5000 Mile Report

[james_tiger_woo]

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.

[manic-vw]

fantastic review James!!
not long till I get mine now, so hope to check things along these lines.
great help to all of us, well done.

[dmw76]

Regarding the auto lights , when i first got the golf i went on a trip down to brighton which had already been planned and was a good run for the car and us to get used to it. The daytime running lights were on for most of the journey but as it started to get dark there was an audible "bong" and the dash lights illuminated to tell me that the full lights were now on. Since then i dont recall it happening again, maybe i havent driven long enough through day to start of dusk

[james_tiger_woo]

Interesting about the "bong" as I'd like for that to happen - I've driven in to tunnels and I've driven in to poor light (rain) and the lights have come on with no notification.

A dealer question perhaps?

[maisbitt]

Jamestigerwoo:

On the Scirocco, my mpg indicated (fill to fill, using trip 2, reset every time I fill up) is 11% higher than my calculated actual.

I don't have a satnav (don't feel the need to), but i'm assuming that you do, as you talk about GPS speed vs indicated sped in the car. I wonder whether you've ever checked the number of miles that your sat nav tots up vs the number of miles the car's trip says you've done.

It would be interesting to know whether VW's definition of a mile is really a mile, seeing as your car is 10% out on actual mpg and over 6% out on actual speed.

I wonder whether VW engineer these errors into the car to make it look like they are faster and more economic with the fuel than they actually are?

[james_tiger_woo]

I do indeed have a sat-nav and its software is TomTom - I'm not saying it's 100% accurate, but it's interesting to note the discrepency. I'll check the mile count as I've never thought to bother to check that....

I'm not sure that VW do check the speed/economy, but surely the figures would have to be verified by someone?

[maisbitt]

I think it'll be accurate enough - those things with GPS can pin you down to within 4 feet. If the distance is that accurate and you can measure your fuel consumptoin over that period then you'll have a very accurate mpg reading.

[WeegieBob]

Regarding the auto lights ..... The daytime running lights were on for most of the journey but as it started to get dark there was an audible "bong" and the dash lights illuminated to tell me that the full lights were now on.

I've been experiencing the "bong", but hadn't quite figured out what the car was telling me - I wonder if this is it?

WeegieBob.

[Nightowl4933]

Ooh, I'm really looking forward to mine 'bonging' - I hope it's a standard feature

Of course, I could get really fed up with it after a while I wonder if it's '...easily turn on-able and off-able?

Pete

[maisbitt]

With DRLs standard, I don't know why VW fitted auto lights.

As everyone now has DRLs on 2009 model VWs, the dipped beam is permanently on, so when it's dark enough for the auto lights to have switched them on (and "bong"), they're already on anyway.

The auto lights really only come into play if you've had your DRLs switched off by Vagcom (or the stalk method if you have Xenons)