Golf 1.4 TSI 150 GT DSG
Discussion
This isn't an easy one to answer. After reading your comment & going out in the car I deliberately concentrated on it.
An ex had a current 1 series, I was amazed at how awful the steering feel was, there was none, not an ounce. You simply couldn't tell what was going on. Getting back in my then MK5 Golf was a revelation - electric vs hydraulic I guess. That said I had a long term loan of a 120D before getting this Golf & it seemed better (120D vs 116D (non ED) & 16's vs 18's???).
I'm very fortunate to have an air cooled 911 so steering feel is something I'm fairly familiar with. I'd say the Golf's ok but having driven it this morning straight after the 911 don't expect too much. Thing is I think I'm resigned to modern cars being anodyne so little expectation results in little disappointment. The fact that in all that blurb above I didn't mention it perhaps says a lot!
An ex had a current 1 series, I was amazed at how awful the steering feel was, there was none, not an ounce. You simply couldn't tell what was going on. Getting back in my then MK5 Golf was a revelation - electric vs hydraulic I guess. That said I had a long term loan of a 120D before getting this Golf & it seemed better (120D vs 116D (non ED) & 16's vs 18's???).
I'm very fortunate to have an air cooled 911 so steering feel is something I'm fairly familiar with. I'd say the Golf's ok but having driven it this morning straight after the 911 don't expect too much. Thing is I think I'm resigned to modern cars being anodyne so little expectation results in little disappointment. The fact that in all that blurb above I didn't mention it perhaps says a lot!
Interesting, I didn't realise the MK5 had it too. Irrespective it seemed a lot better than the one series.
I have to say I have no complaints on the golf but steering feel is inevitably quite a personal thing.
Given the way i use the car it is fine, a mate is massively into steering feel and has spent considerable time investigating and trying to improve his car and I suspect he would find it lacking. He'll drive it soon, once he does I'll give some additional feedback.
I have to say I have no complaints on the golf but steering feel is inevitably quite a personal thing.
Given the way i use the car it is fine, a mate is massively into steering feel and has spent considerable time investigating and trying to improve his car and I suspect he would find it lacking. He'll drive it soon, once he does I'll give some additional feedback.
Glad you're enjoying it. As you say the engine is so smooth as compared to a diesel. I'm intrigued to see if you improve on the 45mpg. After 3.5k miles I'm getting 43.31 average tracked via an app. I drive it like a granny frankly & when on company business in Eco mode, where I'm getting 44-48 average on the 100+ mile work related journeys I do. Should be noted the OBC is usually a few MPG out on full tanks.
One query, what's the throttle response like, I find it quite poor? Plus did you go DSG, if so how smooth is it?
One query, what's the throttle response like, I find it quite poor? Plus did you go DSG, if so how smooth is it?
JackReacher said:
Mine is a manual, which I think are suppose to do slightly better mpg than DSG? Maybe 50mpg is slightly ambitious, but we'll see!
I haven't really driven it enough yet to a proper feel for the drive and throttle response, as it's the girlfriends car mostly, but I would say much better than the 1.6Tdi we had before, probably on a par with my old Mk5 Gti, but not quite as good as good petrol NA engines like a Type R.
Few pics...
If you take the VW claimed stats for the Golf the DSG is suppose to be better than the manual, though I suspect if you were 'hyper miling' you could perhaps get better from the manual. I'd be intrigued to know what revs/speed you're running at, in seventh the Golf is doing 1900 rpm at 70mph, which must contribute to the economy figures, it seems very long geared, not necessarily the issue you might suspect. As for the throttle response out of junctions there's a noticeable delay, I noticed this in the various ones I test drove too, so I don't think it's an issue with mine per se. I suspect VW will say it's due to it being turbo'd but I never noticed it in my MK5 Golf.I haven't really driven it enough yet to a proper feel for the drive and throttle response, as it's the girlfriends car mostly, but I would say much better than the 1.6Tdi we had before, probably on a par with my old Mk5 Gti, but not quite as good as good petrol NA engines like a Type R.
Few pics...
If you had a MK5 GTI, and you mention Type R, have you had one? I occasionally look for a DC2 ITR, a mate had one for 4 yrs/80k miles and still raves about it years later.
LocoBlade said:
Absolutely agree, even before I got mine I read from one owner that he once tried Eco mode, but never again! Most of the time I drive it in individual mode, with the engine set to normal and ACC (adaptive cruise) set to Eco, normal for ACC is too abrupt in my opinion. Even in normal throttle response is very poor, I'm assuming this is what is often referred to in magazines as to why they prefer naturally aspirated. JackReacher said:
Yes had a couple of civic type R's, excellent cars but require working hard to get performance from. The DC2 is even better than the civics, I'm also tempted by one having just sold my 350z, but finding a good one without rust is near on impossible!
I've test driven a few EP3's, you could only drive them 'like you stole them'! Did you have EP3's or FN2's? I've also test driven a couple of DC2's, I can't say I was overwhelmed but I suspect it's a car you come to appreciate over time, from what I've read I understand the chassis is as sublime as the engine? Having seen a few pics of the inside of the rear arches the only way to inspect one is to remove the interior around said arches, some pics I've seen have been horrific, with seemingly minimal/no external sign!LocoBlade said:
I''d agree, you need to press further for a similar amount of throttle, all in a bid to reduce fuel, which I'm not convinced it does. I wouldn't want to use sport all the time as it amends the gearing too, you're constantly aware the engine is revving harder, in part defeating the most impressive part of the car in my eyes, it's extreme smoothness.LocoBlade said:
Absolutely, if only in the modes the gearing & throttle were separated but there's only three choices per profile; steering/engine/ACC, is it the same in the Leon? I think the GTI has more?It's not a definitive conclusion, and whilst for the mileage I do and the roads I have to drive on for company business means the DSG is the best decision for me, I think if I did less than 10k per annum I'd go for the manual. The DSG definitely robs you of a level of interaction with the car and detaches you even in a mainstream vehicle like this. For me it proves that I can't understand those who prefer a non-manual in a proper sports car, fine if you've got a 991 you use everyday, but not a weekend toy.
JackReacher said:
Well I checked the manual and the menus in the system, Eco reduces throttle response, tames the climate control and lowers the point at which it recommends changing up a gear. Sport firms up the steering and throttle response from Normal. Haven't tried each setting out properly yet.
Let me know how you get on, on the Golf at least it's an interesting experience.toml555 said:
Cheers - it's a completely standard GT with DSG and Deep Black pearlescent paint. The paint looks incredible when clean and polished, but I live in the countryside so that's going to be a rare occurrence.
If I'd had a choice I'd have specced climatronic and a grey/silver metallic, but this was a group stock end-of-month bargain so ho-hum!
I'd agree about it being best in individual mode with a set up of steering & engine in normal and ACC in Eco - for me normal ACC is too abrupt, if you pull out to overtake a car on dual carriageways & motorways it accelerates too quickly & not smoothly as you would try to do do yourself.If I'd had a choice I'd have specced climatronic and a grey/silver metallic, but this was a group stock end-of-month bargain so ho-hum!
How do you find throttle response, I find there's considerable lag even in normal & even worse in Eco, sport holds gears to much? I can't work out if it's due to the car being turbo charged or just the car - I test drove others & they seemed to do it too.
Also intrigued what you got yours for, not that it matters in the sense that mines a company car. They seem to be very rare, I've only seen one other in 7 weeks/4kmiles - then again I guess 25.5k (incl metallic) retail is a lot for a Golf, especially as many will think it's a weedy engine as it's only a 1.4 - how wrong they are!
I'm getting about 45mpg (OBC) over 4k miles in 7 weeks, inevitably I spend a lot of time on the motorway with ACC set at 70-75, so it's not as good as I'd hoped. According to my spreadsheet based on brim to brim 43.3mpg is the true figure - Honest John's was right!
74merc said:
45mpg is pretty good. Not sure if the same applies to a petrol engine, but my wife's 2.0TDi took about 15K miles for the engine to loosen up. mpg increased by about 5mpg thereafter.
I should've caveated that although it's not as good as I'd perhaps hoped the engine is so smooth, & it's such a relaxing car for what I do that a little less MPG isn't really an issue, nor is spending more timing filling up - it'll get 450miles on a tank, roughly 100 less than my old A3 1.6TDI got.I think it's a terrific car and for me at least it was the right decision I had company car wise vs Golf 2.0TDI GT or 120D.
toml555 said:
Throttle response in Eco is fairly none-existent and Sport holds the gears a bit long. Completely agree. I find Normal OK though.
The only thing that I've found annoying is losing the power steering when the start/stop kicks in whilst you're momentarily waiting at a junction with some lock on ready to turn.
Actually, that's not true. I also find it annoying that you have to flick the mirror knob to 'left' or 'right' to get it to dip when reversing. I'd prefer it just dipped both a little bit every time you engaged reverse gear. Minor quibble.
I paid around £22.5k including 3yrs servicing and 3yrs GAP. In itself not a great deal, but I took into consideration the fact that they offered me £1500 over what I was prepared to accept in px value for my old Audi.
I stuck 36.5psi in all 4 tyres on the weekend and drove from Winchester to North London at an average of 58mph. Managed 51.2mpg. Not too shabby.
Thanks for the response, these cars seem fairly rare so getting feedback isn't that easy. Interesting how you feel about 'normal' mode, here's a piece of Autocar's test, this is exactly how I feel;The only thing that I've found annoying is losing the power steering when the start/stop kicks in whilst you're momentarily waiting at a junction with some lock on ready to turn.
Actually, that's not true. I also find it annoying that you have to flick the mirror knob to 'left' or 'right' to get it to dip when reversing. I'd prefer it just dipped both a little bit every time you engaged reverse gear. Minor quibble.
I paid around £22.5k including 3yrs servicing and 3yrs GAP. In itself not a great deal, but I took into consideration the fact that they offered me £1500 over what I was prepared to accept in px value for my old Audi.
I stuck 36.5psi in all 4 tyres on the weekend and drove from Winchester to North London at an average of 58mph. Managed 51.2mpg. Not too shabby.
It’s clear of notable lag but, as you move from off to part-throttle, our test car had an occasional hesitation in response. It was hard to know what it was: it felt almost like a traction control system intervening for a nanosecond, but clearly wasn’t. It could have been the cylinder deactivation kicking in or out, but it’s impossible to know for sure. A small foible, but noticeable nonetheless.
It's all personal I guess. Incidentally I've not noticed the power steering issue - the soft start/stop is great as compared to my old As 1.6TDI!
Re the mirror auto dipping, you can set it up, see p134 in the manual, I think you can set it to the amount you want.
I won't bore you with why, but when test driving these (even though it's a company car), that seemed about as good as I could get, the difference between dealers even close to one another was considerable.
That is good, the most I've managed is 49mpg on the OBC, I've seen 52/53 during the journey but not til the end. If you got an average of 58 mph what were you sitting at, and with ACC? - I suspect it would be more efficient without ACC, but it's such a great feature I use it all the time.
JackReacher said:
I think we are on course to get 450/460 miles from the first full tank we've put in, which would work out at about 46mpg I think. Happy enough with that but still hoping to average 50 once it's run in properly. We came from an Audi A1 1.6 Tdi, with smaller 40 litre tank compared to 45 litres in the Leon, and that used to get around 500 miles from a tank. The reality of that is that we will probably get a day's less commute out of each tank than the A1, but like you say it's much quieter/smoother engine. One thing we have noticed is that the mpg does start to plummet as soon as you get into traffic, more so than a diesel.
I also debated long and hard about getting a 2.0 Tdi FR instead, but worked out from a cost point of view that providing the 1.4 got at least 45mpg, the petrol would be cheaper to run. So far so good then but still early days.
Coming from a 1.6Tdi, the 1.4ACT feels good performance wise due to similar torque levels, but if you were coming from a 2.0Tdi the 1.4 would initially feel a bit weedy.
Got to say I've not noticed any difference in the past 4k miles for MPG, though perhaps might get better at 5 or even 10k plus? MPG does indeed reduce in traffic, plus it often takes 40+ miles to get into 43/44+ MPG on the OBC, they're not as efficient as diesels, but I'm happy.I also debated long and hard about getting a 2.0 Tdi FR instead, but worked out from a cost point of view that providing the 1.4 got at least 45mpg, the petrol would be cheaper to run. So far so good then but still early days.
Coming from a 1.6Tdi, the 1.4ACT feels good performance wise due to similar torque levels, but if you were coming from a 2.0Tdi the 1.4 would initially feel a bit weedy.
Last private car was a Golf 2.0TDI (140bhp 236lb/ft) and I'd agree, though the MK7 is a lot quicker, the extra torque (MK7 185lb/ft) would make it seem 'weedier', but compared to it's direct predecessor the A3 1.6TDI it's a lot quicker and smoother.
va1o said:
I think the problem is a lot of people don't know they exist and the diesel is simply the default option. I wouldn't even get the choice on my company car scheme. Residuals are likely to be similar to that of earlier 1.4 TSI models which also sold in low numbers, good but not quite 2.0 TDI strong.
I'd agree diesel will be the default choice......we've recently got a new scheme after a year or so of not being able to order new cars, the only non-diesels in the works car park which are new are hybrids. Various people have got Golf's, all going for the 2.0TDI. As I've mentioned I test drove the two back to back, there was simply no comparison, not only was the petrol a LOT quieter but the front end felt so much lighter - the petrols 85kg lighter, and that's got to be all over the nose.....Edited by acme on Thursday 20th November 22:00
Funnily enough I found that too recently, but only after I'd shoved my hand down below the bonnet and just about managed to scoop them out!
Interesting you should note that about the fuel economy, I use eco when doing long work journeys and individual (ACC eco, engine & steering normal) the rest of the time, and I agree it doesn't seemingly make a jot of difference! I'd possibly use sport but on the DSG it hangs on to the gears for far too long in normal driving.
I'm now not sure if the poor throttle response isn't due to the gearbox, would need to drive a manual again.
As for AC, mine seems more damp inside than other cars, perhaps either common to the car/car type, or possibly whatever that new car smell is derived from ie a sealing stuff?
On the Golf you programme the mirror settings via the settings manual via the CAR button on the centre console.
The car is so configurable!
Interesting you should note that about the fuel economy, I use eco when doing long work journeys and individual (ACC eco, engine & steering normal) the rest of the time, and I agree it doesn't seemingly make a jot of difference! I'd possibly use sport but on the DSG it hangs on to the gears for far too long in normal driving.
I'm now not sure if the poor throttle response isn't due to the gearbox, would need to drive a manual again.
As for AC, mine seems more damp inside than other cars, perhaps either common to the car/car type, or possibly whatever that new car smell is derived from ie a sealing stuff?
On the Golf you programme the mirror settings via the settings manual via the CAR button on the centre console.
The car is so configurable!
My Golf is now up to 5700 miles and according to the spreadsheet (sad!) I'm logging it on it's doing 43.3MPG - though I should add I'm not exactly pushing on, motorways I'll sit at 75mph. If you do use the (good) performance it sinks massively. What I do like is that you have the option to drive sensibly for the economy, say on your commute, or enjoy it when conditions allow.
I took two petrol head mates out in it on Saturday and they too commented on how quiet it is, superb. No, it's hardly going to set the world alight, but as a reasonable alternative to a diesel it makes it's case.
Plus of course petrol's dropped in price so making it even better! And it seems the gap with diesel has increased slightly, 7p cheaper per litre round my way.
I took two petrol head mates out in it on Saturday and they too commented on how quiet it is, superb. No, it's hardly going to set the world alight, but as a reasonable alternative to a diesel it makes it's case.
Plus of course petrol's dropped in price so making it even better! And it seems the gap with diesel has increased slightly, 7p cheaper per litre round my way.
Doing 40 miles today I got 50.6mpg but rarely do I get over 50, yesterday over two 120 mile journeys with traffic I got 44.6 & 42.0 on the OBC, so knock off 1-2mpg. It's clear this engine is nowhere near as economical as my old Golf 2.0TDI, which in turn was better than the A3 1.6TDI, but it's SO much sweeter than both and nearly silent.
Interestingly I just referred to the spreadsheet I did last summer before ordering, that was based on 1.289 petrol comparing 1.349 diesel, oh how it's changed...........
Interestingly I just referred to the spreadsheet I did last summer before ordering, that was based on 1.289 petrol comparing 1.349 diesel, oh how it's changed...........
Gassing Station | Audi, Seat, Skoda & VW | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff