VW e-Golf

[NeilBlanchard]

We actually fit more comfortably in the e-Golf, because of the deeper foot wells in the back seat. It is lower, and a little harder to get in and out. The tilt and telescoping e-Golf steering wheel is better than the tilt alone on the Leaf.

The Leaf has a heated steering wheel, which is awesome, and the rear seat is also heated. The e-Golf lacks those two features, and has heated front seats, only.

We have the Leaf S (base model) and the e-Golf is the loaded version, so many features are not comparable; like the heater or the stereo. I think the navigation in the Golf is weak - I tried to use it to go to a big street in Waltham MA, and I could not enter the street number, and I had to choose between two different zip codes - I have no idea which zip code I was going to, so the resulting guidance was almost useless.

I dislike the parking sensors. I hate the HVAC resetting to 72F every time I start the e-Golf after a longer pause. The direct heating defroster is a great idea, but it is anemic, and the tiny wires are slightly distracting at night, and when you are looking into the sun at a low angle, you can sometimes see little "rainbows" refractions.

I hope they can get it to provide more heat, and then it would be fine. I had a small amount of frost on the inside of the windshield, and the direct heating defroster barely began to melt it, and I had to use the air defroster; which melted it easily. If they did what Ford did (in the 1970's and 1980's) and use a molecule thickness of gold on the glass, they would avoid the minor issues with the wires. The Ford implementation was nearly instant, as I understand it.

The fit and finish on the e-Golf is great, while the Leaf is less than great. Full disclosure: we had a leak in the top center of the Leaf's windshield, and the dealer had to replace the windshield.

I really like the Leaf for several reasons related to charging: the 3 blue lights on the center of the dash are great, and the e-Golf has only a tiny little green light that you have to be a few feet away from the car to see. The location of the charging port is much better on the Leaf. And the Leaf has an illumination LED in the charging port, so you can see the plug in the dark. Oh, and the Leaf has an optional charging lock, while the e-Golf has one you cannot shut off.

I like drive both cars. The e-Golf wins because of the coasting and 4 levels of regen controlled with the "shifter". It also is better because of the lack of creep, and a bit smoother accelerator, and much smoother braking transition between regen and the friction brakes.

A minor point: the low speed noise maker on the e-Golf is less annoying (in particular to my spouse who has very sensitive high frequency hearing); but I wish neither car had this.

[redpoint5]

Like you, I dislike creep and the auto-regen when the accelerator is released on my Prius. All it takes is programming. They should be user selected options. I tweaked a few settings on the Prius last night with Techstream and a mini-VCI cable. No more annoying seat belt warning; the wife usually takes 30 seconds to buckle up, meanwhile the car is trying to drill through my skull with a high-pitched tone.

[Piotrsko]

Have you tried to change things with VAG-COM yet? On regular VW's there is a gob of user changeable functions tgat are hidden to even the dealer ( not really a suprise there)

[NeilBlanchard]

I am leasing the car, so I am not going to be hacking into software. I am hoping to get VW to do it; as there are a number of people on the MyVWeGolf.com who want the same thing. And some of them have also written to VW, so maybe if enough people ask, they will respond?

[Piotrsko]

Has not been our experience over on the VW TDI forum. Btw vagcom just changes settings held in ram and is what VW uses to alter user settings like tire size.

[NeilBlanchard]

I realized the other day, that the e-Golf does have creep - it is adaptive creep. Meaning that when you stop on level ground and then release the brake - nothing happens. If you then lightly press the accelerator (say you're in stop and go traffic), the car then creeps at the speed at which you lift your foot back off the accelerator.

I like it - it works nicely. It also seems to have a moderate hold function, when you are driving up hill from a stop.

[NeilBlanchard]

I have now had 1 month of gas-free driving! The e-Golf is a pleasure to drive, in almost every way. There are a few niggles, but overall I cannot complain.

I found this picture of the e-Golf battery pack, which is actually a lot like the Leaf's layout:



I am going to drive the e-Golf up to near Concord NH Saturday, which is about 68 miles on the highway, and about 62.5 miles on slower highways, and I'll charge it at a Chargepoint station, and get a ride the last couple of miles to my meeting. The car will easily be charged back up by the time I need to come back home.

So, that will be a fair bit of driving in one day.

[NeilBlanchard]

On a recent charge on the e-Golf, I went 96 miles with ~13 miles left, and it used 21.4kWh for a new best of just under 223Wh/mile or ~151MPGe. This is the longest distance on a single charge, so far, and the lowest consumption in the e-Golf, so far.

Interestingly, this is slightly less efficient than the Leaf - I think the e-Golf's Continental tires are not as good coasting as the Nokian Hakka R2's the Leaf has.

[Piotrsko]

There is a whole school of thought over on the TDI forums on how dirty the Golf is compared to the jetta because of the hatch configuration. I agree because that @\"&*#@ hatch gets dirty fast on long dry trips. I think some aero mods are in order. Foam and blue tape anybody?

The stock Conti's suck. I ran mine for 300 miles then replaced them for that happy traction grin.

[NeilBlanchard]

I am tempted to replace the tires with some all-weather Nokian WRG3 (205/55 R16).

I have had terrible luck, by the way, with the right rear tire - literally the first actual drive in the car after bringing it home from the dealer, it got punctured and went flat in about 15 minutes. That got plugged, but still had a slow leak. Then my spouse got another nail in the same tire, and I had to replace it because of the damage on the inside of the sidewalls, from the first puncture. I had to get a similar model Continental, as the OEM tire is only available at the dealer.