New Company Car

[Tanto]

Hi,

I'll be changing my company car in October and I have a list to choose from that includes the following:

VW Passat Estate 2.0TDi SE or Sport (140bhp) - can add extras to the SE, may be able to scrape metallic paint on the Sport.

Audi A4 Avant 2.0 TDi SE (140bhp) - no extras.

Honda Accord 2.2 CDTi Sport Estate

Toyota Avensis 2.2 D-4D T4 Estate (150bhp) - can add extras + local dealer happy to help with authorised Toyota tuning for diesel engine.

Peugeot 407SW 2.0HDi Executive - manual or auto + extras.

Skoda Octavia L&K Estate 2.0 TDi - manual or DSG + extras.

Any thoughts, comments and recommendations will be very welcome.

Just to give you a little more background, I work in a multifunctional support capacity for a healthcare company supplying/supporting patient safety & tracing systems. I drive around 45,000 miles per annum, I'm married with 2 teenage daughters and we have a labrador to transport in the back of the car. Comfort and safety are important to me.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers ;)

[longboyad]

Words of wisdom!!

Go go for the 2.0TDI on the S, in the estate, and add the following....

Dark Glass,
Arm Rest
Cruise c
Small Leather Pack
Digi A/C
17 inch alloys
Magic Black metallic

Total list is less cost than sport, but 99% of spec and looks the same when in black, and well within C/Car leasing limits, even a little left for other stuff - 12 week wait on all models is a bind, but worth it.

[Tanto]

Cheers Longboyad. Good suggestion, I'll check that out. Want to try and ensure I spec heated washer jets too (may have to spec heated seats/winter pack for that).

Any experience of tuning 140bhp Passats? Thoughts on ECU remaps & tuning boxes would be very useful. :D

[glynnd]

Dont got the tuning box route. Have it re mapped to get approx 175bhp and near 300lb ft torque.

[Tanto]

Torque Tec (Mansfield) seem to offer similar from a tuning box:

http://www.torqtec.com/index.php?ma=vehicles&make=Volkswagen

Could there be an advantage in the ability to remove the tuning box at will in order to avoid warranty/garage issues? ;)

[glynnd]

Not at all because an ecu remap is undetectable to a VW dealer. The only way to determine a remap is to obtain a power graph from a rolling road session.

[Baron_Samedi]

Nice rescue of a pensioned thread!

D'oh now I'm implicated ;)