I'm not following fashion, I have in the last two years rented (7 long and arduous months) an old shape (04) Corsa as a driving instructor car, and been loaned (2 days, and more than enough pain) the new shape (26 miles on the clock when it was delivered) just last month. Both were truly awful experiences, especially the new model which beggars belief how it can possibly be as bad as the old one. Anyone with any experience of a variety of cars surely must agree that they are BAD by any comparison. New drivers often buy them having no experience of any other car, and often are perfectly happy with them in their blissful arrogance. Fleets buy them 'cos they're cheap as chips. Anyone whom buys one having tried similar priced alternatives needs therapy IMHO.

 

Agree with that on the corsa diesel. We have an old style "06" at work and it is pants. The gearbox is easily the worst I have ever experienced in 13 years of driving.

 

Think a modern Corsa is bad? I drove a new shape Nissan Micra for the first time today. This is the most awful modern car I have ever driven (after I figued out how to start the piece of crap :rolleyes; ). I set it firmly below the Fiat Seichento and MK1 Corsa.

 

My Skoda one is and it's bloody quick!

Steve

 

I have driven a few of the newest diesels and upto 70 they seem to nearly hold their own against my sti. It's only in the higher gears they seem to fall back.

 

I have two 1.9 VW Passat TDI's sitting in the driveway atm, they are brilliant engine wise and fuel consumption is great I just sold a P plate passat TDI (90) which hadn't been serviced in over 20,000 miles which was still running extremely well and still is although the new owner has since serviced it For me the VW 1.9 TDI are the muts nuts

I also hired a seat 1.4 D in Spain last summer, it was a great wee car round town but needed a boot up the **** on the motorway, though again fuel consumption was good

 

My 'old' Corsa was petrol (1.2 Twinsport Don't quite know where 'Sport' comes into it), but the 'new' diesel CDTI I was loaned was dreadful beyond comprehension. The gearbox was made of jam with soggy bread for clutch plates. If you provoked the little turbo to spool up the engine revs rose but the car went no quicker as the clutch span, resulting in a smell of burning rotten fish. I decided that to save as many people as possible from this fete I would do all I could to destroy this abomination, so spent as much of the two days as I could with the clutch on fire and the engine bouncing off the limiter. The b@$t@rd wouldn't die though

 

I'm not talking about a Corsa but a Signum/Vectra. I'd sooner one one of these than a mondea etc. But each to there own.

 

Ford mondeo St TDCi 2.2 litre engine, mapable on blue fin to 180bhp and +400Nm of torque. Comfortable car, handles reasonably well for having a pig iron anchor in the nose. Returns about 520 miles to a tank. With the new shape Mondeo out you can get a car with recaros etc for very good reasonable money. Got one now and will probably get another till the twin turbo unit arrives in the new mondeo.

 

yeah would have been my choice if I had a few more £k. Had to make do with the 130 Ghia X, but cant complain too much

 

audi offer the 2.0tdi in 140 and 170 versions - the 140 is cheaper on tax but will "chip" to 170

 

The 170's are proving difficult to get extra out of due to the diesel particulate filter (DPF) and new injector technology. The 2.0 140's and 1.9 130's are really easy to get over 170 with oodles of torque. My own Furby has 180/312 with minor complimentary mods.

 

Budget?
I had an old BMW 325tds. good car but expensive to maintain,
back to my second (mk2) mondeo as an 'intrim' car that cost £700, so far done 2000 miles with no probs, been looking at VW Bora tdi's but struggling to justify the £3000 extra spend with less boot space and increased parts cost, jsut got the filters and glow plugs to servive my mondeo for £20!

 

the new VAG 2.0tdi 170bhp engine has been played with by the owners of the "ringhaus" hotel
they've had 320bhp on a RR
they could have pushed it further but after 330bhp the cylinder head bolts start to stretch
best engine??????

all depends on what you are happy with
VAG engine feel "sportyier" than other the way they pull which gets them plenty of admirers, but there not without there faults ,
the last vw passat 100tdi 54plate 25000miler was only averaging 39mpg not good i dont think, i caould get that from an old diesel engine with 200000mile and about 500quid
2.0hdi psa units are economical and reliable , a lot perkier in 110bhp mode
new astra looks good 1.9cdti 150bhp , raced one with golf 115tdi and got wasted,
vx also do a special astra with 200bhp
even the mercs and bmws are coming down inprice so all can be affordable

 

Honda diesels are very good - Kenichi Nagahiro, the company’s chief engine designer and inventor of the celebrated VTEC engine, hated diesel engines, hated how noisy, smelly and dirty they were. And so when he was asked to design Honda’s first diesel he flatly refused - unless he was allowed to start completely from scratch. The result of his efforts is one of the cleanest, most refined diesel engines on the market today, the 2.2 i-CTDi.

 

Did you know Honda have been making diesel engined cars for years, just not importing them. Their "first" diesel is actually their first "in-house" designed diesel. Before that they still offered diesel engines in their cars.

The older ones were mainly brought in from other manufacturers, like Isuzu (bad choice - no wonder Honda hated them ).

 

I have a 2000 xreg estate focus which i used to use for work (before i got the scoob)now the wife uses the focus.
It's a 1800 turbo diesel and has never let us down,plenty of poke,its reliable and solid and would highly recomend one!

 

a few guys have got round the dpf problems i had my 170 mapped to 215 bhp without any problems.i think the trick is changing the cycle of the dpf to cut in more often,not letting the soot build up and over loading the dpf.
215 sounds good but we could have got a lot more!,traction became a big factor.the car was putting out 193bhp as standard so a very powerfull engine but my only grip is its allways seemed a bit harsh.but then you can live with it when you have the mpg and mega torque.

 

Now don't take this the wrong way. But the Ford 1.8 Endura (branded Duratoq TDCI/TDDI/Lynx or whatever brand they decide to use to keep pushing it in production) unit is from the stone age. All-iron block AND head, so heavy. Its also very slow revving to spin up. Later common rail versions are much better, but very peaky and over-reliant on the turbo - catch it off boost and it dies..or worse...stalls. I noted alot I drove also can be rather smokey at low engine speed round town (stangely between gearchanges). And non were that good on fuel. (when compared to VAG, Vaux's, PSA and Renualt units I had to drive).

The only version I can say is any good is the one in the lastest shape Focus: the variable geometry turbo has addressed the peaky-ness, and it's been tweeked so it doesn't die off boost and stall so easily (especially when cold), and the fuel consumption is now better as well. So now its finally on par with other maker's engines. Still a heavy old lump though - the PSA 1.6 unit is all-alloy and almost matches it for performance...but with even better economy.

 

My 1.9 150ps vectra estate returns about 48mpg, with a permanent bootfull of tools and parts/ back footwells usually well loaded also. Only gripe was that very little happened below 1800rpm, so much so that nips out of junctions in the wet were a pain. Too little and it would bog down, to much and it just span itself daft.

Removing an intakenoise restrictor from the airbox cured this, and moved the poke point down a few revs, it also now uses all of the airfilter. this is pretty much a standard thing to do from reading the VX forums.

It's had 70k in 15 months, never missed a beat.

 

My previous Astra 150 TDI had a cracking engine, when chipped (£250) was pushing out nearly 200 bhp and loads of torque. Could still manage mid 40's on a run no problem - a good compromise.

Now I have a new Civic 2.2 diesel and the engine is super smooth and very quiet, not so ballsy as the Astra, but it's still running in. It's hardly audiable once on the move and you'd be hard pushed to tell it's a diesel, it sound more like a petrol!!!

 

Not just the engine though, is it? I'd say the current VX's are about the best looking thing in their class.

 

worst car I ever drove was a ford 1.8 Diesel Escort

 

The VAG 1.9TDi is gutless. You are far better off with the 2.0TDi or new GT.

As for the new shape Astra CDTi, don't bother. It couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.

The new BMW 320d is absollutely bloody brilliant! Plenty of ooomph and quiet at it.

 

I've got both mate. The 1.9 Fabia as standard with 228 lb/ft was pretty good, but remap'd with 312 and 180bhp it is a revelation. Most Scoobs were fair game at the last trackday I ran. We have an Octy with the 2.0 PD140 engine and I don't think there'd be as much to gain from mapping that. It still has some pull mid-range, but it's no match for the 1.9. PD170 2 litres we proving troublesome to get anything extra out of but I believe they've found some new tricks with the DPF to get good results now.

 

Yeh the Pumpe Duse (PD) engines are very nice and very tuneable.

I had a Fabia vRS for a while and it was a greta little car - the engine was a revelation...

 

The 2.0 170's are restricted by the DPF's as above, most tuners are claiming +30bhp, but as standard a lot of cars are producing 180bhp -190bhp to begin with - a standard car on supermarket Derv made 197bhp at a recent Superchips shootout.



Custom Code are achieving a smooth (and smoke free thanks to the DPF)210bhp & 475Nm.. Not bad really.. The Revo code is also completed but not released yet.

Miltek now offer an exhaust which removes the DPF, so things could get interesting.

Chris

 

Erm its twinport - not twin's'port

Simon

 

my brother in law wont have any onther diesel,, he reckons he gets 60 plus mpg in his astra. hes set up an aircon business and travels the country in his

 

there is something with the pd tdi engines requiringin a particular type of oil inst there? in comes j4cko