A
Anonymous
Guest
I've been driving my RCZ (company lease car) for about two weeks and 1800km now. It is a very basic one, 156hp manual opal white. Only option I added where the 19" sortilege rims and I've had the dealer install heating in the seats. I totally love the car, but off course it has some pros and cons which I thought would be nice to write down and see if others agree. Everything below is off course my opinion and some of you might totally feel the opposite way about it.
Let's start with the pros:
* I very much like the handling and driving experience all together. The engine is really smooth and changing gears is a pleasure. The steering is pretty direct, which does takes a little bit of getting used to. This is in perfect alignment with all the other reviews out there on the internet. Also, the car has enough power at the bottom of the second gear, so it never forces you to switch back to first when your driving really slow in the city (no engine stutter). The 156hp is not really a beast or anything, it's sure fast but you don't get the feeling like being in a supercar or anything. To me it is actually perfect because I mainly use the car for my daily trip to work.
* I really like the looks of the car. I had my doubts on which color to take, but the opal is just supercool. I get a lot of comments from people not liking white cars, but when seeing mine, they make an exception
. Also the 19" sortilege rims just look awesome on it in combination with the white. Only strange thing about the car is that a lot of people ask me whether it is a cabrio or how to take to top down.
* The hill assist was a little bit of a suprise to me, but it turns out to be a nice feature. It makes city driving (and traffic jams) a lot easier.
* I've driven Peugeots before (my last car was a 407) and I still like the speed limiter for driving the highways. Much better than cruise control on approaching cars while someone is overtaking you on the left lane.
* The mid-console can be slided forwards and clicked upwards, this gives really support for your arm on the shift-stick side.
* The space in the two front seats is actually pretty good, my passengers up to now where surprised how much spaces for their legs they had.
* The same applies for the trunk, also lots of space there. This includes the extra storage compartments where the spare wheel could have been, really handy. Also the cover of this extra storage clickes up nicely behind two nops and allows for the trunk light to shine into the extra compartments.
* Small details, like the analog clock is always synced with the digital one, gives you the feeling that Peugeot took extra care on the experience they want the owner to have. I also really like the way the dashboard looks when it's dark outside.
* The (fake) leather interior is really nice, very cool that this is standard on the RCZ.
* I like the fact that the side mirrors fold in automatically (also standard). Although at some point it did that when I was driving, forcing me to stop the car. It took me 10 minutes to figure out there was a button on the left door panel, which I accidentally pushed when closing the window :$.
* The car is quite efficient on fuel. Even though I don't pay for fuel since it's a lease car, I still like it.
But off course there is still room for improvement (stuff you don't experience on the test drive), here are my cons, there all just minor but maybe you recognize some of them:
* Filling up the car with fuel requires you holding the pump in a really strange and uncomfortable position. I guess this is a trade-off for the shape of the car. Also the car alerts you too early for an empty tank and in a quite persuasive way, when I get my alert I can only get 46 liters out of 55 in the tank. I think the alert should come when there is only 5 liters left and no moment before that.
* There aren't a lot of good storing spaces in the car itself. Basically you have the pockets in the door, the mid-console and the glove compartment, but that's it. I have trouble finding good places for stuff like my telephone charger, tomtom etc. Also, since the right door pocket and the glove compartment aren't really reachable in save way when driving, you don't really have a lot of options left.
* The 12v charger is not in the best imaginable place, leaving the cable upwards between your arm and the shift-stick, also I would have liked to have two (like another one at the back of the mid-console).
* Only one cup-holder.
* The restraint (don't know if that's the correct english word for head rest) of the front two seats feel really hard when laying your head to rest.
* Closing the trunk using the inside grips is not really working for me. In order to completely close it you either have to pull really hard and hope you get your hand out of the way in time or push the top of trunk with your hands (which transfers the dirt of your car onto your hands).
* The bluetooth system won't save my setting for streaming audio when the car restarts. This means I have to click Source twice when switching between USB and radio, since there is no music on my phone. Also it doesn't recognize if there is anything connected on aux, which means again two presses when going back from radio to USB (well, at least that's consistent).
* Everyone I call using bluetooth complains about the bad quality of the call. But I can hear them absolutely perfect. I suspect there is something wrong with the microphone and I'm going to ask Peugeot if they can have a look at it. I never had any complaints in my 407 with the same phone, which I think basically uses the same bluetooth system. Therefore I have good hope a new microphone will fix the problem.
* The car makes me drive too fast, which is off course not his fault, it's just too much fun. When others clear the road when you approach on the highway, you just feel like you need to live up to their expectations (and again so follows another push through the speed limiter)..
Let's start with the pros:
* I very much like the handling and driving experience all together. The engine is really smooth and changing gears is a pleasure. The steering is pretty direct, which does takes a little bit of getting used to. This is in perfect alignment with all the other reviews out there on the internet. Also, the car has enough power at the bottom of the second gear, so it never forces you to switch back to first when your driving really slow in the city (no engine stutter). The 156hp is not really a beast or anything, it's sure fast but you don't get the feeling like being in a supercar or anything. To me it is actually perfect because I mainly use the car for my daily trip to work.
* I really like the looks of the car. I had my doubts on which color to take, but the opal is just supercool. I get a lot of comments from people not liking white cars, but when seeing mine, they make an exception
. Also the 19" sortilege rims just look awesome on it in combination with the white. Only strange thing about the car is that a lot of people ask me whether it is a cabrio or how to take to top down. * The hill assist was a little bit of a suprise to me, but it turns out to be a nice feature. It makes city driving (and traffic jams) a lot easier.
* I've driven Peugeots before (my last car was a 407) and I still like the speed limiter for driving the highways. Much better than cruise control on approaching cars while someone is overtaking you on the left lane.
* The mid-console can be slided forwards and clicked upwards, this gives really support for your arm on the shift-stick side.
* The space in the two front seats is actually pretty good, my passengers up to now where surprised how much spaces for their legs they had.
* The same applies for the trunk, also lots of space there. This includes the extra storage compartments where the spare wheel could have been, really handy. Also the cover of this extra storage clickes up nicely behind two nops and allows for the trunk light to shine into the extra compartments.
* Small details, like the analog clock is always synced with the digital one, gives you the feeling that Peugeot took extra care on the experience they want the owner to have. I also really like the way the dashboard looks when it's dark outside.
* The (fake) leather interior is really nice, very cool that this is standard on the RCZ.
* I like the fact that the side mirrors fold in automatically (also standard). Although at some point it did that when I was driving, forcing me to stop the car. It took me 10 minutes to figure out there was a button on the left door panel, which I accidentally pushed when closing the window :$.
* The car is quite efficient on fuel. Even though I don't pay for fuel since it's a lease car, I still like it.
But off course there is still room for improvement (stuff you don't experience on the test drive), here are my cons, there all just minor but maybe you recognize some of them:
* Filling up the car with fuel requires you holding the pump in a really strange and uncomfortable position. I guess this is a trade-off for the shape of the car. Also the car alerts you too early for an empty tank and in a quite persuasive way, when I get my alert I can only get 46 liters out of 55 in the tank. I think the alert should come when there is only 5 liters left and no moment before that.
* There aren't a lot of good storing spaces in the car itself. Basically you have the pockets in the door, the mid-console and the glove compartment, but that's it. I have trouble finding good places for stuff like my telephone charger, tomtom etc. Also, since the right door pocket and the glove compartment aren't really reachable in save way when driving, you don't really have a lot of options left.
* The 12v charger is not in the best imaginable place, leaving the cable upwards between your arm and the shift-stick, also I would have liked to have two (like another one at the back of the mid-console).
* Only one cup-holder.
* The restraint (don't know if that's the correct english word for head rest) of the front two seats feel really hard when laying your head to rest.
* Closing the trunk using the inside grips is not really working for me. In order to completely close it you either have to pull really hard and hope you get your hand out of the way in time or push the top of trunk with your hands (which transfers the dirt of your car onto your hands).
* The bluetooth system won't save my setting for streaming audio when the car restarts. This means I have to click Source twice when switching between USB and radio, since there is no music on my phone. Also it doesn't recognize if there is anything connected on aux, which means again two presses when going back from radio to USB (well, at least that's consistent
).* Everyone I call using bluetooth complains about the bad quality of the call. But I can hear them absolutely perfect. I suspect there is something wrong with the microphone and I'm going to ask Peugeot if they can have a look at it. I never had any complaints in my 407 with the same phone, which I think basically uses the same bluetooth system. Therefore I have good hope a new microphone will fix the problem.
* The car makes me drive too fast, which is off course not his fault, it's just too much fun
. When others clear the road when you approach on the highway, you just feel like you need to live up to their expectations (and again so follows another push through the speed limiter)..