Well Iv had the car for nearly 24 hours now and Iv got to say I'm absolutely delighted with it. No defect in the windscreen either which is a bonus!
I'm blown away by how comfortable and compliant the mag ride is in the comfort setting, don't get me wrong, it's no Rolls Royce but it wipes the floor with any of the other hot hatches Iv had - it's smoother than our A1 S-Line and I would probably put it on par with your bog standard golf in terms of how it soaks up uneven surfaces on the road.
The exhaust in the comfort setting is no louder than any other car on the road (in the cabin) and you could quite easily forget that your driving an RS model for a split second. The gear box is seamless and let's you cruise round with minimal effort - hold assist is an absolute gem and worth the extra if you can afford it (although it should be standard in my opinion)
Pop the car into dynamic and it's like you've jumped into a different car, how they manage to make the car make that much noise is beyond me. When in fully manually mode if you slide down through the gears and go into 1st just before coming to a stop letting the car engine brake the sound it gives off is unbelievable (it's almost super car like in my opinion - Iv had people a couple of hundred meters away turning to see what the noise is).
The suspension and steering tighten up perfectly in dynamic mode and show the car at its best. It's literally glued to the road, the handling is ten fold better than my 8P S3 and puts some of my other cars (mk2 Focus RS in particular) to absolute shame. The weathers been pretty crap since I picked it up but at no point has it put a foot wrong in any of the situations Iv been in when driving it hard, just perfect response as expected.
I can understand people's complaints about the car, at best I felt like a passenger in satans chariot, it was doing all the work I was merely telling it where to go but that's what I want from a car, I want to do as little as possible with maximum enjoyment and that's what this car delivers.
The speed of this thing is truly something to behold, because of how compliant, comfortable and easy to drive it is it's difficult to comprehend just how fast your going but when you take a look at the cars your passing and leaving for dust you appreciate just how fast it really is. I haven't had a chance to do any fast starts in because I'm still running it in but the in gear power is brutal due to how torquey the engine is.
The gearbox is a true work of art and I really can't fault it, in the 8P S3 downshifts in sport mode were a joke, the car lunged all over the place and they took ages of the car wasn't expecting it but they've solved this completely with this box and they're honestly lightning fast.
There are some bad points though...
It ****** me right off that I have to go through all the menus to get to the lap timer so that I can find out the engine temperature - this is more important to me than how long Iv been driving for or the date, why isn't it in the main menu?! Or am I missing something?
My dashboard is rattling, I'm hoping this will settle down though.
The auto start/stop is ridiculous, who approved that il never know.
When I pull up on the drive the engine will auto stop but then start back up when I move the gear selector through to park then go off again... Ridiculous.
All in all I love the car, I can see why some people don't like it and how they can't justify the extra 10k over the S3 but for me it's worth it without question.
Pics to follow later today....
If anyone wants to know anything more just give me a shout