New GTI owners, how you finding your performance??

[Simon C]

Dear new GTI owners,

There is a detailed thread from new GTD owners giving some great insight into how their new motors are driving....acceleration, expectations being met...or not, handling, fuel consumption, torque at various speeds, value of different gears etc etc.

For those of us that are still waiting patiently, could you lucky s@ds similarly share some of your recent performance experience with us? Your feedback will go a long way in keeping me and dozens of others enthusiastic an upbeat over the next few months.

Please share as you know we will read with masses of excitement  any tales of challenging locals who fancy a race and how the GTI performed would be very welcome too....along with your blasts through the Scottish country or local motorways.

Thanks in anticipation

Si

P.s. Told yesterday that my Delivery updated from end February to end january 

[firemansam347]

Hi Si, picked up my new GTI last week after a long 5 month wait, like yourself I've come from a bmw 1 series diesel, i'm pretty sure you'll be well impressed when your one arrives. Fuel consumption is sitting around 30 mpg after 500 miles, I've filled the tank twice now and both times with shell V power nitro+ and will probably stick with that where possible, i'm sure it'll go a bit higher with a few thousand miles on the clock. Since it's been freezing the last week I've not really had it going that fast and never taken it over 4000 revs, i know you don't have to run it in but I'm kinda old school that way (varied revs but not too much)
No locals who want to race but  Must admit you get lots of admiring looks, my kids are well pleased and they love touch screen and the SPORT mode, seems they know how to work my car better than me now!!
enjoy it when it comes, cos you will.

[Simon C]

Thanks for that,

How you find driving the front wheel drive Gti compared to the rear 1 series? I find the bmw great in dry, but any damp....and it's a nightmare. Do similar probs exist with the golf?

How about the pull through the rev range? Is it even throughout?

The insight is much appreciated.

Cheers mate

Si

[Mr Savage]

When I first got the GTI I was disappointed in the performance but this was mostly because I wasn't ragging it because it was new. But now that i've done over a thousand miles I can safely say that the performance is great without having to rev it hard either. The car pulls all the way from 2k-6.5kRPM and continues pulling consistently through each and every gear. The car feels faster than the figures suggest I must admit! Half throttle is quick, full throttle is insane.

Mines a DSG box with Performance Pack. I'll be writing a full review soon when i've blasted it around a little more now that it's officially broken in.

MPG? Was crap to begin with, 26 average driving like miss daisy but now the engine seems to have loosened up and i'm getting around 30MPG. Highest i've seen is 35MPG on a long run so i'm guessing 40 is easily achievable if you want it.

[Aidey]

Im seeing about 33-35 mpg on my dsg gti, and I'm getting close to 1000 miles now , I'm loving the car, and so are the locals where i live! Just this friday the bin men were outside doing their collection when they stopped and started taking pics of my car with there mobiles...thats a good feeling....The car just puts a smile on my face when I'm out for a spin, all the options i went for are great, heated seats are a godsend as i have kidney problems and this helps a lot... its a great car

[Brenbo]

I have had my GTI now for over a month and the MPG is about the same as other posts on this thread (around 30mpg no lower than 25mpg at worst). 

The performance of the car is great.  I am coming form a Civic Type R Championship white (the one with the mechanical slip diff).  It was also a Naturally Aspirated car rather than Turbo.  All I can say about the GTI is wow!  I hardly have to touch the pedal and I get enough power through the wheels to put a smile on my face.  The Civic was great also, I owned it for almost 5 years and I did not hang around in it.  But to get any kind of power you had to thrash it.  It red lined around 8000rpm so you had to hit at least 6400rpm to get the full 200bhp.  Where as the GTI I only have to hit around 1500rpm and you are getting the optimum power range to the wheels, and the power does not plateau it goes all the way to the red line. 

The GTI also feels much more refined and poised, driving it feels so easy and care free even when you want to put your foot down it's hard to describe how good this car is.  But it is also most likely to get you a speeding fine.  for example, It feels like it's doing 60mph and it is doing at least half again.  I also use the digital speedo as I find the speedometer is hidden by my hand on the wheel.   

The suspension is also amazing stuff.  I opted for the standard Passive Suspension, as I read reviews and the difference between the different modes of ACC/DCC which ever one VW decide to call it today was not enough to warrant paying several hundred pounds.  I can vouch that the Passive Suspension is great, soft enough to not rattle your bones but stiff and poised enough to allow you to feel confident in any corner no matter how steep it is. 

I have the Performance Pack on my GTI and we have this really tight S bend on a road to my parents house.  I thought the other day I would test how good the E-Diff really was by taking it a bit faster, through the bend (legally). Well, I can safely say it works and it does feel like it's on rails. 

My car is also getting a lot of admiring looks.  I had one situation when I first got the car, where I was wanting to turn in to my Driveway from a main road in the town where I live and someone had blocked the entranced as he thought he would give way (tight road due to parking up one side).  So I indicated and gestured that I want to pull in to the drive, and as a result he had to move on and stop blocking my drive.  He looked over at my car and you could see he had just clicked it was a GTI and started clapping and cheering, then as he drove past very slowly he was giving my car the eye whilst looking delighted he had seen a GTI. Kind of disturbing to be honest I locked my gates that night.  The guy was middle aged as well, not the age group I expected to act like this.  I have also noticed the age range of admirers for the car is older than the age range for my Type-R when I had it. 

Anyway to cut my very long story short.  You have nothing to worry about with Performance.  The new GTI practically fly's. 

 

[Lock_r]

Only been driving my GTI 2 days, but I love it.
I'm new to VW, and the GTI, but the car defininately lives up to the legend/reviews.

Came from a Toyota Auris T180, which I was always massively disappointed with.  Don't get me wrong, it had 400nm of torque, but the car was just so heavy, and you had to get above 2300rpm before you felt anything.

With the GTi it's completely different.  Light and smooth right from the start.  1000rpm and above the power surges, but like some I'm being a little cautious.  I tend to change gear around 4000, just to be extra careful for the first thousand miles (even though you're not supposed to need to run it in).

But even then the torque is brilliant.  It never struggles.  It's really surprised me going up hills.  I've not been fortunate enough to drive that many fast petrol cars, and certainly none with this level of pull.
It just puts a smile on my face every time I drive it.

I opted for the performance back, and I'm glad I did.  Went off the lights, round a roundabout, and hit a sharp left the other day, and the car was planted firmly.  No drama at all.
Looked in my rear mirror and saw some 18 year old in a beat up Fiat Punto trying to keep up.  He took the same corner, and nowhere near the same speed and he was allover the place. Couldn't even stay in his lane.  I was embarrassed for him.  The GTI didn't even break a sweat, and I was barely even going that fast.
Can't begin to describe how much i love this car!

Again I've not really had anyone try and race me or anything, but had a few nods.  It's nice.
Had some bloke at the petrol station admiring it on my first fill up, saying how amazing and shiny it looked.
Was so proud to tell him it was only 3 hours old!

[Brenbo]

I have now had my car over 2.5 months and my car is still getting admiring looks from people at work.  I hardly had any of this with any of my previous Civic Type-R's and I have had a few.  I am still absolutely loving the car.  It is a keeper for a good few years to come.  My only advice to anyone who has not picked up their car yet is to protect the Wheels with sealant or wax as soon as possible, I will be trying GTechniq C5 myself.  The diamond cut finish on the Austins does scratch easily. I have been using the detailing method on another thread on this forum to clean my car every two weeks and even though I am using wash mits, pre-wash snow foam and being super careful not to get grit on the surface I am washing I have still noticed a few hairline scratches on the surface of the mirrored metal part of the wheels after two months.  This is on wheels with no coating or sealant applied. 

Apart from this minor detail about the wheels I am more than happy with the performance, look and functionality of the car.  Although the wait for the car was sheer torture (6 months) I will definitely be looking at a Golf Gti mk8 in the distant future if it is anything like my Mk7.

     

[JellyB]

Had my car exactly a month now, 2700 miles on the clock and I am so far completely happy with the performance.

I have been able to carry out all the safe overtaking smoothly with no drama or fuss that I wanted to.

Haven't been able to push it due to the weather but the only complaint I could have is that can be tiring keeping to the 20mph zones in Oxford as the car is so willing to go. 

[mk7gti]

Today was the first time I have driven my GTI like id nicked it (after 4 months of ownership). There is some rip off the exhaust in sport mode when you really push it to the limit