Good bad and ugly

gordie1973 · Oct 29, 2015

Ok, just for fun.......

I've had my Bitdi for around 8 weeks now, so here's a few thoughts......

Good; that engine, has to be the shining light! Bose sound system, sounds amazing with great depth of base. Steering is good (ok maybe a bit too light at low <20 mph speeds), loving the LEDs - turn night into day (and look cool!) and I can't believe I'm saying this - I love the heated steering wheel in the mornings. Oh, and the noise it makes in dynamic is superb. Mpg out of town easy 43-45 all day long, in town 25-30.

Bad: sorry but the kickdown on the gearbox is dreadful...... You need to pull into another lane and give it some beans, and if you don't have time to select sport or drop 2 gears manually, you are literally left in no mans land for what seems like an eternity....... Albeit 2 seconds...... As it drops 3 or 4 gears, has a think about the torque, spools up the turbos etc.... Which isn't a huge amount of time, but say that to whoever is in the outside lane barrelling towards you - ok once it all comes together it thunders off like a scalded cat, but I thought it would be a bit better than that. Maybe I should just leave it in sport and to hell with the mpg.!

I suppose the auto wipers are a bit hit and miss when it's drizzling.

Ugly: the fact I've kerbed Her twice. But I'll take that on the chin and treat her to a refurb in a few months.

All in all - if the gearbox wasn't a pain, I'd say it's the best car I've ever owned...... No actually, even with the gearbox, it's still the best.

D3mon · Oct 29, 2015

If you've the diamond-cut rotors, think about moving your refurb schedule up a little. I've just kerbed mine and have been advised that the 'white worm' effect can set in quickly this time of year where the clear is damaged on a diamond cut surface.

jojo · Oct 29, 2015

gordie1973 said:
Ok, just for fun.......

I've had my Bitdi for around 8 weeks now, so here's a few thoughts......

Good; that engine, has to be the shining light! Bose sound system, sounds amazing with great depth of base. Steering is good (ok maybe a bit too light at low <20 mph speeds), loving the LEDs - turn night into day (and look cool!) and I can't believe I'm saying this - I love the heated steering wheel in the mornings. Oh, and the noise it makes in dynamic is superb. Mpg out of town easy 43-45 all day long, in town 25-30.

Bad: sorry but the kickdown on the gearbox is dreadful...... You need to pull into another lane and give it some beans, and if you don't have time to select sport or drop 2 gears manually, you are literally left in no mans land for what seems like an eternity....... Albeit 2 seconds...... As it drops 3 or 4 gears, has a think about the torque, spools up the turbos etc.... Which isn't a huge amount of time, but say that to whoever is in the outside lane barrelling towards you - ok once it all comes together it thunders off like a scalded cat, but I thought it would be a bit better than that. Maybe I should just leave it in sport and to hell with the mpg.!

I suppose the auto wipers are a bit hit and miss when it's drizzling.

Ugly: the fact I've kerbed Her twice. But I'll take that on the chin and treat her to a refurb in a few months.

All in all - if the gearbox wasn't a pain, I'd say it's the best car I've ever owned...... No actually, even with the gearbox, it's still the best.

Not had the pleasure of kerbing the wheels, I hope I don't, I always park a mile away from kerbs!

But even just after one day of driving, I agree with all you have said about the engine and gearbox!

gordie1973 · Oct 29, 2015

These are the type I have - not sure if their diamond cut.

Oh - and controversy time, I'm not a fan of the HUD, pretty much have had it switched off since week one. . . Just found it too distracting. Had it on my old E60 M5, and was fine with it, maybe it was a bit better being slightly to the right, out of straight ahead sight.....

jojo · Oct 29, 2015

gordie1973 said:
These are the type I have - not sure if their diamond cut.

Oh - and controversy time, I'm not a fan of the HUD, pretty much have had it switched off since week one. . . Just found it too distracting. Had it on my old E60 M5, and was fine with it, maybe it was a bit better being slightly to the right, out of straight ahead sight.....

Those segment type alloys are not diamond cut.

Scottk · Oct 29, 2015

I put mine into auto on the drive select and the steering was noticeably lighter. Switched it back to individual and much better. Think the drive select is pretty hit and miss. Hardly had it in anything but individual after the first few weeks playing with it.
I wish the display showed when your lights are on and the fog lights are in a terrible place, you have to look down to see if they are on or not. Really annoying as we have quite a lot of fog up here!
Still wouldn't swap it though.

gordie1973 · Nov 24, 2015

Just found a way to (sort of) improve the response time on kickdown..... Turn off the TC.

I have a fuel stop on the A316 I normally use, and if you know the shell just beside the Hampton exit, you'll know that it hasn't much of a run before you need to merge into fast flowing traffic.

Don't know what made me do it this morning but I just flicked the TC switch, and gave it the beans....... A tiny bit of hesitation for the first couple of thousand rpm, and then WOW, took off like a missile.

Could it be that the Traction and Quattro is one of the torque / power restrictions, but with the TC off it just dumps the power as it should?

Gonna give it a go again tomorrow just to prove it wasn't a fluke / glitch!

jojo · Nov 25, 2015

I'm actually use to the delay of the gearbox now after a month or so. I rest my hand on the gear stick, if I need a quick getaway, I just pull it back into sport mode when pulling off, and switch back to the default mode once up to speed.
Using a tuning box helps too, my car seems to have better throttle response than standard. And with the extra low down torque, I just keep my gearbox in efficiency mode.

gordie1973 · Jan 15, 2016

Couple of things I've noticed over the last few weeks. . .

1) I've got comfort close doors specced........!!! Why on gods earth would anyone ever need these?!!

2) I love the way that the heated seats drop down to a lower temperature automatically when the car interior is up to temperature, and then go back up to full if left parked for a while...... Nice touch.

Anybody else found any nice hidden gems that I should know about?

D3mon · Jan 15, 2016

Comfort doors got something to do with them not being fully closed when locking?

PeteBSK · Jan 18, 2016

gordie1973 said:
Ok, just for fun.......

I've had my Bitdi for around 8 weeks now, so here's a few thoughts......

Good; that engine, has to be the shining light! Bose sound system, sounds amazing with great depth of base. Steering is good (ok maybe a bit too light at low <20 mph speeds), loving the LEDs - turn night into day (and look cool!) and I can't believe I'm saying this - I love the heated steering wheel in the mornings. Oh, and the noise it makes in dynamic is superb. Mpg out of town easy 43-45 all day long, in town 25-30.

Bad: sorry but the kickdown on the gearbox is dreadful...... You need to pull into another lane and give it some beans, and if you don't have time to select sport or drop 2 gears manually, you are literally left in no mans land for what seems like an eternity....... Albeit 2 seconds...... As it drops 3 or 4 gears, has a think about the torque, spools up the turbos etc.... Which isn't a huge amount of time, but say that to whoever is in the outside lane barrelling towards you - ok once it all comes together it thunders off like a scalded cat, but I thought it would be a bit better than that. Maybe I should just leave it in sport and to hell with the mpg.!

I suppose the auto wipers are a bit hit and miss when it's drizzling.

Ugly: the fact I've kerbed Her twice. But I'll take that on the chin and treat her to a refurb in a few months.

All in all - if the gearbox wasn't a pain, I'd say it's the best car I've ever owned...... No actually, even with the gearbox, it's still the best.

Glad you're pleased with it! I went for the heated steering wheel too... for £200 why wouldn't you? Though it IS buried in the options list!! Now that it's starting to get properly cold in the UK, I've used it a couple of times and it's fantastic...
With the Bose.. what is your source material... you will notice a step change difference if you switch from compressed (doesn't really matter what Bit Rate to my ears) MP3 to good old fashioned CD or Lossless FLAC or WMA... or even something like Spotify via Bluetooth. I couldn't believe the difference!

PeteBSK · Jan 18, 2016

gordie1973 said:
Couple of things I've noticed over the last few weeks. . .

1) I've got comfort close doors specced........!!! Why on gods earth would anyone ever need these?!!

2) I love the way that the heated seats drop down to a lower temperature automatically when the car interior is up to temperature, and then go back up to full if left parked for a while...... Nice touch.

Anybody else found any nice hidden gems that I should know about?

I think that the heated seats turn down from 3 pips to 2 pips automatically after 10/15 minutes (You can apparently change it with a VAG cable and software) regardless of interior temperature... I haven't noticed mine going back up?
As to hidden features... I DO keep meaning to try the option that when you stop, press and hold the fan button on the AC system and it will keep recirculating residual heat from the engine around the car, maximising the temperature... so if you're coming back within an hour or so the car will be warm(er) than it might have been otherwise!

gordie1973 · Jan 19, 2016

PeteBSK said:
Glad you're pleased with it! I went for the heated steering wheel too... for £200 why wouldn't you? Though it IS buried in the options list!! Now that it's starting to get properly cold in the UK, I've used it a couple of times and it's fantastic...
With the Bose.. what is your source material... you will notice a step change difference if you switch from compressed (doesn't really matter what Bit Rate to my ears) MP3 to good old fashioned CD or Lossless FLAC or WMA... or even something like Spotify via Bluetooth. I couldn't believe the difference!

Source is my iPhone, and have tried a cd and the difference is marked! Not a techie but happy to be schooled on FLAC / WMA and how to make them on my laptop and transfer them to an SD card!

Have had a bit of an issue when hooked my phone up to the cable and hitting media, it automatically starts playing random tunes, I can then work with the mmi to get the tunes I want. But not if I have my Bluetooth on...... It didn't like it too much. I tend then to switch off the Bluetooth - defeating the ability to take phone calls, whilst at the same time charging the phone!

Any help appreciated folks!

PeteBSK · Jan 19, 2016

Hi there @gordie1973, I don't want to hijack this thread too much and there are probably other threads with far more detail on this topic, but essentially:

FLAC and WMA can be lossless formats (WMA has different options) - so no compression, thus theoretically much better quality - and I can certainly hear the difference; but many claim no differene. On a PC, the easiest thing is to use Windows Media Player.. just insert an Audio CD.. if connected to the Internet, it should go off and automatically populate the album name and tracks. Select, "Rip Settings" - menu item above the track list and --> "WMA Lossless" as your format. Click the button to rip the disc and then copy the Music folder it produces to an SD card and insert into the car's SD slot... then navigate to it from the Media Menu.
If on a MAC, there are probably plenty of programs on the Apple Store, but I've used XLD with good results, producing, "xxxx.FLAC" files, which play fine in my A6.

gordie1973 · Jan 19, 2016

Thanks @PeteBSK - appreciate the help ( and don't worry about hijacking the thread, I started it!)

Ok. Will do a bit of investigation and searching on here - as I've no CDs (well not many recently) as I'm a slave to iTunes!

Cheers,

Gordie

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