What are GTi6's like as daily drivers?

[itone24]

Hey guys and girls,

Just wanted to know what the gti6s are like to live with daily. I currently have a hdi that I love but have loved the gti6 since I was a teen. Never driven one though but hear they drive really well and are pretty quick.

I do about 200 miles a week with the work millage basically dual carriageways and fuel price is not a major issue.

How reliable are they compared to the hdi's? Would I be better off spending a few quid on tuning the hdi for extra poke?

Are they cheap for a reason, seems a lot of car for £700-£1000.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

[Ruan]

They're pretty reliable, but if you rack up mileage quick, remember they really only do 36k on a cambelt, oil changes are fine at 10-12k... IMO they're pretty reliable, long as you don't piss with them.

They will at the price bracket you're looking at come with problems, you'll want to replace a lot of suspension components, they WILL be worn out - my advice is don't get carried away with "uprated" items - usually the items you're looking at have lasted 12-14 years and 100k miles or so. That's a very good life of a "hot hatch" suspension component - usually the "upgrade" items are worse or have downsides that the Peugeot engineers did engineer out... Shockingly they did know what they were doing.

I used my one for ~ a year daily, racked up 20k miles on it, it was horrifyingly expensive, I'm still suffering from what it cost me now. They're NOT torquey engines in comparison to the Diesels, especially when the Diesel is tuned, you do have to batter them off the limiter to really get moving, they're not an "effortless" cruising car, especially at 65mph - if I was to have a daily driver and couldn't have my Volvo and had a ~1000 budget, I'd get a HDi on a stage one map and be happy with it tbh...

[rocker8742]

Pretty much as above they're liveable but it gets pricey on fuel and cambelts lol was using mine for over a year and it wasn't too bad just the fuel cost in the end

But definitely worth it for the fun

[Pebbles167]

I used mine for 3 years. It carried me, my ex wife and our newborn daughter around faultlessly throughout this time.

[Pete]

Wouldn't like to sit in heavy traffic daily with one TBH, Both of my old ones got very warm! That said you could fit a manual override on the fans to get round that. Deffo got to have one at least one at least once though..the induction noise is addictive.

[Pebbles167]

Wouldn't like to sit in heavy traffic daily with one TBH, Both of my old ones got very warm! That said you could fit a manual override on the fans to get round that. Deffo got to have one at least one at least once though..the induction noise is addictive.

What he said, including the bits about it getting warm in traffic, which I forgot.

As for the induction noise, well...

A shameful plug I know, but here is mine. Listen when its at WOT after a corner, BLISS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcXQ8mQE...Dyemrv4dhw

[RetroPug]

They are reliable and practical but expensive on fuel.
I absolutely love my gti-6 and it is great fun, but coming from an HDi getting 38mpg doing 70 on the motorway very sensibly and probably 28 average if driving normally will hurt.

I'm about to start commuting in mine and worked out that 11000 miles per year would cost 2460 pounds on fuel alone.

[Dum-Dum]

I loved mine but they are only fun past 4500rpm and you have to keep it on cam to be fast. If you drop off cam on a gear shift you'll feel dead.

They drink fuel. Mine average 23mpg through my entire ownership but it was reliable. Only a snapped door handle and dead alternator in my ownership.

It's a car that encourages you to go faster and faster and even at the top of 5th they are still accelerating well. Only in 6th (past 130mph) do they loose the fast feeling.

[Curt]

They don't drink fuel. Well, they do if you compare them to a HDi... But how is that fair? They can be very good (for what they are) if driven sensibly. Mine averaged 37.5 to Devon and plenty of pootling around with some fun, too.

The only real difference would be fuel and the cambelts being consumables... If you can afford it, go for it. Any other problems will basically be universal 306 problems.

The way I always look at it is this; can you afford to drive it and not have to be concerned about fuel economy? If so, why not? If, on the other hand, you'll be thinking about it and trying to be careful, it probably isn't a good idea. You'll never get HDi MPG from one, that's not what they (or any hot hatch) is for.

[Poodle]

For a performance petrol engine they're actually pretty good on fuel, if driven sensibly, the challenge is working out whether or not you're capable of driving it sensibly or whether you'll end up mashing the limiter every time a chance arises. I know which one i ended up doing, as a result i struggled to see 25mpg on the commute lol. They will feel flat as a pancake low down compared to the HDi, or any diesel for that matter, but again, for a performance petrol engine of the era they're pretty good.

Reliability is a bit of a red herring as it depends entirely on the car you buy and how well it's looked after, but i will say this: If you're wanting something to thrash again and again and like a bit of limiter action then go with the GTi6. I'm a huge fan of tuned HDis, but the fact is the moment you start tuning and thrashing them regularly the engine suffers and it gets expensive. Naturally tuning highlights weaknesses already present and accounting for these weaknesses rapidly becomes expensive.

[THE_Liam]

To be fair, I struggle to match GTI economy with 109bhp, 20mpg round town and 35mpg on a run, I'd probably save in a GTI.

*RUNS TO EBAY*

[welshpug]

they have much more torque than comparative engines, they do not need battering off the limiter to do 65.

its all about gearing too, that makes the difference In torque.

torque is nothing without power

consistent 32mpg+ from mine, never got hot in traffic, never failed to get me to work, has newman cams soon to be mapped on throttlebodies

[Janne L]

I get roughly the same fuel consumption in the 6 as in my 136hp 307sw 2,0. And I try to drive the 307 sensibly, since it's so mind numbingly boring. The 6 does not get that kind of treatment, pedal to the floor quite often..

[itone24]

Thanks for the info guys! I think i might just be tempted!

Pebbles your 6 is awesome!

[willJspears]

I find my gti really easy to live with, because power doesn't come on song till about 4500 rpm, you don't have to drive it quick if you don't wont to. So for those days where you just wanna sit down and cruise at low speeds/rpms its pretty perfect. But those days when you wanna go for a spirited drive, they are really good fun, especially the bwarps from the induction, as said its a bit of a job the compare it to a hdi because they feel completely different to drive.

[Midnightclub]

Drove GTi daily for about a year and a half? Fine for motorway cruising and can get half decent MPG (for what they are) providing you don't rag it everywhere.. as welshpug said, they've got plenty of torque for what they are, it's not a turbo diesel.. and just use the gears properly and it shifts along nicely, it takes a second to drop a cog or 3.. In traffic they do get warm, but the fan mod is easily done

[silverzx]

Hell, it can't be worse then dannys 330 or my 200SX. Man up, get on with it.

[Midnightclub]

Bollocks do you drive the SX daily haha thought that was what the punto was for?! 330 gets used everyday.. and is actually better on fuel than my GTi6 lol

[welshpug]

plenty of power in my engine before 4500, its not a boosted or vtec engine!

no fan mod required, mine only has a single 150 w fan not the 250w of the rallye or 500 the 6 has, same rad and no issues.

[silverzx]

Bollocks do you drive the SX daily haha thought that was what the punto was for?! 330 gets used everyday.. and is actually better on fuel than my GTi6 lol

I clocked up 5,000 miles in 6 months in my SX with no pernament job.

Now I have the punto AND the 200SX as it worked out cheaper to run two cars then pay out my ass for fuel.

The only fuel that goes in the 200SX is for gorge blasts, driving to shows, or weekend driving.

Also, having a daily means I can smash up the 200SX.

[RetroPug]

they have much more torque than comparative engines, they do not need battering off the limiter to do 65.

its all about gearing too, that makes the difference In torque.

torque is nothing without power

consistent 32mpg+ from mine, never got hot in traffic, never failed to get me to work, has newman cams soon to be mapped on throttlebodies

That's in a lighter(surely?) shell as well.



To add, as you have a 306 you already know that it can be a bit rattly and road noise can be quite bad on the motorway, especially in a ph.1 but they are very easy to pull apart and sound-deaden & dampen.

[PartyJas]

I used my Gti-6 as a daily for 10 years and clocked up 120,000 miles. Never let me down and got thrashed regularly. I could get 500 miles to a tank of fuel if you drove conservatively so cant understand why some people are telling you the fuel costs are high.?
I can honestly say its the best car i have ever owned and would recommend them to anyone. Even after 10 years it would still make me grin when you drive it hard.
Damn.. i want to get it back on the road now after writing this.

[kentiiboii]

I sold my hdi to fund getting my gti6 on the road. Best decision I ever made! I love driving it every day! Although the fuel is expensive when hou hit 7k revs everywhere, but when you keep it under 4k revs its not too bad considering its a gti6.
I did pugfest, 8 hill runs and the drive back which is 105 miles each way on just over half a tank.

But saying this I am going to be buying a hdi in a month or so to use as a daily. The best bit for me is work is only a 10-15 minute walk for me.

[welshpug]

That's in a lighter(surely?) shell as well.

only minimally, its in a ZX, my 205 is still 8 valve, guesstimates at around 1100 kg for the ZX as it is, 1150 is the standard kerb weight but I run lighter wheels and tyres.

[RetroPug]

That's in a lighter(surely?) shell as well.

only minimally, its in a ZX, my 205 is still 8 valve, guesstimates at around 1100 kg for the ZX as it is, 1150 is the standard kerb weight but I run lighter wheels and tyres.

Yeah I was thinking of the ZX.

I used my Gti-6 as a daily for 10 years and clocked up 120,000 miles. Never let me down and got thrashed regularly. I could get 500 miles to a tank of fuel if you drove conservatively so cant understand why some people are telling you the fuel costs are high.?
I can honestly say its the best car i have ever owned and would recommend them to anyone. Even after 10 years it would still make me grin when you drive it hard.
Damn.. i want to get it back on the road now after writing this.

450 is what most people report getting driving conservatively on extra-urban roads.

I've had 38-40 mpg on the motorway before which is acceptable. As soon as you begin to have any fun it drops off very rapidly though, and if you take it on track you'll wonder whether you might have a hole in the bottom of the tank.


To the OP:
As others have said, at 700 they will be tired, and could do with a suspension refresh, but even buying one at 700 and spending several more hundred on refreshing key components you're getting a fantastic car for your money.

Yes, fuelling it is a bit costly but life is short, get a gti-6 and enjoy it while you can. Mine makes me happy every time I get behind the wheel.

Also, if you live in Rugby I've just moved to Warwickshire and I'd be happy to let you have a look at mine and have a passenger ride once I'm back from going on holiday tomorrow.

[Sian]

I've had mine for over 2 years with two young kids and its done me so well! Done 470 miles pugfest weekend! (Full tank) mine isn't bad on fuel at all! I hoon it occasionally when I haven't got the kids and I still don't see a dramatic loss of fuel.. Get a ph 1 I've had 4 ! And this one is the only decent one on fuel!

[Eeyore]

I havent owned one but ive been in them on the road and on track. When the power kicks in its amazing. They do get hot very quickly. The fuel bill is obviously a fair amount along with the consumables. What I always notice about the gti6 is that it feels like its made a lot better. Everything is heavier and just feels taught. In the 1.8 and hdi everything seems floppy and cheap.

As a daily id probably rather have a stage 2 limited torque hdi.

What I would definitely not recommend is a 1.8. It has the fuel economy of a 6 and the power of neither.

[lewisdmz]

Been running mine as a daily for 2 1/2 years, only downside is fuel and they do get hot in traffic. Plenty torquey enough for any daily driver, mine accelerates well enough in 3rd/4th gear at ~35mph for driving in the city. Motorway driving is fine I just stick it in 6th and it's got enough grunt to accelerate between 60 and 80mph quick enough than you need if you know how to drive properly.

Obviously it's not going to be as torquey as a diesel but how often is it that you're pootling along at 2krpm and then realise you need to accelerate urgently?

[itone24]

Thanks for all the awesome comments, you really are a great bunch!

[Tom]

I must agree with Chris, i only driven one for a week, but i found it very eager, i constantly found myself wanting to drive faster/sillier, just the noise and the feel really edged you on, i did however find it awful to drive slowly/economically, the only time i enjoyed it was foot flat.