Looking for a 5 door replacement to our 2nd car, a 3 door Audi A1 1.6TDI, which has been almost faultless and gives amazing mpg.
Currently, the wife has a short commute and I have a long one, so unfortunately she has my Golf R during the week to keep the fuel bills and mileage for both cars reasonable (A1 isn't used at the weekend). After something fun/reasonably economical, well equipped that is either reasonably cheap outright, or has great residuals that either myself or the wife wouldn't mind to drive. Being a VW fan, first choice was a new Polo GTI+, but currently only available in DSG (I hate DSG with a passion). Guessing it will be available in a manual when the new model year comes in (usually BW22), but the current waits are ridiculous (42 weeks!).
Looked also at 5 Door Mini Cooper/Mini Cooper S. Was shocked at how poor the residuals are, so I wouldn't buy new. Forecourt prices for 14 month old Cooper S 5 door is about £15k from £26k new! I'd cry if i'd lost £11k on a £26k car in just over a year. 5 door doesn't look half as ok as a 3 door model.
Also looked at the
Ibiza FR 1.5 EVO with LED headlights, parking sensors and metallic paint. £4k discount looks to be achievable via brokers. Sounds great. Good economy (for a petrol - those 1.0TSI units in various states of tune may score highly for economy on the test cycle, but in the real world, you'll be pushing them hard all the time). I like the outside a lot, the interior looks a little cheaper than i'm used to (especially door cards), but I can live with that as the Polo also seems to have become a little cheaper in that regard also), pretty well equipped, reasonably priced options, and then we see those wind-up windows in the rear. They really cheapen the car. Not only that, but with 2 inquisitive young girls in tow (3 and 5, who won't leave anything alone), I really don't them to have control over the windows and open them at speed on a motorway to create that horrible air buffeting you get when the rear windows are open above 30mph. Why the hell did Seat not offer electric rears as an option? Apart from the wind-up rear windows, we were both sold on the car's interior and exterior looks ad equipment at the price point we could get it for. Not sure whether I can justify it (the wife thinks it is a deal breaker), although to be fair, the Seat would probably still be the car that doesn't generally get used on the weekend
and the girls would be in it for pre-school breakfast club drop-off.
Fabia is the ugly duckling of the VAG supermini range, would not consider it. If I thought that I could get a silly discount on a run-out S1, or that the new A1 would be reasonable with some actual equipment in the price, i'd consider that also, if it was available right now.
Local Arnold Shark
dealership didn't seem that keen on selling me a Seat at all (seems a common theme I've seen with the Seat dealerships around Tyne and Wear over the past 10 years, my main reason for sticking with VW). They implied that lead times on the 1.5 EVO engine are huge - can anyone confirm?