Advise please

[steve12345]

I was in a  similar position when I got my GTI.

I wanted PP but I also wanted as many extras / gadgets I could get as well. My key requirements where PP, heated seats, DCC, & good price (second hand).

In the end I found a Non PP at great price with all the other stuff and more but obviously without PP.

As mentinoed above the VW Nav in is waste of time. You’re better off with Waze / Google on your phone. Or better still apply carplay to allow you to project waze / google from your phone to the cars infotainment screen, but I presume you will need a fairly new model to have this feature and that will bring the price up?

For the price I paid I’m really pleased with my non PP GTI. I am always going think in the back of my mind how much better would PP have been, and will always have a curiosity to have this. That’s just the way I’m wired - always want more than I have. However in the real world my non PP GTI is perfectly fine and I will stick with it for many years, rather than un-necessarily pouring more cash into another car with PP.

So I guess in conclusion, you need to assess how much you’re willing to pay for PP, NAV etc. If you find something you think is a good compromise then go for it. So long as you’re 100% sure your curiosity to have those missing features don’t result in you  regretting your choice after few months and you ending up spending loads more to buy another car.

[Sootchucker]

TBH, maybe it's just me but I've never had a problem with the VW inbuilt Navigation. Over the weekend the wife and I took her Polo Blue GT (with inbuilt nav) down to South Wales to see our friends. Storm Denis was in full force and to be honest we nearly didn't go because of it.

In the end due to the possibility of having so many road closures, we decided to give Waze a try. 3 times it recalculated our route and asked us to turn off only for within seconds telling us there were road closures on this route and to turn around. The weird thing is that before it asked us to turn off, you could see the road closure signs for the road it wanted to take us on, on the map ? Why get us to take a route when the route is closed ?

In the end we revered back to the VW Nav using the live traffic data from a WLAN connection to VW's Car-Net, and that worked brilliantly - first time ?

As you can see from my options list below, I went a bit mad with mine, but part of me still wishes I'd have ticked that Performance Package box. The extra power.. - meh... mine is plenty quick enough and I doubt I'd be able to tell much difference in performance, but for the bigger brakes (which in my opinion finish off the car especially behind 19" alloys) and the trick diff in my opinion are well worth the asking price alone. In the grand scheme of things, unless a non PP and a PP car are both being driven balls out, I doubt there would be more than a fag paper between them across country, but in hindsight, I'd have still ticked that box.

[mcmaddy]

I'm the same as you Andrew, never had an issue with any of the VW navigation units I've had. They are kept up to date which maybe others can't be bothered to do. Once it's set up correctly it works perfectly. Once speed cams are added etc it's even better. I found Waze to be complete tosh.

[rajb]

Another vote for the VW nav. Found it really good and no issues using it compared to other options like Waze, Google Maps, etc.

[Catnapper]

So what's the secret to using VW Satnav.
 -Have it connected to WLAN all the time?
 -Only ask for one option rather than 3?
 -Anything else?
I really would like to use it more but I'm afraid to say I don't trust it anymore, yes, I know it's only an aid.

[rajb]

So what's the secret to using VW Satnav.
 -Have it connected to WLAN all the time?
 -Only ask for one option rather than 3?
 -Anything else?
I really would like to use it more but I'm afraid to say I don't trust it anymore, yes, I know it's only an aid.

My car is a 7 (not 7.5) but with the larger screen and I get the 3 options each time I put a postcode in, but I always choose the middle one (which is the quickest route option). Then seems to work pretty well. As you say it is an aid and I have on occasion chosen a road when seeing it cuts across the route a little and the nav has happily re-routed.

[fredgroves]

If you want (proper) traffic and not just RDS garbage traffic, you need it connected to a wifi hotspot via your phone.

It won't help the pathing but might tell you about traffic and probably badly route you around it.

[Sootchucker]

I could be wrong, but I'm sensing you don't like the standard Nav then Fred 

[fredgroves]

I could be wrong, but I'm sensing you don't like the standard Nav then Fred 

Given that my Golf is a business tool, my arrival at the destination on time is critical to me.

If you are out for a Sunday drive or whatever, VW Nav will get you there (in the end).

BTW my Mk7 had NavPro and was a massive dissapointment vs the money I paid.... it didn't deliver what the VW literature promised. I have NavPro on my current Mk7.5 too - but it has live traffic data (finally) but as I suspected, half the problem was a rubbish pathing mechanism and that remains. Luckily I have a lovely big screen to use with AA and Waze now.... so it does kinda fix it but £1500 for a screen that isn't exactly an expensive component in 2017 is taking the mickey.

[Exonian]

As you can see from my options list below, I went a bit mad with mine, but part of me still wishes I'd have ticked that Performance Package box. The extra power.. - meh... mine is plenty quick enough and I doubt I'd be able to tell much difference in performance, but for the bigger brakes (which in my opinion finish off the car especially behind 19" alloys) and the trick diff in my opinion are well worth the asking price alone. In the grand scheme of things, unless a non PP and a PP car are both being driven balls out, I doubt there would be more than a fag paper between them across country, but in hindsight, I'd have still ticked that box.

On public roads with sane drivers behind the wheel there wouldn’t be more than a fag paper between them.
Back in 2014 when I had my GTI PP I was fortunate enough to be able to test the two specs back to back owing to the fact I was given a hired 220PS to play with one springtime Sunday.

 

Obviously the 10PS difference was unnoticeable but the bigger brakes certainly were even in fairly standard braking from motorway speeds.

The VAQ diff was the main reason I ticked the box and the one thing that impressed me most.

I suppose that in the main those that ticked luxury options instead of the PP box probably are less interested in actual driving dynamics because Golf GTI’s appeal to such a massive spectrum of buyers and many of them are far from boy/girl racer types.
I came from a very long succession of modified cars (mostly GTIs) so the PP was a no brainer for me and I considered most of the rest of the options list mere fripperies. I did spec Nav on mine (MIB I) but wasn’t impressed by it.
Park assist was good fun but only ever used a few times.

The 220PS GTI I drove back to back was devoid of options and I enjoyed driving it just as much. It lacked the finesse of the diff and the security of the 340mm brakes but still had the excellent MQB handling and GTI DNA.