Archive for category Vauxhall
The Vauxhall Corsa Review
The face of the Vauxhall Corsa has changed dramatically over the years, going from a small, boxy car to the larger and more spacious size of today. Heralded by the irritating ‘C’mon’ adverts, the new model offers a different face to the brand. Due to the fact that the whole car is now bigger, the small engine struggles to pick up speed, especially on high speed motorways. The diesel picks up quicker, but at current fuel prices, will give your wallet a hefty whack.
The five door is spacious, with plenty of room for guests to relax, and the drivers seat offers a chair that you can put up and down, as well as move nearer and further to the wheel. You cannot adjust the steering column, but with these features even the shortest legged lovely should be OK. If you go for the three door option then it is very hard to get three in the back, as the tapered shape minimises comfort and better suits two.
The boot seems small but offers a deepener, much like a parcel shelf, that you can remove if you have lots of shopping or bags to go away for the weekend. The spare wheel is hidden away nicely too.
Inside, the dashboard is smart and most models have air conditioning and a CD player, as well as being compatible with MP3 players. It looks stylish, and is certainly better than earlier models. Read the rest of this entry »
The Vauxhall Astra VXR
This week I test drove the Vauxhall Astra VXR and was asked whether I was the type of person who’d buy this type of car – a powerhouse of a hatchback. “Well am I?” I thought, so here’s my CV. I don’t profess to be many things but I like to think of myself as a nice guy, who’s hard-working, law abiding, music loving, car worshipping and sport mad. I also like to advertise myself as somewhat of a film expert and enjoy dropping into conversation with like-minded people the Spanish language film I saw last night or what actually happened in The Matrix. Until this week however there was a gaping hole in my film repertoire that ensured that my cinematic ramblings were denounced quicker than Usain Bolt running the 100 metres – I had never seen The Usual Suspects.
Having been garnered with more stars in reviews than the night sky above me, it seemed odd that I’d never taken time out to watch it. The content seemed up my street too, with the film being billed at the time of release as ‘the Reservoir Dogs of 1995′, so plenty of guns, violence, swearing and death then – not Toy Story in other words. So I finally settled down 13 years later than intended and can report that if I had any clout as a film critic there would be another maximum five stars winging their way to Bryan Singer’s masterpiece.
The premise is far from simple, but involves five criminals being brought together by the police in unusual circumstances and being blamed for a lorry hijack they (in all probability) didn’t commit. Whilst biding their time before release, they decide to wreak revenge on the police and make a tidy profit whilst doing so. Throughout the film a mystical master criminal called Keyser Soze is mentioned and via a serious of flashbacks and narration from one of the five suspects the story unravels, culminating in a bloody finale aboard a container ship and a twist so implausible that it contorts your brain into believing it’s possible – who is Keyser Soze? The beauty of the storytelling is that you know there will be a twist but cannot pinpoint how or who will be involved. Read the rest of this entry »