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Ray had his mind focussed on the Golf R way before it was shown or released to the public. He was concerned about the looks of the Golf R, esp. the front end design with gapping holes in the front bumper and low rent grill, in addition to turbo lag and long term reliability of tuning. Ray prefers a more executive type of package, which the R32 provides with splashes of chrome here and there. He did look at the HSV Senator (too big & heavy), Lexus IF350 Sports/Luxury (too end model goes without sports suspension tune & not aftermarket SATNAV can be fitted, plus the m/v is at the end of the it's life cycle) and he was knocked back on a couple of low ball offers he made for late model low mileage BMW M3 Coupes (insurance premium too high). At that point in time, Ray was looking at buying the best car he could afford. He woken up and smelt the roses & has a change of heart now. Ray will probably use the money to go on the holiday and if he follows my advice, hopefully undertake a few driving courses to improve his skills, which is money well spent.
As for me, I could live with the looks of the Golf R, apart from the front, it's a nice looking m/v, the weight I could live with, the understeer can be easily rectified with a set of H&R sway bars, but it was too difficult to get my head around buying the same motor I had in the MKV GTI (EA113), esp with the bigger turbo providing less driveability. Ray has a method to his madness in that he tends to keep his ride for 3-5 years and sell before 60,000km odo if you want a reasonable price to finance the purchase of another vehicle. I tend to agreee with him on the 60,000km mark for saleability. My GTI is not used during the week and has abut 25,000km in 13 months - with a couple of longer triips in near future, I'll be hitting 30,000km service in about 15-16mths - a decision will have to be made whether to sell at around 60,000km and 3 years or keep the GTI for the longer term. As an owner of a GTI, I like the GTI more now than when I first purchased it. The GTI does everything so well and XDS is well judged for public road driving. I do get annoyed on rougher tourist routes and B'grade roadways with the brittle ride on 18" wheels/tyres and miss the trade-mark Koni style ride that my old KW coilovers in the MKV GTI offered with a distinct separation from low speed compression and high speed compression damping.
I did have another look at the Renault Megane RS250 (basic spec) as a comparison against the Trophee RS250 spec to determine the difference between the two. The basic is only really missing the stereo, folding heated mirrors, keyless start, larger wheels and Recaro seats, but still has all the good gear like fancy Italian Brembo brakes, LSD and Revo-knuckle front steering/driveline separator & alloy suspension parts. In terms of practicality the 3 door is a negative and I reckon the basic spec RS250 would be hard to sell 3-4 years on as I find that buyers of 2nd hot hatches tend to be younger guys about 10-20 years younger than me that want all the fancy Recaros seats and bigger 19" wheels. For now I'm extremely happy with the Golf GTI and it's still my choice as the best all-rounder.
Cheers.
WJ
Originally Posted by Whistler
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