... was collected today.
Albs was right on the money, it turns out. You've all met the Big Black Pussy, so allow me to introduce the Little Blue Pussy.
Apologies for the nasty phone picture, that doesn't really do it justice. I'll take a nicer one when I get a chance.
It's a 2017 MY XE 25t Portfolio.
I was after something with a bit more usable boot space than the Omega, and started off looking at large hatchbacks. Was very tempted by the Mondeo. Huge amounts of space (more than I needed, TBH) but found it a rather uninvolved drive. Plenty of power and performance from the 2.0t petrol models but it felt a bit wasted on a FWD platform where you can't put much of it down on the road and can't really even tell when you're shredding the front tyres, I found.
Decided I'd have to compromise a little on space and go for another RWD saloon.
Drove the XE and was immediately sold. You can throw it around like Mrs KW's MX5 and it handles beautifully, yet it's also refined, very quick and absorbs the bumps and potholes well.
With modern petrols now economical enough not to have to worry about LPG, the boot space is just about acceptable with the rear seats folded down. Thereby the snag. Folding rear seats were a £400+ option on the XE and they are a bit sparse on the used market, and not normally listed in the adverts. I ended up travelling to Brentwood to see this one (only to discover that it spent its previous life just up the road from me in Basingstoke).
Anyway, back up there on the train today and took it for a little jaunt around Essex before traipsing around the M25 and back home. I love it.
With 240 PS, an 8 speed auto box and 200 kg less weight than the MV6 it feels effortlessly quick in comparison. There is some turbo lag which can catch you out at times, and the auto box is rather eager to romp down the gears in the response to the loud pedal to try and get the turbo on song. Until you've got used to this, rapid progress can be a little uncouth but if you're a little more careful with the loud pedal it's very smooth.
Seats are very adjustable with memories, you can wind the seat down low in the chassis, which adds to the handling. I never feel happy "pressing on" in anything too "sit up and beg". The interior is black leather and very comfy. It's going to be another effortless mile muncher like the Omega, I'm sure.
Toys. It's got them. Loads of them in menus everywhere. No idea where to find most of the features yet.
Did manage to get the Meridian audio system working on the way home, and that sounds pretty decent.
It claimed an average of 38 MPG for today's jaunt which included a mixture of hooning around and pottering along in M25 traffic, so that looks promising.
You don't get the V6 sound track of the Omega but the 4 pot is pretty quiet and doesn't intrude much. For the performance and economy over the Omega I can live with that.
I suppose it doesn't really do bangernomics in the way that an Omega does, but then I failed to find any worthy replacement for the Omega that's newish (3-4 years old) that does. If this lasts me as long as the Omega has, then it'll have been a bargain.
My LPG'd 3.2 MV6 will soon be looking for a new home....
