Focus has a Fight on its Hands..New Golf Below $20k ??

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by ryeman

I'm not talking about assembly but design which is the important thing.
What would Thailand know about steering geometry?
BMW is built in USA X5 so that's not German?

Assembly is as important as design. A good design can be let down by poor assembly. (Er, not speaking as a Territory owner of course!)

I believe there have been a lot of problems with South African assembly for VW.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by mcnews

Going Euro can be fraught with danger as for buying/owning out of warranty that is brave....

Got to disagree, i know of numerous XR5's that are out of warranty. Same could be said of owning a falcon that is in warranty still, but you only hear the bad stories with both cases because the good stories dont rate.

Main reason i didnt purchase a GTi was the service costs and the cost of the options that i wanted.

My partner almost purchased a new Golf but was turned away for the same reasons i was.

[ryeman]

Originally Posted by new2ford

Assembly is as important as design. A good design can be let down by poor assembly. (Er, not speaking as a Territory owner of course!)

I believe there have been a lot of problems with South African assembly for VW.

That applies to all cars not assembled in their 'home' country.
It depends on what % of the oily bits are actually manufactured and assembled in low cost countries.
I don't know of any Thai built Jap cars having problems from their green field sights. The Japs don't take risks with their reputation to the extent that Germans do eg Sth African BMW VW etc.

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

I choose cars based on the way they drive rather than what standard features are fitted.

That makes you a motoring enthusiast and one of a minority of new car buyers. Most people can't drive, so how would they know if it drives well? They do pickup on the infotainment stuff and the bling though.

[mcnews]

The Thai motorcycle plants are putting out some fantastic quality, even in low budget products. And in some ways, plastics and paint, outdoing their Japanese parent company more expensive products...

[last fairlane]

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[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by DanielXR8

That makes you a motoring enthusiast and one of a minority of new car buyers. Most people can't drive, so how would they know if it drives well? They do pickup on the infotainment stuff and the bling though.

I agree.. I have a friend who owns a corolla & wants to buy a new one. I asked him why he likes corollas & the answer was (make sure you are sitting down), he likes the way it drives!!

[Djrystofer]

Thai built cars are quite well made,
Sisters Honda jazz has been around for 2 years nearly & it hasn't had a single problem build quality wise, no rattles no strange sounds.

As for south African, I guess it's what day it's built on
I've got an old e36 Beamer that was assembled in south africa, same deal as the honda jazz except it's 18 years old.


As for the topic - The golf is actually quite a nice car, they look nice & are great fun to drive, but unfortunately if you want to look nice & have all the things you'd expect to be standard, you'd have to start ticking those options