which is the more entertaining.

 

In all honesty, I found the Golf to be more entertaining than the 306

 

Dear lord no!
Golf mkIII gti 8v is an overweight bad handling pile of dung with a horrible high seating position.
The 306 on the other hand is the car that set the standard for family hatchbacks with its clever rear set-up that had passive steer. It was in the same position as the Ford Focus is now.
The xsi is a fine car indeed. It out acceleates and out handles a mkIII 8v with some ease. Build quality is a diff matter but there is not a lot in it.

 

The wife was going through this debate a while ago and ended up buying a 306XSi ...a far better car in both handling and performance (in our opinion...before I get flamed )

Nath

 

My ex had a choice of 3 company cars, Audi A3, 306 and the Golf. Drove all 3 with the 306 being by far the best drive, then the A3 and the Gold was horrible. 306 wasn;t great inside so she went for the A3 but took so long deciding that they bought her the Golf ! Horrible car, built well but is just nasty to drive. After she got the Golf she still drove her Punto Sporting at the weekends whilst trying to sell it as it was just so much nicer to drive.

Go for the 306 !


AllanB

 

Go for the 306 XSi. A proper 'warm' hatch with excellent handling. The 8v Mk III Golf GTi is slow, lardy and wallowy round corners, and dare I say it as with all Golfs, just a tad dull. For the price of a decent 98 Golf GTi you can get a good 16V 306 XSi that for all intents and purposes looks like a GTi-6 / Rallye.

If you want a drivers car it has to be the 306 everytime.

 

Thanks guys/gals, thats been my thoughts pretty much.

Maybe there is other cheapish fun Hatches I should consider ? Must be practical though.

Still try'in to sell 95 A4 !!!!!!!

 

Well, I'l say the opposite. I'd keep the peepers open for a nice Golf GTI 2.0 16v... like mine. Yes, I'll agree that the 8v isn't the most nimble of cars - I test drove over 10 before buying my 16v! The 8v was roughly as fast as my XR2i but the handling let it down a bit. The 16v has better brakes and with a simple set of springs the handling has been transformed.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure the 306 is a fine car (can't comment as I've never driven one) but the misses has a 106 XSI and it always seems to have some kind of electrical problems. The Golf is solid as an ox and I've had pretty much trouble free motoring since buying it... and being the 16v it's fairly nippy too!

Mike

 

What's your price range and perhaps more importantly, your max insurance group??

 

5K max , insurance not a prob, Scooby ownership till recently(5 months ago , still wearing black arm band sniff sniff)
Had a 405 SRI when I was a boy still remember how it handled , thats why i am veering down the Pug route.

 

Shame you couldn't stretch to the 6.5K mark otherwise you'd be in for some real fun with a 306 GTi-6 / Rallye. At the 5k mark, if you want a 3/4/5 yr old car your best bet is a 306 XSi or possibly a Seat Ibiza GTi/Cupra. The 306 would win hands down for me in this choice if only for looks alone, and of course it will handle better.

 

have seen an S16 advertised locally M plate £4500 78000 miles, no history (Trade) a bit over priced ? they r pretty rare i s'pose maybe worth a look

 

Had a MkI 306 XSi for 10 months and really enjoyed it . Handled v. neatly and although not especially quick, it was cheap to run and could be hustled through corners at a fair lick ...

But it aint no Scooby ...

-Sal.

 

my neighbour had an xsi and I used to love driving it and used to love the massive amount of lift off oversteer that was so easy to control 306s rock

 

306 any day of the week, Nuff said.

 

I heard about the oversteer on 205's too... why doesn't the Golf play that game????

 

My M8 is selling an "R" reg 306 xsi in immaculate condition in Cupar for around that money. E-mail me if you are interested.

Graham

 

LOL, the question was which one is more entertaining? What do you mean by entertaining?

In terms of handling etc, etc, the 306 xsi is a better car than the MK2 Golf GTI, BUT the Golf is far more entertaining IMHO than the 306.

 

306 no question

 

Don't get the S16 - that is over priced, and they are not as good as the XSI, 8v or 16v. Try for an R reg or later XSI and you get a lovely torquey 16v engine.

Do not buy the golf if you like driving. PLus XSIs come with loads of nice kit - they're great, my brother has one.

 

The 8v Xsi was the faster car though about 9 secs to 60 opposed to 10.5 ish for the R reg onwards............

 

indeed, or if you want a real performance bargain seek out a Citroen ZX volcane. It's the floorpan the 306 was based on and has the same passive rear steer that makes driving a FWD car fun. Again, go for the 8v, either 1.9 (the old 205 1.9gti unit, lots of bits available for it) or the 2.0.

Try and go pre-cat also, the cats really strangled the performance.

If you want the 167bhp 2.0, seek the ZX 16v 3dr.

All will be cheaper than the equivalent 306's as so few know about them. However, like the 306, be careful as when they get old, they can start to cost money.

IC
(who, for 5 years, had a 1.9i pre-cat volcane)

 

Is the only option here an 8v mk3 Golf?

If it is, i agree with comments made so far. But if you can get a 16v - mine recently cost £4k for a 95, then i'd take it every day of the week. Just put a decent set of shocks on the back, and it's one seriously entertaining car, much more so than the Mk2 16v GTi i sold to get it.
Anyone who says this isn't the better car is either writing what they've read in magazines, and/or hasn't driven both the Golf and the 306.

Terry

 

Nice one Tel!

Wish I got my Mk3 16v (also a '95 with 44k miles and FSH) for the same price as yours (damn I'm bitter!!).

But yeah, a suspension change makes a huge difference! My springs have transformed the handling completely!

 

Mike,

Don't feel bad - it was one of those "have to sell" cars, she lived literally round the corner from me and just wanted to get shot of it. I then spent nearly £600 on a top to bottom, inside out service, plus another £90 to buy and have painted a new front panel, so it wasn't quite the giveaway it started, though it was my choice to have all that work done. And it's fantastic to drive - fun enough to keep the Scoob in the garage occasionaly, which is saying something. Why people diss the Mk3's is beyond me - decent rear suspension is all it takes...

 

Tel...

What shocks does yours have on the rears? Mine has Bilstein's all round - although I think these are th eBilstein 'Originals'. I often get a bit of a thud from the rear when going over bumps. Also, I think the rear shocks are worn as they dropped alot more then the front did when I lowered it 25mm!

 

Can I have a go at taking this back on thread? And am I allowed to comment 'cos my experience is with a 306GTi6 and a Mk4 Golf (diesel).....

306 was fantastic car to drive - but frankly build quality was iffy...I didn't really mind the rattles and squeaks (hey, just wind on a few more revs and you couldn't hear them!) but every time someone looked at it it seemed to develop another parking ding, the (black) paint was too soft, and running costs would have been horrendous had my brother not been service manager at local dealer - even then it could be steep (new brake discs and pads at front would have needed the debt of a small third world country if we hadn't managed to get dealer to pay!). Engine is peaky - fast when you want to go fast but you have to work at it. Great car, great chassis, shame its built in France.....

Golf is complete opposite. Can't comment on mk 3 but my mk4 is well built, good quality, good image and drives well enough - I'm sure there will be occasions when I miss the 306 chassis but equally there will be times when I screw up, have to brake mid corner (we can't all be Michael schumacher!) and will be really glad that the Golf is safer and less "entertaining".

You should be able to pick up early (97) GTi6 for not much more than £5k - trade doesn't like them much nowadays!

 

Put whatever springs you want on a MK3 8 Valve, its still 200 kilos heavier than a MK2 8 Valve

 

Go for the 306, ive owned 2 GTI-6's and both were entertaining and always a delight to get into
Compared to a golf its a culture shock, it has better handling, better brakes, better gearbox, better engine and a proper hot hatch feel to it
Its probably not the best with only 123bhp but it goes well, service costs are not too bad for this type of car, 6k service intervals on early XSi's though but as per most Peugeots they are a little twitchy when you lift off mid corner but saying that, my Scoob is much more sensitive than either of the Pugs were to this dreaded manouver!
Not the best of interiors but has always been rated as one of the top performers in its group, well above many cars (sunny gti etc) when it came out, a great all rounder with quite abit of go, just have to find a good one like any performance car

Tony

 

Wow didn't expect so many replies...fairly conclusive answer to my original question. Been checking out a few Pugs today ,lots of high milers about with no history.Gonna be a long search....