1.6 CVT Greek Trip Overview

[Dionysus]

I promised that I would give an overview of what the car performed like on a trip to Greece and any issues I encountered. Sorry it has taken so long but I have been busy, but I can't think doing what!The car was checked over by the dealer as it had 1200kms on it and I wanted all the nuts and bolts checked. An oil change was done as well so I was ready to go. Loaded the car up and I was surprised I was struggling for space, but that says more about our packing than the cars space I guess. We set off from home at 7.00am and from here it is a twisty road that follows the sea, like the Amalfi coast. It takes around 100kms to get onto decent roads, but by then the police are out with their camera cars so stuck it on cruise and away we went. Without boring you all the trip to Galipoli was 725kms and we arrived just after 5.00pm with lots of stops in between. On the ferry over to Galipoli I was staggered at how many people walked over to the car to look at it. The ink blue does stand out when everyone else seems to have white cars, but what was amazing it was mainly women that were looking. Why I don't know.The trip going was uneventful and went perfectly until the trip back!We decided to head further down the coast instead of staying in Canakkale again, so we had booked a hotel in Bergama. Bergama is another historic town, (yawn,yawn) and as such the roads are narrow and not truly suitable for modern large vehicles. We had chosen a hotel in the centre of the old town ( I know, stupid us) and so we set off. Now, I call the satnav in the Nissan 'Nikki' and the TomTom 'Sally' that way I just have one name and my wife knows which one I am talking about when I refer to it. All the way to Greece and back to Bergama we had 'Nikki' on, more for fun than anything else, but when we got to Bergama, I had entered the hotel address and I really needed it now. Bergama is a maze.We entered Bergama and 'Nikki' took me a route I had not contemplated or knew, simply because I had chosen the shortest route, and we entered the outskirts of Bergama. 'Point to rememeber' !Now at this point I am hoping that someone from Nissan is monitoring or at least reading these threads.Turn here, turn there, all the usual, and at this point my wife was driving. I was trying to relax, 'trying', but you know how it is! The next thing the wife says to me 'This doesn't look right' We had turned up a side street that was now getting narrower and narrower. When it got to the point when it was really narrow my wife panicked, stopped the car and threw a wobbly. At his point I had to take over. As we swapped seats there were now a number of locals looking at us wondering what a car was doing up this side street that no car should be in, at least not a nice one. They all drive 20-40 year old Renault's and Tofas. I continued on and eventually manged to turn the car round with literally around 3mms to spare on the wheel arches. My heart was in my mouth and the crowd now gathered were holding their breath, probably hoping I was going to bang a shiney new car and give them some entertainment. Having sorted all that out 'Nikki' was noticeably silent. She had shut down, just literally stopped navigating with no instructions. Now, really stuck my only option was get to 'Sally' out and program her to the hotel. She started giving me instructions and eventually we were heading across town to where the hotel should be. Over a bridge, which turned out to be a no through road, so I had to reverse all the way back. At his point the massive door mirrors came into their own. They are brilliant. The cameras, useless, just a distraction really. Well eventually we arrived at the hotel having driven up roads that people had to press themselves against the wall to allow me to pass. Seriously, it was that tight.Nissan, your satnav sucks. It is not a patch on a TomTom. Goodness knows what idiot chose that system over the others. It is just a map display in the centre of the dashboard and considering this car is three months old some of the roads that were years old were not even on there. On the Ferry over to Galipoli At the main memorial overlooking the Dardanelles Straights At Anzac Cove It had rained the day before so the car was dirty and I do like a shiney car. Prefer it in blue!! Empty Greek roads so stuck it on cruise Conclusion: We did 2432kms in the seven days we were away, and the car was, apart from the satnav issue, faultless, and I do mean faultless.The seats are some of the best I have ever, ever had. So comfortable, although the leather makes you sweat a bit, especially if you turn the heated seat function on whilst plugging in your phone. Duh!The dashboard design is a dream. The digital speedo is wonderful, what did I do before I had that? The speed signs camera is a good feature, although it did cause some arguments amongst ourselves as my wife would read the dash and tell me I was speeding, but the Turks don't display signs very well when they change.The cruise was accurate and made driving so enjoyable. I have not used the limiter yet.The lane warning system I have turned off, drives me nuts because as I was taught as an advanced driver and you automatically straighten out all the bends, then the thing goes ballistic.The LED lights auto function. Oh yes, why has not every car got this feature?The CVT gearbox in my opinion is a dream. The Xtronic fucntioon works OK, but it is limited by the CVT system, so when using it as a braking function it is not that efficient.Negatives: That b****y Satnav. Nissan's designer should be shot for that.The covering on the boards in the boot. I had a suitcase on them and even after such a short trip and I am very careful I have noticed the abrasion is 'fluffing' the material. My next acquisition is going to be a carpet to cover them as I think the load space will look very tatty in a short space of timeFuel consumption: My best was 4.8Lts/100kms, but as an average I was getting around 6.8 -7.3, which was excellent in my opinion considering there was motorway and a lot of on-off the brakes driving as I followed the coast road, which is hilly.

[Mak786]

Great detailed review. I love hearing about 'no major issues' on a car I'm soon to receive !Satnav real letdown though. Appalling it should take you down an unsuitable road.

[Dionysus]

Good luck with the new car Mak At the end of the day it is a machine made by man in conjunction with machines. With so many variables in the equation it is inevitable something is going to go wrong and on some cars, it keeps going wrong, because the nature of the beast is to to as little as possible, as cheap as possible to maximize profits, so it rarely gets fixed properly.I had a friend over recently, who is what one could say, a man who likes the nicer things in life. He has a CLK Merc, just sold a convertible Alfa because it was no fast enough, and so it goes on. He heard we had a new car and wanted to see it. When I pulled it out my garage he sat on the front steps and stared at it. He was silent and this went on for quite a few minutes. I asked him if he was OK and he just looked at me and said 'I have just got to have one'. I for one was gobsmacked. He asked to drive it the next day and could not stop talking about it. When he left he was going to a UK dealer to talk prices, etc. The thought of checking out this site to get peoples opinions and experiences never entered his head and probably never will. He saw it, he wanted it. Simple emotion. Don't eat yourself up whether the car will be OK. Yes, I did it as well. You have made a choice, in my opinion a great choice. Enjoy the car, forget the negativity of some people and their own experiences, their approach to life maybe different to ours. Good luck and I wish you well and I can probably speak for the majority on here as well.

[duncho]

))) love the comment on SatNav )
Well, you can get use to it, but I agree, it is poor when you used TomTom, Navigon etc.

That b****y Satnav... )) can't stop laughing!