E30 vs new Golf, no contest.

[tomstickland]

I borrowed a company car today. It was a 5dr Golf 2.0 TDi Auto. I'm not sure what gearbox it is, but it had D and S (sport) options. I was told it was the DSG, but the slow changes make me doubt. I think it was the 140BHP version.

It's a big car with big wheels and loads of grip. But the suspension is very soft - just braking at 10mph had it tipping up.

The brakes have a bit of spongey play and then bite really hard. It was near impossible to feather them to gradually knock off a bit of speed.

The gear change is slow. Boot it and there's a 1s gap before anything happens. Drive round a corner and open some throttle and it'll decide to change, throwing the balance on the corner.

It won't go into drive unless you push on the brake pedal. So the only way of doing a fast launch is to sit there in drive with the handbrake on.

The steering feels very dead. It tells me nothing about the road. Nothing.

The DSG option turns itself on automatically, so I'd have to turn it off every time I drove it.

The indicators think they're clever and do 3 flashes if you only push for one.

Acceleration is quite good in little bursts.

It goes round big sweeping bends on motorways well.

It's not a car I'd every drive anywhere for fun. It's like what I imagine being married to a very lazy and fat woman is like. Every time you want to do something fun or sporty it complains and messes it up with slow responses or some automated bollox cutting in. Maybe with a manual gearbox I'd gie it a second chance.

This is a car with no concept of fun. Sure, it's very competent at going along a motorway at 80mph, but even doing that's boring because there's no sensation of travelling quite fast.

TDous.
I think I prefer my 1991 E30 318iS. It's actually fun to drive.

[BMracing]

I've driven many A3's with DSG/s tronic gearbox and the gearchange is certainly not slow, its a clever twin clutch design and it would be physically impossible to change gear that quickly with a conventional manual.
Otherwise I agree with you completely, this is the trouble with modern cars generally, the complication spoils the driving experience. If you want to do something the car has to agree before it lets you.

[tomstickland]

Must be a conventional auto.

[tomstickland]

Multitronic apparently, described as "slow antiquated crap".

[fuzzy]

my wife just got an 07 plate golf and although its the base model i think it drives not to bad and is quite nippy for a sh1tty fwd car

[BMracing]

It couldn't have been multitronic, they're are only on cars with longitudinaly mounted engines like the A4 and A6. The Golf, A3 etc. are transverse. If it was a 2.0 TDI and it was an auto, then it was DSG!
You'd have hated a multitronic then, they're CVT and even less involving, a lazier gearbox, unreliable too!