lensman Posted September 7, 2007 Report Share Posted September 7, 2007 Hello all, I will be picking up my new GTI tomorrow morning and would love to take it out for its first nice and long drive Cant wait damnit ! Hence does anyone know of some good twisty/scenic/just plain nice bits of road around the Bedford area? I will have turned off my phone, cancelled all plans, even sent my gf on her way home after dropping me off just so I can spend some quality time with my new car Some questions: 1) Is this normal behaviour when picked up your new GTI? 2) How many hours can I spend hugging my new car before the locals phone the police? 3) How long before I will let ANYONE OTHER THAN ME touch it? 4) Am I , should I seek help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby_simon Posted September 7, 2007 Report Share Posted September 7, 2007 Where will you be wanting to end up. There are all sorts of fantastic roads around..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burble Posted September 7, 2007 Report Share Posted September 7, 2007 1 - Yes, completely 2 - It all depends on the locals. If they are starting to look scared tghen invite them to look at the car from a distance. They'll soon understand 3 - Months! 4 - You sound perfectly sane to me As for nice roads around Bedford, I don't know any. I used to like the A6 towards Barton le Clay but the speed cameras have killed that off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chungster Posted September 7, 2007 Report Share Posted September 7, 2007 Head towards Kimbolton and the B666. EVO magazine drive that route a lot. Careful of the few tight hairpins though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orca Posted September 7, 2007 Report Share Posted September 7, 2007 Yeah, the B660 to Kimbolton is pretty good. The road to Old Warden is also pretty good (Southill Road). It's not very long though but quite fun. I like country roads. Hope you run your car in before you thrash it though Lensman, what was your buying experience with Cars4Charities like? I ordered a GTI through them in June. Hopefully should get it by the end of October. Can you let us know how the collection goes. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lensman Posted September 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2007 Cheers for the replies, will need to check out the B660 then Cars4Charities have been good so far, although in the end they were about 2 weeks later with the delivery of the car, but Emily there did suggest I wait 2 extra weeks to get the car on the new 57 plate which was a good thing. Overall I am happy with the experience, although I also had to pay for the car up front in order to get the car today rather than the 1st of Oct. I can understand what they said about not having enough money to pay for all the cars coming in for the first week of september! and that usually I could pay on seeing the car, but that its been a very busy time for them.... I will go into more detail, after Ive picked the car up Brooom brooom !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekin_88 Posted September 8, 2007 Report Share Posted September 8, 2007 congrats on the new car, you will def enjoy it try driving down to wales and take the A44 towards Aberystwyth its a great drive twisty as hell and very to die for views but keep your eyes on the road lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lensman Posted September 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2007 Hehehehe....I got the new car finally !!!! Well what can I say, in between grinning like a boy with a new toy, I can only say that so far, WOW ! She handles beautifully, looks the absolute bizz!, even my Dad who heralds 4x4 and diesels above alll else, had to grudgingly admit '...shes a vera nice!...' The car feels like it drives on rails round corners, a lot less roll than my a3 sport 1.8t! Engine sounds fantastic, got a nice burble to it that I never heard on the audi, will be enjoying that more so once she's run in. Actually this running in lark is blimmin frustrating!!! the temptation to push her faster is soooo difficult to withstand, but even on 2/3 throttle she feels so zippy! there's so much more grunt lower down than the 1.8T which feels a lot more weezy when the turbo isnt on the boil. It could be phsycological but she has more umphf between 2-3K rpm than my 1.8T did even though Im not at full throttle...??perhaps, perhaps not The interior is a very nice place to be, I really did think there would be a big difference going from the audi to the GTI in terms of interior quality, but, I guess most of my worries were based on my GF's 1.9 TDI SE whose interior plastics are a step down from the ones in the GTI. The seats are very comfy, good bolstering for those twisty bits(oh and thanks guys for the mention of the B660, although it has quite a few 30 zones on it ) The steering wheel feels nice and well weighted, this actually was a little unexpected from the audi whose steering felt much lighter, but actually I like it much better now that Ive had some time with it, makes you feel the car will go exactly were you want it (doesnt seem to suffer from tramlining) Gearbox is loverly too, very nice decisive shift, nicely weighted clutch action(thought it would be much stiffer) the gearing is very similar to the 5speed in my audi, maybe their a little lower ratios but not much and you get the 6th gear, makes for very relaxed 70mph (cough, cough) motorway travel. The need to change gears especially lower down the rev range is much less then with th 1.8T too, you can get away with travelling more slowly in any given gear with far more grunt available when you do press on the loud pedal and conversely taking the engine revs up to 3-3.5K rpms doesnt sound as loud as in the audi, VW did well with this engine thats for sure!!! Love the sunroof, made a good choice there!, like the fact you can open it all the ways open without any part of the glass roof sticking out, makes the interior much brighter Love the Highline computer giving you the options to change all the annoying coming/leaving home main lights functions, havent played around with it too much though, will need to sit down with the manual and a mug of tea for that... Actually the 17" wheels like very nice, this was always a real sticking point for me, many a time whilst waiting for the order I thought of changing the standard 17" wheels for the 18"'s. I personally thought the 18" moonzaII look very nice but a little too bling for my liking and would run that little bit harder on lumps in the road. Love the red brake calipers, really do stand out on the car, give it that extra something that adds up to making look as good as it does! I have one question though, I do feel the ride is very hard at the moment, you can feel every rut in the road. Will the suspension soften up a little after use? On a related note I have heard of the rubber suspension deliver chocks that some people have had left in on their GTIs, where exactly would these be? I did have a quick look be turning the wheels full lock and looking behind the wheels up at the springs, would they be visible from there? Other than the ride being a little harsher than I thought, I love the car, its already covered 200 miles since saturday Cant wait to run her in fully and then really start enjoying her (within reason), on another note the economy is very pleasing, looks like it will definately be more economical than the audi, half tank at 200 miles, so should see about 380 miles for the full shebang, whiclst my audi only managed 320-330 miles. What I really love knowing thought is that everything Ive said about the way the car drives/rides, how the engine delivers will only get better as she's run in, this really is a cracking car. I can see the light finally! and am now a properly smitten member of the VeeDub club! Long live the GTI! Ive attached a piccie of her taken on mobile phone so not too good, but will do for now P.S. Appologies for this immense post, but I guess I feel the need to tell everyone about my new GTI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petsy Posted September 10, 2007 Report Share Posted September 10, 2007 [ QUOTE ] On a related note I have heard of the rubber suspension deliver chocks that some people have had left in on their GTIs, where exactly would these be? [/ QUOTE ] it's the rubber block on the spring as shown below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lensman Posted September 10, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2007 Cheers petsy, These look quite big and visible, I will double check, but they are probably not on the my car then... Anyways, here's hoping the suspension does soften up a bit, just a little bit would make a big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petsy Posted September 10, 2007 Report Share Posted September 10, 2007 I know it's a bit premature but you could get a slightly softer suspension ride yet still retain/better your cornering ability by just changing your shocks to koni fsd ones... I'm just waiting for RR to chime in now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted September 10, 2007 Report Share Posted September 10, 2007 [ QUOTE ] I know it's a bit premature but you could get a slightly softer suspension ride yet still retain/better your cornering ability by just changing your shocks to koni fsd ones... I'm just waiting for RR to chime in now. [/ QUOTE ] ....Ding Dong! Ding! Dong! Yep, KoniFSD's soften when needed and harden when needed - All smartly and instantly reactive to the road surface. It's subtle but effective imo. Even better if you fit aftermarket anti-roll bars as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orca Posted September 10, 2007 Report Share Posted September 10, 2007 Congrats lensman! I'm well jealous now - mine is yet to be built Week 39 they said. Fingers crossed. How did the collection go? Was it as friendly as you expected? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lensman Posted September 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2007 My overall experience with cars4charities was very good. although I felt they could have kept me informed a little more...although this could be just a result of how eager and impatient I have been waiting for the car to arrive Chris the MD of cars4charities, put to bed any fears I had over buying an import, explaining the whole process very clearly! They arent open for business on Saturdays, but Chris the MD readily agreed to meet me outside their offices in the morning. The car was parked in a private, barriered carpark right outside there office, was gleaming in the sunlight looking fantastic. My girlfriend was the first to spot it, even suggesting we mount the curb, drive over the grass to get into the car park to get a proper look at it, I thought I was eager to see it! (as it was the barriers were opened to let us in anyways ) Chris showed my round the car, pointing out bits n peices about the interior, controls, etc... most of which I didnt really hear, I was chaffing at the bit to get in and drive We then went inside to hand over some paperwork, signed confirmation of receipt for the car and with keys handed over, he bid me farewell and off we went, into the sunset to drive happily ever after The importing process does involve sorting out a few bits of paperwork, including sending off your photocard license along with insurance cover note to cars4charities, which you get back on pickup The insurance cover will probably need to get done on the chassis number rather than a reg no, I had a few problems finding an insurer who knew what I wanted to do???) Also cars4charities usually wouldnt have a problem with you paying for the car on pickup via a bankers draft, but, on this occasion because of the vast quantities of cars coming in on the new 57 plate, I needed to pay for the car upfront, before they could bring it in into the UK. Also, I didnt get to meet the aforementioned Emily who works there and that Ive read on here somewheres to be quite pleasing on the eye (no doubt a good thing with the GF in tow, didnt want to be unched) All in all a very good experience, for anyone whom is thinking of buying an import I would recommend Cars4Charities without question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orca Posted September 11, 2007 Report Share Posted September 11, 2007 Thanks for your comprehensive reply. Sounds like you had no hassle with them. I have also found that they have not kept me informed of progress although Emily has always replied quickly to my emails. Who did you go with for insurance in the end as I will no doubt have similar problems. Also did you have to mention to the insurance companies that the car is an import? Once again congrats on your new car! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyGTi Posted September 12, 2007 Report Share Posted September 12, 2007 [ QUOTE ] Who did you go with for insurance in the end as I will no doubt have similar problems. [/ QUOTE ] They (Cars4Charities) should be able to give you a registration number as soon as they receive the car. All you need do then is ring your insurance company and get them to fax a cover note for the car & reg no. My insurance company (Tescos) would only send a revised certificate in the post which took a few days...but no other problems...you should tell them it's an EU import to full UK spec and full 2 year VW UK warranty and backing....should'nt be a problem unless they get the wrong end of the stick and think it's like one of these grey imports from the far east (EVO's etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orca Posted September 12, 2007 Report Share Posted September 12, 2007 Thanks for that advice JonnyGTi. I will make sure that I tell the insurance companies that it is an EU import to full UK spec. Hopefully it shouldn't be much more than a UK car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_C Posted September 12, 2007 Report Share Posted September 12, 2007 [ QUOTE ] Hence does anyone know of some good twisty/scenic/just plain nice bits of road around the Bedford area? [/ QUOTE ] Ten of my favourites, number one being as mentioned above.... B660 Bedford to Ramsey. Starts to get a bit bumpy after Holme and the railway level crossing, hence I usually turn around there. B645 Higham Ferrers to St Neots. Classic north Beds countryside on the borders with Northants and Cambs. B658 Shefford to Upper Caldecotte. Sleepy Bedfordshire village greens. B1042 Sandy to Wimpole. Loved this since I was a kid and dad used to drive this way to Wimpole Hall and Duxford. A422 Bromham to Newport Pagnell. Fast and flowing. Painful during rush hour I imagine, but great when you get a clear run. B526 Newport Pagnell to Northampton. Epic! Note whilst Newport Shell is tiny it serves V Power, possibly due to Aston Martin (RIP) <font color="#666666">....and slightly further afield but most certainly worthy of note....</font> A508 Northampton to Old Stratford. Lovely lovely. A413 Silverstone to Aylesbury. Buckingham ring road is a total riot at 7am on a Sunday morning. So I'm told. A505 Hitchin to Luton. Rolling dual carriageway. Very hard to behave on this when traffic is light. You'll know this already. A507 Baldock to Buntingford. Again being a Hertfordshire boy, you will no doubt already be fully aware of this rollercoaster. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lensman Posted September 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2007 Ha ha cheers Ian C, Will have to make sure I try these out sometime, late night coming home from 5-a-side...(beats getting home and not being able to sleep coz of adrenaline from the excercise) Really loving the GTI, its now done almost 500 miles, as per the book after 500km you can use progressively more of the engine Taking her up to about 4.5K rpms now and must say the relatively few times its gone over 4K the exhaust note is vera nice! Also the suspension does appear to be softening up just a little bit too. The 2.0T is an amazing engine, it has a suprising amount of grunt lower down, you make really good progress just staying under 4K, you can really tell the difference between my audi and the gti. Still I can't wait to take it to 5K and beyond! As a side question the fuel flap recommends keeping your tyre pressure at 2.4 bar / 34 PSI. My audi a3 was always kept at 30-31 PSI, is the 34PSI really necassary, is it because of the skinnier tyres, as the Audi had 16" wheels on it..? You know the last week or so since picking the car up, between tyresmoke and driving my GTI the week has passed very quickly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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