I've had my GTD since Saturday and I have to say that I love it.
First thoughts:
I'm now the owner of a nice, shiny Deep Black Pearl GTD with DSG and Nav
Picked up on Saturday and spent a long (long) time inspecting the car inside and out. As agreed, the dealer had put Suapguard on the car (would love to have it detailed and to have the time to look after it properly but from experience, I know that I won't have the time). Apart from the odd bit of wax on rubber seals, the car looked amazing. Really fantastic. I know that a detailer would probably laugh at the finish but it is good enough for me.
I took a checklist with me that I got from a forum and checked everything, including media system, GPS, climate control, etc. All good and everything working.
Signed all the paperwork and then took it home. I can't remember *ever* being so worried about kerbing a set of alloys or scratching something as much as I did that day!
Driving:
DSG is great. I had come from a Mk6 1.6 Golf manual and the DSG box hooked up to the GTD's engine is amazing. The torque is phenomenal. It just keeps pulling and pulling.
The auto hold is great and even the electronic handbrake is fine. Had to turn off the auto-hold as I did a reverse park. I was a little surprised that it didn't seem to come back on automatically when I re-started the engine but I need to check if that was the car or human error.
The ride was, as expected, a little harsher than the Mk6 on 16" wheels but I am pleased that I didn't spec the adaptive chassis control as I don't feel that I need it. The ride is surprisingly refined and
far better than the 2007 Civic on 17" wheels that I had before the Mk6.
Yesterday (Monday) was the first day that I got to take the car out properly and I drove down to the Scottish borders for work. I had tried the ACC around town but it really comes into its own on A roads. I had it set on the normal driving profile and I know that some people feel that the car can be a bit slow closing a gap when it appears but I thought that it was ok.
GPS was fair to good - about the same as my 5 year old Garmin. It isn't up to the latest Garmin/Tom Toms but I like having the next direction shown on the MFD. The icons on the GPS aren't the most intuitive and the use of blue highlighting to show that something is active isn't the clearest. Why can't they use greyed out for off like every other user interface that I have seen?
Handling: superb. Limpet like, especially in the corners.
Brakes: Good. Thanks to an idiot pulling out of a lay-by in front of a pub onto the one lane 60 mph road, I got to test a ~50 mph to standstill emergency stop and the car behaved well with just a hint of ABS kicking in at the last minute. Car has Bridgestone tyres. The horn on the Mk VII sounds less substantial than that on the Mk VI (yes, the horn and braking were tested in quick succession)
Comfort: The seat is far, far better than the Mk 6 Golf. I found it very comfortable and easy to set up just as I want it.
Other stuff: I had a front seat passenger and when they changed the temperature of the climate control, I noticed that although my right-hand vent stayed at the temperature I had set, the middle vents seemed to be mid way between the two settings. When my passenger turned down the temperature on their side, I could feel cold air coming out of both central vents. I had assumed that my temperature controlled the right-hand two vents and their temp controlled their two vents. Not a big problem just not what I expected. Need to test further to be sure.
Economy: Car has less than 150 miles on the clock, so the ~40 mpg on 60 mph roads with a lot of changes in speed and just a hint of heavy-footedness to overtake was about what I expected. Pleased enough with that.
Quality of build: No hint of suspension noises, cabin rattles or windscreen wiper smearing yet, so very happy with that. The only exception to this was I was unfortunate to pass a car at about 60 mph as it kicked up a stone which hit the car. When I next got out, I was disappointed to see a 1 cm scratch/chip which goes right back to the metal on the middle of the driver's door panel. Nothing I could have done to avoid it but a shame that VW haven't yet invented indestructible paint or a force-field to keep stones off the paintwork!
Overall: Amazing car. Love the engine, the DSG and the technology. Great package and really pleased.
