"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/06/2019 at 03:31 • Filed to: travel, photography, vw, golf, tdi, ireland
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"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/06/2019 at 03:31 • Filed to: travel, photography, vw, golf, tdi, ireland | 6
| 16 |
This is going to be pretty short. Yesterday I drove a rental Golf from Dublin to Cliffs of Moher to Galway and back to Dublin. In total, it was a little over 7 hours. These are my bulletpoint impressions:
Cons
No wonder people are choosing automatics. This is easily one of the worst manuals I’ve driven. Let’s say you take away from a toll plaza and want to gain speed quickly... NO. You can’t. Even if you rev out first gear, you have to count to 3 before you can shift into second. The revs just hang and hang and hang and hang for days.
I really dislike cars with a “push down” lockout for reverse. Especially when reverse is essentially in the same place as first. This might be personal preference.
This car would be too slow for the US without the DSG . It’s fine in Ireland.
It’s hard to believe this is the same platform as a GTI. Handling is pretty vague and it really feels like you’re sitting cab-forward.
The seats are lackluster for long journeys. My balls started to go numb after hour 5.
The pickup point for the clutch is both easy and vague at the same time.
Pros
There is actually enough space for your clutch leg despite being RHD.
The car has a range of over 500 miles/tank
It fits people and their stuff pretty well. We have 3 people and 2 large suitcases.
Android Auto, just like the Jetta I had in Austin, saves the infotainment experience.
Radar cruise works surprisingly well.
The complete lack of power means I haven’t had to worry about spinning a front tire - which was a problem with the Jetta that I recently drove.
It took us all the way to Cliffs of Moher and back without any issues.
Driving in Ireland
Obviously it’s the opposite side as the US.
Annoyingly, the traffic lights don’t do the helpful “orange before green” thing that they do in the UK.
Highways are pretty much like US highways in mirror-mode.
Roads outside the highways are small, tight, twisty, and fairly fast when not behind a tourist.
Rural roads require more concentration than US rural roads due to the size and number of tour busses.
Similar to the UK, some roads are a negotiation of who can go first since parked cars make it a single track.
SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 04:08 |
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I recall doing much the same thing back in 1995....driving what I knew then to be a Holden Barina...a small Vauxhall hatchback from Spain (?). 1.2 litres of hilarity. Ireland is awesome.
Your findings regarding the gearbox may have more to do with its relationship with the TDi motor than the transmission itself.
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Nick Has an Exocet
> SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
09/06/2019 at 04:16 |
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Hah, that’s awesome.
My guess is that they have fitted the engine with the heaviest flywheel in existence. That said, I still don’t love the transmission. It’s pretty vague feeling.
Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 04:27 |
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Thanks for sharing.
I always find amazing how the power/speed perception seems to be different in the US.
Both back in Brazil and the UK, 150hp is considered more than enough for a daily driver, and I’ve seen more powerful cars being labeled as weak in the US.
Never spent to much time in the US, but maybe the cars are larger/heavier?
Here in the company, the pool cars are mainly 1.6TDI Golfs, and I find them adequate for running errands.
The pictures are amazing, I should go to Ireland in one of the holidays (but not in the Jazz).
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Nick Has an Exocet
> Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore
09/06/2019 at 04:39 |
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Glad you enjoyed it.
The main thing to consider about US roads: We stop a lot. Like... stop signs everywhere. Lights everywhere. No roundabouts and few yields. A car with under 160hp is slow because it’s constantly having to use all of it to regain speed. In the UK, Ireland, or mainland Europe, that’s less of an issue. We also have much wider roads. I’ve found that most of my driving in Ireland and Scottish highlands, that the speed limits are set at a point that things become reasonably unsafe for more than half of the turns. In the US, we set our speed limit for the worst possible driver. That’s not to say our roads have lower speeds, we tend to just build them wider with more runoff. So what then happens is that have a road where everyone does 70mph despite a 50mph posted speed limit. The roads in Ireland that have an 80 kph speed limit (50mph), we would post as 25mph (40kph).
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Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 04:41 |
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I’ve never thought about that! Thanks for the insight!
Svend
> Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore
09/06/2019 at 05:04 |
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Ye’, my Sandy is 148bhp in a car the size of a VW Passat.
She’s not slow or lacking in power and have have front wheel spin a few times when a little over enthusiastic on the accelerator.
The number of times I’ve seen U.S. OPPO’s say they feel unsafe in a car with less than 200bhp for their 30mph daily commute.
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Oppenheimer - not missing my shitboxes anymore
> SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media
09/06/2019 at 05:11 |
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Vauxhall Corsa most probably!
ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 05:41 |
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Ah, rev hang. Most manual cars left do have comparatively heavier dual mass flywheels today for nvh reasons. There’s also an emissions component to it. My understanding is that much of it is tuned into the car as a strategy of avoiding that temporary rich condition when a revving, loaded engine is suddenly without load when the clutch is pushed in and the revs fall quickly (the source of all those pops and crackles we love on a car with a less than factory exhaust system).
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 09:00 |
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Nice photos.
M.T. Blake
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 09:13 |
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I appreciate your honestly. Especially about the seats and how your berries don’t enjoy them. I want to do that trip one day, just in a different car that won’t make my boys go numb.
Cé hé sin
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 09:54 |
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Diesels tend to be like that anyway, especiall
y as they get bigger. Large trucks usually have automated manual gearboxes and they use an exhaust brake to bring down the revs during an upward gearchange.
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Cé hé sin
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 10:00 |
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Bear in mind too that country roads usually pre date motorised transport and originally took the easiest route possible, so they wandered around field boundaries, hills, valleys and so on rather than going in a straight-ish line.
Unless the road is particularly busy it’s unlikely to be cost effective to do much more than take out the worst of the bends.
As an example.
see this
. It’s only 22 km or so and is expected to cost nearly €300m.
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Nick Has an Exocet
> M.T. Blake
09/06/2019 at 12:01 |
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Haha, thanks. I try not to hold anything out.
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Nick Has an Exocet
> Cé hé sin
09/06/2019 at 12:02 |
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That’s awesome info. Thanks!
Future Heap Owner
> Nick Has an Exocet
09/06/2019 at 13:26 |
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Looking at the first couple of pictures, I didn’t believe that you were in Ireland, but the later ones looked like the Ireland I remember.
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Nick Has an Exocet
> Future Heap Owner
09/06/2019 at 14:14 |
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Hah, the weather has been way too good to be real. I mean, it’s not warm by any stretch but we’ve had 2.5 days without more than a shower. Someone has been kissing 4 leaf clovers or something.