ED45...thoughts! (Advice needed!)

[VW_Golf_nut]

OK, so have covered just over 300 miles in the car so far, brief initial impressions so far :

1) It's quite quick! But a fairly uneventful experience, largely down to feeling somewhat strangled by the GPF.
2) I'm struggling to find the optimum seat/steering wheel position, it feels like the seat base could be longer and at more of an angle so my whole leg would set on the base, anyone else finding this difficult? (Didn't struggle with this in last 3 Mk7 Golf's)
4) There seems to be a quite a lot of vertical body movement, even when DCC is in the stiffest setting, car doesn't feel very 'tied down' almost to the point it's quite disconcerting, could it be tyre pressures? (They are set to the 2 person+luggage pressures) or, is there such a thing as the suspension bedding in? P.S, yes, the suspension pucks have been removed.
3) Interior quality, sorry, it's a backward move from a Mk7, I've had 3 Mk7 Golf's, so known them quite well! In my opinion, they were the best iteration of Golf, give me my Ed40 with Recaro buckets back anyday!

[Exonian]

Interesting to read your thoughts Rory, maybe this one won’t be a keeper then!

1. Power delivery seems a bit stunted until around 1000km’s have been covered. But even after that there’s no drama. It’s free revving enough but very linear. I’m not sure if it’s the DPF or whether VW have kept a bit of a lid on it to keep it below the R’s output. After 11k miles on mine I think I’m just dialled out so don’t really think about it anymore. I always remapped my turbo cars in previous generations up as far as the mk7 so enjoyed the torque swell where as these newer engines feel powerful enough but very digital. Sign of the times.

2. I find the seats ok. Grippy but not particularly hugging. The cushions are quite flat.

3. Yes, interior quality is a bit of a step back but that seems typical of the whole VW group. Everything seems to be bolted together well enough though and feels pretty solid in areas where VW have traditionally felt solid. Functional rather than low key luxurious.

4. Body movement is definitely a thing. My suspicion is that these are lardy cars that have been developed for pinpoint accuracy on the Nurburgring which (I’ve read) is a bumpy circuit.
I don’t have the first clue about modern chassis set ups so I’m surmising here, but I came from a generation where you bought a mk1/2/3/4 Golf and one of the first things to do was rip out the standard suspension and add something that gave better body control (and hopefully wasn’t crashy as you couldn’t try before you buy). Since the mk5 GTI things improved a LOT in that department from the factory and since those times I’ve left the chassis alone.
To ride the bumps well at speed you need fairly compliant springs which will in turn add a bit of body movement unless the dampers can resist the lean aided by anti roll built in to the chassis.
I think that possibly to develop the car’s chassis and ensure Golf like ride quality, especially with reactive damping (DCC) and VDM electronics the side effect is you have to load the suspension yourself to pre-warn the electronics of your intentions (similar to DSG tricks).
I find with non DCC that if I either preload the suspension before a corner or literally heave the car into it that wakes up the VDM allowing the car to hold its line perfectly and pivot like a quasi track set up (tyres play a big part also). But there is definitely body movement still, and when cornering quickly but lazily one can definitely feel the lean almost like the VDM is set up to use the body’s weight to slingshot around bends using the electronics to do their magic tricks. Maybe that’s not how it is set up at all in reality, I honestly have no idea but the car does hold its line extremely well almost irrespective of the road surface (within reason).  I didn’t ever get on with the DCC in the only car I had with it (TCR), give me well developed non adjustable dampers any day as you know exactly where you are with them.

[Paul70]

OK, so have covered just over 300 miles in the car so far, brief initial impressions so far :

1) It's quite quick! But a fairly uneventful experience, largely down to feeling somewhat strangled by the GPF.
2) I'm struggling to find the optimum seat/steering wheel position, it feels like the seat base could be longer and at more of an angle so my whole leg would set on the base, anyone else finding this difficult? (Didn't struggle with this in last 3 Mk7 Golf's)
4) There seems to be a quite a lot of vertical body movement, even when DCC is in the stiffest setting, car doesn't feel very 'tied down' almost to the point it's quite disconcerting, could it be tyre pressures? (They are set to the 2 person+luggage pressures) or, is there such a thing as the suspension bedding in? P.S, yes, the suspension pucks have been removed.
3) Interior quality, sorry, it's a backward move from a Mk7, I've had 3 Mk7 Golf's, so known them quite well! In my opinion, they were the best iteration of Golf, give me my Ed40 with Recaro buckets back anyday!

Most of your comments resonate with me but agree with Exonian regarding point 1, my car definitely perked up but sometimes felt much quicker than others which I thought was the DSG box. When driving flat out through the gears it was impressive but part throttle in 3rd or 4th the response just felt poor compared with my manual ED40 and this for me is more relevant in day to day driving. This is most likely my ignorance of DSG!

I believe suspension does take time to bed in but as much as I found the car very capable, it was just not as engaging as the MK7 - dynamically superior but not as enjoyable and one reason I’m my view was the steering, I am not saying the MK7 is great but it’s better than the MK8.

Agree with your comments on the seat and seating position but if your last car was the ED40 with buckets, is that a fair comparison. In my view it’s not.

I’ve no regrets selling the ED45 and keeping the ED40 and now with a few CSS chassis mods, it’s dynamically better than the MK8. As a limited edition golf the 45 is a poor effort compared the 40. All subjective views.