aterro
Paid Member
Well, i'm not a new member, and have been lurking on here for a while!
roud:
After selling my clio 182 in racing blue the other week, i needed to buy a car which was still reasonably fun, but still does the job on a commute.
After numerous hours, days, months of searching / deciding what car i wanted, i whittled it down to;
I know the above are completely different to each other and not comparable's at all, but to me, the are a small reasonably fun car.
So i took a trip to the dealers;
The S3, brilliant car! A well rounded car, which did everything i wanted. Issue, i already previously had one very similar and i felt like i needed a change of scenery. Nice dealership, and great staff.
Astra Vxr, i despise the gearbox setup, something about how it went into gear annoyed me. Engine seemed fun, and power was pretty instant. The noise was, of course lovely.
I found it slightly longer to stick it into gear than the 200, and from second to third, it wasn't a great transition at all. (in my opinion, of course)
Another issue, which annoyed me was the windscreen gradient. It may have been my seating position, but i found that it was way too steep when driving. I found myself looking out of the top of the windscreen and not sitting directly in the middle of the screen. ( I'm 5 foot 11).
Corsa VXR, again gearbox was the same as the astra. Engine seemed pokey, but lacked the grunt the astra had.
Rear windows did not let enough light into the rear(when sitting in the back) when comparing it to the clio 200/197.
There was also rattles in the cabin area. (61 plate, 9,000k on the clocks)
Vauxhall staff, this may of just been the two dealerships i went into, but wasnt as helpful as Audi, or Renault. & Service is a big plus for me.
The Vauxhall staff were "ok" but didnt go the extra mile unlike Renault or Audi.
The scirocco Tdi 140 DSG, was a lovely car. Much more refined than the above, engine produced a good amount of "pull" and was a smooth cruiser. Definitely not comparable to the above.
If i cared about fuels, the scirocco would be a good waypoint for fun and mpg. ( in my opinion)
The 200, well, where do i start? Ive read the stories about it being to slow and not getting great mpg considering it only being a 2.0L.
I loved it, i thought the power was more than efficient, and on a motorway, it felt fine at 70mph. The gearbox was great, the feel of the gearbox was precise and easy and didn't feel too long to actually put it into gear. & the handling was great, especially when i had drove a scirocco previously that day haha
and even on the test drive, i left the dealership with a range of 32 miles, the test drive lasted 20 miles, and i arrived back with a range of 42 and for a test drive, i was surprised.
Im pretty sure i could get average 35 mpg out of it.
Now, this isn't a review, these are my thoughts, which i thought id share. But the moral of the story, go test drive them all. The little changes of a car, makes a big difference to your preference and your preferred driving style.
& yes, ill be buying a clio 200. The search begins.....
roud:After selling my clio 182 in racing blue the other week, i needed to buy a car which was still reasonably fun, but still does the job on a commute.
After numerous hours, days, months of searching / deciding what car i wanted, i whittled it down to;
- Audi S3 8p
- Astra or Corsa VXR
- A3 tdi Sline, 170 ( i didnt end up test driving one)
- Scirocco tdi
- and of course the 200.
I know the above are completely different to each other and not comparable's at all, but to me, the are a small reasonably fun car.
So i took a trip to the dealers;
The S3, brilliant car! A well rounded car, which did everything i wanted. Issue, i already previously had one very similar and i felt like i needed a change of scenery. Nice dealership, and great staff.
Astra Vxr, i despise the gearbox setup, something about how it went into gear annoyed me. Engine seemed fun, and power was pretty instant. The noise was, of course lovely.
I found it slightly longer to stick it into gear than the 200, and from second to third, it wasn't a great transition at all. (in my opinion, of course)
Another issue, which annoyed me was the windscreen gradient. It may have been my seating position, but i found that it was way too steep when driving. I found myself looking out of the top of the windscreen and not sitting directly in the middle of the screen. ( I'm 5 foot 11).
Corsa VXR, again gearbox was the same as the astra. Engine seemed pokey, but lacked the grunt the astra had.
Rear windows did not let enough light into the rear(when sitting in the back) when comparing it to the clio 200/197.
There was also rattles in the cabin area. (61 plate, 9,000k on the clocks)
Vauxhall staff, this may of just been the two dealerships i went into, but wasnt as helpful as Audi, or Renault. & Service is a big plus for me.
The Vauxhall staff were "ok" but didnt go the extra mile unlike Renault or Audi.
The scirocco Tdi 140 DSG, was a lovely car. Much more refined than the above, engine produced a good amount of "pull" and was a smooth cruiser. Definitely not comparable to the above.
If i cared about fuels, the scirocco would be a good waypoint for fun and mpg. ( in my opinion)
The 200, well, where do i start? Ive read the stories about it being to slow and not getting great mpg considering it only being a 2.0L.
I loved it, i thought the power was more than efficient, and on a motorway, it felt fine at 70mph. The gearbox was great, the feel of the gearbox was precise and easy and didn't feel too long to actually put it into gear. & the handling was great, especially when i had drove a scirocco previously that day haha
and even on the test drive, i left the dealership with a range of 32 miles, the test drive lasted 20 miles, and i arrived back with a range of 42
and for a test drive, i was surprised. Im pretty sure i could get average 35 mpg out of it.
Now, this isn't a review, these are my thoughts, which i thought id share. But the moral of the story, go test drive them all. The little changes of a car, makes a big difference to your preference and your preferred driving style.
& yes, ill be buying a clio 200. The search begins.....
