Hello readers,
I am new to this forum and the reason I have registered is that after reading this page it looks that people here are really friendly and helpful. I wonder if you could help us...we decided to buy a new car and have numerous test drives and so far the best cars we tested are VW Jetta 1.4 tsi and Seat Leon 1.4. Which one would you go for?
Or any other? We are not really fussy about equipment, climate control, multi cd and so on, these are only little things and we can live without it. Sat nav also doesn't interest us as we can use the road atlas without problems (hihihi). We don't want to change the car every 3 years, we want to keep it for years but we want a car we can rely on and which will not cost a fortune in repairs. I know that diesel might be an answer but after so many problems with our previous car - Peugeot (new dual mass fly-wheel, diesel particulat filter and so on, you name it)we don't want to have another diesel car.
What do you think? Can you please help?
Thank you,
Jana
Edited by Pugugly on 23/03/2009 at 22:49
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Who uses it and what for ?
What sort of mileage, and on what sort of roads ?
I presume you are looking to spend £14-16k.
By keeping a car for 6+ years depreciation is less of an issue so you can look at more 'left-field' cars without pouring your cash down the drain.
You're probably still looking at Japanese brands for the best in reliability.
Toyota Avensis can be had for similar money as these (check drivethedeal.com for deals) and gives you a reliable, practical, economical large saloon/hatch.
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Hello,
thank you for your reply.
1) my partner, going to work to London 3 times a week
2) about 16 - 18k a year, mainly motorway
You are right depreciation isn't an issue, we don't want to change the car, it is so much hassle.
We arranged test drive last sat - Honda Accord - very nice, but a bit expensive and I know this will sound stupid but we keep our car in the garage and it won't go there (we need extra 15 cm). What a pity. but very lovely car and very comfortable.
We also considered Nissan Note but than we have found that it has Renault electronics fitted in (idon't know if it is true) and we don't want anything french any more, never ever again. We had very bad and expensive experience.....
re Toyota - that was on the list as well but my parnter didn't like it at all, it didn't handle as well as Jetta or Leon, and he didn't like the positon of the gear box and just didn't feel comfortable driving it at all....
We have tested so many cars so there aren't many left in our price range. Vauxhall Insignia was lovely as well but wasn't really economic. I just don't know waht else to try.
There was one thing which we both noticed in Jetta - we felt safe, it seems that it is very strongly built .... specially with some lunetics on M4...
Any opinion or advise more than welcome.
Thanks,
Jana
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I know that diesel might be an answer but after so many problems with our previous car - Peugeot (new dual mass fly-wheel diesel particulat filter and so on you name it)we don't want to have another diesel car.
It seems that Diesel technology aided by emission regs is rapidly killing the appeal of diesels.
I used to be a diesel evangelist, but a lowly Skoda Fabia 1.2 set me doubting and finally an "award winning" fiat multijet fitted in a Corsa has convinced for me at least that Diesel is (for now) a dead duck and should be confined to the dustbin of history.
My experience of Seat dealers of a few years back, is they were (then) the dregs that no other make wanted.
I get the impression that modern Seat cars are cheaper/nastier build quality than their VW cousins.
I would consider the latest Skoda Octavia or even Superb with 1.4Tsi
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Well I can assure you that they didn't change, we disliked the sales man so much that I nearly asked if we can deal with someone else!
Skoda - that is probably one of few we didn't test drive. Thank you for mentioning this, it is on the list now.
Re: diesel - petrol - with the price differnece about 10 p per litre, is it really worse it?
J
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The Jetta and Leon share the same engine and will probably have similar depreciation. You take your pick as to which one suits you better.
Personally, I would prefer Japanese, and the Nissan Note is an excellent car, with Japanese petrol engines. I have driven one and really liked it - it was very comfortable, very versatile and much cheaper to buy that the VW clones. See HJ's road and video tests above. AFAIK, the Renault diesel engines in the Nissan are pretty reliable as well and very economical.
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>>Or any other
What about a Mazda? As you?ve already looked at the more expensive Honda Accord, perhaps a Mazda6 would be an option within your price range.
As a low mileage driver I?ve owned a petrol model for over six years now. It?s been a comfortable, reliable, reasonably economical, rust free vehicle.
Clk Sec
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I have a 2006 Seat Leon 1.6 Stylance Sport.
I previously had a Focus and chose the Leon over another Focus/Golf/Astra etc mainly on the basis of it looks that bit more special. But I am 26 so different priorities and all that. I have a black one on 17 Inch wheels you get with the sport pack and while the ride is firm but you soon get used to it (I actually had a small bit of back pain for the first week or two) and handling and roadholding is excellent.
As for the interior - people say it looks cheap but it is rock solid and 3 years and 73k km later there isn't a single rattle of squeak from anywhere. Nothing has fallen off and it still looks like new. I bought the car 13 months ago at 30k km and it has proved to be thoroughly reliable bar requiring a new air con compressor (warranty).
I have driven the 1.4tsi and its a nice smooth drive with more than enough power for the size of the car. However with your mileage I'd advise the 2.0tdi in one. Thats my plan also as I cover a high enough mileage. Stylance has all the spec you'd want (really it has everything) and the sport pack brings a nicer interior colour scheme but the car rides a lot more smoothly on 16 inch wheels.
As for the Jetta - they are basically the same car. Strange how it was the Jetta over the Golf which would be a more direct comparison. As mentioned above, the Skoda Octavia 1.4 tsi is well worth considering. Same car underneath as the Leon and Jetta. Very nice interior too.
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Motorpoint are doing a Passat 1.4 TSi for £11.5K
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Well if the Passat fits ib the garage. Is the Passat new?
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Well if the Passat fits ib the garage. Is the Passat new?
Under 20 miles but normally you are the 2nd owner
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Hello,
yep we are thinking about Stylance but want to go back to petrol. We were pretty disappointed with diesel. 2.0 hdi - yes we averaged about 51-53 mpg but there were so many things which went wrong and needed to be repaired - DMF, DPF, and all the bits linked to that. We just got to conclusion that the cost of servicing and repairing diesel car is a bit too much.
we won't go for sport as my partner after 35 years of driving prefer comfort to speed, that comes with age.. I hope he won't find my post on this forum...
Can I please ask one more question - I read few reviews and more than one person mentioned that the paint is very thin and they have small chips there after few months, do you have the same experience?
thanks,
Jana
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Can I please ask one more question - I read few reviews and more than one person mentioned that the paint is very thin and they have small chips there after few months do you have the same experience?
Well my car is black so it shows up everything. I have the usual swirl marks on mine from the previous owner using a car wash but can't say it's better or worse than any other car. I polished mine at the weekend and it came up like new.
Have to say the spec makes a huge difference with the Leon compared to am equivalently priced Golf or Jetta
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Jana,
You have mentioned the M4 as part of the commute. If, as is entirely plausible, you live in the Reading area, then I have extensive experience of both the VW and the SEAT dealer in that town, as I live there, and my wife and I have, since 2003, owned 2 Ibizas, a Toledo and 2 VW Tourans. The Ibizas were bought brand new at the SEAT dealer, the Tourans brand new at the VW dealer. The Toledo was bought second hand elsewhere, but was on occasion taken to the Reading SEAT dealer for a few niggly little problems.
If you value helpful and flexible sales people, and good after sales service, and you want to stay local, buy the Jetta. I have always found the VW dealer here excellent, but shan't comment on the SEAT dealer due to conventions on this forum. I did, however, like the SEATs we have owned very much.
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I've just recently bought a new Golf mk6, the 1.4 tsi with the dsg auto.
I'm generally very happy with it, the engine is smooth & quiet, and drives like an 1800. I'm going at running in sort of speeds at the mo but am getting around 50 mpg on a 65 mile commute along the dreaded M6, some M69 & some suburban crawling at either end.
I went for the "is a diesel worth it" thing & decided to do without cr, dpf & dmf.
The rub is that the tsi engine use direct fuel injection so I've still got cr allbeit called something different.
Reliability...........I'll let you know...........
Edited by mustangman on 24/03/2009 at 15:15
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The rub is that the tsi engine use direct fuel injection so I've still got cr allbeit called something different.
The Common Rail diesels inject fuel at extremely high pressure - these petrols might be direct injection but will not be as complex.
I can see my next car being forced induction petrol again having had a few VAG 1.8Ts years ago.
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Don't know about the sales people, but when our Leon had to have its alarm fixed (common problem at the time), it was in the Reading SEAT garage for quite a few days due to a parts shortage. The service manager appeared to be on our side and did all he could to speed things along - no complaints.
This was a couple of years ago - might have changed since then.
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Focus {P}, last year it took them 3 months to get me a radio/cd head unit for my Toledo. I lost count of the times I called them only to be told "we'll call you back". They never did. Over and over again. Once I'd had enough I went in there and thumped the desk. Funnily enough, it turned up within 3 days of that. Parts shortage? Hmm.
BTW, what's with the {P} on the end of some users' handles? Can't work it out.
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Focus {P} last year it took them 3 months to get me a radio/cd head
Not good!
BTW what's with the {P} on the end of some users' handles? Can't work it
For profile - means it's not hidden if you click on the user name. It was a convention a while back.
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How about the Mk 6 Golf with that engine in? The Jetta is based on the MK V, and having sat in a Mk 6 SE TSI yesterday, can confirm the interior of the new model is an infiitley nicer place to be (I own a MK V). Also, Hatch over Saloon every time, in my book.
The Jetta always seemed a bit of a pointless model to me. If you want a saloon , surely you buy a Passat (the Jettas boot doesnt seem much smaller to me). Or a Phaeton :-). If you want a hatch, a Golf.
How about the new Superb? Hatch and Saloon in one............?
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Can I also suggest Audi A3 if you favoured the solid feel of the Jetta - now availible with the 1.4 TSi engine
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Hello,
to all of you - THANK YOU. I actually didn't believe that someone would bother to reply (girl trying to talk about cars, etc....)
Reading ..... quite close... SN area....
Alanovich - your 2 Tourans - have they been reliable? Have you had many problems with them?
Audi A3 - it is expensive, cannot afford that.
Mazda - I read somewhere that it shares its engines with Peugeot and Citroen(mazda 3 or 6) - again I don't know if it is true, if it is we don't want it. It is an absolute no to anything which has something to do with a french car. I would like to apologize if I offended anyone I didn't mean to....just my opinion.
Vw Passat and Golf - Passat won't go in to garage, Golf - my partner doesn't like it. Plus both are more expensive than Jetta.
I know that Jetta isn't popular, saloon and so on but for us it is not the main criterium, the boot is fantastic, we don't mind that the access is a bit limited as it is only two of us.
Seats are very comfortable, dashboard doesn't matter what colour or if it looks dull...It just drives and handle very well. There aren't many reviews from owners of Jetta.
Do you think that that the engine 1.4 TSI is a good engine? If you have experience please share with us. Is Vw as reliable as they say? By the way in the brochure it says that the original engine which combined a supercharger and turbocharger was replaced by same size engine but only with a turbocharger. Is that a good thing?
I must sound very stupid and old fashioned but I just wish we could buy brand new Vauxhall Calibra 2.0 and keep it till it had done 180 k like our very old car we buried 4 years ago.... it just kept going and going..
Have a nice evening everyone,
Jana
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Jana,
Our first Touran was 100% reliable to 50,000 miles. Then came a suspension fault which cost £400 to repair. It was a 1.9TDi though, so probably not an engine of interest to you. The second Touran is only 4 months old and a 2.0TDi, fine so far but we have only done 4000 miles.
My current second car may be of interest to you, it is a Mazda 6 2.0 petrol. It is three years old with 28000 miles on the clock. It is very comfortable and smooth, and quite economical for a largeish petrol engine. I've only had it 5 weeks so can't comment on reliability I have had to replace teh water pump already though) but I love it and it would be a very pleasant car in which to do a motorway commute. So far as I'm aware the engine is purely Mazda, no connection to France so far as I'm aware. I'd highly recommend you look at one.
Previously I had a 1.6 petrol Toledo (very similar to the current Leon), which I found underpowered and very uneconomical considering it's small engine. I would recommend you avoid the 1.6 102PS petrol engines in Leons, Alteas and Toledos. However, I would jump at getting a 2.0 petrol Toledo, and when I was buying the Mazda this was an option I investigated, however I just couldn't find one with the auto gearbox I wanted as they are very rare in this country (sadly).
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Jana - I think you've picked just the right engine to give you good economy and performance without going down the diesel route and having potentially expensive repairs if you keep the car as long as you intend to. Diesels are great if you do a high mileage like me and change your car before the warranty runs out, but your annual mileage is just on the edge of diesel being a better bet, and so the 1.4 TSI should suit you fine.
You need to decide whether you prefer a saloon (Jetta) or a hatchback (Golf, Leon and Skoda Octavia) - all these can be had with the 1.4 TSI engine, so get a good long test drive in each and see which you like best and for which you can get the best deal.
Yes, there are lots of other options, and there's no doubt that buying Japanese gives you a better chance of aviding a lemon like your Peugeot, but I personally don't think that there's a Jaopanese engine quite like the VW group 1.4 TSI. The nearest is perhaps the Honda Jazz 1,4 - I can't remember if you'e already discounted this. Smaller and much cheaper than the Accord, but there's lots of room inside.
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Jana, as an owner of a 1.4 tsi I can only pass on what I know, plus some opinion.
As I've mentioned earlier, the engine is generally smooth & peaceful, at normal A & B road speeds and on the mways. Top gear ( 7th in my dsg Golf ) is geared at about 30 mph / 1000 revs which means you can cruise ( legally ) on the mway at about 2300 revs. This is low for a small petrol engine but the engines good torque ( pull ) makes this possible. Mine, the 122 hp version does about 45 mpg on average.
The engine has chain driven cams, the inlet having variable timing. Also direct sequential fuel injection running at around 1400 bar ( that's high ) The block is cast iron, the crank is steel.
The engine is not a Honda style "screamer" needing to rev before it makes much power. The turbo ( which is water cooled ) giving a flat torque curve. It pulls well at low revs, but not as strongly as a diesel.
I think it is the right choice, and I have no real fears about reliability or longlevity, unless I am proved wrong at some time in the future!
I hope this helps. MM
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