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Ordered 2nd GTI - Best all rounder


jhibbin
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After much thought and deliberation decided to go for a replacement GTI now that my current one has reached the end of it's finance lease plan. This time in diamond black with 18" monzas, ipod FCA and MFSW, but still a 5dr DSG.

I test drove a few alternatives much further down the price range that on paper do everything that I need and would save me a bundle of cash but even when you take the high cost into account it's still hard to knock the current GTi. Of course there are improvements that I would love to see chief among which are the brakes which in my view fall well short of the rest of the cars mechanics for both feel and oomph. On the minor side I feel the standard kit could be bit more generous, stereo should be better in a £22K car, keyless entry with starter button and auto handbrake need to adopted by VW. As for the Ed30 and R32 well the first I ruled out on taste grounds and the second on cost (far too much for a golf).

But here's the thing after two years of driving the GTI it still puts a big grin on my face when you push on a difficult road. :) The DSG gearbox is still amazing and has gained more character as time goes by, the odd POP from the exhaust and a bit more thump to the manual changes adds to what can sometimes be just a bit too polished a system.

And I can still put the whole family in it or fill the boot with stuff put it in D and act all sensible, and it's only marginally less practical than the family skip (Scenic).

When I seriously considered not owning one I realized how much I would miss it and how much more money I would need to seriously improve on it. The bottom line was after a stressful day at work I would always feel better on the drive home . . . what's that worth ?? Well I'm not sure but I bought another so maybe that's the answer ! :)

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Good decision i think, congrats.

Out of interest what else did you drive and what were your findings??

I look at an Audi TT; and then after a feeling that was just too much money I went downmarket and looked at Fiat panda 100HP and Suzuki Swift sport.

TT has great cabin; really nice place to sit definitely a upgrade on GTI but I was just dreaming as I need a 5DR car, and bottom line was that a well specced 2.0T was allot of money and still had same engine as GTI. I subscribe to Evo and have followed their love of the fiat and thought that would save me a packet. It certainly is cheap; dealer offered me £1500 off list and 0% finance without blinking. It's OK to drive with sport mode on you kinda understand what the fuss is about and for £8K i'm sure it is unbeatable but it's a nasty interior. Never got into a Swift but had heard good things about them . . . ruled out Honda Type R, really don't like new hatch shape. Ford and Astra have image issues but I never test drove them.

Maybe not the best sweep of the market but I concluded it was right thing to do. If I had more cash at the moment I would have test driven a 335.

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Must admit i know what you meen. I have been looking to replace our 2nd car for over a year now and im having a problem finding something else apart from another GTI to join the one we already have. Not a cheap option, but at least decent deals are now available on the mk5 GTI. I had been tempted by the ed30 but its expensive, and so thought about holding out for the mk6 but it keeps getting delayed and times getting on. Then the pirelli came along to tempt me. Im undecided.

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Seems about right. www.Drivethedeal.com who i have delt with before is giving about 9.9% off the spec your after.

I checked out drivethedeal but they don't do part ex and with options it wasn't the best offer. In the end I used newcar4me; www.newcar4me.com, good to deal with thus far. Will report back in 2 weeks when I have the new car.

They offer to drive the car to you at no extra cost but to be honest I would rather collect. I just don't like idea of someone driving my car on road for first time. Maybe silly but would rather take a day out to collect.

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