Bit of a long post but I thought I’d document our recent trip to France in our 2024 C-HR which we took delivery of last August. Get yourself a coffee or a beer 🍺
We’ve just come back from a 4 week trip to Normandy and it’s the first time the car has had a truly long run. When we set off the mileage was just over 800 and we did a total of 1355 miles on the trip.
Economy - Overall fuel consumption was 43.33 mpg based on brim to brim calculations but that was with the car fully loaded - 2 adults, back seat and boot full of luggage (5 large holdalls) and several other bags, Thule Bike carrier on the towbar (18kg) and 2 x Electric Mountain bikes (24kg each). About 95% of the driving was on Dual Carriageways, Motorways and Autoroutes, with a small amount in rural France at our destination when it went up to high 60‘s mpg tootling about.
To put this in context we have done this trip many times in our previous VW Touareg with a roofbox/bike carrier/fully loaded and our dog (who sadly is no longer with us) and averaged about 30 mpg on premium diesel, paying significantly more in fuel costs.
We spent £166.01 on fuel after setting off with a full tank and we still have about 1/3 of a tank left. We always filled up with 97/98 octane E5 premium fuel. Overall the cost of premium fuel averaged out at £1.44/ltr as it’s more expensive in France. I’m more than happy with the running costs compared to the Touareg which cost about £285 on a like for like basis. Yes that was a 2.5 tonne 4x4 3.0 V6 TDI with plenty of performance but the C-HR didn’t feel underpowered or stressed in comparison.
Driving experience - on the outward journey the steering felt a bit lighter with the extra weight in/on the car but surprisingly it didn’t feel like that on the way back. The car was very comfortable for both of us, squeak and rattle free (the only rattle was traced to my chewing gum in its plastic container). The Air con was permanently on (I never switch it off) and we both used the heated front seats frequently. The roads in France are significantly better and despite the 20” wheels, tyre noise was only intrusive on some concrete sections of the A1/M20/M25 in the UK.
Dynamic Radar Cruise Control - I always used this on main routes and it made for a really relaxing drive, allowing you to rest both feet off the pedals. I left the distance control as set by the factory as I was comfortable with it and it gave me plenty of time to react to the traffic ahead. I rarely encountered situations where I had to manually intervene apart from a couple of instances where a vehicle cut across me from lane 3 to lane 1 chasing an upcoming exit - this happened twice in the UK but not in France (less dickheads over there). It’s easy enough to manually increase/decrease speed using the steering wheel +/- button or increasing speed by lightly applying more throttle.
Blind Spot Monitoring - both door mirrors flashed constantly on the way down, but only a few times when driving back in the UK - strangely this rarely happened in France but maybe registering the offside barrier when driving on the right 🤔
The radar sensors are mounted under each corner of the rear bumper, so presumably it was due to the way the bikes were loaded on the carrier (wheels were sticking out a couple of inches either side).
Parking Support Brake - my car had the PKSB software update applied before delivery but this was the first real trip to test it with the bikes on. Switching off PKSB prevents the brakes slamming on when reversing but automatic switching when the towing electrics are connected would be a much more logical feature. As the update also switches off the front sensors, you have to remember to switch it back on again when you remove the towed connection - simple enough though and just an observation.
Sat Nav - we used Waze throughout the journey and streamed UK radio (Greatest Hits and Radio 5 Live for FA Cup football commentary). On the way out we used offline maps in France but it didn’t show this on the way back. Waze will warn you of speed cameras (technically illegal in France) by informing you of ‘Police reported ahead’ just before speed camera locations. We changed the units from mph to kph to keep consistency with the speed limits and the distance signs in France. Waze will give you your actual speed in GPS and a speedo display of 73 mph showed as a true 70mph on Waze.
Menu Settings - we also changed the in-car settings to klm and it was interesting to note that the Road Sign Assist showed both the maximum 110/130 kph limits on the Autoroutes and also displayed a second speed limit alongside as you passed the exits (usually 90/70/50 kph) with a small no. 2 shown under the secondary speed limit.
Head Up Display - a great feature for keeping your eyes on the road, especially for speed limits and the Dynamic Cruise Control/Lane Tracing Assist. Again, I’ve left the settings as default as I’m comfortable with what is being displayed.
Driver Monitor Camera - got warned a couple of times when I took my eyes off the road ahead to look left/right or when I moved a hand/arm to the 12 o’clock position but my wife usually beat the car to this 🤣
Wireless Charging - worked great for both phones, charging our iPhones quickly and the Bluetooth connection was solid for Apple CarPlay. I had downloaded quite a bit of music onto a 32Gb USB C drive and had tested this before the trip but never lost our streaming reception, so we didn’t used this.
Sanef toll tag - this makes driving through the Autoroutes much easier with a toll account and a DD set up for auto-pay. Not having a roofbox also meant I could use the 30 kph drive-though lane (2m height limit) without having to stop. Several toll booths have now been removed in Normandy (A13) as they move towards gantry readers and this speeds up the journey, so you can expect this system in the future. There is just enough room to attach the toll tag vertically in the dotted area of the screen on the drivers side so it can be read by the sensors.
Reflections on Windscreen - I had read comments about the upper dash being reflected onto the windscreen and whilst there was some reflection this didn’t bother or distract me in the slightest and neither did the distorted view out the lower rear screen as I regularly checked on the bikes - pleased to say that both were rock steady on the Thule carrier, which is a quality piece of kit.
Brake squeal - I’d read about this problem on the GR Sport and I had experienced this before going away so I’ll flag it up to my dealer for attention. It only happens when coming to a slow stop or moving slowly in stop-start situations. Whether it’s the wheel harmonics or a pad/disc issue remains to be seen but it is noticeable and attracts looks from pedestrians. I did give the brakes a couple of good hard applications but it’s still there.
Overall - apart from having to drive through 3-4” of mud at our residence in France due to a local farmer driving his tractor/trailer into the adjacent fields, the car ran impeccably and we are very pleased with it. The weather was generally wet/damp and every time we took the car out it got covered in mud again, so it’s going back to the detailer for a steam clean next week and deservedly so 👍
