[Edited by NBW - 7/16/2002 7:03:28 PM]

 

Are they any good ?
I was thinking of getting one instead of a Impreza turbo.
I think they have more torque than a turbo.

 

I'd trade my scoob in tomorrow for one of those, well, I would if my dealer didn't have around 6 "classic" turbos on the forecourt not interested in buying mine back

 

I drove Ian Gratton's PD150 the other week and I was blown away how good the engine is on those!!!!!

237ft-lbs of torque, and it feels fast!!!! For £280, you can get a chip which gives you 280ft-lbs of torque

Matt

 

Welcome to the club....what tok you so long?

 

Bit more info in response to the replies:

I bought my Golf from www.tins.co.uk, they took my Impreza in part exchange for £800 more than I was offered by a VW dealer I faxed/phone around 30 Subaru dealers, not one showed any interest at all

I could only just squeeze £500 discount on the Golf direct from a VW dealer, but Tins bettered this by another £500, and only required a £500 deposit.

You will probably be able to get one cheaper through import, but I was quoted some ridiculous lead times (25 weeks!), huge (40%) deposits, and one importer even quoted me above UK list he argued that because it was 'euro-spec' it had more options than a UK model. He didn't seem to understand that I didn't actually want automatic wipers and armrest, so I certainly wouldn't pay extra.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Tins - their service has been excellent!

My car, with leather, 17" wheels, Xenon headlights, pearlescent paint, climate control and ESP came to arpund £19.5K, delivered to my door by transporter. Might seem a lot, but that's a pretty good spec

As regards how it goes - fantastic, the ONLY downside is the sound of the engine when idling/crawling through traffic. Rest of the time it is superb, running it in at the mo', but even so keeping below about 2500rpm(!) does not mean going slowly

Build quality is in a different league from Subaru. If you're worried about costs, this car should hold about 58% over 3 years/36K, according to Whatcar. Plus, for £36 per month I can have all my servicing, maintenance (e.g. consumables, wear & tear, basically most things that are not already covered by warranty) and tyres paid for for 3 years/48K.

Seems like a good deal, a total of around £1300 for 3 years, bearing in mind I would budget £800-900 for tyres alone in this time, and you even get breakdown cover included for years 2 and 3 as well - another £200 of value. Not sure that this deal is available on imports. Going to the local dealer today to sign up for this, will ask him.

Cheers
Tim

 

Certainly seems like a good buy, especially as they do finance as well! Driven the 150 a bit, and i'm really impressed by the pulling power they have. Also driven the Anniversary PD150 model, which has 18" BBS alloys, lowered and stiffened suspension, a tasteful bodykit and a wicked Mk1 Golf GTi style interior. It actually handled well, the new wheel/tyre set up being firm, but certainly better than normal Golfs. The interior is nicer too, with aluminium accents lifting the colour a little. Just a pity they're £18.5k, and very limited in numbers. But you do have the choice of the 150bhp diesel or 180bhp 1.8T for the same money.
Nice piccie of it (bit small though...):


[Edited by beefola - 7/17/2002 9:59:36 AM]

 

"Build quality is in a different league from Subaru. If you're worried about costs, this car should hold about 58% over 3 years/36K, according to Whatcar. Plus, for £36 per month I can have all my servicing, maintenance (e.g. consumables, wear & tear, basically most things that are not already covered by warranty) and tyres paid for for 3 years/48K."

If you have imported your car you will not get that much when you come to sell it!! Heard about one guy with a 130 PD trying to trade it in and got offered 3 G's less that a UK bought car.

 

Frazer,

Agreed, you probably will get a low price if you PX an import, but a private buyer is unlikely to be fussed about a 3 or 4 year old car, they'll be more interested in the general condition.

Just to make it clear, my car was supplied from a VW main dealer, with Tins acting as 'broker' (it's entirely possible that the VW dealer is owned by the same parent company as Tins, Pendragon Contracts).

I could have saved about another £800 by importing, but as I had a car to get rid of, Tins was a good option.

Cheers
Tim

 

I've had a quick look around VW's web site but can't see the performance figures for the PD150.

Just how quick are these things. The torque sounds huge!

J.

 

I think VW have been a little shy about the performance, for fear of pushing the insurance grouping up. The first reviews were estimating a group 10, but it's now been classified group 14.

Any way, here's what Top Gear found when they tested the PD150 (1.8T figures from same test in brackets for comparison):

0-62mph = 8.8 (8.8)
0-70mph = 10.9 (12.1)
30-50mph in 3rd = 3.2(4.8)
30-50mph in 4th = 5.1(6.8)
50-70mph in 5th = 6.4(9.0)
50-70mph in 6th = 8.6(n/a)
30-70mph through gears = 7.7(9.1)
Top speed = 130.4(125.3)

To put these into perspective, the 50-70 time in 6th, which is a very tall gear (34mph per 1000rpm), is similiar to a UK 99/00 Scooby in 5th, and better than a 'new' style WRX by about a second, demonstrating the massive flexibility available.

Diesel Car got a 0-60 time of 7.3s when they tested the PD150

Happy with that

Cheers
Tim

 

Thanks NBW

The PD150 will surprise a few 'hot hatches'.

Modern engineering ... don't you just love it :-)

J.

 

non scooby related..!!! comes to mind..

 

Looks smart mate / get that mod done for the fastest diesel on the road

 

Golf - hmm...i'm selling mine. They're great 'all round' cars but when you put your foot down and hurl it through some twisty roads forget it. I recently raced a seat leon cupra in my 1.8T and it pissed all over me handling-wise. This is the golf's major downpoint - they are very cheap cars to run and fantastic to live with but i've noticed that i never just hop into my golf for a 'drive' like i used to with my 3 series bmw. It's not a fun car at all really...can't wait to get my new WRX!!!!!!!! I also think the GT PD150 is overpriced - for a little bit more we're talking BMW diesel territory!

 

I'd agree that the Golf's handling is average, but also don't believe it's as bad as some people like to make out.

But how can you say that the Golf is expensive compared to BMW? The 320TD Compact is just over £19K, and alloys, CD player, climate, ESP/DSC, sports seats, lumbar support, wood trim are all options that are standard on the Golf.

Add all these options plus the options I have (17" alloys, leather and xenon lights), you're looking at a list price of over £26K OK so you could probably live without a few of these, but even so it's poor value against the Golf.

And if the Golf's handling really bothers you, get some Koni adjustable coilovers fitted by AMD.......you're still quids in!

BTW I've driven the Leon Cupra, it does handle a bit better than the Golf, in fact if they had got the PD150 enginer in it over here I'd probably have gone for that.

I'm also of the opinion that driver training has a bigger influence on road driving than having a great handling car, as most people don't have the skill to exploit this on the road anyway.

Cheers
Tim




[Edited by NBW - 7/19/2002 6:46:59 PM]

 

I'm not partcularly 'dissing' the golf at all, just compared to other cars i've driven their 'gti' and 'v6' models do not handle well although are easy to recover when they do slide out! I think you have probably bought the best golf there is - the power / torque, etc. and economy all make to be a great car for the money. I think if they added 4 wheel drive to it to correct the wheelspin then it would be even better. I must admit golf's are so cheap to run that everything else often pales into insignificance.

 

I agree 4wd would be good with all that torque, mind you apparently in a couple of years the Golf MK5 will have a 4motion version with a V6 2.5 PD engine giving around 200bhp