I had to laugh - I recently read a quick test between a Toyota Avensis diesel and a Passat TDi.
Now while they concluded that overall, the Passat was marginally the better car, they stated that the interior plastics used in the Toyota were considerably better than those used in the Passat....
Oh how times have changed eh! If I was in the boardroom at VW, id fall outta my chair reading that!
Bit sad for VW really isnt it? That a jap taxi is now better quality than their middle-class exec!
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I had a look at an O3 Avensis T-X3 recently and the uphosltery looked decidedly tatty. There was a big crease in the material covering the driver's seat, plus the beginning of a sizeable tear and all of the seat coverings looked mottled. It was not impressive for a three year old car that had covered 45K miles, for which the seller wanted £8.5K.
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I was in a 6mth old Avensis TSpirit and it was well appoointed - leather seats, quality plastics, good fit, no rattles -
pity about the aluminium central consol / stereo - looked like it was home hi-fi
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Yes thats my biggest gripe about Mazda's
The inside looks like designs raided from the bins Amstrad HiFi lab in 1989.
Sorry HiFi and amstrad is a fairly loose connection
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Yes thats my biggest gripe about Mazda's The inside looks like designs raided from the bins Amstrad HiFi lab in 1989. Sorry HiFi and amstrad is a fairly loose connection ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Heh.
I have an Amstrad stereo in the loft.
It isn't physically possible to create a design as tacky as that......
Flourescent green and pink detailing on the cheapest black plastic known to man? What were they thinking??
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I have an Amstrad stereo in the loft. It isn't physically possible to create a design as tacky as that...... Flourescent green and pink detailing on the cheapest black plastic known to man? What were they thinking??
Well, they must have got something right .. after all, you bought it! :)
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Touche :)
Well, actually I didn't buy it; my dad did. For some reason that escapes me right now it eventually fell into my hands. I think I needed a twin-tape stereo and, having separates myself, I didn't have one. And I never gave it back.
awful thing it is though lol.
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I think I had the same stereo in '89. Is it the portable cd one with a dual cassette deck... :)
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Horses for courses.I like the interior of my mazda.Whilst not as solid as others its more appealing to the eye than other new car interiors.I much prefer it to the boring bland new passat.
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Yes thats my biggest gripe about Mazda's The inside looks like designs raided from the bins Amstrad HiFi lab in 1989.
Honda have done the same with the latest Jazz - it's just hideous. Unprompted, 2 other people I took out in one I had as a courtesy car recently both commented on it.
I can only assume that in its main (Far Eastern) target market, the 'Amstrad' look must still be popular.
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I had a look at an O3 Avensis T-X3 recently and the uphosltery looked decidedly tatty. There was a big crease in the material covering the driver's seat, plus the beginning of a sizeable tear and all of the seat coverings looked mottled. It was not impressive for a three year old car that had covered 45K miles, for which the seller wanted £8.5K.
I can't work out how some people manage to do this to relatively new cars.
I've had a Hyundai Accent for the last three years. Now, this is hardly a model known for it's quality interior, yet mine has not a mark on it. The seats are pretty much as-new, there are no rattles on the dashboard (except for the CDs rattling around in the glovebox) and there are no tears etc anywhere.
Now if I can keep a 5yo, 60k mile cheap car in respectable condition, there is no excuse for the kind of abuse metered out to the Avensis above -- unless you're trying to tell me that the Avensis is inferior to a Hyundai?
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Now if I can keep a 5yo, 60k mile cheap car in respectable condition, there is no excuse for the kind of abuse metered out to the Avensis above -- unless you're trying to tell me that the Avensis is inferior to a Hyundai?
I obviously don' know what kind of treatment was meted out to the Avenis. The fact that the material had a crease and a tear in it doesn't lead me to think it would stand up to wear very well. As for the mottled appearance, well I would have thought the seller would have made an attempt to have it cleaned. It certainly didn't look very impressive as it was.
When we bought our C5 there was some staining on the back seat and rear footwell, which was obviously from some kind of spillage, but it was easy to clean off with household uphostery cleaner. The C5 interior has come in for some criticism in this forum but the quality of the velour upholstery in our C5 is very good, and there is no sign of wear at all. In contrast, there is a sizeable wear mark on the upholstery of the front passenger seat of my wife's Swift and this was noticed when we bought it, when it was only 10 months old, having covered a little over 4K miles.
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IMO your conclusion shows that you misunderstand these cars. The Passat is no more an exec than the Avensis is merely a ?jap taxi?. They are, like the Accord, Mondeo and Vectra, astonishingly competent large saloons for transporting reps up and down the motorways swiftly and comfortably. I?ve had both as hire cars and whilst I preferred the Passat especially because it was better to drive, neither cabins stuck in my mind as being remarkably stylish and IIRC they were comparable in quality, that is to say solid, well-fitted and right for the job. Fortunately, within most classes, which cabin is better is largely a matter of taste and whichever road test it was is an opinion, no more no less and concluding anything off the back of some test you've read seems a rather pointless exercise to me. With others extolling the virtues of the Passat?s cabin and what?s more it?s vastly improved handling, I rather think that it?s the sales figures which will dictate the mood of the VW board and IIRC the UK YTD growth for VW has been considerably stronger than Toyota, amongst others.
I?d be interested in the link to the road test you refer to.
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I disagree with the OP, I tested an Avensis D4D T180 recently as reported on another thread and reckon the latest Passat has marginally better quality plastics and switch gear. By all accounts the Avensis is likely to be more reliable though.
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astonishingly competent large saloons for transporting reps up and down the motorways swiftly and comfortably. >>
Blatant stereotyping, that is not what they are for, rather it happens to be one of many atributes of the contemporary medium sized car.
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Blatant stereotyping, that is not what they are for, rather it happens to be one of many atributes of the contemporary medium sized car.
Not at all, that is exactly the target market in the uk. The number bought brand new by priivate buyers is small.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Not at all, that is exactly the target market in the uk. The number bought brand new by priivate buyers is small. ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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And you know better than I TVM that co car drivers choose their cars on the basis of their family, their dog and all sorts of factors in addition to m/way performance.
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I don?t really see that there is any stereotyping, as TVM rightly says the vast majority of this class of cars are company vehicles, provided predominately for field employees who drive the length and breadth of the country on business. AFAICT with the increase in niche car markets this is business role is largely the raison d?etre of the mid-size saloon. Many companies have restricted the choice of field vehicle to just this class or below, often with no more than 2 litre engines and no less than 4 doors, so it is intense competition for this fleet business which has driven the manufacturers to raise their game particularly in this class, really closing the gap on the small exec.
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Turbo's post rather proves my point in that you could easily swap Mazda and passat around, or substitute either with Vectra, Accord, Avensis, Mondeo and still have a opinion which would be validly held by any number of people. Horsesand courses as he rightly confirming that the premise of the OP is rather pointless.
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My Passat is almost 5 years old and has done almost 90000miles.
Only visible wear in interior is the peeling of the outer layer of driver's door handle assembly and a tatty gear leaver gaiter. All other upholstery anf plastics are fine.
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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My Passat is almost 5 years old and has done almost 90000miles. Only visible wear in interior is the peeling of the outer layer of driver's door handle assembly and a tatty gear leaver gaiter. All other upholstery anf plastics are fine. --
My Mondeo is 4 years old and has done 110,000 miles, it too suffered peeling of the inner layer of the driver's door handle assembly however I replaced it at a cost of less than a fiver, the gear lever gaiter is fine as is the rest of the interior, the switches show no signs of wear.
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The interesting thing is just how competent cars in the class (and the next one down - Focus, Astra etc) have become.
I can remember trying a colleague's E36 3 Series eight years ago and thinking the gap to my then Mk1 Avensis was simply enormous. The gap today is much, much smaller.
When roadtesting cars a year ago I tried A4, X-Type, S40, 9-3 and IS250. I also drove various hatchback hire cars and the gap was quite narrow. Interestingly, one of the big differences for me between "exec" and "rep" cars WAS the interior. Al the exec models had much nicer interiors (except the Saab).
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I was only joking about the 'jap taxi' label!
The test is on page 93 of the September edition of Whatcar? They mearly commented that the plastics feel cheaper than those of the Toyota and It made me smile because years ago, the idea of a Toyota having better quality plastics than a VW was highly unlikely to say the least.
Just the role reversal amused me is all!
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If you read the road test of the Auto express this week, the conclusion is entirely to the contrary on interior plastic quality, Passat versus Avensis! Try it yourself is the only answer.
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If you read the road test of the Auto express this week, the conclusion is entirely to the contrary on interior plastic quality, Passat versus Avensis! Try it yourself is the only answer.
At the end of the day if someone makes a decision on a car purchase based on the "quality" (ie feel) of the plastics inside, as opposed to anything else, they deserve all they get if they have problems or are unhappy for whatever reason.
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Indeed any buying decision based solely on any one aspect of a car, be it reliability, performance, plastic quality, style to the exclusion of other considerations is likely to be regretted.
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