John,

I'm with you. I understand what they're trying to do and I agree with it. I'd be a target buyer I suppose, I've owned my 01 bugeye from new and it's served me well. I'm a mature (old!) driver and I'm not interested in how fast it goes round a track, and I don't want gold wheels and a loud paint scheme. Practicality appeals to the family man in me. I want a fast car though.

For whatever reason the WRX seems a strange car. At £20k it's over priced and too slow. If I were buying I'd be looking at the STi, but the price, residuals and now sadly road tax put me off. I don't want to leave, but the competition (BMW, VW, Audi) seems too strong.

Maybe they've changed their mind, as EVO mag quoted back in june last year that the 230bhp (only an ecu tweak btw;)) engine of the 30th would be standard from this year..!? Or EVO mag had it wrong..?

It would make sense as VW have always carried over any engine mods from their anniversary edition GTI's into the following years car as standard.

Maybe it's still to come..?:)

BTW what's DSG got to do with it, or do all 30th's come with DSG..? :razz:

I was merely pointing out that it was not the DSG in the test as this is considered the faster car (6.9 to 60 as opposed to 7.2) although I would suggest both are rather conservative manufacturer's figures.

I have not heard myself of this switch to the 230bhp remap, you may be correct that it is a future consideration, although bearing in mind there was only recently a minor face lift and a new Golf set to make an appearance in 2009 it may have been no more than that.