Been anywhere interesting?
The 6 has been busy transporting me, a couple of mates and an extraordinary amount of stuff to France. Being June, it was pointed in the direction of Le Mans, the 6 being drafted in as our troop and gear carrier. Le Mans is best when camping, and due to the busy traffic around the circuit pushbikes are handy. So we loaded up the 6's huge boot with no less than three mountain bikes, three tents, a camping fridge (warm beer just won't do) and all the other sleeping bags and kit that you need when sleeping under canvas. If that wasn't enough we decided a spot of golf on the way down through France would be fun; somehow we managed to squeeze three sets of golf clubs in there too - all with three people aboard. If I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it. It coped with the circa 900-mile fully-loaded round trip with ease, though I'll admit I'm glad I was driving and not squeezed into the solitary back seat.
Anything stand out...?
Aside from its capacity? Quite a lot. The 6 is a pleasantly hushed motorway performer, the engine quietening down significantly when it's cruising at speed. The seats continue to impress, perfectly balancing comfort and support. Even with three people in the car on the way through France the cabin remained relatively clutter free, the usefully sized door bins, glovebox and handy central storage unit between the driver and passenger meaning things like satnav, phones and iPods could be hidden out of view on our frequent stops. The cable slots allowing things to be plugged in but kept tidy are a particularly neat touch.
Despite the additional weight (quite a significant amount) and higher average cruising speed on the French autoroutes the 6 actually managed an increase on the average fuel consumption on the trip computer. It's now at 38.0mpg, that admittedly not a huge leap over the 37.9mpg it was at before. With a few more long journeys lined up in the next month or two without the boot filled to the roof I'm expecting that number to go up further still.
...and for the wrong reasons?
I've still yet to do anything about the buzzing speaker, and I must investigate whether the headlights really are meant to be set to on (regardless of what setting you've got the stalk at) all the time. I'm all for using headlights as much as possible, but sometimes I feel having them on all day is considered a touch aggressive by other road users.
With the boot fully loaded on the way to France I noticed the steering felt a bit weird. The power steering system seemed to weight up rather inconsistently, meaning steering response that was sometimes far from linear. In fairness it's not something I've noticed since emptying it of people and the huge amount of kit we had on board, but I'll be keeping an eye out for it on future long trips.
Annoyingly the front wing has been scratched. I'm not entirely sure when or where, but I noticed it when returning to the car at the airport. I've also managed to scratch the car myself, it seemingly rather easy to do. Thankfully mine is on the inside of the rear doorframe so it's not visible when the doors are closed. I guess I'll be looking into scratch repairs in the near future.
Where next?
France in June, Scotland in July. It's heading up north of the border for a visit to Edinburgh to see friends and family. I'm looking forward to enjoying its sharp responses on some familiar roads through the Scottish Borders and its relaxed, easy progress on the motorways before then. I've been busy on Amazon this month, so my iPod is primed with some new music to enjoy en-route, I just hope there's nothing on it with too much bass...
