Advice on these 1.4's

dceire

I'm on the lookout for a new car & have 5.5k to spend. I've narrowed it down to a MK4 Golf, Focus, 306 & Astra.

I just want to hear from owners and people who have experience of these cars to tell me how they are to live with, the good & the bad, to help me make up my mind!

pburns

I've not owned any of these but IMO...

The 1.4 in the Astra would probably be the livliest. I drove one a few years ago & was surprised by it's oomph. Bit agricultural though...

Wouldn't touch the Peugeot with a barge pole.

Golfs v expensive & a wee bit overrated. You'll probably be getting less car for your money.

Have you considered a Seat Leon?
The Focus. Good reliability record, good to drive, cool looks. No rocketship mind but neither are most 1.4s in this sector.

jimmycrackcorm

The missus has a 1.4 astra and I think it is an absolutely great car. Not only has it been 100% reliable but it is a great drive. I particularly like the steering responsiveness.

Webmonkey

Rover 400/45 - Sh#t Cheap, Nippy Car (twincam engine, bout 105bhp), WAY Underrated. Just watch the keep an eye on the coolent to prevent Head Gasket Failure.
Nice looking car in my opinion. Had one for over a year now, never gave any trouble what so ever.
Good Mpg, roughly 35 - 40 on long jounneys.

I bet someones going to yell at me now bout rovers, but i think they are a good car anyways and getting parts isn't a problem anylonger. XParts in UK agreed to develop parts for next 10 years

Lex Luthor

Focus, Astra, Golf & 306 in that order would be my choice.

bazz26

dceire wrote:

I'm on the lookout for a new car & have 5.5k to spend. I've narrowed it down to a MK4 Golf, Focus, 306 & Astra.

I just want to hear from owners and people who have experience of these cars to tell me how they are to live with, the good & the bad, to help me make up my mind!

The Astra is probably the most lively of that bunch. The Astra has about 90bhp, the Golf has 75bhp, the Focus has 80bhp, not sure what the 306 has but probably about the same as the Golf and Focus.

If you do alot of city driving them all of the above will be fine and will give good mpg. If you do alot of motorway driving, etc then the Astra will probably be the best suited for overtaking, etc.

Atomic Pineapple

i drive a 03 1.4 focus, great car, great experience to drive, handles brilliantly and its grand and reliable, a little underpowered but were not talking about the sports car market here

colm_mcm

How about an Octavia. you have a good choice with €5,500

bazz26

colm_mcm wrote:

How about an Octavia. you have a good choice with €5,500

The OP is looking at 1.4 litre engines, the Octavia was only available in 1.4 litre from 2001. I don't think you will get a 2001 Octavia for €5.5k though.

The Seat Leon is also available in 1.4 litre and a 2000 model is well within the €5.5k budget.

dceire

Yea I’d definitely consider the leon, forgot to mention that one!

The astra is looking like the best option from what I’ve heard so far drive & price wise!

Also, in response to that other post I’ll be mainly using the car on the county roads of kildare but ill be doing a fair bit of motorway & city driving when i'm back in college in September!

colm_mcm

bazz26 wrote:

The OP is looking at 1.4 litre engines, the Octavia was only available in 1.4 litre from 2001. I don't think you will get a 2001 Octavia for €5.5k though.

Here's a nice one advertised for €5,999


http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=361447

Any Octavia advertised for €6,500 by a dealer can be had for €5,500

bazz26

colm_mcm wrote:

Here's a nice one advertised for €5,999


http://www.carzone.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=361447

Any Octavia advertised for €6,500 by a dealer can be had for €5,500

Nice one Colm. Alot of car for the money.

Didn't know dealer's were that generous.

dceire

nice & all as the octavia is i'm not really intrested in it, its a bit of a big old family car i'm just looking for something small & nippy:D

Eoin

I drove a Mark 4 Golf for about a year, and was quite unimpressed with it. It was sluggish, the interior plastics felt quite flimsy. The rear bulbs blew on a regular basis. The throttle cable (I think) got dirty easily, and this caused a particularly slow take off at times - not too nice when you are trying to pull onto a road quite quickly. VW reliability is a myth - out of the 4 modern cars I have driven, it was easily the most troublesome.

On the plus side, it's a handsome looking car and has good residuals. I lost very little on it over the year I had it. However, this may act against you given your budget - you may be looking at one with quite high mileage.

unkel

bazz26 wrote:

Didn't know dealer's were that generous.

They're not generous at all or if they are, they should start looking for another job

A lot of people here pay the full (inflated) asking price (less €20 good luck money and a half-full tank of fuel :rolleyes: :rolleyes:) - the same as one would pay the full asking price for a carton of milk in a supermarket. If cars are in great demand, the dealer would benefit from it and negotiation would be pointless. In most cases though, a serious buyer ready to do the deal, who knows his stuff and who is prepared to walk away (albeit reluctantly so) can get a lot of money off

RiderOnTheStorm

I drove a 306 for years. It was heavy and sluggish imho for a 1.4 But on plus side, it was a reliable car, gave very little trouble & was a comfort to drive (and i love the radio controls on the stearing column!) Also, I got 45mpg (which I thought was good for a car of its age) and the petrol tank was decent size so I could do 500 miles on on fill (if I stay at 50-60mph).

Havnt driven any of the rest of the cars you mention. My brother swears by VW and has always had one (and his wife too). You will get very mixed response in these threads about VW's!

*edit*
It did not hold its value at all! I could not sell it for 500 when it was 10 years old! So I just drove it until cost of (usual) repairs got too much. there was 250k on the clock.....not bad for a petrol car!

Vegeta

Focus is the nicest car to drive, may not be the fastest though

lomb

eoin_s wrote:

I drove a Mark 4 Golf for about a year, and was quite unimpressed with it. It was sluggish, the interior plastics felt quite flimsy. The rear bulbs blew on a regular basis. The throttle cable (I think) got dirty easily, and this caused a particularly slow take off at times - not too nice when you are trying to pull onto a road quite quickly. VW reliability is a myth - out of the 4 modern cars I have driven, it was easily the most troublesome.

On the plus side, it's a handsome looking car and has good residuals. I lost very little on it over the year I had it. However, this may act against you given your budget - you may be looking at one with quite high mileage.

weve had 2 mkiv 1.4s , one a 99 and one a 03, the 99 one was no where near as good as the 03, the 03s throttle body wont clog due to active filtration of the back pressure vapors. the plastics are most def not flimsy on them, and the 03 1.4 is def not sluggish although its not fast. id avoid the mkiv golf at the 5.5 or 6 grand mark. it wont buy u a decent one.
ive never had bulbs blow on either to be honest, urs must have had an electrical problem,or u were using crap bulbs.

Eoin

lomb wrote:

weve had 2 mkiv 1.4s , one a 99 and one a 03, the 99 one was no where near as good as the 03, the 03s throttle body wont clog due to active filtration of the back pressure vapors. the plastics are most def not flimsy on them, and the 03 1.4 is def not sluggish although its not fast. id avoid the mkiv golf at the 5.5 or 6 grand mark. it wont buy u a decent one.
ive never had bulbs blow on either to be honest, urs must have had an electrical problem,or u were using crap bulbs.

Sorry, by plastics I just meant things like the cup holders which broke very easily. Mine was the 99 model, so I can't speak for later models. VAG cars blowing rear bulbs doesn't seem to be all the uncommon at all though.

Scruff

bazz26 wrote:

The Astra is probably the most lively of that bunch.

it is? i've a 99 Astra and always thought it was quite sluggish until ye make a bit of speed in 4th. maybe its just mine. Have had people tell me the accelerator is very unresponsive and needs to be floored to accelerate.

paraicr

I've a 00 1.4 Golf (comfortline), and its definately a bit sluggish. That said its a good looking car, and feels very solid and safe when driving.
As for the plastics they aren't at all flimsy, especially when compared to the others on the list.
Parts and servicing could be aproblem down the line though so thats worth considering in advance.

Kermitt

I too drive a golf comfortline - a 02 model. They changed the engines in 2002 to the one thats in the mkv. I had a 06 golf on monday while getting mine serviced/fixed and it was more sluggish than my car. The golf is the most solid car I've driven in its class. Switchgear on others can be flimsy and dash won't be as well put together as VWs. That said, the focus is a nice car. Drove an astra a few months back and it felt like driving a tent compared to the golf. Depends what you're after...

Solid build, good residuals good service - Golf all the way

Sporty looks, year newer for your money - Focus/Astra

Dodgy electrics, French paper thin bodywork - 306

Paul (MN)

every Golf owner I have ever met insists on talking to me for about 30 minutes about how solid their dash is. why?

I have a 1991 Peugeot 205 and my dash does not rattle and all the buttons work.

Is heavy plastic the only good thing about a modern Golf!

bazz26

Kermitt wrote:

I too drive a golf comfortline - a 02 model. They changed the engines in 2002 to the one thats in the mkv.

What size engine do you have?

The 1.4 litre 16 valve 75bhp and 1.6 litre 8 valve 100bhp were in the MkIV Golf from 1998. There wasn't any changes or modifications to these engines in 2002 and they were carried straight over to the MkV in 2004.

VW introducted the FSi engines alright in the MkV but the smallest that is available in is 1.6 litre and is sold at over €1k extra over the old 1.6 litre.

Kermitt wrote:

I had a 06 golf on monday while getting mine serviced/fixed and it was more sluggish than my car.

That is to be expected as the MKV Golf is alot heavier than the MkIV due to increased size, safety features, etc. while still using the same engine.

Kermitt

They changed the engine from the AXP model to the BSA engine that's in the MKV, its more reliable and takes the mileage better tha the 98-02 engine. Simple things like coil packs etc that gave trouble on the older unit are better. Its the 1.4 I have. Not a change in size or output, just engine model

@PAUL(MN) It's general solid build, not dash that most refer to.

lomb

vw underrate peak bhp on their modern engines, the 03 1.4 is probably closer to 85 or 90 bhp than the old 75bhp unit. feels smooth as a turbine tbh. i know the mothers 1.6fsi is outputting 130bhp compared to the listed 115.

ive driven both the 99 and 03 and the 03 is a faster car and much more drivable ,revs freely like a jap engine, and has more torque low down. strange but true..

Henry Ford III

lomb wrote:

vw underrate peak bhp on their modern engines, the 03 1.4 is probably closer to 85 or 90 bhp than the old 75bhp unit. feels smooth as a turbine tbh. i know the mothers 1.6fsi is outputting 130bhp compared to the listed 115.....

Sorry but I just don't believe that. If it (03 1.4) was 90bhp for example they'd claim that as a selling point.

unkel

lomb wrote:

ive driven both the 99 and 03 and the 03 is a faster car and much more drivable ,revs freely like a jap engine, and has more torque low down. strange but true..

Don't believe that either. A '99 Golf IV 1.4 is lighter and actually has 2NM more @500rpm less :eek: than an '03 Golf V 1.4. The Golf V is very slow (0-100 in just under 15 seconds, almost a second more than the Golf IV)

And there is NO difference between the performance of a '99 Golf IV and a '03 Golf IV 1.4 engine

lomb

Henry Ford III wrote:

Sorry but I just don't believe that. If it (03 1.4) was 90bhp for example they'd claim that as a selling point.

its the germans, they are 'WERY' frugal, the 75bhp sounds better to them than 90 tbh.
vws 1.6fsi definately outputs more than 115bhp. http://www.superchips.co.uk/curves/vag16fsi.pdf

colm_mcm

that superchips curve shows peak power at 6,211rpm!

lomb

colm_mcm wrote:

that superchips curve shows peak power at 6,211rpm!

thats probably the rev limiter. it is a petrol engine, the fsi is very rev happy.

colm_mcm

who drives a normal non VTEC type engine at 6200rpm?

Fozzie Bear

I had a 98 MKIV 1.4 golf with 133,000 miles on it when i sold it (98000 when i bought it). The best car i have owned so far. Solid as a rock and completely reliable. All i changed while i owned it was a wheel bearing and some rubbers in the front suspension. Can't speak highly enough of it. Found no problems with over taking etc either, just drop a gear and away you go. I have had Honda, Ford and Opel before but the Golf was streets ahead of all them. Currently have an Audi which is a fine car too, but i would advise you to go with the Golf.

Gerry

colm_mcm wrote:

who drives a normal non VTEC type engine at 6200rpm?

Most petrol engines, whether they are vtec or not, make their peak power at high rpm, near enough the rev limiter. If your car is rated at 100hp, you won't be making that unless you rev the crap out of it. So what is your point exactly?

Gerry

lomb wrote:

its the germans, they are 'WERY' frugal, the 75bhp sounds better to them than 90 tbh.
vws 1.6fsi definately outputs more than 115bhp. http://www.superchips.co.uk/curves/vag16fsi.pdf

It definitely outputs more, according to that particular rolling road. Most of the time, they cannot be trusted. That figure of 126bhp represents estimated power at the wheels. It will have been measured at the wheels to be something less than that, and then a correction factor ( to account for drivetrain losses ) applied to arrive at an estimate of the power at the crank. This correction factor is only an educated guess really, and is often too high, giving inflated power figures.