Quite soon I will be giving my 12 year old Golf TDI to MissW. It's been a very good car, and I like VW's, nicely built, good on fuel and because they blend in, for general knocking about.
My cars have to fulfil a role, and the main role of the Golf is driving to the West Country, four up and sometimes five up. This is not a problem because three of the five are eight stone, and I'm under eleven stone........having resigned from the pie eating club.
My original plan was to go for a Golf Mk6GTD up to a year old, with manual gearbox. However, the car nuts at work are telling me that I should try a BMW320D(Touring). I'm not a fan of BMW. I think the styling is dodgy both outside and in, and one of the fans at work actually had his (6 cyl diesel) engine disintegrate as a result of the 'known' fault in the induction system in cars of a certain age.
Anyway, apparently I can expect fantastic handling, fantastic mpg and fantastic various other things over and above what a Golf can provide.
The bhp of the two is about the same at 170. The BMW will be slightly bigger inside I suspect but not by much. I wonder about the comfort of the rear seats in an estate, which may be quite flat and hard work on a long trip.
I know that some TMers have run GTD's and 320D's so would be interested to hear first hand experiences. Especially if you've had both. Oh, and the BMW will slightly more expensive to buy.........
