Russellj

I'm also in the epic-sleeper-estate loving club For me, the definition of "car" needs to include the ability to sit 4 adults in comfort and have suitable luggage space. Performance, handling, etc comes on top. Did look at the newer TT (and older TTS) and the 5 door R hatch (hardly ever use the full capacity of the boot, so wondered if I could get away with folding the rear seats in those when needed). But actually preferred the look of the estate to the shouty TT and less practical hatch. Also considered keeping my old Octy VRS diesel and buying a toy 2nd car (prob. 350Z) but was put off by the hassle of 2 x insurance, MOT, servicing etc and the need to shuffle cars on the drive. Also thought frequently switching driving styles (torque vs revs) between remapped diesel and 3 litre petrol would be too confusing for me Just wanted one car to do it all. And that's where the R estate came in... The R estate is the best car I've owned by a mile. Best thing I've ever bought full stop. Even with a ton more moneyI don't know what I would buy instead. 5 months on, still really look forward to driving it each time. Love it! If only it had a taller top gear to allow 40mpg to be consistently achieved on a long 70mph motorway run, my life would be complete. Interested in the real world mpg of the face lifted model when it lands. But absolutely no intention of selling my current one. Plan to keep it until it falls apart - and that had better be a looooong time!

DCC seemed surprisingly rare on ex demos, as opposed to prets, leather and sunroof. I put it down to it being effectively invisible, and probably not understood by all punters, so not something dealers perceived to add as much (eye candy) value. The fact that at least one dealer had one in stock with DCC and the sales team hadn't thought to list the option on Autotrader backs that up! But that sounds like a lead waiting for a call...

Allow me to share my story... I was looking for an ex-demo Estate in Oct last year, and really wanted DCC. Couldn't see any of the advertised ones on Autotrader with it listed and had been looking for weeks. In the end, decided I could maybe do without, so phoned the dealer advertising the best one to confirm the spec... turns out it had DCC! Got them to double check by looking up the spec on the VW computer and sending me a screenshot. Being the suspicious type I even looked underneath at the shocks on turning up for the test drive to ensure they had the wire thing (there's another post on here about what they should look like with DCC - and there's also an extra option on the Individual setting on the infotainment screen if you have DCC too, but doesn't do any harm to check the mechanicals too ). Once I'd concluded the deal I had a go at the sales manager for not listing the spec correctly on Autotrader, telling him how long I'd been looking for an example with DCC - "ok, good point"! The advert seemed to list all of the standard equipment in great detail (air bags, air con, alarm, headrest, 4WD, etc) which actually makes it really hard to spot the *genuine* added value extras (in this case, pano roof, dynaudio, leather!). And then they actually left off DCC entirely! Which really doesn't help if you've specified that as a keyword in your Autotrader search! Moral of the story... don't assume dealers take the same care with listing the spec that you or I would do as a private seller!! Make some phone calls. And good luck.

I can strongly recommend Listers in Banbury (servicing only, no showroom, for VW and Skoda). In fact, I did already in the Briskoda forum, see - https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/131970-listers-skoda-banbury/#comment-4730667 - for my review. Haven't had my first service for the R estate yet (due in a month or so) but am not contemplating taking it anywhere else. Cheers Russell

Immense indeed! Enjoy!

Replaced the original Bridgestones on my Estate with 4 x Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 a couple of weeks ago for £368 all in via Blackcircles. Tyre noise was a bugbear for me on my previous vehicle (Skoda Octavia) - spend a lot of time & tried different tyres (unsuccessfully) in an attempt to reduce the level to a bearable amount. So I know where you're coming from. I guess it's always subjective, especially moving from worn tyres to new ones, where you'd expect less noise anyway, but my perception is that the F1s seem significantly quieter than the Bridgestones - I'm very pleased. Can't comment on how the rev 2 compares to the 3. And haven't pushed it in the wet, so can't comment on that side of things. Might be worth a read of this if you've not come across it before - http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/91864/goodyear-eagle-f1-asymmetric-3-review

This! The perfect solution

They might be especially keen to seal a deal today (if still open). Last day of the sales quarter and year - someone might have a target to meet/beat? Make a cheeky offer and see what happens? When I purchased mine I went down the finance route even though I had the cash. This unlocked a £1.5k deposit contribution, but I then just paid off the amount in full a few days later with no penalty or problems at all - this is a well travelled path. Mine had the Kenwood sat nav fitted. I find the map display a bit noddy tbh. And there's no live traffic info (or not that I can see - maybe that's an extra cost/subscription?). If you pay approx £225 you can get Appconnect fitted by the dealer. This lets you use your Android phone (via Android Auto) or iPhone (via Carplay) as your satnav both of which feature live traffic. The phone's screen and *some* apps can then be displayed on the inotainment screen. If you already have a suitable phone it's a cheaper option. Maybe throw that into the negotiation?

My ex-demo estate came with the pano roof. Wouldn't have paid for the option myself, but was pleased to have it. Adds extra light to the cabin. No rattles, squeaks or leaks so far. To my mind it's not an option that has been *replaced* by air con/climate control (although some manufacturers and purchasers seem to think so). Sunroofs are not about cooling down a hot car on a warm day. There is a moment on a spring/ summer day when fresh air circulating is really nice and is enough to maintain a pleasant temperature without the aircon. Sometimes a man just wants to feel a breeze on his bald spot

Test drove a 330D Touring (only 2WD). Lots of grunt, really clever auto box. But significant road noise (a major irritation for me), lacked the limpet like grip and traction of the 4WD Golf estate and didn't handle as well. But the crucial factor for me was that at the end of the day it's still a diesel. They just don't make driving fun and after 3.5 years enduring a remapped Octy VRS diesel (with more torque than the Golf) I couldn't wait to get into the free revving Golf. It has tons more "wheee" factor than any diesel I've driven. Average Mpg has gone from 50+ (Octy) to 34 in the Golf but I don't care. Oh, and there are (hopefully) fewer untried emissions bits to go wrong (DPF, EGR, etc) in a petrol.

For all my recent cars, my average long term MPG (measured brim to brim) has been almost exactly the stated manufacturer's Combined figure (if not slightly higher). Previous car was a Mk2 Octavia VRS TDI (3.5 years, 50MPG+) and before that a Mk1 Octavia VRS 1.8T (7 years, 37MPG+). So both VAG cars. I therefore expected to be able to achieve 40MPG - at least occasionally - with the R Estate. I'm actually averaging 34, which compared to others is pretty reasonable. The R is therefore the first vehicle where I have NOT been able to achieve the combined figure - even on a single, gentle constant 65MPH motorway run, trying as hard as possible! The best I've ever had is just under 39 for that kind of trip. To my mind something has definitely changed (recently) with how manufacturers test to achieve these figures. I used to get on, or slightly more than the Combined. With the R I'm 15% under. So, to echo the sentiment from TheBlondeFella... I just expected to be able to achieve the Combined figure in normal (or even very gentle) driving. But this aint happening. And to my mind, I can't see how it's possible.

I came from a Mk2 Octavia VRS with the same engine, Bluefin remap and consistently 50mpg+ on my 60 mile almost entirely motorway commute. Best I've seen in the first 3k miles in my R Estate is 39mpg on a journey, sticking to 65mph with the aircon off. Average since I started is 34mpg. Have to say I was disappointed at how hard it is to get even that close to the claimed 40 figure. But I've resigned myself to that (and weaned myself off the mpg setting for the DIS). Totally love the car. Too busy enjoying the smooth, quiet, effortless and fast experience to care. So glad I switched back to petrol. Driving is fun again.

I also use a short Anker cable with my iPhone 5s. Have had odd behaviour every now and then requiring any/all of: Reboot of phone Reset of infotainment unit (press & hold power button for 10/15 secs) Pulling USB cable out of socket in car & reinserting In short, the usual kinda tech issues with the usual solution... turn it off & on again Tip? Maybe it's obvious to everyone else, but when navigating in Maps, there are turn-by-turn text instructions displayed on the right hand side of the map area. It's possible to collapse this text (just tap on it) so it just shows destination, duration & eta, thus using more of the screen for the actual map - I use this with the Overview view when driving to familiar (but far flung) places. Tap the text again to, um, uncollapse.

As others have said, I also paid it off in full after a few days, retaining the deposit contribution + 2 free services as agreed in negotiations. The dealer knew this was my intention and that I only "arranged" finance for the extra incentives. Whilst not ideal (for them) it was a pragmatic approach in order to make the price palatable (for me). Contained in the small print bumpf you get with the finance paperwork is a phone number and details of how to exit. In summary - make a phone call to get a repayment figure then just arrange a BACS payment. I think I had to pay an extra tenner in interest as I'd left it a few days (but less than 14 as I think it then comes under the usual "cooling off" clause when arranging finance). Annoyingly, despite making a payment the same day as getting a settlement figure, the VW computer *still* decided to send me a vaguely threatening formal letter stating they hadn't yet received the payment! A quick call confirmed that they had received the payment, but that the computer "just does that" and I should have been told to expect the needless letter.

Thanks for the welcome all. Zephyr - Have bought the OBDeleven dongle and already disabled stop/start and the soundaktor (sorry if that makes me seem like a peasant )

Got my 16 plate ex-demo Golf R estate a few weeks ago (black, leather, pano roof, DCC, dynaudio). Have subsequently activated app connect for £215 - quite a nice experience with an iPhone, but then the standard infotainment works pretty well too. Really, really, impressed with the R estate - refined, comfy, so easy to drive (my first auto box) and of course easy to drive fast. Handles really well, and surprisingly smooth over surfaces that were noticeably jiggly in previous cars. I did consider a manual 5 door hatch, but knew there would be enough times each year when I'd miss the extra boot space. And I love the Q car look of the estate. Also, to my surprise, when searching for ex-demos the estates actually seemed as cheap for the same mileage/spec as the 5 door manual hatch - odd! As a bunch of reviews say, it feels like pretty much all the car you'd ever need. Look forward to keeping it for many years. I found this site very useful for pre-purchase reading & research - thanks to all those regulars who've built up a great searchable body of knowledge - really appreciated With regard to car forums, I've spent the last 10 years largely lurking on Briskoda (last car was a Mk2 Octy VRS TDi - was seduced to the diesel dark side by annual mileage of 22k, but after 3.5 years I couldn't stand the lack of refinement (esp. road noise), diesel unwillingness to rev & narrow power band any longer. Even with a remap the car was never fun! The only thing I miss is > 50 mpg). Previous car was a Mk1 Octy VRS 1.8T which I had for 7 faultless years and 150k miles - absolutely loved that car. Before that... a couple of Nissan Primera GTs, an Almera GTi (sorry), Fiat Uno Turbo Mk1 (a lot of fun in a straight line), Talbot Samba 1.4, MG Metro... and my car ownership started with a Mini So that's a bit about me. Don't expect to post much, but do expect to keep on top of the Mk7 forum, so thought it only polite to say hi. Cheers Russell