GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk7 => Topic started by: donteatthat on 07 August 2020, 11:27
-
Hi all, newbie here and hope this is appropriate to post.
As a new Dad i have to get rid of my Audi TT but still wanted a fun car so thought (after having an old mk 3 GTi) that I'd go for a 5 door 2017 GTI facelift, so the questions are.
1: Is it ok for baby e.g. space for prams etc?
2: What upgrades/packs should i look for when buying?
3: There is an option for an R type, anyone had experience, comparison wise looks similar just engine but presume GTI holds value more.
Thanks so much for reading this,
Simon
-
ohh... that last question will divide opinion. think you might have just lit a touchpaper :D
I'll sit back and watch this one develop ;D
Sorry can't answer the 1st question as I don't have kids, but would imagine they are just fine.
The MK7.5 Golfs (and the MK7's for that matter) came with pretty good standard spec, so option wise, it's really down to you (e.g. sunroof, leather, sound system, adaptive dampers etc).
-
Uh oh, what have I done..
Specs do look good, not fussed about sun roof but do like the mod cons like climate control, digital dash thing, parking sensors, heated seats etc but especially a good sound system.
I did hear that Golf Rs a bit cheaper to insure. Im not really a speed merchant so R model does seem a little overkill for me.
-
Have a few friends who became Dads and they moved from a hatchback to an estate.... buggies et al take up a lot of room. There is/was an R estate if you think you might need the extra space.
-
You'll need to try the boot with whatever pram you've got. Cabin space is fine but the shape of the boot is not ideal if you've got a large pram/buggy.
-
Have a few friends who became Dads and they moved from a hatchback to an estate.... buggies et al take up a lot of room. There is/was an R estate if you think you might need the extra space.
I was going to suggest an R estate too. Strange how much stuff kids need these days, a MK3 Cortina was fine for three kids a long time ago... As was an Allegro, an Alfa Guilia and a few other cars a fraction of the size of moderns...
-
I know this will probably sound heretical to most... but what about the GTD estate, as fast in most circumstances as the 'R' in daily use :whistle:
-
Uh oh, what have I done..
Specs do look good, not fussed about sun roof but do like the mod cons like climate control, digital dash thing, parking sensors, heated seats etc but especially a good sound system.
I did hear that Golf Rs a bit cheaper to insure. Im not really a speed merchant so R model does seem a little overkill for me.
I'd be surprised if the R is cheaper to insure with 300bhp, and it's the most stolen hot Golf (unfortunately).
All those items you mention with the exception of the sound system are not options as they are standard fitment to ALL MK7,5 GTD's, GTI's & R's, along with, LED headlights, Led taillights with sequential indicators, minimum of 18" alloys (UK market only) auto lights, auto wipers, Bluetooth, minimum 8" infotainment with navigation, Twin SD card slots, CD drive, USB Socket, front seat lumbar support and seat height adjusters etc.
Later 2019 cars also got rear parking camera, keyless entry, adaptive headlights, lane assist etc. If you can bag a later 2019 one, it comes pretty much loaded (be that a GTI, GTD or R).
-
If you DO think along the lines of an estate (and that might be a better option than a hatchback) there are quite a few fast VAG estates out there apart from the R/GTD ie Leon Cupra ST and Octavia vRS estate as well as A4/S4 options etc. The world's your lobster.
-
Golf is a great family car you don't need to worry about that. Baby seats, push chairs etc - it all fits (so long as you don't have one of those enormous pushchairs).
Only short coming I can think of is that we need to have our passenger front seat pushed a little forward to give enough clearance for the baby seat in back, but at 5'10'' I still fit in the front passenger seat no probs. If you where really tall could be a struggle.
Of course you can get much bigger cars, but only you can determine how much space you really need. Most of my friends when they had kids went BIG (Merc GLC, BMW 5 Series estate, Ford S-max). However for us with 1 child the golf works perfect, I'm pretty sure we would still be fine with a 2nd child too to be honest.
As for the options it comes with a lot as standard. I personally don't feel the need for a good sound system any more. Most of the driving I do is with my son in the back now, I rarely get the car to myself to enjoy music at higher volumes. Plus the playlist nower days is mostly disney and nursary rhymes!
Happy car shopping!
-
Wow you lot are legends, much appreciated for responding so quickly. All really helpful information and gives me a base to start, need to go test drive I think although i really enjoyed previous golfs and reviews look good on these.
Funny about the sound system advice too, forgot i cant really hear much now so no chance when she gets a bit older. :smiley:
Thanks again everyone.
-
I would say the Golf Hatchback boot is not big enough for a pram or buggy and certainly not much room then for the associated paraphernalia......
I would get an Octavia VRS Estate. Tons of room in the boot and the same mechanicals as the Golf GTi.....
The Golf is for when you are a bit older......... :whistle:
-
3: There is an option for an R type, anyone had experience, comparison wise looks similar just engine but presume GTI holds value more.
Do you mean the R, or R line? The R line is a trim level of the regular Golf.
I would get an Octavia VRS Estate.
Me too. Or a used 240PS Passat Estate.
-
An Octavia hatch has almost as big a boot as a Golf estate, and more leg room for rear passengers.
Just saying :whistle:
-
You’ll fit a modern buggy in the boot just fine (I do so occasionally) but very little else. The boot isn’t particularly high so you can’t stand buggies up on their side, and when laid flat your boot is gone.
If it helps, we have a single Bugaboo somethingorother so nothing out of the ordinary.
Otherwise, it’s great as a small family car.
If this is your only family car, or you tend to carry a few extra things ‘just in case’ my money would go on the Octavia VRS or a Golf estate. The boot size on either will take a few moments of frustration away, which is worth it as those frustrating days will come when your kid is having a bad day. They always do.
-
How long do you keep your cars, because the "pram days" (or years) pass surprisingly quickly?
-
Hi all thanks again for the replies. It wont be the main car, sounds like it will be fine for the "Dad" car essentials, however Octavia looks good value for the good lady.
-
Hi, I'd recommend you take the model you are thinking of for a test drive on dual carriage ways at 70mph and make sure you are ok with the road noise. On some surfaces it is terrible, booming sound coming from the rear so might not be great with a baby. I swapped from a 2016 320i just before lockdown and now regret it. I wish I had known. I have a 230 with 18" wheels, and I thought it was ok on a short test drive compared to a 245 bhp on 19" and sunroof, but wish I had taken for a much longer test drive. There are some threads on here about a harmonic damper being fitted which makes it a bit better (Some find it 50% better). However, I am going to have to look in getting soundproofing done to make it more bearable. Hopefully you are fine with it but at least if you know of this issue you can decide for yourself.
-
@Npr; tyres can be a major contributory factor to noise levels. I think VW’s tyre of choice for the 18” Parker alloys was Bridgestones and these have a reputation for being quite a noisy tyre, and as the tread wears down they tend to get noisier.
So if your car is still on it’s original tyres that might be part of the reason for the noise levels you’re experiencing. Also worth checking the rear tyres aren’t suffering from sawtooth wear on the inner tread surface; if they are, then a noise similar to worn wheel bearings is a characteristic of sawtooth tyre wear.
-
@Npr; tyres can be a major contributory factor to noise levels. I think VW’s tyre of choice for the 18” Parker alloys was Bridgestones and these have a reputation for being quite a noisy tyre, and as the tread wears down they tend to get noisier.
So if your car is still on it’s original tyres that might be part of the reason for the noise levels you’re experiencing. Also worth checking the rear tyres aren’t suffering from sawtooth wear on the inner tread surface; if they are, then a noise similar to worn wheel bearings is a characteristic of sawtooth tyre wear.
very little if any difference in noise levels from the supposed big three tyre manufacturers. Only Dunlop creeps under 70 decibel figure and Michelin, Goodyear and conti are 71 or 72. In a car you'll never hear the difference.
-
Hi all thanks again for the replies. It wont be the main car, sounds like it will be fine for the "Dad" car essentials, however Octavia looks good value for the good lady.
Absolutely fine for the secondary family car. It's really down to the parents and how much junk they like to transport. I know people who've used a Golf for their main family car, with 2 kids (under 5), a dog and it works absolutely fine for them. However, others, such as my wife, could never cope with just a Golf as the main car so we had to buy a giant SUV to carry all the additional crap she "needs"!
-
As a current R owner and previous GTI owner I’d get the GTI for slightly better practicality. The extra boot space in the GTI, as little as it is, makes a big difference when lugging a pram around. When my lad needed a pram I could never get away with putting the boot floor on the higher setting.
Insurance will be cheaper in a GTI from personal experience too.
-
Welcome aboard donteatthat Simon (love the user name!)
Going to a GTI from a TT is a good way of easing yourself into parenthood without completely abandoning an appreciation of cars.
In previous generations of Golf I’d have said the utterly predictable “buy a pram to fit your boot and not the other way round”, but the mk7 seems to have a lot less useable boot space going from my suitcase test (which involves seeing how much luggage I can squeeze in the boot ten minutes before I need to get my derrière on the road heading towards Gatwick).
Having owned Golfs since forever I am somewhat familiar with their boots and I think the mk7 is far from the most capacious even if the official litres measurements say otherwise.
When my first child noisily arrived in 1995 (he literally didn’t sleep through the night until he was nearly five!) I had a mk2 Golf GTI. That had plenty of room in the cargo hold for the pram and other gear. Because I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything anymore I’d saved enough for a ropey Golf VR6 within a period of time.
However life rarely pans out how you plan it and I ended up driving 130 miles in a rented Fiat Cinqacento to buy a Polo G40.
Now a Polo G40 is tiny inside. But I coped just fine.
My parents had a mk1 and then a mk2 Polo when my little sis was born. They too coped just fine although I didn’t appreciate sharing the back seat with a squawking baby in a carrycot at times because the volume tended to go up a lot!
Moral of the story: you don’t need a massive car to carry a tiny baby.
Buy the smallest pram you can, you’ll thank yourself many times over and it’s less to trip over in the hallway.
Having said that, I also like Simon dubber’s suggestion of the Passat 240 TDI. A remapped one of those would be massive fun and your in-laws would love you for appearing eminently sensible and responsible.
Don’t buy a GTD estate 😴😴 unless you’re going to remap it and put huge wheels on it.
Oh, and I did manage to buy a VR6 in the end. In fact I bought two over a period of time. They were both a bit crap actually. The mk3 Golf was a turd. I do hope the mk8 doesn’t follow suit.
-
Biggest problem these days is the fashion for SUV sized prams.
Back in my day nothing was the size of the things every yummy mummy wants to be seen pushing around.
We had a (real) mini and a Renault 5 when our first sprog was small. No problems at all.
-
Hi all, newbie here and hope this is appropriate to post.
As a new Dad i have to get rid of my Audi TT but still wanted a fun car so thought (after having an old mk 3 GTi) that I'd go for a 5 door 2017 GTI facelift, so the questions are.
1: Is it ok for baby e.g. space for prams etc?
2: What upgrades/packs should i look for when buying?
3: There is an option for an R type, anyone had experience, comparison wise looks similar just engine but presume GTI holds value more.
Thanks so much for reading this,
Simon
Got my 2017 GTI just prior to our baby being born. They are pretyu good bootwise and used to carry around our iCandy Strawberry which is a decent size pushchair. You can't get much else in besides the pram other items places around it.
Did a trip Christmas 2017, 4 days away in Norfolk and got so much stuff crammed in it was fairly unbelievable.
A Mk7.5 GTI will be a great choice :smiley:
-
So many generous thoughts and help here everyone, thank you.
Im testing a Mk 7.5 this weekend and will bring the car seat and buggy along too. I have kind of dismissed the mk8 golf as the reviews seemed to suggest 7.5 better value?
We definitely realised quickly that a small pram is so much easier than a bells and whistles pram so now that the little one is nearly 6 months then buggy should be smaller anyway.