GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk5 => Topic started by: GeorgeJoshington on 11 August 2010, 00:44
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I'm looking at getting my next hot hatch soon and the MK5 GTI is on the shortlist, along with Astra VXR, Focus ST-3 and newer model Mazda 3 MPS.
Now, obviously the Golf is the lowest in terms of BHP, but is it boring to drive? I know that the VXR and 3MPS are in the 'ballistic but with large compromise' category, and the ST-3 is a bit wobbly but after having a go in those, the Golf just seems a bit...dull!
Of course, on the Golf's side there's the higher residuals, arguably better build quality, more refined ride and handling, but I just can't get the BHP figure out of my head.
Obviously coming from a MK4 Golf Turbo any of these cars will be a fairly sizeable improvement but I really can't make up my mind. I'm not going to be a regular driver, and most of my miles will be short town journeys or long motorway jobs - not much need for a car that can glide effortlessly around B roads...
Obviously there's the remap route for the Golf, which is always something to consider... :evil:
So, any thoughts? My bottom line is that I want something that puts a big grin on my face when I drive it, and is something I look forward to driving and enjoy owning.
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I think the ed30 is world's apart in terms of putting a smile on your face over a standard gti. It seems to lack top end grunt IMO.
but a tastey map on either will have you grinning all day lol. I'd deffinately choose the golf over those other cars.
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Mine is plenty fast enough, would rather have a slightly slower vw than a worthless ford or vauxhall.
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Without question the Golf over the other's,2nd would be the Focus as they are very good cars,Astra is qiuck but does'nt do corners and its a Vauxhaull,Dont know much about the Mazda although i know its not German. :wink:
I have a standard GTI which has been mapped by R-tech and i can honestly say it's a different beast... :laugh:
The map has transformed a good car into a great car.
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Mine is plenty fast enough, would rather have a slightly slower vw than a worthless ford or vauxhall.
..........fast enought for me. :smiley:
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Cheers for the replies chaps. ED30 is something I'd considered, seems to be a good mid-point between the standard golf and the other cars I mentioned. I dare say the ED30 will hold its value extremely well too! The one unfortunate thing about getting any mods (remap etc) is that it'll probably drive the insurance sky high - I had my car nicked and written off by an un-caught scrote earlier this year and as a result lost my 3 years NCB and have a 'fault' claim on my record. Sigh, don't you just love insurers?
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my 290bhp Astra VXR handles fine, you just need to improve the springs and fit a rarb. job done :wink:
not much will keep up, and not many people like getting whooped by a 'worthless' vauxhall :tongue:
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Cheers for the replies chaps. ED30 is something I'd considered, seems to be a good mid-point between the standard golf and the other cars I mentioned. I dare say the ED30 will hold its value extremely well too! The one unfortunate thing about getting any mods (remap etc) is that it'll probably drive the insurance sky high - I had my car nicked and written off by an un-caught scrote earlier this year and as a result lost my 3 years NCB and have a 'fault' claim on my record. Sigh, don't you just love insurers?
.........i've only fittted edition 30 alloys & a cat back Milltek to my 05 GTI & when it came up for renewal Esure wanted an extra 100 pounds just for those !!!!!!!!!! went through a specialist & managed to get it the same with the mods as what i paid standard with Esure. :wink:
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my 290bhp Astra VXR handles fine, you just need to improve the springs and fit a rarb. job done :wink:
not much will keep up, and not many people like getting whooped by a 'worthless' vauxhall :tongue:
Is the torque steer as present as everyone seems to say it is?
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Depends what you want from your hot hatch, I suppose. The GTI is head and shoulders above them as a complete product, but others are faster/cheaper/sharper/etc...
You pays your money, you makes your choice.
'Speed' wasn't my main criteria when I bought my car two years ago (I'm standard), but now 'speed' is becoming more important...
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my 290bhp Astra VXR handles fine, you just need to improve the springs and fit a rarb. job done :wink:
not much will keep up, and not many people like getting whooped by a 'worthless' vauxhall :tongue:
Is the torque steer as present as everyone seems to say it is?
not at all, but then again i did stop driving with no hands a few years back. :grin:
the car does follow the bumps in the road but this is more to do with the large 19" wheels. As long as you drive with both hands on the wheel the car is great.
I have a mate with a mo tune ST which is also a nice car, not as rapid as the astra as the engine is a little lazy. It is a thirsty beast too. My stage 3 vxr gets 36mpg on the motorway which isnt too bad. As for the Golf, if you tune them they are great cars but i never really liked the styling my self, thats why i went for the vxr but its not everyones taste i am sure :smiley:
You pays your money and all that.
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As above, it depends what you want. I look for a sharp drive - i live amongst a few great tight B-Roads and i like to drive at 7/10ths - at this pace the Golf is refined, balanced and i feel it really flows down the road. (If you have the manual, the pedals are perfectly positioned for heel-n-toe changes) - It has enough power in my opinion - and im not interested in top speed, anyone can be a straight line hero...
The Golf does everything brilliantly, i've heard the Focus has its flaws (can't get the drivers seat low enough) and the Astra is brutal with its torque steer (i do think it looks brilliant though)
When i was buying my car, i considered the usual options (Renaultsport Megane F1 230 is a cracker too) but i'm certain i made the right choice.
Simple remap will take it over 250bhp and can go undetected by garages, therefore is there any need to tell insurance companies? In this tune it will dust the others and also the heavier 4 wheel drive Golf R32.
Mine is standard and for now, its perfectly quick enough for me.
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Thanks for all your thoughts everyone.
I'm not at all bothered by top speed - I'm not looking for a track car so it's a moot point, really.
For my needs (mostly motorway miles) it seems I'd probably be happy with any of the choices! Golf sounds like a great all-rounder and the VXR sounds like it'd be fine for what I want! I must admit I'm slightly drawn to the more mental nature of the VXR - it's not something I'd need to live with everyday so I shouldn't think it'd get too tiresome.
One thing I haven't looked THAT much into is the security features of the choices - I live in town so it'll be on-street parking (sigh) but in saying that, there doesn't seem to be a lot of car crime around here. There's Audis and Carreras and fancy stuff everywhere.
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I've come from Lotus Elises into the Golf so gone from a car that is low 5secs to 60 to the Golf GTi's 7secs.
I have to say that I find the GTi perfectley adequate for 95% of the driving I do (in gear the Turbo/torque is excellent IMHO). It obviusly doesn't handle as well as the Lotus and I wouldn't exepct it to so given the GTi is a comprimise between performance and practicality, I think it does an excellemt job in standard form as mine is.
My own personal view is that the ST gives off too much of a boy racer image and so does the VXR, but to a lessor extent. That said, the ST is easliy tunable and some tunes even keep the Ford warranty.
As you say, top end outright speed is meaningless (no-one really does 147mph anywhere here in the UK on public roads).
I would aslo say not to be swayed by the alledged excellent Golf build quality - they are not well built and the Mk5 in particular suffers from interior quality issues in bucketloads.
I went through a phase of hating my Golf (because of the build quality and awful dealer response to problems) but on reflection realise that the car does a lot of things very well, is cheap to run and is not an in your face hot hatch that a chap in his 30's dopesn't feel a co@k driving!
Good luck.
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The ED30 is a class act, I know becuse I owned one and did 12k miles in the car loved every minute of it esp DSG. The other cars you mention in the thread are just a pile of rubbish compared to the GTI, worlds apart in terms of ownership and drivabilty or try R32, again an amazing car!! :smug:
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The ED30 is a class act, I know becuse I owned one and did 12k miles in the car loved every minute of it esp DSG. The other cars you mention in the thread are just a pile of rubbish compared to the GTI, worlds apart in terms of ownership and drivabilty or try R32, again an amazing car!! :smug:
R32 looks nice but a little on the expensive side! I get the feeling that it would not be a cheap car to run...
I'll see if I can get a drive of an ED30.
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Well, the VED on an R32 is over £400 for a start...
ED30 is a good shout & more tuneable than a standard GTI.
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The ED30 is a class act, I know becuse I owned one and did 12k miles in the car loved every minute of it esp DSG. The other cars you mention in the thread are just a pile of rubbish compared to the GTI, worlds apart in terms of ownership and drivabilty or try R32, again an amazing car!! :smug:
R32 looks nice but a little on the expensive side! I get the feeling that it would not be a cheap car to run...
I'll see if I can get a drive of an ED30.
How much is the VXR to run? I just think if you can get a low milage ED30 you have the best of both worlds top motor!! :smug:
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The ED30 is a class act, I know becuse I owned one and did 12k miles in the car loved every minute of it esp DSG. The other cars you mention in the thread are just a pile of rubbish compared to the GTI, worlds apart in terms of ownership and drivabilty or try R32, again an amazing car!! :smug:
R32 looks nice but a little on the expensive side! I get the feeling that it would not be a cheap car to run...
I'll see if I can get a drive of an ED30.
How much is the VXR to run? I just think if you can get a low milage ED30 you have the best of both worlds top motor!! :smug:
Yeah, the VXR will be a lot - something about the R32 screams 'higher servicing costs' than the others though!
I think if I can stretch to it then yeah, ED30 would be nice - it's just there's generally about a £3-4k price gap between one of those and a VXR!
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Don't do the vxr, you will regret it ?? Just imagine your driving down the road and you pull up next to a gti ?? What goes through your mind is if only??? :rolleyes:
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The ED30 is a class act, I know becuse I owned one and did 12k miles in the car loved every minute of it esp DSG. The other cars you mention in the thread are just a pile of rubbish compared to the GTI, worlds apart in terms of ownership and drivabilty or try R32, again an amazing car!! :smug:
R32 looks nice but a little on the expensive side! I get the feeling that it would not be a cheap car to run...
I'll see if I can get a drive of an ED30.
Add a remap to an ed30, to stage 2, and you have something on 300bhp.
stage 2+or stage3 will see 350+.
best car of your choices by a country mile.
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Don't do the vxr, you will regret it ?? Just imagine your driving down the road and you pull up next to a gti ?? What goes through your mind is if only??? :rolleyes:
or "I can take him easily"
:grin: :wink:
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The ED30 is a class act, I know becuse I owned one and did 12k miles in the car loved every minute of it esp DSG. The other cars you mention in the thread are just a pile of rubbish compared to the GTI, worlds apart in terms of ownership and drivabilty or try R32, again an amazing car!! :smug:
R32 looks nice but a little on the expensive side! I get the feeling that it would not be a cheap car to run...
I'll see if I can get a drive of an ED30.
Add a remap to an ed30, to stage 2, and you have something on 300bhp.
stage 2+or stage3 will see 350+.
best car of your choices by a country mile.
R-tech stage 1 takes an ED30 to 280bhp.... hmmmm... :evil:
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Now that's just so appealing 280break :grin:
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I've just had the same exact decision to make when looking for a sportier car coming out of my diesel.
I dismissed the Mazda and vauxhall early on as they were just a bit garish for me. I'm sure they are both great cars, just not for me.
I've driven a focus for 9 years and the 3 recent variant so I was looking at the st3 that you listed
What I've ended up with is the ED30. Go test drive one with dsg and some nice extra's. I think you'll find yourself justifying the extra cost they are as I did :p.
If you do find yourself wantig more power you can always remap later down he line. The ed30 has the same BHP he focus though so you should find it's more than adequate
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I know it is slightly different but I was looking between a mk6 GTI and a VXR. Of the VXR range I would have liked the Nurburgring Edition (nicknamed "the Burg"). It looks great I reckon, sounds brilliant and goes like stink. Ultimately though I love the fact that the GTI can do quiet. It is one of the reasons I won't touch my exhaust.
After living with the GTI I can openly say that I still like and admire the Burg. Would I swap... don't think so. I have a DSG which makes a difference for me. Apart from that the refinement of the Golf when you don't want to hoon it make it a completely superior car.
Sure round the Ring the VXR may be a few seconds quicker, but I'd still drive the GTI there and back again!
(you might notice I haven't referred to the ST or the Mazda. I believe that explains my thoughts on them :lipsrsealed: :laugh:)
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I know it is slightly different but I was looking between a mk6 GTI and a VXR. Of the VXR range I would have liked the Nurburgring Edition (nicknamed "the Burg"). It looks great I reckon, sounds brilliant and goes like stink. Ultimately though I love the fact that the GTI can do quiet. It is one of the reasons I won't touch my exhaust.
After living with the GTI I can openly say that I still like and admire the Burg. Would I swap... don't think so. I have a DSG which makes a difference for me. Apart from that the refinement of the Golf when you don't want to hoon it make it a completely superior car.
Sure round the Ring the VXR may be a few seconds quicker, but I'd still drive the GTI there and back again!
(you might notice I haven't referred to the ST or the Mazda. I believe that explains my thoughts on them :lipsrsealed: :laugh:)
If I could afford a MK6 then my decision would be easy - I'd save up a few more and get a Focus RS :wink:
I think I'm honing in on some variant of MK5 GTI vs the VXR. Need to drive a few I think, which is always hard work when you don't have an existing car to get to the seller to drive the car! If I ever find the fatherless son that nicked my old GTI... :angry:
As for the Mazda, I quite liked it. Bit of torque steer, not hugely comfortable BUT goes like the absolute proverbial! Residuals getting better too...
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I'm assuming you haven't seen the video of the Nurburgring edition Astra at the Nurburgring then :lipsrsealed:
Let's just say that the thread of the guy who crashed defined the character of the car :rolleyes:
I've NEVER been overtaken by an Astra at the 'ring and I have overtaken plenty myself there :evil: Here's a slow lap of me at the 'ring.......
http://vimeo.com/11100503
And then afterwards I drove home and did the shopping in it the following weekend :smiley:
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That is an awesome video, car sounds amazing what kind of speed did you get up to on that final straight?
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I'm assuming you haven't seen the video of the Nurburgring edition Astra at the Nurburgring then :lipsrsealed:
Let's just say that the thread of the guy who crashed defined the character of the car :rolleyes:
I've NEVER been overtaken by an Astra at the 'ring and I have overtaken plenty myself there :evil: Here's a slow lap of me at the 'ring.......
http://vimeo.com/11100503
And then afterwards I drove home and did the shopping in it the following weekend :smiley:
Yes, but by the looks of things your car isn't exactly stock...
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That is an awesome video, car sounds amazing what kind of speed did you get up to on that final straight?
167mph on the GPS. :evil:
Got overtaken by a 599XX on that straight on the same day. Now that did sound awesome :drool:
GeorgeJoshington, err no, not quite standard :evil:
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That is an awesome video, car sounds amazing what kind of speed did you get up to on that final straight?
167mph on the GPS. :evil:
Got overtaken by a 599XX on that straight on the same day. Now that did sound awesome :drool:
GeorgeJoshington, err no, not quite standard :evil:
Hehe, looks like a cracker. Sadly I wouldn't have the time/talent/money to a project like that! :laugh:
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I think the ed30 is world's apart in terms of putting a smile on your face over a standard gti.
I think worlds apart is far too strong a word.
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I think the ed30 is world's apart in terms of putting a smile on your face over a standard gti.
I think worlds apart is far too strong a world.
Shouldn't that be "too strong a word" Alan :rolleyes:
The correct phrase Keano was looking for is that the Edition 30 is in a different class to the GTI
Edition 30 = University masters degree course in geo-physics
GTI = Nursery school remedial class
:evil:
Only Kidding Alan, but you know you want an ED30 really :wink:
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Haha ! We all knew what I meant.
Oh, dont get me wrong, Id have rather had an ED30 but when I got my MK5 (which seems so long ago now) my budget didnt stretch that far.
Having said with some nice mods under the bonnet and outside I am more than happy with my GTI and all this talk over more power blah blah blah I really dont think I need more than 250bhp going through my front wheels so I'm happy.
:cool:
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Having said with some nice mods under the bonnet and outside I am more than happy with my GTI and all this talk over more power blah blah blah I really dont think I need more than 250bhp going through my front wheels so I'm happy.
:cool:
You need a drive in mine (without the nitrous!) and then you would want more power, it is just a little addictive though :laugh:
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That sounds like an offer to me :D :D
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That sounds like an offer to me :D :D
He's gota fix it 1st though Alan :evil:
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That sounds like an offer to me :D :D
He's gota fix it 1st though Alan :evil:
Even as it is it is faster than yours Steve :rolleyes:
50bhp jets run okay, so that means 400bhp and 450lbft. :evil:
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Modified there is little between them (although the S3 is much faster :grin: )
http://www.morego.co.uk/cms_files_road_tests/19_1_076_hot_hatches_sub.pdf
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Nice link that.
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Nice link that.
From Evo, i have the magazine somewhere
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sh!t the bed Hurdy! That was very quick! :grin:
Very smart driving tallent too!
Out of interest, is there a particular modification you have that causes the turbo chatter at gear change on WOT?
:smiley:
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That sounds like an offer to me :D :D
He's gota fix it 1st though Alan :evil:
Even as it is it is faster than yours Steve :rolleyes:
50bhp jets run okay, so that means 400bhp and 450lbft. :evil:
All in jest John. You Know mine has a job to beat a fully charged Milk float :smiley:
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That sounds like an offer to me :D :D
He's gota fix it 1st though Alan :evil:
Even as it is it is faster than yours Steve :rolleyes:
50bhp jets run okay, so that means 400bhp and 450lbft. :evil:
All in jest John. You Know mine has a job to beat a fully charged Milk float :smiley:
I know you're kidding Steve :smiley: And don't be shy as yours is a swift car too. You just need to get it on a track to let it free :cool:
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sh!t the bed Hurdy! That was very quick! :grin:
Very smart driving tallent too!
Out of interest, is there a particular modification you have that causes the turbo chatter at gear change on WOT?
:smiley:
The sound and chatter is the EVOMS intake doing it's thing :cool:
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The standard GTI is too fast in winter when shod with summer rubber.
The traction control is only too happy to activate.
My GSX1300R will do the 1/4 mile in 9.7 seconds. It stays wrapped up in winter.