Sadly, it worked totally fine, slow but fine.
Our "own" car reviews
- Thread starter NooDle
- Start date
Perc
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
I dropped my car off at a mechanic this morning to get a new thermostat put in. He lent me his garage shitbox for the day, a Golf 3 estate. I opened the drivers door to find that the door trim was missing. Most of the passenger side tail light was in pieces in the passenger footwell. The starting procedure involved turning the ignition on and then hitting a button on the side of the steering column to whack the starter. Doing that, it became apparent that the car had a slight exhaust leak and that the engine ran on petrol. Few of these were TDIs and they were all used up on hour-long commutes. It had 265,000km on the clock which isn't too bad for a 90's car, assuming the odo was correct. Only 70,000 or so more than my car which is ~20 years newer.
It did however have good tires, good brakes, tracked straight (with the steering wheel off kilter) and didn't vibrate or wobble at any speed. It even had an electric tilt/slide sunroof that I didn't dare play with because it's been raining all day. As I was driving back there tonight to retrieve my car I realized how good pizza cutter-sized tires are in the pouring rain. In ways it was actually a better driving experience than my own car on 235's that are on their last summer. It also rode better over potholes, probably again thanks to the narrower and taller rubber.
Then there's the space thing. Yes, I'm 2 meters tall, but isn't the Golf supposed to do everything for everyone? The backrest ended below my shoulders and the headrest didn't reach much higher. It certainly wasn't anywhere near where my head was. The steering wheel wasn't adjustable, so it was firmly between my kneecaps as I was driving. I refuse to believe people were this much shorter (or less fat) 25 years ago. I had a "Czech Golf 5" myself for several years and the driving position was lightyears better than the mk3.
Of course I'm hugely grateful that I got a free car to use for the day. He knows fully well it's a shitbox and didn't pretend it was anything else. I actually thought it was a nice change of pace to drive something that you can double the value of by filling it up with fuel.
It's also the first car I've ever driven that felt happiest at 80. I took it on some 100km/h roads today but I found myself doing 80 several times. This never happens to me in any other car.
It did however have good tires, good brakes, tracked straight (with the steering wheel off kilter) and didn't vibrate or wobble at any speed. It even had an electric tilt/slide sunroof that I didn't dare play with because it's been raining all day. As I was driving back there tonight to retrieve my car I realized how good pizza cutter-sized tires are in the pouring rain. In ways it was actually a better driving experience than my own car on 235's that are on their last summer. It also rode better over potholes, probably again thanks to the narrower and taller rubber.
Then there's the space thing. Yes, I'm 2 meters tall, but isn't the Golf supposed to do everything for everyone? The backrest ended below my shoulders and the headrest didn't reach much higher. It certainly wasn't anywhere near where my head was. The steering wheel wasn't adjustable, so it was firmly between my kneecaps as I was driving. I refuse to believe people were this much shorter (or less fat) 25 years ago. I had a "Czech Golf 5" myself for several years and the driving position was lightyears better than the mk3.
Of course I'm hugely grateful that I got a free car to use for the day. He knows fully well it's a shitbox and didn't pretend it was anything else. I actually thought it was a nice change of pace to drive something that you can double the value of by filling it up with fuel.
It's also the first car I've ever driven that felt happiest at 80. I took it on some 100km/h roads today but I found myself doing 80 several times. This never happens to me in any other car.
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*minor update*Has this morphed into Rental Car Roulette?
Anyways....
So earlier this month my company car went from a 2012 Jeep Patriot to a 2019 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack. Base model but not what you'd think in a base model. I'm posting now before it gets wrapped with the company colors and name.
This week was my first road trip in it. I drove 430mi today which now puts it in the 1100mi range so this is probably time to give an "expert" review.
2019 VW Golf Alltrack S 1.8TSI 6-Speed DSG. What do you get in an S trim Alltrack? Heated seats, leatherette seats (which in mine is a creamy bright tan), carplay/android auto, blind spot awareness, front assist which as far as I can tell just warns you if someone is too close in front. I haven't tested if it brakes for you and I'm not inclined to try. I imagine it does but I chickened out letting cruise control accelerate up behind somebody on the highway so I guess I did try...
Ride is a little harder than the Patriot but more controlling where bumps in the road don't make the rear end step out sideways from the front. Steering is nice and tight, not as much as a GTI but its good enough and not too twitchy for long distance driving. Currently I have steering feel in normal mode sport mode is too much for normal driving. Acceleration is good and the engine/trans combo leaves enough torque available for lane changes and speeding up to pass without the need to drop a gear. Turbo will kick in if you press a little harder then whats really needed but it seems to want to hang in gears better which is welcomed. Something I also noticed is, I've got a decent hill while leaving out of the "back" of my neighborhood, if you're driving up, you hang in a gear so that you're not down at 1,000RPM bogging the engine which is a nice touch. Pulling away from a stop light causes you to feel the clutches engaging 1st gear. Kind of weird but I've gotten used to it. There's still enough low end power that it doesn't feel like you're holding people back. I've had to reprogram how I accelerate because once the clutches engage, you feel more power so, I've had to learn to not push the throttle down so far to achieve the same desired effect. I've heard you're not supposed to "creep" in traffic where your foot is on the brake but just lightly enough that the car pulls you along. A torque converter transmission is totally ok with this as you slip against that to balance low speed driving like in traffic. I've read that you really shouldn't do this as the car is trying to maintain the speed and the clutches are engaged. Due to this information, I've just been learning to create more of a gap so that I can creep without brake or throttle which hopefully is fine. All that said, gear change is nice and smooth otherwise. Road noise is similar, a bit more quiet though the frequency I think a touch lower in tonal resonance so less white noise and more pink noise than the Patriot.
I'm really enjoying this so far. After my 6.5-7hr drive, I had no tailbone pain, and little to no stiffness everywhere else (huh huh). Maybe this is because it's a new car but I've never been able to drive this long without being in some sort of annoying stiffness or lower back pain. This does have lumbar support so that's most likely why things were good.
I averaged 30.7 MPG with an average speed of 64mph. Most of the way I was sitting at 75MPH but was slowed down due to road construction all through Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. It's that time of year folks!
Trunk space is slightly narrower than the Patriot but the Alltrack is deeper (giggity). I'd say its a wash for trunk space especially for the miniscule amount of junk I drive with compared to other people in this field. I think this was probably a better option than the 1.4L and 8-speed auto. Only time will tell for reliability... So far, 1,000+ miles and no check engine lights. I hope I have a legit VAG product.
P.S. Are Alltracks supposed to have silver mirror caps on an otherwise white car?
We're up to 42,000mi on it and just after the major service of $724, it's ready to go another 40,000 without anything outside of an oil change/tire rotation. Still, very good car, awesome roadtrip cruiser. About the only thing I don't like about it is not having auto climate control and LED or HID headlights. The DSG can be a bit funny sometimes. Some mornings and this is only after the first drive of the day or after 6-7 hours of sitting; if you reverse, then put it into drive, sometimes the trans will clunk into gear, but you can't drive and the system has to sort of "try again" to engage 1st/D and then it's fine. I don't know why it does that, but this seems to just be a characteristic of the transmission and not something that will destroy itself, I hope. Overall I was hoping since it has a DSG that the shifts would be snap dash-quick like a DSG GTI or R Golf. This is tuned for smooth, little disruption. I emailed APR tuning and you can get a transmission tune, but this being a car I don't own, I wouldn't do it. I already spent the money for the split mirror/EU market style side mirrors. Blind spot is eliminated which kind of negates the point of having blind spot monitoring.
Speaking of safety features, forward collision warning with auto-braking is quite nice. I have had a few moments in the morning on the way to work where I just wasn't 100% woken up and this has saved me. Otherwise it's a bit overdramatic, but I'd rather that than nothing. Auto wipers are nice as are the auto headlights. Definitely another one of my favorites. Or the MK7 Golf platform is just something I prefer. *shrug*
Something also to note, the OEM tires were supposed to last 50,000mi, I got maybe 25-30,000 out of them and my other collegues reported the same thing. Not sure what the deal is with that. myself and another have Alltracks while 2 other guys have Golf Sportwagens, so AWD versus FWD. Same result.
Perc
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
The way I look at it, ideally auto braking shouldn't be needed. Still, we're human and it all takes is two seconds of concentrating at the wrong thing (touchscreen, phone, pretty sights on the sidewalk...) to run over a pedestrian or something. If auto braking can prevent even one fatal accident, I'm all for it.
I agree, and it is a rare occurance and hasn't happened for a good 2 years. When I was on the road more and had to be in the office the next day, that's when the scenario explained above happened.
NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
Heh. I REALLY like that feature. It's saved my ass a few times since owning the eGolf, once from doing exactly what you said (messing with the radio while someone does an emergency stop in front of you), once while parking it saw a low tree trunk I couldn't see and stopped me from crashing into it. It's been my friend ever since. That, coupled with adaptive cruise, and you hardly need to use the pedals at all.
get some cheap Swedish alcohol
public
Captain Slow Charging
I wrote it up somewhat properly at the pokey motoring site where I've written for ten years now, but yeah: I finally got to drive the Ioniq 5 and I didn't love it! It is a good car, but it doesn't feel as good to me as it is. Maybe that makes sense. I expected more of the steering and ride, but it just feels a bit ponderous instead of being whisked around in comfort. Steering is heavy but doesn't feal any more real despite that. On local roads the coarseness comes through, and maybe it would be better with taller profile tires. There's a decent amount of power, but it's so heavy that it doesn't feel special to use it. It's RWD, but with a steering like this it doesn't matter. Maybe I'm just expecting them to fine tune it a little at facelift time. Maybe the Kia is better. In any case, it doesn't feel like I should spend 350 euros more per month to drive around in this rather than my small Ioniq.
VW Golf 1.5 eTSI wagon, Finder’s keepers
As the ID3 was in for some maintenance for a week in October, I got myself a maintenance replacement car.
Aka VW Golf 1.5 eTSI with dsg in grey with cylinder deactivation and fuel heater.
All pictures can be found here: https://viilaaja.1g.fi/kuvat/Car+Reviews/2021+VW+Golf/
It was the latest and greyest of golfs for the people who need a car for them, and with latest tech.
The car itself was 1.5L 3-cylinder petrol with a turbo and it had massive 130 hp, which was adequate for the grey vehicle market.
The Interior had grey with lighter grey inserts and base cloth seats, which were supporting for my body for some distance and commuting I drove.
The backseats were, without a better word, just a bench with some support, but behind my seating position I had ample room between my legs and the rear of the front seat.
And my feet had enough room underneath the front seat.
In the middle console there were 2 vents, 2 usb-c ports for charging and the controls for the rear climate controls.
The trunk looked big and had flimsy cover on rails as parcel shelf, but trunk was good square.
Trunk was also electrically operated either from the trunk or from the key and opened as lazy as my A7 used to.
While going to the drivers position the instrument panel (in this model) was totally digital and the infotainment was with the new slow setup showed with the new electric models. In the dash you could select the modes from basic dials to map view (required to be set from the map screen on the infotainment to the dash and cannot be in both at the same time) with speed on the lower right.
The middle console didn’t have a gear lever, but it had a self centering toggle switch as directional selector, with park being a button on top of it. The car had auto hold, which needed to be enabled every time you started the car and electric handbrake. To the right of these was a weirdly shaped hole, which was surprisingly good fit for my phone while on its side
.There was a cupholder, with option to push the holder into the console for a bigger storage, beneath the central armrest.
While in front of “the gear selector” there was an inductive charger and 2 usb-c ports for charging and wired Apple carplay / Android Auto.
As for some of the options I found out, the car had adaptive cruise, rear/front parking censors, lane assist (which didn’t move the steering), parking fuel heater with a remote (and timer settings which only one at the time could be select
), AutoStart/stop and cylinder deactivation.The adaptive cruise wasn’t as precise as the one in the ID3 I have, but after getting used to it worked fine, it even displayed the selected speed and when car was stopped had green part of the speedo to the selected speed.
Parking fuel heater settings in the infotainment were sort of hidden, but since I knew where they were in the ID3 I found them. At first, I saw that there was 3 times to choose, but I could only enable one of them at the time, while in the ID3 has only 2 times, but both can be set as enabled at the same time.
As for they remote for the fuel heater, I had never seen oem one so the small size with 2 buttons and led was nice.
Fuel consumption, I had motorway, ring roads, and town speeds in my 420km that I had the car.
While doing the 120km/h on the motorway (it was still summer speeds) the car showed current consumption (with cylinder deactivation on) to be 7l/100km, it rose to ~8 when there was slight incline, and it enabled the 3rd cylinder.
At ring roads with the 80km/h speeds I saw, depending on terrain, between 2,8 L/100km (with cylinder deactivation) to 5 L/100km.
After the period I had the car, I had to refuel it to full (as it was full when I got it) and the estimation was 900km, which is to me pretty good.
After this week I can suggest this for someone who needs a vehicle for their daily life.
As for the “Finder’s keepers”, its really bad joke about the eTSI, which in Finnish mean search/find.
It is some car. Seems weird to have cylinder deactivation on a 3 cylinder, but I'm not an auto engineer.
The speedometer gauge is weird, that scale from 0-140 is fine, but 140 and up is just like "oh shit, we need to have a 260km/h limit" and it was thought about halfway through building the gauge cluster. Seems odd especially with a virtual gauge...
The speedometer gauge is weird, that scale from 0-140 is fine, but 140 and up is just like "oh shit, we need to have a 260km/h limit" and it was thought about halfway through building the gauge cluster. Seems odd especially with a virtual gauge...
gaasc
Desperately looking for a title
The logic behind it is that if you're traveling at those speeds, more granular differences are rather unnecessary and it leaves more needle travel for the more common speeds where you would appreciate knowing you're doing 43 or 97, for instance. It's actually easier to implement on a digital gauge than on an analog one when you remember you have to make the speedometer needle travel at at least two different speeds and switch seamlessly between them.
Saab used to do something quite similar in their excellent 900 clusters (I believe the image below is specifically from an NG900 EDIT: This is apparently a Saab 9-5)
Saab used to do something quite similar in their excellent 900 clusters (
lip
Well-Known Member
Today I took my S6 to the local Audi palace so they finally can bolt a Milltek system in, to get the soundtrack from a 5 to a 11 on the scale. ?
...and to prevent me from the terrors of being a pedestrian they gave me this thing: a 2019 Audi A6 Avant
... it's 3.0L V6 diesel (ahhh!) with 286hp (210 kw) and 620nm under the front lid:
Inside it's quite refined...
...with some wild iPad-orgy going on.
This example has done 31'290km (19450mi) and is currently for sale at a whopping 77'700 SFR, (74'600 EUR, 84'100 USD, 63'150 GPD), - Think about that for a moment: this thing has lost 38% of its value in the first 24 months! - Now try to talk me into buying a new car.
I only drove it for about 30mins today, and it's me, so don't expect any comprehnsive test report here. - I very liked the HUD...
...but naturally I hated the sound. This V6 tortures your senses with a truly nasty diesel rasp. Sounds like someone is taking a saw through a sheet of plywood. - Apart from that not much is happening until about 50% of throttle travel, but from then on it has a really nice punch, but sadly goes flat again soon after. Yeah, those advertised 620nm's are there, but it's not much fun.
- The steering is too light, like in my car. FFS Audi.
- The unusual steering wheel shape needs getting used to, but is no bother.
- The iPad dashboard party is a bit overwhelming, but I'm a decade behind in these matters.
- It's a S-line model, and it has a genuine S badge on the door sill. But hey, the newest S6 is a diesel. ?
- White doesn't suit this car, would look much better in a dark blue, green or red.
- Would I buy it? No, hell no. ? - Give me my petrol V10 back please!
...and to prevent me from the terrors of being a pedestrian they gave me this thing: a 2019 Audi A6 Avant
... it's 3.0L V6 diesel (ahhh!) with 286hp (210 kw) and 620nm under the front lid:
Inside it's quite refined...
...with some wild iPad-orgy going on.
This example has done 31'290km (19450mi) and is currently for sale at a whopping 77'700 SFR, (74'600 EUR, 84'100 USD, 63'150 GPD), - Think about that for a moment: this thing has lost 38% of its value in the first 24 months! - Now try to talk me into buying a new car.
I only drove it for about 30mins today, and it's me, so don't expect any comprehnsive test report here. - I very liked the HUD...
...but naturally I hated the sound. This V6 tortures your senses with a truly nasty diesel rasp. Sounds like someone is taking a saw through a sheet of plywood. - Apart from that not much is happening until about 50% of throttle travel, but from then on it has a really nice punch, but sadly goes flat again soon after. Yeah, those advertised 620nm's are there, but it's not much fun.
- The steering is too light, like in my car. FFS Audi.
- The unusual steering wheel shape needs getting used to, but is no bother.
- The iPad dashboard party is a bit overwhelming, but I'm a decade behind in these matters.
- It's a S-line model, and it has a genuine S badge on the door sill. But hey, the newest S6 is a diesel. ?
- White doesn't suit this car, would look much better in a dark blue, green or red.
- Would I buy it? No, hell no. ? - Give me my petrol V10 back please!
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Eye-Q
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Original price 126k SFR/121k Euros for an A6 Diesel? Holy fuck, have they lined the boot with gold-pressed latinum or something?This example has done 31'290km (19450mi) and is currently for sale at a whopping 77'700 SFR, (74'600 EUR, 84'100 USD, 63'150 GPD), - Think about that for a moment: this thing has lost 38% of its value in the first 24 months! - Now try to talk me into buying a new car.
lip
Well-Known Member
^ I think it's just one with many extras ticked. You know how fast that adds up. Soon enough you buy one car for the price of two.
public
Captain Slow Charging
NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
^ I think it's just one with many extras ticked. You know how fast that adds up. Soon enough you buy one car for the price of two.
Yeah its just Audi being Audi with the ridiculous options. A brand new A6 Avant (with all the equipment you really use as standard) with the 3l v6 starts at 64k€ here. Which is still far too much money if you ask me.
Perc
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
Original price 126k SFR/121k Euros for an A6 Diesel? Holy fuck, have they lined the boot with gold-pressed latinum or something?
You say "diesel" like it's somehow unheard of that expensive cars run on diesel, and will continue to do so for a while longer.