Picked up my new 8.5GTI in Friday and really pleased with it so far. Much more engaging to drive that yhe RSQ3 that I traded in.
Why do you like 8.5 GTI more than RSQ3 in terms of driving perspective? I heard 8Y RS3 has a lot of turbo-lag, and really not going anywhere under 3000 rpm. Curious to hear your thoughts and comparison!
The engine itself in the RSQ3 was a peach. However, the rest is little more than a that a mis-match of parts from the VAG parts bin. Throttle response was dreadful. The gearbox slow, indecisive and clunky (it’s apparently the same DSG box from a T6! The suspension was so hard, it crashed down the road and jumped about on bends. It’s a heavy car too and you know it. The interior isn’t as nice as a GTI either - the GTI is much better quality fittings and plastics. It felt more like CVT gearbox than DSG. The Volvo XC90 T6 which I had previously was a much more responsive car. No way should it have ever been a £60k car.
I chose to go back to a GTI as the last car I really, really liked was. mk5 GTI. I didn’t even have any interest in the Golf R - I find it a bit boring to look at compared with the GTI. The thing is, when a car passes a certain level of performance, you simply cannot ‘use’ that performance on the road. If you want to have a spirited drive, the front wheel drive of a GTI is far more engaging and challenging to the driver than say, a Golf R, which has more traction.
I only picked up my GTI a couple of weeks ago but I’m really smitten with it - i feel that I am ‘driving’ it rather than simply ‘operating’ it, as it feels with so many modern cars. Over the years, I learned some hard and expensive lessons. Faster, is most certainly not always better - only if you like pub performance stats and bragging rights.
