lulzyboy

Yeah, it's ****e. I used to mine to travel though 20 countries in Europe and it constantly told me to go up one way streets, make turns where turns weren't and use roads that weren't even there (which has now caused my bump to have massive scrapes in). It also randomly tells me to turn left when it means turn right and gives me wrong directions causing me to U turn when it wanted me to go down the street I was already on. Also dislike that you can't tell it to bypass specific countries. EG: If I want to go to the UK with it from here, it will tell me to go though Kalinigrad, which I cannot do due it to being Russian and not having a visa. There is no way to tell it NOT to go though that country.

1 red letter = more powerful than the 1.4 spec 2 red letters = higher spec or sports version

UPDATED REVIEW AND MORE PICTURES! So having placed a bet with my friend where I'd be unable to drive any other car for a month I decided I'd go on a long road trip with it. Travelling from Estonia I went though Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia then picked up a friend and went from Serbia to Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo and back to Serbia and then brought the car back home totalling over 12,000KM (7500 miles). The car loosened up after around 2000km and the gears felt much easier to push in, although still not very responsive. The seats however were incredibly comfortable and neither me or my friend had back pain from them. Going over the pretty terrible roads in Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia wasn't bad as the suspension is hard and does a good job. Handling is still pretty much like a go kart where you never really feel in control of the car, even after 12000km. While on the autobahn I decided to see how much I could get from it and pushed it to the limit... the results were quite surprising. The roads in Bosnia and Montenegro as well as Switzerland are incredibly hilly, and well, the gearbox doesn't seem to like pulling up any sort of incline. It will do it, but you've gotta be at such high RPM and the tyres start to lose grip. Despite the flaws I've actually found a little love for the car. It's not a great car for sure, but I enjoyed my trip and the car kept on sailing though it despite not being in it's comfort zone and I think that says something. In Italy: Slovenia-Italian border town hotel: I have more pictures should anyone want them.

I did find a small box that was connected directly to the battery and filled in with some sealant to stop people opening it. I've since unplugged it.. god knows what it is. Brilliance is the BMW manufacturer in China. I think they stole the blueprints for the front end from BMW, and the back end from Toyota, who they ALSO have a contract with. Checked, no semtex sadly. I think you can thank the fact they stole the blueprints from European and other Asian car companies for that. I was actually looking at buying a Proton GEN-2 from the UK given that they're incredibly rare to see here. It'll last more than a year as long as it's not crashed... hopefully. That thing looks like a poor mans Astra.

I think the engine can output it but the gearbox is **** poor. The car originally only came with an automatic gearbox in China and this is supposed to give better fuel eco and much quicker 0-60 speed so I suspect it's the terrible NK gearbox (whatever it happens to be)

What pictures can I take for you?

Thank you. It's not that I think it's good or would be a good car, I reviewed it calling it out for the fact it's an incredibly bad car... Maybe not as bad as a Chevrolet Aveo but still bad. Compared to the MK3 Octavia it's like stepping into a 97 Fiat Punto. Also yes it failed the crash tests in pretty spectcular form, if the UK manages to stay in the EU I'll drive it the 2100 miles from here to Dover and hopefully live.

I'd say its 15 seconds or longer tbh. It's one of the slowest cars I've ever driven. I'll check the weight for you in a min. Empty weight is 1450kg Gross weight is 1810kg What photos would you like?

It was 20,000 US dollars when it was new 6 years ago, so it's not exactly expensive now. To give you an idea of what 1000 gbp would get you here, You'd get a 99 Skoda Fabia 1.4 petrol for slightly more than that with a replacement door from a stealer.

Worth noting that 1. Cars here are generally a LOT higher than UK, thus why I buy cars from Uk and export them here. and 2. I bought it expecting it to be like that. I know full well it isn't worth anything but I wanted to own a rare car that no one had so.

I bought it for just over 1000 GBP

If you can call it unique... Yesterday I purchased a Pyeonghwa Hwiparam II, a North Korean version of the Chinese Brilliance BS4. Long story short, the car belonged to a Chinese diplomat living in North Korea. He was allowed to take the car back home with him when he left. He then sold the car to Chinese company in Germany who no longer wanted it and left it in limbo at the port in Tallinn, Estonia. The owner then listed the car for sale at an incredibly cheap price and so I bought it. Registering it will be problematic given that Estonia does not acknowledge North Korea as a country and so therefore means that they have to try and register it as the Chinese counterpart, however, the VIN code is different and that causes some issues. Specifications: Manufacated: Feb 2010 1.8L Brilliance engine with 100kw (134hp) 4cyl 5 Speed manual 0-100 (62mph) 15 seconds Front wheel drive Some air bags and cheap plastic So what's it like to drive? Well... Terrible. The steering wheel vibrates over any road surface, The gearbox feels like it was taken from a tractor and modified to fit, There is near to no power what so ever from the engine considering it's got 134hp to play with it feels like you're constantly driving up a 25% hill. The back end of the frame seems to actually bend if you move left to right quickly, the steering is FAR too precise. The pedals are too high for comfort, the mirrors have a horrible reflection that make it seem like cars on the other side of the road are coming towards you then just suddenly disappear. Interior quality: Sound system is incredibly poor, sounds like someone stabbed the speakers though. The plastic on the dash is actually soft touch but under is hard plastic so it makes a rattle and creek sound. The buttons are wobbly so you don't know if you pressed them in properly or not and the screws are so cheap they mostly fall out as you go over the bumps.' NOTE: It's also worth noting that the sound system may improve if I swapped out the radio as the current one is tuned for Chinese band FM and has limiters on as required in DPRK. Any questions? feel free to ask.

Taken this morning as I came home at 4am. The colour really looks nice in the morning sunset. Some pictures from two weeks ago, I took the car to Greece this time. So now it's been across the top left and bottom right of Europe. Next up has to be Spain just to cover the whole of Europe.

If you can't find anyone and you fancy doing a long trip to Pärnu, Estonia I'd be happy to do it for you

Good pics. I'm assuming you took a boat from Denmark to Sweden? Or did you come though the baltic way up to Tallinn, Estonia over to Finland then Norway? Also heads up that next time if you want to get away with not using the light deflectors you can just put your parking lights and fog lights on. Since they're in the same fixture you can't tell if they're low beams or fogs. That's what I did before registering the car here.

Weird that the 1.8 uses way more fuel compared to my 1.2 DSG which is coming in at 5.7L/100 combined. Would have thought this car would benefit from a larger engine but apparently not.

Wouldn't know about that as my time in France is spent going as fast as possible to Belgium. Wouldn't want to spend anymore than the 40 mins that takes there.

I've noticed this more and more when I've been there. The priority seems to be "make sure everyone thinks you're loaded even if you're not". I'd actually expect it more here where everything is 2x more expensive and the wages 4x less than in the UK yet people actually care more about maintaining what they've got and keeping things running for as long as they can. Part of the reason your used car market is so cheap is down to everything being on cheap finance deals (generally at 0%) and people just saying "I don't want a car with a 63 plate people will think I'm too poor for a new car" and so they know they can just ram other things as they'll get another car in two years time so "who cares". Sad really.

The VRS 1.8T will set you back around 10.9L/100km which is around 9.1km/L (Weird how India uses km per litre) while the 1.9 TDI will give you 21.7km/L so you'd save double in fuel. It also depends on the type of drive you're doing as if you're only traveling short journeys then diesel isn't for you as it will just clog up your EGR (especially with the poor quality fuel you have) in which case I'd recommend the 1.8T Petrol VRS. However if it's long journeys then I'd go with the 1.9 TDI as you save so much on fuel that the matience is lower.

I've got the 1.2 DSG Octavia and the engine is fantastic. It pulls really well and although it wont win street races, it's nowhere close to as slow as you'd expect. I had no problem when I was in UK last month getting around at motorway speeds and undertaking the knobends in the middle lane. I also tested the 1.4 Golf before going with the Octavia and that thing flies, the options are very similar to the Octavia except Lane Assist which I don't have anyway and the Golf felt a much better car. I went for the Octavia because of it's size as a hatchack.

As someone who buys cars from UK for export I can totally understand this thread. I've yet to come across a car for sale that hasn't had some sort of ding or dent from other idiots whacking it. It also seems to be a British problem as you don't find cars in such bad conditions elsewhere. The other weird thing I'll never understand is why on earth people fill their coolant and wash liquid with tap water... 20 quid for some coolant and 3 for some wash liquid isn't going to break the bank and will last you a good couple of years.

Taken today at the port of Munlaiu in Tõstamaa.

After 2 weeks of ownership, 7200km drive and 7 countries driven though (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France and UK) I managed to get a list of complaints I've got with my car. First one is the passenger seat rattle. It's the hight adjustment handle wobbling around bashing against the side of the seat. Amundsen problems: Voice recognition. I was told this was bad by the dealer as it doesn't work properly with Estonian accents trying to speak English however I am an Englishman with the most neutral sounding accent you'll ever hear... it's still garbage. Doesn't recognise half the things I tell it and if it does then it screws it up and goes back to the start. Sat nav system. There is no way to exclude countries so in order to avoid Kalinigrad (a russian owned country that you cannot enter without a visa) I had to make several destination and diversion changes to bypass it. Then there's the problem with the TMC... It redirects your route regardless of if you want it to and most of the time the TMC data is old and the accident or tailbacks have ended causing you to take a massive detour for no reason. Bluetooth audio. Works ok but randomly pauses every 7 odd mins for a couple of seconds then continues. No idea why. Side winds are a major problem and when I was heading back from Liverpool to Estonia there was a large storm and the wind was just shoving my car left and right uncontrollably when I was going 70mph. Auto full beaming thing... useless. don't even bother with it. Start Stop system when on hills is a nightmare, it turns the engine off meaning you're going to roll back when those lights turn green and you change from the break to the gas and you've got no clutch to stop it. Even if you turn it off the delay between the pedal and engine movement makes it almost impossible to move away quickly.

Grey? Think you passed me before. And thanks, I was born in Liverpool but moved to Estonia 4 years ago.