..and get accused of building a tinny, unsafe car which feels badly built. I bet if the door didn't slam with a nice "thunk" we'd all accuse VW of having gone French. VWs are safe, secure, sophisticated and very well made. That weighs a lot. As for slow, the R32 is lighter and quicker than a BMW 330i. Hardly a slouch.
Damn, missed my cue again. Just can't read the forum enough anymore... I'm not surprised that EVO is inconsistant. It's a magazine, and none of them are objective at all. Articles sell advertising space, enough said. As for the R32, it's a great car. I have driven one and it's very nice too. For me, and because I can, I'd have two cars for two different jobs; commuting and fun. The R32 would not suit me day to day batting up and down the motorway and would not be as much fun as my mk1 on the weekends. (IMHO as a permanently embittered mk1 owner...) But, if I could only have one car, it would be more likely to be considered. Probably still get a 150TDI though, and 20k is a major psychological barrier for a 'peoples car' hatchback. Out of interest, did anybody see fifth gear yesterday? That helicopter was lighter than an R32 Cheers,,, Drew. Edited by: drew
it was 1400Kg wasn't it, the porsche 911 GT3 was the same weight. What's the weight of an R32? What colours do they come in only seen blue and black so far.
It's in the region of 1600kg isn't it? There's also dark blue and a dark grey colour I think, and probably others too.
They come in silver, blue, black and a very rare red. Official weight (in manual) is 1477kg. Yes that is heavy but power/weight is 163 bhp/tonne. The semi auto (non UK) weighs nearer 1600kg. Drew - OMG I agree with you! Have you seen the letter I wrote to EVO mag (posted on www.uk-mkivs.net)? Had a couple opf immediate responses from the journo concerned. An interesting(ish) read. On mk4 bit and under "End of Term R32 report" initiated by Spanner.
Correction Matt: Colours at launch: Reflex Silver, Diamond Black, That light Blue colour (as Golfgirls) Later added to range: Red, Moonstone Blue (almost black), Anthracite Grey and Indigo Blue (dark blue)
I stand corrected! Bet that Dark blue and Moonstone look good. Only seem Diamond black (like mine) Silver and blue. Seen a couple of red ones advertised.
Very interesting, but not surprising. I think that's the main problem with Journo's. They don't use cars they same way as the rest of us. We typically buy a car and use it day in day out for years, journos have to be constantly on the ball with whatever is new, which makes whatever is current immediately old news. The mk4 R32 is the greatest of the mk4s, sure, but it's old hat now the Mk5 is waiting in the wings, in journalistic terms. Cruel, but the nature of the game. Lets hope the mk5 GTI is as good as everyone hopes it will be. Fingers crossed! Cheers, Drew.
No sorry your missing my point IM not advocating vw build a replica saxo thats french nuff said. we are talking about two different packages and approaches, a simple lightweight 4 cylinder hatchback which is entertaining but with containable costs and vw build quality (similar in character to the mk1 and 2) and a more sophisticated and expensive machine ( r32).different products and they both have their place but vw is focussing too much on the latter and not paying enough attention to the former in my opinion and they are missing a trick.(VW should be building both instead of buggering about with w8s and pheatons etc which dont sell!!!) sadly for me VW arent catering for what I want these days, happily for you they are. Edited by: lewiscypher
..and it would have to have ABS (Clio Cup went without and got slated), impact protection, probably airbags, etc which all weigh a lot. Agree with the Phaeton/Touraeg thing though but VW are being punished with dire sales (with the Phaeton). Whatever they do, it'll never be the same as the mk1 and 2 days so there'll always be a group that aren't happy. Off to Cornwall tonight and looking forward to the 4 hour drive (early hours) for once!
Drew - I'm a bit naive on the journo thing but have now learned my lesson! Noticed the much lauded M3 is suddenly getting a pasting in EVO now it's old news. Was the best thing ever a couple of years ago! Clio 182 and similar cars may be good to drive now but from bitter experience they DO NOT last long and are bloody unreliable soon after they're new. They also have dire interiors and a cheapo feel.
