What's so apparently hard to live with about them in day to day life? Would one annoy me?
I'm curious, as the 197/200 Cups are dropping to the kind of money that makes them a proposition for picking one up as a track/'Ring/hooning car. Putting the Golf back standard-ish and abusing one of these things instead.
I'm thinking I could get one on a PCP and then just brush whats left of it back through the dealer's doors in 2 years time on the "hand back"... But I don't want one if it means I'm going to want to be driving it off a pier if I spend more than 10 minutes in a town centre in one.
So, downsides???
Being french, you have to expect things to go wrong, though as with any car nowadays really.
I've had front springs replaced as I felt the travel seemed to clunk on return and the drivers seat is wearing too much, but should be replaced under warrranty.
Some days I feel it can be a bit too stiff when driving around town due to pot holes and other bumps in the road, but then other days I don't even notice it. To help this though, I take it out on some lanes to get a fix, as when you push it as it wants to be driven, it's very addictive, just like a CTR or anything high revving.
I changed over to this for 4 reasons from my GTTDI Golf.
1) The Golf had numerous problems fixed under warranty and the warranty was up
2) The one I bought was only 10months old so i still have 2 years of warranty to rely on
3) the gf can be insured and drive the Clio (wouldn't touch her on the VW)
4) *the most important*
I bought this so that when the warranty is up and hopefully business is going well, I can strip it out to a track weapon. There is also a supercharger and turbo charged options in development which can make these very quick little things too. One's already had a turbo strapped on and tested up to boiling point of 280bhp, but then went bang, but this was on standard internals etc, nothing changed apart from bolting on a turbo! Only thing is the price will be about £3-4k depending on the choice.
I think you'd need to try one for yourself. Where are you based?