The Long Way Home

Tonight I decided to put the iOn to the test and came home from work the "fun" way. If you come off the A1 at the Metrocentre and head as if you were going up to Consett you can very quickly get your self onto some lovely, lumpy-bumpy, bendy country roads. The old Stilo wallows around them as if the suspension was made of marshmallow but it does iron out the lumps and bumps quite well so I wondered how the smaller Peugueot would do and was looking forward to maybe a slightly sportier, fun ride. Let's just say it was a bit jittery. The first section is still fairly urban with smooth, wide roads but with some pretty damn steep hills. These were absolutely no problem. Speed and acceleration up the hills was great and not having an gears meant hill starts were a doddle. Once I got into the countryside though things changed dramatically. It was bumping around, banging and crashing over little lumps - it wasn't very pleasant at all. In fact by the time I got home I had motion sickness. I was trying to drive it the same as I would drive the Fiat and I'm not a nutter of a driver but I had to slow down quite a lot just to keep the thing on the ground and going in the direction I wanted it to go. Of course none of this has anything to do with it being electric, it's all to do with what the car was designed to do. It is very much a city car. It's perfect for driving along city street and even motorway driving is good as long as you don't want to break to speed limit (which of course I don't) but it just wasn't designed for rural British roads. I'm not sure what they would have to do to make it better - perhaps softer suspension, longer travel in the suspension or even bigger wheels. Suggestions in the comments if you can think of any...

I realised earlier today that I hadn't mentioned much of what I know about the Peugeot iOn its self. When I found out I'd been chosen to do this I did a bit of research and found that it is in fact a "europeanised" Mitsubishi i-MiEV . Apart from sticking a few lions here and there I'm not entirely sure what Peugeot have changed on it. They may have made the interior a bit less bland and the front of the car looks a little better. And the name is slightly less silly. I don't even know how to say "i-MiEV." The i-MiEV itself is based on the i-kei conventional car which is an even sillier name so maybe we should be thanking the French for actually coming up with a half decent name. Even thought they did fall in to the "i in front of everything" trap. That's pretty much it, I didn't say I knew a lot about it.