Heated steering wheel

[CarbonGTD]

Coming from a Mk 7.5 GTI PP (and numerous Golfs before that) my new 8.5 is this first car I've ever had with a heated steering wheel.  I thought it was a bit of a gimmick to be honest (heated seats more imp to me) but given the cold weather we've been having I'm now a convert (esp in the early mornings).  My question is - the heating seems to come on by itself on start up (at level 1 of 3) without me switching it on sometimes (but not all of the time).  Is this a cold temp activation thing/does everyone's do this?

[HBW13]

I've noticed the same and I believe it comes on at 4degrees or lower. You also get a low temp indication at 4 or 4.5 degrees
Drove early doors this morning 2 degrees it came on drove just now about 9 degrees I think and it wasn't on. Bit of a gimmick but one of the better ones.

[JoeGTI]

Coming from a Mk 7.5 GTI PP (and numerous Golfs before that) my new 8.5 is this first car I've ever had with a heated steering wheel.  I thought it was a bit of a gimmick to be honest (heated seats more imp to me) but given the cold weather we've been having I'm now a convert (esp in the early mornings).  My question is - the heating seems to come on by itself on start up (at level 1 of 3) without me switching it on sometimes (but not all of the time).  Is this a cold temp activation thing/does everyone's do this?

Yes it is. You can adjust this behaviour or even turn it off entirely if you wish, it's somewhere in the infotainment settings, can't remember exactly where! If you've heated seats, it works for those too.

[Dav3smith]

The settings are somewhere in the infotainment system and there is a slider which allows it to come on automatically at a specific temperature which I think is 10 Celsius or alternatively you can switch it on as you want from the short cut button on the steering wheel itself. I don't think you can alter the setting of the temperature that it comes on at but I may be wrong. Sorry I can't be of more help but you definitely have some control over this albeit limited.

And yes the heated steering wheel for me would be the first box ticked if it were an option. Also several of my friends thought it was a gimmick until they had it. I think it's awesome and I'd hate to be without it now. 

Edit.. Looks like others have replied with similar info but I'm sure you get the idea.

[HBW13]

All the thing you can play with and adjust in the car yet
I can't or haven't found a way to completely turn off
The stop/start or what mode it starts up in or the
Speed warning noise. It's a matter of seconds to do all before you drive but why wouldn't they allow you to change it all.

[Dav3smith]

The start/stop I believe is a requirement to do with their emission statistics but I may be wrong, you certainly can't disable it. There is a work around and that is to put the car into sports mode as that disables it. Speed warning noise I don't get so can't help there so maybe I turned that off when I got the car it's three years old now and I can't remember. And finally the start up mode, again I believe it always starts up in the same mode and I don't think there's a code for that either.

[fredgroves]

Start stop, speed warning and engine mode on restart are all mandatory things.

If SFD2 is ever overcome you might be able to disable the speed warning... And Lane assist but not yet...

Start stop and engine start mode you can't mess with even on a Mk8.

[fredgroves]

BTW heated steering wheel is because you can't wear gloves as the wheel needs to detect you holding it for all sorts of purposes including emergency assist...

[The_Doc]

It’s also because the capacitive wheel sensing doesn’t work as well if the wheel is too cold.

[DrivenToDistraction]

All the thing you can play with and adjust in the car yet
I can't or haven't found a way to completely turn off
The stop/start or what mode it starts up in or the
Speed warning noise. It's a matter of seconds to do all before you drive but why wouldn't they allow you to change it all.

Err, you can't. Some cars I have had recently (e.g. M135i) you could turn off lane assist etc permanently, but not in the 8.5 Golf. Each time I get in the car I have to switch off lane assist and speed warnings, then (from the Mode menu) change the drive mode to Individual. Its a pain but there is no way round it that I am aware.

I first though that the heating steering wheel remembered the previous setting, but I now realise that it is outside temperature related.