(another I HAT new cars) 1-month old Polo, 800 miles...

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

The Mk3 Golf was a very depressing car to drive, Just chock a block in thick dark plastic everywhere and rubbish build quality, My sister had a 1.8 CL which was painfully gutless for a 1800, I remember driving a 1400cc once, now that was bad.

 

I have a Mk3 Golf atmo diesel, you'd think such an effort utterly miserable to drive but it isn't. It's light enough to get away with a non turbo diesel, it's actually quite quick once wound up, the handling is decent and even playful sometimes - the narrow tyres and light rear end mean you select lift-off oversteer.

[shite_meister]

But I thought we love shit cars here, the under-dog, the under-achiever and the market flop?

[trigger]

Len - I've never driven a TDi from memory so i can't comment although I worked with a guy who had an Estate TDi on a N plate who loved his so i guess it's horses for courses, I just think they are far to hyped up for what they really are.

[CIH]

All new Volkswagen's look the same........?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, more or less. Can't really bame VW alone though, and IMO the latest Polo is much sharper looking than the previous.

[shite_meister]

Surely the point is that despite these cars being pretty fucking average they are the darlings of the middle-class wannabees and the latest generation will soon forgotten just as quick as VW change the shape of the rear light clusters then all the beautiful people will want the newest VW they can get leaving us shite enthusiasts with a sea of average VWs that are still capable of getting us from A-B rather than making any statement about class pretensions.

 

And that ladeez and gendlemun is my argument for 'fuck it, its a modern car so its pretty fucking average get over it' argument.

[r.welfare]

I parked next to a new Jetta at the weekend and, looking at it side-on thought to myself, why does that Saab 9-3 have VW badges on the alloy centre caps?

 

Anyway, I had use of a boggo 1.2 3-cyl new Polo last October for a week and thought it was OK. I quite liked the noise the 3-cylinder engine made, but didn't care for the vibration through the gearlever and pedals at idle, nor the lack of low-down torque and top-end go. Not as good as the 1.25 82hp Fiesta Zetec I did 500 miles in a day in, though - that's the Autoshite 2025 supermini champ for me, with an honourable mention to the Hyundai i20 1.2 as an acceptable alternative.

 

Also - yes, the Mk3 Goof wasn't great, but my wife ran a 93L 1.4CL 3-door (as basic as they got, pretty much) from 55k to 142k over 7 years with very little hassle or expense. Not rapid, but it was durable and showed very little rust when we sold it in 2005 at 12 years old, so VW did make the odd 'good' one!

[Tayne]

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[Guest Leonard Hatred]

8 valves and 4 cylinders FTW.

[Negative Creep]

I had one of those as a hire car, it was just a "car" nothing more. Didn't feel like any of this "premium" bollocks

 

I had that outlook when I worked in the car hire busines, whether it was a Ford or a Mercedes it was just another unit that needed to be processed and driven somewhere.

 

The thing was that this was back in the late 1980s, now I see them as something more, so it give it 25 years or so and your opinion may change.

 

The Polo that's the subject of this thread seems a little under utilised as in my experience hire cars usually clock up around 2000 miles a month, has it had some time in the workshop/bodyshop already?

 

 

Problem was even mundane older cars had a sense of involvement in that it still felt very mechanical. Now everything is so electronic and feel free I might as well be driving with a 360 controller

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

 

360 controller?

[Negative Creep]

[MrDuke]

Problem was even mundane older cars had a sense of involvement in that it still felt very mechanical. Now everything is so electronic and feel free I might as well be driving with a 360 controller

 

You wouldn't believe how hard I found it to put this fairly simple concept across to a 'nearly-new' buyer a while ago. The poor sod just couldn't get his head around why I didn't LOVE the feel of driving a top-end '08 Focus TD, and despite not being that much younger than me, had obviously never driven anything pre-2000 in his life. Or maybe he had, and was more of a twat than he seemed to be.

 

(incidentally, I didn't consider said Focus to be particularly awful in any way, in fact it was very capable, I just had extreme difficulty staying awake while I drove it. It was like playing GT4 in slow motion)

[Gompo]

I actually like the new 'face' that's on the Mk6 Golf, the newest Polo and the like. Possibly one of the nicest fronts on any of the current run of the mill motors. A shame they dont make anything remotely appealing to me.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

At least they don't have gopping grilles and headlights that extend most of the way up the wings.

[Volksy]

One thing I liked about the Golf Bluemotion I had last summer, It was shaped like a proper car, without acres of dash between you and the screen, everything in the right place, considering I traded a new shape Astra for it, which is an overweight euroblob with silly things like an electric handbrake. The golf was actually quite refreshing.

 

On the other hand I'm just about to hand back the VW Transporter TDi 4Motion I've had for the winter, not overly impressed, build quality is way way behind the Golf, bits of trim are dropping off left right and centre, the DMF is sounding very loose and clattery, it hesitates when applying acceleration after a bend (think that may be a glitch in the 4x4 system), Parking sensors have a mind of their own, then freak out as one drops into the bumper and it thinks it's about to crash into itself... Granted it's done 13,000 kms in pretty harsh terrain, and not really been treated with respect, but to be honest, the Transit I had the year before was a far better quality van.

[tonedepear]

I had a 1.6cl mk3 golf and it was a decent bus. Quite nippy I thought.

 

Got a mate with an 06 polo tdi (the 3cyl one), and it's a right shitter. Granted, he drives it like a twat, but it sounds awful, needed a new gearbox after about 49k, and seems to use more fuel than my old tdi ibiza did. It's *ok* to spend time in, but it's a proper money pit and certainly not superior to and of the 500 shit-boxes I've run since he's had it.