Nick L

As promised I am posting to let you know how I have got on with the test drives of the above motors.

Golf - Very impressive performance for a diesel. Bags and bags of torque to play with and noticable turbo style acceleration. Obviously not thump in the back style a la impreza turbo but I wasn't expecting that.
Handling was not very inspiring. Rolled into corners before settling itself down, with the traction control lights flashing like billio (when it was turned on anyway). Didn't really have the bottle to throw it round at high speeds because of this.
Performance aside, very quiet, comfortable, bl00dy economical.

Civic - Major grin factor. Revs and revs like nobody's business. Although the acceleration was very fast it does not feel as quick as the Scoob because of the VTEC rather than turbo as you would expect, although I doubt theres much in it.
Handling is fantastic, chuck it round like a go kart and it loves it. Lift off the gas at high revs round corners and have muchos fun with the back end. Lovely!
Don't really know about the economy as it doesn't have a computer like the golf. Ipitt, can you help??
Needs to be worked to be super quick whereas the golf isn't really very involving and doesn't really need much driving to be fairly rapid.

Overall - Civic for fun and an involving drive with majot head turning ability
Golf - Fairly quick, very economical but with more of a sensible thirty something image.

All this IMHO of course.

Nick L

Thanks Laurence.

You're economy figures on the Scoob are about the same as mine so that gives me a good idea for the CTR.
After having had the CTR for a couple more days since writing above I thought I would have come around to having one by now. The only thing thats putting me off a bit is the noise at motorway speeds. In comparison to the Scoob it all engine noise rather than exhaust noise. Do you find this tiring on long journeys?
I loved the handling when I got used to feeding the power in rather than just booting it, but I bet its hard work in the wet.
Saw you're comments re grin factor - definately agree.
Have you had a go against a Scoob in a straight line in the CTR. It doesn't feel as fast to me but that's probably just to do with the fact that the turbo always makes it feel quicker because of the punch?

FreeT

You could always improve the sound deadening with a kit, fairly cheap and easy - does add a bit of weight though, almost like a small passenger on board- depends on how much you like the car.

Just a suggestion.

lpitt

Yep, I can help.

CTR Fuel Economy (in my experience)
================
Best ever on a tank: 37mpg
Worst so far on a tank: 27mpg
Average whilst I've had the car: 32mpg

I've been running mine on Optimax since the start of March. No difference to economy but definitely smoother.

Watch out though. My company was just nice enough to issue us 'opt outs' with fuel cards. I'm currently doing a test to find out exactly how bad I can get the mileage for a single tank

To give you an idea of my driving:

Scooby Fuel Economy:
====================
Best ever on a tank: 31mpg
Worst so far on a tank: 15mpg
Average whilst I had the car: 25mpg

Hope this helps.

Laurence



[Edited by lpitt - 4/5/2002 4:39:41 PM]