Blue Graphite?

[Exonian]

Thinking about it, I'm sure you could get the GTI Pirelli in Blue Graphite. There's bound to be a photo of one of those knocking around to see how they would look in the flesh. The mk5 and mk6 look almost identical so it will give you a very good idea of what the car looks like. Apologies if someone has already suggested that.

Incidentally one of the very first mk5 GTIs I ever saw was in that colour way back in 2005.....may be a very slightly different shade now but I doubt it'd be much different.

[Rolfe]

Thank you for all the comments about the DSG.  The trouble is, I've not driven an automatic often enough to have a real feel for how it is.  I was quite impressed by the way it changes down if you stamp on the accelerator.  So I'm not quite clear how it's less engaging and less fun.

But point taken about the maintenance and faults though.  I'm mulling it all over, excellent food for thought.

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

Have you seen the amazing number of colours the GTI is offered in Germany.  Maybe if you really aren't keen on the colours for UK buyers you should pop over to Germany and see if you can place an order there.

Yes, well, and have you seen the prices?  I had a look on their web site after reading your comment, and I note that while the colour options we have are about the same price, the extra spectrum ones are massively more expensive - most of them are 2,020 euros!

http://cc5.volkswagen.de/cc5/configurator/fs_base.aspx?context=default&app=ICC-DE&template=golf_gti&process=motorselect

There is no way on God's green earth I am going to pay that sort of money just to have a car in a pretty colour.  You'd have to be certifiable.

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

Rolfe, I would prefer a lighter blue myself. VW did a nice Laser Blue when they launched the mk5 but it got discontinued not long after and it's a shame they don't have a similar colour available now. SEAT do a lovely Speed Blue for their sporty Leons and if you look on VWs German website they do a whole raft of colours for the mk5.5 mk6. So the colours are there, just not imported by VW UK.

Yes, well, see comment above re prices.  Does anybody pay these?  It's ridiculous!

DSG is a fantastic gearbox. It has features such a launch control and with several different modes including manual it has an awful lot going for it. However if you are planning on keeping the car for another 10 plus years I would be more than a little concerned about long term costs with it. Fine for the first 3 years but after that you're going to have to be prepared to shell out a lot of money if it needs fixing. I think it would suit your more mature driving style though.
Most of the stuff underneath the 'new' GTI is the same as the last GTI so all well proved and has had 5 years of development underneath its belt.

Thank you for that different perspective on the DSG.  I'm still pondering.  I was able to talk to the retired garage owner himself after church this morning but he was quite difficult to draw out on the subject.  I might be best to go talk to the new owner of the garage, who has been maintaining the 306 since I moved here, and who will be maintaining the new car once any requirement to have a dealer do work has expired.

You're right about the driving style - I'm not a boy racer, and I don't run around showing off.  (Some of the conversation in this forum just cracks me up as terminal testosterone poisoning, but each to his own.)  I like to have the power when I need and/or want it.  I just don't have enough experience with automatic gearboxes to be able to make a really informed decision.  Someone on another forum said he had to have a manual gearbox for mountain driving and I don't know what he meant.  Why might a manual be better on mountain roads?  (The manual hire car I had in the Serra de Tramuntana in Majorca frankly scared me witless.  I'd have given a year's salary to have had my 306 there, but it did occur to me that at least an automatic couldn't have stalled.)

You're all getting me fairly concerned about the maintenance of the DSG though, so maybe I should just forget I had the idea in the first place.

On another note, glad your mother approves of the GTI. A woman of taste and obviously a good attitude too which must be the secret to her rather impressive innings. 

Oh yes, she's a fan.  Mind you, considering the age of the Peugeot and its lack of passenger comfort, I suspect she'd have been a fan of a brand new basic Polo if I'd shown her one!

As for the Focus, I'm a quiet admirer of the car, you've got to take your hat off to a 2.5 litre turbo mated up to the legendary Focus chassis and you would certainly get much bigger discounts from a Ford dealer than a VW if you shopped around well but I reckon the VW would make a better long term companion despite the ST offering an awful lot as a package. They do the Focus in some nice blues though.....

Yes, the Ford dealer was apparently talking decent discounts - though as he was trying to sell me a 1.6 litre Zetec at the time I can't be sure!  The Zetec, in the showroom, was a very pretty metallic blue I have to say.  But I haven't even managed to get a brochure for the ST out of him yet.  2.5 litres is impressive but I'm not sure I need that, and the petrol consumption is a bit depressing.  And if the Ford dealer doesn't wake up his ideas, and maybe show me a car or something, I'll have a Golf ordered before he gets off the starting blocks.  The Focus is certainly an amazing package at a very reasonable price, and I haven't entirely written it off, but I'm getting the impression that there's a reason VW don't have to discount this car.  Maybe.

I saw someone in another thread saying he'd got a decent discount from a Verve branch in Glasgow.  I have to drive past another Verve branch on Tuesday, so I may go in and see what they have to say for themselves.

Thanks again to everyone for such great input and food for thought.

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

I've been playing around on a couple of web sites.

On VW's own site, now I can get the flash player to work (my office computer isn't configured to play it), I see it "paints" the car the colour you choose.  I think I could live with the Blue Graphite if it's anything like the on-screen appearance.

If I spec a car for every extra I'm even thinking about (including the ACC, the DSG and the leather upholstery) it comes to £28,015 (not sure where the extra £15 came from).  If I spec the exact same thing from DealDrivers, I get £26,575.  Difference of £1,440.

The VW dealer I went to was talking a total discount of £2,500 with the scrappage on my Peugeot.  I'm assuming that if I asked for a quote from DealDrivers I'd get the statutory £2,000 (though as I haven't actually asked, I can't be sure).  That is, if I've got my sums right, an extra £940 discount through DealDrivers.

Does anybody know whether there's a catch with DealDrivers?  TANSTAAFL and all that?  Might be a useful lever to prise out a slightly better deal from someone the whites of whose eyes I'm able to see....

Rolfe.

[Exonian]

The usual way of these internet companies who discount new cars is that they take a £500 or so deposit off you then put you in touch with a dealer who will then take over the rest of the ordering process. The internet company gets their cut out of you directly and the dealer takes your nice fat cheque on delivery. There aren't many of these internet brokers around now so the ones that are still going tend to have been there for a few years so should be fairly okay. You pays yer money.....

As for the local garage, as long as they are VAT registered and use genuine VW parts I'm pretty certain they can do all non warranty work on the car from the word go. BUT with a new car VW will often have technical bulletins and further changes and re-calls which your friendly and much cheaper local garage won't have access to.

[Egbutt Wash]

After owning a new DSG GTI for 15 months I think the DSG gear box is the bees knees.

[Rolfe]

With DealDrivers, apparently you don't give them any money - you give their partner dealer the deposit, and then the balance in due course.  They must get their cut from the dealer.  They have been reasonably well recommended in this forum.

I'm looking at about £800 to £900 saving if I go that route, compared to what my dealer is offering.  However, I might try waving the DealDrivers quote at the dealer and see if that brings him down a bit more.  Or maybe the Verve dealer will better the Western VW quote.

My friendly local garage is pretty damn good.  I'd had the Peugeot serviced by the dealer I bought it from, almost exclusively.  Then I moved to Scotland, and it gave a bit of trouble.  I was at a temporary address as I was househunting at the time, and again I went to the nearest Peugeot garage.  They did sort it out, but they were a bit of a pain to deal with and not very efficient.

However, when I finally found the house, I shifted to the local garage in the village, and asked them to do a pre-MOT check and repair anything that needed doing, that would have been February last year.  When I picked the car up he treated me to a spiel about several things that hadn't been properly adjusted, and said he'd sorted these out while he was working on it.  I can't remember now what it was all about, but the Peugeot was like a different car when I drove away.  I'd just put a helluva mileage on it, having spent 7 months doing an 80-mile round trip to work every day, on roads 1,000 feet up through a Scottish winter, and it had been driving like an old, clapped-out car.  After that session though, I stopped worrying about it and just went on driving.  It took several friends to kick me quite hard and point out that at 11 years plus and 118,000 miles I really needed to look at replacing it.

Even so, I just had a neighbour going on about what a damn shame it would be to crush that car, in its condition and so on.  But I can't see a boy racer giving me £2000 for it, and the scrappage deal makes financial sense.

Still swithering about automatic gearboxes.  I ought to slope away from work early and go talk to said friendly local magician.

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

After owning a new DSG GTI for 15 months I think the DSG gear box is the bees knees.

Thanks for that.  I really can't make up my mind!

Rolfe.

[jaydubveedub]

If you are keeping it 10 years then go for the colour you like. Personally I think the blue is nice and as you say, quite subtle.

If i was keeping it for 10 years I would go for a manual and make sure you tick the option box for all the toys you want as adding some of them later can be tricky (convenience pack, lux pack etc).

I think you are making the right choice with the Golf instead of the Focus. The Ford's economy is appalling and it makes you look like a chav.