I've moved over from an EP3, great car I had my car modified for power and found it brilliant, when they are remapped they are a lot better to drive. I agree with motorway drone and i think the pre face lifts can look dated I had a premier facelift. Regards to the chav rep I think that goes with any half decent sports car when they become affordable. ie <2grand! IMO of course
Does the mk5 feel much more refined? Because a mate of mine had a blast in a mk5 when I had my ctr and he said they're no where near as quick, I told him they're pretty much identical on paper and the ctr only feels quicker due to the lack of refinement, he wasn't having it.
The golf is miles ahead in terms of refinement but I feel the CTR is a better car as standard to blast on B-roads. I only sold mine as I'm expecting our 2nd child and so decided its time to get a five door. I already have a 2010 A3 5dr (family car) which meant I was able to cling to my CTR for a while longer but my first child is nearly 2 so just struggling lifting in and out of car seats from the back!
Terms of performance, both standard, hard to say boost sometimes gives a false sense sense of speed and the CTRs need to be revved hard to get anywhere. That being said I would defo have another CTR maybe the newer FN2 as its more refined and has similar gadgets as the golf.
I think making power the golf is a lot cheaper because to achieve 240bhp in a EP3 even using second hand parts gonna cost around £1500 and then you will need around another £500.00 to set up the handling to go with that performance.
I maybe wrong as I'm new to the forum but I don't think MK5 GTI needs that much spending on it. Joys of forced induction.
I'd love to take a ride in a stage 1 Golf because I think that's comparable to NA stage 1 mods + remap CTR such as my old EP3
To conclude: ( feels like I'm writing an essay
) I have had my Golf for just over 3 weeks and I really enjoy driving it. DSG is great and the turbo means I can have fun without going all out to the red line. BUT I did miss my EP3 once, on a B-road, one quite evening, the golf felt a bit soft and i yearned for the screaming v-tec!!