Golf TDI estate mini-review

If they are soiled with any STDs, they're from the previous owner and not me. ;-)

Interesting... I didn't detect anything like that with it before I handed it over, and we went right over it up on the ramp... *and* it was MOT'ed by the most anal MOT inspector I think I've ever happened upon, and who I'd be surprised if he'd not detected something like that given he failed another car put through by my mechanic friend today on *one* loose exhaust rubber, apparently.

I'd check the wheel nuts haven't worked loose before you do much else.

Welcome to the dark side, Brother Timo. :-D

Well, I'm unlikely to catch it as I don't habitually caress the dash :).

I think it's something that it has developed on my trip down to Germany. I'm pretty sure I didn't notice anything on the test drive or on the way back from your place. At the end of the day if it does need/want a pair of disks and pad, these are consumables. Doesn't bother me too much...

Good point, I'll do that.

Heh.

Yebbut surely the sensual combination of a oh so soft to the touch dash and a spring loaded, damped *double* cup holder, is too much to resist for even the best of us. ;-)

Ok. Was going to say, the test drive should have shown it as well as it wasn't exactly a five minute round the block special.

Discs and pads aren't *that* dear for these.

Out of the two, German and Swedish tend to offer trade prices now without asking, whereas Euro Car Parts aren't being so friendly in that respect any more.

Glad it made the trip ok, anyway.

Forgot one thing when I handed it over... apparently it also had new glowplugs not that long ago. :-)

Bloody love that car... so good on fuel round town and leisurely A / B road bimbles, and very comfy.

Gngngngngnngn.

Indeed, and we weren't pottering around town either.

Fortunately...

Well, I like dealing with GSF, so I might hop over to Canterbury in a few weeks. Or I'll just throw it at the folks who looked after my A8 (MS Autos).

Done that, hard to say if it made a difference but the nuts were tight. Short potter around suggested that there was no wobble but I didn't get the car above 30mph.

Indeed. And as I filled up only about 60 miles south of Calais I should have enough Diesel to get to Amsterdam and back next weekend :). French supermarket juice at E0.93/l rocks.

I did notice that it did start rather well, even in Baden-Baden where it was a tad cold.

It's pretty good, I must say.

I had one as my company runaround about eight years ago. Takes a shed load of kit in the back with the seats down. Doesn't use much fuel. Fast enough. I don't miss it now it's gone though.

One warning, the standard DIN radio attracts druggies like flies to poo, so getting windows smashed is a real possibility.

Ever considered moving somewhere less pikey? ;-)

They're not desirable any more... not least given you can pick them up off eBay for £25 or less.

This was in Great Malvern, which by definition is the antithesis of pikey.

Ah righto. I don't know if that stops the druggies though. They're not exactly analytical in their approach. As one mate said, "they broke a £400 window in order to steal £2.50 in change. But then again they don't have to pay for the window."

Yup, I used to live there. Cracking place. It's got hills, the RSRE and the M50 and everything.

Good as they are, VW Gamma units are 'old news' these days.

Car audio / CDs etc are worth less to the average druggie these days - sat-navs are where it's at, and I reckon you've more chance of being broken into now for having a sucker mark on a window than a half decent OE stereo sitting in the dash.

Aye.

I've not had any problems with thefts from any of the numerous VWs I've had over the last few years, mind, and they've all been kept standard audio wise.

Heh, perhaps its worth just putting a fiver under a windscreen wiper when you park up anywhere dodgy instead.

I'll bear that in mind for the next time I'm up in Scotland.

Just let me know where you'll be parking the car.

I'll have to stop leaving the squid in the car alone.

Can't be any worse than leaving a slobbery dog in the car.

On a related VW stereo tangent, I found out last night that the yellow plug on the back of all Gamma units can be replaced with a yellow plug that happens to have a amp remote power lead and two sets of pre-outs hanging from it. :-D

So I'm now going to go down the route of that rather than fitting an aftermarket jobbie, as I want a sub really.

Top stuff from a mid range car OE headunit, really.

The next thing is sorting out MP3 capability... might just invest in an iPod and go down the 'iTrip' route.

Is that the Griffin FM transducer? Don't bother. I've had one in the past, sodding useless. Get a headunit with an iPod dock.

%steve%@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Not _useless_, but definitely not as hassle-free as it could be. It's absolutely fine out in the sticks with not much in the way of FM signal, usable locally where you can find a bit of empty FM, but a right pain when you're on a trip between/past cities with crowded FM frequencies - you're constantly retuning and searching to find some empty space.

Seconded. We replaced 'erselfs iTrip with one of these -

I don't want to change the headunit really, though.

Actually... I've got one of those thingies you shove in the tape deck somewhere, which then plug into the headphone jack of whatever the external device you're trying to connect, is.

That would do the job, for all it being a bit old skool.

"JackH" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Tape... deck...?

I'd still go for an iTrip type thing. There is a big variation in the quality available - I've had four of them so far; two were listenable, given that you are listening in a noisy box, but quite painful if you listened with a purists ear; the other two were actually rather good - not distinguishable in general quality from a normal FM broadcast, and definitely better than a cassette adapter!

I can look up what the two decent ones were if that'd be useful.

As an aside, doesn't the gamma unit have an external (CD changer/AUX/whatever) input you could hack into to feed from your MP3 player and avoid the layers of quality-sapping transduction? I'm sure the one I had in the passat had a 'changer.