SE 1.4 TSI BMT 122 DSG 5dr Auto

Overall a fantastic car but with a few downsides

Overall I am very happy with my Golf. The good points.....

The ride is smooth and refined, cabin well built and a nice place to be and I love the comfort seats in my SE model. Everything is well designed and functional.

Roomy - I chose a 5 door car as I needed a car to transport my elderly parents around regularly. They both comment theres plenty of room in the back and also like the big windows in the back which makes it feel spacious and airy.

The 1.4 TSI engine is excellent, plenty of punch for normal everyday driving and will happily sit ticking along at just over 2k rpm doing 70-75mph on the motorway. I drive mostly b roads and am quite a "spirited" driver but it will still return 49mpg. On motorway runs I have acheived about 56mpg.

The DSG gearbox is smooth as silk, in normal leisurely driving you barely even notice the gear changes. Sports mode is good for overtaking.

Autohold - I love this feature, I think the autohold system and the dsg work really well together. It's great on a hill if you have to stop at lights for example, just brake to a stop, the green autohold light comes on and that's it, no applying the handbrake or worrying about rolling back. Then when it's time to go again just press the accelerator and off you go...Brilliant.

Apdative cruise control - I only really use this on motorways and dual carriageways but it works well on those.

Bad Points:

On of the biggest downsides to the Golf (and in particular the earlier mk7 models) is the lack of features as standard. I have the SE model (which retailed at about £23,000 in 2014) but it doesn't have any parking sensors whatsover, not even reversing audio beepers...pretty poor really considering!
No folding wing mirrors, no front fog lights, old style halogen headlights, no tinted back windows.

The DSG gearbox.....whilst I generally find it excellent it does have a few downsides... Occasionally it can catch you out, particulary on roundabouts. Say for example you are slowly creeping towards the give way line at a roundabout and you suddenly spot a gap to go....you put your foot down and barely anything happens...so for a second or so you are just crawling along so you floor it and suddenly the engine roars in to life and you end up speeding away at high revs like a boy racer! With practice and accustomization you do manage to avoid this happening but it does still catch me out now and again. It's also a bit tempermental going up and down steep hills but now I usually switch to manual mode to select the gear I want when doing this.

Windscreen fogging in the winter seems to be an issue on many Golfs.

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