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Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: Skye on 05 July 2017, 19:08
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Hi, today I said goodbye to one of the best cars I've owned. I have had two other Golf's the previous one 26 years ago. Now I have let the GTD go. Not my fault though, blame the government and treehuggers please. Leasing a hybrid was cheaper than a Mark 7.5 and the Mercedes C Class Sport Estate was cheaper than the Golf.
Guilt for changing allegiance, for going hybrid, but most of all for neglecting the capabilities. Only now between cars and having to use public transport for a day, I wish I could be on the A87 (the best driving road ever! well equal to the sea to sky road but I wouldn't have the Golf. I digress).
Goodbye dear friend.
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Oooops.
Was the Golf unaffordably more or was it just the lure of saving money?
Life is full of compromises and if you enjoy driving you have to compromise a bit of (lot of) money.
If you enjoy knocking a dimpled white ball around a lumpy field it costs money.
If you enjoy sitting in a plastic chair on the terraces in sub zero temperatures watching your team put in yet another sub standard performance it costs money.
If you like being bound up in bits of leather scrubbing a toilet with a toothbrush whilst a lady tells you how worthless you are it costs money.
Alas, you can now waft around in a German superiority symbol having had the benefit of the government's love in with Diesels from the last few years. And now the government has a new love in the form of supporting French owned power companies.
At least your neighbours will think you've gone up in the world whilst you know you're smugly saving a few quid a month.
You could always do what us mere mortals have to do: buy something you actually enjoy using out of your own money for the days where you can leave the suit and tie in the wardrobe...
(Unless you've got memberships, season tickets and dominatrixes to pay for) :lipsrsealed:
Don't be a stranger Skye, there'll be another chance to redeem yourself in a couple years.
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I have to admit that the GTD(with tuning and pedal box) is a very nice car to drive. I think after years of driving fastish diesels you get so used to the torque that driving a petrol is strange, at first.
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The Golf was £356 full lease including insurance and well every thing. Even before the Government moved the goal posts it crept up to £410 for the same spec and the base GTI £420. The Merc £364 for hybrid £430 for petrol. I can't justify a Golf over the Mercedes. If it came in at the same price then yes there would be another Golf. What about the GTE well £345. Anyway enough about numbers. A Golf or Mercedes if the latter in my view is much cheaper, 300bhp and rear wheel drive with the airmajigamy suspension as standard. Not much of a dilemma.
One problem just 17inch wheels.
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The numbers make interesting reading.
You never know, in a few years time you might be pretty attached to the merc.
300 bhp isn't to be sniffed at.
17" equals comfy ride.
The goal posts might have moved again by then too, but electric is here to stay unless something drastic happens.
Car tech matches on...
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Hi Exonian, thanks for being neutral. I looked at the Passat GTE but a front wheel drive large car and £30 more. On the other hand there are a few better alternatives than hybrid and it's going to be a Betamax or vhs, Sinclair c5, Kodak inventing digital but thought it would never catch on. I think I'll just hang back a while.
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I used to think of the Golf GTE as a traitor to the performance Golf cause. A cynical marketing led car driven by current political tides.
Now I just think I'm a lost cause.
Neil Birkett of Volkswagen Driver Magazine raved about the GTE and he's not a man easily pleased.
Think of yourself as a pioneer because in a few years time it's more likely than not that all our beloved petrol hot hatches will have tiny petrol engines and huge vacuum cleaner engines to propel them.
Each generation should hopefully be better than the last.
Maybe that's why VW pulled out all the stops with the GTI's 40th Anniversary. A swansong maybe?
Anyway, I don't have a crystal ball but I do hope you'll drop by and update this thread with your experiences with the Merc to whet our appetites for the future!
Seriously though, it'll be interesting to hear how they compare and what discoveries you make about half and half motoring.
And as I said earlier, if it's all a bit of an anticlimax you could always buy an old hot hatch for weekend fun...
:smiley:
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This thread has added resonance after yesterdays announcement by Volvo.
Big changes coming and a lot quicker than most of us thought.
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Company cars have had their day it seems, HMRC have finally decided to close that down - there are a few nasties scheduled that means its increasingly expensive and in 2020 the BIK rates go mental, which is why I bailed after 27 years of driving someone else's car.
As for milk floats, did you see Volvo announce that in 2019 they'd only be making hybrid and full electric vehicles?
The Netherlands are going to ban the sale of anything but zero emission vehicles in 2025 and other countries are mooting the same by 2030.
All new London taxis have to be plug in electric from January 2018 too...
The end is definitely coming, but maybe something interesting will be built once they've finally built the infrastructure to support large numbers of electric plug ins.
Certainly hybrids will be for the dustbin quite quickly too, they are just an interim step.
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Goalpost are a moving
Owned a GTD, the most capable car ever owned, moved to an R to add thrill to that capability and glad have now, as the clock is ticking on firstly diesel and then petrol.
There is a chance the next performance Golf at top of the tree will be a hybrid, utilising similar tech to the BMW i8 as there is a concept out there to support that.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-w%C3%B6rthersee/volkswagen-reveals-396bhp-hybrid-golf-gti-concept (https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-w%C3%B6rthersee/volkswagen-reveals-396bhp-hybrid-golf-gti-concept)
Personally happy with that, imagine 350+ BHP with greater economy - The trick is to retain the character that separates the GTI and then the R from anything below.
On another subject here, I could have saved decent amount of money by selecting more prudently but 9 month in with my R, the daily experience has proven worth the extra expense - rarely drink, do not smoke, put the work hours in, and its a case of the R being my personal treat to self.
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VW a few others are pitching the mild hybrid concept and certainly the Mk8 will be that. They have created the 48V electrical systems for it already. Whether there is a "sporty" mild hybrid remains to be seen though.
However, I think that they might have missed the boat on that one and that hybrids will not last long due to pressure from governments to jump to ZEV's.
ZEV is fine for those city dwellers, less useful for anyone rural or people like myself who do regular long journeys. Sure, the new generation of dedicated fast chargers are much quicker - maybe 20 minutes for a charge, but a 20 minute refuel after 50 miles is going to make those 200 mile journeys rather longer...
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VW a few others are pitching the mild hybrid concept and certainly the Mk8 will be that. They have created the 48V electrical systems for it already. Whether there is a "sporty" mild hybrid remains to be seen though.
However, I think that they might have missed the boat on that one and that hybrids will not last long due to pressure from governments to jump to ZEV's.
ZEV is fine for those city dwellers, less useful for anyone rural or people like myself who do regular long journeys. Sure, the new generation of dedicated fast chargers are much quicker - maybe 20 minutes for a charge, but a 20 minute refuel after 50 miles is going to make those 200 mile journeys rather longer...
Battery technology in weight/size, capacity and charging need to take a huge leap still and there will need to be a trick to make the motor whir exciting as think petrol engine fakery on a strictly electric will sound ridiculous. - Have heard some good aggressive 'whir' on some sport concepts, its the battery tech that's holding it back.
But recently bought some Beats X and given the truly rubbish and baulky headphones had in past, these are a revelation, true 8 hours playing time and more importantly a 5 minute quick 2 hr capacity charge .. so rarely caught out and when am, its a quick cuppa and up to 30%
Basically battery tech needs to get to point, you pull in a garage, plug in and in 5 mins you have a 'tank' of capacity and given you just need a parking bay with plug unit at end, most garages could have 30 + bays in same footprint as the 12 or so they have now - I personally could not charge at home, and neither could any in my street and many streets in this country, not everyone has a drive up to their house, many park on road or in bays, .
The next leap from that, is batteries are so efficient, that your roof is super efficient solar panel that is constantly charging the batteries - Will put Man City out of business of course ;)
Its the future, its coming, and personally ok with the hybrids as can see the performance not just retained but lifted as the i8 proves, and be ok with all electric when battery tech catches up, though that's at least a decade out for any comparison to current cars.
Till then enjoy your current cars, as becoming last of the breed, going to keep my R, a classic head turner among all those whirring electrics 15 years from now
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The only other current problem is that the electricity grid in the UK is nowhere near ready for that level of electric car take up.
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The only other current problem is that the electricity grid in the UK is nowhere near ready for that level of electric car take up.
Now now, let's not have any negativity around our glowing pollutant-free future. That's an easy problem to solve. We could have local diesel generators.....
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The only other current problem is that the electricity grid in the UK is nowhere near ready for that level of electric car take up.
Now now, let's not have any negativity around our glowing pollutant-free future. That's an easy problem to solve. We could have local diesel generators.....
You could go one better, you could make a GTE-D - diesel electric like a train. Diesel generator makes electricity as needed to power electric motors. I'm calling this hardcore-hybrid.
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Either that or two other electric possibilities:
1) A slot in the road like Scalextrix
2) Wire mesh grid over the road like bumper cars.
As an engineer, my skills in innovating around a problem are endless :D
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A mate of mine bought a 2015 Gte he's happy with it good around mixed consumption but as he says the only downside is the distance on battery only 28 to 30 mile and that's with nothing turned on being summer no lights heaters etc bit other than that it's suits him :whistle:
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Current hybrid tech is basically just a way of frigging emissions testing regimes to get a lower CO2 figure.
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Oh and hot off the press:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/06/france-ban-petrol-diesel-cars-2040-emmanuel-macron-volvo
No sales of dinosaur burners in France from 2040...
And:
Norway, which has the highest penetration of electric cars in the world, has set a target of only allowing sales of 100% electric or plug-in hybrid cars by 2025.
Other countries have floated the idea of banning cars powered by an internal combustion engine to meet air quality and climate change goals, but have not yet passed concrete targets.
The Netherlands has mooted a 2025 ban for diesel and petrol cars, and some federal states in Germany are keen on a 2030 phase-out.
India, where scores of cities are blighted by dangerous air pollution, is mulling the idea of no longer selling petrol or diesel cars by 2030, and said it wants to introduce electric cars in “a very big way”.
I hope someone has a plan to find a crap load of extra electricity before then!
Maybe fusion will have worked by then...
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I don't think we should be concerned, Tesla have been making cars which achieve mileage of a M3 for a year or so. Even the model X (SUV 7 Seater) has 350 mile range, the model S is also at the 300 mile range. In such a small country we will be fine once the petrol companies realise that to stay in business they need to offer charging points, but at the present time 170miles range with 30mins charge isn't bad from a Tesla charge point.
Once the frankly laughable German car industry gets to grips with reality and moves on from poor infotainment screens of 5 generations ago mobiles and faking diesel results we might get somewhere, If they don't I hope they are left behind and people vote with there feet.
For me this car maker with hopefully shake the rest into doing something.
https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/ (https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/)
https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/solarroof (https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/solarroof)
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Thanks for all the replies, three reasons for the hybrid 300bhp, rear wheel drive oh and 300bhp. Stuff the economy I mean 300bhp and cheaper than a Golf, did I mention 300bhp. I'm sure the GTE has it's performance underestimated. I'm sure there are articles arguing the GTE is as quick as an R. Anyway sorry to say goodbye to one of the best cars I've driven, nearly as good as the first Mini Cooper s with the supercharger.