Joe’s MK8.5 Moonstone grey Clubsport

[JoeGTI]

Hi guys,
I took delivery of this new machine a couple of weeks ago but between stormy weather, a dose of Covid and then a few days with a local detailer, I’ve only got to play with it this weekend 

I traded a ‘21 MK8 Clubsport and I’m really pleased with the upgrade. I think VW have done a great job of the facelift, addressing some of the more iffy aspects of the MK8’s styling. And needless to say the infotainment system is far and away a much better user experience.












Today I fitted a few items I carried over from the old car - R DSG paddles, GTI cill plates, Edition 45 mats, bonnet strut!

[theminty1]

Congratulations. Car looks great. Wheels suit the car and a sunroof! Perfect

[Exonian]

I’ve been looking forward to these photos!
The car looks fab Joe. Great spec and good to see you’ve carried those little mods over from the last car too.
The Moonstone under the grey winter sky looks very moody and purposeful.

I hope you’re all recovered from the virus now and get to enjoy the car, hopefully it’s not covered in road salt already!
Does it drive any differently to the processor?

[JoeGTI]

I’ve been looking forward to these photos!
The car looks fab Joe. Great spec and good to see you’ve carried those little mods over from the last car too.
The Moonstone under the grey winter sky looks very moody and purposeful.

I hope you’re all recovered from the virus now and get to enjoy the car, hopefully it’s not covered in road salt already!
Does it drive any differently to the processor?

Thanks Andy! Yeah I'm really pleased with the colour and it looks so different depending on the lighting... I did manage to see it in a rare moment of sunshine a couple of days ago and it looked really different, but didn't manage to grab a pic!

Not much salt or grime on it yet, as even though its quite gloomy out, its been relatively dry, so the roads aren't in bits like they usually are.

The car does feel familiar of course, but definitely noticed some subtle differences.

Firstly there is the tech. The much maligned MK8 infotainment screen has been replaced by a huge new phablet on top of the dash. I did worry that it would be "too much" but I am really happy with it! I was one of those that defended the MK8 system, I didn't have many issues with it, but let's be honest, it was not the most intuitive. The new infotainment is a massive step forward, I cannot emphasise just how much better it is. Night and day. It really makes the whole driving experience that much easier.

The nanny-state stuff has ratched up a bit in the new car. As well as lane assist, we now have speed warning bongs. And for some reason they've decided that the car must always start in Comfort mode, irrespective of what DCC Mode you had it in last. I used to always have the MK8 in Individual mode with some preferred settings, but now I must manually change to this mode on every start! Another thing to add to the "pre flight checks" in these cars. Thankfully (as per my point above on the infotainment), it is a lot easier to toggle these things off via the infotainment screen than the older car. Far less clicking and prodding around than before.

So once you've done all the pre flight checks and get moving... first thing I noticed on moving off forecourt was the door locks! The auto-locking thing they do, it's barely audible, whereas the old car sounded like a VW Caddy locking up 

The car does feel great on the move. I'm honestly not sure yet if its new car placebo effect, but it does seem more composed than the old car. The DCC seems to be doing a better job of ironing out the bumps on the road. There's probably a touch of new car smell about this, but it really does feel smoother. I think they've tweaked things on the DCC side. I've always tended to drive the car in Sport / "S" mode and I always thought the old car had a bit of a turbo "whine" in the lower gears. Dealers told me it was normal, a characteristic of the car. And guess what - the new car doesn't whine. So it does feel more pleasant as a result.

Overall, really happy with it so far. And I'm very happy with the few options I ticked. It's years since I had a car with a sunroof, so I'm really liking the Pano roof. And the HK audio is quite impressive too.

[Exonian]

That all sounds incredibly positive Joe, and I’m pretty sure if I’d kept my Clubsport a little longer I’d have done a similar swap when VW were doing some very attractive deals last summer.
There’s a Moonstone R-Line around the corner from my house that’s kept really tidy by its owner and I can confirm it looks really good in all lighting conditions.
It looks especially good alongside the red GTI accents and gloss black trim on your Clubsport.
I’m definitely very impressed with the colour and spec you’ve chosen. 

[JoeGTI]

That all sounds incredibly positive Joe, and I’m pretty sure if I’d kept my Clubsport a little longer I’d have done a similar swap when VW were doing some very attractive deals last summer.
There’s a Moonstone R-Line around the corner from my house that’s kept really tidy by its owner and I can confirm it looks really good in all lighting conditions.
It looks especially good alongside the red GTI accents and gloss black trim on your Clubsport.
I’m definitely very impressed with the colour and spec you’ve chosen. 

Yeah that’s the other thing I meant to mention! The colour works really well with the gloss black details and the red bits. The gloss black treatment really does wonders for the overall appearance. It was one thing that I felt let the looks of the MK8 down a bit.

I had been half tempted to spec the black pack but I’m glad I didn’t in the end as I’d lose the red grill stripe. I did get a pair of gloss black mirror caps on AliExpress for small money and they were an easy swap on and look perfect.

One other thing I noticed with the driver modes. In Special / Ring mode, the gear indicator shows “S+”. So it’s like S+1, S+2, S+3, etc rather than S1, S2… not sure if the “+” signifies anything in particular - yet! As I only tried it briefly.

One slight annoyance in the MFD, the odometer doesn’t show. Can’t see total miles covered unless you dig through menus. In its place, the ACC icons are permanently shown. Bit strange but it seems all the new VW’s are like this now.

[Exonian]

There’s a white Clubsport in my local dealer’s showroom I noticed it last week so I took the unusual step of actually going to have a look at it. The Clubby is definitely the pick of the range visually, the gloss black seems to give it a lot more presence.

You made a good decision to ignore the Black Pack. Keeping the red accents and adding black mirror caps is the best of both worlds in my opinion. I do like the darker headlights on the Black Pack but being as you don’t get the darkened badges like the R Black Edition it feels a bit half arsed. For the money it would cost to have the Black Pack and 19’s on a UK Clubby you’d get a better deal buying an R Black Edition which is plain daft.

I wonder if the little + signs on the gear display signal that the anti-lag system is operating?

[seanaodh]

It's so funny to me to hear that for the price of a CS + black pack + 19s you could be in an R in the UK when in Ireland, the Black Park R is more than €16,000 more expensive than the CS.

The black edition starts over here at over £65,000 (€79,700 to be exact)

Crazy how different regulations and pricing strategies impact the cost. And also how no one has gotten them to fix the black pack bug in the UK configurator.

[Sharpe]

There’s a white Clubsport in my local dealer’s showroom I noticed it last week so I took the unusual step of actually going to have a look at it. The Clubby is definitely the pick of the range visually, the gloss black seems to give it a lot more presence.

You made a good decision to ignore the Black Pack. Keeping the red accents and adding black mirror caps is the best of both worlds in my opinion. I do like the darker headlights on the Black Pack but being as you don’t get the darkened badges like the R Black Edition it feels a bit half arsed. For the money it would cost to have the Black Pack and 19’s on a UK Clubby you’d get a better deal buying an R Black Edition which is plain daft.

I wonder if the little + signs on the gear display signal that the anti-lag system is operating?

I drive by the showroom on the way to work and noticed it. Popped in last week for a look, very nice but over £49k! Even with a hefty discount, don’t think I’d change from my bog standard GTI

[Exonian]

Being as your GTI is so new Sharpe it would never be worth the change owing to market conditions dictating massive early life depreciation. It’ll steady out a bit after a year or two and by which time the Edition 50 should be released. Should you wish to stay in a Golf that long then that’s the car that might be worth emptying the piggy bank for. Mind you, when a Clubsport can look as good as Joe’s there’s always a sneaking temptation!