The Amazing PH Passat Alltrack Thread
Discussion
hornetrider said:
davgar said:
Speed Camera POI
Looking for 5 people willing to pay £1 each and I will buy this
Let me know if you are interested.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-DISCOVER-PRO-SKODA-MI...
Looking for 5 people willing to pay £1 each and I will buy this
Let me know if you are interested.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-DISCOVER-PRO-SKODA-MI...
U serious bro
I bet you can get them for free on gpsunderground or similar anyway.
Mine arrived this morning. Aside from not being able to remove the Isofix caps without feeling they're going to break, and not being able to play Bluetooth audio, I'm pretty pleased.
Anyone bought a boot liner for one of these? If so where from? Am about to chuck a load of tip stuff in there and it's a bit scary doing it to a spanking new car.
Anyone bought a boot liner for one of these? If so where from? Am about to chuck a load of tip stuff in there and it's a bit scary doing it to a spanking new car.
bedonde said:
Mine arrived this morning. Aside from not being able to remove the Isofix caps without feeling they're going to break, and not being able to play Bluetooth audio, I'm pretty pleased.
Anyone bought a boot liner for one of these? If so where from? Am about to chuck a load of tip stuff in there and it's a bit scary doing it to a spanking new car.
I just used some clean cardboard. Mine doesn't smell quite as new now, but the new car smell made me feel a bit sick anyway. Anyone else feel like that?Anyone bought a boot liner for one of these? If so where from? Am about to chuck a load of tip stuff in there and it's a bit scary doing it to a spanking new car.
Picked mine up yesterday, 190 DSG Urano Grey. I've already put 500 miles on it - I've even had it airborne at one point 
I drove from Birmingham to Cairnryan and then took the boat to Belfast to bring it back home.
Was a very interesting journey and I got to find out lots about the car on that 1st proper drive - probably learnt a bit more than I expected to/wanted to!
1st up is the Sat Nav. It should have taken me onto the M6 straight away but didn't, it kept telling me about all the 6 mile tailbacks, 2 miles of stationary traffic etc and took me another route. Fair enough, seemed like a good idea. It took me about 2.5 hours to do about 70 miles but when I did eventually get onto the M6 (Friday afternoon/evening so you can imagine) it was like a car park, but it was still the best route according to the sat nav. Radio was saying the same so can't really complain.
The adaptive cruise control was a god send. For about 200 miles, all I had to do was steer - the car did everything else which was really cool. A brilliant feature and I'm not sure if I could go for a car without it. Its so much better and useful than I had imagined.
But yeah, the sat nav - everything was fine until I got past Carlisle and headed towards stranraer - A75 I think. It took me off to the right with about 80 miles to go. An A road but more like an A/B road. Such an enjoyable drive that was - loads of twisty turning bends, with dips and crests all along the way. Put her into sport mode which keeps the rev range in a good spot so you can easily access the high torque with turbo lag only being a very slight issue, rather than an annoyance - I was quite impressed overall with how responsive the car was to the throttle. Braking was good too - not exceptional but more than enough stopping power for most I would guess.
Things took a turn for the worse though once the sat nav took me down a B road and then asked me to take a right down a private lane way. Uh, oh, I'm starting to feel lost. I took the next right which was a 4 mile road which was like a dirt track, only 1 car width so I had to go really really slow as if you met another car, you would both have to stop and with so many bends, I reckon I could have done it faster on a bicycle. Little did I know that at this point, I was in the middle of know where, about 20 or 30 miles from ANY main road, let alone the road I was looking for. Thankfully I was able to get a google maps signal on my phone and it was mapping me to Cairnryan which funny enough, the sat nav on the car was showing the same route. But how on earth did I get here in the 1st place is the question.
Then it hit me - google maps was showing 1 hr 58 min to destination - the car was showing 1 hr 30 mins - and the ferry gate was closing less than 2 hours and I'm sitting in the car, with nothing but trees, rabbits and even a baby dear hopping on and off the road like it had some sort of death wish. Uh oh, I might miss the boat now.
Time for some spirited driving. Having already had an enjoyable drive to get to this point, I already had a good feel for how she was handling but I really had to step it up another notch at this point - I didn't want to be stuck at the Ferry terminal with nowhere to stay in the middle of the night. Once I got onto what you would describe as a normal road (i.e., it had markings in the middle) I was able to really push the car hard but at the same time, keep her between the hedges and drive safely.
The 4 wheel drive function is something that I thought would only kick in during poor weather condition, or loose surfaces. It kicked in a number of times on this journey. Just when I though the car was understeering into the corner, you could feel the back wheel drive kicking in - almost a feeling as if the back end was momentarily going to step out but actually turned out to be additional grip and traction getting delivered. After this happened a few times it actually felt really assured and gave you massive confidence that the car had all the traction that you would need and that if you were going to push it hard through a bend, the car would step in and give you the control and grip that you were asking of it. Very impressive.
The steering response is probably a weak point and there is plenty of travel in the suspension which you can feel that on the drive. With that said, when you combine the 'comfortable' suspension with the impressive throttle response and 4 wheel drive traction, it actually makes for a really enjoyable ride. It soaks up the bumps and humps nicely so its not physically demanding and you are not getting bumped around the cabin, which helps you enjoy the power delivery and decent handling. At one point I went over a crest and I thought I was going to get a big thud from the front as all the weight was coming down over the front axle but actually, it cushioned it extremely well - I was cringing and waiting for the bang but it didn't happen. Cool.
It was shortly after that the the car was actually airborne - was only a small crest but it had a steep rise and up she went. I was driving along thinking to myself - I just got a brand new car and I wanted to break her in gently. I wasn't planning to have her in sport mode, full throttle for the gut of 2 hours and having all 4 wheels off the ground driving through the back roads of western Scotland! This wasn't in the script.
I've got to say though, I learned almost everything I needed to know about how she drives and I got to see some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever set eyes on. Such a lovely part of the world and lovely evening with a red sky as the sun was setting and I was twisting and turning my way past places like Lough Ken and Galloway forest park with hardly another car to be seen - stunning place to look at and amazing roads to drive on. If I'm driving this ferry route again, I'll certainly go back the same way if I have the time.
Overall, this car won't win any lap time awards but it is still a very satisfying drive. What it lacks in total feel, it makes up for in comfort and confidence. This is a car you can trust and I was able to take those roads in Scotland with more authority than I could have done in my current Jaguar S Type. It feels extremely sure footed and you very quickly get a feel for how the car is going to respond in each situation, whether that is a bump, dip, crest, tight bend or whatever, you know the car is going to manage it and the way the 4 wheel drive kicks in when you push it hard - its really impressive and just pushes your confidence in the car right up - when you put it into a corner, you know you're coming out of it exactly as you had planned.
Its always safety 1st for me when I drive and despite being tight for time, I wanted to get home in one piece. It might sound like I was rallying a bit and to a certain extent, I was - but only when I had full visibility of whats in front of me. I still had to be mindful that there were dear about and goodness knows what else.
The interesting thing, was that I arrived in Cairnryan in roughly 1 hr 30 mins from the point I was lost - pretty much what the VW sat nav said, whereas google maps said 1hr 58 mins. I reckon if I was driving normally google maps would have been the correct time. I guess the VW sat nav timing only works if you drive it like you stole it
One thing is for sure, I'll not be trusting the VW sat nav again until I get to read the manual properly and figure out what each route selection means. You get a choice of 3 types of route each time and I just picked a random one as I didn't know what red, blue or orange routes meant. It still shouldn't have taken me so far off course though, thats just bizarre where it took me yesterday.
Overall, I'm delighted with this car. Lots of features, nice to drive and loads of room for the kids and their stuff. Good job VW
I drove from Birmingham to Cairnryan and then took the boat to Belfast to bring it back home.
Was a very interesting journey and I got to find out lots about the car on that 1st proper drive - probably learnt a bit more than I expected to/wanted to!
1st up is the Sat Nav. It should have taken me onto the M6 straight away but didn't, it kept telling me about all the 6 mile tailbacks, 2 miles of stationary traffic etc and took me another route. Fair enough, seemed like a good idea. It took me about 2.5 hours to do about 70 miles but when I did eventually get onto the M6 (Friday afternoon/evening so you can imagine) it was like a car park, but it was still the best route according to the sat nav. Radio was saying the same so can't really complain.
The adaptive cruise control was a god send. For about 200 miles, all I had to do was steer - the car did everything else which was really cool. A brilliant feature and I'm not sure if I could go for a car without it. Its so much better and useful than I had imagined.
But yeah, the sat nav - everything was fine until I got past Carlisle and headed towards stranraer - A75 I think. It took me off to the right with about 80 miles to go. An A road but more like an A/B road. Such an enjoyable drive that was - loads of twisty turning bends, with dips and crests all along the way. Put her into sport mode which keeps the rev range in a good spot so you can easily access the high torque with turbo lag only being a very slight issue, rather than an annoyance - I was quite impressed overall with how responsive the car was to the throttle. Braking was good too - not exceptional but more than enough stopping power for most I would guess.
Things took a turn for the worse though once the sat nav took me down a B road and then asked me to take a right down a private lane way. Uh, oh, I'm starting to feel lost. I took the next right which was a 4 mile road which was like a dirt track, only 1 car width so I had to go really really slow as if you met another car, you would both have to stop and with so many bends, I reckon I could have done it faster on a bicycle. Little did I know that at this point, I was in the middle of know where, about 20 or 30 miles from ANY main road, let alone the road I was looking for. Thankfully I was able to get a google maps signal on my phone and it was mapping me to Cairnryan which funny enough, the sat nav on the car was showing the same route. But how on earth did I get here in the 1st place is the question.
Then it hit me - google maps was showing 1 hr 58 min to destination - the car was showing 1 hr 30 mins - and the ferry gate was closing less than 2 hours and I'm sitting in the car, with nothing but trees, rabbits and even a baby dear hopping on and off the road like it had some sort of death wish. Uh oh, I might miss the boat now.
Time for some spirited driving. Having already had an enjoyable drive to get to this point, I already had a good feel for how she was handling but I really had to step it up another notch at this point - I didn't want to be stuck at the Ferry terminal with nowhere to stay in the middle of the night. Once I got onto what you would describe as a normal road (i.e., it had markings in the middle) I was able to really push the car hard but at the same time, keep her between the hedges and drive safely.
The 4 wheel drive function is something that I thought would only kick in during poor weather condition, or loose surfaces. It kicked in a number of times on this journey. Just when I though the car was understeering into the corner, you could feel the back wheel drive kicking in - almost a feeling as if the back end was momentarily going to step out but actually turned out to be additional grip and traction getting delivered. After this happened a few times it actually felt really assured and gave you massive confidence that the car had all the traction that you would need and that if you were going to push it hard through a bend, the car would step in and give you the control and grip that you were asking of it. Very impressive.
The steering response is probably a weak point and there is plenty of travel in the suspension which you can feel that on the drive. With that said, when you combine the 'comfortable' suspension with the impressive throttle response and 4 wheel drive traction, it actually makes for a really enjoyable ride. It soaks up the bumps and humps nicely so its not physically demanding and you are not getting bumped around the cabin, which helps you enjoy the power delivery and decent handling. At one point I went over a crest and I thought I was going to get a big thud from the front as all the weight was coming down over the front axle but actually, it cushioned it extremely well - I was cringing and waiting for the bang but it didn't happen. Cool.
It was shortly after that the the car was actually airborne - was only a small crest but it had a steep rise and up she went. I was driving along thinking to myself - I just got a brand new car and I wanted to break her in gently. I wasn't planning to have her in sport mode, full throttle for the gut of 2 hours and having all 4 wheels off the ground driving through the back roads of western Scotland! This wasn't in the script.
I've got to say though, I learned almost everything I needed to know about how she drives and I got to see some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever set eyes on. Such a lovely part of the world and lovely evening with a red sky as the sun was setting and I was twisting and turning my way past places like Lough Ken and Galloway forest park with hardly another car to be seen - stunning place to look at and amazing roads to drive on. If I'm driving this ferry route again, I'll certainly go back the same way if I have the time.
Overall, this car won't win any lap time awards but it is still a very satisfying drive. What it lacks in total feel, it makes up for in comfort and confidence. This is a car you can trust and I was able to take those roads in Scotland with more authority than I could have done in my current Jaguar S Type. It feels extremely sure footed and you very quickly get a feel for how the car is going to respond in each situation, whether that is a bump, dip, crest, tight bend or whatever, you know the car is going to manage it and the way the 4 wheel drive kicks in when you push it hard - its really impressive and just pushes your confidence in the car right up - when you put it into a corner, you know you're coming out of it exactly as you had planned.
Its always safety 1st for me when I drive and despite being tight for time, I wanted to get home in one piece. It might sound like I was rallying a bit and to a certain extent, I was - but only when I had full visibility of whats in front of me. I still had to be mindful that there were dear about and goodness knows what else.
The interesting thing, was that I arrived in Cairnryan in roughly 1 hr 30 mins from the point I was lost - pretty much what the VW sat nav said, whereas google maps said 1hr 58 mins. I reckon if I was driving normally google maps would have been the correct time. I guess the VW sat nav timing only works if you drive it like you stole it
One thing is for sure, I'll not be trusting the VW sat nav again until I get to read the manual properly and figure out what each route selection means. You get a choice of 3 types of route each time and I just picked a random one as I didn't know what red, blue or orange routes meant. It still shouldn't have taken me so far off course though, thats just bizarre where it took me yesterday.
Overall, I'm delighted with this car. Lots of features, nice to drive and loads of room for the kids and their stuff. Good job VW
Good write up. A lot more exciting than a guy turning up and dropping him off at the local station.
The nav does seem rather ambitious - every night it tells me I can be home in 17mins, but that would only happen at night. 25-30mins realistically.
The nav does seem rather ambitious - every night it tells me I can be home in 17mins, but that would only happen at night. 25-30mins realistically.
Edited by Emeye on Saturday 4th June 15:50
Edited by Emeye on Saturday 4th June 16:12
Got mine a week ago. Seems good so far.
Not as good to drive as the Leon is replaces but its much heavier.
One word of warning (for any car really), this hot weather combined with some bird poop has caused clearcoat damage on my week old car
I didn't leave it long, about a day, but hopefully some fine polish will sort it.
Not as good to drive as the Leon is replaces but its much heavier.
One word of warning (for any car really), this hot weather combined with some bird poop has caused clearcoat damage on my week old car
I didn't leave it long, about a day, but hopefully some fine polish will sort it.
soupdragon1 said:
You get a choice of 3 types of route each time and I just picked a random one as I didn't know what red, blue or orange routes meant.
I think they're supposed to be fastest, shortest and eco. The only time I've used it for a long distance journey the routes all merged together and I couldn't see the blue one as it's the same colour as motorways.My issue with it is the traffic info is awful. On my old Merc it quickly picks up traffic queues and shows yellow car icons. If the traffic stops it shows them as red cars. Discover Nav doesn't seem to do that at all - odd really, asit apparently used Trafficmaster (the blue detectors at the side of the road) to check traffic flow so you think it'd be pretty good. But it ain't. Merc uses ITIS, which mainly uses transponders on other vehicles so you'd think it would be more random, but it seems to work fine.
You can add Google traffic flow through Car-Net using mobile data - snag is you then get too much info to take in. Also (at least with iPhone) you have to manually connect the phone's wifi to Discover each journey.
Axeboy said:
One word of warning (for any car really), this hot weather combined with some bird poop has caused clearcoat damage on my week old car
I didn't leave it long, about a day, but hopefully some fine polish will sort it.
Daughter's metallic black SEAT Ibiza was bad for that. It had a huge splodge across the bonnet which left a faded area. T-Cut didn't touch it, but Autoglym Paint Renovator got rid of it easily. I didn't leave it long, about a day, but hopefully some fine polish will sort it.
In comparison to T-Cut the AutoGlym stuff is positively terrifying to use.
Sheepshanks said:
soupdragon1 said:
You get a choice of 3 types of route each time and I just picked a random one as I didn't know what red, blue or orange routes meant.
I think they're supposed to be fastest, shortest and eco. The only time I've used it for a long distance journey the routes all merged together and I couldn't see the blue one as it's the same colour as motorways.My issue with it is the traffic info is awful. On my old Merc it quickly picks up traffic queues and shows yellow car icons. If the traffic stops it shows them as red cars. Discover Nav doesn't seem to do that at all - odd really, asit apparently used Trafficmaster (the blue detectors at the side of the road) to check traffic flow so you think it'd be pretty good. But it ain't. Merc uses ITIS, which mainly uses transponders on other vehicles so you'd think it would be more random, but it seems to work fine.
You can add Google traffic flow through Car-Net using mobile data - snag is you then get too much info to take in. Also (at least with iPhone) you have to manually connect the phone's wifi to Discover each journey.
MartinQ said:
I had my 190 delivered 10 days ago or so and done around 600 miles. Has anyone else got disappointing fuel consumption? The long term average is showing 37 mpg from 50/50 mways and A roads and today I put it in eco mode and trundled at 60mph on the motorway which returned 43mpg. For that journey I would have expected high 50s or maybe more.
I've done about 1000 miles now. 9O% free flowing A roads and average 42mpg. On the motorway 50mpg, mid 50s is possible I'm sure.Continue to be very happy for the money.
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