JonoNZ Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 [ QUOTE ] ....No, not for me! I love 'S' and have never understood other people's comments that it's too manic. And the ability to move between D and S would be lost with an inbetween. D is quite respectable in its performance in most A-road driving situations and you can always shift down with the paddle. [/ QUOTE ] I find S good in 'open-road' conditions but for driving around town it's a bit much. D on the other hand changes up way to quickly, before I know it I'm in 5th gear doing only 50km/h! Manual for me I think, plus I'm used to driving sequential manuals in full manual mode after having the Alfa Selespeed for 3 years. It is nice to have the "D" option for the times when you just can't be bothered changing gears though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
encee Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 [ QUOTE ] I'd say in real world terms the gti is far quicker than the civic type r. My friend recently purchased a civic and i have to say at the time i was considering buying one as it worked out far cheaper than the golf. Many things put me off it to be fair (looks, interior, rattles) but not the engine which i thought was a peach. Honestly we both found it difficult to work out what the press were going on about in regards to low torque. At a time when we were both in cars with 120bhp, it felt very quick at low revs and blistering between 6-8k. The cherry dropped however when i picked up the GTI last week. As quick as the civic is between 6-8k the golf feels just as fast at 2500rpm, and you have that instant kick of power through the whole rev range in every gear. When overtaking in the civic you need to be at 6k to make things easy and on a 50 mile run through wales he only went past 4k a few times because of traffic where as the golf, well we have power everywhere and thats where the cars are so different. The golf is really fast in everygear at all revs whereas the civic is only fast 6-8k. I think maybe on the track it would be marginally quicker but as autoexpress found the gti is actually quicker straight line. golf (manual) 0-60 6.7 30-70 thru gears 6.1 30-50 in 3rd 3.0 40-60 in 4th 4.3 50-70 in 5th/6th 5.6/6.7 top speed 147 BRAKING 60-0 34.3 civic 0-60 6.8 30-70 thru gears 6.3 30-50 in 3rd 3.9 40-60 in 4th 5.7 50-70 in 5th/6th 7.6/10.4 top speed 146 BRAKING 60-0 35.5 [/ QUOTE ] A good post this, Ryan, and one which sums up the differences between the two cars perfectly. Nice one ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted January 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Agreed, Jono....'S' far too "manic" for around town/city but awesome for tight cornered and narrow country twisties where you need both hands on the wheel. Also awesome for fast overtaking in narrow country lanes for the same reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzGTI Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Red, That fact that you have access to twisty lanes and B roads is very much to your advantage. No wonder you enjoy the GTI so much. Unfortunately, I have to drive about 100km to find such great roads. I was in the country this weekend and gave S a blast for what I think is the second time in he six months I've owned the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerlomman Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 This raises an interesting question for me - are all the DSG boxes programmed the same for each market? The demo car I drove in May '05 was quite different to the '06 car I bought. The '05 car would quite happily sit in 4th at 60kph (40mph) in 'S' mode. My '06 car holds 3rd gear all the way to 100kph (60mph) even on trailing throttle and won't shift to 4th till about 105kph. Can anyone shed some light on how their cars perform? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRobin Posted January 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 Oz - I know you visit the UK so my local roads are Dorset/Devon/Somerset where I'm lucky enough to have all kinds of roads and even choices from A to B such as twisty hilly coast road or fast dual carriageway A-road. Clubman - I don't know about speeds in the various gears because I tend to take more notice of the revs but my DSG box in 'S' will take each gear to 6,700 before shifting and will do the same even in Manual mode. When slowing down in 'S' she demonstrates a surprising amount of intelligence such that I've never studied it because I find myself invariably in the gear I want. The only downside of that is that I have to very consciously decide to use Manual at all. Even with my Non-Resonated Millteks I can't always hear the gear shift when popping down only one cog, and you already know how seamlessly smooooth the shift feels. I've had quite a few TSN passengers in my car who have been utterly amazed by the DSG box - Cries of "I want one! I want DSG!" from a certain TT QS driving lady. Are DSG boxes differently programmed? Very interesting question but I doubt it and would love to know for certain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemod Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Talking about DSG shifts using the stick.... Why oh why did VW implement the shift back to front??? Should be back for up, forwards for down. Si. [/ QUOTE ] Any Automatics I have seen have been Forwards for UP and backwards for DOWN except the BMW SMG gearbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy Posted January 31, 2006 Report Share Posted January 31, 2006 [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] golf (manual) 0-60 6.7 30-70 thru gears 6.1 30-50 in 3rd 3.0 40-60 in 4th 4.3 50-70 in 5th/6th 5.6/6.7 top speed 147 BRAKING 60-0 34.3 civic 0-60 6.8 30-70 thru gears 6.3 30-50 in 3rd 3.9 40-60 in 4th 5.7 50-70 in 5th/6th 7.6/10.4 top speed 146 BRAKING 60-0 35.5 [/ QUOTE ] A good post this, Ryan, and one which sums up the differences between the two cars perfectly. Nice one ! [/ QUOTE ] The ingear figures of the Civic are misleading to compare with the GTI too. For the reason the civic is so low geared. Something like 20mph/1000rpm in 6th!! if i remember right from my test drive but that was before they restyled it maybe they changed the gearing but i doubt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzGTI Posted February 1, 2006 Report Share Posted February 1, 2006 I usually manage to get down to your part of the world each trip I make to the UK. Have friends in Bristol and in a village in Somerset called Othery (between Bridgewater, Ilminster and Glastonbury. Probably not as far south as I imagine you are from your posts. Most of my UK time is spent in the Oxford and Herts, and in East Anglia. I think the roads in the UK are some of the best I have driven anywhere in the world. Ignoring the motorways and the south east corner. UK roads are generally entertaining and reasonably well made/mantained. You guys have a nice combination of twisty and flowing roads. Frankly, we tend to lack the twisty bits - certainly around Melbourne. Apart form the UK, I think the best driving I've done was in the country side behind the Costa del Sol in Spain - around Ronda, through Malaga, Grenada and so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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