- 02 Jul 2019 20:00
#15015495
The Jaguar iPace e400 is a great car indeed. It is probably the best all-rounder out there.
For me the best all-rounder and my dream car was the BMW M5, what you lose in fuel consumption you earn in happy grins and burned rubber, the most incredible comfort/dynamic mode combination ever and lots of female eyes on you. The only thing that had started putting me off a little bit was the weight of the car and the fact that the car at high speeds felt a little bit disconnected from the road as it hid the speed quite well and while that appeals to some people, when you are on attack mode you really want that connection, noise and feedback from the road. In Greece on my own in the car, I achieved speeds of 320km/h on the Garmin GPS rather than the tachometre which is total bonkers for a family sedan. It hauled the entire family luggage and all 3 kids from Britain to Greece in comfort and style and when you are reasonable the fuel consumption is at 35mpg which is incredible for a car that had 711 bhp measured on a dyno.
Anyway funny story coming up....
On the weekend of the 23-25th of March, I took my son to his first international fencing competition in Poland(incredible country btw) in Wraclow. On Sunday night the 25th we returned back home and picked up the car from Stansted, 500 yards away from home, the engine seized and even though I had warranty with the car I decided to put it on ebay and eventually sold it within hours cause a Russian guy from London made me an offer I could not resist.
From then it took me a long time to find a replacement for my car. I wanted something lighter, so I considered the C63 AMG and the M3. The AMG put me off and that goes for all AMG cars because the suspension is incredibly firm to the point that the car becomes unbearable after 20 mins of driving in comfort mode. AMG cars are unfortunately like that which is too bad because they have amazing interiors, very good engines and incredible exhaust notes. Very theatrical cars but totally uncomfortable and not as dynamic as the BMW's. The M3 put me off because it felt a bit lacking in power and oomph. However it is in fact the most incredible all-rounder car and a lot more dynamic and fun in the corners than an M5. It is after all 350kg(2000kg vs 1650kg) lighter but still a 5 door sedan. The S63 AMG is the only AMG that has a comfortable suspension but it is a boat car weighing way over 2.1 tonnes making the car not very dynamic and seriously putting into question its AMG credentials. After all if it handles like an S500 then what is the point of the AMG badge?
Anyhow, since I was disappointed with all these cars and the AUDI's(RS4, RS6) felt too heavy, overpriced, outdated and not very dynamic in sport mode, I considered the possibility that perhaps it is time for me to get a compact SUV(I need to tow stuff, plus our house is in a gravel road) as an all-rounder and so I narrowed my options down to 2 cars.
The Porsche Macan and the Range Rover Evoque Dynamic. The Porsche Macan is indeed the better car out of the 2 in almost all respects but I went for the Range because it is 10k cheaper and the differences between the 2 are so minuscule that are not 10k worth in my view. As I said I wanted something lighter and more compact than the M5, both of these cars are more narrow, smaller and much lighter 300kg less than an M5 so they feel more nimble and much less boaty. They also have great fuel consumption and they can be driven fast enough as well.
Last weekend I took my son to his second fencing competition in Paris and we drove there. It was me, my son, another dad and his son from our fencing club. I picked them up from London and we all drove together to Paris this past Friday. I parked the car outside our Hotel(Novotel), we went to have dinner and then came back to the hotel at around 12pm at night. Woke up in the morning, the car had disappeared. Called the police, they told me to go there Monday, I said we are leaving Sunday, they didn't care.
In France they have a website you can check if your car has been towed by putting your reg number but the system only works for French cars, my car showed that it had not been towed. I ignored the police guy and went to the police station regardless on Saturday morning. The police station was filthy and the officers there totally unhelpful. They checked their database and told me the car has not been towed, it's been stolen, so come back Monday to make a statement. I told them: "have you guys called the garage or did you just check the same website I did which is only for French reg numbers?" They were both like: "oh right, we better call them", they called them and 2 mins later they said: "Sorry your car has been stolen, not towed, wait here and we will take your statement in a few minutes". Literally 5 hours later, me and my son were still waiting to declare the crime in Paris in the heat with no air-con.
Eventually, we made the declaration, called my insurance, wrote off the car and went to have dinner with the rest of the team. I took it quite well, cause I thought this was fate telling me I should get the M3 or the Macan instead and was already planning to buy either 1 of the 2 with the insurance compensation. However, a Russian father of a fencer from our team, told me that the French police are stupid and that his brother-in-law who lives in Paris can definitely find the car in the towing department, after all he had seen my car outside the hotel at 7am when he woke up to go to the sports centre as his son was fencing saturday instead of sunday, so what kind of idiot would steal a car in broad daylight parked outside Novotel? I gave him my reg number and sure enough 5 mins later we had the location of the car. It had been towed indeed and was waiting in the parking area to be picked up, I went there Saturday night to pick the car up but they would not release the car unless I went back to the police station to cancel the previous declaration of theft. And so I did, but the police station would not open the door at 11pm because the officers in there were having beers and chatting. I kept ringing the bell and they kept telling me to wait, so I went around, and found an open window and the guys in there chatting drinking beer, so I called them and said "s'il vous plaît monsier" open the door please. Instead of acknowledging my presence they shut the window and then I started shouting at them that my son is all alone in the hotel and that I really need my car. The French police fucker came out to open the door, screaming at me: "what do you want?" while holding his gun. I calmly explained to him the situation, we went to his office, cancelled the declaration and off I went and picked my car up. Sunday my son was fencing and after he finished, we all came back to the UK.
2 international fencing competitions, almost 2 cars gone!!
layman wrote:I recently purchased a Jaguar ipace e400 which I would suggest could be the best family car/ all rounder in the world loads of space, cheap service and fuel, high driving position but very fast and good handling/comfort combination.
Best suv is full fat ranger Rover svr
Best gt luxury I think Mercedes s63 coupe
Best sports car would be alpine a110 for my tastes. Don’t like super cars.
The Jaguar iPace e400 is a great car indeed. It is probably the best all-rounder out there.
For me the best all-rounder and my dream car was the BMW M5, what you lose in fuel consumption you earn in happy grins and burned rubber, the most incredible comfort/dynamic mode combination ever and lots of female eyes on you. The only thing that had started putting me off a little bit was the weight of the car and the fact that the car at high speeds felt a little bit disconnected from the road as it hid the speed quite well and while that appeals to some people, when you are on attack mode you really want that connection, noise and feedback from the road. In Greece on my own in the car, I achieved speeds of 320km/h on the Garmin GPS rather than the tachometre which is total bonkers for a family sedan. It hauled the entire family luggage and all 3 kids from Britain to Greece in comfort and style and when you are reasonable the fuel consumption is at 35mpg which is incredible for a car that had 711 bhp measured on a dyno.
Anyway funny story coming up....
On the weekend of the 23-25th of March, I took my son to his first international fencing competition in Poland(incredible country btw) in Wraclow. On Sunday night the 25th we returned back home and picked up the car from Stansted, 500 yards away from home, the engine seized and even though I had warranty with the car I decided to put it on ebay and eventually sold it within hours cause a Russian guy from London made me an offer I could not resist.
From then it took me a long time to find a replacement for my car. I wanted something lighter, so I considered the C63 AMG and the M3. The AMG put me off and that goes for all AMG cars because the suspension is incredibly firm to the point that the car becomes unbearable after 20 mins of driving in comfort mode. AMG cars are unfortunately like that which is too bad because they have amazing interiors, very good engines and incredible exhaust notes. Very theatrical cars but totally uncomfortable and not as dynamic as the BMW's. The M3 put me off because it felt a bit lacking in power and oomph. However it is in fact the most incredible all-rounder car and a lot more dynamic and fun in the corners than an M5. It is after all 350kg(2000kg vs 1650kg) lighter but still a 5 door sedan. The S63 AMG is the only AMG that has a comfortable suspension but it is a boat car weighing way over 2.1 tonnes making the car not very dynamic and seriously putting into question its AMG credentials. After all if it handles like an S500 then what is the point of the AMG badge?
Anyhow, since I was disappointed with all these cars and the AUDI's(RS4, RS6) felt too heavy, overpriced, outdated and not very dynamic in sport mode, I considered the possibility that perhaps it is time for me to get a compact SUV(I need to tow stuff, plus our house is in a gravel road) as an all-rounder and so I narrowed my options down to 2 cars.
The Porsche Macan and the Range Rover Evoque Dynamic. The Porsche Macan is indeed the better car out of the 2 in almost all respects but I went for the Range because it is 10k cheaper and the differences between the 2 are so minuscule that are not 10k worth in my view. As I said I wanted something lighter and more compact than the M5, both of these cars are more narrow, smaller and much lighter 300kg less than an M5 so they feel more nimble and much less boaty. They also have great fuel consumption and they can be driven fast enough as well.
Last weekend I took my son to his second fencing competition in Paris and we drove there. It was me, my son, another dad and his son from our fencing club. I picked them up from London and we all drove together to Paris this past Friday. I parked the car outside our Hotel(Novotel), we went to have dinner and then came back to the hotel at around 12pm at night. Woke up in the morning, the car had disappeared. Called the police, they told me to go there Monday, I said we are leaving Sunday, they didn't care.
In France they have a website you can check if your car has been towed by putting your reg number but the system only works for French cars, my car showed that it had not been towed. I ignored the police guy and went to the police station regardless on Saturday morning. The police station was filthy and the officers there totally unhelpful. They checked their database and told me the car has not been towed, it's been stolen, so come back Monday to make a statement. I told them: "have you guys called the garage or did you just check the same website I did which is only for French reg numbers?" They were both like: "oh right, we better call them", they called them and 2 mins later they said: "Sorry your car has been stolen, not towed, wait here and we will take your statement in a few minutes". Literally 5 hours later, me and my son were still waiting to declare the crime in Paris in the heat with no air-con.
Eventually, we made the declaration, called my insurance, wrote off the car and went to have dinner with the rest of the team. I took it quite well, cause I thought this was fate telling me I should get the M3 or the Macan instead and was already planning to buy either 1 of the 2 with the insurance compensation. However, a Russian father of a fencer from our team, told me that the French police are stupid and that his brother-in-law who lives in Paris can definitely find the car in the towing department, after all he had seen my car outside the hotel at 7am when he woke up to go to the sports centre as his son was fencing saturday instead of sunday, so what kind of idiot would steal a car in broad daylight parked outside Novotel? I gave him my reg number and sure enough 5 mins later we had the location of the car. It had been towed indeed and was waiting in the parking area to be picked up, I went there Saturday night to pick the car up but they would not release the car unless I went back to the police station to cancel the previous declaration of theft. And so I did, but the police station would not open the door at 11pm because the officers in there were having beers and chatting. I kept ringing the bell and they kept telling me to wait, so I went around, and found an open window and the guys in there chatting drinking beer, so I called them and said "s'il vous plaît monsier" open the door please. Instead of acknowledging my presence they shut the window and then I started shouting at them that my son is all alone in the hotel and that I really need my car. The French police fucker came out to open the door, screaming at me: "what do you want?" while holding his gun. I calmly explained to him the situation, we went to his office, cancelled the declaration and off I went and picked my car up. Sunday my son was fencing and after he finished, we all came back to the UK.
2 international fencing competitions, almost 2 cars gone!!
EN EL ED EM ON
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...