JoeGTI7

If I was ordering today I’d be sorely tempted to go with black - I think they look great with the lighter colours and indium grey. But I’d have reservations like others re how crap they’ll look when dirty. Also kerb marks / scratches will stand out much more but on the flip side I’d imagine much easier to refurb or touch up. A lot of people have had trouble getting the “right” grey shade for refurbs. The black wheels are just gloss black. Can’t go far wrong there...

Yes that happened in the last few weeks... anyone running latest iOS / latest version of whatsApp will have it

As far as I know, it’s standard on the new MIB radios. Certainly is where I am anyway (Ireland). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep free now! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah I’m only winding you up As I said I’m a big Apple guy and there’s aspects of CarPlay I really like. But I work in the industry (software / application development, particularly UI development) so it always frustrates the hell out of me when I use an application / feature and I know it could be done so much better... if only the accountants loosened the strings, if only the UX designers weren’t so inept, etc etc. CarPlay is a great idea and has great potential but it’s not there yet by a long shot imo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You sound easily pleased

Yes it’s very like the Nardo grey! its officially called Grigio Telesto Pearl grey - or more commonly known as Lamborghini grey

In what way "different"? Genuinely, if I didn't know they'd been changed I wouldn't have been any wiser. And I wasn't shy about driving it on It's probably a compliment to the car's own traction abilities as much as anything... that even with a set of fairly worn tyres, there was no real discernible loss of traction. And I guess the Continental tyres are very decent tyres too in their own right. If I'd gone from a set of ditch finder chinese rubbish then obviously the difference may have been much more obvious.

Yeah on a sunny day it looks insane, so I'm looking forward to this awful miserable weather coming to an end (at some stage...)... But like any grey, it can look a bit flat / dull on the dark days. Still very pleased with it though, its a nice change from the lapiz. I had been going with Indium grey for the new R anyway... My Dad picked up a new Tiguan in Indium and side by side, it looks not far off the BMW.

All good. Very pleased with it so far. The MPG is insane lol. I treated it to a bit of DIY detailing last weekend, hence my posts above lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

100% agree. For me it sucked the joy out of doing a bit of DIY detailing (and I accept DIY isn't for everyone, so if not, then ceramic is the way to go). A bit like that episode of Fr. Ted when Mrs Doyle got an electric tea making machine lol.

It's not possible to activate it with coding. You need a licence key - a bit like when you buy a Microsoft product for your laptop, you need a licence key to activate it.

As per my previous post I just don't buy into the claims that any of these things last X number of years. Each to their own though. For example - I had the last car ceramic coated. 3 months later the car suffered a minor car park ding which required a minor smart repair. So that one panel was stripped of any coating that had been on it. It didn't look any different to the adjoining panels, didn't ever get dirtier, no more prone to scratching, swirling, etc. I just DIY'd it, and it, it was 100% fine.

On tyres, my MK7 was on continentals. They lasted nearly 30k kms until I changed the front pair. I bought into the hype and put 2 PS4-S's on. Did I notice any difference? None whatsoever. There's a lot of bull spouted about tyres imo... a huge placebo effect going on....

These guys always crop up as the best in the business in the Cork area: http://dnddetailing.ie On ceramic coatings... I've had it done myself in the past. Brian in Spirit did my cars too and he's really a top guy, the best in the business imo. But - I don't think I'd ever pay to get it done again on a new car. It's so expensive and I am extremely dubious that it's any more beneficial than more traditional (and far cheaper) approaches.. I actually kinda enjoy the DIY aspect of detailing / car washing, its far more rewarding if you have the time / equipment / space to do it. On an older car, that's been ruined by crap car washes, I can certainly see the benefit of bringing a car like that to a pro. But a fresh new car - No imo. DIY all the way, do it right and the car will never need much other than careful maintenance.

Another self confessed Apple fanboy here. I wanted to love CarPlay but (unusually for Apple imo) its very half baked imo. Partly Apple's fault, partly the way VW have half-assed implemented it. I get the feeling that Apple themselves aren't that bothered about it, hence the feeling that it just isn't the real deal. It's not integrated into the car's native systems at all well. 1) With VW, it requires a USB connection. For a short ish journey, I just wouldn't be bothered faffing around with plugging the phone in. 2) Once connected, you lose Bluetooth and all the benefits that brings (the ability to have 2 phones connected, the MFD is rendered almost useless, the steering wheel buttons can't be used to scroll contacts / recent calls anymore, etc) 3) Elements of the UI look great imo (the iPad / iPhone style home screen), but some other elements are complete crap - you can't see the album art for example as they blur over it! 4) It relies on voice control (Siri) to do anything much useful with messaging or maps - and I personally just don't get on with voice control. Never works right. 5) I use Spotify for music and the CarPlay Spotify app is extremely buggy. Whether that's Spotify's fault or Apple, I don't know but I bet Apple Music works on it a lot better! I know some other cars can do it wirelessly, which is certainly better... but overall, imo, the native setup (bluetooth, native Nav, etc) is better than CarPlay.

The trade doesn't like them very much (3 door Golf's of any derivative I mean). If you go into a VW dealers looking to trade in a 3 door Golf R (or any other 3 door Golf) I'm almost certain the first thing you'll hear is a deep sigh and "if it were a 5 door I could give you X more for it....". While the 3 door fast Golf's will always have a following, they're definitely a harder sell. The market has very much moved away from 3 door hatches and small coupe's. The Scirocco and Beetle were recently completely discontinued, VW couldn't be bothered bringing them up to date, seemingly preferring to concentrate on the soft roaders like the new T Roc.

It was “a steal” in 2015 when it was €151. At €700 now it’s not quite the same bargain but still an option you should tick nonetheless. Indium grey is crazy popular now. It’s this years Lapiz. My Dad picked up a new Tiguan last week in the same colour and it does look really nice. I’d like to see one in “white silver” in the metal. I think that would be a nice / relatively unusual choice. The aforementioned Tiguan also has the pano roof which is absolutely amazing on that car - it pretty much opens up the entire length of the roof. I don’t think the one in the Golf is anywhere near as impressive and it looks a bit odd from the outside when opened.

I’d say selling a car like the R privately is a major PITA. Have you considered approaching a dealer with it, see would they have a customer for it? It worked out well for me doing that.

The 435d only comes in xDrive as far as I know. And that means a higher non m sport suspension and the xDrive setup seems to generally get mixed reviews. Think it’s also in a higher tax bracket too and of course will be more thirsty. The 430 is probably the sweet spot.

I think that’s another “individual” colour isn’t it? I haven’t seen it in the flesh either but apparently it’s quite nice. I was purposely looking to avoid any flashy colours! Someone picked up a new 420d in that colour in Colm Quinn’s last week:

Very happy with the BM so far. No big regrets or anything although seeing “my” car arrive last week and beep-beep taking it away was a bit of a bitter pill! I only did one extended motorway trip in it so far and yes, I did notice the “nowhere to put your right foot” problem, I thought of your post here on that same complaint! What I did was, I lightly rested my foot on the accelerator pedal itself, just leaving enough weight on it to not actually trigger the throttle. I found it ok. The seats are way more supportive and comfortable, I especially love the extendable seat base (why oh why doesn’t the Golf have this?!), so at the end of the journey I felt pretty relaxed Another odd thing is, the BM is attracting way more attention / compliments from Joe public than the Golf did. Most people seem to see it as a big upgrade over the Golf... mostly non car people obviously As long as it doesn’t attract the scumbags in the same way as the Golf, that’s all that matters to me. Biggest pet peeve - the diesel clatter, but it’s only noticeable on a cold start tbh. Once on the move, I find it a very capable and nice car to drive.

Google maps only works (worked) with the Pro Nav and as far as I know it doesn't work with the pro nav now either. Some fall out between VW and Google.

Oh was your (my!) car one of those that didn't get the car net? Does it have App-Connect (Apple CarPlay, android auto, etc)? As per my previous post, CarNet is mostly a load of bollox but AppConnect is deffo worth having.

Get them here. This is a fair bit cheaper than most dealers: http://www.vwmotorparts.com/accessories-c-37_472_473/genuine-vw-golf-mk7-facelift-mirror-caps-high-gloss-black-p-1474.html