2,500 km with my VW Taigun GT MT: Did some coding changes myself

Coming to the fuel efficiency, I have got cylinder deactivation coming to the rescue quite often.

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2500km Update

The ownership has been smooth until now (fingers crossed). Wanted to share few observations and updates I have made.

Performance

Had a trip to Mysore, and multiple runs to different parts of Bangalore, as well as several short trips since the car touched down in Bangalore.

I can say the car is great out on the open highways but ever since the run-in period is over, I've only managed to (try to) wring out the TSI once or twice. All I can say is that this thing is scary fast when given the full beans on open roads or while overtaking long lorries in the city.

Efficiency

Coming to the fuel efficiency, I have got cylinder deactivation comes to the rescue quite often. I've seen it enabling at as low as under 30kph (2nd gear) and as high as 95kph (6th gear, slight decline) and once activated, it consistently stays on until you keep a light foot or the road starts climbing. One thing I've noticed with this is that if I'm cruising with a light foot at around, say 2000rpm (i know, I should ideally upshift, but sometimes it doesn't make sense, for eg. if you see an oncoming intersection), and let go of the throttle, the car tends to keep ACT enabled and that seems to reduce engine braking drastically. Once I tap the brakes, it generally disables ACT and the proper engine braking is felt. This is however not entirely reliable and I rely on brakes in this case.

Coding tweaks

So, I managed to source an OBD11 device from Germany with the help of a friend. I did not have contacts currently in US, and VCDS in Germany was not cheap. The OBD11 Costed me around 8k for the device with the basic plan including shipping.

I combed through TBHP VCDS threads, along with multiple other forums and have made the following changes to the car -

• Added RPM gauge to the info view in cluster - As mentioned, much needed. Have not gone back to other display modes after this
• Enabled steering angle display in cluster - Good to have while Parking
• Enabled Refuel quantity - Not very useful, haven't checked its accuracy yet. Does serve to give a rough idea of the fuel required.
• AC tuning for better cooling - Felt a genuine difference. Have not had to tweak the AC at all after this.
• Enabled AC control from infotainment - Underrated feature in my opinion. This feels much better as compared to the touch controls below. Especially while driving, I feel it is much safer to see and interact with the display as compared to looking down and trying to figure out the tiny buttons and the dim temperature display.
• Improved throttle response - Immediate difference in the way RPM rises/falls while shifting. No more RPM 'hangs' which caused jerks if I weren't careful and waited for the RPM to get to the correct point, hence making the ride smoother.
• Improved steering feedback - I feel a minor difference in the feedback curve, but doesn't alter the driving feel considerably
• Window roll up/down via remote - More of a party trick than a useful feature, since only driver window can be operated.
• Window auto roll up when locking - This I feel is much more useful. Came across this on another forum and it worked like a charm.
• Offroad and sports displays in the Infotainment - Good to know the Turbo boost pressure, and maybe the altitude while in hilly areas, I guess. Have not used it properly since the screen is mostly occupied with maps while driving.
• Changed sound signature to Dynaudio - Felt a noticeable positive difference in the sound signature of the system.

Along with these, I plan on playing around with several other options I found interesting while browsing the control modules in the app but haven't been able to tweak many things since my parking has absolutely no network coverage and the OBD11 app needs a network connection to connect for the first time. I got it to somehow connect a couple of times but is too much of a hassle and I haven't got the time yet to take it out of the parking and try out those things.

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