With this

I would love to see someone baby with a Camaro. That body may look nice, but that car is impossibly small on the inside, and the trunk opening would struggle to swallow a diaper bag, let alone a stroller. Nothing against the Camaro, but it's not much more practical than the aforementioned Lotus.

If memory serves, that was because, the diesel version did everything the petrol did, but was cheaper and got better mileage. It was still the "lower" (in terms of trim level) engine.

I actually got my first lesson driving stick in a 1.9TDI MkIV Golf (same engine), and it's now my friend's DD, so I do know what you're talking about with that. I'd say it's fun, but not exciting. It's certainly got enough power, but not so much that you're going to hurt yourself, whereas an exciting engine will hurt…

Our New Beetle did that, too. It was my DD before I got my own car, and it would run through the first half of the tank very, very slowly, then the next quarter would be markedly quicker, and the final quarter I'm pretty sure you could see the needle moving.

Well even modern TG does it :p It's not that I'm blaming them, I get their diesel hate & they're totally justified in it, I just wanted to point out that most of us don't actually share that sentiment. In Europe, diesel = crap base model economy car, while in the U.S. they're much more quirky and "out there." It's the…

I'm fairly certain no one here thinks they're exciting (although I'd love to have a go in a Touareg R50 or Q7 V12 TDI), but it's more that they excite our collective practicality fetish. I'm guessing you're in Europe based on your other posts, though, so your lack of interest is understandable. In the U.S. they're…

Despite what Top Gear would lead you to believe, we quite like diesel around here.

Fair enough, but to the rally wannabes this car is marketed at, that is the correct layout. This car isn't really made for the average person, it's supposed to be a road going rally car, so keeping it true to an actual rally car in that regard makes sense. Anyways, Joe Schmo will just leave it in auto or use the…

I think you're confusing usability and intuitiveness (if that's not a word, it is now). It's just as easy to pull for an upshift as it is to push, it's just not what your average person would guess to do at first. Once you got used to it, it would feel completely natural. Plus, like he said, that's how a real…

Anything other than a Marauder is just risky.

I'm guessing it has more to do with the recent jump in popularity of turbocharged engines. Regardless, I don't really care who makes it/what car it's going in/why they're doing it. As a fan of small turbo'd engines, a 200hp 1.3T is like something out of my wettest, wildest dreams.

From the source article:

Personally, I think this thing is pretty epic. I'd never buy one, but hopefully this will pave the way for crazy-high mpg diesel hybrid economy cars. I mean, a golf tdi already sees prius-like gas mileage, imagine what it'll be able to do with a well-designed hybrid drivetrain. That's a hybrid even I might be able to…

Yeah, I've seen 'em around. I'm fairly certain the MkIV GTI came as a 4-door in other countries, since I saw a Jeremy Clarkson review of one.

I've always found it somewhat amusing how much of a range of interests the Golf covers. If you want a practical, high-mpg people hauler, go get yourself a 4-door TDI. If you want to haul ass and burn gas, but still have some space in the rear, the GTI (which only came in a 2-door, at least in the US) is damn hard to…

This! While my GTI doesn't fit the non-performance theme, I'm a huge fan of any MkIV Golf. Cheap, reliable, comfortable, interior/features which compete with Audis of the time, good-looking (at least in my eyes), and enough space for all 6 feet and 5 inches of me, plus 3 of my friends and all of our stuff. I even…

Because old cars have round instrument clusters.

Dunno about 120, but it will do 115.

I say as long as sight lines are clear and there is absolutely no chance of you hurting anyone or anything other than yourself and your property, go for it, but you better be damn sure there is *NO ONE* sharing the road with you.