bought it for the other half. her Fiesta had finance to pay. cleared that and sold that. she didnt like the mk3 as it was too compromised (ie too GTI for her). mk4 is quiet and comfortable. we had an S4 estate for a while, but that was sold as it made us a nice little profit. some say we may have the two worst GTIs ever made, but all we know is that the mk3 was chosen by the STIG.
Yes I totally agree with you that a remapped 1.8T is more than fast enough for road use. I had mine done about a month after I got it, it was brilliant. In standard tune it was just so slow. My problem with the Mk4 is that to get it to handle properly, and be able to use the power without scaring yourself silly, takes some effort, and even then it just does not have the feel of a well sorted car. Yes it grips very well, but it never feels quite right, and yes I have tried quite a few flavours of suspension(Bilstein,Koni,Sachs) plus all the more radical mods like TT/R32/LCR bushes, wishbones and hubcarriers. However, as has been said, the Mk4 is a good car for the money. It is quite, comfortable, reliable, and easy to drive. It is also well built and easy to work on. In conclusion, I'll just say that there are more positives than negatives for the Mk4, but can you live with the negatives?
