Hello Team ,
Just coming back from a roughly 800mile trip from Scotland to Newcastle then to the cotswolds and back up to Liverpool .
Totaling 4 days of driving . Mixture of day and night driving , mixture of Motorway , A roads and B roads ( my favorite to drive at night )
Odo reads 3917 .
Mixture of speeds up to 79mph on the motorways using cruise control.
The good :
I feel the Gren is a drivers car, it wants to be driven . The tone of the engine( diesel) and the whistling of the turbo in the middle of a damp night is epic i cannot get enough of it .
The saddle leather on the steering wheel on long trips i feel engages you with the car for me its more than worth the cost
Solid on the road , very comfortable for me, love the door shelve for my elbow
Love the night driving feel of it , the cockpit like lighting the offset infotainment screen and the clean view of the road are great .
The led lights of the Gren are very very bright and an enjoyment to use at night . High beams on B roads its like driving with a helicopter spotlight above you . ( slight note here my left hand headlight has the dreaded v2 marking , so i am being told both headlight will be replaced eventually …. I just hope the new ones are not dimmer )
Sound system for me is good .( not an expert my music sounds fine in my ears )
Cargo space: i was carrying all my stuff in the back tied down with L track straps , nothing moved easy access .
The bad :
Yes the steering needs constant input . But i accepted it and by now i do not notice when i am doing it .
This whole trip i saw only one grenadier black in Scotland on my way to Newcastle.
The Ugly :
Half an hour into the trip , i heard a loud bang ( sounded like a gunshot ) i immediately thought something broke . Indeed first stone chip of the windshield . I suspect not the last seeing how upright the glass is . I am not bothering with insurance will try and fix it myself ( done that with good results on my previous car )
The whole trip no warnings . BUT after arriving to my destination of the first day after stopping for one hour i wanted to get to the supermarket ( 5 minutes away ) once i started the car the rear seat seat belt warning would not stop sounding . I made the trip to the supermarket and back with the annoying sound. I was too annoyed and tired to try and find a solution so i locked the car and went to get something to eat . Car left overnight thankfully this has never happened again since . I am hoping this was an one off for the bucket list .
Lets put some things to bed :
Left foot shelf i can now say not an issue at all . After all these miles i can say for me its absolutely fine.
As expected while driving through Scotland it was raining cats and dogs , windscreen wipers are perfectly adequate and no issues with visibility at right lower quadrant
I have safari windows i am always keeping an eye out after every rainy day for water ingress . I am happy to report that up to today nothing has been seen , neither at the a pillar , windscreen trim or footwells .
Conclusion:
The more i drive this thing the more i like it . The gren grin has not gone away .
PS : the under seat organizers from the Australian guys (BDM leather) arrived before the trip . In my Opinion are a must have , so many small things accessible easily under your seat .
Hope everyone is enjoying their gren as much as i am mine!