Edited by oldgit on 24/08/2009 at 16:14

UKCarBroker just told me half an hour ago that he can't get any 1.4TSI 122s

until next year. I didn't think my road test of it was that glowing.

HJ

Edited by idle_chatterer on 04/02/2010 at 20:58

Am in the same boat with regards the delivery and would very much like to add the aftermarket rear parking sensors but am bamboozled by the choices. Can I ask what make you used and how much it cost? Thanks!

Don't know anything about the choices on Golfs, but after my experience a year ago I suggest being very wary of aftermarket sensors.

My Nissan Almera has brilliant factory-fitted parking sensors: a wide-spaced squeak becomes progressively closer-spaced as I get closer to an obstacle, eventually becoming a continuous noise as I'm about to hit something. They are brilliant, and I'd hate to be without them.

About year ago, I bought a Vauxhall Vectra estate for a friend. Credit crunch bargain, cheap as chips, huge big car ... but no parking sensors. No prob, thinks me, I'll get aftermarket sensors. Got a few quotes from Vauxhall garages, and chose the cheapest who assured me they were the same as factory-fitted sensors.

I dunno whether they were actually the same, but they are junk.They start off with a loud, widely-spaced bong, and end up with a continuous sound when you're about to hit the onstacle, but unfortunately the bit inbetween has two big steps, rather than a continuous change in sound. The lack of any fine-graded indication of position makes them near useless for positioning the vehicle, and everybody who drives the car just ignores them.

I'm sure that some aftermarket sensors are fine, but do check out carefully what you are getting for your money. I wasted £225 on those pointless sensors, and suggest that anyone thinking of handing over their cash asks for a demo of a car with that make of sensors fitted before getting them fitted to your car.

We were offered a build date of March or April when we wanted to order a TSi 122 SE Golf with a few options in November '09, ended up compromising on colour and getting retro fit parking sensors (albeit very good and almost indistinguishable from factory fit), but then we only had to wait 2 weeks. Another dealer offered the right colour but the cars were loaded with expensive and unwanted options and they weren't willing to discount at all. Dealers seemed willing to 'swap' 122 TSi cars amongst each other as they were confident of selling them. If you'll take dealer 'stock' orders then (at least in Nov) you can get these cars, I suspect with even the VW website suggesting that the 122 TSi engine will be on back order then dealers will probably be putting a premium on these too ? In fairness, both dealers were absolutely honest about the order lead times and both strived to get a car which had been 'ordered into stock'. So far we're really impressed by the car btw, I like the 122 TSi engine and I'm used to a 245PS 330d.

Hi,

Am in the same boat with regards the delivery and would very much like to add the aftermarket rear parking sensors but am bamboozled by the choices. Can I ask what make you used and how much it cost? Thanks!

With an ever ageing neck and myopia, factory fitted parking sensors were an absolute must for me when I ordered my new Golf just over a year ago now. As many of you might know I took delivey over 5 months later in late July 2009.
These factor fit sensors work in conjunction with a crude-ish display on my 122 TSI's 'SE' RCD 310 radio and has two different tones for back and front sensors. Parking accurately has never been easier since I had them.
You can keep you aftermarket stuff, to be honest.

I'll need to check the make, could be Scorpion or Cobra. They're the ones which the supplying dealer habitually fits to its own demonstrators and loan cars, very neatly integrated / colour coded and flush fitting.

In terms of performance, they're slightly better than the dealer-fit Honda system fitted to our previous Civic (Honda didn't offer factory-fit) , OK but not as good as the factory-fit system in my 330d or previous Audi A4.

It's hard to say the price as it was factored into the deal and we got a discount, but on paper not much less than the factory fit to be honest, however we got the car in 2 weeks not 6 months.....