Drone.....

[ar899]

Just over a week ago, I finally got a decent test drive in a Mark 8 GTI. Was a standard car, DSG and no options.

One negative issue (to me) that stood out was the exhaust note. On a 70 mph motorway cruise, there was a constant drone from the exhaust - at least that's what it sounded like rather than anything artificial piped in. I found it a bit wearing and probably not something I could live with on the 3-4 hour motorway trips I take now and again. Also quite intrusive around town. I tried Comfort, ECO and anything else I could find but didn't seem to make any difference.

Now I understand the 'It's a performance car with loud exhausts so what do you expect?' point of view (and indeed there is another current topic discussing ways of making more noise) but nearly every review you read says that it can act like a 'normal Golf' when you want it to be and 'you wouldn't know its a performance car' blah blah blah. I didn't really find that.

Just wondering what other Mk 8 owners views/experiences of this are?

[JoeGTI]

I find that the tyre roar / road noise can be a bit irritating, depending on the road surface. I’m not sure if that’s down to the tyres or reduced noise insulation in the MK8 or both but I don’t remember my previous Golf’s having this issue as noticeably.

As for exhaust drone, no, not really. Particularly if you put the car into Comfort mode and leave the gearbox in “D”. It’s pretty sedate then imo. Too sedate I feel for anything other than the motorway so I mostly use S mode or the paddles.

[fredgroves]

I suspect you are just noticing the difference vs whatever you are driving now. What are you currently in?

[ar899]

Thanks Joe, Fred

It's not that I'm coming from an S Class 

My motoring history is a series of small cars with small engines that have been worked hard on motorway journeys (currently a standard Polo). So I'm used to a fair bit of engine/road noise but yes, I'm not accustomed to performance cars. I was just hoping that the GTI would have been a bit more relaxing in the cruise.

You must have noticed quite a difference coming from GTDs, Fred?

[JoeGTI]

The 7th cog in the DSG also helps a lot. I had a MK7 R DSG (6 speed) and at motorway cruising speed it did drone a bit due to the revs being up near 3k. The 7th gear at least ensures that you're cruising at about 2k revs.

[fredgroves]

Thanks Joe, Fred

It's not that I'm coming from an S Class 

My motoring history is a series of small cars with small engines that have been worked hard on motorway journeys (currently a standard Polo). So I'm used to a fair bit of engine/road noise but yes, I'm not accustomed to performance cars. I was just hoping that the GTI would have been a bit more relaxing in the cruise.

You must have noticed quite a difference coming from GTDs, Fred?

Yes its different to the GTD... in 2 ways:

1) The GTD had most of the noise coming from the oil burner up front - which whilst not fully agricultural, certainly had diesel clatter

2) The Mk7/Mk7.5 had a lot more sound deadening material - the arch liners were thicker and even the parcel shelf!

I didn't ever drive a Mk7 GTI, but yes, the Mk8 does sound more like a performance car.

Trust me though, if it sounded like my friend's Lotus it would have gone a long time ago! I don't find it a problem on long journeys. The bloody rattles are much more annoying 

[Exonian]

To add to the excellent points above, is it definitely exhaust and not tyre noise?
Bridgestones can drone like hell.

The mk8 is definitely more vocal than the mk7 owing to feedback from focus committees and internet influencers (and the odd real journalist) leading VW to make the mk8 louder and sharper/harder than the mk7.

[Yusee]

I recently had opportunity to take my  (7.5) gti on an extended motorway run- something which I don’t often do, as we would normally be doing long runs with the family in the seat alhambra- it’s a 184 ps engine with 6 speed dsg.

It was a reminder for me that, no matter how refined the hot hatch has become, it’s still not a type of car ideally suited to cruising for hours on a motorway.

Far more noise- engine and tyres- than our mpv.

It’s not something that really bothers you on shorter journeys, but after a couple of hours, i did start to wish I’d taken the mpv.  I really didn’t expect that.

It wasn’t as easy to hold a conversation in the gti.

You also have to drop to 5th gear every so often to find a bit more torque for getting past slower traffic- but maybe that’s just my style of driving.

The gti is perfectly suited to fast A roads, back roads, and around town.

If I was doing a lot of motorway mileage, I’d choose something else.

[fredgroves]

Honestly, I do some really long journeys... if it was a problem, it would have gone to WBAC.

I've driven very much more noisy cars - and I don't mean loud exhausts, I mean ones that are just noisy... or old transit vans!

Those are tiresome, but I don't find the Mk8 GTI tiresome at all and I drive around in "individual mode" with the exhaust sound set to sport (which is actually an external noise, not the soundaktor!). It makes more noise if you knock the gears into S mode, but in D, its fine.

[Watts]

Strange isn't it how we differ, I'm regularly on motorways and the only bit that annoys me is the concrete part of the M25 around Surrey. We take the car for our holiday transport nearly all the time, love it!