Anyone in here learning to drive in a gti?

[olly1]

Teaching my Lad in a Golf GTD 5 Door
My hand is always on the handbrake! but he finds it easy to drive.
Insurance for Just me was £233.00 / year with my lad on insurance £1485.00

[jaxx]

I would hate to learn to drive in a manual one mine does some funny things at times when pulling way revs drop and the thottle slow to respond.

Its the electronic throttle - takes a little getting used to.
Notice that on takeoff the ECU amplifies the throttle input to get going smoothly - especially annoying when in traffic as this can cause the car to jerk.

Once moving, the same level of input barely registers on the rev counter.

[Snoopy]

I did find when i was learning to drive more powerful cars easier to drive than the basic 1.0 type. I was using a 1.6 escort mk3, 1.1 golf mk1, and a cooper S

[ErikGTI]

In my opinion thats a bit of an irresposible parent.  207hp at the feet of a learner?  One slip or mis-judgement and deaths could occur!

200brake and 1300kg is hardly going to set the road on fire.

I do not know if you are in the role of the troll now or want to deliver a contribution.
If you are a troll I am glad that you are being rebuilt ..(.if I read your avatar correctly)....

If not....there are a lot faster cars but you must admit that the higher the speed the worst ending to an accident....and that is all there is to it...
An accident with a GTI that will not set the road on fire will still  be different compared to the average car and a collission with a higher speed might not set the road on fire but a great chance to set the youngster on fire...hence the incredible insurance uplift.....

[DDRFan]

i'm very surprised somebody is learning to drive in a GTI - but if this is the sole family car and it's just Dad taking out junior for a bit of additional practice, any practice is good

i wouldn't agree purely learning in a GTI though.
i know when i first started driving my GTI i notice that at very low revs about under 1500rpm, the throttle is slow to respond. i'm still used to the more instant naturally-aspirated characteristics of my old car where revs were instant in more or less anywhere, but in the GTI, it seems the turbo does have a little lag, and when i'm pulling out of junctions i don't really have enough revs. i suppose experience will make you adjust, but a smaller engine is more easier to control i think.

having said that i find the GTI overall is a very very easy car to drive and makes it a whole lot easier for a learner to just get behind the controls and concentrate on watching other traffic and other stuff. the gearstick is really light, gears just slot into place, the clutch is light, the steering isn't too heavy, it's weighted pretty good for most things from parking to motorway driving, visibility all round isn't too bad


most of us though do start off with the crappy cars. i'm pretty lucky in that the cars i drove weren't that crap, they ran pretty well and never broke down or anything like that, but they were small engine cars and the brakes haven't got over 9000 calipers, and when you first drive by yourself, this is where most of your driving habits will develop, and starting off in small engine you will learn the car can't cross every gap and brakes aren't strong enough for this distance so you back off, and these things will be more likely to stick in your brain and you come to appreciate things more when you change car for a more powerful one, and i think we end up better drivers for it.

if you went from a GTI to say a Polo 1.4, i would imagine this would get a driver frustrated as they would be thinking "where's the power?!" "why don't the brakes work?!" that might be dangerous.

just my 2pence

[p3asa]

..........the steering isn't too heavy, it's weighted pretty good for most things from parking to motorway driving, visibility all round isn't too bad

When I first got in to the MkVI I found the steering really hard to get to grips with. There is very little feedback and for me it is so woolly. A few times when going at speed on the motorway I felt as if I was drifting in to the central reservation and the steering was slow to react. 

I've since read it is adaptive and changes its characteristics depending on the speed it is going. Also its magnets that operate it!! Is this correct?

I thought it was just me but I bumped in to an old work colleague the other week and after chatting for a bit turns out he had got a MKVI Golf. Says his wife won't drive it (bonus) as the steering is so unresponsive. He likened it to turning right at the traffic lights but you are half way across the junction before the car decides to turn.

I know that's an exaggeration but I knew exactly what he meant.  Thankfully now I'm used to it especially at speed!!

[Jimble]

^No idea how it works but i found the opposite with mine, it's seems almost twitchy on the motorway.

[DDRFan]

...

When I first got in to the MkVI I found the steering really hard to get to grips with. There is very little feedback and for me it is so woolly. A few times when going at speed on the motorway I felt as if I was drifting in to the central reservation and the steering was slow to react. 

Well your experiences are different to mine, i don't know whether i'm just less susceptible to these things, but i've just got used to the steering, maybe it was just the crappy car i had before my new one, i find i can swing the car into corners that my other car would never be able to do. i suppose every driver is different and has different tastes.

[am1w]

Very interesting: p3asa's comment.
I found that the steering response was really awful in 'comfort' mode and I felt I was driving a pudding. Was slightly better in 'normal' mode.
Then I carefully checked the tyre pressures and they were at 2.45 instead of 2.6. At 2.6 I have now found that the steering reponse is now pretty good with a more acceptable feel in 'comfort' mode, the handling has improved considerably and the noise levels are much lower.
It would therefore seem that the car is quite tyre pressure sensitive. I am sure most experienced members have known this.

[Snoopy]

Our ibizas steering is not nice as its fully electric so maybe the steering different on different models. As what is talked about above is how i feel driving the ibiza. I told myslelf i would not buy the GTI if its sterring was similar infact i test drove alot of cars whos steering was like the ibiza before settling for the GTI. On the ibiza you can adjust the amount of assistance by vagcom but even at its least its still all over the place on motorways.