>I have some questions, and I have read the manual but
>it's not the most helpful of things (keeps telling me I
>can set things via the convenience menu which I don't have
>because I didn't spec the multi display computer sat nav doodah).
If you don't have the "highline" computer (big full sized display between speedo & rev counter) you can't do these fancy things. If you ordered the car from the factory it would have been a £45 option.
>Rain sensing wipers - shouldn't they just work when it rains,
>even if the lever is in the off position? They don't
>seem to - do I have to switch them on at
>the first sign of rain and then leave them to sense
>how much wiping should be done?
No, the first wiper position (not OFF) is the rain-sensing position. You also have a sensitivity control. The next two positions are constant speeds.
>Automatic lights - They come on fine when there's a patch
>of shade or I drive into a carpark, but they seem
>to take ages to go off again. Is that normal?
This is normal, better that than then coming on and off too quickly. Remember you can turn the lights completely off or operate manually yourself.
>Wing mirrors/reversing - apparently the mirrors are meant to tilt down
>when you put the car into reverse, to allow you to
>see the kerb. Only the left hand mirror seems to do
>this, and only if you set the mirror knob to L
>before engaging reverse. The right hand mirror wont do it at
>all, even if the knob is in R. Is that right?
>This is the one that's really confusing me at the moment!
You;ve got me confused here. I thought the auto-dipping mirror was dropped. It never in fact made it onto the car, not sure why.
If they have introduced it, only the left one will dip. It is for reverse parallel parking so you can see how close you are to the kerb. The right won't work as you are meant to look over your shoulder on that side, I think.
> Wing mirrors/adjustment - on Polo, the knob has L, O and
>R. If in L or R, you adjust the mirrors independently,
>but if in O you can adjust them both at the
>same time. The Golf doesn't seem to do this - is
>there no way of adjusting both mirrors at the same time?
Yes, in the R position it will adjust both. In L it will only do the left. Set using R and then fine-tune the left using L. The middle position turns on the mirror heaters.
>Stereo - how do I mute it so that it goes
>to a low volume but doesn't switch off. Polo has this
>but the Golf only seems to have on and off.
Turn the volume knob down, that's the only way I think.
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>>Turn the volume knob down, that's the only way I think.>>
If you have the Gamma ICE equipment you can set the volume control to the level you wish it to be in normal use and use the GALA feature in the Set-Up menu to adjust the volume in proportion to the road speed.
Again, by using the ONVOL feature, you can override the default last setting for volume on switch-on to the level you prefer; TAVOL can be used to set the volume level for traffic information reports.
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My old 306 had its AUTO setting on the wipers in place of intermittent! Never before have I hated a "gadget" on a car so much.
Flick wipe got a lot of use.
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If you leave the wiper stalk on intermittent it won't activate if it's raining and you start the car. If you leave it long enough it will activate eventually - I've left it on inadvertantly a few times and when they do start it startles you.
In my view they are great. On motorways when it's rained heavily, then stopped but spray is still an issue the wipers have a long time between sweeps when traffic is quiet, but go to overtake a wagon kicking out gallons of spray and they go to full speed at the blink of an eye.
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The left hand mirror, according to the latest 2006 catalogue should 'look' downwards when you engage reverse, this is a 'new' standard feature.
The auto-dipping mirrors (anti-dazzle) used to be on both passenger and drivers door as an extra. But from mid 2006 this was changed, and was only applied to the drivers door and it is activated in conjunction with the auto-dipping interior mirror (if that's in the spec you have)
I ordered my GT in March 2006 and received it in May and although I had asked for the 'basic' folding mirrors to be fitted I have noticed that I have also been given the auto-dipping mirror on the drivers side my mistake.
The other features work as described above.
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Thank you all!
Yes - got there in the end. Discovered last night that the left hand mirror dips when you go into reverse, while the right hand one dips when the auto dimming rear view mirror springs into life. I also discovered the little lights in the wing mirrors so that you don't land in any puddles when you get out of the car in the dark. I've even sorted the wipers out and figured out how to change both mirrors at once (whoever said you then need to fine tune the left one, you are right).
I think I might be just a little bit in love with Gunther now :)
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I also discovered the little lights in the wing mirrors....
Hasn't VW started fitting the mirrors to the doors yet like other manufacturers did several years ago ;o)
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Thank you all! Yes - got there in the end. Discovered last night that the left hand mirror dips when you go into reverse, while the right hand one dips when the auto dimming rear view mirror springs into life. I also discovered the little lights in the wing mirrors so that you don't land in any puddles when you get out of the car in the dark. I've even sorted the wipers out and figured out how to change both mirrors at once (whoever said you then need to fine tune the left one, you are right).
When you say dip, do you mean the mirror changes angle and points down to the ground?
If that is what you mean, I cannot see the relevance of it only doing this when your auto-dimming (stops car lights blinding you at night) rear view mirror is in operation!!!
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Glad you're getting there. 15 months and 44k miles later, I'm still well pleased with my 105TDi SE (any jokes along the lines that it should be called 'Grunter' will show someone hasn't actually lived with one!). Kenl and Daveyjp' posts mirror my experience.
As you have the wing-mirror puddle lights, I assume (even with the constant spec fiddling) that you have the 'see you home' lighting; if, having locked the car, you want to turn the lights off immediately, unlock and relock the car (saves the 'Hey, mate, you've left your lights on' when parking at the supermarket...)
Also, the sunvisors, when swivelled to the side, can be slid out to extend along the door (that is hidden in the manual, though I missed it on initial reading).
Enjoy!
JohnM
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The left hand mirror, according to the latest 2006 catalogue should 'look' downwards when you engage reverse, this is a 'new' standard feature.
The manual for my 2004 mkV Golf says it should do this but it can't. People on the uk-mkIV forum asked dealers if it could be enabled but were told it couldn't.
I'm glad to see that this is now provided on the car, a very useful feature for parking to avoid alloy damage - I usually do it manually when parking.
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An auto dipping when in reverse left hand mirror is useless when parking where there are no kerbs though instead other cars, a lampost, a shopping trolley, a wastbin, a wall etc etc, i.e. a feature with rather dubious value.
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feature with rather dubious value
What rubbish.
Its a feature that doesnt have to be activated unless you move the mirror control in to the left position before engaging reverse.But if like me you park 70% of the time near a kerb then it comes in very handy as i always lower my mirror for parking.
So car park Dont activate,Kerb parking do activate,thats good in my book.
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Any gadget is fine with me as long as it can be switched off or disabled.
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feature with rather dubious value What rubbish. Its a feature that doesnt have to be activated unless you move the mirror control in to the left position before engaging reverse.But if like me you park 70% of the time near a kerb then it comes in very handy as i always lower my mirror for parking. So car park Dont activate,Kerb parking do activate,thats good in my book.
Fair enough, my basic point is that it a farly obscure feature that would be well down the list of priorities for me.
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>>a farly obscure feature that would be well down the list of priorities for me>>
I'm with you on this one.
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If you don't have this wing mirror dipping in reverse malarkey but would like it, there may be a way around it.
If your car has a seat position memory that also moves the mirrors, you're in business.
Set seat position 1 as you normally would for driving. Then adjust the mirror(s) downwards. Don't move the seat, but just program ytour current settings into seat memory postion 2.
Now all you do is flip between those two seat memories when reversing and the mirror(s) will dip.
Useless if you actually want to use two different seat postions because you have two regular drivers of course, although even then some cars have more than two seat memories so you can use position three or four for this.
Just a thought.
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All this complexity is fine until it goes wrong and imagine what the future owner of your car will find when say, in ten years time he/she buys a car where these things have started to give trouble.
I think we all like these luxuries in our new cars but, personally, I'm glad that I can pass it on to someone else to experience these problems of failure when they inevitably develop in years to come.
My new Golf has some of these gizmos but thankfully did not get the auto lights and auto wipers as I'd expected when I had placed my order. VW are always changing there specs. and confusing both customer and dealer.
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I think we all like these luxuries in our new cars but, personally, I'm glad that I can pass it on to someone else to experience these problems of failure when they inevitably develop in years to come.
totally agree with that one, most of today's cars will eventuallly get scrapped when the technoloogy is too expensive to repair, not when anything mechanical or structural wears out.
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Oldgit, I hope you got a good reduction in the price you were paying if these items were missing when your car was delivered, because they only come as an optional extra or on the higher spec Golfs.
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VW have been changing specs so frequentley ( on silly little features) that the dealers dont know whats happening.
I know of one Touran where the dealer tried twice to fix a feature that it turns out had been deleted from the build spec.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It's very complicated and over 18 months ago now and my memory has faded somewhat. Suffice it to say that at the time of ordering, the multifunctional computer, that I wanted, was an optional extra at some £125 and so the items, that I assumed were going to be part of the SE pack (then Oct 2004), were removed, during the period I was waiting for delivery, and became part of what was called a "Convenience Pack". At the very same time, the computer became standard fit but in other respects I wasn't offered any rebate.
Of course, by the time I'd found out this information, it was too late to change my order and have the convenience pack, without causing massive delays which I could not entertain, for reasons I won't go into here.
So eventually just before Christmas 2004 in December, my car was delivered minus Auto headights, Self-dimming interior mirror and Auto Wipers and one or two other things, I think. As I said, in retrospect, I'm somewhat glad that I did not have some of these as they can prove to be a bit of a pain in the neck - at least I had the computer.
The trouble is that VW or VAG in general (and there may be other makes) keep messing around with their specifications, which I supposed they're entitled so to do, except that it does leave the customer somewhat confused as to what they are actually going to end up with. Additionally, my dealer, in retrospect did not seem to bother to keep me informed at any stage during the 10 weeks and it was myself and the internet which discovered these inconsistencies and changes, and newer brochures were equally in error with their information.
However, all that aside, I have got an excellent car which really surpasses anything that I have previously owned in terms of perceived quality and sheer joy of driving and with excellent economy into the bargain getting consistently over 40mpg with 98RON petrol from the 1.6FSI engine.
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If you don't have this wing mirror dipping in reverse malarkey but would like it, there may be a way around it. If your car has a seat position memory that also moves the mirrors, you're in business. etc...
Exactly what I posted in another thread a week or two back, and exactly what I've done with my V70 for the past three years!
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>>unless you move the mirror control in to the left position before engaging reverse>>
It must be quite a recent feature.
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