New budget, £10k, 5 seats, bit of poke again

Soldato
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Yeah pretty much. To be honest I think most hot hatches end up around 30mpg. My friend has a Fiesta ST and that does nowhere near the figures they advertise.

You can get higher but the fun of driving them is being on and off the throttle and playing in 2nd and 3rd gear a lot.

I'd say this was about right for anyine not spending all day every day on the motorway.

Low 20's town usage, 27-30ish mixed but free moving and high 30's trundling along all day. Pretty much where I've been over 4 or 5 different 200- 260ish bhp cars of a similar weight and anywhere from mid 90's to late 2000's in terms of age

The newer cars can definitely push the "max mpg" out further, but you have to be so so careful not to ruin it all that I quite simply can't be bothered trying!
 
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Soldato
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Drive a Civic/Leon/generic hatch back to back with an E60 530d or if its in budget a 535d. If I was in your shoes it would be a no brainer to get a 5 series. Yes it will be older with more miles but it just a much nicer place to be.

I always think people that NEED 5 seats shouldn't be looking at small hatchbacks. You can get away with 5 people in them typically but you wouldn't want to do it every day.
 
Caporegime
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Hmm. Went to look at an Astra GTC 1.6 turbo (180PS) locally with only 18k miles for £9488 and it was ok, but didn't actually feel all that fast. Three doors as well but a decent amount of legroom for the kids in the back which surprised me.

There's an 09 plate White GTI at a garage in town for 9995 on 70k miles. Three years difference for the same amount of money is a pretty significant difference.
 
Don
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Hmm. Went to look at an Astra GTC 1.6 turbo (180PS) locally with only 18k miles for £9488 and it was ok, but didn't actually feel all that fast. Three doors as well but a decent amount of legroom for the kids in the back which surprised me.

There's an 09 plate White GTI at a garage in town for 9995 on 70k miles. Three years difference for the same amount of money is a pretty significant difference.

3 years and 50k miles is a huge difference. Although personally would pick the VW over the Vauxhall every time.

Did you consider the Alfa I linked on the previous page? only 170bhp I know, but might at least feel special, and a bit different from a Golf.
 
Caporegime
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So things are getting to the stage where I NEED one, and sadly due to work and shifts travelling isn't really possible.

This is the white Golf mentioned above. It's very clean and tidy and wears it's miles well. There's service history but nothing to show that the cambelt has ever been done so will be asking for either £500 off or they do it before I pick it up. Other than that it looks good. I'm sure I read or heard something about a belt tensioner going bad on that engine though?
 
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Don
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There's service history but nothing to show that the cambelt has ever been done so will be asking for either £500 off or they do it before I pick it up. Other than that it looks good. I'm sure I read or heard something about a belt tensioner going bad on that engine though?

Pretty sure on a TSI (rather than TFSI) it should be a chain not a belt, so won't need doing, other than checking.
 
Soldato
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That car is a chain not a belt, so you wsnt to make absolutely sure it's had the tensioner and chains done ( or at least allow for it) with it being an early tsi.

I wouldn't touch another that sort of age without that work having either been done or making sure I sorted it asap. I have the feeling my car is just a bad car in all honesty, but it has been full of niggling issues all centred around the same engine, same age and similar miles

To be perfectly honest it does nothing for me unfortunately, I see more appeal in the Leon's linked elsewhere. I'd sooner spend less on a mk5 ed30 or the likes than pay a premium (that much of one anyway) for the mk6
 
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Soldato
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In fairness the mk6 golf is vastly better looking outside and particularly in than the pre facelift mk3 focus. The Leon is a far more desirable car than the Ford too....imo
 
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