Whats the Story in Bala....*** mory...

[Jackie Treehorn]

Interesting that this has come up again and even before the ink is dry on the Clubsport deposits.

Hats off to nunpuncher and Clivey response on Pistonheads for the best/funniest comments in the thread so far...



http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1589869

http://www.bridgetogantry.com/did-the-golf-gti-clubsport-just-set-a-new-fwd-nurburgring-record-live-on-btg/

[wigit]

Have to admit never been a true fan of PHs just trying too hard to be cool always a bit yawn yawn

Ironically my forthcoming white R Estate has been named Bosch

Next SS is at Revo and you can just sense the VAG love

[Jackie Treehorn]

Yes you have to be able to laugh at yourself a little and your choice of car, without taking it to heart.

Some of the readers cars and enthusiasts produce great topics or comments, and the fridge image response made me nearly spit out my tea.  I know I own a VW but I can still laugh at the humour of it 

[Watts]

I prefer Miele to Bosch, can I compare my GTI with my Miele washing machine please?

Actually, Miele's engineering is too good, Hotpoint might be nearer the mark...

[wigit]

I prefer Miele to Bosch, can I compare my GTI with my Miele washing machine please?

Actually, Miele's engineering is too good, Hotpoint might be nearer the mark...

Hotpoint is more your Zafira given they both excessively warm your clothes

[Jackie Treehorn]

300 views and only a couple of comments?

Clearly we don't have a sense of humour about the VW brand... 

Jees we really should lighten up, its only a car.


Or perhaps only I think its amusing and interesting that they are bringing a proper Clubsport to market...

[Exonian]

300 views and only a couple of comments?

Clearly we don't have a sense of humour about the VW brand... 

Jees we really should lighten up, its only a car.


Or perhaps only I think its amusing and interesting that they are bringing a proper Clubsport to market...

Maybe the humour has gone over our heads?

I tend to avoid multi-marque forums as you tend to get the same old cliches again and again from people who have swallowed the annual special of EVO mag.
Yes, VW's are dull and boring, that's because they know their market.
Yes a Golf R can be just as dull to drive as a 1.6 TDI much of the time but again that's a double edged sword as people that buy them want a broad spectrum of abilities, not a one trick pony like a Megane RS (or whatever they're called) which in all honesty is a waste of a hatchback body shell - you'd be better off buying a pukka sports car if you just want it to do what the Megane is designed to do imho. And who would seriously spend their own hard earned on a five year old Megane RS (or whatever they're called)?
An ex-colleague of mine bought a second hand Megane sporty thing and spent more on it in repairs in one year than it cost to buy. He got cross and part ex'ed it on a nice sensible Diesel instead. Guess what? Yep, it was another Renault and goes wrong all the time...
Some people never learn.

As for washing machines - I'd compare washing machines to vans more than I would cars as they're both in a similar vein.
I'm a Miele owner too.
When I was at college I did a work placement with a company that fixed electronic appliances and got chatting to a washing machine repair man. Now, me being about 17 I knew nothing about washing machines other than my mum shouting at me when I left a tissue in my jeans pocket.
The engineer showed me a few washing machines out back that were buggered. He said the best way to judge a washing machine is by pressing in the side panel. If if flexes and makes a noise like the bass drum in the Royal Marines band then you've got a cheap washing machine that you'll be very fortunate not to have Renault like repair bills in a few years time. He said next time I was in town go have a look at a Miele or older (German made) Bosch washing machine and try pushing the side in. Sure enough the things were built like Tiger tanks. There was a reason there weren't any of those type machines in for fixing.
Mind you, come to think about it now, 30 years on; maybe the reason they didn't have any in the workshop was because they are so bloody heavy the engineer didn't want to move the thing?!!

Caddy vans are a bit like older Bosch or Miele washing machines. I like Caddy vans.

We had a hired in brand new Ford Connect van at work the other day so, as I generally do when something new appears, I found an urgent errand and took it out for an extended test drive.
As soon as I'd started it I knew I'd made a mistake. Just putting it in gear it felt flimsy.
I rather liked the older Connects from around ten years ago - they have a Tonka toy like feel to them, slightly cheaply made but rugged.
This new one was horrible. The windscreen is miles away and I'd swear the dashboard was bigger than the payload area! It was huge! That dash was obviously designed by a 1970's sci-fi enthusiast and it was as cheaply thrown together as an old Dr Who set.
If you weren't careful changing into 3rd and 5th you punched a sticky out bit of dashboard that was rock hard. None of the controls seemed to be in quite the right place and the dials looked like they were buried down mine-shafts. I really wanted to like the back lighting in a sort of turquoise but it just didn't look right and as for the radio - nah, I gave up on that.
I'm trying to think of anything positive to say about it in fact.
The steering wheel was quite a nice shape I think and so side mouldings were a bit of a funky shape.

[Jackie Treehorn]

300 views and only a couple of comments?

Clearly we don't have a sense of humour about the VW brand... 

Jees we really should lighten up, its only a car.


Or perhaps only I think its amusing and interesting that they are bringing a proper Clubsport to market...

Maybe the humour has gone over our heads?

Yes, VW's are dull and boring, that's because they know their market.
Yes a Golf R can be just as dull to drive as a 1.6 TDI much of the time but again that's a double edged sword as people that buy them want a broad spectrum of abilities, not a one trick pony like a Megane RS (or whatever they're called) which in all honesty is a waste of a hatchback body shell - you'd be better off buying a pukka sports car if you just want it to do what the Megane is designed to do imho. And who would seriously spend their own hard earned on a five year old Megane RS (or whatever they're called)?
An ex-colleague of mine bought a second hand Megane sporty thing and spent more on it in repairs in one year than it cost to buy. He got cross and part ex'ed it on a nice sensible Diesel instead. Guess what? Yep, it was another Renault and goes wrong all the time...
Some people never learn.

As for washing machines - I'd compare washing machines to vans more than I would cars as they're both in a similar vein.
I'm a Miele owner too.

I think the comments are taken too seriously perhaps, it was only banter about a car not peoples partners lol. We have a slightly premium econobox that we like, and VAG churn them our with a slightly improved model variation/spin cycle, hence the washing machine comment I guess about the CS and now the CSS while the GTi, GTi PP and R are also available.  Having someone have a pop at your car or choice of brand is good for the soul, we shouldn't always feel we need to solely frequent a forum where only like minded individuals help support and confirm our purchase justification.

I don't believe the one trick pony Megane RS as you call it is a bad car, as it does what a GTi should do and does it with bigger boot luggage capacity for example,  hard plastics inside? Yes and this is how we judge cars these days, but the Megane with Cup chassis comes in at £23k OTR , std chassis but with bells and whistles nav etc 27k, not bad for a car they you go to the shops in and take to a track or B road blast the next. If only VW would offer a Cup chassis or Ohlins with recaro option, cause the CS at the present time is clearly waaaay off the mark hence the CSS version. 

[andrewparker]

I've been a member and contributor on Pistonheads for a long time now, but it has became an unbearable place of late, to the point where I'm considering not participating in and reading the forums anymore. VAG products are pretty much universally panned for being dull, boring, or any one of numerous other cliched adjectives. There is an overwhelming feeling of closed-mindedness, almost like the whole place is populated by ageing men who like nothing better than to moan, whinge and complain about things. Nothing new is embraced unless it happens to be packing a 5.0L V8, don't dare mention diesel because there has never been and never will be a good diesel car, and you're labelled a fan boy for expressing a reasoned, balanced opinion on something. It's tiresome and threads descend into arguments before the end of the first page has been reached.

The controversy around the Golf R is hard to comprehend. I think a good Golf, a car that has received almost universal acclaim from the motoring press, popularised by VW making it financially attainable, has been too much to take for some people, to the point where they're just not willing to believe it is a worthy competitor. I can completely understand that it is not to everybody's liking, but so many people write it off with no experience of the car. Presumably the fact they borrowed a MK4 Golf for 20 minutes in 1998 is enough to put them off for life.

So yeah, I'm done with the constant negativity of the place, which is a shame because I actually like multi-marque forums. I like reading about and discussing new cars, but when every discussion is a predictable forgone conclusion it all seems a bit pointless.

[Exonian]

300 views and only a couple of comments?

Clearly we don't have a sense of humour about the VW brand... 

Jees we really should lighten up, its only a car.


Or perhaps only I think its amusing and interesting that they are bringing a proper Clubsport to market...

Maybe the humour has gone over our heads?

Yes, VW's are dull and boring, that's because they know their market.
Yes a Golf R can be just as dull to drive as a 1.6 TDI much of the time but again that's a double edged sword as people that buy them want a broad spectrum of abilities, not a one trick pony like a Megane RS (or whatever they're called) which in all honesty is a waste of a hatchback body shell - you'd be better off buying a pukka sports car if you just want it to do what the Megane is designed to do imho. And who would seriously spend their own hard earned on a five year old Megane RS (or whatever they're called)?
An ex-colleague of mine bought a second hand Megane sporty thing and spent more on it in repairs in one year than it cost to buy. He got cross and part ex'ed it on a nice sensible Diesel instead. Guess what? Yep, it was another Renault and goes wrong all the time...
Some people never learn.

As for washing machines - I'd compare washing machines to vans more than I would cars as they're both in a similar vein.
I'm a Miele owner too.

I think the comments are taken too seriously perhaps, it was only banter about a car not peoples partners lol. We have a slightly premium econobox that we like, and VAG churn them our with a slightly improved model variation/spin cycle, hence the washing machine comment I guess about the CS and now the CSS while the GTi, GTi PP and R are also available.  Having someone have a pop at your car or choice of brand is good for the soul, we shouldn't always feel we need to solely frequent a forum where only like minded individuals help support and confirm our purchase justification.

I don't believe the one trick pony Megane RS as you call it is a bad car, as it does what a GTi should do and does it with bigger boot luggage capacity for example,  hard plastics inside? Yes and this is how we judge cars these days, but the Megane with Cup chassis comes in at £23k OTR , std chassis but with bells and whistles nav etc 27k, not bad for a car they you go to the shops in and take to a track or B road blast the next. If only VW would offer a Cup chassis or Ohlins with recaro option, cause the CS at the present time is clearly waaaay off the mark hence the CSS version.

I did think the washing machine thing hit the nail on the head actually.
Looking at it now I think VW should've just brought out the ED40 as a limited run using the over fussy front bumper and some different trim then did the CSS as a ClubSport afterwards as a swan song model before the mk7.5
I've always maintained that VW did a big thing about the flexibilities of the MQB and mentioned a lightweight GTI at launch so the CS was originally penned with lightweight panels until the men in grey suits said it'd cost too much to build. A shame.

And I think the Megane RS (or whatever it's called) is a great car in its own right it's just that people on certain forums just seem to immediately compare any sporty car to its on track capabilities and it gets a bit "yawn". It has been a good few years since I last did a track day and I've no urge to return to that sort of thing. I think I've turned into one of those grumpy old men Andrew refers to above, only I'm even grumpier and would want the 5.0 V8 with 1.0 3 cylinder running costs!
As for hard plastics - I've said on here plenty of times I'd rather have a Leon Cupra than a ClubSport, hard plastics and 'lesser' image and all. I can't really see VW offering a bargain sports hatch like the Megane RS (or whatever it's called) but on a Cupra it would be nice to see some things like the Ohlins to go with the optional bucket seats, or even a hardcore Scirocco with similar options. But VW just don't seem to go for things like that.

I've spent about £600 on the R to make it feel like it should have done from the factory where indeed it did feel pretty dull before hand. Then again I can feel smug that not everybody's R feels like mine to drive!! 

I've been a member and contributor on Pistonheads for a long time now, but it has became an unbearable place of late, to the point where I'm considering not participating in and reading the forums anymore. VAG products are pretty much universally panned for being dull, boring, or any one of numerous other cliched adjectives. There is an overwhelming feeling of closed-mindedness, almost like the whole place is populated by ageing men who like nothing better than to moan, whinge and complain about things. Nothing new is embraced unless it happens to be packing a 5.0L V8, don't dare mention diesel because there has never been and never will be a good diesel car, and you're labelled a fan boy for expressing a reasoned, balanced opinion on something. It's tiresome and threads descend into arguments before the end of the first page has been reached.

The controversy around the Golf R is hard to comprehend. I think a good Golf, a car that has received almost universal acclaim from the motoring press, popularised by VW making it financially attainable, has been too much to take for some people, to the point where they're just not willing to believe it is a worthy competitor. I can completely understand that it is not to everybody's liking, but so many people write it off with no experience of the car. Presumably the fact they borrowed a MK4 Golf for 20 minutes in 1998 is enough to put them off for life.

So yeah, I'm done with the constant negativity of the place, which is a shame because I actually like multi-marque forums. I like reading about and discussing new cars, but when every discussion is a predictable forgone conclusion it all seems a bit pointless.

I can't disagree with that, even though I only spent about 20 minutes on their forum a good few years ago...