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View Full Version : First drive reviews of GTD today



Huftons
06-06-2013, 07:47 PM
Autocar and Auto Express both published first drive reviews of the GTD today.

Largely as expected I would say, although they seems to differ on how firm the ride was (although this is irrelevant until the car can be tested on UK roads).

maisbitt
07-06-2013, 11:24 AM
Handling of 3 GTD orders at my local dealership (VW UK are also culpable) has been farcial. My order (1st placed at dealership) has just been moved back in the estimated build week schedule by 7 weeks, my dad ordered one that got cocked up (changes made to order that were not requested) and was locked out of changes (as it will be built within 2 weeks) and his replacement order was initially given a later build order which has shifted back 3 weeks than what was planned. McMaddy's (2nd in queue, before my dad) looks to be the latest car of the 3. Both me and McMaddy are looking at a build week assigned which is currently 20 weeks after our orders were placed, so looking at maybe a 24 week wait from order to delivery. The 3rd car ordered (the cocked-up order for my dad's) which currently has no assigned customer is the first to be built by a long chalk.

Yes the GTD looks great on paper and will undoubtedly be a good drive, but the wait is verging on the ridiculous.

andyk11
20-06-2013, 11:41 AM
There's also a bunch of other first drives out there -

Car (http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/First-drives/VW-Golf-GTD-2013-CAR-review/)
What Car (http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/2013-volkswagen-golf-gtd-review/265972)
MSN Cars (http://cars.uk.msn.com/reviews/volkswagen-golf-gtd-mk7-review-2013-onwards)
Car Enthusiast (http://www.carenthusiast.com/reviews/article/8407/-/2013-Volkswagen-Golf+GTD/First+drive+-+five-door+manual.html)
Car magazine (http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/First-drives/VW-Golf-GTD-2013-CAR-review/)
Autotrader

(http://www.autotrader.co.uk/articles/2013/06/cars/volkswagen/golf/new-volkswagen-golf-gtd-tested)Very positive reviews so far, as expected a thoroughly competent daily driver just without the spark of excitement of the GTI. Suits me :D

Maisbitt - have you had a build week confirmed yet? I've just heard from my lease company, apparently the dealer is still struggling to get a confirmed build week due to the high demand for the GTD. Although it's still on track for build in August with delivery in September sometime. Apparently there is a 2 week factory closure scheduled for July which isn't going to help either.

maisbitt
20-06-2013, 11:53 AM
andyk11: No confirmed build week yet - still a provisional week 33 (2nd week of August) - but that has come from VW UK themselves. Due to a dealership ****-up, my dad's GTD order which was third in the queue at our dealer moved up to first and is "in transit" now after being built earlier this week. This reshuffle seems to have been of huge detriment to my order. The shutdown at Wolfsburg is actually BW29 to 32 inclusive (4 weeks!!!), so although my car is 8 weeks build behind my dad's, it is only actually 4 production weeks later. As a result of the shutdown it seems like a lot of GTI/GTDs for the UK are being built in BW33.

For some of the early orders actually coming through, it seems about a week from plant to the UK post-build, so 2 weeks delivery time seems very do-able. With that in mind I reckon mine will be here a few days before Sept 1st, and i'll wait the few days to get the new plate (63). Mcmaddy has been pushed from BW33 to 34 to 35 now at the most recent update.

Plenty of reviews out there from journalists that clearly haven't even driven a GTD. I wouldn't read too much into it, if you have previously had a Golf or Scirocco with a 170TDI engine you know what to expect, but better.

maisbitt
20-06-2013, 12:39 PM
Hopefully i'll be getting a GTD test drive in the next week to 10 days - my dad's GTD is on it's way to the UK right now according to the VW tracking info for his order. Might not be much of a representative test though. My 170TDI GTD was ridiculously tight upon delivery and for the first 340 miles (approx 500km) and then opened right up, as if it had been on some ECU running in limitation program. A few other 170TDI Scirocco owners noted the same on a forum I sometimes frequent.

andyk11
20-06-2013, 01:23 PM
Sounds good, it'll be interesting to hear how you get on.

My previous car was an Octavia vRS with the 170CR engine. Decent engine, economical and refined when needed but still made a nice 'growling' and 'whooshing' noise when pressing on. The only thing I could fault was that it sometimes felt a little lacking in torque. I'm hoping that the GTD with 280lbs/ft and being slightly lighter should fix that .