I sadly will be waiting for my car too long and end up wondering why, given that Golfs even like ours are not that unique and the production processes are around 40 hours / 3 days ish long (yes I know 1000's order Golfs but still!). I would also be interested to know from yourselves what made you buy a £30K Golf instead of say a £30k BMW?
I myself choose new over used any day of the week especially spending £30k or above, but stayed with VW mainly because I saw nothing vastly superior elsewhere and thought that the Golf GTD was still practical & economical enough, whilst having something like genuine ability in the ride / handling / power
I went through so many thought processes and options before settling on the GTD. I test drove:
Lexus IS 300H (company option before I came out of the scheme)
BMW 520D
BMW 320D
BMW 125D
Audi A3 Saloon 150 tdi
Audi A6 2.0 tdi
Golf GTI PP
I think I initially fell into the trap of 'look at how much (big) car I can get for circa £30k'. An example being the Audi A6 with leather etc for 'Golf prices' with a drive the deal price.
I then realised I didn't want or need a car that large and narrowed it down to smaller stuff. I just don't like the looks of the A3 sportback and the interior, despite what all the magazines say, just didn't do it for me. Even in S-Line trim it just left me a little cold. The standard ride didn't seem as good as the GTD and it was missing quite a few of the Golfs standard spec items too.
I had an e90 3-series before the Golf and fancied something different, again by the time you spec an M-Sport (the only one that looks decent in my opinion) and get the spec to the same level as the golf you're racking up the cost too.
For some strange man maths reason I saw the 125d as the car that had to compare to the Golf, rather than the 120d I didn't like the looks as much and the spec was poorer so it had to blow me away in ride/handling/performance terms, it simply didn't. The ride was worse, I didn't like the interior and although space wasn't an absolute priority it did feel more cramped. I'm sure the performance was much better, but it didn't FEEL in a different league.
That got me to the Golf GTD and GTI. I didn't even think of comparing the non PP GTI version to the GTD as one of the main reasons I would have chosen the GTI would have been for the diff. The GTI was lovely and if I didn't have a play thing (TVR Chimaera) I would have gone for it. Doing the maths though it would have cost me £100 a month extra over the GTD.
So the GTD had a lovely standard spec that would have cost quite a bit extra to include in the Audis and BMWs, it's the right size for most things I need to do (occasional adult passengers, touring holidays in the but small enough for the narrow roads I end up on a lot of the time and cramped car parks), looks lovely, handles nicely, rides comfortably (even without DCC in my opinion), has a little bit more go than the 320d brigade (which is enough for most occasions), nice standard tech and decent economy.
Personally I think you'd have to spend quite a bit more money to get something that felt substantially 'better' than the GTD, or indeed the GTI. It's such a cliche, but it's hard to think of a better all round car.
Whoops, that turned out to be an epic email
