Why do bongs like the Ferd so much?

Older ones were ok, but the newer ones are shit compared to the equivalent Ford. Not very reliable, not very comfortable, they don't drive as well, and the interiors are pretty nasty. My old work had a 1.4 Astra H as a pool car and it was genuinely terrible. You had to change down to 4th to maintain 70 on a motorway if there was a slight hill, and because you had to drive it so hard it wasn't economical. The 1.8 Insignia that replaced it was equally terrible. In contrast, the 1.8 Mondeo that was also kicking about was perfectly fine to sit at 70 - 80 with 4 people in it and a lot more comfortable. It obviously wasn't fast, but it wasn't frustratingly slow either.

The controls and handling are heavy. My old Astra SXi was a pig at low speeds. The gear lever kept threatening to pop my shoulder joints, and braking heavily from high speeds required me to basically stand on the brake pedal. Even the goddamn drive-by-wire accelerator was calibrated stiff.
And the rental corsa I ended up with briefly was just awful. All the controls were so fragile I thought I'd break them, but needed to be shoved into place.

If only there was some way to figure it out...