6 Months of GTD ownership.

[JamesMac]

1. After two days had to return to dealer to have wiper blades (front) replaced and I queried engine fan running when ignition was off after a vigorous 35 mile drive. Only time this has happened, 1st day of use.

2. March 2014. Back into dealers to investigate 'chirping/rattles' from suspension. Turned out to be loose n/s Shock absorber connection

3. May 2014.    This time it was the o/s shock absorber. Very unhappy.

After 6 months I have to say that with around 5000 on the clock the fuel consumption has improved greatly. Initially it was difficult to attain even 50ish MPG but now high 50s/low 60s are the norm.
Overall MPG for the last 'up to 100 hours' is showing 49.8 for approx 53 hours of driving and a lot of that is stop/start city driving. So Stop/Start must be doing its' stuff.
I use the ACC constantly. It's a brilliant addition IMO.

Overall, I'm delighted with the performance and economy. Shock absorbers aside, the quality feels superior to my last VW, a 2009 Scirocco TDI GT.

[2014GTi]

I have had my Golf GTI Performance Pack since december.
No issues or faults to report, well chuffed with it

[Phil 117]

Just thought I'd post my 6 months of GTD ownership as well. FYI, mine is a 5DR DSG

So I have done around 12k miles in mine. The car has had warranty work, been crashed into, but I've also had some lovely moments in it. The following list is in no particular order; just what springs to mind first. It's mostly negative as that what I sticks out the most in my mind.

1) Slightly disappointed on the fuel consumption. Average is 42. I can get 50 if I drive like a nun, or 35 when going for which isn't too bad I guess. I was just hoping for more.

2) Overall, LOVE the Adaptive cruise control. On the DSG, never having to change gear or anything is brilliant in traffic jams. I do however struggle with it on busy motorways as the distance it leaves is huge. It's fine if just sitting in the fast lane, but if changing lanes, you need to leave 3 or 4 chevrons apart.

3) Front windscreen wiper is rubbish. I need to get this changed

4) The front right day time running light was changed as stopped working

5) The cars suspension rattled for 10k miles before I could be bothered to get it sorted. Something to do with a common fault. Something to do with something mechanical (over my head). All sorted now.

6) I find the DSG a bit, all or nothing. I don't have the adaptive chassis, but the car mode is set to sports, and I find I'm either super accelerating, or not really going at all.

7) The power is good. I do love overtaking a handful of cars with my winky on bombing past them.

No other GTD/GTI/R driver flashes me back

9) The Pro Nav has frozen more times than I can count. Doesn't also work in the cold.

10) The white gets dirty very easily. It's had to be cleaned weekly.

11) The heated seats are amazing. They are on 90% of the time.

12) Grown to really likes keyless entry. Although I do hate it as I'm paranoid I never lock my car, and can't physically check either.

13) It get's looks from all sorts of people. In a good way.

14) The suspension can feel a little hard over proper bumpy roads.

15) I see far to many white GTD's on the road now. 3 are on the same street as me.

16) I LOVE the rear indicators. Far better than any Audi S Line ones.

17) The xenon dipped beam is poor. Only about 2 meters in front of me.

17) THe white fog lights rather than yellow lights do the business. Look like little fangs.

18) Nice practical car. Has taken 4 down to the South of France. All luggage (although a squeeze) and a cool box.

19) Never managed to get the Sat Nav to update maps. Probably down to my error of not reading how to work the SD properly.

20) Had something to do with the window replaced under warranty.

21) Washer water lights comes on a lot. Although I do use a lot, after about 3 squirts on a complete refill seems to set it off.

22) The GTD alloys look the sh!t.

23) It's quite a wide car.

24) The GTD/GTI/R steering wheel is 10x nicer than the other Golf ones with small controls on the wheel.

25) The car jumps around a lot when braking and acceleration over cats eyes.

26) Mixed views on the sound acculator. It can sound like I'm revving the tits off it.

27) Good size pockets for drink and 1 litre bottles.

28) It has a spare wheel!

29) It can cover series ground at 120+ without any fuss.

30) I get through quickly (above would suggest why though)

31) It looks good on the drive

32) I find the seats really comfy

33) The glove box is small.

34) I only found out last week it has a storage space under the driver and passenger side seat.

35) It is very easy and comfortable to drive.

36) Did I mentioned I see a good 10 of these daily now?

37) It's super cheap to insure

38) Autohold is really good. Foot off the brake, holds it fine. Accelerate and off, although can be slow to react.

39) I've had auto stop/start turned off the whole time as I just don't like it in an auto as is slow to start. On a manual it's fine.

40) Used the paddles once, and then couldn't be bothered again.

41) I put it is "S" for overtaking. Never tried without to be fair. Does the trick, sounds good too with the sound acculator.

42) Is fairly cheap to get  body work done as a full panel doesn't need painting because it can be blended into the bold lines.

43) I think it's a very sexy looking car.


That's it for now. All that springs to mind. Hope you enjoyed reading some of them.

[ffrank]

Lol, do you even list bro?

Nice update JamesMac, good to know its been relatively plain sailing - my wipers are awful too, when will vw sort that??

And Phil117, amazing list and I will totally flash you back.

[JamesMac]

A couple of points I missed in my earlier post:

1. The engine warm-up on cold frosty mornings is very rapid with warmish air hitting the windscreen after only a couple of minutes.

2. Previous Winter Packs with heated seats, particularly leather, have taken up to 10 minutes for the heat to reach my arse but the GTD reaches 'blast furnace' status rapidly. Thereafter the lowest heat setting does the job.

3. The iPod connection seems to go through a 'connectivity' phase each time I startup but always resumes Play where I left off and the album art never displays.

[monkeyhanger]

my wipers are awful too, when will vw sort that??

I doubt they ever will, I've had 2 MK5 Golfs and 2 Sciroccos before this GTD and the wipers have been sh!te, always replaced with Bosch Aerotwin.  The OEM blades are so tensioned into a banana shape that the central part of it is going to have almost no pressure on the windscreen as the 2 ends are forcing it off. The Bosch ones are almost straight, holding the same curve as the screen and letting the wiper arm hold the pressure over the full length of the blade.

Not a fan of heated seats, just as I am not a fan of sitting on a toilet set that is already warm! 

[Sootchucker]

OK, I'll play. Had my GTD - DSG since 13th September last year so just over 8 months and 6.5k miles. Apart from the extraordinary long wait for it to be built, it's pretty much been plain sailing since then (touch wood - and hope I've not jinxed it !). Bit of a marathon !

The cars comfortable, quiet and very refined (maybe sometimes a little too much refined - if that's even possible ?). Can carry 4 full sized adults over long distances in real comfort (I know I've done this multiple times so far). At first when the MK7 came out (and I had a Scirocco at the time), I thought it just looked plain boring. Whilst it's still doesn't set the world alight with it's radical new look, I think that's actually part of its success.  It does what it does without screaming - "look - I'm a hot hatch", and I like that. As it is, over the last 8 months I've really started to appreciate the simplistic elegance that is the MK7, and think that the GTI and GTD model's with their aggressive front bumpers with LED fogs, big wheels and simply beautiful rear LED light clusters, actually look bang on.

As far as performance and economy go, well I've no real complaints there. As I said I came from a 140PS Scirocco DSG GT, which to be fair whilst not to the same performance as the 170ps model, was still quite a rapid car. Well the GTD (even without a map MH  ) simply blows my Rocco away, and when the opportunity arises to use the power, still puts a huge grin on my face. Fuel consumption too has been a pleasant surprise, as it matches or beats my 140ps Rocco, even with another 43ps. I'm currently averaging long term 49.2mpg, with mid fifties or low sixties easily achievable when the weather's a bit warmer as it is now. It doesn't seem to like the cold though and is much more easily affected on the MPG front that the Rocco was. Close to zero degrees C, and the MPG drops off by at least 5-10 mpg. What's even more impressive about these figures, is that 70% of my driving is commuting - not long hops on the motorway. On a trip to Cardiff to see my nephew, with 4 adults on board and a full boot of luggage, on the last occasion it averaged 59.5 mpg for the total 365 mile round trip - (worked out to a real 58.4mpg by re-fuelling), which for the power on tap I think is pretty amazing.

My options included Dynaudio and I have to say, alongside DSG and keyless, it's probably the best option I ticked. the sound is simply superb with gob full's of Bass when required and very configurable.

Dislikes, well so far not too much but just a few niggles that I feel VW could improve on.

1. My discover Nav pro, whilst it's always performed brilliantly and never locked up, never displays any DAB station logos automatically. Now I don't know if this is down to UK DAB broadcasters changing something in the coding, or VW not programming the DAB protocol properly for the UK ? I've put them in manually for the station pre-set screen, but not art work comes up at all in cover view.

2. Can't access anything but last calls in the phone menu on the MFD display. So if you want to call someone in your phone book that's not there, you need to either use the touch screen (dangerous whilst driving), or attempt to get to grips with the idiosyncrasies' that is the VW speech program. My old Rocco allowed full access to the phone book thought the MFD so why the MK7 can't is anyone's guess.

3. Mine came with Bridgestone Potenza S001 tyres, which at first were absolutely shocking. To be fair, now the weather's warmed up there are not that bad and provide plenty of grip and are quite quiet. However, the car does seem to be able to spin the wheels very freely in the wet, so wet grip certainly isn't their forte !

4. A minor one but the overhead sunglasses locker is now huge, and my glasses rattle around over bumps. I can actually easily get 2 pairs in (one for the wife), so might try and devise a divider of some sort for it to separate them.

5. Weirdly, I find the extra resolution of the Nav pro makes the navigation maps look a bit fussy, with routes not standing out as clearly as they did with my RNS-510 as I think it "draws" the roads much finer and thinner on screen. Maybe it's just me ?

6. Still can't understand the purpose of the front door quarter lights. You can't see much though them and they are a bugger to clean (especially with the mirrors folded).

7. Heated windscreen should have been standard with Winter pack, and not another option ! Would have liked this but didn't want the advanced phone package.

8. Paint doesn't seem as durable as on the Rocco (maybe the Portuguese aren't as stingy with the coats of paint than the German's are). The GTD seems to attract minor scratches  very easily, and already is subject to more stone chips after 8 months than my Rocco did after 3 years ?

9. Apart from the rear lights, the back end of a GTD looks pretty much the same as an SE or GT The GTI at least get's special exhaust and a honeycombed rear diffuser, whilst the GTD uses stock parts. The snob in me would prefer a little more differentiation in the models so feel that VW should have made a similar diffuser available for the GTD, albeit with revised tailpipe cut outs ?

If you've reached this far, that's about it really. The Golf really does live up to its reputation as the only car you will ever need. Sure it's not the most aggressive looking, the most powerful, the fastest, the most sporty etc. etc., but as an overall package of hot hatch, family transport, motorway mile muncher etc, it's currently pretty much has few if any peers.