I miss the Grunt, but don't miss the flaring

[thevwbug]

It's good to hear you are enjoying it. I was amazed by the DSG in out 103, 12 months on it's still great to drive.

For those considering the 103 vs the 132, with the 103 you can definitely feel when you have a load in it, but it still cruises very well. I think if you were planning on filling it regularly the 132 would come into it's own very quickly, but with just the wife and kids day to day it's fine. Similar things I'm sure can be said for the 4Motion vs 2WD version.

The only thing I find you need to get used to is that touch of lag between accelerating and taking off from a dead stop which means you need to leave a little bit more of a gap... that said, maybe the extra power in the 132 help's that too

This is the main reason i went for the 132kW is for safety.
The lag i felt could be dangerous when loaded.

the 128kW had power to burn early in the rev range, this is very different to the 2.0 TDI's

[IN2VWS]

I find the lag on the 132kw to be dangerous.
Example: you are rolling up to a roundabout, you see a break in the traffic so you put your foot down to go, and the van does nothing for nearly a second. In the meantime you have rolled into the path of a car thinking "oooooohhhhhh shiiiiiiiiit", then the van decides to take off.
It is something you get used too, but its a pain in the a**.

[question?]

Gotta agree on the lag... still getting used to it winding up. Been caught a few times and those "oh sh#t" moments.. I just forget that just the way the T5 seem to be. Flooring is one thing i really do miss compared to our old MPV V6.

But on the highway i love the way the turbo seemingly winds more in when you push it harder.

[Sunny43.5]

Makes you wonder doesn,t it if this tranny and engine combo has this little lag how do VW engineers think the public can safely drive the van , its fine in designing and testing but as you guys have shown in the real world there is a serious safety issue . I remember our old T4 2000 2.5 petrol model the auto in that van was adaptive I was told , what a pain my wife and I are very different drivers and it was nuisance I would accelerate up a certain hill then back off at the top then after turning into our street the bloody transmission would think for about 4 seconds before deciding what gear to select you would start off down the other road with no go then all of a sudden bang it would pick up and go again . The transmission would put itself in a very low gear and when it decided to change it would make a huge thump as it suddenly changed up from a very low gear to a higher gear . I have to be honest I love our vans but I wish engineers would keep these trannies more simplistic .
I don,t remember my old Valiant V8 318 wagon with its simple 3 speed auto being as cantankerous as these smart trannies can be ,you always felt like the engine and transmission where in constant connection you did not have to rely on fancy electronics to make decisions on your behalf put your foot down and in an instant it would change and all hell would break loose . Ah the good old days Howard

[Transporter]

I drive my T5 for over 6 years now and kind of learned to drive with that turbo lag, I even think that it is not there.
But again it is manual and unless you're caught in the wrong gear there is no problem, faster you drive lesser of the lag.
The Vito 108CDI I had before, that really had a awful turbo lag especially with the aircon ON.

[mikinoz]

I find out 128KW T5 has the most linear power delivery of any turbo car I have ever owned. The only lag I can comment on is the delay of winding up speed in a car that weighs over 2 tonnes. But that is not the turbo's fault.

[IN2VWS]

The references I made to a lag, is not a turbo lag. It is the DSG trying to figure out what gear it should be in. If I have the correct gear selected in manual mode, then there is no issues.
I pretty much drive around in "D" all day. I will try driving around in "S" mode to see if that makes any difference.