3000 Miles Review (Petrol VRS Estate)

[sdwilliams72]

Morning all

Passed the 3000 mile marker today, just short of 5 months old. Not a lot to report, a little wind noise from the passenger side (assuming its the giant mirrors...) and my Bolero has "white screened" twice, but been fine the following day.

I'm not one for driving like a loony, cover about 14 miles a day each way to work and average about 31mpg (mostly stop start thru town)

My alternative route is down the M4, which is bad in the mornings so I dont use it, but coming home, I can average about 41mpg, but that is along a 50mph section. getting between 300-330 on a tank, about the same as my old mk 1 vrs

For a car that cost Just over £2000 more than my Mk1 VRS of 8 years ago (I kept it that long cos I loved it...) it has evolved, it does seem more refined, although the mk 1 really was solidly built.

I love the Bolero system and can't understand why so many change, i Like it, and with 6 mp3 loaded cd's, and a 8GB fully loaded card I have music aplenty, and a decent sound

Seats are comfortable (didnt go for leather) but have not really done a trip of more than 50 miles so far, so the Jury is still out on that one.

I went for the estate due to having a 3 yr old daughter, and the fact I prefer the look of the estate to the current hatch, boot space is immense, but it was in the old mk 1 too.

I do get misted windows on the inside quite often here in rainy wales, and of course it ices up in the cold, but have put a couple of large packs of silica gel in the car to see if that helps.

The boot used to let in water terribly in the mk 1, as soon as it opened it would pour in, unless you opened it very very slowly....

The estate is much better, can open quickly, no water seems to creep in.

They seem to have learnt a lot from the days of the mk 1, gone are the white carpets (hooray) the silver seat inserts (hooray) and a more luxurious feel inside (dual climate, Jumbo armrest box, Aux in for even more music)

Car mats are ****e tho.....

The car looks sporty, I love my DRL's and I'm very pleased with performance

I loved the look the mk1 vrs had, clocked up 100k in that one in 8 years, never let me down once, in fact was still on the same clutch and battery and Exhaust . Hopefully this one will perform as well over the next 8 years for me.

(anyone know if the Teeves60 problem may occur on the newer models??)

Cheers

Steve

[M12MKD]

With the misting up leave the climate control on all the time and it should stop it (as read on another thread on here). Mine is always on and I have to say nothing has misted up even in the rain, snow and cold weather.

Glad that your enjoying it and yes the combi is alot better looking than the hatch.

[sdwilliams72]

I'm off on a little trip up to the Brecon Beacons this weekend, so looking forward to giving it a more thorough test

[GriffoVRS]

Good write up!

[juan27]

I've got a four month old petrol VRS just on 5K and I'm very impressed. The only thing that's dropped off is the bonnet release lever, which seems a bit too easy to dislodge with a stray foot when getting in and out. It may have a weak spring clip or something but not worth a visit to the dealers on its own.

It does mist up badly when parked (even with the climate control always on when driving). I've resorted to wiping the inside of the screen a couple of times to get going in a reasonable amount time of time. Once its clear it stays clear when I'm driving. I think the car design is prone to condensation rather than there being any intrinsic fault with (what used to be called) the heater.

I struggle to get more than 28mpg on my (busy) commute but I've seen 34 over a motorway run. Although it might loosen up I can't see how I'd get 40mpg other than driving through one of those average speed controlled areas with the cruise set to fifty.

Never had any problems with the Bolero, I've been using a 16Gb SD that has worked fine, so much so that I've rarely used the CD changer.

The service indicator is so far saying it needs a variable service at 14K, which will be more or less 1 year for me.

The only slight concern I've had is that if you take it round to near the redline in the lower gears then back off slightly then boot it again it seems to hesitate as I suppose its gone off boost. Just something maybe I need to get used to? (its the first petrol turbo I've owned). Its only happened a couple of times as its hardly the kind of driving I do day to day.

Edited 3 February, 2011 by juan27

[Wardy]

The only slight concern I've had is that if you take it round to near the redline in the lower gears then back off slightly then boot it again it seems to hesitate as I suppose its gone off boost. Just something maybe I need to get used to? (its the first petrol turbo I've owned). Its only happened a couple of times as its hardly the kind of driving I do day to day.

Pretty sure I've noticed people with the standard DV (diverter valve) mention that problem. This has been with the TFSI unit, not the newer TSI though. Not sure but pretty confident that Forge must have an uprated one available for that unit by now. But I know the later OEM revisions of the valve got better as time went on with the TFSI, so more and more owners uprated with a later OEM valve, instead of going aftermarket.

[juan27]

Thanks for the tip Forge do this:

http://www.forgemotorsport.co.uk/content.asp?inc=product&cat=260304&product=FMFSITVR

But as the car is bog standard and pretty new I wonder if the OEM fitment is faulty?

Edited 4 February, 2011 by juan27

[Wardy]

Generally it'll log a fault when things like that happen. So a VCDS scan should reveal something, should it become an issue.