Reli said:
Yes, but I didn't care too much about the different bumpers. What's worse is how YOUR recent pedestrian safety regulations have forced everyone to use higher hoods, dash, and firewalls.
By the way, 2013 Golf 1.4 TFSI = 2800 lbs, and a lot more for a GTI
No, these figures are for the older MK6. MK7 weights are as I posted, we don't buy many petrol versions here but presumably they'd be slightly lighter again. I can see how the confusion may have arisen; MK7 was a year later being introduced across there than here so in the USA, a 2013 Golf would be the much heavier MK6.
Higher? Yes, this has come about as a result of the erroneous assumption that we'd have to follow European regs which we don't -
and won't for the foreseeable future unless Scotland gets the "no" vote in September as that would also keep the UK in Europe - has led to many manufacturers selling crap like the Datsun Joke, the shapes of many previously small cars have grown taller too, but we still have small stuff. The shape of the Citigolf - which uses the old MK1 (Rabbit) shell is as it was in 1974 and it meets current Construction and Use regs, which are much more accommodating here than over in Europe.
The Golf in the attached picture is a new one, sold here (as were South American-built Beetles until 2005 and T2s until a few weeks ago) and built in VW's South African factory, it weighs less again than the European/Chinese/Mexican MK7 but they don't import many as the only Diesel option is a VWUK conversion that takes the cost beyond that of a MK7:
If you want to read about just how slack the UK's safety regs are compared to the rest of the world,
this document illustrates how little care needs to go into vehicles that can legally be used on the public roads network. And none of that applies to pre-1960 cars whose use is unrestricted and all pre-1974 cars (this is a rolling , 41st year exemption) come with the added bonus of much cheaper insurance, free VED (Vehicle Excise Duty, a charge made by the government originally for the maintenance of the roads but they changed the name from "road fund licence" when the population realised that our roads don't receive much in the way of maintenance at all). I have a few old cars to play with at weekends but the sad fact is that these days, I have to own a modern car too (I occasionally need to carry students to appointments and they must all have seat belts and be carried only by staff whose cars meet certain criteria
) but as it consistently does around 65mpg on average and has a particularly good hifi, it's not too hard to live with. It's no Godfather trilogy though because in the case of the Golf - regardless of the weight that the new one has lost - the original was IMHO the best, even if the Diesels were then actually slower than the petrol ones!
http://www.porsche924-944.nl/manual/Haynes/image010j.gif
