Distance: 2,606km
Location: Sweden, Arctic Circle
Date: January 18-22, 2017
Cover photo: Seth Lau
Up front: The low driving position matches the car’s sloping roofline and sporty styling. I felt like I was driving a tamed racer through the snow up into the Arctic Circle. It takes a little getting used to stretching your leg out to step on the pedals, but the centre screen controls, steering wheel buttons, and gauge cluster were easy to operate. I like the column-mounted shifter and wish more automatic cars had it. This was the first automatic car I’ve driven and I don’t hate it.
The seats are manually adjusted in the base model, but they are racing-style bucket seats. The shape helps with back and shoulder support, however, and adjustable headrest would have been a nice touch to enhance long-distance comfort.
In the back: The rear seats aren’t generous and headroom is only mediocre. I have driven both the diesel wagon version of this car in Sweden and more popular petrol sedan variation in Canada. I can say that the wagon’s biggest advantage is versatility. Instead of complaining about inadequate headroom, I folded the seats down and the rear cargo area was long enough to sleep two on a winter arctic adventure. We just had to put our emergency equipment and shovels in the front seats.
Driving: The small four-cylinder mated to an all-wheel drive system isn’t quite highway material, but it is more than capable of cutting through packed snow on two-lane country roads. Even in the extreme cold, the estate car never failed to turn, never acted up, and never slipped up on an ice road. It wasn’t my favourite car to drive, but it is plenty capable for most road conditions.
