Test Drive

[Bill_the_Bear]

Bill: No chance in getting the car for 1/2 a day, not right now when they know there are people buying these blind

I wasn't very clear.  I didn't expect half a day, and I knew the dealer was going to sit in.  But, I had a 2 hour slot and he wanted to spend only 6 mins of that with me behind the wheel?? WTF?  I expected to have 1.5 hours of driving and my choice of roads, that is what Ford gave me when I tested a Fiesta Titanium.  How can any dealer think that 6 mins is enough to get a feel for a GTI?  Surely 45 mins is the minimum to get used to it!

Also the dude spent 30 mins going over legal crap and taking all my "details" before the drive and there was over an hour left afterward when he wanted to talk more.  I declined.  I suppose this was to be the bit where they pushed for an order and then arranged finance and P/X.  I booked a test drive, not a sit down and have a sales push session.

Coming from a Ford i'm surprised you never went through the windscreen when applying the brakes. VW brakes are always excellent in their class and those fitted to the GTI/GTD/Scirocco are really good.

I made full use of the seat belt the first few times, put it that way.  Ford like you to slam the brake to the floor, seems like the GTI wants only the faintest of tickles and it tries to do an emergency stop.  I'll get used to it (just not in 6 mins though!).

Ford are great at one thing - manual gearboxes, and VAGs are better than most but not as good as a Ford.

If I'd had time to get used to it then I think the GTI box would probably be better than the Fiesta one.  I consider that high praise (if we skip over the minor issue of Fords not liking to use reverse, -cough-).  Maneuvering wise the Fiesta is better but the GTI crushes it on stability (and obviosuly on speed, acceleration etc...).  On the other hand the GTI is 3x more expensive.  To be honest, I think both these cars are in the top 1% of vehicles in terms of sheer engineering quality.  Given the choice of anything in the world and told to pick a small and a medium family car I can't think of better options.  Which is why I'm really hoping to find a way to pay for the GTI without selling the Fiesta! haha

Was it Tom that took you out on the test drive?

Jack.

[Hawaii-Five-O]

6 min test drive in a (near) £30K performance car is daft.

Thanks for the write up Bill. Appreciated.

[Gung-Ho]

Nice down to earth no nonsense review Bear.... Aside from the test drive did you glean any more information from the salesman with regards to ordering/ lead times if you were to place an order now say??

[CraigW]

In conclusion, I think the dumb test route ruined it for me a bit, leaving me feeling decidedly underwhelmed.  However, give me half a day with this car and no salesman in sight and I don't think I'll ever want to give it back!  Very much looking forward to picking mine up and having a proper, stress free play!

Bill, I hope I'm reading this right mate and it was just the overall experience you were underwhelmed with and not the car. No offence pal but a ford fiesta is not anywhere near the same league as a GTI. If it was I would be absolutely gutted. Also I'm taking it you haven't driven many different cars if you think that a fiesta is in the top 1% of engineering quality, the Golf isn't even in the top 1%

[Bill_the_Bear]

Nice down to earth no nonsense review Bear.... Aside from the test drive did you glean any more information from the salesman with regards to ordering/ lead times if you were to place an order now say??

20 weeks guaranteed but will come forward a lot, that's all he said.  I don't consider it to be helpful really...

[Bill_the_Bear]

Bill, I hope I'm reading this right mate and it was just the overall experience you were underwhelmed with and not the car. No offence pal but a ford fiesta is not anywhere near the same league as a GTI. If it was I would be absolutely gutted. Also I'm taking it you haven't driven many different cars if you think that a fiesta is in the top 1% of engineering quality, the Golf isn't even in the top 1%

Exactly right, it was the experience not the car.

I actually used to work in an auction house so I've driven pretty much every car you see regularly on the roads.  When I say engineering you understand I'm not talking about comparing with a Veyron right?  It's one thing making 50 cars, it's another altogether to make a mass production car.  Is there a better car than the Fiesta in its class right now? Hell no.  Same question for GTI? The M135i probably wants to have a say but otherwise again, no there is not.  I put both cars right at the top of the pack, which is why I own one and have the other on order.

[CraigW]

Bill, I hope I'm reading this right mate and it was just the overall experience you were underwhelmed with and not the car. No offence pal but a ford fiesta is not anywhere near the same league as a GTI. If it was I would be absolutely gutted. Also I'm taking it you haven't driven many different cars if you think that a fiesta is in the top 1% of engineering quality, the Golf isn't even in the top 1%

Exactly right, it was the experience not the car.

I actually used to work in an auction house so I've driven pretty much every car you see regularly on the roads.  When I say engineering you understand I'm not talking about comparing with a Veyron right?  It's one thing making 50 cars, it's another altogether to make a mass production car.  Is there a better car than the Fiesta in its class right now? Hell no.  Same question for GTI? The M135i probably wants to have a say but otherwise again, no there is not.  I put both cars right at the top of the pack, which is why I own one and have the other on order.

Sorry that wasn't clear to me. It sounded like you meant the top 1% of any car in any class. It depends what you classify as being in the Fiesta class; a Polo, a Clio, Fiat 500, perhaps even a mini which are all very good small cars. Same with the GTI, you have the Beemer, S3, BRZ/GT86, Focus RS etc. it's all a matter of opinion at the end of the day 

[GtG]

Really random.. saw a Tornado Red MK7 GTI on French plates this afternoon... Now I never thought I could like a car in red... but wow... it looks great

To add to that slightly, whilst there are loads of great pics of red available... it still looks 20 x better in real life. I'm not sure but I think the car in front might have been filming it.

[Bill_the_Bear]

Sorry that wasn't clear to me. It sounded like you meant the top 1% of any car in any class. It depends what you classify as being in the Fiesta class; a Polo, a Clio, Fiat 500, perhaps even a mini which are all very good small cars. Same with the GTI, you have the Beemer, S3, BRZ/GT86, Focus RS etc. it's all a matter of opinion at the end of the day 

It was me wasn't being clear (as usual haha).  Yeah its a matter of opinion.  However, in my opinion none of the cars on your list are of the build quality of the GTI, but yeah the beemer can argue the point.  The Polo is built more solid than the Fiesta, but it doesn't have the style, the fun or the price point.

I await to be shot down by Polo owners! hehe

[Running Man]

Sorry Bear