For 9k.. Seat vs VW...

I am pretty sure 15k a year you do not see a difference price wise with diesel compared to petrol. You may find the petrol quicker/cheaper etc etc

With the current price of diesel and petrol I'd say it would be cheaper to run a decent petrol engine after factoring fuel costs.

Some people prefer diesels though.
 
I always used to think that a decent diesel engine would do 200k+ miles but an equivalent petrol car wouldn't.

I'm not sure how true that is lol

The main requirement is that the car will last me AT LEAST until I have finished paying off the loan I get to afford it lol. (6 years most likely)
 
Simple answer - SEAT build quality isn't as good as VW. I'd go for an Audi, as someone has said, you can get a nice A3 for that money.

Rubbish. If anything, SEAT cars are better put together, especially in previous generation models where the interiors were lifted stright out of the Audi A3.

If I remember correctly, SEAT consistently perform much better than VW in the JD power survey.
 
Oh in that case he must be correct, clearly everyone who's ever worked for any car manufacturer knows everything about them i mean this shows when they put the people who mop the floors incharge of engine R&D.

BTW thats the long way of saying 'whats that got to do with anything'.
 
Rubbish. If anything, SEAT cars are better put together, especially in previous generation models where the interiors were lifted stright out of the Audi A3.

If I remember correctly, SEAT consistently perform much better than VW in the JD power survey.

What sort of reg are we talking?
 
I'll ignore my brother then, he's only worked for most of the major German car manufacturers...

people might start believing you if you had some justification

but all you've come up with so far is "cos my brother says so, and he knows!!"

considering they are built in the same factory from the same parts, how do they differ ?

i mean for goodness sake, my mate has the same Satnav unit in his Octavia VRS as ive seen fitted to a Bentley Continental GT for goodness sake, part sharing is rife throughout the range
 
I always used to think that a decent diesel engine would do 200k+ miles but an equivalent petrol car wouldn't.

I'm not sure how true that is lol

The main requirement is that the car will last me AT LEAST until I have finished paying off the loan I get to afford it lol. (6 years most likely)

The long lasting Diesel thing is a bit odd - it certainly used to be the case, but not any more and not for a long time.

The increase in Diesel refinement and performance has relied on big turbochargers, high pressure injectors and the like - all of which make the car less reliable, whilst the block may be stronger - there is nothing in it as to how long the engines will go on for. Life of the engine is irrelevant in the Petrol v Diesel debate.

At 15k miles a year I would be leaning towards a Diesel but would not discount a petrol, all depends on what discount you can get on the car.
 
As for the low mileage, I guess there is no way to tell what's done 40k or to/from school and round town OR 40k of motorway.

Interior wear and tear is a good place to start. If its been mainly short journies then the drivers going to have got in and out a lot putting wear on seats. Also chances are its going to have been done in town so more gear changes, wheel usage so these areas will tend to wear more than on a car thats been sat on a motorway for most of its life. Its going to be harder to tell the older the car is, however if a car is say 2 years old and its done 40/50k theres a pretty good chance most of its use has been done on long runs. Its not guaranteed but I would hope some poor soul hasnt clocked up that many miles in 2 years on the school run. My megane had done just over 65,000 miles when I bought it (12 year old car), the wear on the drivers bolster and other interior bits show its been more of a run around in its life.
 
I found my Leon every bit as reliable and well put together as my friends Golf. His servicing was more expensive and his car was a couple of grand more to buy (same year car).
In the petrol vs. diesel debate, I'm currently driving a diesel and will be buying a petrol engined car next. When I got this car I was doing 30k per year and it was just about cost effective. Now my mileage has halved and the it's just not worth it for me, and having to put up with a tractor is starting to grate. Obviously I have already bought the diesel, so swapping it now wouldn't save me money, but overall this car won't have saved the money that I thought it would at the start.

As richolmes has said, I don't think the 'diesel engines last forever' statement is particularly relevant these days. Even if it was, are you someone who is likely to keep a car for 150,000+ miles? Very few people do.
 
I have the VW Passat 170 PD SEL DSG Estate and I'd be very careful with DSG and especially the diesel combination. Make sure you try one, and that you're happy with how it pulls away from roundabouts and junctions. It can feel quite sluggish, although the smoothness and speed of the shifts under load is indeed legendary, you might be surprised how scary it is pulling out in front of a big truck with a DSG gearbox because you're never quite sure how fast it's going to pull away. They also massively limit a diesel remap as they have torque monitoring and they just stop working if the torque gets too much for them.

And don't forget that there are 4 mainstream car brands in VAG, all sharing the same parts bin. Audi, SEAT, Skoda and VW are all essentially the same running gear and often the same interiors with different bodyshells. Quality does vary between factories, but in VW's own internal quality tables it's usually the Skoda factory at Mlada Boleslav that's top, followed by Ingolstadt (Audi) and then SEAT Martorell and VW Wolfsburg swapping places for third and fourth. VW also has plants in the US and South Africa, but cars built there are not generally held to be as good in terms of reported faults per hundred thousand vehicles. VAG publish all this stuff monthly in KPI reports in German on their corporate website, so it's not hard to find out.

They're all good though - you wouldn't be unhappy with any of them, and there are some really good bargains to be had at the moment if you have money. R36 Golf in a good colour with loads of extras for £19K brand new? That's what I'd have:D
 
Gien that petrol is now 92.9ppl and diesel is still a rip off 1.07 i'd be very cautious about going down the diesel route.

assuming a petrol golf/leon does 35mpg a 12 gallon tank will take you 420 miles at a cost of £50. If the diesel does 45mpg it will take you 540 miles at a cost of £58. For the petrol version to do the extra 120 miles it will cost a total of £60.08p. You save £2 per tank with the diesel.

I realise this is at current prices, but diesel doen't look like coming down anytime soon :(
 
A3 TDI S-Line DSGs are in this budget too. In fact, a fair whack after a quick browse on PH.

Thats where my money would be going over a VW/Seat alternative. Even better in Quattro form :cool: ditch the derv idea unless really warranted.

Why (in your opinion) is the quattro better than the dsg version, apart from 4wd, the dag is better in every respect, it's quicker and more economical than the quattro too.
 
Why (in your opinion) is the quattro better than the dsg version, apart from 4wd, the dag is better in every respect, it's quicker and more economical than the quattro too.

He didnt say Quattro was better than DSG he said the DSG version was better in Quattro form.

DSG is annoying - automatic gearboxes are for big cars with huge engines.
 
I have the VW Passat 170 PD SEL DSG Estate and I'd be very careful with DSG and especially the diesel combination. Make sure you try one, and that you're happy with how it pulls away from roundabouts and junctions. It can feel quite sluggish, although the smoothness and speed of the shifts under load is indeed legendary, you might be surprised how scary it is pulling out in front of a big truck with a DSG gearbox because you're never quite sure how fast it's going to pull away. They also massively limit a diesel remap as they have torque monitoring and they just stop working if the torque gets too much for them.

Thank you! You're the first person I think who drives a DSG day to day that agrees with my thoughts on it!

I can't tell you how pleased I was to step back in to my 5 series with its proper automatic box :)
 
Isn't diesel in short supply compared to petrol?
Surely huge increase over the last few years, and indeed this this will make diesel prices climb more?

Thats the commonly heard excuse, but can demand for it really have increased that much since we went over £1 per litre?

I don't see how. Up until prices for both went silly the gap between fuels was 3 to 5ppl if i remember rightly and that's only 12 months.
 
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