For outright chuckability, the Golf is far superior. It's lighter for a start, and the chassis feels more alive than the S3's. The Performance version comes with a LSD, which does help the cornering, and you can feel it working. The car is far more fun to drive. Would love a go in the Clubsport S car.
Mine just had passive suspension, which was fine for me. Never needed a softer setting, as it was subtle enough for me, and never wanted it to ride harder, and it handled good enough to not warrant another setting.
Other good points? Well, the seats feel better than in the S3. I have the SS in the S3, and had Tartan cloth in the Golf. Better support all round.
Now the bad points.
- Gearbox. Mine was the manual, and I had loads of bother with it, hence why I sold it within 12 months and lost a fortune.
- But subjective bad points compared to the S3. Well, the performance in a straight line is evident. Far better overtaking punch in the S3.
- The fake noise through the stereo with the car in dynamic setting was soo fake it became annoying, so I never had the car in engine sport mode, as you couldn't turn that ***** sound off.
- The cruise control was too much of a faff on. Unlike the S3, there you simply flick a lever and press set, the Golfs was far too complicated for my liking. Adaptive cruise control. So you had to set it for how far behind the car in front you wanted to be etc. Yes, once set it was great on a motorway, as it slowed down and sped up as the traffic did, but you got to ask, how close to autonomous driving is it getting?
- Collision assist. Probably the Golf worst feature. while going round roundabouts, if you got close to the car in front, but you knew you were ok (it was turning right as you were going straight on, so avoiding the car in front) it would decide to just hit the brakes. I'd say it's dangerous, as it can upset the balance of the car, by hitting the brakes when you don't expect it too. And you can't switch the f***ing thing off.
- Traction in the wet is an issue too. Having owned several AWD cars, the jump back into high'ish performance FWD shows what little traction these thing have in the wet. Great on dry roads, but with AWD, you get very used to just flooring it in the wet, and it just goes without fuss.
Would I have another one? Hmm. Maybe if you could turn all the annoying cr@p off, then maybe. But again, once you get used to AWD, FWD seams a set backwards.
