Thursday October 21, 2004

Jenson stays with BAR who gets the second seat at Williams?

Good to see Jenson is already patching things up with his Boss at BAR. The idiot statements that certain newspapers ( red tops ) made over last weekend saying he would refuse to drive if he had to stay at BAR are thankfully unfounded.

We will never know the real reason he wanted out but hopefully next year he can get that first win. It is also good to see BAR are already testing components for next years season where a lot of downforce etc will be removed to slow things down.

Who gets the second seat at Williams is a good question. They may put 'jungle boy' on a one year deal and get Button in for 2006, it will be a good test for anyone to be alongside Webber who I think has to make a few less mistakes. Patrick Head according to Damon Hill always used to say if drivers did not fall off the track once in a while they were not pushing hard enough.

Test drove the Golf GT TDI 2.0 litre

So on Tuesday I picked up one of these . I managed to persuade the garage to let me have it overnight. First impressions are that it is a good car. Typical VW build quality and it feels nice and solid. The one I drove had a few extras but pretty much the base GT TDI.

Having not driven a Golf since its mark II days it was a shock at how much it has grown in size. Sitting in the back is not so much of a squeeze nowadays. The ride is excellent, the GT TDI has lowered suspension like my Passat sport and I like having the feeling of my seat closer to the ground... I would love the DSG auto box with the paddle controls on the steering column.

The 2.0 diesel is excellent it is not noisy as other diesels and there is no sign of that oil burner smell you can sometimes get on starting from cold. I think VW are a bit mean with the music system - a six disk changer should be standard on this model.

Not wishing to advertise but I get the feeling I'l be able to buy one of these at around 16.500 GBP. Many web pages have prices at around this for NEW cars and not ones registered six months ago and have been parked up in a field... I think the way it works is VW dealers who have not made their quotas, sign up to these web sites and agree a price and therefore make their quota and we get the car cheap.

The only last thing to consider is wether I wait for next years Passat and hang onto my company car till then. I think a tornado red Golf is heading to Twyford.