... As it's looking likely that I'm going to be saying goodbye to my bright blue Ibiza in the next couple of months (or even weeks perhaps). I thought I'd write a little homage to my fairly normal little car. This is a bit of a story so grab a tea and biccies and put your feet up. It's not exciting but just go with the prose...
When I say normal I just mean it's not a particularly special Ibiza... just a 1.4 75ps of little poke but plenty of solid reliability, a nice looking small hatch, but a bit of a sheep in wolf's clothing, albeit a dependable sheep (if that doesn't sound too dodgy...).
Looking back at my posts I originally came on here asking about the Ibiza 1.4 TDi in March 2006... but I ended up with the 1.4 petrol a few days after I posted about the TDi. In many ways I wish I had gone with the TDi, it might have been more torquey - meaning those horrible moments when my ibiza slugged slowly away from junctions might have been less excrutiating and the fuel consumption might have been much more acceptable for my wallet due to not needing to kick the guts out of it with my right foot to get the revs to an acceptable level for taking off - but hindsight is a wonderful thing. And just perhaps... I might not have kept it so long. It might not have given me these years of relatively faultless service.... who knows
I love my car despite it's faults. The Extreme blue paint may not have been my choice had I bought the car new, but being an SX that bought me a few toys. The climate control being my favourite of these. It works well. The ventilation is superb with a good flow of air coming into the car - to the point that I can smell when someone is smoking in a car two cars ahead of me and have to quickly put the ventilation on recirc to stop the stink coming in.....
It also got front fogs and the Alana CD radio which I quickly replaced with a JVC unit, and fairly nice 15" alloys. It didn't get the computer that tells you the fuel economy (thankfully or it'd be reminding me that it's not great all the time) or the steering wheel mounted controls... but hey, you can't have everything. And the unusual colour grew on me until I now love it. It looks great with a coat of good wax...
I even got used to the doors, with their single hinge stop, that either closed heavily on your leg or smashed into objects next to you if you weren't careful. I learned to juggle the things I was carrying to hold the door where I wanted it to get in and out without damage to me, the door or any car next to me.
I learned exactly where the sweetspot is in the revs so that you can pull away from junctions at a pace approaching fairly fast rather than having the worrying drop in engine note and speed if you get the revs wrong - which at first was accompanied by many cases of stalled engine.
I liked it's little eccentricities... though the lack of boot light always amazed me.
I liked it's comfort, the solid cocooning feeling that I felt when I first got into the ibiza that made my old 1998 fiesta feel like a flimsy tin can. The feeling that it was a proper car made of proper stuff, that looked pretty sexy and IMO still does even though it's in standard pre-facelift guise.
It didn't cause me much hassle. The rear washer pipe popped off, almost inevitably, the fog light/headlight switch was dodgy and there was a problem with a leak in the radiator. But those were fixed under warranty and nothing left me stranded. After the warranty all it's needed is a wishbone bush and a couple of bulbs, and less than 500 ml top up oil. It runs smoothly and quietly and doesn't make much fuss.
It's just.... I wish it had a bit more wolf there for a bit more economy... What I didn't realise when I bought it was that I probably picked one of the dullest engines in the line up and one which due to the need to over-rev it had quite poor economy for the performance. The 1.2 3-cylinder was more fun to drive when I had one as a courtesy car..... If I'd picked another variant I probably wouldn't be changing cars now as I'd happily drive it for another 2 years or more.... however I've got itchy feet now..
.... I should never have had that affair with the new 1.2 TSI
.....
When I say normal I just mean it's not a particularly special Ibiza... just a 1.4 75ps of little poke but plenty of solid reliability, a nice looking small hatch, but a bit of a sheep in wolf's clothing, albeit a dependable sheep (if that doesn't sound too dodgy...).
Looking back at my posts I originally came on here asking about the Ibiza 1.4 TDi in March 2006... but I ended up with the 1.4 petrol a few days after I posted about the TDi. In many ways I wish I had gone with the TDi, it might have been more torquey - meaning those horrible moments when my ibiza slugged slowly away from junctions might have been less excrutiating and the fuel consumption might have been much more acceptable for my wallet due to not needing to kick the guts out of it with my right foot to get the revs to an acceptable level for taking off - but hindsight is a wonderful thing. And just perhaps... I might not have kept it so long. It might not have given me these years of relatively faultless service.... who knows
I love my car despite it's faults. The Extreme blue paint may not have been my choice had I bought the car new, but being an SX that bought me a few toys. The climate control being my favourite of these. It works well. The ventilation is superb with a good flow of air coming into the car - to the point that I can smell when someone is smoking in a car two cars ahead of me and have to quickly put the ventilation on recirc to stop the stink coming in.....
It also got front fogs and the Alana CD radio which I quickly replaced with a JVC unit, and fairly nice 15" alloys. It didn't get the computer that tells you the fuel economy (thankfully or it'd be reminding me that it's not great all the time) or the steering wheel mounted controls... but hey, you can't have everything. And the unusual colour grew on me until I now love it. It looks great with a coat of good wax...
I even got used to the doors, with their single hinge stop, that either closed heavily on your leg or smashed into objects next to you if you weren't careful. I learned to juggle the things I was carrying to hold the door where I wanted it to get in and out without damage to me, the door or any car next to me.
I learned exactly where the sweetspot is in the revs so that you can pull away from junctions at a pace approaching fairly fast rather than having the worrying drop in engine note and speed if you get the revs wrong - which at first was accompanied by many cases of stalled engine.
I liked it's little eccentricities... though the lack of boot light always amazed me.
I liked it's comfort, the solid cocooning feeling that I felt when I first got into the ibiza that made my old 1998 fiesta feel like a flimsy tin can. The feeling that it was a proper car made of proper stuff, that looked pretty sexy and IMO still does even though it's in standard pre-facelift guise.
It didn't cause me much hassle. The rear washer pipe popped off, almost inevitably, the fog light/headlight switch was dodgy and there was a problem with a leak in the radiator. But those were fixed under warranty and nothing left me stranded. After the warranty all it's needed is a wishbone bush and a couple of bulbs, and less than 500 ml top up oil. It runs smoothly and quietly and doesn't make much fuss.
It's just.... I wish it had a bit more wolf there for a bit more economy... What I didn't realise when I bought it was that I probably picked one of the dullest engines in the line up and one which due to the need to over-rev it had quite poor economy for the performance. The 1.2 3-cylinder was more fun to drive when I had one as a courtesy car..... If I'd picked another variant I probably wouldn't be changing cars now as I'd happily drive it for another 2 years or more.... however I've got itchy feet now..
.... I should never have had that affair with the new 1.2 TSI
.....
