What car? A3/120d/GTI/VXR

[andyp74199]

Great choice, I have the 320d and love it, and yours is lighter and quicker, a great fun car and cheap to run. Dare I mention the word 'remap'

Edited by andyp74199 on Sunday 2nd January 15:11

[Jw Vw]

seems like you got a good deal OP - cracking car

[frosted]

the-photographer said:

frosted said:

You seriously think any of those petrol cars would give you 30+ mpg ?

Edited by frosted on Sunday 2nd January 01:06

I get a regular 35mpg from my MK5 GTI (manual) used for regular commuting (around 18k miles annum)

Really ? Driving at 65mph must be boring as fk

My 2l tdi vag unit doesnt get more than 38mpg at 80-85 mph

[jsg612]

Good choice. Quite different wheels too, I've not seen them before.

[SubaruSteve]

Vic Cooper said:

hardcorehobbit said:

Whats wrong with a VAG PD engine? They go on forever. I've seen taxis clock up 200 or 300k with decent maintenance. The power delivery is much of a blob around 2-3k rpm, but a majority of diesels do that.

There's an issue about 1-3 litres average oil consumption on 10k miles (the manual says if it's less than 0,7 liter on 1000 km, then it's OK - seriously, that's just ridiculous) , high percentage PD unit failures from around 80k miles. Passat B6 has the worst (VW) user reviews ever equipped with PD-TDI engines. There is a reason (reliability issues) why PD-TDI has been dropped and why common rail technology is used instead (so not only because of the relatively high manufacturing prices of PD units).

Edited by Vic Cooper on Sunday 2nd January 04:23

The reason for common rail is because PD can't do a fifth injection cycle for the DPF filter stuff, it has nothing to do with reliability of the PD engine.

Edited by SubaruSteve on Sunday 2nd January 22:28

[StreetJustice]

Best of luck with the Beemer, with the direction fuel prices are headed you won't regret it!

[the-photographer]

frosted said:

the-photographer said:

frosted said:

You seriously think any of those petrol cars would give you 30+ mpg ?

Edited by frosted on Sunday 2nd January 01:06

I get a regular 35mpg from my MK5 GTI (manual) used for regular commuting (around 18k miles annum)

Really ? Driving at 65mph must be boring as fk

My 2l tdi vag unit doesnt get more than 38mpg at 80-85 mph

Yep, it's a very mixed route which keeps the overall average speed right down and only has 3 miles of dual carriageway.

[martin mrt]

By golly, glad to see you've chosen wisely I'm not so sure it was a good deal, is it an SE? Had you looked around you could have had an M Sport with 18" wheels for the same price if not a little cheaper.

I got offered ALOT less (3k) than you paid when I was trying to trade in our 2008 57 118d M Sport with 18s 15k miles and £35 PA road tax, and I recall I only paid £14k for it in April 2010, this was from a BMW dealer too.

Oh and on the basis of VAG PD reliability, nice to Vic Cooper is slating the units reliability but is basing his facts on hearsay, 2nd hand information and not personal experience. The 90 & 110hp lumps go on forever I'll agree there, but the only 1.9 PD engines with known issues are the 115bhp (head gasket) and the 150bhp for camshafts and followers. I've had several myself and currently have a 130bhp Golf and none of them have had any issues in my ownership. I think this is part of what keeps residuals so strong on mk4 Golf GT TDIs

Edited by martin mrt on Monday 3rd January 10:29

[frosted]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

WhTs the point of gti if you drive it at 70 Everywhere, I kno I know that's the speed limit but where's the fun in that ?

Do you not have is220 ?

[Fox-]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Just because you have a powerful car doesnt mean you need to drive everywhere at Mach 10. Especially on a Motorway journey where lets face, its just as dull at 100mph as it is at 70mph and doing 100mph increases your chances of getting nicked anyway.

I like to enjoy the performance of my 230bhp car on the right road. On the Motorway I set the cruise to 70mph, relax, and get 36mpg.

[coley20]

Seems odd to me to compare a 118d with the others, why not consider a 125, 130, 123d ??

As

[NoelWatson]

martin mrt said:

Had you looked around you could have had an M Sport with 18" wheels for the same price if not a little cheaper.

Isn't the ride bad enough on small wheels/standard suspension?

[NoelWatson]

Crafty_ said:

kentmotorcompany said:

I'd drop the Astra because its crap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRyA-QkbPgQ

Not sure what this proves??

[LocoBlade]

martin mrt said:

Oh and on the basis of VAG PD reliability, nice to Vic Cooper is slating the units reliability but is basing his facts on hearsay, 2nd hand information and not personal experience. The 90 & 110hp lumps go on forever I'll agree there, _but the only 1.9 PD engines with known issues are the 115bhp (head gasket) and the 150bhp for camshafts and followers_. I've had several myself and currently have a 130bhp Golf and none of them have had any issues in my ownership. I think this is part of what keeps residuals so strong on mk4 Golf GT TDIs

To be fair though, you've mentioned faults with two of the 3 PD engines most likely to be in the type of car the OP was looking at assuming he wanted something with half reasonable poke, so although you can perhaps build a case for saying that certain PDs are very reliable, its not really the case across the whole PD range.

As to the VAG 2L CR engine, despite currently owning one (in the wife's Altea FR) I'd make sure you've got a good warranty or avoid the 170bhp engine as injector failures are seemingly quite common at sub 100k miles to the extent that our local Seat dealer have the £400 part available off the shelf, and as that would suggest, they're bloody expensive to fix at around £700-800 _per injector_ once you've added labour. The 140 engine doesn't have the same piezo electric injectors so would have been the better bet in hindsight, as it's not meant to feel that much slower in the real world, and most mags etc say its the nicer engine.

To the OP, good choice on car though, if you havent found it already then the forums at babybmw.net is a good source of 1 Series specific info.

Edited by LocoBlade on Monday 3rd January 19:11

[NoelWatson]

LocoBlade said:

martin mrt said:

Oh and on the basis of VAG PD reliability, nice to Vic Cooper is slating the units reliability but is basing his facts on hearsay, 2nd hand information and not personal experience. The 90 & 110hp lumps go on forever I'll agree there, _but the only 1.9 PD engines with known issues are the 115bhp (head gasket) and the 150bhp for camshafts and followers_. I've had several myself and currently have a 130bhp Golf and none of them have had any issues in my ownership. I think this is part of what keeps residuals so strong on mk4 Golf GT TDIs

To be fair though, you've mentioned faults with two of the 3 PD engines most likely to be in the type of car the OP was looking at assuming he wanted something with half reasonable poke, so although you can perhaps build a case for saying that certain PDs are very reliable, its not really the case across the whole PD range.

As to the VAG 2L CR engine, despite currently owning one (in the wife's Altea FR) I'd make sure you've got a good warranty or avoid the 170bhp engine as injector failures are seemingly quite common at sub 100k miles to the extent that our local Seat dealer have the £400 part available off the shelf, and as that would suggest, they're bloody expensive to fix at around £700-800 _per injector_ once you've added labour. The 140 engine doesn't have the same piezo electric injectors so would have been the better bet in hindsight, as it's not meant to feel that much slower in the real world, and most mags etc say its the nicer engine.

They can't be any worse in the reliability stakes than the BMW, surely?

[Cost Captain]

How old are you if an A3 3.2 costs nearl 4 grand to insure????? I'm 22 and my renewal is circa £800. I only do 10k a year will make a difference but crikey!

[LocoBlade]

NoelWatson said:

LocoBlade said:

As to the VAG 2L CR engine, despite currently owning one (in the wife's Altea FR) I'd make sure you've got a good warranty or avoid the 170bhp engine as injector failures are seemingly quite common at sub 100k miles to the extent that our local Seat dealer have the £400 part available off the shelf, and as that would suggest, they're bloody expensive to fix at around £700-800 _per injector_ once you've added labour. The 140 engine doesn't have the same piezo electric injectors so would have been the better bet in hindsight, as it's not meant to feel that much slower in the real world, and most mags etc say its the nicer engine.

They can't be any worse in the reliability stakes than the BMW, surely?

What makes you say the BMWs are overly unreliable?

Edited by LocoBlade on Monday 3rd January 19:52

[NoelWatson]

LocoBlade said:

NoelWatson said:

LocoBlade said:

As to the VAG 2L CR engine, despite currently owning one (in the wife's Altea FR) I'd make sure you've got a good warranty or avoid the 170bhp engine as injector failures are seemingly quite common at sub 100k miles to the extent that our local Seat dealer have the £400 part available off the shelf, and as that would suggest, they're bloody expensive to fix at around £700-800 _per injector_ once you've added labour. The 140 engine doesn't have the same piezo electric injectors so would have been the better bet in hindsight, as it's not meant to feel that much slower in the real world, and most mags etc say its the nicer engine.

They can't be any worse in the reliability stakes than the BMW, surely?

What makes you say the BMWs are overly unreliable?

Edited by LocoBlade on Monday 3rd January 19:52

My sample size of 1. And subsequent research on the internet. Older BMWs seem fine.

[LocoBlade]

NoelWatson said:

LocoBlade said:

What makes you say the BMWs are overly unreliable?

My sample size of 1. And subsequent research on the internet. Older BMWs seem fine.

Your 330i and your opinions of BMWs in general or do you have a 1 Series Diesel that's had issues?

Having owned a 123d for the last two years, the only major issues with the 1 Series diesels I've read about seem to be clutch judder (which I've had), turbo actuators sticking on variable vane turbo cars which sometimes need replacing, and DSC module failures but ISTR that module is made by Bosch or similar, and it's use/failure is common across a lot of cars including VAGS and Mercs so not something that singles the 1 Series out as particularly unreliable. Swirl flaps etc were big problems on E46 and E39 3/5 series diesels which gave BMW diesels an unreliable reputation but that seemed to be fixed by the time the 1 Series was released.


The 170 injector issue is quite common, there's quite a few reports of more than one injector failing on separate occasions on one car, and it's an electrical earthing issue not something that comes from using crap fuel etc. It also stops the engine stone dead as the ECU shuts the engine down when it detects an issue, which for obvious reasons isn't ideal.

[wobert]

I've owned a 120d since August 2006 and have done just under 100k miles in it.

Over and above normal consumables it's had:

1x heater plug - fixed under warranty

1x set of window seals (common 1er fault) - fixed under warranty

1x rear wiper unit + wash pump (again common 1er fault) - fixed under warranty

1x MFSW slip ring - fixed under warranty

1x brake caliper - fixed under warranty

Rear tyres tend to last 20k with fronts upto 28k. I've run both Michelins and Goodyears, both similar in performance and wear rates.

Average fuel consumption is c45-48 mpg on what would be typical "extra-urban" driving.

Servicing - typically 22k miles between oil changes, original front brakes lasted until 75k with the rears going at 80k.

Overall it still drives like it did when I bought it - I love the RWD chassis - makes a nice change from the R56 MCS I also drive.

Only made two changes, swapped the original 16" wheels for some 17" M-Sports and fitted a chunkier steering wheel and short-shifter (all OEM BMW parts from Ebay).

HTH

Robert