Well after covering 1017 miles in the last 4 days (Cornwall to Norfolk to Manchester to Cornwall) I can confirm the following of the 330D LCI Touring
It eats the miles and is very comfy (Only a stiff right knee after 7 hours driving), although the Bridgestone RFT tyres are quite noisy (The rears are being replaced with Michelin Primacy HP ZP in 4 weeks time Which are 4DB quieter).
Its big enough to carry me and my best mates Family around (3 adults, 2 kids, although the tallest of the 4 of them is 5'7"
).
Its pretty quick accelerating from 50-80 in 6th.
It averaged 44.7mpg (70% Motorways 30% A roads) and covered 559.7 miles before "0" range indicated, and on way back it averaged 41.6mpg (95% motorway and 5% A roads) Roofrack on with 2 snowboards, covered 512 miles with 47 miles range left (indicated), 1000 miles and nearly 2 tankfulls, well happy with that
The roofrack (Thule Square Bars) and snowboard holder (Thule Xtender 739 with 2 snowboards attached) was not overly noisy although did notice the car developed an annoying whistle at motorway speeds (Think its from one of the front wipers?, it was noticed without roofrack) and only dropped economy by 3mpg. Cruising at a Sat Nav indicated 75mph (empty car no roofrack) gave economy of 47.8mpg.
Keep the traction control switched on especcially on wet roads as its very tail happy with all the torque
The Ipod lead (Iphone) was a godsend for some decent music for the 17 hours spent in the car (until one of my mates kids insisted on putting One Direction on using her mums Iphone)
NEVER AGAIN!
Saw 3 Edition 30's on my travels (1 Red 56 plate, 1 Black 57 plate and 1 Silver 07 plate) Saw 1 Pirelli (58 plate) Silver and a Golf R (Blue).
Prety sure it will cover the 2000 miles round trip to Austria with 4 onboard (and 4 Snowboards on roofrack) very easily and still get approx 40mpg, we did a test fit of luggage bags in the boot and 2 big hard bags and 2 medium sized soft bags fitted easily with load cover in place, only 4 boot bags and 4 small rucksacks to add to that so will have some room left to pick up some supplies in Calais (Beer Vodka Food), can put luggage net up and stack to roof, as long as I have a 12" gap in midddle to see behind me its no issue