19 Jan 07
Peculiarly, the car also seems to get dirty quicker than any other I've driven. I knew the Dakota lemon leather would find the going hard with two small children and the infinite supply of mud they carry on their shoes, but it's the outside's almost magnetic attraction to road sludge I cannot figure out. I can get it showroom clean, collect the kids from school and it will look like I've been off-roading in it.
Nor is this an inherent component of living in an apparently now permanently wet Wales. I have other cars here that do the same journey yet don't appear to suffer to anything like the same extent. Maybe it's the fat tyres, its lack of mud guards or just that its colour shows it more. All I know is that after two days on the road, I'm embarrassed to be seen out in public in it.
But I don't really mind. If an hour a week with the jet wash is the price asked for a car that suits my needs this well, I'm happy to pay. It not only makes journeys shorter by being so quick and so rarely needing to stop for diesel (it appears to do 35mpg however you drive it), it makes them appear shorter too, which is just as neat a trick. You just don't notice the miles slip by as you do in lesser cars.
So far the 335d is shaping up to be all I'd hoped - as strong a candidate for best car on sale as I can think of. It feels strong, safe and stable, which satisfies my needs as a parent. It is quiet, comfortable and has a 500-mile range which, when you rack up the miles like me, is non-negotiable. And when it comes to it, it's a blast to point down a good road and savagely quick in a straight line too, which satisfies the cravings of the die-hard enthusiast within.
But the best way to describe how I feel about this car is simply to say this: barely two months into my tenure, I am dreading already that time late this year when someone is going to come and take it away. How on earth will I replace it? Answers on a postcard, please.
