Quote:
Originally Posted by Vervain
Go for the A1! lol. The new facelift looks sharp and should be a handful considering is weight, size and FI engine. I've recently driven the polo 1.2 turbo highline with Dsg and while it drove well, there was no sense of occasion in the drive nor the cabin feel. It was just a normal polo to me..
Yeah I also got carried away with the performance of the cars on here, hence this (very anti-climatic) thread lol. I realised that I wanted the best specs on paper without properly evaluating what I actually needed..
The gearbox is so unbelievably smooth it's spooky lol. It holds gears well in normal D mode. It gets even better in S and the changes are even snappier. Kickdown is awesome since it drops gears so quickly.
It does not have paddle shifters, just the normal tiptronic shifter. I've used it a few times and while it's fun, I find leaving the gearbox to do its own thing is much faster, even though that's probably not the point of it lol.
I've always driven manual but I don't think I will ever buy one after this car. I'm sold!
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That's very interesting. I think the moral of the story is try before you buy, because no matter what someone else thinks, it is what you think that really matters, and I can't believe just how emotional the link we have with our cars is.
My partner really likes VWs, so the A1 would need to be significantly better for her to chose it. She thinks that maybe it and the Polo are a bit small, so also considering a Golf, because the A3 is a bit more than we would like to spend. May just but a second hand car outright, rather than a new one on finance (as I did my 116i).
I think the Audi gearbox is quite different to the bmw and has two clutches (although I haven't looked this up), so perhaps it fees more snappy.
It's interesting to hear that you don't use the manual gear change, and I have heard other people say that they are moving to autos, because there is no real advantage to manual gearboxes other than the pleasure of using them (if you enjoy that).
I completely agree with picking the right car as a complete package. When you look at the specs on paper, all you see is performance, but when you are diving on the public roads (Like most people I've never been on the track) the performance is way down on your list and things like being able to talk clearly on the phone without your hands free dropping out of your ear and down the side of the chair (as mine often did) are much more important.