressed for time, so I was doing quite a bit of 80-90mph driving on 465. Bad for mileage, right? Then we all had to be back at a wedding in Chicago and we were late for that, so the cruise was set at about 82 for most of the ride back home, AC still on. A fill-up this morning shows that our mpg for the return trip dropped to 26.38, which is still quite good considering the speed and the load.
With a focus on gas mileage, I am getting closer to making the move to this car, probably as a replacement for our 60k mile Jetta, although possibly trading the 'speed3 for a 5. Yeah, I would miss the lovely gobs of power that the 3 can dish out, but I would not miss the painful cash drop at the gas pump every month. I assume that the highway mpg would get even better when driven in the 60-65 range. Unfortunately, I can't really comment much on the city mpg, as we didn't do too much of that.
Based on the limited amount of reading I have done here, it seems like there are some folks who really love this microvan, and some who aren't overly thrilled with it. I haven't seen too many people who really regret owning one. I only wish there were more competitive products in this particular market. I'm aware of the Ford C-Max coming soon, but obviously no one here has purchased one yet. I'm surprised no manufacturers have exploited this market yet. To me, this seems like a great niche, ripe for the picking. Anyway, thanks for reading. Who knows, I may be joining the ranks of the 5 Club soon.
The interior room was great. The fact that we are all relatively slim helps out, I'm sure, but no one was wanting for any more space. I liked the slightly elevated view of the road, and the more chair-like seating position. The handling was shockingly good, at least based on what I was expecting. 60+ mph on- and off-ramps were virtually unnoticed by the passengers. The power was certainly not Fast n Furious approved, but I never found myself disappointed in the performance as a people mover. Merging, passing, cruising, typical city light-to-light acceleration was plenty sufficient. The auto trans shifted smoothly and I never noticed it hunting for the right gear.
Everyone loved the sliding doors. Loading and unloading people and stuff was very easy. For part of the trip we had five people on board and again, no complaints, either regarding power or space. Just slid one of the middle seats forward a bit, and no problem for an adult to sit in the back. There was quite a bit of squeaking coming from what seemed to be the rear suspension though. While it wasn't overly loud or offensive, it was still there, and I could see how some people could be bothered by it. I have hunted down and eliminated a few of these squeaks on my 'speed3; I imagine I could do the same on a 5.
The wind noise was a fair bit higher than either my 'speed3 or our turbo Jetta, although the road noise seemed to be less intrusive on the 5 than our cars. And now for the really good part
: the gas mileage. I realize that this trip was mostly highway, but it was hardly a hypermiler's trip; our first half-hour was at about 10mph, stop and go all the way through the city. Then we got nailed again in another traffic jam on 80-94 across NW IN. Once we got to I-65 though, I set the cruise control at about 72 and let it run. After 212 miles with the AC on the whole time, I stopped in Indy for our first fill up (about 7 gallons) and noted a MPG of 30.47 for the first leg of our trip. Nice!The next day I had some solo runs to make around Indy, mostly highway, and mostly maniacal. I was really pressed for time, so I was doing quite a bit of 80-90mph driving on 465. Bad for mileage, right? Then we all had to be back at a wedding in Chicago and we were late for that, so the cruise was set at about 82 for most of the ride back home, AC still on. A fill-up this morning shows that our mpg for the return trip dropped to 26.38, which is still quite good considering the speed and the load.
With a focus on gas mileage, I am getting closer to making the move to this car, probably as a replacement for our 60k mile Jetta, although possibly trading the 'speed3 for a 5. Yeah, I would miss the lovely gobs of power that the 3 can dish out, but I would not miss the painful cash drop at the gas pump every month. I assume that the highway mpg would get even better when driven in the 60-65 range. Unfortunately, I can't really comment much on the city mpg, as we didn't do too much of that.
Based on the limited amount of reading I have done here, it seems like there are some folks who really love this microvan, and some who aren't overly thrilled with it. I haven't seen too many people who really regret owning one. I only wish there were more competitive products in this particular market. I'm aware of the Ford C-Max coming soon, but obviously no one here has purchased one yet. I'm surprised no manufacturers have exploited this market yet. To me, this seems like a great niche, ripe for the picking. Anyway, thanks for reading. Who knows, I may be joining the ranks of the 5 Club soon.
