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FINDING THE RIGHT car for your lifestyle and budget can be a tricky process. We want to help streamline the search. As part of our Insights series, every week we’ll take a different car-buying question to the experts at the heart of the motor industry.
This week, we’re talking city driving. When most of your journeys consist of short hops, tight parking spaces and busy city streets, what extras will make life easier?
We asked Nicholas Mulhall, Sales Executive at Conlans Peugeot in Rathangan, Co Kildare, to offer some expertise. Here are six features that should be top of your must-have list if you’re a city driver, according to Nicholas…
City driving means shorter journeys, so you want an engine that is always running at its optimum. Not only do diesel engines take around ten minutes to warm up, the DPF filter can also get clogged if you’re not regularly taking the car for longer drives, like on a motorway, for example. Choosing a petrol engine will save you fuel and maintenance costs in the long run.
In-built sat navs in cars are not as user-friendly as the ones we’re used to on our smartphones. In my opinion, Google Maps is the best navigation system out there, so look for a car display that’ll mirror your own smartphone screen using Apple CarPlay for iPhones or Mirror Link for Android.
Peugeot has the i-Cockpit display which does just that, and it means you’re handsfree at all times too.
Anyone who hates parallel parking should opt for a car with good Park Assist tech. The best systems kick in when you’re driving under a certain speed.
They’ll detect available parking spaces, figure out if a space is big enough, and help with the steering to make positioning the car simpler. You control the brakes, gears and steering inputs, but the Park Assist will aid you in reversing and manoeuvring.
As well as helping you with tricky parking spots, a reversing camera increases overall visibility and boosts driver confidence.
The camera is especially handy if you’re reversing toward a kerb or other obstacle, and it will tell you via colour changes and beeping on your display how close you are.
When you’re driving in busy areas, you need to be hyper-aware of what’s going on outside the car. A good braking assistance system detects nearby obstacles using a short-range laser sensor, and can automatically apply the brakes if it notices something within an unsafe distance.
It’ll also recognise the difference between a stationary object like a tree and a moving object like a human or another car, and can react accordingly.
The more compact your car, the easier it is to drive in traffic-heavy areas, and the simpler it is to park – an obvious point but a crucial one.
In our showroom, I favour the Peugeot 2008 for city driving. It’s a mini SUV so you have a higher driving position than a saloon or hatchback, but a small size too. Plus, five-doors generally have doors that are shorter in length but open wider, making it easier for you to hop in and out.
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I was wondering what Amy Hubermann was thinking of it all. Thank God for The Journal.
Went into spar for a cup of coffee, the sun was so strong there was people wearing sun glasses outside. When i came out 5mins later there was a hail shower. Mad stuff that coffee
Oh, that was good for a smile at the end of a working day!
April showers bring may flowers
@Alan Carthy: Hope your right Alan we’ve all the baskets done
@Alan au contraire. Whan that Aprille with his shoures swete / The droghte of Marche hath pierced to the root…and loads of my bedding plants look frost nipped.
Then it got sunny, then the hail returned, then rain, then the sun came back…don’t know what is next, cats and dogs?
@The Girl:
Years ago when roots were thatch, cats and dogs slept in them to keep warm. When it got too wet the cats and dogs would slip out, hence the saying ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’.
@Lily: Yes but where did the expression “It’s p155ing down out of the high heavens” originate.
We have a saying or nursery kind of song in German:
April, April der macht was er will. Mal Regen und mal Sonnenschein dann schneit es wieder zwischendrein, April, April, April, der macht was er will.
Translation lol
APRIL APRIL APRIL DOES WHAT IT LIKES. ONCE RAIN AND ONCE SUNSHINE THEN SNOW IN BETWEEN. APRIL APRIL APRIL DOES WHAT IT LIKES…
and finishes the sentence in sunshine lol
@Christine Klein: heil heil heil…ja ja ja
Lots if hail, thunder and lightning at the minute. Serious stuff
@niall: are you a bit scared Niall?
@Captain kirk: thunder and lightening, very very frightening!
@Rui Firmino: mid twenties here…..nice
@Gus Sheridan: mid forties here…. So a bit older than you.
@Paraic McDonagh: Early 40′s here.
Oops… Someone spilled their Crystal meth all over the road
Looks like Summer’s over. It’s all downhill from here
Only another eight weeks and the nights will be getting shorter.
Amy Huberman giving Flann O’Brien a run for his money there.
That Amy Huberman is a hoot.
How dare you be in Portugal!!
April is the cruellest month. Eliot was right. Reckon it was too early to put out the sweetpea.
Ne’er cast a clout ’til May is out. Monkey’s not brass but fralsetto today.
Earth is fu*ked up.
@Paul Radburn: Snow in Turkey today and in Germany yesterday?
https://youtu.be/PIjNB_QYiws DUBLIN sleet today with a blue sky in backround
have your say