Well I flew to the Uk yesterday to collect our new to us our 2011 Monte,it's the 75 bhp in Anthracite with only 17 k miles on the clock.

It's a LHD French reg that someone living here had returned to the UK.

First impressions,

Pretty basic interior,knew that,not bothered,

Not powerful but knew that,may have to think about that.

Finish is great for the price,fuel consumption amazing.

No real chance for a long drive yesterday as collected in Basingstoke and straight back to Portsmouth but took the winding roads route and blimey it's like a go kart,feels like it's on rails and great fun.

Off the ferry this morning and a 4.5 hr,450 Kms drive,mostly on the Autoroute but a bit of N roads also.

Performed well,little engine noise up to 130 kph but quite a bit of wind and tyre noise,guess I am spoilt by our 3 series Beemer,not moaning but is quite noisy.

Maybe you guys can advise,with such low mileage although had oil services,doesn't appear to have had the fuel filter changed,the dash was showing me to change to 5th at 80kph but if I did she juddered.

Before I collected it thought about a visit to Shark on next visit to UK just for a stage 1,will do the fuel filter as four years old but goes well when wound up so not sure about the remap.

Really love the little car,willing,comfortable,looks great and has a good heart,love it.

Firstly the fuel filter is ok until 40k , oil change at 20k but be careful of the filter(oil) cap put plenty of oil on the thread and washer gasket or she will leak! Fuel filter could possible need vcds

Edited 2 October, 201510 yr by seboni121

Shouldn't judder doing that speed in 5th. I can put mine in 5th doing 30MPH/50KPH and it will accelerate slowly. Mine is the 60 BHP S model. Maybe it just needs a good thrashing to get the engine cleaned up a bit. And give it a good service, you don't know what's been done to it and for the money, it's worth it for piece of mind.

The 1.6 will judder if put into the wrong gear to early !

The 1.6 will judder if put into the wrong gear to early !

Seams odd then, care to explain why that is?

The gearing on the 1.6 engine is no where near as similar to the old pd engines which could run in high gear at low rpm , the newer generation diesel engine can not its far more linear in power much like a petrol in this respect, if you change up to fifth much before 55mph she will judder and labour, I have these engines in both our cars golf and monte , you have to virtually ignore the change up logo on the maxi dot , drive it as you used to do you need to listen to the engine rather than listen to the automated change up

The gearing on the 1.6 engine is no where near as similar to the old pd engines which could run in high gear at low rpm , the newer generation diesel engine can not its far more linear in power much like a petrol in this respect, if you change up to fifth much before 55mph she will judder and labour, I have these engines in both our cars golf and monte , you have to virtually ignore the change up logo on the maxi dot , drive it as you used to do you need to listen to the engine rather than listen to the automated change up

Thanks exactly what I suspected! Been driving all kinds of vehicles for years and always listen to what the engine says!

With such a low mileage suspect the good thrashing idea also is probably correct too.

I drove 450 Kms home yesterday and once I ignored the arrow to change up it was much better,was a lady owner and used as a shopping car.Most of the journey home was autoroute so sat with the cruise at 120 kph most of the way,then got to the twisty bits near home and loved it,great fun.

Thanks for the replies,guys.