What have you done to your MK 7 today ?

[Mooresey]

Just a minor one; got rid of the God awful main dealer fob and replaced it with something much nicer.
Yeah yeah, I know it's GTD and not GTI but I can live with that!

Where did you get this from? All I can find are GTI style ones

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

What I did to my Mk7 on Friday was traded it in against a rather nice 3-door R.

I had been casually looking at R's (which doesn't sound right if you say it aloud) for a while, and had a wish list which was:

3-door

DSG

White, Lapiz Blue or whatever the dark metallic grey is called.

Pretorias

Low mileage

And one with most of those (apart from the wheels) came along.  Cadiz wheels, which I've never been particularly keen on, but they're unmarked, and the paint finish implies that it's been well looked after.  It has just over 20,000 miles, having been registered in December 2015.

It would have been rude not to...

[Watts]

Sounds great Dr Mike! But what colour did you get?

[Exonian]

Congrats Dr Mike, sounds like you’ve picked up a nice example.
It’s fairly easy to pick up a set of Pretorias with a bit of patience. They’ll be with the effort.
Personally I’d get a set of replicas but I get that most people would prefer to stay with OEM for obvious reasons.


Congrats too to mcmaddy, a bit delayed as I’ve been offline for a wee while but it’s really good to see your TCR has finally made it through to you.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Sounds great Dr Mike! But what colour did you get?

Thanks, Watts, and Exonian - I know that you're the Forum wheel guru, I'm going to look back over your posts for inspiration. 

It's the metallic grey, haven't got round to finding out what it's called yet.  Plenty of other things to do, including drive it!

My initial thoughts?  Overall, it's very impressive, like a GTI only more so in every respect that matters - the extra weight is the first thing that you notice, but that's largely taken care of by the increased power, which is in turn harnessed by a more taut feel to the chassis, and bigger brakes. 

Many years ago I had the opportunity to drive a limited edition VW Motorsport MkII GTI, which had a supercharged 16v engine, and 4WD.  I drove it for a magazine photo shoot, and at the time I felt that it was one of the best cars that I had ever driven.  The R is definitely one of the best cars that I have ever owned - I had a Caterham, which is in a different league in terms of responsiveness and sheer performance, but that can't be compared to the R in any way.

I'm going to have a neighbour run his OBD diagnostic device on it, not that it feels as though there's anything wrong, but just to check for any fault codes, and have the suspension alignment checked.  One rear disc has some scoring, mentioned on the first MOT, and if I decide to keep the wheels, I'll put a set of Michelin PS4's on them.

Otherwise, I'm just enjoying it.  I'll put some pictures up as soon as real life stops getting in the way of the important stuff.

[mcmaddy]

Congrats too to mcmaddy, a bit delayed as I’ve been offline for a wee while but it’s really good to see your TCR has finally made it through to you.

Cheers, haven't driven it much as it's at the detailers. Should have it back Wednesday hopefully 👍

[steve12345]

Tried out the new bike carrier on the weekend, the treefrog Pro 2.

Really pleased with this, worked a treat and felt very strong.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JtxXE8e97KMVvkiD8

[Sootchucker]

wow, never seen a bike carrier like that before. Is the roof panel strong enough to not bend or dent with the lateral corning forces with just section cups fitting it to the roof ?

[Rob_benton]

wow, never seen a bike carrier like that before. Is the roof panel strong enough to not bend or dent with the lateral corning forces with just section cups fitting it to the roof ?

That is brave. The roof panel is very thin and flexes a lot when I machine polish mine. It’s very easy to dent.

[steve12345]

I was worried about this too and yes the roof panel dose flex a little in the middle. The front mount with the 4 suction cups is close to the windscreen this area of the roof is pretty firm. If you had a coupe or panoramic roof (that doesn’t open) it would be better to attach to the glass.

Once the bikes are in place there is very little flex, I gave them a push and pull and couldn't see any obvious moment in the roof panel. My brother in law followed me in his car and he said the bikes barely moved even at motorway speeds, of course I was driving super cautiously. The suction cups are very strong.

pixelcellar suggested this type of carrier to me on another thread that I started a while back. It's a really good solution for someone who wants a super easy and quick way to attach the bikes to the car and still have access to the boot. Best of all it takes up very little space in the boot when not in use, can easily fit under the boot floor. No doubt roof bars and bike carrier will be stronger but for me it’s not worth the faff and then having to find somewhere to store everything too. After getting over my initial concerns and actually using it I’m really pleased with it. Only time will tell if it will cause any issues to the roof, I’ll keep a close eye on it!