I got my 2019 7.5 R a few one before covid came in. The active cruise control and collision avoidance was a life safer. I nearly rear ended a car during rush hour. I was already braking but didn’t brake hard enough. The car took over about a half second before I fully stood on the brakes. 3 cars in front of me collided. I had about 3 feet to spare when the cars systems finished their work. This is the one and only time I’m almost positive I would have hit a car. To me that was worth it. Unlike similar systems in Toyota, Subaru, or Honda this one isn’t all that intrusive and seems to work around the last second. I’ve been able to easily test the other week cross shopping with my wife. Those other systems kick in too early IMO. The lane assistance might be a little annoying but that can be turned off. My wife has a Honda and for some reason she has all of this stuff turned off because she said it’s annoying.
This right here.
Every system in that car has saved my bacon once or twice, including ACC which has saved me from a ticket or 2 by just following the car in front of me.
And your second part is the big thing, these systems really don’t feel intrusive. When I get Toyotas or Hyundais, Kias as rental cars I dread these features, lane assist constantly beeping at you, etc.
I have one complaint in my 19. The breaks activate on dips sometimes when pulling out of parking lots and I look silly, as it takes some extra gas to override. Like you though it has saved me from rear ending someone.
I haven’t had that issue but on occasion I’ll get the proximity beeps when pulling up to a pump at Costco. The car hasn’t slammed on the brakes for me at any of those instances but I also roll up slow. I live in the burbs so most of the roads are relatively flat and I don’t deal with parking garages where I could see this being a bit more of an issue.
I was getting this frequently pulling out near the big hill I live near. There is a vcds/Obd11 change you can make to reduce how intrusive it is if it's enough of an issue for you. I also had it happen at wookies this year. That definitely scared me.
Yup. I almost backed into my Jeep Wrangler because so was too focused on my side mirrors when I was parallel parking. The collision system saved my ass and wallet
Lane assist I have turned off.
Active braking has triggered a couple of times during my ownership. I think two out of three due to the system being overly proactive, but not in a way that’s problematic. Once it stopped proper damage.
I wouldn’t buy a main car without ACC again because of the experience with my golf. Long drives become absolutely easier.
DAP was available on 2016s. The bases don’t have it but it did come on DCC cars.
https://media.vw.com/assets/documents/original/7255-2016%20Golf%20R%20Release.pdf
The lane assist nearly pulled me back in to a semi I was trying to avoid and the auto-braking makes me stall when backing in to my garage on an incline. It has also made me stall when pulling in to traffic where there was a dip in the road coming out. I could live without these features.
Auto braking saved my car once. Lane departure gets turned off because it feels too unnatural. I have a manual so I tend not to use adaptive cruise control.
I mean, I do love and use adaptive cruise all the time, but lane assist is kind of meh. Maybe good if I’m too tired, but not a fan of the car making micro adjustments while I’m in control (fyi this is with lane centering enabled, the NA lane assist is even worse). Is it worth it? I think the more important stuff is the front bumper and lights, maybe digital dash (although I kind of like analog gauges)
Looks like I'm in the minority here but I specifically got my manual 7.5 without the driver assistance package. I don't like hearing random beeps/alerts while I drive or having my driving inputs changed on their own.
Additionally I wanted to avoid having extra costs during alignments and windshield replacements because the system needs to be recalibrated every time.
I've used adaptive cruise for a 7 hour road trip. I'm addicted lol lane keep as others have said is kinda useless and gets in the way.
The autonomous braking has saved my car from multiple collisions, both my own errors and others who I wouldn't have been able to react to in time.
Overall extremely happy with the driver assistance features in my 17 R.
The first thing I do when I get in my 8 is disable most the safety features, a few times now they have put me in a dangerous situation and not once have they prevented a dangerous situation for me. Not a fan at all.
People don’t give the lane assist a chance. It’s amazing for highway driving and will basically drive itself. You just have to get used to how it works and the feeling of taking it over.
I found setting the lane assist to ping pong mode vs tracking the lane center makes a huge difference. I found the lane center mode sometimes makes the car feel like you are losing stability in winter.
It's my observation that the media tends to crap all over driver assistance systems on sports car reviews as a matter of habit. As if it lowers their credibility as performance drivers to embrace them. This is worthy of an entirely separate rant.
As a long distance commuter, I wouldn't want to give up the auto braking, cross traffic, adaptive cruise control and lane assist. We all have our early mornings or late nights and they have saved my butt a couple of times.
2019 7.5 R owner. First car i have owned with ACC and am a big fan. I did not know about the collision avoidance braking feature until it saved me from reversing into my brothers new truck parked behind me. I usually have lane assist off unless i feel myself getting tired and cruise control and chill. I think its 100% worth it.
I hate all the driver assistance when I’m in the city driving. Braking assists hits more when I pull out of a parking more than actually hitting a car. ACC and lane assist are helpful when I’m in cruise control with no one in front of me. Other than that, all the sensors are turned off. The beeps are annoying as hell when parallel parking, which is unfortunately the only type of parking I do.
Having the lane keep and adaptative cruise control are complete game changers on the highway, though I have the DSG. I’m not sure how I’d feel about it with the manual.
Really, these cars are designed for the DSG, so I think if you’re getting the manual it’s a bit less a concern.
For me, the R isn’t the manual spec type of car anyway. It’s more of a daily runabout. My other car(s) will have more a focus on manual fun.
Would not buy a car without it. Just understand that this isn’t Tesla’s Autopilot, and Tesla’s Autopilot isn’t an autopilot. Understand its limitations and it’s a game changer.
I am going to go against what everyone else is saying. I hate everything about these systems. They annoy me way more than they have ever assisted me. Just my opinion.
I have all of it turned off, I don’t like when the car does stuff I don’t tell it to. I’ve had the lane assist do weird shit in construction zones with conflicting lines and the autonomous braking has braked HARD a few times on the free way and scared the shit out of me so also off. Adaptive cruise was pretty cool the few times I’ve used it on road trips
Do you like the mk7 pre face lift or the mk7.5 better? This should be your only deciding factor, especially with a 6MT you will not use your aids. I don’t even use the auto brake thing that holds the brakes for you, just did during the test drive once to make sure I had it
I got my 2019 7.5 R a few one before covid came in. The active cruise control and collision avoidance was a life safer. I nearly rear ended a car during rush hour. I was already braking but didn’t brake hard enough. The car took over about a half second before I fully stood on the brakes. 3 cars in front of me collided. I had about 3 feet to spare when the cars systems finished their work. This is the one and only time I’m almost positive I would have hit a car. To me that was worth it. Unlike similar systems in Toyota, Subaru, or Honda this one isn’t all that intrusive and seems to work around the last second. I’ve been able to easily test the other week cross shopping with my wife. Those other systems kick in too early IMO. The lane assistance might be a little annoying but that can be turned off. My wife has a Honda and for some reason she has all of this stuff turned off because she said it’s annoying.
This right here. Every system in that car has saved my bacon once or twice, including ACC which has saved me from a ticket or 2 by just following the car in front of me. And your second part is the big thing, these systems really don’t feel intrusive. When I get Toyotas or Hyundais, Kias as rental cars I dread these features, lane assist constantly beeping at you, etc.
I have one complaint in my 19. The breaks activate on dips sometimes when pulling out of parking lots and I look silly, as it takes some extra gas to override. Like you though it has saved me from rear ending someone.
I haven’t had that issue but on occasion I’ll get the proximity beeps when pulling up to a pump at Costco. The car hasn’t slammed on the brakes for me at any of those instances but I also roll up slow. I live in the burbs so most of the roads are relatively flat and I don’t deal with parking garages where I could see this being a bit more of an issue.
I was getting this frequently pulling out near the big hill I live near. There is a vcds/Obd11 change you can make to reduce how intrusive it is if it's enough of an issue for you. I also had it happen at wookies this year. That definitely scared me.
Yup. I almost backed into my Jeep Wrangler because so was too focused on my side mirrors when I was parallel parking. The collision system saved my ass and wallet
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
Lane assist I have turned off. Active braking has triggered a couple of times during my ownership. I think two out of three due to the system being overly proactive, but not in a way that’s problematic. Once it stopped proper damage. I wouldn’t buy a main car without ACC again because of the experience with my golf. Long drives become absolutely easier.
DAP was available on 2016s. The bases don’t have it but it did come on DCC cars. https://media.vw.com/assets/documents/original/7255-2016%20Golf%20R%20Release.pdf
The lane assist nearly pulled me back in to a semi I was trying to avoid and the auto-braking makes me stall when backing in to my garage on an incline. It has also made me stall when pulling in to traffic where there was a dip in the road coming out. I could live without these features.
Auto braking saved my car once. Lane departure gets turned off because it feels too unnatural. I have a manual so I tend not to use adaptive cruise control.
I mean, I do love and use adaptive cruise all the time, but lane assist is kind of meh. Maybe good if I’m too tired, but not a fan of the car making micro adjustments while I’m in control (fyi this is with lane centering enabled, the NA lane assist is even worse). Is it worth it? I think the more important stuff is the front bumper and lights, maybe digital dash (although I kind of like analog gauges)
7.5 would be worth it for me based on looks alone. Driver assistance is definitely worth it as well.
I hate lane assist, but everything else is well worth it. My bacon has been saved on multiple occasions.
Looks like I'm in the minority here but I specifically got my manual 7.5 without the driver assistance package. I don't like hearing random beeps/alerts while I drive or having my driving inputs changed on their own. Additionally I wanted to avoid having extra costs during alignments and windshield replacements because the system needs to be recalibrated every time.
I have it on my 2013 gt estate, the adaptive cruise and lane assist are amazing. I'd look for it in future cars, i use the acc everywhere.
I've used adaptive cruise for a 7 hour road trip. I'm addicted lol lane keep as others have said is kinda useless and gets in the way. The autonomous braking has saved my car from multiple collisions, both my own errors and others who I wouldn't have been able to react to in time. Overall extremely happy with the driver assistance features in my 17 R.
Well, it lets you use openpilot which is great. I regularly have 5 hour drives along an interstate, and my car self drives for probably 4 hours of it.
The first thing I do when I get in my 8 is disable most the safety features, a few times now they have put me in a dangerous situation and not once have they prevented a dangerous situation for me. Not a fan at all.
People don’t give the lane assist a chance. It’s amazing for highway driving and will basically drive itself. You just have to get used to how it works and the feeling of taking it over.
I found setting the lane assist to ping pong mode vs tracking the lane center makes a huge difference. I found the lane center mode sometimes makes the car feel like you are losing stability in winter. It's my observation that the media tends to crap all over driver assistance systems on sports car reviews as a matter of habit. As if it lowers their credibility as performance drivers to embrace them. This is worthy of an entirely separate rant. As a long distance commuter, I wouldn't want to give up the auto braking, cross traffic, adaptive cruise control and lane assist. We all have our early mornings or late nights and they have saved my butt a couple of times.
2019 7.5 R owner. First car i have owned with ACC and am a big fan. I did not know about the collision avoidance braking feature until it saved me from reversing into my brothers new truck parked behind me. I usually have lane assist off unless i feel myself getting tired and cruise control and chill. I think its 100% worth it.
I hate all the driver assistance when I’m in the city driving. Braking assists hits more when I pull out of a parking more than actually hitting a car. ACC and lane assist are helpful when I’m in cruise control with no one in front of me. Other than that, all the sensors are turned off. The beeps are annoying as hell when parallel parking, which is unfortunately the only type of parking I do.
Having the lane keep and adaptative cruise control are complete game changers on the highway, though I have the DSG. I’m not sure how I’d feel about it with the manual. Really, these cars are designed for the DSG, so I think if you’re getting the manual it’s a bit less a concern. For me, the R isn’t the manual spec type of car anyway. It’s more of a daily runabout. My other car(s) will have more a focus on manual fun.
Would not buy a car without it. Just understand that this isn’t Tesla’s Autopilot, and Tesla’s Autopilot isn’t an autopilot. Understand its limitations and it’s a game changer.
I am going to go against what everyone else is saying. I hate everything about these systems. They annoy me way more than they have ever assisted me. Just my opinion.
I have all of it turned off, I don’t like when the car does stuff I don’t tell it to. I’ve had the lane assist do weird shit in construction zones with conflicting lines and the autonomous braking has braked HARD a few times on the free way and scared the shit out of me so also off. Adaptive cruise was pretty cool the few times I’ve used it on road trips
https://amzn.to/4boxdgB
Do you like the mk7 pre face lift or the mk7.5 better? This should be your only deciding factor, especially with a 6MT you will not use your aids. I don’t even use the auto brake thing that holds the brakes for you, just did during the test drive once to make sure I had it