Top marks for economy, effortless performance

bit of an anomaly in that it is not offered with an automatic transmission‚ which the company says is due to low demand.

With the segment leaning towards front wheel-drive variants‚ it is perhaps not surprising that the top spec model is not likely to be the first port of call for most buyers.

That aside‚ the model continues to be a plush‚ economical and relatively comfortable vehicle to live with. The heated leather front seats came in handy over winter.

The panoramic roof is a great treat for lending an airy feel to the cabin and is a hit with entertaining kids at night as they gaze at the star-lit night sky.

Trying to get fuel consumption to dip below the 7-litres/100km figure has been rather elusive as we have spent a great deal of time driving in urban conditions. A longer‚ open road sojourn should see us lower our current 7.2litres/100km figure‚ which is actually not too shabby. We have seen figures as low as 5.4-litres/100km should you try extremely hard to eke the most out of the fuel tank.

Driving the model in eco mode is great on the open road‚ but proves a tad frustrating around town as it neuters the throttle to a point that makes the turbo lag more pronounced. This‚ in turn‚ requires the driver to go back and forward through the gears more than is pleasurable‚ so I found switching to normal mode around town to be the best option.

Even in this more responsive mode‚ the engine continues to be reasonably frugal. We have seen figures of 848km on a 45-litre tank‚ which is quite credible for a vehicle of this size and the conditions under which that range was achieved.

We have played around with the changeable instrument cluster‚ which is a cool feature usually associated with vehicles in a higher price bracket. In addition‚ the TomTom-based navigation system is fairly intuitive and easy to use‚ thanks to the touchscreen infotainment system.