What have you done to your MK 7 today ?

[SRGTD]

Actually this is quite interesting to me. The wife's car (a 2016 Polo Blue GT), is now over 2 years old and she loves it, so she's decided she wants to purchase it outright next year (we have the money to pay it off already). thing is when we purchased the car, we got the dealership to throw in the 2 years free servicing. Well, she's recently used the last of her two free services, so we were wondering what to do next year when the 3rd year one is due ?

Are you saying that you can extend the service contract with VW, if so how please ?

I don’t think you can extend the original service plan that you had. VW have a service plan for cars over 1 year old, so you’d just take out a new two year plan for cars over 1 year old. This gives you one minor and one major service and you can pay the full cost up front or pay monthly over an 18 month period. Total cost is £476.82, which doesn’t represent much of a saving over VW’s current prices for a minor and major service, but I like the convenience of paying monthly, and the cost of the service plan is inflation proof, should VW decide to increase its servicing costs. When I took this plan out, it represented an overall saving of around £25 for the two services. It’s a bit less of a saving now, as the monthly cost has increased from £25.99 to £26.49.

Unlike the 3 year service plan I had on my mk6 Golf, VW’s current 2 year service plans don’t include a brake fluid change, so you’d need to factor in the cost of this at the 3 year service (current cost £64 on VW website) 

Details at link below;

http://www.vwfsaftersales.co.uk/ourplans/over-1-year/#

Some dealers offer their own service plans. The one that Watts has sound like it may be a dealer’s own service plan and it’s a little cheaper (£22 x 20 payments so £440), and also includes reduced cost MOTs and collection / delivery of customer’s car.

[Jim_mk7.5]

Not done anything today or this week as I’m in the Algafve.

But I did spot this new Polo RLine and other than the wheels, thought it looked really good. Seen the massively long lead times for the GTI but there also been a lot of lease deals. Anyone got one in order?

[JoeGTI]

I've seen a few of those Polo's now and tbh I think they're quite ugly - from the front at least. And just fairly unremarkable from every other angle.

[fredgroves]

Looks like an ugly Astra

[JoeGTI]

The worry is.... the next Golf is likely to take similar "style" cues...

[Booth11]

That’s truly horrible.

[Booth11]

The worry is.... the next Golf is likely to take similar "style" cues...

Please God no!

[Exonian]

Got the GTI back and returned the loaner R. TBH, even with my super critical eye, I can't even seen where they have repaired it. The paint match is perfect and the finish flawless, with no overspray what so ever. Been over the whole car (and wheels) and there's not a mark on it anywhere. Super delighted to have it back and it looks stunning.

Also noticed that since dropping it off last Tuesday 15th, it's only done 0.4 miles, so no ones been hooning it around in it whilst it was away. a happy bunny.

Now to continue to run it in and enjoy it (just clocked 200 miles on it on the way into work this morning).

Great news that the car is looking as good as you'd hoped now.

How does the GTI feel after the R?

What are your lasting impressions of the R?

That's a great question Exonian. I'm sure many here will expect me to say the "R" was in a league of it's own and that I'm now slumming it in a GTI, well for me not so.

First things first, the "R" is a truly stunning machine. It's very quick, safe and predictable. It also has a wonderful sound track (compared to the rather anaemic sound from the GTI). However for me, I found it felt a touch heavy (probably the AWD), with much weightier steering feel than the GTI (some may like this). For me, though as brilliant as the "R" is, the 2 minor issues for me are

a) It doesn't look anything special and was mistaken in our car park at work a few times for a standard Golf R-Line 1.4. Unless you look at the quad pipes (which I think are a little overkill on a small hatch), it does look pretty innocuous.  I know the GTI is also a little understated by hot hatch standards, but I think the red accents at the front, and the fog lights etc., and the rear treatment with the twin exhaust pipes looks better to my eye. I know this is purely subjective and some people will prefer the "sleeper" look of the R

b) the other thing for me is that although the R is shockingly fast, it does it so well and with such composure, that (dare I say) it just borders on a little boring. Again I know the GTI isn't exactly the last word in hot hatch dynamics, but to me it just feels faster and more urgent (even though it's clearly not). Maybe modern hot hatches are now so good and do their jobs so ruthlessly well that they all feel just a little boring ?

Don't get me wrong, If I'd had gone for an R, I certainly wouldn't have been disappointed, it's a great car, but I find the GTI is just the nice middle (maybe conservative) ground between the GTD and the R in terms of looks, performance and fuel economy.

I'm sure many will disagree with me, but the acid test was, when I gave the R" back and collected my GTI, I didn't look back once at it, but instead had a grin from ear to ear whilst say back in my GTI. Maybe I'm just mad   

Fascinating reading Andrew.
And believe it or not I more than half expected you to say that.

[SRGTD]

I've seen a few of those Polo's now and tbh I think they're quite ugly - from the front at least. And just fairly unremarkable from every other angle.

Looks like an ugly Astra

That’s truly horrible.

As the saying goes......beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I quite like it, especially the GTI+ version, although I dislike the diamond cut alloys.

On the basis that the Polo, T-Roc and Arteon represents VW’s current design language, don’t be surprised if the mk8 Golf wears a similar face.

[Watts]

Actually this is quite interesting to me. The wife's car (a 2016 Polo Blue GT), is now over 2 years old and she loves it, so she's decided she wants to purchase it outright next year (we have the money to pay it off already). thing is when we purchased the car, we got the dealership to throw in the 2 years free servicing. Well, she's recently used the last of her two free services, so we were wondering what to do next year when the 3rd year one is due ?

Are you saying that you can extend the service contract with VW, if so how please ?

I don’t think you can extend the original service plan that you had. VW have a service plan for cars over 1 year old, so you’d just take out a new two year plan for cars over 1 year old. This gives you one minor and one major service and you can pay the full cost up front or pay monthly over an 18 month period. Total cost is £476.82, which doesn’t represent much of a saving over VW’s current prices for a minor and major service, but I like the convenience of paying monthly, and the cost of the service plan is inflation proof, should VW decide to increase its servicing costs. When I took this plan out, it represented an overall saving of around £25 for the two services. It’s a bit less of a saving now, as the monthly cost has increased from £25.99 to £26.49.

Unlike the 3 year service plan I had on my mk6 Golf, VW’s current 2 year service plans don’t include a brake fluid change, so you’d need to factor in the cost of this at the 3 year service (current cost £64 on VW website) 

Details at link below;

http://www.vwfsaftersales.co.uk/ourplans/over-1-year/#

Some dealers offer their own service plans. The one that Watts has sound like it may be a dealer’s own service plan and it’s a little cheaper (£22 x 20 payments so £440), and also includes reduced cost MOTs and collection / delivery of customer’s car.

Exactly. My dealer reckoned £360 for the major and £180 for the minor so saving around £100 plus the cheap mots and 2x collections at £12 each. I thought that good value and handy to spread the cost, especially if anything unexpected should crop up during the services. It was with Lookers should that help.