MK8 ST-Line X, first impressions

[Blatto]

Just taken delivery of my new MK 8 ST-Line X - 140 and thought I'd share some of my initial impressions.

I still prefer the looks of the MK 7 version, maybe the new one will grow on me, but even in ST Line trim it still looks a bit mundane, especially from the rear.

I ordered it with the space saver spare wheel as I always felt a bit anxious with just the gunk/inflation kit. It seems the lift up floor mat in the boot doesn't sit flat as supplied as there is a plastic insert sat on top of the spare  wheel with some bits and pieces for the jack, this causes a slight hump in the boot. I'd imagine I can remove them and stow them somewhere else to get rid of the bump though.

I am a bit annoyed there is nowhere to put my Foot operated pump which has served me well for 30+ years, doesn't fit under or around the edge of the spare wheel, guess I'll have to leave it at home.

Dash and controls are a vast improvement  over the MK7, the touch screen seems fine and very bright. I hope it dims down automatically at night, not got to that bit in the owners manual yet.

Couldn't find the switch for the rear Intermittent wipe so drove about 5 miles down the motorway in the dry with intermittent wipe on, had to keep squirting the washers to stop it from being dmamged on a dry screen. Had to look in the manual to realise there is a tiny 3 position switch on the tip of the controls :0

Not convinced on the flat bottomed steering wheel, feels a bit strange when manouvering in tight bends and parking, I suppose I'll get used to it, just seems an unnecessary cosmetic  change.

Driving position feels a bit higher up than the old one, even with the seat at it's lowest adjustment, and the seats could still do with more lateral support. About the same as the MK7 ones really, just with partial leather and a red stripe here and there, but for the most part they are fine.

Car certainly feels a little larger and heavier than before but as I'm still running everything in it's not possible to say much on the handling and performance but first impressions is that it will be similar to the previous version. It's a little quieter at motorway speeds with the main noise still being from the low profile tyres.

The gearbox feels a little bit notchy compared to the old one but maybe that just the fact it's new. Keep forgetting I have a 6th gear though and changing down from 6th to 5th I've gone to 3rd  a couple of times.

Not a fan of the rear privacy glass but it was not an option with this trim. Looks a bit dark looking out the rear view mirror.

Took it for a spin round my usual circuit which is a mix of twisty A roads and about 5 miles of Dual carriageway and 3 miles of bumpy B roads. It seems to soak up the bumps a little better than the MK7 but that was never really a problem before despite the sportier suspension on the ST-Line models. When I took the MK7 out on this same circuit 3 years ago with similar ambient temperature and with the same 100 delivery miles on the clock it did about 48mpg. I reset the Average reading and drove the MK8 much the same as I always do and got 45mpg with this model. I get the feeling it's going to be  2 or 3 mpg down on the old version once it's run in. Probably due to the extra weight and I probably added another 25 Kg or so with the spare wheel and jack.I'll repost my findings after it's done about 5000 miles or so.

The manual (and door pillar sticker) says 33 Psi front and 26 rear for light loads up to 100mph. Checked the pressures (from cold) and fronts were on 38 and rears 44. Also found a piece of brown paper wrapped around a cable under the bonnet and a snail attached to the top of the battery. Someone didn't do their checks very well 😞

Off to read the manual now to sort out the settings/sync 3/sat Nav.

 

 

 

 

[Blatto]

Anyone know why I get a diagram of the car on the instrument panel at startup. It shows a top down pic of the car with the doors open and a picture of a passenger in the rear with a green seatbelt type icon and an option to press OK. I have to press OK at every startup, after that it's fine with no warnings.

Thought it might be trying to tell me a rear passenger is not wearing a belt but I have no passengers and I've tried connecting / disconnecting the rear belts. Was trying to take a photo of the warning display but every time I get the camera focused on screen it goes to another screen saying power saving mode which covers up the diagram I'm describing.

One other annoying thing I've just discovered, the 12V aux socket I use for my dashcam does not power off with the ignition which means I have to either disconnect the cable or turn off the camera. I can see myself leaving that on and draining the battery.

 

[DG97]

1 hour ago, Blatto said:

Anyone know why I get a diagram of the car on the instrument panel at startup. It shows a top down pic of the car with the doors open and a picture of a passenger in the rear with a green seatbelt type icon and an option to press OK. I have to press OK at every startup, after that it's fine with no warnings.

Thought it might be trying to tell me a rear passenger is not wearing a belt but I have no passengers and I've tried connecting / disconnecting the rear belts. Was trying to take a photo of the warning display but every time I get the camera focused on screen it goes to another screen saying power saving mode which covers up the diagram I'm describing.

One other annoying thing I've just discovered, the 12V aux socket I use for my dashcam does not power off with the ignition which means I have to either disconnect the cable or turn off the camera. I can see myself leaving that on and draining the battery.

 

Unfortunately the seatbelt is just an annoying notice you cannot turn off - though I think I might have seen something in Forscan for it but didn’t get chance to test it out. 

Someone may need to correct me but could there be a timeout on the 12v socket before it goes off? If there isn’t, why not just hardwire the cam via the fuse box? 

[Blatto]

Not sure about a timeout, it's a long one if there is as I left it on accidently for at least an hour . Depends on what's involved in wiring it in, it's a lease car so I can't go drilling holes and risk breaking any of the trim if that's required?

 

[tef89]

Hi Blatto,  car looks very nice. 

The 12volt stays live for a while, although I'm not sure how long, I think it's 15-30 minutes possibly.  Hopefully someone can confirm exactly. 

I found the same problem when I came to plug my dashcam in unfortunately. 

I had a local technician hardwire mine in.  The good news is it doesn't require any drilling or anything permanent, but I would suggest you find someone familiar with trim removal. 

[Blatto]

Ok thanks, I'll persevere with switching it off or unplugging it for a bit but if that becomes annoying I'll have a look at getting it hardwired.

 

[Daggerit]

9 hours ago, Blatto said:

Ok thanks, I'll persevere with switching it off or unplugging it for a bit but if that becomes annoying I'll have a look at getting it hardwired.

 

I hardwired mine in, it's pretty easy as there's a video on YouTube for it.  I just tucked the cable into the headliner and then the A-pillar trim just pops off and the same with the trim all the way down to the floor when you pull the door seal out of the way.  10 minutes is what it took me after watching the video.  The only thing that was a pain was that the fuse box is a micro fuse version which most hardwire kits don't seem to come with so just make sure you have one and you'll be good.  :)

[Blatto]

Just an update on my impressions after 5 days of ownership.

I mentioned before that the gearbox felt a bit notchy in comparison to the MK7 but it now seems OK, maybe it's freed up a bit or I have just got used to it. Still forgetting 6th gear though, if it wasn't for the dash light recommending I change up I'd probably do half the journey home in 5th. 😄

One thing that does seem a bit odd is it keeps suggesting I change up to 6th at about 40 mph when I'm on a slight up hill, that equates to about 1500 rpm which feels a bit too low to me, especially as I'm running it in and you are advised not to lug the engine. I'm just ignoring that for now and using 4th/5th on that section of road.

I am now averaging about 50 mpg on the dash readout, if it's anything like the MK7 that would be about 47 mpg using the brim to brim calculation. So not too bad as it's still only done about 360 miles and being run-in . My MK7 seemed to gain about 5mpg after I'd done about 6000 miles or so.

The MK7 horn sounded like a noddy car and was a bit embarrasing to use, I can now confirm the horn on the MK8 ST-Line X 140  is much improved 👍 and I can now blast away at all the idiots who are about to pull out in front of me without shame 🤣

There's definitely less road noise from the tyres compared to the MK7 although I can't say if that's due to better isolation from the car or the different tyres. The MK7 was on Continental sport contact 5's and the new MK 8 is on Michelin Pilot Sport 4's. Was very happy with the Conti's on the MK7, I was going to get about 40,000 miles out of the fronts, they were on about 4mm at 33,000 miles.  The rears were still on 6mm. The grip in wet and dry and the handling was also excellent on the Conti's.

I get the feeling the Pilots sport 4's will be just as good if not better in handling, remains to be seen how long they last though.

Had to go over a bridge today that is notorious for Crosswinds, there are warning signs well before the bridge but it often catches people out as the first part of bridge has high concrete walls either side, but once you pass them it's a real fight to keep it in your lane on very windy days. Today was one of those days 45mph +  gusts. I've been over that bridge many times in the MK7 in those conditions but I think the MK8 is much better in that respect, felt very stable.

I'll bore you all with some more updates once I've completed the run in period and had a chance to evaluate the performance and handling compared to the MK7.

 

 

[tef89]

Had mine about a year and I've learned to just smile when the car suggests 6th in some situations.

I love the Pilot Sport 4s on mine - great grip.

I've yet to blow the horn, but after your glowing review I'm really looking forward to scaring the next pedestrian that dares to cross my path 🤣

Glad you seem to be liking it.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, Blatto said:

I mentioned before that the gearbox felt a bit notchy in comparison to the MK7 but it now seems OK, maybe it's freed up a bit or I have just got used to it. 

Still not thrilled with the gearchange in mine after 20 months, though it has improved over time. Still find it a bit "notchy" as you mention in your earlier post, and throw seems long. Nothing amiss according to my dealer but they mentioned other customers had made the same comment. Still pondering over fitting a quickshifter but that would only solve half the issue.  It's a shame as it does spoil my enjoyment of the car somewhat.

10 minutes ago, tef89 said:

I love the Pilot Sport 4s on mine - great grip.

Certainly agree with that, though!😀

[Blatto]

Yeah now I'm starting to get a feel for the car and not concentrating on all the gadgets I'm sure it's going to be very enjoyable.

The MK7 was a great little car, did everything I wanted really, but apart from the looks I think the MK8 will be even better.

Used the Horn for the first time today on some idiotic teenage girl phone zombie. Was about to wander out in front of me whilst looking at her phone and with big white earphones on.

Made her jump enough for her to drop the phone, I sincerely hope she broke it and it teaches her a lesson.

What is wrong with these people, why would you even consider using a phone anywhere near a road? I'm sure they must be suicidal and/or stupid.

 

[Blatto]

On 10/11/2019 at 2:50 PM, tef89 said:

I love the Pilot Sport 4s on mine - great grip.

Yeah I'm going to enjoy these tyres and this chassis. Still running the engine in, done just under 500 miles so far but the tyres are now past their go easy for 1st 300 miles stage so I've tested out the handling on a couple of bends I know very well and they feel superb. I'm no boy racer but I do like a car that handles well and has lots of grip in reserve if I need it.

The engine felt as tight as a drum for the first 300 miles but definitely seems to be loosening up a bit now. I'm getting about 2mpg more this week than my first week despite driving it a little bit faster and the temperature being a few degrees down. 

The heater warms up much quicker than my MK7 which usually took at least 3 or 4 miles to blow any noticeable warm air, I'm now getting about the same heat at about 1/2 mile up the road instead. Was always surprised how long the MK7 took to warm up as the exhaust manifold is water cooled on these ecoboost engines so should be getting hot pretty much from the off.

Still not entirely at ease with the gearbox, am remembering 6th gear now but finding I keep going 2nd to 5th on up changes, and instead of 5th to 4th on downchange, I keep going to 6th.

I mentioned about the slight annoyance of the 12V socket staying live after you switch off (therefore wasting the battery with the dashcam staying on) but just found another slight oddity with the 12V socket. Why does it need to come on live when you just turn the radio on with the ignition off?

I often sit out in the car at lunchtime with a book and the radio on in the background but now as soon as I switch the radio on the dashcam comes on too. 😠

 

[Piston Head]

My St-Line X 140 has done nearly 2000miles now and is proving to be a decent overtaking tool.😉

MPG around the 47mpg mark.

I have suffered a range of rattles from behind the dash but the most annoying is one that occurs from what I think is the clutch / gearbox when reversing out of my garage when the engine is cold. Suspect it might be a rattly clutch release bearing.

I agree with your observations about the height of the drivers seat (doesn't go low enough) and the engine / heater warm up which seems quite a bit quicker than my Mk7.5.

Anyone use Tidal / AppleCar Play and having an issue with their downloaded albums listing? Mine displays the full list initially and then reverts to a list of approx 10 albums only with no access to the others.

PH

 

[Daggerit]

I just don't understand how everyone is getting significantly higher MPG than my car...  Granted it's a 100PS mapped to 155PS or so, but I don't use it differently than before it was mapped 90% of the time as I'm just commuting on 30-40mph sections of road.  Commute is 9 miles each way and my current MPG is just shy of 40, yet whenever I look at the instantaneous it seems to be 50+ when I'm going through the significant 30-40 mph zones.  Very confused!

[Eric Bloodaxe]

6 minutes ago, Daggerit said:

I just don't understand how everyone is getting significantly higher MPG than my car...  Granted it's a 100PS mapped to 155PS or so, 

Has it changed since before the remap? You could be just enjoying an over 50% power increase until you get used to it again!

[DG97]

On 10/7/2019 at 7:07 PM, Blatto said:

Anyone know why I get a diagram of the car on the instrument panel at startup. It shows a top down pic of the car with the doors open and a picture of a passenger in the rear with a green seatbelt type icon and an option to press OK. I have to press OK at every startup, after that it's fine with no warnings.

Thought it might be trying to tell me a rear passenger is not wearing a belt but I have no passengers and I've tried connecting / disconnecting the rear belts. Was trying to take a photo of the warning display but every time I get the camera focused on screen it goes to another screen saying power saving mode which covers up the diagram I'm describing.

One other annoying thing I've just discovered, the 12V aux socket I use for my dashcam does not power off with the ignition which means I have to either disconnect the cable or turn off the camera. I can see myself leaving that on and draining the battery.

 

Noticed this last night but the manual states that the 12v aux socket can be used for up to 75 minutes after turning the ignition off. Only after that would I imagine power is cut.

[Daggerit]

Has it changed since before the remap? You could be just enjoying an over 50% power increase until you get used to it again!

No, it’s very similar. Measured when I fill the tank it’s within 1-2 mpg of before...

Checking on the instant mpg readout and I’m seeing 70-80mpg at 30-40mph for big chunks of my commute so I don’t know what’s going on. Also did a decent run on the dual carriageway a while back and I think the average for that tank only went up to around 44 if I remember rightly?


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[Eric Bloodaxe]

 

 

31 minutes ago, Daggerit said:

No, it’s very similar. Measured when I fill the tank it’s within 1-2 mpg of before..

Very difficult to comment on someone else's mpg as we all drive in different places and have different styles. Being retired I don't drive much in slow heavy traffic these days, and rarely get much chance to use motorways and dual carriageways. Most of my driving is on single lane A/B roads, where I often need to accelerate hard in 2nd/3rd to get past caravans, HGVs, tourist coaches, farm vehicles, groups of mamils, dawdling sightseers, etc, etc.

Under those conditions I mostly get mid 40's (measured using the "brim to brim" method). Worst I've seen was 36, best I've ever had was 53 a couple of times on a gentle touring holiday with the Mrs watching. My car has definitely loosened off over time, (still only done 9,000 though), but I've seen no change in mpg, I suspect because I just drive it a bit harder.

[Daggerit]

 
 
Very difficult to comment on someone else's mpg as we all drive in different places and have different styles. Being retired I don't drive much in slow heavy traffic these days, and rarely get much chance to use motorways and dual carriageways. Most of my driving is on single lane A/B roads, where I often need to accelerate hard in 2nd/3rd to get past caravans, HGVs, tourist coaches, farm vehicles, groups of mamils, dawdling sightseers, etc, etc.
Under those conditions I mostly get mid 40's (measured using the "brim to brim" method). Worst I've seen was 36, best I've ever had was 53 a couple of times on a gentle touring holiday with the Mrs watching. My car has definitely loosened off over time, (still only done 9,000 though), but I've seen no change in mpg, I suspect because I just drive it a bit harder.

Yeah it’s hard to comment. Hoping it gets a bit better because it’s not beating my 32mpg average in my 3.0T V6 S4 Avant I had before by very much at the minute! [emoji23][emoji23]


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[Blatto]

7 hours ago, Daggerit said:

I just don't understand how everyone is getting significantly higher MPG than my car...  Granted it's a 100PS mapped to 155PS or so, but I don't use it differently than before it was mapped 90% of the time as I'm just commuting on 30-40mph sections of road.  Commute is 9 miles each way and my current MPG is just shy of 40, yet whenever I look at the instantaneous it seems to be 50+ when I'm going through the significant 30-40 mph zones.  Very confused!

When was the last time you reset the average mpg readout?

If it's been a long time then the average may be based on many thousands of miles  and will therefore not change significantly from intermittent  bouts of low or high mpg driving.

Try resetting it and and leaving it for a few hundred miles see what your current average is. If you do reset just bear in mind it will fluctuate like the instantaneous readout for the first few miles then gradually settle into a  more constant average.

If you are still getting lower than expected values and assuming there's nothing wrong with your car it's probably just your driving environment and/or your driving style.

I've posted quite a few times on MPG matters on this forum. I don't drive that slowly on my daily commute, usually doing an indicated 75 ish on the motorways (true speed is about 70 when the dash indicates 75) and 50-60 on the A road sections where possible. For my 64 mile daily commute over a month period I was averaging about 52 mpg (54 on the dash readout). That was on my MK 7 St-Line 140

There's no real secret to getting those values, just anticipation and planning ahead to avoid braking where possible. Leave some big gaps between you and the cars in front. I try and leave at least 100 metres on the Motorway at 70mph. Get off the gas early instead of roaring up slip roads/junctions/roundabouts instead of fierce braking at the last possible moment like most people seem to do. Check your mirrors before lifting off though, if there are muppets following too close behind they may not realise you are slowing unless you give a quick dab of the brakes.

 

 

[Daggerit]

Yeah, I reset the trip at every fuel up but generally do an actual calculation based on how much I put in and it’s not far off for the most part.

I really do drive economically in the scheme of things, lifting off long before roundabouts and anticipating as much as possible. Hence why I’m a little confused because it’s not like I accelerate hard and then slam on the brakes at the last minute or anything... Might start doing that and see if it helps. Haha.


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[Blatto]

7 hours ago, DG97 said:

Noticed this last night but the manual states that the 12v aux socket can be used for up to 75 minutes after turning the ignition off. Only after that would I imagine power is cut

It does turn off eventually and although I haven't timed it 75 minutes could well be about the time it takes. I'll have to see if I can find out how much power the camera draws. I don't want to leave it on for 75 minutes as I will just be overwriting my driving footage with pictures of the car park. But if it's not using too much power at least I can stop worrying about flattening the battery if I forget to switch it off.

 

[Blatto]

2 minutes ago, Daggerit said:

Yeah, I reset the trip at every fuel up but generally do an actual calculation based on how much I put in and it’s not far off for the most part.

I really do drive economically in the scheme of things, lifting off long before roundabouts and anticipating as much as possible. Hence why I’m a little confused because it’s not like I accelerate hard and then slam on the brakes at the last minute or anything... Might start doing that and see if it helps. Haha.

Hmm strange, I found it hard to get under 40 mpg even with more spirited driving. Did you run the car in gently with varying speeds as suggested in the manual?

Back in the Mid 1980's a work colleague and myself both bought new MK 1 Golf GTi's (the 1800cc version). That car had an average mpg readout on the dash (very hi tech in those days)

It was about 10% over optimistic when checking it with the brim to brim method so you could just deduct about 10% to get the true value.

I ran my car in gently by the book, had the oil changed at the 1st 500 miles (or was it 300, too long ago to be sure) as suggested. didn't go over 3,500 rpm until after it had 1500 +  miles on the clock etc.... He just drove his like he'd stolen it from virtually the 1st week. We got chatting about the cars many months later and he said he was getting about 25mpg average. I was seeing 35mpg easily. We reset the average and I got him to follow me on a nice local twisty route giving it a bit of stick through the gears for about 25 miles (happy days when there was very little traffic on the roads) At the end he was seeing around 20mpg I was still over 30. Thinking it might just be the way he was driving (despite being about 100 yards behind me all the way) we swapped cars and went back the other way, my car was still doing 10mpg more with him driving it.

Might have nothing to do with the way the cars were treated at the beginning of their life but since that day I've always been careful during the run-in period.

[Daggerit]

To be honest I don't drive it that hard 90% of the time so the break in period was like normal driving for me for the most part.  Most of the driving was varied speed with no long stretches at a constant speed/rpm, I made sure I didn't let it bog down under 1,500 rpm and I didn't go over 3-3,500 rpm for the first 1000 miles, so I think that's pretty much in line with the break in procedure?

Hardly the end of the world but it's a little annoying when I see people with significantly higher values than me since I bought the car to be more frugal than the S4 on the daily commute.  I'll just live with it and fingers crossed it improves as I put more miles on it.

[tef89]

Hi Dan.  I think you have to be careful of comparing MPG on forums as you just don't know the reality of other peoples true driving habits.  It's often quite subjective.

I've had my 125 MK8 for a year and its true average MPG for town / short journeys driving is 40-42MPG.  This is driven what I would consider 'normally' - i.e not really being overly sedate but not gunning it either.  I'm happy with that because it's better than I've got in another car I've had.

I really think the fact that your commute is 9 miles and the car barely has chance to warm up means that 40 MPG isn't beyond what I would expect.  Also ambient temperature makes a big difference too.  In previous cars I've seen a drop of 4-5 MPG in all but the warmest months.  I mention this because I see you're in mighty Scotland 😎 .  Hills can even make a big difference, especially in a car that relies so much on being in the right gear etc.

I can generate around 56 MPG on purely motorway at 65-70 MPH which beats my previous A3 by nearly 10 MPG.

Short journeys will always skew your MPG results to a lower scale in comparison.