Just tested a MK7 Golf and a 1 series BMW Coupe.

[Sootchucker]

Hi all, thought I would share this with you. Got invited over the weekend by my local VW dealer to beat the queues and have the loan of a MK7 Golf GT for the day to try out. Wasn't looking to change the Rocco (as I love it), but always good to cultivate options.

Anyway, the car in question was a 5 door GT 1.4 TSI (140hp) with cylinder de-activation in black. First the engine. Having been used to the devils juice for about 6 years now, I was keen to see how these modern small capacity engines faired against the low down grunt and torque of the diesels. First impressions were very favourable. Very quiet on tick over (nearly inaudible) and certainly without the usual TSI tappety sounds. Now the model they gave me was a 6 speed manual, and I'm a DSG guy, so it took a few minutes to realise I had to use the clutch, but overall I was very impressed. The engine pulled very strongly and smoothly (not as much in gear acceleration as a diesel of course), but a good amount of grunt. The cylinder de-activation is completely invisible to the driver. You only know it's on 2 cylinders because of the message in the MFD otherwise you would never know, it's still super smooth. I would certainly consider this engine in the future especially with the projected brilliant fuel economy figures.

As to the rest of the car, well much better built than my old MK5 Golf, and decent levels of equipment including radar guide cruise control, sat-nav, 17" Alloys, Auto Light and Wipers, Alcantera sports seats all standard. Disappointingly the Dual zone climate control is resigned to the options list, but overall a very nicely equipped car. The xenons are still ridiculously priced at nearly a thousand pounds as is the sunroof option as well. As for the special Onyx White paint - £990 !!! Come on, who's gonna pay that ?

Well the $64,000 dollar question is would I buy one. Well I'll leave the final word on the Golf to the wife who said (and I quote), after the Rocco, it's just plain boring ! And do you know what, I know what she means, and that's from an ex Golf guy as well ! I know it's all 100% with the new MBQ platform, but to be honest it doesn't look that much different to the outgoing MK6 Golf. Maybe over the coming months it will grow on me or the upcoming GTI model (for 2014) will be something super, but it sure isn't as pretty as a Rocco. Total list for a Golf specced to my standards (with DSG) would have been £28,500.That's with 18" alloys, climate, Xenon's, Metallic paint and winter pack (no leather, no sunroof). The new Golf is certainly a very very nice car and will no doubt sell in bucket loads, it's just not very original compared to the outgoing models.

We then went to the local BMW dealer, where a friend of ours now works as a salesman. We looked at a 1 series coupé and specced up the 123D Automatic in the Sports plus edition. We went for spec purposes with the 123D as it's on a deal at the moment with over £3k off (which the 120D didn't). Really nice spec, (it's based upon the M-Sport edition so 18" twin spoke alloys, full body kit, lower sports suspension etc), but adds full leather, auto lights and wiper package etc for only £500 more. Added a few extras like Nav, cruise, folding mirrors etc and the price jumped to just short of £35k - cripes !!!

Have to say though, wow, what a drive. 204bhp through the rear wheels with over 450nm of torque, it certainly shifts. Not as pretty as a Rocco and the rear seats are hopeless. With my seat in it's standard position in the Rocco, I can get a full size adult behind me no problem, in the BMW, I have a 1½" of legroom, so fine so long as your passengers don't have legs ! Economy isn't bad either considering the power, but those options sure cost. The killer though is that it's being face lifted near Christmas so this is effectively an outgoing model and I was told the new model will look quite different and have a number of specification improvements over the current car.

So what did we decide. We are keeping the Rocco for at least to the end of this year maybe longer. Yes there are faster cars, better equipped cars etc, but as a package of looks, comfort, reliability, space, equipment and value, the Rocco even after 4-5 years of being on sale is still not an easy act to better.

Hope you don't mind the ramble.

[Mark V]

Brilliant analysis - many thanks for posting

[whiteDevil_170]

Very interesting read. I do like the BMW.. But £35k! Not for me.

[RisingRoc]

Brilliant analysis - many thanks for posting

Totally agree. Very interesting reading.

[tony4147]

Interesting read, £28K for a 1.4 Golf, the mind boggles

[liory931]

Thanks for the info - I was thinking of a change too, but now you gave me some things to think about...

[Cuprabob]

These prices make the 320bhp M135i look very good value at 30k, 35k with some options.

[AAddict]

These prices make the 320bhp M135i look very good value at 30k, 35k with some options.

Yup, leather, Xenons etc as standard too.

£28,650 from OrangeWheels and a low 4.9 APR PCP

http://www.orangewheels.co.uk/buy/bmw-1 ... e-3dr.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[phil4]

Once had a BMW 1 series. While midrange grunt was fine servicing costs weren't. The proactive (when it runs out, change it) servicing meant I seemed to be at the dealership every few months, and strangely always cost an awful lot.

Over the 4-5 years I owned it I wouldn't say the durability was anything to write home about either, too many rattles and minor but annoying things failing (eg. Lumbar support wouldn't inflate).

In short was nice new, but started to cost and deteriorate after a couple of years.

Just my 2p

[tony4147]

Once had a BMW 1 series. While midrange grunt was fine servicing costs weren't. The proactive (when it runs out, change it) servicing meant I seemed to be at the dealership every few months, and strangely always cost an awful lot.

Over the 4-5 years I owned it I wouldn't say the durability was anything to write home about either, too many rattles and minor but annoying things failing (eg. Lumbar support wouldn't inflate).

In short was nice new, but started to cost and deteriorate after a couple of years.

Just my 2p

I had a 120d with the 5 year servicing agreement. Great driving car but quality was disappointing, and as above forever going back to the dealers for service items to be replaced.
I had a problem with clutch judder from new and it never got sorted. Found the dealers to be arrogant, I would not buy BMW again.

[wigit]

Trouble is a Golf in anything other than GTI or R form and possibly GTD is just hum drum and it's a case of evolution rather than revolution

The realive lack of choice on roc means lesser models don't tick the hum drum visual box

I can't get my head around the M135s looks, I think smart money is on the M235 as the coupe looked better in previous incarnation