james_tiger_woo
16-06-2009, 07:38 PM
It doesn't seem 5 minutes since I did my 1000 mile report and I'm up to 5000 already so here's my opinion of my Golf.
In the last 4000 miles, I've had to put aside some of the things that bug me about the Golf and learn to love or live with them. Mostly, I'm becoming climatised with the car as a place where I spend a lot of time.
The ride is still good - It's soft when it needs to be and firm when I need that too. That's not to say that it's perfect as it's not. It handles the country roads I use really well but isn't keen on the bigger holes (North Lincolnshire's rural roads are pretty shocking) - yesterday I was forced into the edge of a country road which, annoyingly, was at the bottom of a dip and there was a drop and a fairly hefty bang/thud as (I reckon) the suspension bottomed out. (No damage though).
I reckon I could have not bothered with the 18s as they look nice, but probably limit my cornering ability - Go round them too fast and you'll feel it (It's not a GTi after all....).
It's a comfortable place to be - it has to be - I'm in the car up to 2 hours a day. The seats are supportive and comfortable - And I think that it works well for a person of the average height.
The interior space - something I got a bit of grief over - is something I'm adjusting to still. I've dispensed with a lot of crap but still get good use out of the storage pockets. I maintain that the storage could be improved as there's plenty of "dead" space that could be better and more intelligently utilised - Why aren't the storage draws standard, for example, there's a great big space under the front seats that's crying out to be used for something - anything.....
Noise - it's a quiet place to be most of the time - although when I was in the car yesterday in the torrential downpour, my friend and I couldn't hear each other without shouting. And that was while we were stationary. Perhaps it was the "weight" of the rain as the water on metal clanging was pretty loud - perhaps it was one of those things - or perhaps there wasn't enough sound proofing - Either way, it's a "nothing" gripe, more an observation.
At 80 (kph, y'honour) it's still quiet - although, 80 is actually 75 (GPS) so 80 it is mostly :)
The visibility is something I'm still adjusting to - the nearside rear pillar is pretty thick, but it doesn't blcok visibility like some cars - I just excercise an appropriate level of care - A blind spot mirror on the passenger side wouldn't go amiss to be honest - but again - a "nothing" gripe.
Performance - it's brisk - it's not going to set the world alight (it was never going to do that), but in gear acceleration is still good and you can feel it pulling in all the gears and surprisingly most of the way to the redline. It still pulls best from 2200-2500rpm (surprisingly) so the best performance is gotten by dropping a gear.
I'm still not thrilled by the fact that I can't do 30/5th and 40/6th, but I just have to adjust my driving style to compensate - 30/4th, however, is pretty low revs anyway, but to pull out from a 30mph limit, 3rd is advisable.
Economy is, so far, not too bad - (better than the Passat 43.39 mpg) - 47.16 mpg overall, with an average (calculated) tank range of 520 miles. It's improving, but it always depends on where I am, what I'm doing and whether I'm "hooning" in the countryside. The trip computer is still out (10%) and I just mentally adjust to it now so I'm not that bothered.
There are, of course, bad points to the Golf and I think I've covered them here and before, but I'll say what they are again anyway - the OEM stereo isn't to my liking, but I like a stereo with some oomph, which I was only going to get from a better sound system (RCD510 or Dynaudio) - There's no "lights on" indicator which still irritates me as I have the Auto lights and it's useful to know when they've come on in the low light/rain/etc.
The car is comfortable, it's competent, it's economical, it'll hustle along when needs be, it'll pull when you need it to, it'll cruise sedately when you need it to do that too. No, it's not a stunning car, but it is handsome, well proportioned car with a good stance. It doesn't have a cavernous boot with acres of storage space but it has enough room and will fit a proper pram/pushchair in the boot.
It's no out and out sports car (get a GTi or an R32 for that) but it'll do what I want with economy and be easier on my wallet. The Passat is still a pleasant memory and, to be honest, when I need a big car, I'll buy one again - Golf ownership is turning out to be a pleasant experience - and as recently as 5 years ago, that's something I swore blind I'd never say.
All in all, it's the car I wanted for it to be.
In the last 4000 miles, I've had to put aside some of the things that bug me about the Golf and learn to love or live with them. Mostly, I'm becoming climatised with the car as a place where I spend a lot of time.
The ride is still good - It's soft when it needs to be and firm when I need that too. That's not to say that it's perfect as it's not. It handles the country roads I use really well but isn't keen on the bigger holes (North Lincolnshire's rural roads are pretty shocking) - yesterday I was forced into the edge of a country road which, annoyingly, was at the bottom of a dip and there was a drop and a fairly hefty bang/thud as (I reckon) the suspension bottomed out. (No damage though).
I reckon I could have not bothered with the 18s as they look nice, but probably limit my cornering ability - Go round them too fast and you'll feel it (It's not a GTi after all....).
It's a comfortable place to be - it has to be - I'm in the car up to 2 hours a day. The seats are supportive and comfortable - And I think that it works well for a person of the average height.
The interior space - something I got a bit of grief over - is something I'm adjusting to still. I've dispensed with a lot of crap but still get good use out of the storage pockets. I maintain that the storage could be improved as there's plenty of "dead" space that could be better and more intelligently utilised - Why aren't the storage draws standard, for example, there's a great big space under the front seats that's crying out to be used for something - anything.....
Noise - it's a quiet place to be most of the time - although when I was in the car yesterday in the torrential downpour, my friend and I couldn't hear each other without shouting. And that was while we were stationary. Perhaps it was the "weight" of the rain as the water on metal clanging was pretty loud - perhaps it was one of those things - or perhaps there wasn't enough sound proofing - Either way, it's a "nothing" gripe, more an observation.
At 80 (kph, y'honour) it's still quiet - although, 80 is actually 75 (GPS) so 80 it is mostly :)
The visibility is something I'm still adjusting to - the nearside rear pillar is pretty thick, but it doesn't blcok visibility like some cars - I just excercise an appropriate level of care - A blind spot mirror on the passenger side wouldn't go amiss to be honest - but again - a "nothing" gripe.
Performance - it's brisk - it's not going to set the world alight (it was never going to do that), but in gear acceleration is still good and you can feel it pulling in all the gears and surprisingly most of the way to the redline. It still pulls best from 2200-2500rpm (surprisingly) so the best performance is gotten by dropping a gear.
I'm still not thrilled by the fact that I can't do 30/5th and 40/6th, but I just have to adjust my driving style to compensate - 30/4th, however, is pretty low revs anyway, but to pull out from a 30mph limit, 3rd is advisable.
Economy is, so far, not too bad - (better than the Passat 43.39 mpg) - 47.16 mpg overall, with an average (calculated) tank range of 520 miles. It's improving, but it always depends on where I am, what I'm doing and whether I'm "hooning" in the countryside. The trip computer is still out (10%) and I just mentally adjust to it now so I'm not that bothered.
There are, of course, bad points to the Golf and I think I've covered them here and before, but I'll say what they are again anyway - the OEM stereo isn't to my liking, but I like a stereo with some oomph, which I was only going to get from a better sound system (RCD510 or Dynaudio) - There's no "lights on" indicator which still irritates me as I have the Auto lights and it's useful to know when they've come on in the low light/rain/etc.
The car is comfortable, it's competent, it's economical, it'll hustle along when needs be, it'll pull when you need it to, it'll cruise sedately when you need it to do that too. No, it's not a stunning car, but it is handsome, well proportioned car with a good stance. It doesn't have a cavernous boot with acres of storage space but it has enough room and will fit a proper pram/pushchair in the boot.
It's no out and out sports car (get a GTi or an R32 for that) but it'll do what I want with economy and be easier on my wallet. The Passat is still a pleasant memory and, to be honest, when I need a big car, I'll buy one again - Golf ownership is turning out to be a pleasant experience - and as recently as 5 years ago, that's something I swore blind I'd never say.
All in all, it's the car I wanted for it to be.