11,000 mile 5 month review 2.0 tdi Bluemotion Technology

[Hughesynights]

To celebrate back to back 800 mile tanks, I thought I would write a few words about the Golf. After just over 5 months of ownership, I am thoroughly impressed.

Comfort
Spending about three hours per day in the car, the interior comfort and toys are appreciated. The RCD510 with DAB has been very welcome. In over 300 hours of sitting in the car so far, most listening to DAB, I've had just 2 hiccups in the reception. Both times the radio switched automatically to FM (luckily I was listening to a national BBC broadcast), and carried on.
Coverage is absolutely fine in Oxon, Beds, Bucks, Herts area.

The Match spec is well worthwhile. Auto lights and wipers are nice features. Integrated Bluetooth works very well (and accesses the phone book on my Blackberry).

My only gripe is a slight lower back pain developing. On the other hand, perhaps driving three hours per day in any car would start to cause problems. I have to remind myself to sit up straight!

Performance
When I am not trying to get good mpg, it is nice to be able to overtake with relative ease. Initially I was slightly disappointed, for some reason I thought 140 horse power in a small car would feel quicker, having previously driven similar powered but larger cars. It is definitely acceptable though.
The diesel engine is very refined, and hardly makes any noise.

Fuel economy
I try very hard to get good mpg, it is the only way I can make my long commute interesting.

After moving house, my drive to work is now about 50 miles each way. I downsized to the Golf to save money on fuel, expecting to achieve at least 60 mpg. In these summer months I am easily exceeding that target, although undoubtedly this will deteriorate in the winter.
Lifetime average, according to brimming the tank (the mfd lies) is 64 mpg.

As I get more confident in the amount of fuel left after the light comes on, I am pushing to try and get 800 miles out of a tank; it is a kind of game. This is only possible if I don't have any rushed trips, or let my wife borrow the car.
Here's a video to show the awesome economy of the tdi (don't have a go at me for shooting it while driving, it was perfectly safe).

Recently my company changed the fuel rates for business mileage to three bands: 'up to 1600 cc', '1601 to 2000 cc' and 'above 2000 litres'. How pleased am I that I didn't go for the 1.6 like many others at the company? I get the same mpg, but the company gives me more money...

Rattles
When I received the car, there was a buzzing noise from the center roof console at certain road speeds. After a while it drove me nuts and I took the console apart. I found that the flat ribbon cable that connects to the driver's sun visor, over the headlining, was not stuck down flat. It was tight between two glued places, which resonated at certain road speeds causing a buzzing sound. A small amount of electrical tape stopped it. I suppose most people would have taken it to the dealer to look at, I couldn't be bothered to drive there and was happy to take the console apart.
Occasionally I get a buzz from the driver's door, and a rattle from the passenger seat, but currently not frequent enough to annoy me.

I think rattles are easier to spot because the car is overall very quiet.

Service interval
The service indicator on the computer says I still have about 7,000 miles until a service is due. A colleague has the Seat Leon FR with the 170 horse power version of the 2.0 tdi engine, which he has to get his serviced every 10,000 miles. He wasn't impressed when I told him mine was 18,000 miles, so he has to waste time visiting the dealer nearly twice as often!

Overall I am very impressed with the car.

[Keithuk]

Here's a video to show the awesome economy of the tdi (don't have a go at me for shooting it while driving, it was perfectly safe).

The video shows the MFD but at the bottom its showing current mileage since last reset 1110.9 and its also shows 56mph which is same as the speedo and another clock with a mark at around 56 do you have the speed warning set? I've switched off my speed warning as I will never use it?

Don't you reset the miles after you fill up everytime?
Doesn't the total mileage show while driving?

Oh you might think its safe to have a camera on the dash while you are driving but the police would say otherwise.

Service interval
The service indicator on the computer says I still have about 7,000 miles until a service is due. A colleague has the Seat Leon FR with the 170 horse power version of the 2.0 tdi engine, which he has to get his serviced every 10,000 miles. He wasn't impressed when I told him mine was 18,000 miles, so he has to waste time visiting the dealer nearly twice as often!

The service interval is set by VW but this can be changed. If you look at the Options sticker on the first page of the service schedule it should say QG0, QG1 or QG2. QG0/QG2 are both longlife service intervals 20k/24 months, QG1 is 10k/12 months which mine is set too. Now they say it depends on the type of driving you do as to when it needs to be serviced. If you do a daily low mileage 25 miles you need to have the 10k/12 month service interval. This service interval can be changed to suit your driving needs with VCDS or the dealer. They use the same longlife oil on 10k and 20k services.

[Hughesynights]

The video shows the MFD but at the bottom its showing current mileage since last reset 1110.9 and its also shows 56mph which is same as the speedo and another clock with a mark at around 56 do you have the speed warning set? I've switched off my speed warning as I will never use it?

Don't you reset the miles after you fill up everytime?
Doesn't the total mileage show while driving?

The clock with 56 mph is the cruise control, which replaces the total mileage unless you turn cruise control off.
The 1110.9 is the trip, I reset this when the car was delivered, so it reads a few miles less than the total.

I reset the '2' average figures on the mfd at each fill up. So on the video 75.5 mpg is the average since I last filled up, 801 miles and 20 hrs 49 minutes earlier.
I don't bother reseting the 'big' trip, because the mfd 2 effectively has another trip.

The long service interval should be ok for me, since I spend lots of time purring along at constant speed. Not very stressful for the car, or driver!

[Beddoe]

The performance issue may be down to the gearing with a large gap between third (16.6mph/1000rpm at a rough guess)and fourth (24.0mph/1000rpm) being particularly noticeable compared with my previous mark V GT (15.8mph/1000rpm and 21.3mph/1000rpm respectively) and GT Sport (both 140TDi). I'll be happy to give further details if you wish. I find that I am using higher engine speeds in the intermediate gears than on the mark Vs.
As for the LongLife service regime and the resultant 18,600 miles (30,000Km) between services/oil change I think that this is too long even with 90% of my driving being long distance.
On my GT and GT Sport I used to change the oil, filter and sump plug at about 9,000 miles which usually occurred in September/October. I felt happier that there was reasonably clean/fresh oil in the sump over the winter months.
I've only done 4,000 miles in my mark VI GT so I have not yet checked whether there are any significant differences in the procedure for changing the oil etc. The filter does seem more accessible, if only slightly, though.

[Keithuk]

Ok I don't have cruise but I thought when the cruise was on is said Cruise in the dash in green? I always press the reset button to zero the trip when I fill up its facing you.

Zeroing memory 2 does tell you how many miles you have done since the fill up only the average mpg, memory 2 isn't a trip.

Yes I saw 801 miles on the video thats how far you have gone on that trip.