Thought I'd writeup my feelings on my new Mk7.5 GTD vs my old one.
I previously had a 2014 plate 5 door manual GTD with DCC, NavPro, HBA and in Limestone Grey. She was a company wagon and I did 72k in her over three years. Always faithful, always comfortable.
After HMRC declared war on company cars, I decided it was time to buy my own car. What should it be? Had to be a Golf really, it really has been the best car I've ever had.
This time she's white 5 door manual GTDand I've only added NavPro - I did originally spec DCC but decided to change the spec during the order process... more on that later.
I've had her a week and notched up 1k in her already!
So here's my thoughts of old girl vs flirty young model.
Exterior:Liking the front lights. They look good, the DRL's are nice and I like the way the indicators are in the pattern of the DRL's. The LED headlights themselves are impressive - better than the Xenons I'd say, really cut through the dark lanes in Wales. The new cornering lights are now also LED, which in one respect is nicer than the yellow filament ones before, but they don't seem to light the corners as well as the Mk7's.
I've got fogs, but not tried them yet... because it hasn't been foggy. The new more aggressive finned front looks good though.
Rear lights... OMG I love those sweepy indicators. Love love love! On the other hand, the smoked light clusters themselves are not as nice as the multi LED ones on the Mk7.
Wheels - I think these look nicer. In fact earlier at Asda I was able to compare one to the other. Definitely nicer.
Rear valance and bigger tail pipes - nice! The new valance is sloped, I *think* its reduced the vacuum effect on the rear - the top of my rear bumper looks cleaner after 1k than the old one did after 10 miles!
I'm liking white far more than metallic beige
Interior:Not much different. Slightly different finish around the dash - piano black on the front dash, still carbon hexagon thing on the door strips. New frameless mirror is a nice touch. Noticing the random money saving removals of various plastic covers - most noticeable is the ones over the ISOFIX points on the rear seat. Might have to buy some of those...
Electronics:AID... I *think* I like it. Its taken me a good old time to try and find a display setup how I want it and even then its not quite what I'd want. Shame its not more customisable. White needles on white dials and numbers... not great VW!
ACC - surprised nobody has mentioned this before.... it finally can detect vehicles in the lane to your right (or left if you set it to driving on the right) and not undertake them! Now that VW is progress! I can only imagine how the full optional spec'ed system works with DSG, lane assist and traffic jam assist. Should be brilliant, if a little expensive.
OptionsNavPro, its pretty impressive. Looks the business. The touch screen now works like a modern touch screen. Nav finally has CarNet for decent traffic data. The AID map view is OK, but have to say not needed and I've already stopped faffing with that. The maps can be updated over WLAN connection... which means no more SD car foolery, park it on the drive, use my cable broadband.
Voice control on it is much better. Very much better. Maybe even usable now? Still has an annoying delay while it thinks about what you said though.
Gesture control? Apart from a few accidental uses, its crap. Steering wheel buttons are superior and safer!
BTW, VW called this MIB2 GP, not MIB3.
Issues with NavPro are:
1) The lack of nobs is annoying, especially the right hand one previously used to scroll through stuff. In fact, in a lot of ways the new NavPro is more dangerous to a driver than the old one.
2) CarNet - yeah brilliant VW, good data sources does make a difference but the lame WLAN connection needed is rubbish. Far too much fiddle turning that on and off on my phone each time. Also, once it has the data, its ability to use it sensibly to navigate around hell on the M5 is shocking. The other things on it are OK, but its a sat nav, it should be better than this. BTW the traffic data comes from TomTom...
3) Greasy fingerprints. It looks like I only eat chips or something and use the wrappers to rub the thing down. Also the shiny gloss screen reflects everything. Not clever.
I swapped to using AppConnect and AndroidAuto in the end. Despite the having to plug it in, Google has better traffic data, smarter navigation capabilities (really can get you round jams) and a better display for directions. Shame it can't use the AID for repeating the data to the driver easily. Almost tempted to say though that I'd never use the VW nav system again though - unless you are in a mobile phone dead zone.
Anyway....
DCC... I decided to cancel the option mid order. Saved me a few quid. I was scared though, my last few cars have all had some sort of dynamic adaptive suspension. In the end, the upshot is that I'm not missing it so far!
I expect I'll have a few more comments to add later, but so far so good.
