Suzuki Ignis... (Yes I have too much time on my hands)

[paulus2112]

I had to take Ruth's 206 back to the very nice people at Crossroads Motors on Monday as the alarm keeps going off for no reason. They were great - sorting it out for no charge, and gave us a courtesy car too.

But...

This didn't come without problems, the only car they had free was a 2004 Suzuki Ignis 1.5 Sport.

Oh well thought I, at least I shall not have to spend too much time in the wretched thing.

I thought something was up though when Ruth's insurance company refused to cover her on it - she's not held a full license for a year yet, so she's back on the push bike this week. Anyhow I went off to Challock in the 206 and came back in a Suzuki Ignis.

... Which was hillarious!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l278/paulus2112/DSCF0529.jpg

Really, what is this supposed to be? it's frikin dreadful. at 5 years old this car has 67k on the clock, they have it for sale for £2995. the interior is appalling, 'stickyback' carbon fibre everywhere, and the Recaro seats are quite simply vomit inducing to look at!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l278/paulus2112/DSCF0528.jpg

The noise of the interior plastics rattling around is rather off putting it has to be said, this is not a well built machine by any stretch of the imagination. The door panels are so thin the electric window switches can't even be positioned next to each other and the driving position makes you feel like you're driving postman pats van.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l278/paulus2112/DSCF0527.jpg

The exterior plastic trims look pretty cheap too and I fear if the sun gets too hot the glue will melt and the body kit will be on the ground next to the car.

In fact the only saving grace this car has to offer is the fantastically enjoyably performance. With a meagre 107 bhp and about 900 kilos to lug around the engine can only be described as 'surprising!'. In fact it sounds great! revving round to 7000 rpm in no time at all, this hateful little car is actually great fun to drive. I gave it a right good trashing through the lanes back from Canterbury and it didn't understeer once, although I'm sure if I'd tried harder it might have. It's even capable of overtaking things!

It's got discs all round and ABS, but you can't help feeling that if you chuck it into a corner with any real enthusiasm, it might just end up on it's side!

I guess if I had this car for long, I would probably lose my license in about a month. It's just the wrong shape for the kind of performance it produces, I don't know what it looks like racing about on the red line to onlookers, but I imagine a suitable word might be 'dangerous'. It's like something out of Gran Turismo. The engine is so responsive it just can't be driven sensibly, well not if you happen to be me anyway.

It can get away from the line at least as fast as my A4, probably quicker to be fair to it, well it feels faster anyway - the engine makes its power in a similar way to my old MK1 CRX and the couple of mates of mine that have driven it were all very impressed and insulted by it at the same time.

So to summise, a fun car to drive for a day but I would never recommend buying one and I wouldn't want to be seen driving it either!

Needless to say it's been left parked up outside and won't be driven until it goes back to the garage when we collect the 206!

Well done Suziki!! why did you build this car? what on earth were you thinking???

[nunchukhamster]

My mum had one of those and they are superb cars (althought she didn't have the nasty yellow bits, hers was all black). She used to drive a 120 mile round trip couple of times a week to visit my grandparents, it got taken to Europe a few times and all over the UK.

Sounds like the one you have as a loaner is a bit of a shed, her's never put a foot wrong in the 2 years (she changes cars every 2 years) that she had it.

Performance wise, they are funny as once you get them revving, round town they are mad, and on motorways they drive a lot better than most of the other stuff in their class. Overtaking down A roads is easy too, they are actually a lot harder to tip over than you think, trust me, I tried, a LOT :D

[Ang]

I really do think you need a job on top gear, that gave me a right chuckle :D

[paulus2112]

Always glad to entertain!

Getting the 206 back today, means I have to drive the IgnARSE back to Challock again. I will not miss it terribly!

Bloody garage have left it alarmed for three nights and it didn't go off so they havent done anything with it.

Not impressed!

:badmood:

[paulus2112]

:soapbox:
Not impressed would be a mild description of my current opinion of Crossroads Motors. Useless frikin idiots!!!

I collected our car, expressed my dissatisfaction that they had not done anything to the alarm 'as at no point had it gone off whilst in their care'. I took the 206 away saying that, rest assured, I will call the manager next time it goes off.

Which it did, 20 minutes after I got home.

This is the best bit. The manager - Richard in case anyone is interested - explained to me that their mechanics just locked the car and didn't alarm it, which would explain why the alarm didn't go off in the 3 days they had it. Apparently I should have explained to them how to set the alarm, as they see hundreds of cars in their garage and can't be expected to know how to set the alarms on all of them. I mean to be fair it is a very complicated procedure, you have to push a button on the remote to lock the car then press the button beneath it to alarm it. As explained in the manual in the glove box. To be honest, had anyone asked I would have gladly explained but no one gave me the opportunity.

Interesting point to be made here, if anyone fancies stealing a Peugot 206, there's at least three of them on the forecort at Challock that I imagine are not alarmed as they don't know how to set them.

He even went on to explain that once they had a car in with a squeaky clutch, 3 hours of looking at the clutch revealed that the customer was complaining about a squeaky clutch pedal. This he implied was the customers fault for not being more specific.

I mean what a fucktard!

Blaming the ineptitude of the mechanics he employs on the customers - perhaps I am missing something here, should I have the alarm system analysed, define exactly the problem to his mechanics - I could even point to the specific connection that's dodgy on a wiring diagram for them once I figure it out!

So much for being a reputable dealer, Richard, bless him, said that I should bring it back next Wednesday and they'll have another look at it. If it costs too much to fix then he will give me my money back, disconnect the alarm and sell the car to someone else. Very helpful.

I will not be going back to Crossroads Motors to buy another car that is for sure!

[Ang]

If they can't set an alarm then they sure as hell can't fix it. Even my 9yr old daughter can set alarms, she's always showing me how to do the different ones.

As for the squeaky clutch surely you would have to depress a clutch pedal to see if the clutch was squeaky and at that point you might have noticed. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[macca]

Good old stealer service, once it's sold to you they don't give a monkies. I've had it happen many times which is why now I just buy the car from a private sale - at least then you don't expect any comeback when it falls in to a steaming pile of rust in front of your eyes. This is one of the reasons I said that the warranties they give are near to useless.

I hope they sort you out one way or another, doing what he told you is one thing but to then relay it to another customer in some kind of proud way is just absolutely mental, what a tosser!

[macca]

(And I really like the Ignis, they're cool!)

In fact, I have a Recaro like that (with a different headrest and no yellow) as a desk chair, it is impressively comfortable! :)

[paulus2112]

Thankfully the warantee didn't cost anything, the dealer has their own workshop.

Still think the Ignis is badly built though, rattled like an old shed and it was only 5 years old!

[paulus2112]

Finaly got the 206 sorted, incredibly it was just a dodgy connection on the tailgate - Like I suggested to the garage it might be the first time.

Need to get a book on how to repair Peugot 206s for next time, sure it would have been easier to do this myself if I'd known where the alarm switch was!