Who owns a Golf GTD / GTI / R?

Picked up my new car last week. Here he is having just come out of the detailing bay a few days later. Excuse the poor photography skills, as you can see by the sky, true-to-form rain was waiting for me, so I just grabbed two quick snaps. :D


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MK8 Golf R is rapid for it's power output, can almost keep pace with a A45 despite being over 100bhp down. It pulls easily away from the 300bhp ish competition from a roll or standing start. The new 4WD system must be very good, it is going in the new RS3.


 
Going to take me a while but not sure I'm a fan of any of the MK8s looks yet.

Still running a MK7 GTI here, very fun to drive and actually have a chance to get it above 20mph now we've moved a bit out of London...potholes are murder though
 
Having an issue with the vehicle I bought on Monday - The infotainment screen has a vertical line of dead pixels which after checking online seems fairly common, I didn't notice this initially so contacted the place I bought the vehicle to see what could be done as they sell all cars with a 3 month RAC warranty.

Fast forward a day they came back to basically say it isn't something they would want to be involved in fixing, they spoke to there technicians and ruled out swapping it with one from another GTD they have for sale as apparently it doesn't always work as intended, they offered me my money back but I'm pretty let down as they know that is the last resort and ideally I want to keep the vehicle but I said would call and let him know my decision.

When I called he actually mentioned how since our call he looked into it and turns out to be a smaller job than initially expected, £500 odd for the part and £100 odd for the coding but after checking the RAC Warranty T&C's it appears they stop at £500 and he went on to say despite it being a defect it is still working so he wasn't sure there position on this... so I asked him to enquire about this with their RAC Rep and let me know.

My last resort if I do keep the vehicle is the intention of getting VW Warranty and hopefully one day having it resolved but not sure where I would stand with that, I can live with it for now but concerned it may get worse over time.

A little deflated but not going to stress :D

Here is an example of the issue. (Not my phone nor music choice but suits the vehicle I would say)
Click to expand...
 
Gilbert89 said:
Having an issue with the vehicle I bought on Monday - The infotainment screen has a vertical line of dead pixels which after checking online seems fairly common, I didn't notice this initially so contacted the place I bought the vehicle to see what could be done as they sell all cars with a 3 month RAC warranty.

Fast forward a day they came back to basically say it isn't something they would want to be involved in fixing, they spoke to there technicians and ruled out swapping it with one from another GTD they have for sale as apparently it doesn't always work as intended, they offered me my money back but I'm pretty let down as they know that is the last resort and ideally I want to keep the vehicle but I said would call and let him know my decision.

When I called he actually mentioned how since our call he looked into it and turns out to be a smaller job than initially expected, £500 odd for the part and £100 odd for the coding but after checking the RAC Warranty T&C's it appears they stop at £500 and he went on to say despite it being a defect it is still working so he wasn't sure there position on this... so I asked him to enquire about this with their RAC Rep and let me know.

My last resort if I do keep the vehicle is the intention of getting VW Warranty and hopefully one day having it resolved but not sure where I would stand with that, I can live with it for now but concerned it may get worse over time.

A little deflated but not going to stress :D

Here is an example of the issue. (Not my phone nor music choice but suits the vehicle I would say)
Click to expand...
I'd get them to fix it and if that didn't work hand it back. It will **** you off if you don't fix it, it will be all you see when you get in.
 
Dangerous Dave said:
MK8 Golf R is rapid for it's power output, can almost keep pace with a A45 despite being over 100bhp down. It pulls easily away from the 300bhp ish competition from a roll or standing start. The new 4WD system must be very good, it is going in the new RS3.


Click to expand...
Sort of suggests the R is putting out more power than suggested from that....or they have a tweaked R press car.
 
Dangerous Dave said:
MK8 Golf R is rapid for it's power output, can almost keep pace with a A45 despite being over 100bhp down. It pulls easily away from the 300bhp ish competition from a roll or standing start. The new 4WD system must be very good, it is going in the new RS3.
Click to expand...

Yeah, unless VW have fettled with the press car to up the power the only explanation for it's performance advantage are an improved 4WD system/transmission as that Golf R looks like it has at least another 50-100bhp given how much of a lead is has against the M135 and A35.

Look how it pulls away from the others towards the end of the run at higher speeds when traction is no longer limited!


It would be interesting to know if the lastest S3 has the exact same 4WD system as the MK8 Golf R. On paper the Golf is actually the more expensive car and I'm wondering if the AWD system in the MK8 is brand new and superior to what's in the new S3? That could explain why the Golf seems so ridiculously overpriced next to it's more premium badged competitors.
 
Housey said:
Sort of suggests the R is putting out more power than suggested from that....or they have a tweaked R press car.
Click to expand...

A customer's car running 95 RON fuel was put on a rolling road where it made 309bhp, I'd be surprised if the press cars were tweaked after all the emissions scandals but you never know would be easy for them to up the boost in certain gears.
 
Dangerous Dave said:
A customer's car running 95 RON fuel was put on a rolling road where it made 309bhp, I'd be surprised if the press cars were tweaked after all the emissions scandals but you never know would be easy for them to up the boost in certain gears.
Click to expand...

I find it very hard to believe that Golf R only has ~320 bhp. Look at the lead it gains on the other 2 at higher speeds. I don't think a superior 4WD system/transmission alone could make that kind of difference at higher speed when traction isn't a problem.

It's clear it's far closer in performance to the 415bhp Mercedes AMG A45 than the A34/M135. Be intereting to see if those results are reflected by other testers. Would love to see that Golf R put onto a dyno to confirm the power output because it looks like a lot more than 300bhp!

Maybe Volkswagen stalilons are just stronger than the BMW/Mercedes ponies. Or perhaps after telling lies about economy/emissions VW have decided to start telling fibs about power output figures as well! :D
 
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