An aggrieved mutter escapes your lips as the cold night air chews at your skin. The car park is dank, gloomy, and seemingly unending. You fumble in your pocket for your keys, stab at the unlock button, and look for the vague flash of hope in the distance. You just want to get home, collapse on the sofa, and have a moment’s respite. But there are miles to go, through rain and mist, across potholed roads, all pitched to challenge your weary eyes. And, as you slump behind the steering wheel, one of the fatiguing foibles of your car floats to the fore: its lousy, candle-in-a-jar headlights.
For an occasional toy, this story is one that many, including myself, might be willing to endure. But it was also a story that, at the time, persisted with the car I drove every day, a modified and long-standing Subaru Forester XT. And with more night driving on the horizon, the weak illumination of its halogens was one of the motivating factors in its downfall. I’d tried the usual: polishing, resealing, alignment, and Night Breakers, all to no real avail. I’d even experimented, out of curiosity, with some expensive EU-approved Philips Ultinon LEDs. Suffice to say, other issues aside, I wasn’t impressed.
There was only one solution: I was going to have to change the car. I still wasn’t keen to, but it had almost 200,000 miles under its belt, corrosion was creeping in, and fuel costs were becoming an issue. The deck was not stacked in its favour, no matter how many times I shuffled it. But replacing it wouldn’t be easy, as I had an oddball combination of requirements. Better lights aside, I needed a car that was frugal and dependable, but also fun, engaging, moderately practical, compact, capable of longer trips, and interesting enough on the performance and engineering front.
