As my Wife was away for the weekend, for the first time I went for a brilliant blast out in the GTI last night on my own round some local small A and B-Roads. Great fun! Just over 3000 miles on the clock now and the car loosening up very nicely! I love the way the car has a split personality, one minute it's a relaxed comfortable cruiser in 'Comfort' mode happily tootling in 'D' being pretty frugal, and then with a push of a button in my DCC equipped car you've got firmer suspension (but not too firm so that it ruins the ride), and manual control of the gearbox, and a wonderful engine that is torquey, but yet still revs out sweetly.
The calibration work that has gone on to this car is mighty clever! It might not be the fastest, or most focused car, but it's breadth of ability is remarkable.
Here are the stats from the drive:
If anybody is interested, I have my 'Individual' mode set up with everything in Comfort/Normal, but with Sport steering. I like to change between Sport mode and Individual based on the road conditions, but I do tend to leave it in 'Comfort' for every day driving. Eco has never been used!
Criticisms? It's been documented on here quite a lot, but I'm really not a fan of the Bridgestone Potenza S001's. I often find that in 2nd gear at about 3500-4000rpm, a full boot of acceleration causes the traction control light to flash and for it to momentarily interrupt the power, even in the dry and in warm conditions. I just feel that this shouldn't be the case with the levels of power and torque on offer (not huge by any standards). Other than that, I love the car. A brilliant all rounder!
I also gave it another wash on Saturday, and I'm also glad I went for TR.