26.6 MPG,
45 hours 56 minutes,
46 MPH;
These are the figures taken off my on board computer 2, from my recent 12 day trip to and around the south of France, with my wife and 2 of my 3 kids, 6 months and 2 1/2 (my 8 year old lives with my ex in case you were wondering why only two came with me!). We had the car fully loaded, boot and rear foot wells, and bear in mind I don't hang around on the toll roads - 80-100mph!
Just to remind you it is an 08 ED30 DSG, 5 door, with Oettinger stage 2 inc torque de limit, TBE Milltek resonated, Carbonspeed intake and eibach springs, and has now covered just 8000 miles! It is my 3rd MKV golf and about my 9th golf overall.
The car performed faultlessly, was an absolute dream to drive, loads of power, torque and comfort. I could not think of another car within the price range, and even slightly higher that I would have wanted to take instead. It just re-installs, what i already know already, that this car is such a good all-rounder.
The only minus points for me is the crappy stereo system (my previous 3 cars have had factory upgrades - BOSE and BMW's HIFI, so Ive been a bit spoilt), even my wife complained about the tininess - if I were keeping it this would be getting upgraded, and the parrot MKi9200, that I recently installed was so temperamental with my iPhone 3GS when playing my itunes, however there is a new software upgrade that I have just carried out that should have cured this - Just wish i knew about this before I went!
In fact the trip back yesterday, was 820 miles door to door, I drove the whole way, bar and hour and a half, had thee cruise set at 80 the whole way, bar the last hour where we had to sprint a bit more for the tunnel, and it returned 28.7 mpg, with a range of approx 350 miles per tank, which is particularly helpful, as especially as my previous RS4 with better/similar performance would had a range of approx 220 miles per its bigger tank, as similar speeds!
So well done, its 9 1/2 out of 10 to Volkswagen for the ED30, just the stereo letting it down, for the half a point, and my car doesn't even have xenon's, which Ive always had, but with with the upgraded Osram nightbreaker bulbs, that I have fitted in the dip and main beam bulbs, the headlights are fantastic - Not to say when getting my R20 up I will be looking forward to having xenon's again.
On the subject of the R20, I am speaking to my dealer tomorrow to get the low down, and spec, if available, but my spec will be somewhere as follows;
5 door
DSG
upgraded hifi
bluetooth
heated seats
lumber
armrest
Highline - standard??
Half leather
rear side airbags - if its an option?
And hopefully white, but grey if they don't do it!
The ONLY reason I won't be getting this car yet, is I'm 85% through doing an extension on our house, and we are well over budget-surprise, surprise!, so I might need to hold off and plough more capital into bricks and mortar, but I have been waiting 3 years, since I got my original orders signed with VW, for the next R Golf, and now it is the 2.0TFSI 4wd, I couldn't think of a better combination, so I can see nothing getting in my way!
Just as a side-note my car will be coming up for sale shortly (I've only owned it 2 months to the day, and before you say, this isn't a big sales pitch for it, as I would be keeping it if the R wasn't coming out) I will be looking for £20.5k for it, as it stands, it is immaculate throughout, and gets valeted on a weekly basis, and there is not a swirl in sight! PM me if you are interested. I can put it back to standard if needed for a lesser price
