Don't get me wrong - I'm not economy minded when I choose or drive cars, and I generally don't get bothered by poor economy. I do find 1.6 mpg shameful for a 1.6 injection car, though, when the Government and everyone else are going mad for NEW CARS to save the environment - when my 16 year old Golf got 45mpg and offered better performance.
Googled data varies slightly, but a Mk2 GTI weighed in somewhere around the 950kg mark - about the same as a 1.0 litre Lupo (should that be Lardo?) weighs today.
Your Beetle cabrio is more like 1385 kg. That's pretty much a 50% weight increase, and goes a long way to explain the economy deficit.
Granted, but OTOH engines are supposed to have improved in terms of technology and become more efficient than they used to be. Things obviously didn't weigh up properly.
On that point, I would agree with you wholeheartedly. One point six miles per gallon would be absolutely horrendously dissapointing on something like a V12 Jag, let alone a 1.6 Beetle :-)
Oh, I know. But all the extra weight is for stuff I don't want - SRS, crash protection (I don't recall the old Beetle having much of that), emissions control crap. I mean, it even has plastic wings.
No wonder I expected the 1.4 A140 to be a slug, but it is probably quite light really. Plastic wings, tailgate, quite light seats.
But an Octavia is screwed together better and will hold it's value much better. Interior space, yeah, I can see that, but that's because the Mondeo is a *huge* car these days, even the MkI/II was a lot bigger than an Octavia. Ride and handling are quite subjective and personal - I find my Passat rides and handles very well - ride is better than the 156, but it doesn't handle anywhere near as well, though. But that's more because the 156 handles exceptionally well, whereas the Passat / Mondeo etc are all around the 'average' ball-park.
Fair enough - I'm not exactly huge, and only 21, so I've never found an issue there.
Air Conditioning is brilliant - icy cold and the only squeeks I'm getting are from the leather (Driving me insane). Radio is indeed absolutely s**te, which is why I've replaced it now.
Hmm, mines a Ghia X so I guess its a bit nicer although we did have a 2.0 LX as the family car from 6 months old until 4 years old - the only bad thing it did was shed a ridiculous amount of value. Everything else about it was faultless, not a single thing went wrong and it didn't have any rattles after 50k when it was sold.
Depreciation is absolutely savage - but thats why I got mine. I'd never had found a fully loaded 4 year old car for under £3k otherwise.
I think the original question got lost here somewhere, but how about a Saab
9-3. Comfy seats. A bit different. Diesel version would be cheap enough to run. Or its cousin, the Vauxhall Vectra: very quiet and comfortable, durable. Grey interiors aren't much fun, but it's very cheap and great value. Or a Seat Leon or (old style) Toledo? A Citroen C5 HDi would also be comfy and cheap to fuel.
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