Author Topic: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1  (Read 12606 times)

Offline Foxy367

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #40 on: 20 June 2021, 20:04 »
Great 6 months review. I’m three days into ownership of my Clubsport so still running it and all the usual restrained driving that goes with it. I came from a mk7.5 GTI performance which I adored but so far I can see the difference the suspension is compliant but stiff I can imagine chucking it down a back road is going to be fun. I’m still not convinced by the front though looks far better than cooking golfs. The rear though looks really good the boot spoiler and the exhaust look really impressive. Still have to explain exactly what it is to none Golf people but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when I want to go incognito. Hoping that my 6 months and beyond will be as trouble free as yours 🤞🏻
Current - Awaiting a milkfloat
Previously
2021 Mk8 GTI Clubsport - Atlantic Blue
2017 MK7.5 GTI Performance - Tornado Red
First steps into Golf ownership -
2003 Mk4 GtTdi PD150 Oceanic Green
2002 Mk4 GtTdi PD150 Reflex silver

Offline Woeisme

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #41 on: 21 June 2021, 01:24 »
Thanks for the update Exonian.
Great 6 months review. I’m three days into ownership of my Clubsport so still running it and all the usual restrained driving that goes with it. I came from a mk7.5 GTI performance which I adored but so far I can see the difference the suspension is compliant but stiff I can imagine chucking it down a back road is going to be fun. I’m still not convinced by the front though looks far better than cooking golfs. The rear though looks really good the boot spoiler and the exhaust look really impressive. Still have to explain exactly what it is to none Golf people but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when I want to go incognito. Hoping that my 6 months and beyond will be as trouble free as yours 🤞🏻
I don’t know how people can get one of these and not open them up within a few hundred miles. I don’t have the will power to wait.

Is there any reliable info out there saying it needs to be run in for so long? I know a lot of people do it but is it needed?

Offline bjbanny

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #42 on: 21 June 2021, 22:40 »
no run in period is really necessary according to the VW staff during the handover in germany.
i collected my GTI from VW factory Autostadt.
I asked about the run in period, i was told there is non but they advise me not to push the car to it redline and keep the speed under 200kph on my 250 kilometer drive home  but ultimately i was told the car will not give me full power if its not warm enough because it has got clever engine management
ordered on 30/09/2020 
GTI, Pure White, Business Premium Pack, Fog light, Tinted side & rear windows,   "Richmond" alloy wheels 18, Belmont winter wheels,  IQ.LIGHT  LED Metrix, pick up Autostadt Wolfsburg.

Offline Exonian

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #43 on: 28 December 2021, 10:04 »
This’ll be a bit boring so apologies in advance, but forums are about sharing info and opinions so I’ll try and add a little update just over 12 months in.
I’d probably not bother normally but being as there’s a lot of negativity still toward the model and the fact there are a lot still waiting to be built, maybe prospective or pending owners might like to know what it’s like spending (just under) a year at the helm of a mk8 Clubsport.

I’m a couple weeks late for the actual anniversary, current mileage stands at just over 7k and the only visit to the dealer it’s had was for the first service a few weeks ago.
The mileage would probably have been around 12k now but for the first three months the car was hardly used due to being blocked in by other cars and surrounded by my youngest son’s possessions whilst he was waiting for his house to be built. He and his girlfriend seemed to have purchased the whole Cox & Cox catalogue plus a heap more besides, hoping to squeeze it all in to a house the size of a shoe box. 
Come March, six months after the house was due to be completed, he had the green light to move in and suddenly I had space in my garage, inside my house and on my drive. The Clubsport then became my daily driver until late summer when it had a break because I had a short lived spell of having to commute into the city centre working normal office hours and having to leave the car in a public car park. I decided to use my older car that hadn’t been started for a few months as I was less precious about it being left somewhere a bit vulnerable to damage. Besides, the older car needed MOT’ing and an aircon re-gas, plus the battery needed a bit of charging. I prefer to charge by driving rather than alternatives.
After a month or so having put a few thousand miles under the belt of the little Diesel I summoned the GTI back from its resting place and it’s been used every day ever since.

What’s it been like? Well, it’s a Golf. It has still generally been exactly how you’d expect a Golf GTI to be.

It’s been through floods, a bit of slushy snow, warm weather, frosts, high winds etc and never skipped a beat.
The Pilot Sport 4S’s didn’t like the slushy stuff (which only lasted an hour) but have coped superbly with everything else. Tyre tread after just under 7k miles at the first service was reported at 5mm fronts and 6mm rear. That probably tells you I don’t drive the car anywhere near hard enough!

Software for the UI is still on what it was shipped with out of the factory when new. Yeah it can be buggy on occasion but mine’s not been terrible unlike some owners reports. 
The occasional frontal assist warnings bong at me when the front camera has trouble peering through a dewy screen, once or twice the rear assist stuff decided it briefly wasn’t going to play, an occasional crash of the media screen etc still occurs...
I don’t use ACC as I just plain prefer to be in full control so I don’t know if my car suffers the same issues with that feature others report.
I managed to drive from my west country lair up to Dudley and back again via Cheltenham and Bristol a couple weeks ago in one 24 hour midweek stint and didn’t miss cruise control one bit. That’s a personal thing with electing not to use ACC. What’s of note there is how ‘normal’ the car was on that mid-December trip. It rode well (non DCC with 19” wheels), did 40mpg on the motorway, the seats didn’t kill my back and the media worked just fine.
A bit of a different driving routine to its more usual country road commuting, and these rural rat runs are the roads where the car really shines. I’ve written plenty on my (very positive) thoughts about the chassis, the excellently weighted brakes, the responsive engine and Jekyll and Hyde gearbox elsewhere.
A clear 5am run and the car makes for a sublime sports hatch, a busy midday commute sees the car doing a good impression of ‘relaxing and comfortable’ sat behind dawdling old people and tourists.

Talking of old people, well I’m rapidly becoming old people myself.
The looks of the car are probably just about the right blend of low key socially acceptable and sporty aggression. Mine lacks the black roof/wheel/mirror cap accessories of the Ed45 and is much more discrete visually than my previous Ed40 and TCR, so possibly more suitable at my advancing age!
On balance, I think, to my tastes the Clubsport (including Ed45) is the best looker of the range.
A bit more purposeful than a regular GTI, and the R I can’t make my mind up about. I’ve seen a few examples of the latter, a couple of blue launch spec cars in Devon and a white R near Wilton that might have had a bit higher spec. I’ll perhaps have a decent look at one at some point, they’re still pretty uncommon though.

Anyway, aside from personal opinions on the car’s looks, the usual moans could be levelled still at the centre iPad’s unlit button slider thingies but the rest of the UI is quickly learned.
Lane assist is very quickly switched off and on, it becomes second nature at start up to disable the feature and turn down the steering wheel heating which takes all of three seconds.

Not really much else I can moan about, hence me padding this out with other crap.
The interior is fine, the exterior grows on you, the mechanical bits are a mild upgrade from the mk7 and the tech is well documented elsewhere.

Is the breakdown assist worth a moan? Surely any breakdown should be covered free for an under warranty car, so why does it cost circa £100 for VW Assist? Plus I don’t need European cover.


Normally after six months I’m starting to think towards the car’s replacement, then ready to move around 12 - 24 months.
After 12 months (in atmittedly strange times) I can’t think of anything I’d replace it with. There isn’t a car that I’d wait 6 - 12 months to be built that I’d realistically replace the Clubsport with.
 I like the new RS3 but it’s silly expensive. I like the MINI Electric but range and load capacity are a bit too compromised for my needs right now. Nothing else out there floats my boat.
Cars are getting far too expensive for me now anyway.



 




‘23 8R
Serial white Golf owner


Offline Watts

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #44 on: 28 December 2021, 10:20 »
Good to hear you are enjoying it! :smiley:
2019 Oryx White 5dr TCR.

Was - 2015 Tornado Red 3dr GTI PP, manual, Santiagos, Audi short shifter.

Offline king monkey

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #45 on: 28 December 2021, 17:00 »
I do look forward to these updates Andy. Very considered and a much needed real world view as always. Good to hear that you’re not itching to get rid yet.
Current: Clubsport45, white, DCC.

Past: Mk5 gti blue graphite, mk6 gti carbon grey, mk6 gti edition 35 candy white, Mk7 pp gti tornado red, 2016 Audi S3 sportback, 2019 7.5 Golf R.

Offline SRGTD

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #46 on: 28 December 2021, 20:25 »
Another enjoyable read Mr Ex.

Like you, I don’t use ACC - From memory, I tried it once in 15-16 months ownership of my car to make sure it was working, and haven’t used it since. I too like to be in full control. IMHO there’s too much (unnecessary?) tech in modern cars but realistically, I suppose it’s necessary to ready us for the sad day when autonomous cars appear on our roads - for safety’s sake, hopefully VW will have got their dodgy software sorted by then :shocked:.

Look forward to reading Season 2, Episode 2.

« Last Edit: 28 December 2021, 20:27 by SRGTD »
2020 Polo GTI Plus; Pure White, DSG (because they all are)
Gone but not forgotten;
2016 Polo GTI; Blue Silk
2011 mk6 Golf GTD; Carbon Grey
2007 mk5 Golf GT (2.0 170bhp TDI version); Deep Black Pearl
2002  mk4 Golf GTI (the 150 bhp diesel version); Deep Black Pearl

Offline Exonian

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #47 on: 28 December 2021, 21:54 »
Good to hear you are enjoying it! :smiley:

Thanks Watts.
It’s a lot like the TCR really, only uglier and doesn’t work as well  :laugh:

Good to hear that you’re not itching to get rid yet.

It’s funny you know, but I rarely ever actually want to get rid of a car. I’d much rather keep them all and supplement them with another. Alas I’m not rich enough.
The trouble with me is I micro analyse cars and like to try out new formulas, which inevitably means a change of car.
Things are a changing and there’s not much to tempt me these days. Or maybe I don’t want to be tempted.



IMHO there’s too much (unnecessary?) tech in modern cars but realistically, I suppose it’s necessary to ready us for the sad day when autonomous cars appear on our roads - for safety’s sake, hopefully VW will have got their dodgy software sorted by then :shocked:.

Look forward to reading Season 2, Episode 2.



After being ferried around by my son for a day or two in his A3 I found I quite enjoyed being a passenger so autonomous cars would work for me!  :grin:

Unless something drastic happens I don’t know where I’d go with an episode 2, nobody wants to read the same old thing. Maybe I need a Season 3, life at the helm of an ID.3 Clubsport… :D
‘23 8R
Serial white Golf owner


Offline BillSan

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #48 on: 28 December 2021, 22:01 »
It's always a pleasure to read your posts Exonian.  In general terms my experience and views match yours although I am only 6 months in and have covered 6k miles all in now - although that includes the 1,000 miles my son put on over a week in Scotland!

If you ever come to Dudley again it would be great to share a pint and GTi talk with you as I'm only 5 miles away.

Drop me a PM anytime.
Pure White Mk8 Clubsport
TD Motorsport Pro Y Spoke Wheels
1899 Software but new s/wheel & no bongs since 4/1/24

Gone: Mk7.5 GTE

Offline Splashalot

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Re: GTI Clubsport, Season 2, Episode 1
« Reply #49 on: 28 December 2021, 23:53 »
It's always a pleasure to read your posts Exonian. 

I'll echo this.  Always good to catch up on the GTI ownership experience.

Reading this got me wondering how far away the 8.5 update might be - might VW be tempted to redesign  the dash/user interface?

But great to see the core GTI-ness remains - that wonderful duality of purpose.
1972 Turquoise Superbug S; 1978 Miami Blue Golf GLS; 2007 Mk5 Tornado Red Golf GTI; 2017 Golf 7.5 Trendline Tungsten Silver 1.4ltr 110TSi with DAP; 2018 Tornado Red GTI with DAP.  All MT.  Current: 2021 Mini Cooper SE, British racing green.