G New Purchase Considerations

[colinstone]

I have a 12 year old MkIV Golf GT TDI 110bhp 5 door which I want to replace in the near future. Car has been great, easy to DIY service, good economy and has averaged 54mpg over 110k miles since new. Detest the modern trend of sitting in a welsh coalmine and particularly like a bright interior and Golf has a beige leather/carpets/headlining. Current Golf/Focus/Astra/Civic/PSA etc are all coal mines and few new small cars have a pleasant lightish coloured leather interior. Volvo/Audi/Skoda/BMW/Alfa are about the only ones. Volvo V50 runout tempting with 20% discount, but expensive to run, and new A3 yet to arrive and is also pretty pricey.
So was looking at a JTMD 1.6 Lusso in Red with Natural leather, glass sunroof, and perhaps a couple of other extras.
Overall fuel consumption will possibly be no better than Golf which had combined figure of 57.6mpg/132g/km - but then that is so called progress. Reduced VED etc will be a bonus though.
Alfa G plus points seems to be pretty good standard spec.
Is the engine chain cam drive or a wretched rubber band that'll need changing at 40-60k miles?
And what about the DPF life - is it catalyst or does it have a little tank of fluid??
Also read that diesels are considered noisy??
Any comments/thoughts?

[stevepen]

Don't know about the Diesel but the 1.4 MA is a cracking engine. I'd test drive them both first.

[cue2]

Heart to head balance points to Golf but I'm not aware of an engine with chain driven timing and the Giulietta Lusso gives you light headlining in a generally black environment .

[TI-ger boz]

I'm very impressed with how quiet the 2.0jtdm is and amazed how sporty the 140 bhp feels. Had a test drive in a 170 and really can't say there feels to be much difference. Road tax for the 140 is free for first year and £30 thereafter.

Still a rubber band cam drive but not changed until 84000 miles (allegedly, we'll see if that figure gets revised as has always happened in the past)

[Coupe 20vt]

The 140 is a great engine and does almost identical mpg to the 1.6, same VED and the bonus of 35bhp and a shed load of extra torque. The 2.0 JTDm 140 is worth the extra £1k IMO.

[Mattgusto]

Originally Posted by colinstone

I have a 12 year old MkIV Golf GT TDI 110bhp 5 door which I want to replace in the near future.........
So was looking at a JTMD 1.6 Lusso in Red with Natural leather, glass sunroof, and perhaps a couple of other extras...
Overall fuel consumption will possibly be no better than Golf which had combined figure of 57.6mpg/132g/km - but then that is so called progress. ?

Surely the progress is the fact it's 140bhp vs 110bhp? With the same mpg figures? Just a thought?

[camelfarmer]

And it's not a golf which is just depressing.

[Plasma]

Originally Posted by TI-ger boz

Had a test drive in a 170 and really can't say there feels to be much difference.

There's 'a lot' of difference between the two in performance.....

The JTDM 2 is very refined and quiet.