Soldato
- Joined
- 11 Dec 2005
- Posts
- 11,364
- Location
- Cheshire
Hi guys,
A while back I started a thread about the Scirocco 1.4 and the new Polo GTI. Well based on the general opnion (scirocco) I decided to go and test drive said car, however upon test driving one, I couldn't help inding other cars in the same-ish price bracket as it and test drove a few other cars that appealed to me.
All in all I have test drove 3 different cars:
VW Scirocco 1.4 TSI 160ps - manual
Alfa Romeo Guilietta 1.4 170ps - manual
Mazda MX5 MK 3.5 Powershift 2.0 160ps - Auto
Now whilst the Alfa and VW are fairly similar the MX5 is the odd ball, as I've heard so many good things about them ad the fact they are cheaper than both to buy and insure I just had to find out.
Now bearing in mind I am 20 so I cant have anything remotely 2.0L as insures just go crazy, unless of course it is the MX5 where they must all assume I am a women and that is pretty much the only 2.0L car I can insure for under 2K.
Scirocco 1.4 TSI 160ps
Now i was very excited to drive his car as IMO the Scirocco looks amazing and going off the reviews had great handling too. The driving position is spot on and really makes you feel like you are sitting in a very sport car. All the usual VW gear was present and quality throughout was awesome, as expected, performance also was sweet. There was no let down in the power. It just kept pulling and pulling, no lag whatsoever. The engine note however wasn't much more exciting than the Polo unless of course you were absolutly hammering it in second. Being a small engine I didnt expect it to sounds like a thundering V8 but given its very sporty looks I couldn't help feeling a little dissapointed. To the handling now. This thing just goes where every you point it, hammer it around a roundabout on near full lock at around 50 and you can keep your lane with next to no adjustments from the wheel, not bad! The steering communicates well and generally give a good feedback of the road. The problem if, it doesn't feel that quick, reaching 120 felt like 70 in the Polo, now some call that refinement but i would say that is kinda fail. I want to know if I am going that quick by just feeling the car so to speak.
So overall the Scirocco was good probably the best all round car I drove but just lacked any "excitement" that the other 2 gave me.
Mazda MX5 MK3.5 powershift
Now I know this isn't he manual version so it isn't the MX5 at its purest and it is a good full second slower to 60 than its manual counterpart. Instantly sitting in the MX5 felt like being strapped into a jet cockpit, being 6'4 I thought I would have issues but luckily with the seat all the way back I had more than enough room. Next onto the paddle shift, alittle different than normal, I was expecting a "up" to be on the right and a "down" on the left, where as on the Mazda you have both and "up" and "down" on both the left and right. The "up" is behind the wheel and the "down" by whereabouts your thumb usually sits, this is win because you can now change gears with one hand. This is what they call win. With the Mazda I always felt like I was travelling at lightspeed, now it was a sunny saturday and the roof was down (the best way to do it) and I suddenly realised I was doing 30 in a 40, christ felt like I was doing 70+ LOL. So when using the paddle shift gear changes are nice and smooth and nearly on par with a manual however being an auto meant that trying to change up on the red line meant you had to be super quick as the gearbox might change for you meaning if you had already touched your paddle you would surge forward 2 gears which is fail. Hooning anlong the dual carriage way was awesome and the engine sounded fabulous. Got to say I went a way with a big smile on my face, far bigger than when i left the Scirocco! I just can't wait to try a manual now.
]Alfa Romeo 1.4 Veloce 170ps
Now I went to the Alfa dealership directly after to going to Mazda so i wasn't expected a 5 door hatch to offer the same amount of lolz and fun as the mazda. the model The Guilietta is a strange looking car but like the Scirocco it is kinda like marmite. So upon taking out the car, the first thing I noticed was driving position, a lot higher and less sporty than the two previous cars. Didn't bother me as was still a nice place to be with a very elegant interior which had a lot more character than the two previous very refined and "functional" interiors. So first off the sales guy starts telling me about "DNA" which is basically Alfa's way of configuring the car into sport, comfort and normal modes. I started out in normal mode as expected, now with similar power to the Scirocco I expected a similar driving experience. I was half right, lacking the supercharger, the Guilietta feels rather gutless below 3000rpm, which isn't all bad as it means you can drive a lot more sensibly however when the turbo does kick in, it is rather ferocious. Changing to sport mode enables 20% more turbo boost and the peddles electronically adjust for you and the steering also weightens up allowing you to suppl more control to the car. The power of the car was immense and the sound was gorgeous, real turbo whine and gear changes combined with a real sense of speed made the guilietta a lot more fun than the Scirocco. However the handling wasn't quite on par, even in sport mode it felt slightly sluggish on the turn in and just didn't feel as agile and the VW.
Overall I know feel that the Guilietta whilst not as agile as the VW was a better car and more fun car to drive, so really it is a decision of Giulietta VS MX5. As both cars are good and bad in very different ways.
Guilietta is classy, practical, has great straight line grunt but the MX5 is overall more fun and was awesome with the roof down but it just doesn't have the classy image of the Alfa.
At the moment I am thinking Alfa but I look forward to hearing your opinions!
A while back I started a thread about the Scirocco 1.4 and the new Polo GTI. Well based on the general opnion (scirocco) I decided to go and test drive said car, however upon test driving one, I couldn't help inding other cars in the same-ish price bracket as it and test drove a few other cars that appealed to me.
All in all I have test drove 3 different cars:
VW Scirocco 1.4 TSI 160ps - manual
Alfa Romeo Guilietta 1.4 170ps - manual
Mazda MX5 MK 3.5 Powershift 2.0 160ps - Auto
Now whilst the Alfa and VW are fairly similar the MX5 is the odd ball, as I've heard so many good things about them ad the fact they are cheaper than both to buy and insure I just had to find out.
Now bearing in mind I am 20 so I cant have anything remotely 2.0L as insures just go crazy, unless of course it is the MX5 where they must all assume I am a women and that is pretty much the only 2.0L car I can insure for under 2K.
Scirocco 1.4 TSI 160ps
Now i was very excited to drive his car as IMO the Scirocco looks amazing and going off the reviews had great handling too. The driving position is spot on and really makes you feel like you are sitting in a very sport car. All the usual VW gear was present and quality throughout was awesome, as expected, performance also was sweet. There was no let down in the power. It just kept pulling and pulling, no lag whatsoever. The engine note however wasn't much more exciting than the Polo unless of course you were absolutly hammering it in second. Being a small engine I didnt expect it to sounds like a thundering V8 but given its very sporty looks I couldn't help feeling a little dissapointed. To the handling now. This thing just goes where every you point it, hammer it around a roundabout on near full lock at around 50 and you can keep your lane with next to no adjustments from the wheel, not bad! The steering communicates well and generally give a good feedback of the road. The problem if, it doesn't feel that quick, reaching 120 felt like 70 in the Polo, now some call that refinement but i would say that is kinda fail. I want to know if I am going that quick by just feeling the car so to speak.
So overall the Scirocco was good probably the best all round car I drove but just lacked any "excitement" that the other 2 gave me.
Mazda MX5 MK3.5 powershift
Now I know this isn't he manual version so it isn't the MX5 at its purest and it is a good full second slower to 60 than its manual counterpart. Instantly sitting in the MX5 felt like being strapped into a jet cockpit, being 6'4 I thought I would have issues but luckily with the seat all the way back I had more than enough room. Next onto the paddle shift, alittle different than normal, I was expecting a "up" to be on the right and a "down" on the left, where as on the Mazda you have both and "up" and "down" on both the left and right. The "up" is behind the wheel and the "down" by whereabouts your thumb usually sits, this is win because you can now change gears with one hand. This is what they call win. With the Mazda I always felt like I was travelling at lightspeed, now it was a sunny saturday and the roof was down (the best way to do it) and I suddenly realised I was doing 30 in a 40, christ felt like I was doing 70+ LOL. So when using the paddle shift gear changes are nice and smooth and nearly on par with a manual however being an auto meant that trying to change up on the red line meant you had to be super quick as the gearbox might change for you meaning if you had already touched your paddle you would surge forward 2 gears which is fail. Hooning anlong the dual carriage way was awesome and the engine sounded fabulous. Got to say I went a way with a big smile on my face, far bigger than when i left the Scirocco! I just can't wait to try a manual now.
]Alfa Romeo 1.4 Veloce 170ps
Now I went to the Alfa dealership directly after to going to Mazda so i wasn't expected a 5 door hatch to offer the same amount of lolz and fun as the mazda. the model The Guilietta is a strange looking car but like the Scirocco it is kinda like marmite. So upon taking out the car, the first thing I noticed was driving position, a lot higher and less sporty than the two previous cars. Didn't bother me as was still a nice place to be with a very elegant interior which had a lot more character than the two previous very refined and "functional" interiors. So first off the sales guy starts telling me about "DNA" which is basically Alfa's way of configuring the car into sport, comfort and normal modes. I started out in normal mode as expected, now with similar power to the Scirocco I expected a similar driving experience. I was half right, lacking the supercharger, the Guilietta feels rather gutless below 3000rpm, which isn't all bad as it means you can drive a lot more sensibly however when the turbo does kick in, it is rather ferocious. Changing to sport mode enables 20% more turbo boost and the peddles electronically adjust for you and the steering also weightens up allowing you to suppl more control to the car. The power of the car was immense and the sound was gorgeous, real turbo whine and gear changes combined with a real sense of speed made the guilietta a lot more fun than the Scirocco. However the handling wasn't quite on par, even in sport mode it felt slightly sluggish on the turn in and just didn't feel as agile and the VW.
Overall I know feel that the Guilietta whilst not as agile as the VW was a better car and more fun car to drive, so really it is a decision of Giulietta VS MX5. As both cars are good and bad in very different ways.
Guilietta is classy, practical, has great straight line grunt but the MX5 is overall more fun and was awesome with the roof down but it just doesn't have the classy image of the Alfa.
At the moment I am thinking Alfa but I look forward to hearing your opinions!
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