I missed that but I think the "appreciating" bit might be a little optimistic unless you have a Splitty. No keeping up with the Joneses for us - we just like it, bought it and owe nothing on either car. Those that buy new but can't afford it ARE very stupid though. And there are 1000s if not millions of them about thanks to our silly economy going mental.
mate would you listen to yourself? I really don't want to say this but Im going to anyway, I have had two Golf GTI's (mk2 and 3) and a passat also, and now drive a 3 year old vectra so to be quite honest its pretty similar to yourself, not that its important how 'qualified' you think you are or I am - I don't compete with people or feel the need to boast or brag about anything. I just give my opinion about stuff without getting a chip on my shoulder about everything, and don't try to preach to everyone about how great my vauxhall is as I know it is a bland new vehicle with nothing to it, hence why I still love my GTI
What mk3Valver, your mk3 GTi 16v, almost universally recognised as the Golf mark where VW lost their way? The Golf that was MUCH heavier than the previous model? The Golf that didn't handle properly? Yes I could understand if you had a mk2 (or decent mk1) but you have a mark THREE. Yes I liked mine - it went well, was reliable and cheapish to run but I never ever trusted it on the limit, hated the way it needed merciless thrashing to get anywhere fast and always thought it needed a lot of work to make it shine anything like a standard mk2. So cut your BS - the Vectra is complete toss - only the Astra and Zafira are any good in the Vx range, and yes even then, they aren't exactly exciting, but then neither was having to hide my R32 from thieves every night. The mk3 is not only a bland vehicle, it's an old bland vehicle, so please don't pretend you have some classic driving machine on your hands.
is that what I said? no... your now doing exactly what I asked you to take else where - please do ALL of us a favor and stop bleating on about f*****g vauxhall's, and slagging off my GTI. Im on here because I love it, and so do a lot of other mk3 owners on here and thats what counts. I don't need some self infatuated moron telling me what is good in the vauxhall range. Nor do I care whether you are 'qualified' to talk about performance VW's or not - im leaving this thread as it now has nothing to do with the topic, yet again a thread has gone into a rant with you and another member, with you trying to tell them their old/unsafe/'chav' gti is s**t.... why bother? your on a GTI forum with people that want to talk about GTI's, not how capable your f******g astra or jimny is FFS...
I hope that is a joke. My 2wd valver or the Pishrat tow the boat FAR better than my uncle's Jimny. *insert Sutherland style quote about in-laws or relatives here* - he's 70, he was a boatbuilder all his life, and he still won't take the Jimny over 50 with the With on the back, because it's simply too light. Heavy weight behind, light weight in front, hard braking - whoops. Crosswind - oops. He uses his old Pug diesel estate to tow it, and to drag it in and out of the water. 4wd does not make a dick bit of difference when towing, and if I can pull a heavy Dory out of the water on a steep gravel and grass slipway, with my LOWERED 16v Golf FEEL THE POWER, then you should be able to do the same. Poor driving technique? No, of course not, you used to train the police and drive massive bags of weed from place to place as part of your job...
I think I understand what Sutherlandm is trying to say. I have Toyota Avensis TD which is logically a far superior car to my Mk2 GTI insofar as it is safer, more reliable, more comfortable, better equipped, more economical & has better grip, it is better in every aspect than my GTI. However the fact that it is also the most boring pile of s**t that I have ever driven is not something quantifiable so cannot really be used as a logical arguement for it not being a damned good car. My toyota is the best car that I own but I still prefer to drive my Golf
wow all i have to say. spot on throughout this thread tbh i bought my MG new, it was the best car. eva. then i lost all sense of direction and bought an audi, and started modding.
If there's going to be an argument, let's at least fight fairly! Whether a car is 'best', or 'boring' or any other noun, is mostly a matter of opinion. End of.
Actually Mk3, this is the General Vehicle Related Chat section - there is a VAG only section elsewhere - so you are the pillock once again. Looks at how many posts are VW only? Doh! TSC - would you drive your lowered 16v into the sea then? Can it grip on slippery cobbles where a Landcruiser Amazon slips? Can you turn it on a sixpence to move it around when the tide is rushing in? Can you sling a load of soaking wet wetsuits in the back without worrying about the interior? Can you get in it with mud covered wellies and not give a stuff? Does it have the ground clearance needed to get up a rock covered beach? Can you chuck oars, waterskiis and all the associated wet crap in the back without any problems? Does it have a tiny turning circle with it's lowering and FWD? Yes the Jimny is cr4p for distance towing - so we don't do any distance. What it is good for is nipping down to a very tight slipway, dipping in the water and getting our little boat out. Your lowered 16v would be utterly knackered - yet again you are working on partial facts and looking like a turd. As for the Vauxhall - I think ALL Vxs are cr4p except for the Astra and Zafira (and Monaro and VX200 but they don't really count). Both vehicles are capable, fun if driven properly, paid for and reliable. The mark 3 is reliable, quite practical and cheap to run but handles like a turd in a drainpipe. Of course it seems many don't worry about such trivialities as handling. DIBBA - I was thinking over the weekend, isn't it a bit bloody obvious that buying that many new cars in such a short space of time would cost you a packet?! Keep a car for three years if buying new otherwise if course you'll lose out big time. I also find throwing wads of 50 in a river also costs rather a lot.
Got a brand new Cooper on order for myself and the fiancee. We dont care about the depreciation. We are paying a set fee on a monthly basis via a works scheme (its not a company car) and at the end of it, we'll just trade it in for something else that will cost about the same each month. Hassle free driving with the TLC pack. We have paid 150 which will cover almost all the servicing we will require over the period we will own it. If i could have afforded a Mk5 GTI and the fiancee was a bit older to make the insurance reasonable, we would have been going for one of those instead.
Nice one Deako - I would always have thought of you as a non new car person though! New Minis are fine machines - even with that "dentists drill" power steering noise they all make!
Yes, quite happily. It's a 20 year old Mk2, I'm not precious about it. And I have done. I've also driven it into the lake every time I've taken it to the island. I've once had to drive the Passat in until the water was almost up to the back window, again, quite happily. I've driven the Caddy in so deep that my brother was able to motor the boat up beside it, "tie up" to the roll bar, and lift stuff straight out of the pickup bed into the boat. I have to say, I've never been lucky enough to be on slippery cobbles beside a Landcruiser Amazon to compare. But I've never had trouble pulling a boat from anywhere I've launched it from. The slipway at the lake is either gravel, grass/gravel mix, or just mud, depending on the lake level at the time, and it's simple. Full lock to one side at idle to get the wheels moving without spinning, then gradually straighten up to go from sideways movement to forwards. Turning circle of a Jimny = 9.8 metres. Turning circle of a Mk2 = 10.2 metres. If that little difference is enough to cause you trouble, you're in trouble anyway. Yes, it doesn't bother me in the least. Yes, and I do so every time I take it to the island. No, but I've never felt the need to drive over a rocky beach anyway. Perhaps you need to do it to make you feel masculine, driving your manly 4x4 over all those rocks, but I find most parts of the coastline you would want to launch a boat from to be fairly well equipped with slipways... why not just drive a few hundred metres to find somewhere more suitable? I can indeed - and I throw all that crap, including the oars, generators, chainsaws etc into it every time I take it to the island. See the numbers above. My wheels don't rub on full lock. No problems with turning circle here. My lowered 16v would not be and is not "utterly knackered", it does the job just fine. - I don't think I've heard "looking like a turd" used as an insult since I was in primary school... Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say a lowered Mk2 is the perfect tow car, far from it. Nor am I trying to say it is "better" than a Jimny for towing boats. I'm just pointing out that your constant justifications for buying a Jimny for it's great off-roading ability and fantastic towing performance are a bit pointless. You could do the towing with your Astra. And it's pretty clear that you haven't been doing much, if any off-roading - you did say just after you bought it that you would post up pictures "next time you went trailing", and by now we would have seen a pic of Matt Sutherland sitting on the bonnet of the Jimny at the top of a mountain, naked from the waist up, sucking in belly and flexing muscles while staring into the distance through sunglasses. Why not just admit that your wife wanted a cute hairdresser's car, and stop feeling you have to point out all the "practical" reasons you supposedly bought it for? Oh, more numbers.... Maximum towing weight for a Jimny = 350kg Weight of your boat and trailer = 450kg Maximum towing weight for a Mk2 Golf = 560kg It's pretty clear that what YOU need, my friend, is a lowered Mk2 16v. FEEL THE POWER!!!!!
Doesn't matter a monkeys these days whether you keep a new car for one year or three years IMO. If you choose to buy new a mass produced mainstream vehicle, it will shed money each year at a staggering rate. First year hit is always big (VAT etc), but now even so called prestige marcs are being hit hard.
Okay then TSC, you try this in your mk2 then... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpaRF6qmTg I suggest that your uncle has no idea about it's capabilities and can't drive it properly. A Jimny will go anywhere a Defender will go but weighs half as much and it twice as reliable. Yes we've greenlaned it big time - no we didn't take any photos. No we don't want a Chav'd old Golf thanks. DIBBA - just seems like financial suicide buying so many new cars - of COURSE they lose a lot of money. You just made if 5 times worse! I'd say prestige Mercs are one of the biggest money losers of all.
I never mentioned off-roading in my Mk2. I never mentioned my uncle off-roading in his Jimny, just towing boats. Funny we haven't heard about this greenlaning, I'd expect you would be straight on the forum saying how fantastically capable it was, with lots of attention whore photos. My Golf isn't chav'd, it's totally standard apart from suspension. So you are towing your boat which is 100kg over the weight limit for your Jimny? That would be interesting under emergency braking, as would be the resulting insurance claim, if you survived...
Well I didn't mention the greenlaning and yes, it was bloody amazing at it - me and another one went up tractor only tracks all over South Devon that were just too bumpy and too narrow for any other 4WD. The boat gets towed about 0.5 miles to the slipway and back - that's it. It does a great job of it. If we go further, we borrow something bigger. Sorry it's a bit hairy for your Golf, but hey, it's the sea, not some gentle lake. Your mk2 Golf is lowered - there's no need to lower it. I had one - it was fine but I'm glad we don't have it any more. The Jimny might have a "hairdresser" image - good. If someone wants to call me a hairdresser face to face rather than over the internerd, then great - bring it on. Only the truly sexually insecure need to label a car "gay" or whatever. I enjoy the anti image. Makes a change from trying to use a metal box as a knob extension. I've yet to meet a girl impressed by a "manly" car - it's always quite the opposite. It's particularly funny when a "manly" 4x4 gets stuck with it's hopeless 4WD system and the "girly" Jimny kicks it's ar5e. Now the time and effort that went into quoting and replying as above AND finding out the weight and towing max of the Jimny really is a little alarming. STALKER. Now shut up Mr Last Word ad go back to polishing your chainsaw.
