Celebrating character!
Owning a 106 is like owning a first car in many ways, they have lots of little quirks and foibles that give the car character, even if they annoy you sometimes you still end up chuckling to yourself!
Some of the things I’ve noticed:
- The window switches are situated down in front of gearstick instead of on door or dashboard like most cars.
- The blowers clearly have no filter whatsoever as they let in all smells from outside from sweet smelling pollen to smokey fires.
- The engine has a lovely sonorous sweet spot at around 4k where it sounds fantastic under acceleration.
- The fuses are located behind an apologetic draped cloth which is accessible when you open the glovebox instead of tucked away behind the steering column or similar.
- The gearstick feels low down on the left, far from the likes of a Honda civic, where it is inches from the steering wheel.
- The main one people notice – the pedals are close together and offset to the left, so when you first drive it you tend to hit the wheel arch instead of accelerator. Because the pedals are close together those with big feet or large trainers can often hit two pedals at once. However I’ve found heel and toe is possible, even with size 10s!
- The bonnet release is tucked away in the passenger footwell, as on a lot of French cars so you have to reach right across from the driver’s seat or get out and go round the other side of the car.
Owning a 106 myself, these things make me smile, and make me realise that as cars get heavier and more generic and boring, no manufacturer will probably ever create a car like the 106 again. At ~900kg with one of the best handling chassis’ in the world, even 12 years after being manufactured, it stands it’s ground against much more modern machinery.
