HELP WITH CHOICE GTI,GTTDI OR R32

[RedRobin]

as much as the R32 sounds and looks like, you do know the road tax is going to be £400+ per year?

....Don't let the barstards grind you down!! Most of the R32 boys I know are saying "Fingers!!!" to the fecking govn'ment.

[topher]

Now I'm not 'loaded' in the slightest, but lets be realistic.. if you can afford a MKV R32/GTI/ED30 in the first place an extra 100 quid a year on the tax isn't the greatest worry in the world. I spend a LOT more than that on fags anyway and I'll just quit smoking if money gets tight, so I can have healthy lungs to inhale all the lovely toxins that my pollution machine is kicking out.

[Phil mcavity]

Im currently getting rid of my 170 tdi dsg passat, same engine as one of the engines in the golf GT TDi, and i have to say the engine is pants!!!!.Sounds like a bag of nails and does resemble a tractor. It has a large ammount of torque but only from 2000 to 3500 rpm,(Fart and you miss it).People who think their diesel 170's are fast, well oh boy are they living on cloud cockoo land. ive had the GTi before and i shouldnt of sold it the 1st time.My 2nd one will be ready (at long last) to collect monday.
If you drive the 3 choices, you'll ditch the GT diesel, or you could try a TSi 1.4 gutless airbox version, which is shocking just as bad.
You'll love the R32 soundtrack but will subconciously be watching the fuel needle move ever time you hit the gas peddle( and im not joking).
The GTi will please you in many ways, it ticks every box, performs totally different to any of the others and you can live with the running costs.
The R although a great car, is being totally priced off the road by the Goverment, i would have one no question but i really couldnt run one as a town runner unless you could live with putting in £60 of fuel, and that getting you 250 miles  .  Drive them all to conclude yourself.

The decision is yours!

[R32UK]

You only live once!! buy the R32 and you wont regret it

[andrewl]

just got a 08 gti edition 30 last week in candy white after p/x a mk 5 golf r32, both excellent cars but I think the gti is the better car to drive. the weight of the r32 lets it and if you dont get the dsg it suffers from transmission judder and dont forget you will spend more time at the filling pumps.
Performance wise theres vey little in it, r32 is more responsive at low revs but when the gti 30 gets its turbo spinning I think its slightly quicker.
your decision mate but dont be blinkered by the r32 badge its not the better car just more expensive.
 

[MikeGTI]

Had a 3.2 Quattro DSG Audi A3 and now have Golf GTI. Though I have been driving my GTI and the missuses A3 3.2 Quattro DSG in parallel for the last fortnight. Thats right we loved the 3.2 Quattro DSG so much we bought two of them.

Whilst I loved the Audi, and could afford a £15-20K car. I still wasn't happy getting 18-24mpg fuel economy.

Whilst its not an R32, its the same V6 engine and 4wd system so pretty comparable.

In town you get 20mpg, less if you enjoy yourself, on the motorway at a steady 80mph your at 24mpg if your lucky.
With the Golf GTI your looking at a 10mpg increase on those figures.

Apart from that its down to personal choice really. I did find the 4wd reassuring and allows you to corner very fast and feel very planted, however I also found that left it feeling very unchallenging as you didn't really have to use skill and judgement in your driving. Whereas the GTI does require require a little more driver skill as its limits are easier to reach. I do however miss the standing start ability of the 4wd as it is quite easy to wheelspin off the line in the GTi, something I found never occured naturally in the 4wd. I do find the GTI feels lighter and nimbler.

You are also talking about completely different power deliverys, the 3.2 is undoubtedly quick and pulls from low revs effortlessly but I used to find the power delivery was very linnear and when coupled with the planted 4wd you didn't get the sensation to match the speed you were actually doing whereas the GTI has the turbo kick that means the sensation of speed matches the speed you are doing better. Whilst I haven't done any timings in either car I didn't notice any difference in actual performance between the cars.

I don't know about your location, but if its London, or if you find yourself in London often then you might want to consider the R32 will be in the £25 a day category from October time.

Plus dealers are already reporting a knock on effect in sales of high Co2 producing cars following the tax hikes in the budget and the R32 is in one of the highest categories and will continue to get a kicking from the chancellor.

The R32 and GTI are both great cars and you'll have great fun in either, hope the above has given you some food for thought.

[RedRobin]

In town you get 20mpg, less if you enjoy yourself, on the motorway at a steady 80mph your at 24mpg if your lucky.
With the Golf GTI your looking at a 10mpg increase on those figures.

....I'd just like to say that to achieve 24+10 = 34 mpg you'll have to granny the GTI at 55-60 mph and not 80 mph.

[T88OMM]

I had a diesel Golf Mk5 which had been remapped and had a few other goodies, I thought that was fast until I got my ED30   Don't get me wrong diesels are great cars for MPG, but that's about it, I think they lack the feel good factor of a high revving petrol engine. I test drove many cars before parting with my cash and had initially set my heart on an R32 until I drove it, I found it to be a bit of a disappoinment. I think there is a lot of badge hype with the car, just because it is known to be the flagship model of the golf does not necessarily mean it is the best imo. I found it to feel quite heavy and a bit of a lump   As soon as I got in my ED30 and that turbo went wild at 4500rpm I new I had made the right choice. As everybody says you should test drive each car and take your time with your decision, it is a large sum of money you are parting with.  

[MikeGTI]

In town you get 20mpg, less if you enjoy yourself, on the motorway at a steady 80mph your at 24mpg if your lucky.
With the Golf GTI your looking at a 10mpg increase on those figures.

....I'd just like to say that to achieve 24+10 = 34 mpg you'll have to granny the GTI at 55-60 mph and not 80 mph.

Robin,

I'm afraid to say that wasn't the case I was purposely comparing like for like when I did the journey as its a regular journey I do to one of my regional offices. There would be little point in me giving the guy who started the thread a bum steer on fuel consumption. I was doing a pretty steady 80-85mph the majority of the journey and saw a 34mpg return. Now I appreciate you're a long standing GTI owner and I'm not and you may have a different experience to me and would say if you have to state it, but please don't accuse me of trying to deceive in some way.

[RedRobin]

In town you get 20mpg, less if you enjoy yourself, on the motorway at a steady 80mph your at 24mpg if your lucky.
With the Golf GTI your looking at a 10mpg increase on those figures.

....I'd just like to say that to achieve 24+10 = 34 mpg you'll have to granny the GTI at 55-60 mph and not 80 mph.

Robin,

I'm afraid to say that wasn't the case I was purposely comparing like for like when I did the journey as its a regular journey I do to one of my regional offices. There would be little point in me giving the guy who started the thread a bum steer on fuel consumption. I was doing a pretty steady 80-85mph the majority of the journey and saw a 34mpg return. Now I appreciate you're a long standing GTI owner and I'm not and you may have a different experience to me and would say if you have to state it, but please don't accuse me of trying to deceive in some way.

....No, no, no! I'm not accusing you of any deceit and please accept my apologies for saying anything if it makes you think that way.

I'm only reporting a different experience of mpg. The bottom line is that we all achieve surprisingly varied mpg figures and I was only trying to balance your findings with another experience. I wasn't even thinking of any deceit aspect.

The point is that the GTI is more economical on fuel than the R32 but that the GTI is also relatively thirsty. If we bought these cars with mpg in mind, we'd get a diesel

I hope you don't still feel badly about my post