TDIum

Hello and welcome. It is possible to do that as folk have shown before, but it is not simple. There are some threads on here going back a few years. There was someone called Sasha Grace (or similar) who heavily modded her VRS and kept a long thread on the subject, you'd have to search for it, and she has moved on to a different car now (but possibly still on this forum). Buying a phone holder would be much simpler and less costly. Good luck,

Winter pack is very nice to have for defrosting and first ten minutes of driving in winter. Once you're on the motorway it makes no difference

Plug it in with (a good) USB cable and use Android Auto?

I've had mine apply the brakes. I also get occasional false alarms from it.

The 190 motor is a peach. Smooth and economical at low load and plenty of shove when needed 👍 As with all second hand cars there's a risk of latent problems. If it was me I'd look for a highly specced 2.0 with the 7-speed DSG (the high-torque wet clutch version of this)

L&K is top of the range spec wise and not that common. Personally I think you would be fine with a diesel on an 18-mile each way commute that's plenty of time to get up to temperature and burn off any residues. IMHO.

Should be a standard replaceable part. Try typing whatever number is printed on it into a search engine?

I'm not planning on selling mine just yet

Don't overlook the newer 2.0 TSI /190bhp it is smooth powerful and economical 👌

I had this problem with my Diesel VRS, always lugging until you put it in S then it tried to rev its tits off all the time. I put this down to it being a diesel-auto. Current TSI/DSG is a brilliant combination. First get them to check the DSG has the original programming and ask for a reset or reflash. Tell them to test drive it and make them understand what the problem is.

DSG will always shift to prevent you from stalling or over-revving the engine even in M. Also kickdown still happens.

I went from a diesel VRS to a petrol SE-L. The VRS handling and cornering was very good but I prefer the SE-L for comfort. The 190bhp petrol engine is very good.

Phone holder

My rear wiper has dragged almost from day one. Looking at the rubber blade it is still soft and bendy, it seems there just isn't enough spring force holding it against the glass.

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but there was a shortage of bio-ethanol in the UK that meant that the E5 petrol in the pumps was usually a lot less than 5% crop-juice, and often none at all. The labelling means that it may be up to that percentage plant-based.

Even using the air-con hard can make a difference. It's up to you really, no need to bore yourself ****less in the left hand lane while trying to stay awake by doing mental arithmetic converting l/100km into mpg 😁 Personally I don't see any benefit in racing down the motorways, I don't have anything to prove and I'm not in a hurry usually. So happy to bimble along on the left trying to stay out of the way of lorries. Your mileage may differ.

Yes I regularly get good ecomony out of my 2.0 TSI on a motorway run. I am happy to proceed at about 65 most of the time 👍

Agreed

Yes smoother progress if you can anticipate a bit, don't follow too close and therefore don't have to use the brake much in that stop/start traffic. OK then tiptronic M-mode. It's not theory, it's just what I do. Actually I have the "individual" driving mode set up as engine=eco and steering=sport just for motorways. But apart from the two situations of stop/start traffic and motorways, I don't find any other use for Eco mode.

Yeh I think they'd be an MOT failure. Mine came with Hankok whatevers they are pretty much shot after 20k miles. Tiptoed through the winter 🙄

If it was me I'd haggle with intent to buy. Consider what it'll cost you to get something you like as much.

Yep similar to what my TDI VRS used to do. My 2.0 TSI (190bhp non-VRS) is averaging better at 45mpg reported

Surely you mean "What, tyres??"

Short answer is yes you can. Hope you weren't expecting a mahoosive woofer in the boot labelled "Canton", actually the woofer is what sits in that little box on the side 😱 You probably have the emergency inflating kit, which to be fair saves weight compared to a spare wheel. You can buy a space-saver spare wheel kit from various outlets.

That issue sounds like the phone's power-saving feature is killing off processes when it thinks they are unused. There may be an option to prevent it in the power settings?