looking to purchase new altea

[phil mcavity]

Hi peeps, 1st post so go easy on me, right..............
i am looking to buy an altea fr 170 from my local dealer, i currently own an Mk 5 golf gti dsg, and are fed up with the fuel consuption average of 27 mpg.I will have around £18500 to play with and are very tempted by a magic black altea FR 170. fuel consumption is around mid 40's and performance in mid range matchs the golfs. Does anyone know whether the ride quality is harder or about the same as my golf, anyone own a FR 170, Whats it like to own???, and regrets or point me into which model and extra options to get with the amount i have to kit on to it. cheers in advance

 

[Tell]

as an aside and going with the lower case, do you know why the dsg mpg is so low on the golf ? is it your driving

The Altea isn't that brilliant, about 39 MPG for the 140 engine.

 

[phil mcavity]

No tryied that theory, town driving at speed limits at 30mph, still only gets me 30mpg. it runs only on super plus unleaded, it emptys a full tank at 300 miles. when u fill it, it says approx range 340. trust me!!, i absolutly love my golf gti, best car ive ever owned and worth it although pricey to run.
from what i can gather the FR fuel tank holds 55 litres and have read the range is approx 540 miles to a tankfull. is this about right??

 

[PhilOfCas]

No tryied that theory, town driving at speed limits at 30mph, still only gets me 30mpg. it runs only on super plus unleaded, it emptys a full tank at 300 miles. when u fill it, it says approx range 340. trust me!!, i absolutly love my golf gti, best car ive ever owned and worth it although pricey to run.
from what i can gather the FR fuel tank holds 55 litres and have read the range is approx 540 miles to a tankfull. is this about right??

Phil - You should get mid 40's, at present i'm getting in the 50's (though i'm in big time economy mode at the mo), i'd say below 40 is entirely achievable and Tell is evidence of this, the engine seems to have a wide range of mpg figures, i would have thought purely down to how they are driven. I must admit in general driving i'm in the mid 40's, which i was slightly disapointed with, though you have got to realise it is an heavy car with a decent turn of speed, all things considered it's OK.

My personal range from a tankful has been anything from 480 to 520 before refuelling is required, though on my current tankful i'm expecting about 540.

Mine is a 6sp 2.0Tdi.

Hope this helps.

 

[phil mcavity]

cheers for your help phil, so am i making a good choice in the FR, do u recommend any must haves in the xtra's dept, are seat dealers flexible on their asking price for a altea, and the 07 plate change in march, maybe i could get a good deal. this will hopefully be my 1st seat , i have a test drive for 2 hrs tommorow in an FR 170, Will let you know how it goes.

 

[Ruddmeister]

Phil

I have been looking recently and there are some nearly new bargains, try this baby with 2k miles on the clock for £14,400
http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/ww...category=CARS&channel=CARS&id=200707270976745

Personally I'd want;-
18inch alloys
Blue tooth comms kit
Ipod Connector

But for £4k I'd buy an aftermarket phone kit and some nice BBS (or similar) alloys

Steve

 

[Tell]

Phil's talking petrol which is why his MPG is down since he mentions unleaded. Think the DSG on a petrol is tiptronics whilst it's called a DSG on a diesel.

 

[JonTelfer]

I have the TDI FR - before I bought it I had the impression that it was beltingly fast and at the same time return 50+ mpg. Now I realise it can do both, but not at the same time. The pull in 3rd is fantastic and highly addictive.
First tank I got around 400 miles and the second tank I'm trying to see if I can get 500+ - currently I'm on 410 miles and refuelling estimate says around 95 miles left so I may just make it.
On my standard FR wheels the ride can be a little jarring at times, but this is quite subjective - find a rubbish road on your test drive and see what you think. If you go for the bluetooth kit, check the compatible phone list and accompanying thread on these boards.

Enjoy,

Jon

 

[dpat]

Phil

I have been looking recently and there are some nearly new bargains, try this baby with 2k miles on the clock for £14,400
http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/ww...category=CARS&channel=CARS&id=200707270976745

Personally I'd want;-
18inch alloys
Blue tooth comms kit
Ipod Connector

But for £4k I'd buy an aftermarket phone kit and some nice BBS (or similar) alloys

Steve

SOLD - but not to me - LC Charles have another one though with 18' alloys in black, it may be DSG. Saw these cars on Saturday.

 

[nebbers]

Hi peeps, 1st post so go easy on me, right..............
i am looking to buy an altea fr 170 from my local dealer, i currently own an Mk 5 golf gti dsg, and are fed up with the fuel consuption average of 27 mpg.I will have around £18500 to play with and are very tempted by a magic black altea FR 170. fuel consumption is around mid 40's and performance in mid range matchs the golfs. Does anyone know whether the ride quality is harder or about the same as my golf, anyone own a FR 170, Whats it like to own???, and regrets or point me into which model and extra options to get with the amount i have to kit on to it. cheers in advance

Had my FR since June 06. I average 38mpg on day to day use, although admittedly that is mostly rush hour driving. The bluetooth kit is great, but the voice recognition is not the best - must be my Welsh accent. Managed to get the 2 tier boot floor too, which is useful for hiding goodies from prying eyes.

Overall, I am very happy with the car and its performance is great. All I need is a drop in Diesel prices now.

 

[phil mcavity]

Just to update, went for my test today in a red altea FR, looks on the outside i loved, car looks good, untill then i had high hopes, but, seeing it in the sunlight instead of the showroom, its just a sea of "cheap looking PLASTIC!!! and lots of it,compared with my golf gti, it was chalk and cheese, although it drove ok, i just hated the interia, why oh why do seat do a great looking car, but cut the budget on poor quality interia!, the seat fabric was very thin, and all i could see was in a year or too, the interia looking bleached and worn out look. it was a real shame that it lets down the altea in a big way.The cd player was absolutly awful, jumping ever time you go over a bump i found over 80 mph!, one thing the golf has never ever done to me.The sound quality was very poor, no surround feel about it, sounded like it was only working out of the front speakers although they were all working front and back.The salesmen in the shop said from the outset that he thought the FR170 would be faster overtaking in mid range then my golf GTI with dsg, sorry to say it fell way short and runs outa puff at 70mph, and the golf would leave it standing!.
I hope seat get their act together and start using better quality materials for their cars, theyve got it spot on on exteria on all their models,looks are great right across the range, but WHY oh WHY forget about the quality of the inside, afterall, u have to stare at it every day, imo i know i couldnt live with it,
my hunt for a performance diesel mpv goes on!

 

[JonTelfer]

And the price difference between an FR and GTI + DSG is.....well I can't be arsed to look it up but it'll be a lot. The money has to be saved somewhere on the FR and they haven't skimped on the engine, handling or styling.
As an FR TDI owner I agree with you about the plastics, and the speakers, but I'm OK with that. Seat has a position within the VW group and in the mainstream markets it won't be allowed to impinge on the VW brand.
One thing that I've found is that trying to compare the performance of a diesel vs petrol is way too subjective to be accurate. My TDI FR accelerates *effortlessly* which gives you the impression that it isn't really doing much until you look at the speedo. It's easy to think you're belting along in a petrol engine because it's screaming away around 6k rpm.

Pocket the cash and enjoy the drive, just my opinion mind,

Jon

 

[Tell]

With the spare cash buy some decent speakers... I can't say that I get upset myself about what the interia looks like. I don't have any real damage to the seats after 17,000 miles and two years. They still look new. Petrol automatic against a manual diesel. Get a diesel automatic, don't do the FR as a DSG as I understand, and the other issue is was it run in ?, answer no, so it would be sluggish.

 

[phil mcavity]

With the spare cash buy some decent speakers... I can't say that I get upset myself about what the interia looks like. I don't have any real damage to the seats after 17,000 miles and two years. They still look new. Petrol automatic against a manual diesel. Get a diesel automatic, don't do the FR as a DSG as I understand, and the other issue is was it run in ?, answer no, so it would be sluggish.

My answer to the run in question was yes it had 6000 miles on the clock, was the diesel 170 FR and yes it was sluggish, the petrol tfsi dsg in the golf has much better accelaration And power delivery, i thought the altea looked and drove well, the point is the interia was hugely disapointing. i spose if i didnt own my vw, then maybe my standard i was looking for, would of been less, but i thought having lots of vag bits, it would be simular, Its a shame , i was dead set on one

 

[Tell]

Well diesel gives you more poke at speeds for over taking, petrol probably still is faster from zero to 30. You are comparing two different models. 10,000 + and it will be run in I'd say.

The question is and you have answered it for yourself that you rate sitting close to the road in the VW plus the other stuff as greater than the Altea plus the other stuff. Thought of a Golf+.

 

[phil mcavity]

the fr is along way behind the gti, ok it has more torque as diesels do, but 0 to 60 in 6.8 secs in the gti, i very much doubt especially with the car changes gear in 8 milliseconds, the FR with all the gear changes wont catch it, anyway like u say u cant compare diesel to petrol, and good thinking, not thought about golf plus, pricey or maybe a touran being slightly older model. cheers

 

[baldrick]

Phil, it sounds to me like you are enjoying your Golf but not the mpg. Do you really want a performance diesel MPV? I.e. are you looking for more cabin space.

What sort of mileage are you doing that it is worth taking the hit on depreciation to change your existing car to get better economy.

It is horses for courses. Diesels provide great low down pulling power and produce some mid range acceleration figures to match petrols. Yet they feel quite different.

At the end of the day we aren't racing on the roads. If you were nutty enough you could (dangerously) drive a 1.2 Corsa faster on your commuting run by comiitting to blind bends as if driving on a closed road.

The GTI provides that feel of sporty driving along with figures on paper. It handles in all the right way to feel right, sounds great, gives that impression of hustling along and has all the neat touches like the steering wheel and sports interior to create the perfect atmosphere.

In my view enthusiast driving has a high element of fantasy as well as outright speed. Like I said if it was all about journey times then lack of responsibility would be the winning factor.

For me a decent petrol engine (and the 2.0T FSI is one of the best) helps create that atmosphere, but then I have always preferred highly tuned high revving small motors to the growling V8s of the past. I guess some sports diesel lovers would have the opposite view - it is all about personal opinions after all.

You must be driving it pretty hard to get that sort of economy - it is a very efficient engine. Maybe a Golf GT TSI 170bhp supercharged and turbo 1.4 petrol would provide the thrill with economy - this can have DSG too. Though again I think you will miss the extra touches of the GTI.

From a quality perspective the only thing that touches the GTI is the A3 IMHO. You can have a TDI 170 DSG in that if you decide diesel is the only option. They are pricey though, so you would need the mileage to justify it from a cost perspective, or pick up a slightly older one than planned.

Hope this helps and doesn't just add to the dilemma!

Cheers
Tony

 

[phil mcavity]

i agree with all your comments baldrick. i live in a town centre so struggle with mpg at 27. i do about 10000 miles a year. ive been looking at other vw's, the touran looks a good bet, trouble is my current car is Fully spec'd up,new worth £28k. the gt golf 's ecomany is about 38mpg town average in the 170, its only 1.4 but is a huge bone of contention on golf forum owners, as jeremy clarkson said on TOPGEAR a week or so ago, quote" golf gti is like falling down the stairs with crutches on, its awful" !!!, and i dont want a lower spec'd car as thats it of a backward step. Audi a3 at good spec again is too high a price ,i have 18k to spend, and dont want an older ,so i think ill see what VW have to offer.

 

[baldrick]

I guess the question is then why change at all, I doubt you will financially be better off?

I drove a TSI manual and was well impressed - it genuinely felt like a 2 litre petrol with small diesel torque.

I can't say I found it jerky. Some of Clarkson's comments referred to build quality which doesn't stack up with their voting the GTI their car of the year.

However, I drove a GTI a few days later and fell in love with that engine, poise and interior touches. The TSI felt a bit too plain. I thought it was a great achievement and a wonderful diesel alternative from a company car perspective but the GTI was that good I would pay the extra.

If I was you I would be concerned that anything less will disappoint and anything better is out of reach.

Just IMHO of course!

Cheers
Tony

 

[phil mcavity]

i think your right baldrick, i may just stick with it and not been to heavy on the gas peddle!!