anton (07/04/82)
I agree with utcsrgv!ralph on the R5's I had an R5L - the bottom of range - in England. It could manage 90mph if it had the room in which to accelerate, the limitation being the 850cc engine. If I bothered to keep the engine cleaned and tuned once a month I could get better than 50mpg out of it commuting to work. OK, this is without emmision control, but the current model gives much the same on leadless (known as two star in the UK). Few cars in England are over 2 litres, but then they don't have power take offs for for all the lazy-man widgets that add to the weight of the car. There is also a general feeling that automatic gearboxes are for pansies. It all adds up to a more efficient way of getting around; smaller cars, less fuel, less mineral resources being consumed.... My father now has my old R5. Its not as confortable as his Citroe:n CX Pallas (the Pallas means Palace, and the inside is palacial even by the standards of the expensive American cars, but then with powered suspension..... Hey, my father takes sleeping policemen (what the English call speed bumps) at over 30, and it feels less than a LTD (which I've diven here) going over streetcar tracks ! The current advert campaign in the UK has a wheel being blown off a Citroen with a small charge as it is heading down between to artics. The steering doesn't budge an inch. You get much the same response from the Citroen whatever the road conditions are like. What I do miss from it on American cars is the *self centering* of the power steering. Any offers on that one ? /anton aylward