First Drive R36

[Swallowtail]

Well, had my first drive today, and I'm sold...

Nice nice car. Well put together, feels very solid, very linear power delivery, beaut DSG box. The seats are fabulous... I want one! Very different drive to the 6MPS - doesn't have the sheer grunt that mine has, but very smooth and sophisticated... be interesting to actually drive it in anger - the awd system I understand is fwd biased rather than the 6MPSs rwd bias, so I imagine it will handle somewhat differently. The ride is fine, especially being used to the Mazda.

So I will be placing an order for an Icelandic Gray R36 sedan, black interior, sunroof, sat nav, dynaudio, MDI audio module once we sort out details (i.e. $ ). Then I have to wait 4 months for the car!!! Aarggh!

The guy I was talking to today was at the VWWC / OzMazdaclub dyno day shaneth and I organised last year, so we had a bit to chat about.

Question for anyone - the Velos 18" wheels that are an option, anyone know how much they are? Anyone got them on an R36 instead of the Omanyt standard 18"s?

[DiMmY]

It's FWD bias until it detects slip. There are mod's that you can do to change that

[Autopia]

Congrats on your decision swallowtail.

I drove the 6MPS when it first came out and was well impressed. I took a look at a second hand one about 3 months ago and thought that it hadn't aged very well. It looked remarkably out of date.

The R36 is in a completely different league as far as standard features are concerned but then again the price is also quite different. Or is it? What was the 6MPS worth when new?

Anyway, you'll love it man. So far all I've had is a 50 minute solo test drive but it blew me away. Can't wait to get mine.

Cheers
Sean

[Swallowtail]

I like the look of my 6MPS still, it looks subtly purposeful. But yes, standard features etc are a different league on the R36, and the attention to detail and engineering in the VW is superior. I knew that having coming from a Golf V Sportline before. MPS Luxury edition was $52K i think from memory when new, although they discounted them fairly heavily. $48K for the cloth seats / no sunroof / no Bose stereo base model.

[Autopia]

I like the look of my 6MPS still, it looks subtly purposeful. But yes, standard features etc are a different league on the R36, and the attention to detail and engineering in the VW is superior. I knew that having coming from a Golf V Sportline before. MPS Luxury edition was $52K i think from memory when new, although they discounted them fairly heavily. $48K for the cloth seats / no sunroof / no Bose stereo base model.

$48K ain't bad for something that goes that hard. My only real issue was that the interior looked the same as my wifes 6 wagon that cost $35K.

[tryingavw]

I like the look of my 6MPS still, it looks subtly purposeful. But yes, standard features etc are a different league on the R36, and the attention to detail and engineering in the VW is superior. I knew that having coming from a Golf V Sportline before. MPS Luxury edition was $52K i think from memory when new, although they discounted them fairly heavily. $48K for the cloth seats / no sunroof / no Bose stereo base model.

we had a good look at the new mazda luxo hatchback - everything very good except interior not up with the passat, the japs car dash design i feel too much black & grey plastic.