Well, it's now been a week and a half sans GTI whilst it has a new front bumper having been reversed into.
After the initial fury it has been more irony that the only car I've ever had with a frontal collision protection system is the only one I've had frontal damage inflicted on it (albeit it being parked up and getting backed into).
The delay has been getting the radar renewed and recalibrated.
Whilst it's been gone I've had the 'joy' of a Corsa loan car which to be honest is crap.
It provides a means of transport and handles well enough but that's it. Everything else about it sums up modern throw away cars, the controls are cheap, the engine has no mid range whatsoever thanks to stupid ineffective emissions laws which just mean that small cars need 16v engines so that their emissions are low on a test rig but out in the big bad world you have to thrash the guts out of it just to get it to move.
The one thing the Corsa has reminded me of though is that the Golf has become very heavy and the Corsa can actually be more fun to drive so long as you don't need any sort of speed (ok, it goes ok downhill). Now I'm suddenly fancying a new Polo GTI in Mayan Blue to thrash around in for 12 months or so - it'd probably cost about the same as my GTI is worth, (brokers are knocking them out for about £16k already) and is a proper GTI; big engine, manual gearbox and doesn't weigh much (unlike the in vogue Golf R in the weight stakes) plus its torque peaks nice and early meaning it should be a very flexible friend.
