Mk7 Golf TSI & TDI - Observations and Questions

[AdamD]

Can anyone comment on the Highline leather seats in the Golf 7 vs. the leather seats on the mark 6 comfortline?

I believe it's all the same Vienna leather trim. The seats themselves have changed a little, but I don't think the ratio of leather to synthetic has changed much, or the overall grade of the leather.

[veew]

I've been in contact , via numerous emails, with Customer Care regarding Traffic Programming/TMC. The official statement is this is not a feature available for the Australian market. I mentioned there have been a number of MY14 Golfs delivered with the feature functioning. This was their response:

".. Further to this the product team have advised that a number of Golf and Golf Wagon models equipped with the Discover Media satellite navigation system have been receiving TMC (Traffic Message Channel).
We are not intended to receive this information as we do not offer this service as part of our product offering to date. Therefore TMC is not an advertised featured and will not be permanent. This service will be deactivated at a moment’s notice."

I hope they don't mean they're going to have the feature shut down (with the touch of a button?) for those who have it functioning already. It is reassuring to know that it can be activated by VCDS so I hope ppl still update how theirs is going over the next few weeks!

[kennyc]

I hope they don't mean they're going to have the feature shut down (with the touch of a button?) for those who have it functioning already. It is reassuring to know that it can be activated by VCDS so I hope ppl still update how theirs is going over the next few weeks!

I hope your emails don't cause mine to stop working!

[veew]

Yeah I know, I'm hoping it doesn't! If it does, it goes to show VWA just don't give a f*ck about their customers and don't care about improving their ownership experiences further than they "need" to.

[Jimi]

If it stops working for me at the next service it will demonstrate that VW are willfully removing functionality that clearly does not cost them anything at the margin (in fact they are spending money by employing someone to remove it).

The fact that these media units have these buttons (I'm referring to the Voice one too) is a clear enough representation under consumer law in my mind that the units have this functionality. I don't think VWA is really protected if they simply say 'it's not available in this market' (in the case of Voice) however this would not apply anyway if they remove previously-working functionality like Traffic.

I honestly believe that if you instruct them not to change functionality at service time and only perform essential updates, they have no basis to tweak anything else (i.e. remove Traffic).

[lambertia]

I'm not sure if it's true but my dealer said that vw need to pay a $50 licence fee for the traffic. And thus they disable it.

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[flight]

I'm not sure if it's true but my dealer said that vw need to pay a $50 licence fee for the traffic. And thus they disable it.

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That sounds like absolute rubbish to me. Car dealers like to make up their own rules on the fly.

[wasabiz]

I'm not sure if it's true but my dealer said that vw need to pay a $50 licence fee for the traffic. And thus they disable it.

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Errr 50 dollars for lisence fee, I'd be more than glad to pay it if I can get that feature rather than get an incomplete car.

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[flight]

Errr 50 dollars for lisence fee, I'd be more than glad to pay it if I can get that feature rather than get an incomplete car.

Why would you want to pay $50 for something you have already got?

[Dutch77]

I have no idea what the licence fees to SUNA are, but it may be $50 per vehicle.

Why VW aren't paying this and incorporating it into Australian spec models is beyond me - given Suzuki and Hyundai can offer it on certain models, and other VAG brands such as Audi and Porsche also do. I assume as a result they are forced to disable it so as not to breach legal requirements. Obviously there are ways around this, but software updates from VW may again disable it.

[wasabiz]

Why would you want to pay $50 for something you have already got?

Well, if it saves me from the trouble of fighting with them and having the feature kept in there on service. Why not. I'm a lazy guy hahaha

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[DV52]

I have no idea what the licence fees to SUNA are, but it may be $50 per vehicle.


Why VW aren't paying this and incorporating it into Australian spec models is beyond me - given Suzuki and Hyundai can offer it on certain models, and other VAG brands such as Audi and Porsche also do. I assume as a result they are forced to disable it so as not to breach legal requirements. Obviously there are ways around this, but software updates from VW may again disable it.

Dutch77:
Like many of the other responses here, I also think that the advice that flight's dealer gave him (her?) is absolute rubbish (whether applied per car, or per car-per year, or as a total fee). no disrespect intended to flight

On a totally different tack, it might just be that VW's decision to omit TMC on the Golf mkVII is more about product differentiation. That is, VW might want to "reserve" this feature in Australia for their more prestigious cars (i.e. Audi/Porsche). VW's thinking might be that if they allow TMC on the Golf, it will "de-value" their more expensive cars. I'm not saying that I agree, but I've found that VW's optioning policy on cars (especially in Australia) is a stange and mystical thing! In the end though, I agree with your hypothesis that ultimately the market and the practices of VW's competitors will prevail!

As to VW disabling TMC at the next service, isn't it just a matter of re-doing the VCDS tweak (which ain't hard- if you have a cable, or if you have access to someone that has a cable, or if you join a forum like VWW)?

[flight]

Dutch77:
Like many of the other responses here, I also think that the advice that flight's dealer gave him (her?) is absolute rubbish (whether applied per car, or per car-per year, or as a total fee). no disrespect intended to flight

A point of clarification for you DV52: The dealer quote was supplied by Lambertia. My response to that quote was in complete agreement with you. Lambertia's dealer was inventing a licence fee on the run or just spouting nonsense.

Also, fyi flight is very definitely male.

MY new Golf TDI should reach me within two weeks. Whoo Hooo!

[Lupo]

What if it is not a case of VW disabling traffic updates but rather the supplier doing it. Based on veew's correspondance with Customer Care it looks like VW and the supplier - SUNA? - don't have a service contract and once SUNA has enough of supplying free traffic updates, they might disable the code all together.

[Dutch77]

I'm certainly not suggesting lambertia's dealer was correct, but a quick read of SUNA's website indicates licensing agreements and they obviously need to generate income from somewhere.