ED30 replacement?

[garrardrj]

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Any of the GTI's (includes Ed30) are a very difficult act to follow if you want the same functional practicality and performance.

I've never owned an Alfa but they have so much style!  

Having read you S4 review i am sure , like me , you would change for the S4 ??

I also keep doing a search on pistonheads for people looking for an ED30 as p/ex....M3's and Audi's and recently a 3 door S3 . Now what if an S4/RS4 Avant came up ! I would be in a predicament !

[RedRobin]

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Any of the GTI's (includes Ed30) are a very difficult act to follow if you want the same functional practicality and performance.

Having read your S4 review i am sure , like me , you would change for the S4 ??

....Actually, much as I enjoyed driving that S4 Avant it may surprise you that I absolutely would not buy one nor swop my 103k mile Mk5 GTI for one. I don't much like saloon cars and the Avant is far too big for my needs.

An RS3 or Golf R are the only cars that I would possibly consider but in fact I wouldn't. I just had my OEM bushes changed to SuperPro polyurethane, recently had UNIbraces fitted, there's no way I want to change - I'm still enjoying my car far too much. I know I would feel exactly the same if my GTI was an Ed30.

[Tamiyoman]

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Any of the GTI's (includes Ed30) are a very difficult act to follow if you want the same functional practicality and performance.

Having read your S4 review i am sure , like me , you would change for the S4 ??

....Actually, much as I enjoyed driving that S4 Avant it may surprise you that I absolutely would not buy one nor swop my 103k mile Mk5 GTI for one. I don't much like saloon cars and the Avant is far too big for my needs.

An RS3 or Golf R are the only cars that I would possibly consider but in fact I wouldn't. I just had my OEM bushes changed to SuperPro polyurethane, recently had UNIbraces fitted, there's no way I want to change - I'm still enjoying my car far too much. I know I would feel exactly the same if my GTI was an Ed30.

Very similar taste myself, ideally an RS3 but would be hard to justify that amount of money sitting my driveway, the Golf R is on my shopping list when it gets down below 17K 

[seckles]

Thanks for your comments guys. Still totally undiced on what to do tho!

Thanks Uz for your comments - it's nice to hear positive comments esp. from someone with first hand experience! Obvious question tho, is why did you get rid of your Mito and get a Golf?

[uz]

Family member was getting rid of the GTI, and value was around the same as 3-year-old Mito; thought it would be a nice daily drive for 3 years, while I save up for an Alfa 4C, and I could slowly turn the Golf into a track car with some lightweight wheels, power and suspension mods.

As a daily driver, GTI is easier to drive due to the torque (I only had the 95bhp Mito), but the Mito worked its way into my soul. It is a cliché, but I finally realised why everybody says it... I even tried to buy the Alfa back, but they managed to sell it on almost immediately...

I will admit I was lucky, though, because mine was reliable. You would definitely be taking more of a chance with one, but in my experience it was worth it, and if I could go back 3 months, I would have kept the Alfa. I won't fall in love with a GTI in the same way, even though I thought I would; it's too sterile...

I will be running back to Alfa as soon as there is a car which is a suitable upgrade and I have the money to do so...

[Aweful_Truth]

i owned an alfa romeo brera for a year and sold it for a GTI, it constantly had engine lights coming on for no reason and the turbo kept cutting out... it also chewed up tyres like 3 sets in the one year and i didnt even drive it fast and considering it was a 2.0 tdi it got worse mpg than my golf. i absolutely loved the car i just couldnt cope with how often it was in the garage not to mention it lost 3 grand in value in one year :O as much as i loved it it had to go, got my gti and havent looked back! ill be getting an audi for my next car :)

[uz]

Thanks for your comments guys. Still totally undiced on what to do tho!

Thanks Uz for your comments - it's nice to hear positive comments esp. from someone with first hand experience! Obvious question tho, is why did you get rid of your Mito and get a Golf?

Also, on a half-related note: not a single person has said "That Golf's nice, much better than the Alfa". Around 20 people have said said they much preferred the Alfa. Even at VW, I parked up and had employees swarming it when I went to pick up my brother's car.

I'm not saying this should make your decision, but it shows there's something so exciting about the cars.

Aweful_truth, that's terribly unfortunate. The Brera was supposed to be extremely reliable. It used to be very, very high up the German equivalent of JD Power; poor MPG doesn't surprise me because they are so heavy, but then my Ed30 only achieves 24mpg. I was speaking to someone and he was telling me he does 22 in his S500...

[Poverty]

No ones denying that alfas are better looking, but reliability and depreciation is traditionally poor on them, and they aren't the fastest of cars.

Mercedes, Audi, BMW are all of a muchness, it's the safe bet, and generally not much between them, people just choose which ever looks better to them.

I was talking to a mobile mechanic the other day day and he was moaning about the unreliability of the French and Italian cars which he blamed on the amount of plastic cheap plastic components they use.


I also find it odd that you say every VAG you have owned over the last 15 years have been unreliable for you. You must have had really bad luck.

In my family if I recall the last 20 years of VAG ownership we have never had a unreliable VAG car. Granted my last car a mk2 Leon Cupra developed a gearbox leak, but that car got a kicking everytime it was driven, and was the only fault over the course of ownership, so wouldn't call it unreliable. Unreliable to me is a car that keeps developing faults or is consistently breaking down.

[uz]

No ones denying that alfas are better looking, but reliability and depreciation is traditionally poor on them, and they aren't the fastest of cars.

Mercedes, Audi, BMW are all of a muchness, it's the safe bet, and generally not much between them, people just choose which ever looks better to them.

I was talking to a mobile mechanic the other day day and he was moaning about the unreliability of the French and Italian cars which he blamed on the amount of plastic cheap plastic components they use.


I also find it odd that you say every VAG you have owned over the last 15 years have been unreliable for you. You must have had really bad luck.

In my family if I recall the last 20 years of VAG ownership we have never had a unreliable VAG car. Granted my last car a mk2 Leon Cupra developed a gearbox leak, but that car got a kicking everytime it was driven, and was the only fault over the course of ownership, so wouldn't call it unreliable. Unreliable to me is a car that keeps developing faults or is consistently breaking down.

Agree that one could barely call a gearbox leak a fault, considering it's such a quick and easy fix in most cases...

I would not put Audi in the same category as BMW or Mercedes, especially if we are not putting VW in there (which I certainly won't be). Mercedes and BMW are much more reliable cars (and generally better, too).

[Poverty]

Massive generalisation from you there.

We have all 3 makes in our family.

Currently a Audi TTRS, c-class and 330d. All of them 2010 plates. All of them have been reliable, the merc has had a new electronics control unit though (not to be confused with a ecu) and that's it.

Test drove a4's, 3 series's and the c-class and tbh they are all of a muchness. Chose the BMW and merc purely on the basis that we have had alot of VAG's over the years compared to bmw's and mercs. The Audi interiors are still nicest, although the merc drive is the most comfortable

[uz]

Massive generalisation from you there.

We have all 3 makes in our family.

Currently a Audi TTRS, c-class and 330d. All of them 2010 plates. All of them have been reliable, the merc has had a new electronics control unit though (not to be confused with a ecu) and that's it.

Test drove a4's, 3 series's and the c-class and tbh they are all of a muchness. Chose the BMW and merc purely on the basis that we have had alot of VAG's over the years compared to bmw's and mercs. The Audi interiors are still nicest, although the merc drive is the most comfortable

We are historically a Merc family, moving to Audi in the past 5 years, and it has been decided that we will be moving away for our next cars. This is not in my household, but we are a close family, uncles etc. inclusive.

Currently 4x Audi, 1x Merc. Plenty of VAG if everybody is included, and only Mk4 platform cars have been good to us.

The A4s are horrid to drive, so you made an excellent choice there. Two of my uncles own them.

The TTS is nice but unspectacular; not the best car to drive, even though PH were saying it was the best TT. Niggly problems like rattles, misfires, engine cut-out at 4k revs.


I like driving the Q7, though; the unreliability is the big problem there. Gearbox is shocking, but that has been fixed in the facelift, and the car (as Audi techs have agreed) was clearly rushed to market. The running gear was not suitable for a car which weighs 2.25t unladen in its lightest form. Suspension failure was common, tyre wear is ridiculous, engine is under huge stress, gearbox struggles, brakes wearing quickly.

Like I said, we used to buy Mercs only, and they have never let us down. We switch to Audi, and they have only been disappointing.

EDIT: Just realised I've veered massively off-topic. Apologies Seckles.

I'll summarise with this: Buy whatever excites you, because every car company has problems and you can't depend on anybody as much as you think you can. If you like the Alfa and want to take the plunge (and can afford the projected depreciation), then take it. I didn't regret it and I hope you don't either.

[RedRobin]

I'll summarise with this: Buy whatever excites you, because every car company has problems and you can't depend on anybody as much as you think you can.

....I couldn't agree more! Life is for living and isn't a rehearsal. Or at least I think it's a safe bet that there ain't no cars to excite you in the afterlife (if that's what you believe exists).

[Poverty]

Misfires and engine cut outs. My Cupra had the same engine, never had those faults, the ed30 guys don't seem to have those faults either.

And I have a TTRS not a tts.

As for the a4's they are nice cars, like I said all of a muchness, if they were so bad as you claim they wouldn't have won numerous awards and people wouldn't be buying them

[uz]

Misfires and engine cut outs. My Cupra had the same engine, never had those faults, the ed30 guys don't seem to have those faults either.

And I have a TTRS not a tts.

As for the a4's they are nice cars, like I said all of a muchness, if they were so bad as you claim they wouldn't have won numerous awards and people wouldn't be buying them

You're wrong on the first point; I'm an ED30 driver, and had the same problems (and my brother's first GTI had misfires). In my research, I found out a LOT of people had the same problems. In fact, one American forum had a rather long thread chastising the quality of the 2.0TFSI compared to the old 1.8T unit.

My brother has a TTS, so I'm not sure what you mentioning your RS is for? Either way, Pistonheads (and others) have said that ths S is slightly more fun, but it still isn't a barrel of laughs, if I'm honest. It's good, and grippy, but unexciting.

People buy them because they are better looking than the competition (or were, until the facelifted C and new 3); the current generation A4 is not pleasant to drive. Audis are in vogue, though.

[Poverty]

Ok if you say so.

Enjoy your alfas