although try it switched off on a dry day if i were you if youre not used to it 
Why the caution????
In days of old, when drivers were bold - and drove rear-wheel drive heaps of shyte like V6 3 litre Capris or 2 litre BDA Escorts, or 2 litre Twin Cam Fiats (OK, the Fiats actually did handle very well) - without ANY electronic driver aids. The Mk5 Golf has a massively better balanced chassis - and is increadibly neutral - for any even reasonably competent driver, there is absolutely no need for said driver aids!
yes, but the current generation of cars rely heavily on technology and take the raw out of the equation, so rather than evolving with a car newer drivers have been birthed into cars with electronic assistance.
That is very misleading. Take the VWAG A4 chassis - as used on Mk4 Golf, original Audi TT, original Audi A3, original Skoda Octavia, etc - this categorically was NOT designed to use ESP. All those examples did NOT have ESP when first launched, yet many (the TT being the most prominent example) gained ESP as the years progressed - yet the suspension geometery remained the same.
Now I fully conceed that all A5 platform users (Mk5 Golf, TT2, etc) have nigh-on all mainly been available with only ESP (actually, some early poverty spec Mk5 Golfs didn't get ESP) - the chassis is still fundamentally designed to cope without any ESP. Try and get hold of a Mk5 1.9 SDI Golf, with OEM-spec banana-skin Matador tyres, turn off the ESP, and you will soon realise just how neutral the Mk5 chassis is
nothing about being bold, nothing to do with capri's, nothing about being a better neutral chassis etc etc 
Of course it does. ESP can NOT change the fundamental laws of physics. The Mk5 is a superb chassis, and definately does not
need ESP. Yet other modern equivalents, say the current Astra chassis (which is fundamentally a 20+ year old design), and is generally quite poor, does actually benefit from ESP.
more to do with alien environment/experience and reliance on what a person has become used to.
You are right there.
not saying they cant cope with it, more that they should dip there toe in the pool before swimming in, absolutely the right advice to give someone!
a chance to learn what the car does and doesnt do on your behalf first. a drier day is safer than a wet day with the traction off if someone has never tried it. that is fact. particularly if they try to drive the car hard identically to the way they do with the traction on
But that has more to do with the general trend for a very low 'base level' of driving. How many drivers who passed their test in say the last 20 years know how to cadence brake, or heel and toe, or even how to give a hand signal for slowing down. You only have to see just how much 'numptieness' occurs when the white stuff falls on our roads.
unless you potentially want someone sliding off a roundabout or finishing in a hedge on a B road?
If someone is enough of a tw@t to slide off a roundabout or find a hedge, ESP won't stop them - all ESP will do is make it happen at a higher speed.
this isnt a dick measuring contest dude
I know - I agree.
(this reads harsh, not meant to be TT )
No worries, I'm sure I've been in that particular scenario!
