Six months have flown by and here we are, back with an incredibly dull running report.
*Touch wood* nothing has properly gone wrong so there’s actually not a lot to report on.
The pings and bongs have lessened over time to almost none until…
… earlier this week I had to visit the solicitors so a trip into the city centre was required. Just a humdrum trip really but worthy of note was that after parking up for an hour or so under a big tree when I restarted the car all of the frontal warning systems, ACC, ESC and god knows what else including front and rear parking sensors simultaneously flashed up as not operating. I turned the engine off and jumped out to see if someone had backed into my front bumper whilst parked, but nada, just a few dozen dead flies and some seagull poop on my bonnet plus a layer of dirt.
On restarting the amber lights had all gone out but they’ve flashed back up once more since then briefly.
No apparent reason why aside from once again the car was parked in the shade at the time. Mk8 characteristic weirdness typified.
Six months ago on the day I picked the car up it was the first time I’d seen a mk8 Clubsport. I’ve still yet to see another.
I’ve only seen one mk8 R which was in a dealer (launch demo car) and only a handful of mk8 GTI’s in dealers but I did actually see one GTI out in the wild. A lady driving it out of Sainsburys car park!
Mk7 R’s were absolutely everywhere in my neck of the woods for the last few years then quite a few 7.5 GTI’s appeared but I’ve barely seen a mk8 generally aside from an R-Line that lives in the house behind me. The base mk8’s still look awkward to me, lots of unfortunate angles where they’ve obviously been chasing aero coefficient figures. Mind you I see loads of ID.3’s and they just look like old fashioned cheese dishes on wheels.
Ok, talking of looks, the exterior of the Clubsport has grown on me. I was one of many that hated the looks of the mk8 in pictures but agreed the sporty ones looked ok in the flesh.
From some angles the car looks great, from others it looks ok and generally it’s a fairly cohesive design using current VW signature styling.
The late mk7’s still knocks spots off the mk8 from any frontal or side angle with the possible exception of the 7(.5)R in my opinion. I parked near a 7.5 GTI and saw an Ed40 Clubsport, both in white, just this past week in Exeter and both just have such impressive frontal architecture compared to the new kid on the block.
I actually quite appreciate the matte grey plastic honeycomb mesh front bumper and side skirt sections from a practical point of view. I’m one of few who appreciate them over a gloss finish because that low down they get peppered with road debris and seem more hardwearing. The glossy front badge has already picked up marks and the rear spoiler section in gloss black is a swirl magnet no matter how gently I wash the car.
I said the car looked plasticky when I first got it. I’ve gotten used to that now and barely notice it.
Inside the car where the big changes lie is probably worth commenting on the most.
I quickly got used to the haptics on the steering wheel but still dislike them, however I think they’ll be fairly ubiquitous across the whole industry soon. Maybe it’s more to do with less physical parts on the vehicles keeping both production costs down and also helping towards carbon neutral goals.
Surprisingly I quite liked the rest of the dash from the off and still do. I’m not impressed by the slabs of gloss plastic around the screens but that seems to be the standard design for new MQB models including the T7.
The sliders under the central screen are a bit rubbish still but I’m used to them and at least I can’t get nervous twitches if my volume knob is fractionally skewed as there’s not one there!
The iPad type icons are just about large enough to be able to lunge at them with an index finger on the fly. Not a great design but just about everyone is familiar with that smartphone type design nowadays so it’s about as user friendly as can be expected with so many different menus and features built into modern cars.
The gear bean is a bit small. I’ve got used to it but would prefer something more lever like.
DSG tends to change up very quickly into off boost gears so snicking that switch back into S mode is usually the easiest way to perform a rapid overtaking manoeuvre or pulling out of a junction quickly in traffic. It can be hit and miss.
The steering wheel is still lovely to hold. The DSG paddles are still too small and not very sturdy feeling though.
Between the clicky switch DSG controls and the myriad of iPad menus, with just about everything assistive, it’s certainly removing those last few things that feel mechanical about cars before we are engulfed in semi-autonomous electric carriages.
But the actual mechanical bits are superb in the Clubsport.
Ok, the DSG programming can be a pain in the arse but the engine and chassis are just superb. Really really impressive.
The R is no doubt a fair bit better, but for my uses the standard Clubsport really is impressive even after over three decades of modified GTI’s.
Six months is plenty long enough to familiarise and I do drive the Clubsport on the right sort of roads (albeit usually choked with tourist traffic during daylight) to make the most of it, so I can happily say it’s a great choice if you enjoy throwing a car into corners without too much worry of it drifting into a hedge or oncoming vehicles. It’s a true joy to drive on winding roads but also doubles up as a van quite well too!
Yep, it won’t do MaccyD car park drifts, it won’t do 4 second to sixty mph drag races or any of that stuff but everything else it does mightily well. It even averages around 34 mpg so long as I stay out of city traffic.
Just this week it has transported probably 100 kilos of badly packaged ceramics on potholed city roads without upsetting any of it, it has moved a tumble dryer three times, half a dozen rocks, a load of slate chippings, some fairly large potted plants, a bloody great box containing a chair and various other bits and bobs. It might have five seats but I don’t use them, however the rear doors are invaluable for loading stuff onto the folded seat backs…
So yeah, it ticks the boxes that say fast, good handling and practical which is what a hot hatch is supposed to be.
Quality wise it feels more SEAT than traditional VW but my son’s new A3 doesn’t exactly exude luxury (even the S-Line seats look plasticky) so we can assume that’s for both budget and political reasons.
I don’t get why people hate stop start. I find it works pretty well and it cuts pollution.
I’m still “guest”. Seriously can’t be bothered with the primary user thing.
I’ve still not used the nav. Would happily pay less not to have it.
Car Play is pretty good. The sound system adequate but not up to mk7 Dynaudio by any stretch.
Err, lots more I could discuss about build quality and interior design but you’d all fall asleep.
I really should add a gratuitous photo or ten. But I can’t be bothered to take any.
In summary: goes well, handles very well, quality iffy in places, not entirely sure Lane assist fully switches off, occasional gremlins, looks like a quick Golf should.