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Swiss Trip |
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ezza23
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Well unsurprisingly the trip went perfectly and the new GP performed brilliantly despite not really being run in properly before we left. I scored some used roof bars on Ebay the week before we went and fitted them (how easy is it?) and our old roof box in a fraction of the time it took on the Scenic. The trip this year was 16 people split over 3 cars so we had 2 adults up front, 2 teenagers in the middle and 2 7 year olds on boosters in the back. With all the luggage and food things were fairly tight although (biased opinion) we had a fair bit more room than the 6 in my friends Mazda 5. Before we set off I stopped at the local garage to put some more air in the tyres after a moment of panic when I couldn't find the pressures in the manual I found the label inside the drivers door which recommends 3.4 bar front and back, which is almost 50psi!! Our local garage's machine only goes up to 42 so I opted to go to that and see how things were on the run down to London to pick up passengers. On the French autoroutes the car was quite happy to cruise with the CC set at 130kph and we bimbled along in the middle of the 3 car convoy with no problems. Cutting across the border at Besancon allowed my wife a chance to have a drive and get more used to the EGS which she's doing well with, only one incident rolling up to a roundabout in 6th  . Coming off the Swiss motorway the ascent up the mountain is a 5-10 mile climb full of switchbacks on a dreadfully surfaced road. The car was more than up to the challenge and I was easily able to keep my friend in sight so all fears about the performance of the 1.6 engine were unfounded. As we got to the village we hit some slush and I noticed the ESP kicking in a fair bit so at least I know it's working. The chalet is about 500 yards up a 1 in 4 climb on a graveled track. There hasn't been a lot of snow but there was packed ice on the track with a light dusting of fresh snow so we opted to put the chains on before trying it. The car did struggle a bit but I put that down to the ESP overriding my foot where sometimes a bit of slip can help. Certainly when I drove up later in the week with it switched off I flew up much easier. Coming down is fairly scary and perhaps the only issue is the lack of (or my perception of lack of) engine braking. With a manual car you roll down the hill in first and dab the brake to control speed. I wasn't sure if the car was engine braking at all presumably because even though we were rolling I wasn't accelerating so I was much more tentative coming down the hill although this could also be because it's brand new. Anyway that aside the car was brilliant, the storage compartments are better thought out than the scenic and the spaces under the boot seats in particular were fantastic for hiding stuff away so the boot could be used for chains etc. The trip computer said 1393 miles at 40.3mpg at 50mph average (there were a lot of delays outward bound), which is not bad at all certainly on par with my bigger engined and fully run in Scenic and miles better than my friends Mazda. Pleased! Oh and the snowboarding was good, not great conditions (icy and low cloud making for poor visibility). Best of all no broken bones this time 
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Dave_Retired.
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   Member No: #1
Joined: Aug 07 2006Location: Northumberland |
wrote ... The car did struggle a bit but I put that down to the ESP overriding my foot where sometimes a bit of slip can help. Certainly when I drove up later in the week with it switched off I flew up much easier. I'm sure I noticed in the new C4 handbook that it does recommend switching the ESP off in those conditions, but can't it atm. Sounds like you had a great trip anyway 
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ezza23
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Thanks for putting this in it's proper place Dave "In extremely severe conditions (snow on top of ice, sand, deep mud…), it can be useful to deactivate the ESP/ASR systems to allow a degree of wheel spin and so recover grip" Page 116. I knew I'd read it somewhere before. |
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Dave_Retired.
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Member No: #1
Joined: Aug 07 2006Location: Northumberland |
I wasn't wrong then, I had read it after all
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routemaster1
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 Member No: #574
Joined: Jul 08 2007Location: Dorset |
ezza23 wrote ... Cutting across the border at Besancon....... Which way did you go into Switzerland? Via Pontarlier, or Le Locle, or some other way? It's some distance from Besancon to the Swiss border. My daughter spent a year at Neuchatel, and I now go down that way most years. |
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ezza23
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Yes it was via Pontarlier, bit of a nightmare actually big log jam in the town and then the border crossing queue at Valorbe was massive AGAIN. Never crossed at Neuchatel but TBH that would take us miles out of the way as we're heading for Martigny. We were lulled by an easy crossing last year when we had an overnight stop and hence weren't crossing with a billion other British skiers. Think we need to use the sat nav properly next year and find a better place. |
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routemaster1
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Member No: #574
Joined: Jul 08 2007Location: Dorset |
ezza23 wrote ... Yes it was via Pontarlier, bit of a nightmare actually big log jam in the town and then the border crossing queue at Valorbe was massive AGAIN. Not actually crossed at Pontarlier, as we go south, then turn left at La Cluse-et-Mijoux rather than going on to Vallorbe. I thought that as Switzerland had signed up to the Shengen agreement (despite not being in the EU), queues at the border would be a thing of the past. However, we have travelled through Switzerland most years and have not really suffered with hold-ups at the border. |
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ezza23
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The queue is mainly people queuing to buy their Vignette and it appears this year Captain slow was really taking his time dolling them out. Particularly frustrating when you've bought the Vignette in advance as we had, they really should have two queues!! | ||||
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