New Charade SL - any others out there?!

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Hi,

New to this forum. I've had an ex-demo Charade SL since July, and am generally delighted with it. However, if there are any other new Charade owners out there I'd be really grateful to hear any comments they have about the following:

- Heavy front tyre wear. I'm going to have to get new fronts, (only done 10K), but tyres are worn almost smooth around the outer edge. Is this characteristic?
- Squeaks and rattles from dash - especially when engine cold. Do any others experience this?
- Creaks from rear suspension over big bumps.

Aside from this I love it. Great standard equipment and looks cool. Have seen very few Charades on the road - are there any other owners out there? Would be great to hear your views and experiences.

Rob, UK

I hear that the new Charade h

I hear that the new Charade has quite bad understeer even at relatively low speeds (this is just from a few reviews, they might not be driving it right), would imagine that being a bit of a characteristic but 10K just doesn't seem normal!

As for the dash, just off the top of my head have a look at your glovebox construction - the glovebox on my Mira is rattly and taps around in the dash loads especially when I've got stuff in it. Mine is secured in with these kind of plastic screws that pop in, they don't seem to be tight enough. Am thinking of using different tighter screws or something to fix the problem. Being that your Charade is the Japanese model Mira (L250 series) you probably have the same kind of glovebox as mine. Try taking the glovebox out, mine is totally silent with it removed, if it's that you've narrowed it down at least. My radio rattles around a bit in the slot too but that's because my expert install is secured by a load of yellow cable ties.

New Charade SL

Re front tyre wear, my mother in law has had her Charade SL auto for just over a year and the front tyres are worn in same way at 12k miles. I assume she doesn't throw it into corners at crazy speeds! I used to have same problem with 4 litre Jeep Cherokee - chronic understeer? You could try swapping around front tyres at 5k miles to help even out wear.