Dippy

I've joined the 'it looks better in the metal' camp, but I still prefer the old shape.

Marginal improvement in overall build quality, but nothing special. IMO interior a bit better but again nothing special. Storage facilities in wagon better, but still a bit cheap & cheerful.

I was surprised to find the saloon's seats were good IMO (although bucket seats better), and might even go for them for the airbags. However you can't get the airbag seats for the wagon!

As others have said, the main change is the smoothness of the drive, and it's a lot quieter. The turbo is definately more progressive, and acceleration is still good, only marginally worse than the standard UK MY00 IMO.

However I didn't feel that the smoothness was worth anything. If I wanted to get some decent acceleration (e.g. for overtaking), then I had to change gear to make sure that the turbo was doing its stuff. As a result all smoothness was effectively lost. If I didn't change gear then the car would simply accelerate slowly until the turbo got working. The lag is still there, but it's just less obvious.

So my conclusion is that it's a good car and has some improvements, but that's really not enough. I wouldn't drive the car for it's smoothness (maybe others would), so it has no advantages over the MY00.

I think that an MY00 with mods (for me a PPP) would be a better (and cheaper) option. And besides the MY00 would look better.

I think that only if I could get a discount on an MY01, and use it to pay for a PPP would I consider an MY01 over an MY00.

[This message has been edited by Dippy (edited 22 December 2000).]