Recent Lurker...2 day owner...2006 polo gti speedo issue...

[LukeFarrugia]

Gday guys,

Firstly thanks for the great community of VW owners and enthusiasts. It's helped an incredible amount in getting into a 2006 gti as of Saturday.

Digging the car incredibly and have now wondered why its taken 12 years to get firstly into a euro car and the gti class of it.

Looking forward to one day knowing enough about the car to be able to offer advice however got a question re the speedo on my gti.

Seems it is 5-7 km slower than the actual speed (according to a gps unit). Though I understand most cars have a small leeway I'm wondering if this amount is typical in the polo gti.

Do I...
a. put up with it, stop my complaining and compensate by just not letting anything overtake me
b. take it to a dealer to sort out? cost?
c. buy bigger wheels which will fix a small amount of those lost kms?

Obviously I don't like the idea of a.

Thanks again

Luke

[Smead]

At least you wont get done for speeding

Seriously mine has them same issue to a certain extent.

I just use option a.

[vwthunder]

Yeah I know most later model VW's are like that

No big deal, I think most peoples speedos are out a little, as when i drive off my GPS, I seem to pass everyone

Just drive off GPS ,as it is known to be more accurate

[Blitzen]

Yep... On stock 16's, mine used to read 9km/h under indicated... Now with 18's I read 3km/h under...

[LukeFarrugia]

Seems GPS it is lol
Time to cut out a hole in my dash. I wonder if they do gps units to match tartan.

Here I was thinking that German engineering was the ants pants. Was a horrible discovery. It makes even less sense in the sports version where people are most concerned/excited about speed to have an inaccurate speedo.

It's like telling a 100meter sprinter its 'roughly' 100 metres.

I'll suck it up and just enjoy my first 'slow' ticket hehe

[LukeFarrugia]

while i'm on it...why is there no 90km/h on the speedo? The 100km is where the 90 should be. Seriously considering designing up a new speedo plate for the gti. Is it possible to pull it apart? Why isn't this a customisable option.

Interesting times.

[Blitzen]

I'm not sure why you would bother... The design of the car is 10 years old now... The dash assembly is a single piece, so you risk breaking it to pull it apart, but that's up to you. I haven't had any dramas reading the dash...

[flat6]

Mine's around 8 - 9k's out as well, just compensate by goin 5k over on the freeways and you'll be fine, its a good thing for lead foots

[insanekiwi]

This is a norm. This depends on the brand of the car also. I just drive at 110km/h on speedo. Problem solved.
Another way to reduce this is to get 215/45/16 tyres - this will reduce it to probably around 5km/h or so.

[Tarq57]

Mine over-reads by about 6 or 7 k's also. It's a PITA.

That it's the only annoyance in the car (apart from a yet to be located rattle somewhere on the left side) speaks volumes about the good qualities of the vehicle.

I think it would look good on 18's, and that's something I'll seriously think about when the tyres are getting close to worn out.

(Anybody know what the source of a buzzy-rattle somewhere near the left seatbelt upper point might be?)

[GTI_PAPA]

When I first purchased my car, was in at the dealers and overheard a discussion between a nice fella who just purchased a Toureg and the service advisor. He mentioned that on his recent trip to Sydney, both speedo and odo were out considerably compared to GPS. Before he could finish, the service guy said, "VW accepted variations are 10% speedo and 20% odo." I was gobsmacked hearing this, and the owner went on to say, "So at 120 000k's, my car has really only done 100 000? That's a big difference." The service guy just fobbed him off leaving him quite upset.

Is this statement true? Maybe if it was +/-5% speedo & +/-10% odo I would be a little less concerned...

[sssstew]

while i'm on it...why is there no 90km/h on the speedo? The 100km is where the 90 should be. Seriously considering designing up a new speedo plate for the gti. Is it possible to pull it apart? Why isn't this a customisable option.

Interesting times.

yes that change in the speedo gaps after 80kph can seem confusing, dont know why they did that.

[walkerchan]

I also found it weird that there is no 90. I find it hard to stay at 80km just because it moves so little I brush it off as a km or two haha. Also it's that nice rev range at cruise.

As most of the cars I have driven are vw I'm used to the ~7% difference on all of them. Hard when sitting my test as was aclimatized to chilling At 63 and 106. Expect it aswell as vw seem to be into taking care of us by design. Always seem to design in a way that the speedo is under reading, bulbs are quite dim but still penetrates along with headlights that are pointed low unlike every Holden and ford that has one of their lights illuminating the sky and my face

[Tarq57]

I also found it weird that there is no 90. I find it hard to stay at 80km just because it moves so little I brush it off as a km or two haha. Also it's that nice rev range at cruise.

I find it hard to stay at 80 because the car feels and sounds so much happier at about 130. Shame we're not allowed to do that, here. Still, one can dream....

[pologti18t]

Why is it unusual not to have a 90km/h on the speedo?

The speedo accuracy has been done to death. The odometer is alot more accurate than the speedo as well (and yes I have checked it)