high_glove_side
Well-Known Member
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- #1
Got to test drive a GT w/ the performance pack today, not exactly as I'd have outfitted it, but close enough to give me a good idea of what's in store. Comparisons with cars we own, or have owned recently, as apples / oranges as they might be, are all I really have to go on.... so, random thoughts ahead:
-The Coyote is the star of this particular show, and as I'll explain below, the car has way more motor than chassis. Tons of grunt and steady pull pretty much everywhere. Throttle response was actually better than I expected.. crisp with no real delay...again, far better than our '11 GTI which has a very vague pedal response until you're about 1/3rd throttle.
-The brakes are absolutely phenomenal. The initial bite isn't quite as pronounced as the ones on the 135-M we owned a few years ago (which is a good thing), but once engaged, they're absurdly strong. As a recent other review said about them, they give you a great sense of confidence that you can push the car, and save your bacon if something goes wrong.
-Interior is really quite good. As a larger guy, I had zero issues, and didn't feel cramped in the slightest. Everything was right where I expected it.
-Sync 3 seems quite snappy. I didn't have time (or much concern) to play around with this much at all. This particular car had the full Shaker system, which sounded better than most factory stereo's I've been around.
-Clutch is a bit grabby, but easy to acclimate to.
-Shifter engagement is solid, but there was definitely a 'thunk' from 1st to 2nd that's been reported by plenty of other people. I didn't really mind this for whatever reason. It can be a bit easy to miss gears on downshift, for example going from 6th to 3rd when you actually wanted to hit 5th... again, a matter of seat time will solve this. The overall engagement is better than the 135 we had, though I can feel that there's room for improvement.
-The size of the car makes you feel like you're actually going way slower than you actually are, which isn't always a good thing
Despite expecting to feel that the front end was enormous, it didn't feel that big to me, and I had no problem adjusting quickly to this aspect of the car. I actually felt that the car looks a lot bigger on the outside than it actually feels when you're driving it, if that makes any sense.
-Steering was a bit less crisp than I'd like, but gave a bit more feedback directly through the wheel than our GTI does (but not nearly as much as my Prelude, for example. Again, apples / oranges).
-The cooled seats are... well, I couldn't feel anything. Having sat in the Recaro's in another GT, I'm 100% sure I'd go with those anyhow, so it's a non-issue.
-Saving the worst for last was actually the overall chassis / suspension itself. For something called a performance pack, this is a very squishy ride, to the point that I almost initially felt that we had a flat, or at least underinflated tire. To be fair, I should point out that a) there were 3 people in the car, and b) I was driving at a good clip on some rather tricky backroads... off camber sections, choppy asphalt, decreasing radius corners, etc... if any road was going to expose a cars weakness, it'd probably be this one. A different road with a different passenger load might shine a whole new light on things, but I couldn't really enter corners with the confidence I'd expect to have. Consistently the car felt very unsettled on corner entries. Mid-corner and exiting were much better, almost as if once the suspension is loaded, things become a lot more predictable and the car behaves as you'd expect.
As a prospective owner of this car, I don't find that to be much of a deterrent, as I expected going in that the car's handling might be the weak link, and solving that is likely to be fairly straightforward.
-The car is incredibly docile and smooth at speed on highways. I wasn't sure if I expected anything else in this department, but it does quite well in this regard.
Overall, I really enjoyed driving it. I wasn't *quite* as blown away by it as I thought I was going to be, but it's still the car I'll end up ordering in Q1 of 2016. It just needs some sorting. I can't wait. :clap2:
-The Coyote is the star of this particular show, and as I'll explain below, the car has way more motor than chassis. Tons of grunt and steady pull pretty much everywhere. Throttle response was actually better than I expected.. crisp with no real delay...again, far better than our '11 GTI which has a very vague pedal response until you're about 1/3rd throttle.
-The brakes are absolutely phenomenal. The initial bite isn't quite as pronounced as the ones on the 135-M we owned a few years ago (which is a good thing), but once engaged, they're absurdly strong. As a recent other review said about them, they give you a great sense of confidence that you can push the car, and save your bacon if something goes wrong.
-Interior is really quite good. As a larger guy, I had zero issues, and didn't feel cramped in the slightest. Everything was right where I expected it.
-Sync 3 seems quite snappy. I didn't have time (or much concern) to play around with this much at all. This particular car had the full Shaker system, which sounded better than most factory stereo's I've been around.
-Clutch is a bit grabby, but easy to acclimate to.
-Shifter engagement is solid, but there was definitely a 'thunk' from 1st to 2nd that's been reported by plenty of other people. I didn't really mind this for whatever reason. It can be a bit easy to miss gears on downshift, for example going from 6th to 3rd when you actually wanted to hit 5th... again, a matter of seat time will solve this. The overall engagement is better than the 135 we had, though I can feel that there's room for improvement.
-The size of the car makes you feel like you're actually going way slower than you actually are, which isn't always a good thing
Despite expecting to feel that the front end was enormous, it didn't feel that big to me, and I had no problem adjusting quickly to this aspect of the car. I actually felt that the car looks a lot bigger on the outside than it actually feels when you're driving it, if that makes any sense.-Steering was a bit less crisp than I'd like, but gave a bit more feedback directly through the wheel than our GTI does (but not nearly as much as my Prelude, for example. Again, apples / oranges).
-The cooled seats are... well, I couldn't feel anything. Having sat in the Recaro's in another GT, I'm 100% sure I'd go with those anyhow, so it's a non-issue.
-Saving the worst for last was actually the overall chassis / suspension itself. For something called a performance pack, this is a very squishy ride, to the point that I almost initially felt that we had a flat, or at least underinflated tire. To be fair, I should point out that a) there were 3 people in the car, and b) I was driving at a good clip on some rather tricky backroads... off camber sections, choppy asphalt, decreasing radius corners, etc... if any road was going to expose a cars weakness, it'd probably be this one. A different road with a different passenger load might shine a whole new light on things, but I couldn't really enter corners with the confidence I'd expect to have. Consistently the car felt very unsettled on corner entries. Mid-corner and exiting were much better, almost as if once the suspension is loaded, things become a lot more predictable and the car behaves as you'd expect.
As a prospective owner of this car, I don't find that to be much of a deterrent, as I expected going in that the car's handling might be the weak link, and solving that is likely to be fairly straightforward.
-The car is incredibly docile and smooth at speed on highways. I wasn't sure if I expected anything else in this department, but it does quite well in this regard.
Overall, I really enjoyed driving it. I wasn't *quite* as blown away by it as I thought I was going to be, but it's still the car I'll end up ordering in Q1 of 2016. It just needs some sorting. I can't wait. :clap2:
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