Now looks like they actually bothered to design it for EU market - heavily benchmarking the Golf, or what?

Previous model looked like it was benckmarked against an old Hyundai Accent; I only knew it, because a neighbour has one.

Maybe a (reliable) alternative to the Golf, at last...

 

Yeah I think it was. I was reasonably late to the party but seen documents with golf mentioned on them. Not surprising though since golfs pretty much define c-seg

I think a lot of people at work went wtf! When the last version came out. I know at least one or two who would have rather stuck with the previous gen corolla

 

Well, the fact that from some angles...was a bit of a giveaway.

At least it's a bit saggy than the Honda Bagpuss.

 

So far preview press reports have been good so hoping it gets a bit more volume into us.

If interior colour match is pants or the owners manual are pants then you can blame me for it

 

Volume for UK Plc would be good; the Japanese have all had a bad depression in EU (aside from Nissan with the QuashCow)

Actually, the interior thing is something I've long wondered about - the last Celica was basically fine, except the centre console looked like someone had left a used condom on the floor. I noticed Bagpuss is faaar more Yerpean standard than most Japanese.

I hope you've included some token Japglish bizarreness in the book:

"Do not sit on bike on stand otherwise the man become injured when the bike fallded down" being my favourite.

 

It's still leaving me a bit luke warm .... but then that perfectly describes most of what's on the market at the moment

 

Front end is no doubt very safe when swatting kids on the school run

but it still 'minds me of Leslie Ash in a fairground mirror ...

 

There is a smaller Nissan that looks remarkably similar! Dunno what it's called. Nissan Issan.

I think the next stage is fairly predictable; it'll do very well in tests (being virtually inseparable from the golf apart from ergonomics) but then the hacks will thump the dash moulding and thus conclusively prove the Golf is better quailty and say it is 'still the car of choice'. The battery thinkers will thus continue to buy Golves.

The test will be more interesting, because it will also include Bagpuss, which will get slagged off for having a torsion beam rear end. When it's pointed out to them that Golf 7 also has reverted to a TB axle, you will hear the crunching of the hacks selecting reverse gear from across the continent.

 

Anyway; we're all quite jealous that Ben gets to help design a new car and we didn't. Even if it's an Auriole & not an LF-A.

 

You will go wtf! When you see the dash clock that's warped in from the early 80s
Not noticed any discarded condoms in this one yet.
What were you wondering about the interior? Will answer if I can

Hope we've picked up all the typos in the book but it does add character if you find the odd howler