Thanks for all the comments. I’ve had it just coming up to 3-months now and covered about 2000 miles. I’ve only taken it into the office a handful of times, most of that has been on weekend adventures. It’s been to various car shows, a couple of PistonHeads Sunday Services and up Santa Pod. Hoping to take it to the Nürburgring next!
It is at its best either as a relaxing GT Cruiser on the motorway or been hustled along the back roads. The Quattro really comes into its own in the latter and allows you to take corners at speeds I wouldn’t dare in the Golf. In case of the former it is extremely comfortable to travel in and very refined with the V8 just purring away in the background. Where it’s not so good is for town driving, as it’s just a little too heavy and not quite responsive enough at low speeds to really enjoy.
In terms of modifications I’ve mainly been concentrating on tidying it up a little, replaced a couple of trims and changed various fluids along with the odd VCDS tweak. Unlike the Golfs I haven’t really felt the urge to retrofit anything to this as it’s so generously equipped to start with. The exhausts do seem a very popular mod on these and would make certainly make it sound even more awesome! However, I’d worry it would take away from its subtleness/ Q-car ability and possibly restrict the resale market.
Sadly I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be keeping it as I can’t really justify running this alongside the GTD permanently. Due to the miles I cover I need the sensible diesel for work. So I’m toying with the idea of moving this on and then replacing my GTD with the new A5 when it launches next year. That in 3.0 TDI 290 Quattro Tiptronic form could be the ultimate of both worlds...
