Testdrive review: Honda Jazz

Car:

Honda

Jazz (but not the 2016)

With panoramic sunroof

3/5

Dealer:

John Banks

3/5

This was my first attempt at showing interest in buying a car and trying to book a testdrive. The process was quite painless and had I been organised enough to bring my driving licence in the first place I could probably have done it when I first showed up. The chap was friendly enough, he took me round the car and some of the options. The smart seats were indeed rather cleaver and nifty giving a full height option for large items and packing flat for more usual haulage. This was a good point as it is likely we will carry lots of stuff (logs and the like).
For the drive itself I was able to drive home to my driveway which is a little fiddly and have a go at parking in it. This also allowed Dr K to take a look around the car without their need for travel. The drive was pleasant enough, but very little to say about it. It felt spacious inside and a little like my mum's Renault Espace, but it didn't feel swish, in fact the inside felt a little overly practical, perhaps a little cheap. The sunroof was lovely although I didn't get to testdrive one with it. Overall a good size car, spacious for the footprint, but it didn't make me feel much wow, and quite expensive for that.
2015-07-21

Unfortunate subtitling from a local news bulletin

Testdrive: Toyota Yaris

• Car: Toyota Yaris
• 3/5
• Dealer: Lancaster Road, Cambridge
• 5/5
• 

The Yaris was a bit of a disappointment to me I'm sad to say. The brochure was exciting and enticing, the outside has a rather nice exciting and sharp styling without being overly aggressive. The inside boasts a massive touch-screen display, but the rest of the inside felt surprisingly cheap and a bit overly functional. The excitement of the exterior isn't carried over inside, and that seems quite a shame. The software on the touch-screen was also quite weak, not as bad as the Vauxhaull, which is horrendous, but certainly dated and clunky - missing the simplicity and elegance of the Polo's UI.
The drive was pleasant enough. Nothing to really say in it's favour or detriment. Perhaps the gearbox was a bit on the loose side, the steering not super precise. The indicators were annoyingly loud. But it went round and seemed to be reasonable on fuel efficiency. The sound of the rain on the roof was a problem - it felt exceedingly tinny and cheap as a result. However, the Andy from the showroom was really a big plus: honest, relaxed and friendly - exactly what I want from someone trying to sell me a huge (non) investment.
2015-08-18

We brought a car. *hangs head in shame*

We just brought a car. Really didn't mean to, but it just sort of happened. We went to the show room for a quick check of the details and ended up walking out having ordered a car which is currently on a ship heading to port in Southampton. I had hired a car for the week, a Toyota Aygo from Enterprise Histon and it was fine, a nice tiny car which did well to nip us round the flat lands and briefly to the mountains of Milton Keynes. It was also the car that took us to the showroom.
What have we done? It seems a little like we've failed and a little like we've succeeded at the same time. There has been some pride in not having a car, doing everything by bicycle until now, with a 5 month old (having had him on the bike trailer). But increasingly we have been relying on friends with cars to get us around more easily, and hiring more frequently. So it does feel like this is perhaps the natural time to relent and join the motorised masses. And in this way it oddly feels like a new age is dawning, like the 70's all over again (not that I was there the first time round), the prospect of having our own family car, the freedom to drive around and go where we like. Most importantly the ability to escape the oppressive confines of flat Cambridgeshire. Unfortunately, I fear we could discover that East Anglia is even more remote than we realised, taking at least an hour to get anywhere worth going.
The one positive thing living as we do in a village on the outskirts of Cambridge, is that driving in and around Cam is akin to having your brain repeadtedly smashed by a brick. It is a frightful "city" to attempt by car. Utterly ghastly. So this will mean that despite being motorised, any need for Cam will be bike bike bike. (It's worth noting, that even finding a place to park your bike can be difficult, but that is an entirely positive problem for a place to have.)
Just to be clear I do love our little village of Histon and I do like Cambridge, but I don't like driving round it and I'm not keen on the county it's in; too far right. Oh for the hills (and rain?) of the West.
2015-09-04

Astrophotography again

A beautiful still warm evening encouraged me outside to take some more astrophotography shots after I'd had a quick go a couple of weeks back. This time I think I achieved better success with 30 second exposures at higher ISO. I found that again focusing to infinity is hard with my 35mm prime, but the live view enables a zoom in which does just about work when there is a star in the view. I;m particularly pleased with the wide field view showing some detial of the Milky Way and the fennel shot which has a couple of clusters in the view. Next time I need to improve on the colour cast which is a bit pinky here at my chosen manual white-balance (~4500K). These first of the cropped shots below show detail of the camera shake generated by passing lorries due to the night closure of the A14. The second demonstrates the slip over time from my rather cheap and cheerful tripod. Ooh for a Manfrotto.

35mm - f/2 - iso 1600 - 30s

35mm - f/1.8 - iso 100 - 30s

35mm - f/2 - iso 1600 - 30s

35mm - f/2 - iso 200 - 256s

35mm - f/2 - iso 200 - 417s

2015-08-22