Essential Options?

agawilson · Post by **agawilson** » Mon May 02, 2011 12:53 pm

Hi,

I am about to place an order for the 1.4TSi 160ps and wanted some views on essential options. Are leather seats essential? I have heard it needs rear parking sensors? Would you pay for the navigation and upgrade the steering wheel? Do you need cruise control in a car like this?

What about paint? I was looking at buying it in white as it looks really good.

I was looking at the winter pack, rear parking sensors and folding mirrors but would appreciate comments on what you think are must haves - or is the spec good enough?

Thanks for helping me out,

Allen

Ian_Mac · Post by **Ian_Mac** » Mon May 02, 2011 1:48 pm

I might be slightly biased as I have all of the above but when I was looking for a car my must have's were leather, xenons and parking sensors.

At the end of the day I guess it boils down to how much you want to pay. Have you thought about the 19" alloy upgrade or xenons?

If you spec leather then heated seats are very nice to have in the winter.

trix · Post by **trix** » Mon May 02, 2011 1:53 pm

Hi Allen

Personally i'd say seats & paint is essential

however the additional detail of leather is not the standard cloth is perfectly adequate & the VW leather isn't that great a quality for the money.
Rear parking sensors are a nice to have but having now had my car for 18 months I could probably live without them, if you easily get to grips with where the corners are then you'll be ok but imo if they save you from reversing into something once or twice they have paid for themselves.

Between us we could quite easily justify most options on the list but you need to bear in mind your budget in all of this and what you really need.
I went for rear parking sensors for the reasons above, cruise to save me from average speed cameras & the tyre pressure monitoring system (was an option at the time but now standard with most) because it could save a major headache if a tyre started going down without me knowing.

S

chrisyboyc · Post by **chrisyboyc** » Mon May 02, 2011 2:34 pm

I went for the Dynaudio upgrade and cruise control and bluetooth then had a leather retrim which was half the price of the VW option. I wish i had ordered the parking sensors. Also i wish i went for the 19" alloys but do too many miles to risk it and i didn't see the point of SAT NAV as its too expensive and my tom tom does the job for a lot less

sicourt · Post by **sicourt** » Mon May 02, 2011 4:14 pm

Got mine a couple of weeks back - went through the same thoughts as you and found the posts on this forum v helpful when I was placing my order & deciding on options. So here are my two cents on a few of them:

Leather - cloth is better than most, but the leather makes the look and feel of the cabin so much better. That said, it was definitely the option that I considered most carefully due to the cost, which is pretty steep! I did not want to buy a new car then go straight for a re-trim so I was only considering the VW options. I convinced myself (just) in the end by saying that it comes with heated seats (saves me £300 on the winter pack, which I would have gone for) comes with electric lumber support (worth £250 to me to save my back!) and it would retain probably £300 on resale. With discount factored in I was probably looking at £650 for the upgrade........ Box ticked, and now v glad I did, it is really nice.

electric mirrors - the Roc is surprisingly wide and the mirrors are pretty hefty, it's defo worth it for narrow car parks and I even had to fold them in when passing another car the other day on a narrow country road!

parking sensors - vision is pretty bad out the back, they will pay for themselves with one avoided scrape..... Dealer fit are cheaper, but it is worth extra £100 to have the visual display that come with the factory fit IMO.

Dynaudio - for the price, one of the best OEM audio options out there IMO. I have had a range of stuff (Bose,etc) on other cars, but this (for the price) takes some beating. That said, if you are not that bothered with music, the standard fit stuff is not too bad.

Bluetooth phone - 3 points on your license & a fine will cost a lot more over the years than a couple of hundred for this. better call quality than the retrofit stuff and it is all built in.

VW RNS Sat nav - I test drove a car with one and found it to be inferior to my Tom Tom! Obviously looks better as it is built in, but not £1500 better.

DAB - more choice of stations and good sound quality so far, I would definitely order this again.

Good luck & enjoy choosing your options, one of the best bits of buying a new car!

mjc6852 · Post by **mjc6852** » Mon May 02, 2011 7:09 pm

I'm going for parking sensors, winter pack, dynaudio and folding mirrors, I am going to re-trim leather as the supplied by vw is outrageous, the same for a sat nav for £2000 when you can get a good one for 10% of that.

Scott_mac · Post by **Scott_mac** » Mon May 02, 2011 8:40 pm

Is very much a personal preference.... for me leather is a waste, i don't personally like it.

Dynaudio is good and worth it in my opinion.

Cruise Control is a godsend if you do a lot of long drives at constant speeds (motorways, a-roads etc)

Parking Sensors - depends where you park... for me, i wasn't fussed but others view them as essential.

Bluetooth is a bit of a no brainer to me in the modern era with restrictions on phone usage whilst driving.

Multi Function wheel makes things convenient, but the main reason I opted for it is you need it to get the paddles for the DSG box.

Sat Nav is also a waste as aftermarket devices are better and far cheaper.. but again less convenient.

Standard car is very well specced, most of the options are there to make your life easier!!!

bianco · Post by **bianco** » Mon May 02, 2011 9:21 pm

1 Parksensor
2 bluetooth
3 Cruise control (only if You do motorway, but it should be hard to retrofit)
4 MFSW (mostly because its hard to retrofit)
5 Leather (only if You plan to have the car for ever)
6 Xenon (very nice, but xpensive)

NOT SatNav, because it is easy and cheap to retrofit

First thing to do when delivered, is to lower it.
First thing to do when out of waranty, remap it.

kane1210 · Post by **kane1210** » Mon May 02, 2011 9:47 pm

sat nav

bluetooth

i couldnt live with out these where as the others i could

discowill · Post by **discowill** » Mon May 02, 2011 10:59 pm

Reversing Sensors
Cruise Control
DSG
Bluetooth / Phone System
Satnav (or cheaper alternative)

skyblues11 · Post by **skyblues11** » Tue May 03, 2011 7:40 pm

Xenon - i regret not having it from the beginning. i guess its really useful if you do a lot of night driving.
Cruise control - when you hit those roadwork zones, just put it on and relax.
Bluetooth - i got one of those clip on visor ones, because i can take it with me when i am travelling abroad for work.
DSG - oh yes! must consider this if you don;t mind the idea of an auto.
Sat nav - prefers the cheap Garmin ones. I can take it on holiday as well.
winter pack - could be interesting as the heater is rubbish in winter.

Deft · Post by **Deft** » Tue May 03, 2011 8:01 pm

Only things I wish I had specced would be Dynaudio upgrade and cruise control (wife said no to cruise control, should have put my foot down! Even she admits it was a mistake not to have it). But as you can see everyone is different.........
We were upgrading from a Toyota Yaris so assumed we wouldn't need it. Parking sensors are handy but I'm so paranoid about hitting things I still don't trust them and end up leaving loads of room anyway).
As someone who likes music / audio production I was stupid to think that a 25K car would have something a bit better as the basic sound system, given that good powered speakers start at a few hundred quid for home studios. This really comes down to how much you are tuned to these things - for the 'average' person the standard system is fine, if you have ever agonised over audio (you'll know if you have) then go for the upgrade.

Gilez · Post by **Gilez** » Tue May 03, 2011 9:17 pm

DAB radio and folding mirrors for me. I love them both and would have them both again.

Cuprabob · Post by **Cuprabob** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:37 am

Deft wrote:Only things I wish I had specced would be Dynaudio upgrade and cruise control (wife said no to cruise control, should have put my foot down!

Cruise control can be easily retro-fitted at reasonable cost

pishpashposh · Post by **pishpashposh** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:40 pm

Its all personal preference and how much you are willing to pay. as previously posted i would never get in built sat nav as an option due to them being worse than a standalone device and outrageously more expensive.

I am obviously mega stingy as i only went for parking sensors and would highly recommend them. The only other options i would probably consider now are DAB due to the digital switch-over looming, DSG and bigger wheels. my old car used to have cruise control, 2 zone climate control, tyre pressure monitor, steering buttons, fog lights and this that and the other which my roc doesn't have and i have to say i do not miss them in the slightest.

agawilson · Post by **agawilson** » Wed May 04, 2011 6:38 pm

Can I thank everyone for their views. I am going to place an order in the next few days and your opinions kind of helped!

I am not going for some of the more expensive options (leather and sat nav) as my budget is quite tight, but I am now clear on what I want. As everyone says, it is down to personal choice - it was great to see what everyone went for....

Cheers,

Allen

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