Audi S3
16 May 2012, 09:46 PM
#32
Scooby Senior
My 172 returned 34 mpg. I'd pick a TDi everyday of the week over a 172/82. Screwing it to get it to return smiles was tiresome. TDi boost is far better for me.
BTW, in 40k miles other than the air flow meter - my 172 never missed a beat
BTW, in 40k miles other than the air flow meter - my 172 never missed a beat
16 May 2012, 10:06 PM
#33
So it would seem reliability is not an issue which is a plus, real world figures don't seem too bad with the clio, and i'm warming to the looks.
Which TDI are you talking about Brun? i'm a little concerned about injector problems and their cost as any initial fuel savings can be rapidly wiped out if something major goes wrong.
Which TDI are you talking about Brun? i'm a little concerned about injector problems and their cost as any initial fuel savings can be rapidly wiped out if something major goes wrong.
16 May 2012, 10:12 PM
#34
Scooby Senior
Under my name gives the game away. Not suggesting you get a Fab though. I love it and it's quickish but if i was in your position i'd look towards a Leon FR Tdi maybe?
16 May 2012, 10:14 PM
#36
I have just come from a 1.8T S3 and having owned it 4 years i must say it was a wicked car, It was heavy and understeered when pushed but the build quality was mint and it made a nice daily driver, Depend what you want from a car.
I have always said i would have another but with more power (mine had 280BHP)
To be honest it was not a cheap car to keep running
I have always said i would have another but with more power (mine had 280BHP)
To be honest it was not a cheap car to keep running
16 May 2012, 10:45 PM
#37
just had a quick look at seat leon tdi and at circa £3k for a 02 plate with 60k on the clock doesn't look that good a proposition tbh, even if it does 50mpg it will take a fair few miles to make up the £1k difference in purchase price, and at the end of the day it's a seat, now i'm not a brand snob but if i decide i don't like it after a few months i'd like to be able to get most of my money back so i'd be more likely to go for the real deal ie a golf.
16 May 2012, 10:58 PM
#38
Scooby Senior
Coming from a Scoob though - i think you will really struggle for something to fill the gap. I went from a 313/300 Scoob to a 134bhp Elise which was sublime in many ways but i really did miss the thump of a Scoob. I think i'm just programmed for forced inducton 
17 May 2012, 07:26 AM
#41
Scooby Regular
I looked at the S3, R32 and GTI mk5. Drove them all and came to the following conclusions (briefly):
S3 - Lovely. In a straight line, good acceleration. Nice interior, but coming from an S4 Avant, a familiar BORING drive. And very expensive for what it was.
R32 - again, very nice. Fantastic exhaust note. Great seats (recaro). Quite nice inside. Drove well, but always felt a bit "lardy". Nice 4wd though (comforting when coming from S4 and Scoobs prior to that). Expensive to run though.
GTI - interior looked the cheapest, but not by much. Certainly not enough to warrant the price differences over the S3 & R32. To me, it drove better than the S3 and R32, whilst not as "b@lls out" fast under acceleration, it was fantastic fun to drive. A real GTI trait. The downsides? The stock stereo in the VWs in shocking. Almost (just) as bad as the good old MY98/99 Scoob stereo Changed it out for a Pioneer F900 with a view to doing the speakers later on.... and left it as the stock speakers sounded pretty good. Just put a sub in the wheel arch (custom fibre-glass install).
As you can probably tell, I bought one. Had it 4 years so far (MY05 with 20k on it - just turned 52k!). Can tell you much more about it as (rarely these days) just worked. Always drives, and entirely dependable. Just stuck on a 2nd set of boots all round (first set was just fronts), and it's cheap to run/service (not a major consideration, but nice nevertheless).
Gets about 35mpg when lazing around (got over 50mpg on the motorway cruising @ 70!) - lowest is the mid 20s when "lead-footing" it
Only changing it this year to get into a Porker. And it has depreciated the least!
S3 - Lovely. In a straight line, good acceleration. Nice interior, but coming from an S4 Avant, a familiar BORING drive. And very expensive for what it was.
R32 - again, very nice. Fantastic exhaust note. Great seats (recaro). Quite nice inside. Drove well, but always felt a bit "lardy". Nice 4wd though (comforting when coming from S4 and Scoobs prior to that). Expensive to run though.
GTI - interior looked the cheapest, but not by much. Certainly not enough to warrant the price differences over the S3 & R32. To me, it drove better than the S3 and R32, whilst not as "b@lls out" fast under acceleration, it was fantastic fun to drive. A real GTI trait. The downsides? The stock stereo in the VWs in shocking. Almost (just) as bad as the good old MY98/99 Scoob stereo
Changed it out for a Pioneer F900 with a view to doing the speakers later on.... and left it as the stock speakers sounded pretty good. Just put a sub in the wheel arch (custom fibre-glass install).As you can probably tell, I bought one. Had it 4 years so far (MY05 with 20k on it - just turned 52k!). Can tell you much more about it as (rarely these days) just worked. Always drives, and entirely dependable. Just stuck on a 2nd set of boots all round (first set was just fronts), and it's cheap to run/service (not a major consideration, but nice nevertheless).
Gets about 35mpg when lazing around (got over 50mpg on the motorway cruising @ 70!) - lowest is the mid 20s when "lead-footing" it
Only changing it this year to get into a Porker. And it has depreciated the least!
Last edited by ScoobyDoo555; 17 May 2012 at 07:28 AM.
17 May 2012, 07:39 AM
#42
I looked at the S3, R32 and GTI mk5. Drove them all and came to the following conclusions (briefly):
S3 - Lovely. In a straight line, good acceleration. Nice interior, but coming from an S4 Avant, a familiar BORING drive. And very expensive for what it was.
R32 - again, very nice. Fantastic exhaust note. Great seats (recaro). Quite nice inside. Drove well, but always felt a bit "lardy". Nice 4wd though (comforting when coming from S4 and Scoobs prior to that). Expensive to run though.
GTI - interior looked the cheapest, but not by much. Certainly not enough to warrant the price differences over the S3 & R32. To me, it drove better than the S3 and R32, whilst not as "b@lls out" fast under acceleration, it was fantastic fun to drive. A real GTI trait. The downsides? The stock stereo in the VWs in shocking. Almost (just) as bad as the good old MY98/99 Scoob stereo Changed it out for a Pioneer F900 with a view to doing the speakers later on.... and left it as the stock speakers sounded pretty good. Just put a sub in the wheel arch (custom fibre-glass install).
As you can probably tell, I bought one. Had it 4 years so far (MY05 with 20k on it - just turned 52k!). Can tell you much more about it as (rarely these days) just worked. Always drives, and entirely dependable. Just stuck on a 2nd set of boots all round (first set was just fronts), and it's cheap to run/service (not a major consideration, but nice nevertheless).
Gets about 35mpg when lazing around (got over 50mpg on the motorway cruising @ 70!) - lowest is the mid 20s when "lead-footing" it
Only changing it this year to get into a Porker. And it has depreciated the least!
S3 - Lovely. In a straight line, good acceleration. Nice interior, but coming from an S4 Avant, a familiar BORING drive. And very expensive for what it was.
R32 - again, very nice. Fantastic exhaust note. Great seats (recaro). Quite nice inside. Drove well, but always felt a bit "lardy". Nice 4wd though (comforting when coming from S4 and Scoobs prior to that). Expensive to run though.
GTI - interior looked the cheapest, but not by much. Certainly not enough to warrant the price differences over the S3 & R32. To me, it drove better than the S3 and R32, whilst not as "b@lls out" fast under acceleration, it was fantastic fun to drive. A real GTI trait. The downsides? The stock stereo in the VWs in shocking. Almost (just) as bad as the good old MY98/99 Scoob stereo
Changed it out for a Pioneer F900 with a view to doing the speakers later on.... and left it as the stock speakers sounded pretty good. Just put a sub in the wheel arch (custom fibre-glass install).As you can probably tell, I bought one. Had it 4 years so far (MY05 with 20k on it - just turned 52k!). Can tell you much more about it as (rarely these days) just worked. Always drives, and entirely dependable. Just stuck on a 2nd set of boots all round (first set was just fronts), and it's cheap to run/service (not a major consideration, but nice nevertheless).
Gets about 35mpg when lazing around (got over 50mpg on the motorway cruising @ 70!) - lowest is the mid 20s when "lead-footing" it
Only changing it this year to get into a Porker. And it has depreciated the least!
.
Last edited by bonesetter; 17 May 2012 at 08:18 AM.
17 May 2012, 09:38 AM
#43
Not too convinced by the golf gti think i'd sooner take my chances with a tdi if i were going vw.
just been looking at them and seems like it needs to be the 18 turbo to get any kind of performance as the 2.0L seems woeful and they are significantly more expensive at the 4k mark, i think again i'd sooner get the honda reliability.
At the end of the day i'm not hooning around in a car all the time, but i do want something that can put a smile on my face the odd time when i feel like it, i just don't think ill get that from a golf as they are not exactly light and chuckable.
jury's still out for me i'm afraid.
just been looking at them and seems like it needs to be the 18 turbo to get any kind of performance as the 2.0L seems woeful and they are significantly more expensive at the 4k mark, i think again i'd sooner get the honda reliability.
At the end of the day i'm not hooning around in a car all the time, but i do want something that can put a smile on my face the odd time when i feel like it, i just don't think ill get that from a golf as they are not exactly light and chuckable.
jury's still out for me i'm afraid.
17 May 2012, 01:12 PM
#45
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: 32 cylinders and many cats
Posts: 18,658
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
The Golf V 2.0T GTI is a car I love to hate because of its firm ride and an unreliable patch ours went through a few years ago.
However, every time I drive it, I secretly really enjoy it and don't notice the firm ride. Unmodified, it has just the right power for the road, and assuming like me you don't want to oversteer everywhere, it does have a really nice weight to the controls and a great balance, decent turn in, it just feels right. It is unthreatening fun, but it is fun.
However, every time I drive it, I secretly really enjoy it and don't notice the firm ride. Unmodified, it has just the right power for the road, and assuming like me you don't want to oversteer everywhere, it does have a really nice weight to the controls and a great balance, decent turn in, it just feels right. It is unthreatening fun, but it is fun.
17 May 2012, 06:30 PM
#46
Scooby Regular
To echo John's comments, to be fair, he had a torrid time with his 
The fabled German reliability isn't necessarily prevalent in the VW cars. When you get a bad one, it's fair to say, you get a BAD one.
I've been lucky though.
But John sums it up pretty well, as an overall package (and on 17" not the aesthetically-pleasing 18" wheels) is pretty good for UK.
18" will have you picking your fillings out of the foot-well.
It's not for everybody, so try one - you might be surprised
Dan
Depending when you want one, I know a low miles model that could be for sale
The fabled German reliability isn't necessarily prevalent in the VW cars. When you get a bad one, it's fair to say, you get a BAD one.
I've been lucky though.
But John sums it up pretty well, as an overall package (and on 17" not the aesthetically-pleasing 18" wheels) is pretty good for UK.
18" will have you picking your fillings out of the foot-well.
It's not for everybody, so try one - you might be surprised
Dan
Depending when you want one, I know a low miles model that could be for sale
17 May 2012, 08:48 PM
#48
MkIV Golf has dull chassis (but can be fettled with arb's & springs), torque surge at 1500rpm, trailing to nothing at 3K, 150bhp engines suffer problems and it's difficult to find one with less miles than the space shuttle...
MkV's look more attractive but you need to spend ~£7K
Didn't want to budget that much, but I suppose they do hold their money better than most 
MkV's look more attractive but you need to spend ~£7K
Didn't want to budget that much, but I suppose they do hold their money better than most
18 May 2012, 05:56 AM
#50
Well the write up sounds good and they don't look bad either, not sure i fancy chucking £5k at a seat, i suspect i'd be losing at least £1k a year over the next 2/3 yrs in depreciation, i'd prefer a £2k clio 172 as a financial/fun package, and thats before i go back to thinking ctr.
Ok i know cars cost money, but some are a better package deal than others, while the mpg and torque figures look impressive we're back to basic vw package, which as mentioned earlier the golf is a better place to put your money.
This is bloody hard, well i just drove from my place in croatia to milan to give my best mate a hand on a total renovation project yesterday in my trusty isuzu trooper, and i'll be tooling around in his honda S2000 for a couple of weeks so we'll see how much i like the vvti jobbie on a daily basis.
Ok i know cars cost money, but some are a better package deal than others, while the mpg and torque figures look impressive we're back to basic vw package, which as mentioned earlier the golf is a better place to put your money.
This is bloody hard, well i just drove from my place in croatia to milan to give my best mate a hand on a total renovation project yesterday in my trusty isuzu trooper, and i'll be tooling around in his honda S2000 for a couple of weeks so we'll see how much i like the vvti jobbie on a daily basis.
18 May 2012, 06:47 AM
#51
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 3,016
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I wouldn't touch a VAG Tdi and I've just sold one.
Had a Leon 140. The turbo was worn out at around 40k, was told this is common by a turbo expert. Cost £1300 for a recon fitted.
The 170 units suffer injector problems as stated above, this is a common thread on the VAG forums.
For me any saving on fuel is taken away and then some by expensive repair costs when things go wrong.
It was a nice car to drive though for a diesel.
Had a Leon 140. The turbo was worn out at around 40k, was told this is common by a turbo expert. Cost £1300 for a recon fitted.
The 170 units suffer injector problems as stated above, this is a common thread on the VAG forums.
For me any saving on fuel is taken away and then some by expensive repair costs when things go wrong.
It was a nice car to drive though for a diesel.
18 May 2012, 06:50 AM
#52
I couldn't live with a DC5 was difficult. Even on a spirited A-road 'run' you really needed to keep the rpm over 5.5K. Mine lasted a month or so Everyone to their own of course and there are folk who love 'em...
Yeah, good point on the Seat depreciation, a Golf wouldn't perhaps drop that much, unless going ballistic on mileage... still favourite then, unless you pick up a Seat for a song. I like the look of them (so does the missus), esp in yellow
Everyone to their own of course and there are folk who love 'em...Yeah, good point on the Seat depreciation, a Golf wouldn't perhaps drop that much, unless going ballistic on mileage... still favourite then, unless you pick up a Seat for a song. I like the look of them (so does the missus), esp in yellow
19 May 2012, 07:20 AM
#53
Golf TDi's out for me - for 10K miles per year 70% short journey's petrol is simply & sensibly better. Then there's the issues with the DPF, and dual mass flywheel, not to mention injectors and camshafts
The Golf GTi has been suggested - nippy for knocking about, scrape 40 on motorway, 25 hooning, av 32+
The Golf GTi has been suggested - nippy for knocking about, scrape 40 on motorway, 25 hooning, av 32+
19 May 2012, 05:41 PM
#54
Yep i never had the golf on my radar tbh, cost too much and got bitten by the last vw car i had, currently own a transporter but it's 15yrs old and from the generation that were reliable.
I've still not decided but i'm in no rush, thinking about taking a look at mazda and toyota diesels as i have had good experiences with both marques in the past also thinking about a focus tdci, they handle well and go for reasonable money also not aware of any issues like the vw range.
I've still not decided but i'm in no rush, thinking about taking a look at mazda and toyota diesels as i have had good experiences with both marques in the past also thinking about a focus tdci, they handle well and go for reasonable money also not aware of any issues like the vw range.
20 May 2012, 07:49 AM
#55
Diesel versus petrol Telegraph article which has some interesting reading
I've come full circle - keep the wagon
.
I've come full circle - keep the wagon
.
Last edited by bonesetter; 20 May 2012 at 09:12 PM.
20 May 2012, 07:13 PM
#56
That link is not working for me, i'll see if i can find it later.
I know what you mean, it's so difficult to find something that can replace a wagon, mine has ppp and ap's up front which will be going nowhere
I'm not in a rush so i'll be hanging fire for a while at least until after the summer, then we'll be into winter and the 4 wheel drive comes into it's own.
Everything i look at just does nothing for me, and if i'm going to change it will need to tick the fun box or i just won't do it, as i know i'll regret it, and while my wagon is not perfect, it's a decent example for the age and miles and i like black so it'll need to be either something nice, or i'll go for a complete sh!tter run it into the ground 500 quider, which i don't mind as they can be quite a lot of fun too, buy the mrs something reasonably economical and sensible.
choices, choices, i'm not indecisive, i just can't make my mind up.
I know what you mean, it's so difficult to find something that can replace a wagon, mine has ppp and ap's up front which will be going nowhere
I'm not in a rush so i'll be hanging fire for a while at least until after the summer, then we'll be into winter and the 4 wheel drive comes into it's own.
Everything i look at just does nothing for me, and if i'm going to change it will need to tick the fun box or i just won't do it, as i know i'll regret it, and while my wagon is not perfect, it's a decent example for the age and miles and i like black so it'll need to be either something nice, or i'll go for a complete sh!tter run it into the ground 500 quider, which i don't mind as they can be quite a lot of fun too, buy the mrs something reasonably economical and sensible.
choices, choices, i'm not indecisive, i just can't make my mind up.
20 May 2012, 09:28 PM
#60
That link is not working for me, i'll see if i can find it later.
I know what you mean, it's so difficult to find something that can replace a wagon, mine has ppp and ap's up front which will be going nowhere
I'm not in a rush so i'll be hanging fire for a while at least until after the summer, then we'll be into winter and the 4 wheel drive comes into it's own.
Everything i look at just does nothing for me, and if i'm going to change it will need to tick the fun box or i just won't do it, as i know i'll regret it, and while my wagon is not perfect, it's a decent example for the age and miles and i like black so it'll need to be either something nice, or i'll go for a complete sh!tter run it into the ground 500 quider, which i don't mind as they can be quite a lot of fun too, buy the mrs something reasonably economical and sensible.
choices, choices, i'm not indecisive, i just can't make my mind up.
I know what you mean, it's so difficult to find something that can replace a wagon, mine has ppp and ap's up front which will be going nowhere
I'm not in a rush so i'll be hanging fire for a while at least until after the summer, then we'll be into winter and the 4 wheel drive comes into it's own.
Everything i look at just does nothing for me, and if i'm going to change it will need to tick the fun box or i just won't do it, as i know i'll regret it, and while my wagon is not perfect, it's a decent example for the age and miles and i like black so it'll need to be either something nice, or i'll go for a complete sh!tter run it into the ground 500 quider, which i don't mind as they can be quite a lot of fun too, buy the mrs something reasonably economical and sensible.
choices, choices, i'm not indecisive, i just can't make my mind up.
Just got back from a 120 mile blast out in the Type R. Absolutely bloody brilliant. Nout on the road, I really don't think I could find a car more suited for hooning. It's the best Impreza (and car) I've owned and spanks the ride of my 330bhp New age wagon. So, on one hand it seems go something totally boring/cheap and know you've got the hooning machine tucked up, or try and get something with a little driveability and be happy with it, while not spending alot of dosh.... or go for something 'different' like the Clio
I've been running a PH thread on the Golf GT TDi which seems to suggest they suffer a fair few problems
Link fixed above
Last edited by bonesetter; 21 May 2012 at 09:08 AM.