Having returned from a 2 week driving holiday in Tassie, I have the following observations to offer.

> Fuel economy is pretty damn good overall. According to the trip computer we used 7.8l/100km for 3614km. Happy with that.

> Overtaking. Shocking how the car accelerates. Used to driving the D4 (2.7l diesel and 2.5tonne). Long straight and 2 x B doubles to overtake and had room to do it if I was in the D4. Over the length of the 2 vehicles (decent gap between for a change), we hit 180 on the speedo very quickly. The D4 might have made it to 120 in passing, but over an extra 15 - 20 seconds. Bloody fast. Did not floor it ever again! Just did not need to.

> Oil use. Checked the level when the car had 2000km on it, and put some of the dealer provided oil in which when I put the car on a trueer level, is just on the MAX part of the dipstick. with 9000km on it and a lot of spirited driving in the twisty roads of Tassie, it's still just on the MAX so it doesn't seem to be using oil at all. Happy with that.

> Road noise. With a boot full of bags/heavy coats/wifes sewing (dont ask!) noise was OK for a stiffly suspended car with low profile tyres. Very noisy driving around now without anything in the thing!

> Dirt. Being white, damn thing is a dirt magnet. And as it rained on the trip down to the ferry as well as the first few days in Tassie, there are some points that collect dirt - the rear doors on the lip just below/behind the door handles were BLACK while the rest of the door was just dirty.

> Handling. Damn this is still like a bloody rollerskate - point it and it just goes there.

Now to the faults..... NONE so far and the engine is just getting better and better. Actually, one small fault.... that's not really a fault.... It could do with an overdrive gear for highway use. At 110kmh it's running just of 2500rpm which is higher than it needs. If it can use 6th at 60kph, a 7th for highway would pull the revs down to 2000 - 2250rpm and use less fuel. Guess the Mk VII may have a 7 speed as VW now rate that one for the torqued the GTi has.