Practically Classics Forum

tractorman wrote:The new Golf (Mk5 Bluemotion) certainly has a four pot - more or less the same PD engine as my last Golf (Mk4) - 103BHP instead of the old one's 100.

In the Mk6 it has the same engine as the "ordinary" Golf, just added stop/start technology, it's not the old PD engine but the new CR one introduced a few years ago to replace the PD engine, though I think the Mk5 did use the PD engine with different gearing... I've been comparing notes with a fellow Golf Mk6 driver, he has the BM, I've got the ordinary one, gearing-wise they are the same in DSG trim, just seems to be the s/s being the difference.

I think I was being a bit unfair earlier regarding 80s cars, which, in the main were pretty reliable, just many of them rusted, though not as bad as earlier cars... Certainly thinking back to the series of Rovers and Vauxhalls i had from that era they were ok... I think perhaps the scrappage scheme has a lot to do with the lack of old cars out there, perhaps the same as the early 60s when the MOT was introduced doing away with a load of rust heaps?

Off topic - hobby, you're right - the Mk5 has higher 4th and 5th gears, some remapping and the stop-start and GTI springs with 65 profile tyres (to reduce the rolling resistance) - not sure about the tricks in the Mk6 (a car I prefer the look of!).

Wiki had a handy page about VW engine codes and I have just got the invoice for the "new" Golf, which lists the engine number (and thus type), so I could check that it is indeed an update of the ATD engine in the old (Mk4) Golf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vo ... el_engines

On topic again - alabbasi is bang on - as is Wicksy: the main thing that stopped be going for a usable classic (like a certain Rover in the ads section) was the air-con, low maintenance and safety features of a modern. OK, sensible driving should mean the safety features aren't needed, but the fact that I can hear the radio without having it annoying the pedestrians can't be a bad thing!

Of course, an important factor in improved reliability has to be oils - the introduction of multigrade being a leap forward in itself. I cahnged my old Maxi's 1500 engine (that had been abused by the previous owner) for a 1750 and found that, although the idiot had taken the end plate off the oil filter, that there was little wear on the crank or bores (at 120K miles)! Our last Minor had gone through the 100K on it's original engine about ten or fifteen years earlier and it was really suffering (father couldn't afford a rebuild!).

Yes you're right regarding the oils, though I suspect that tolerances that manufacturers work to has become finer as well, perhaps the two have gone hand in hand? Also it has to be admitted that computer-based electronics in cars have progressed somewhat from the basics of the early "computerised" cars, which were somewhat hit and miss... Though some modern cars still seem to have their electronics as their Achilles heel...

hobby wrote:Yes you're right regarding the oils, though I suspect that tolerances that manufacturers work to has become finer as well, perhaps the two have gone hand in hand? Also it has to be admitted that computer-based electronics in cars have progressed somewhat from the basics of the early "computerised" cars, which were somewhat hit and miss... Though some modern cars still seem to have their electronics as their Achilles heel...

MG Montego, with the foxxy ladies voice[?] "I am about to break down"....lol

alfaSleep

alfaSleep wrote:.......MG Montego, with the foxxy ladies voice[?] "I am about to break down"....lol

alfaSleep

That was especially funny when Goffey rolled the Maestro version during the BBC's Top Gear road test of the new VDP, which did have the talking dash. There he was, sat upside-down at the dyke side, the talking dash bleeping and chattering away at him: "Door open, door open, door open........."

Try as I might, I never yet managed to invert a Maestego on a straight road.