04-27-2015, 12:18 PM
Poor Ken, I've been trying to find someone interested in his car, it's a great buy for what it is.
I've managed to figure out exactly what all the "drive mode" settings do.
Steering: Normal vs. Sport dramatically reduces the amount of power steering assistance, so there's more effort required to turn it and makes it feel more sporty. To me, sport feels great and is what I would consider "normal". Normal mode makes the wheel feel like it's not connected to anything. The ratio doesn't change or anything, so it's probably going to stay in sport indefinitely.
Engine: Normal vs. Sport quickens the throttle response and also turns on the "Soundaktor." Yes, this car suffers from fakeenginesounditis. I don't love that it's completely fabricated, up to 2010 they used an actual "noise pipe" to route some intake noise into the cabin. I feel like they could've added a simple flapper to the pipe to let the driver control it, but the little speaker box is probably cheaper and more reliable. *Shrug* If you can manage to keep your purist-panties out of a bunch, the fake engine sounds do sound pretty cool, especially dipping into the throttle around 2500rpms. The people it keeps up at night find the module and disconnect it.
Front Lighting: We thought this was supposed to turn the tach red or some stupid shit like that on the way home from the dealership Saturday, but it actually does serve a purpose, it lets you choose how quickly the automatic swiveling headlights respond. I can't imagine why I'd want them to respond slower, so that's something that will probably stay in sport all the time too.
Trans: The transmission has it's own sport mode, and if Sport or Individual are selected on the screen with the shifter in "D", the trans will default into Sport. Like the MKV, they seem to have had a ski party immediately before defining the requirements of "Sport" mode, and as such it turns the car into a crazy eyed meth head the second you click into it. I'm trying to stay under 4k for the next 400 miles so I haven't really played with it yet, but I hope they made it a little smarter than just "the lowest gear possible no matter what". Regardless, I'm going to see if having it default into sport can be changed via VAG COM, because it's annoying.
It would be nice to have a Sport mode that changed gears around 2500-3k when under light throttle, just so the motor was more responsive if you did dip into the pedal, instead of wringing itself out to 5500rpms at 2% throttle and just sitting there indefinitely, or changing up at 1800rpms in D. Oh well, that's why it has flappy paddles.
I've managed to figure out exactly what all the "drive mode" settings do.
Steering: Normal vs. Sport dramatically reduces the amount of power steering assistance, so there's more effort required to turn it and makes it feel more sporty. To me, sport feels great and is what I would consider "normal". Normal mode makes the wheel feel like it's not connected to anything. The ratio doesn't change or anything, so it's probably going to stay in sport indefinitely.
Engine: Normal vs. Sport quickens the throttle response and also turns on the "Soundaktor." Yes, this car suffers from fakeenginesounditis. I don't love that it's completely fabricated, up to 2010 they used an actual "noise pipe" to route some intake noise into the cabin. I feel like they could've added a simple flapper to the pipe to let the driver control it, but the little speaker box is probably cheaper and more reliable. *Shrug* If you can manage to keep your purist-panties out of a bunch, the fake engine sounds do sound pretty cool, especially dipping into the throttle around 2500rpms. The people it keeps up at night find the module and disconnect it.
Front Lighting: We thought this was supposed to turn the tach red or some stupid shit like that on the way home from the dealership Saturday, but it actually does serve a purpose, it lets you choose how quickly the automatic swiveling headlights respond. I can't imagine why I'd want them to respond slower, so that's something that will probably stay in sport all the time too.
Trans: The transmission has it's own sport mode, and if Sport or Individual are selected on the screen with the shifter in "D", the trans will default into Sport. Like the MKV, they seem to have had a ski party immediately before defining the requirements of "Sport" mode, and as such it turns the car into a crazy eyed meth head the second you click into it. I'm trying to stay under 4k for the next 400 miles so I haven't really played with it yet, but I hope they made it a little smarter than just "the lowest gear possible no matter what". Regardless, I'm going to see if having it default into sport can be changed via VAG COM, because it's annoying.
It would be nice to have a Sport mode that changed gears around 2500-3k when under light throttle, just so the motor was more responsive if you did dip into the pedal, instead of wringing itself out to 5500rpms at 2% throttle and just sitting there indefinitely, or changing up at 1800rpms in D. Oh well, that's why it has flappy paddles.
Now: 07 Porsche Cayman S | 18 VW Tiguan
Then: 18 VW GTI Autobahn | 95 BMW M3 | 15 VW GTI SE | 12 Kia Optima SX | 2009 VW GTI | 00 BMW 540i Sport | 90 Mazda Miata | 94 Yamaha FZR600R | 1993 Suzuki GS500E | 2003 BMW 325i | 95 Saab 900S