Is the 125mi battery worth trading for?

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Joined
Oct 3, 2018
Messages
302
Location
Bay Area, CA
I'm considering selling my 2016 for a 2019 SEL.

The only reason I'm even considering it is that I'm under the impression that most of the trips I take that do push the range on my car would be easy in the newer model, but I'm looking for some experience from people who've made the switch. If you're in the Bay Area that's even better since you may know the routes, but otherwise is ok too.

Currently when I drive from San Jose to San Francisco and back, its mandatory to charge somewhere on the route, which is fine but definitely something that would be nice to be optional, not mandatory. Likewise driving over the mountains to the beach. I can make it back but it takes the full capacity of the battery and I have to drive VERY gently. There's little really good charging on that route which is a bummer, it's one of the few times where it really is a major impediment to be in a 2016.

People with the bigger battery who are in the Bay Area, can you drive at proper 280 speeds from San Jose to San Fransisco and back on one charge? How can can you really get on the freeway at 65? 75?

The driver assist features appeal to me by themselves, but if I'm going to consider burning through this much spousal patience with me I need to make sure the range improvement really is enough
 
Sparklebeard said:
can you drive at proper 280 speeds from San Jose to San Fransisco and back on one charge? How can can you really get on the freeway at 65? 75?

I've driven on 280 from SJ to San Mateo at around 70 mphs average, light climate control, and obtained over 4 mi/Wh in the e-Golf. With a 36 kWh battery, that's plenty of range for SJ to SF and back. Someone in our office has a 2019 SE and he mentioned getting 130 miles range at highway speed without issue, so that sounds about right.

Now, pushing the speed up more to up to 75...I haven't done that in the e-Golf but have done it in the i3 and come closer to 3.5 mi/kWh. I'd think the e-Golf would do better than that (3.7-3.8ish) but total range would still be over 125 miles so even with with the speed and power being capped for the last 10 miles you're still good.

Where I think the problems start is when the weather is super cold require heating, and when the battery degrades. Assuming a 3% annual degradation, you're starting to cut it close by the second year. I would definitely say stick with the SEL trim so you've got the heat pump. Using resistive heating during the cold months (Nov - Mar) is what really kills the range on my 2016 SE.

There's definitely some good deals on the 2019s right now. The fundamental problem though is 200 miles+ is quickly becoming the norm. I was at the Kia dealership yesterday and the guy said their first Niro EV should arrive this week and they'll be streaming in by late April. Never thought I'd buy a Hyundai or Kia, but it does look very appealing.
 
well I did it!

Left the dealership in Hayward with 7mi on the odometer and 126mi on tbr guessometer. Got home in Sunnyvale with 100mi on the GOM and 36mi on the odo. I was travelling at California speeds on I-880, so I really have to say I’m pleased with the extra range. To have driven 30 miles home and still have more range left than the 2016 would have had fully charged is nice.

The digital dash is interesting, though unless it somehow gets some sort of CarPlay integration in the future (unlikely) it doesn’t do all that much differently from the standard dash. The extra driver assistance features are a nice step up from the 2016 DAP too.

Interesting to note that the 120V portable charger it came with is a bit dinky compared with the Delphi (ClipperCreek) one from the 2016. 10A vs 13A.

Oh! The adaptive headlights are AWESOME. I already loved the LED lighting on the 2016 SEL but the angle lighting during turns is a really nice feature for my rapidly aging eyes.

It also makes different sounds when it’s sitting there doing ‘things’ while parked. I spend lot of time working on projects in my garage so I am used to the clicks and whirs and clinks the car makes when it wakes it’s computer up while charging or just sitting there talking to carney or whatever. The 2019 does it too but DIFFERENTLY.

The cornflower blue GTI Rabbits they had at the dealership made me wish I could have got the e-Golf in that colour.... or seen what kind of a deal they’d give me on two cars in one purchase.... shame about the gas engine.
 
Sparklebeard said:
The digital dash is interesting, though unless it somehow gets some sort of CarPlay integration in the future (unlikely) it doesn’t do all that much differently from the standard dash. The extra driver assistance features are a nice step up from the 2016 DAP too.

I haven't seen it in action but this has been my take just based on videos and reviews. Is there a way to simply disable it?

Sparklebeard said:
Interesting to note that the 120V portable charger it came with is a bit dinky compared with the Delphi (ClipperCreek) one from the 2016. 10A vs 13A.

Yeah, I got the same dinky 10a charger with my i3. They're usually made in Eastern Europe. Perhaps there's a practical reason like too many people charging at 12a and tripping breakers, but I'd suspect it's just a cost saving move. I will miss the nice Delphi 12a charger that came with the 2016.

Sparklebeard said:
Oh! The adaptive headlights are AWESOME. I already loved the LED lighting on the 2016 SEL but the angle lighting during turns is a really nice feature for my rapidly aging eyes.

Oh interesting. I thought the SEL only did auto-sensing high beams. Adaptive headlights typically only been on Audi and Porches so very cool to see them on the e-Golf. These would be very valuable to me on Highway 17. Really a shame they couldn't get the 2019s out last summer. I could have paid full MSRP for one and it still would have been $10k less than my i3 and fundamentally had the same features minus moonroof

Congrats on your 2019 SEL!
 
johnnylingo said:
Sparklebeard said:
The digital dash is interesting, though unless it somehow gets some sort of CarPlay integration in the future (unlikely) it doesn’t do all that much differently from the standard dash. The extra driver assistance features are a nice step up from the 2016 DAP too.

I haven't seen it in action but this has been my take just based on videos and reviews. Is there a way to simply disable it?

Sparklebeard said:
Interesting to note that the 120V portable charger it came with is a bit dinky compared with the Delphi (ClipperCreek) one from the 2016. 10A vs 13A.

Yeah, I got the same dinky 10a charger with my i3. They're usually made in Eastern Europe. Perhaps there's a practical reason like too many people charging at 12a and tripping breakers, but I'd suspect it's just a cost saving move. I will miss the nice Delphi 12a charger that came with the 2016.

Sparklebeard said:
Oh! The adaptive headlights are AWESOME. I already loved the LED lighting on the 2016 SEL but the angle lighting during turns is a really nice feature for my rapidly aging eyes.

Oh interesting. I thought the SEL only did auto-sensing high beams. Adaptive headlights typically only been on Audi and Porches so very cool to see them on the e-Golf. These would be very valuable to me on Highway 17. Really a shame they couldn't get the 2019s out last summer. I could have paid full MSRP for one and it still would have been $10k less than my i3 and fundamentally had the same features minus moonroof

Congrats on your 2019 SEL!

The whole Gen III Touareg family, 2011 on, has had adaptive headlight feature in their HID headlight assemblies. You do NOT want to rear end someone in one of those Touaregs and have to need to replace two of those headlight assemblies, they are pretty close to 2 grand a pop to buy, let alone install and align, which is a royal PIA. I can imagine it will be the same for the e-Golf headlight assemblies too.
 
JoulesThief said:
The whole Gen III Touareg family, 2011 on, has had adaptive headlight feature in their HID headlight assemblies. You do NOT want to rear end someone in one of those Touaregs and have to need to replace two of those headlight assemblies, they are pretty close to 2 grand a pop to buy, let alone install and align, which is a royal PIA. I can imagine it will be the same for the e-Golf headlight assemblies too.

If you rear end someone, unless it's a light tap it's usually going to mean the car is going to be totaled out, especially if airbags are deployed. That's going to be the case with any modern car, adaptive headlight or not.

Go to a junkyard and you'll see cars that are "totaled" but appear to have what looks like fixable damage. A great example is Deutsche Auto Parts' current Project Alltrack, where they bought a crashed one from a Copart auction and are fixing it up and turning it into a rallycross car. The damage, while it looks horrific, really only entailed replacement of these major components:

1. Right front driveshaft.
2. Right lower control arm.
3. Hood
4. Right front fender
5. Right headlight
6. Bumper (which they are not replacing)
7. Driver and curtain airbags
8. Front seatbelts (pretensioners were activated)

The last three aren't necessary if the car will be used strictly as an off-roader, and the factory seatbelts can be replaced with less expensive racing seatbelts which may be required depending on the class they want to compete in.

The car still runs and (once the bent driveshaft and lower control arm was replaced) drove just fine. Frame wasn't bent. Yet the damage, if you were to restore the car to "as new" condition, amounted to over $11,000 IN PARTS ALONE. On car with an MSRP of about $27k (the one they have is a base S model with DSG like mine).
 
johnnylingo said:
I haven't seen it in action but this has been my take just based on videos and reviews. Is there a way to simply disable it?
There's no way to disable it, as there are no analog dials at all. And frankly, I wouldn't want to. I strongly prefer the all-digital dashboard. Offers a lot more viewing options for each dial than the old analog dials and is much more visible to my aging eyes in all lighting conditions. Being able to display the native navigation map in between the dials is pretty useful, too, though it would be nice if it was able to show the Apple CarPlay information there as well.

johnnylingo said:
Oh interesting. I thought the SEL only did auto-sensing high beams. Adaptive headlights typically only been on Audi and Porches so very cool to see them on the e-Golf. These would be very valuable to me on Highway 17. Really a shame they couldn't get the 2019s out last summer.
Auto sensing high beams and adaptive headlights are pretty friggin' awesome, I agree. Note, though, that they are on the 2018 SELs with DAP as well, not just on the 2019 SELs.
 
In Europe VW offers an even more adaptive headlight system that dims part of the beam to avoid blinding other drivers. In the USA we only get the adaptive system that swivels the headlight beam and automatically activates high beams. BTW the swivel feature has been around for awhile; it was included in my 2010 Golf TDI (lighting package option).
 
Sparklebeard said:
ronnie10 said:
Sparklebeard said:
well I did it!

congratulations! did you buy it or lease it. My lease term will end soon and I'm mulling over this option too.

I bought him. I don’t really think I’m going to need a longer range car for quite some time.

Now that you've had it 3 months, what are the features you most appreciate? A sort of mini review, now that you are more familiar with it?
 
JoulesThief said:
Now that you've had it 3 months, what are the features you most appreciate? A sort of mini review, now that you are more familiar with it?

Well I'm not Sparklebeard, but I'll give you my impressions on going from a 16 SE to a 19 SE.

The added range is worth the extra cost because (1) there's more flexibility in use, (2) you don't have to charge as often, (3) it's easier to maintain the battery in the 50-80% state of charge sweet spot, and (4) the deals that have been going on make the switch a no brainier.

The DAP is also a no brainer for the added cost. I haven't tried adaptive cruise control for stop and go driving, but in the open road it's nice. I would have paid for the DAP for just the blind spot monitors alone.

So glad the light colored fabrics of the 16 is gone. Those were easy to stain.

The 8" screen is nice for readability compared to the previous 6.5". But I do miss the physical buttons on the sides as the screen is a fingerprint magnet. The "all screen" look is more elegant/minimalist in appearance though.

I'm happy the power steering has less boost than the 16 when traveling higher than parking lot speeds. I always felt that the previous one was overboosted at all speeds.

As others have already mentioned, the 120v charger they give you now sucks compared to the Delphi branded Clipper Creek ones they use to give you.

Halogen headlights are better in the Mk 7.5 compared to the Mk 7. While they both use the same bulb (Philips H7 LL) the newer headlights have a much more even beam pattern.
 
2016golfse said:
JoulesThief said:
Now that you've had it 3 months, what are the features you most appreciate? A sort of mini review, now that you are more familiar with it?

Well I'm not Sparklebeard, but I'll give you my impressions on going from a 16 SE to a 19 SE.

The added range is worth the extra cost because (1) there's more flexibility in use, (2) you don't have to charge as often, (3) it's easier to maintain the battery in the 50-80% state of charge sweet spot, and (4) the deals that have been going on make the switch a no brainier.

The DAP is also a no brainer for the added cost. I haven't tried adaptive cruise control for stop and go driving, but in the open road it's nice. I would have paid for the DAP for just the blind spot monitors alone.

So glad the light colored fabrics of the 16 is gone. Those were easy to stain.

The 8" screen is nice for readability compared to the previous 6.5". But I do miss the physical buttons on the sides as the screen is a fingerprint magnet. The "all screen" look is more elegant/minimalist in appearance though.

I'm happy the power steering has less boost than the 16 when traveling higher than parking lot speeds. I always felt that the previous one was overboosted at all speeds.

As others have already mentioned, the 120v charger they give you now sucks compared to the Delphi branded Clipper Creek ones they use to give you.

Halogen headlights are better in the Mk 7.5 compared to the Mk 7. While they both use the same bulb (Philips H7 LL) the newer headlights have a much more even beam pattern.

I've been so damn lucky with my 2015 SEL... I haven't had it in to the dealership for anything except a firmware reflash. That's been a great "feature" of an electric car, it keeps me out of dealerships, making appointments for service, and $150/hr minimum "diagnosis" fees when the Check Engine Light comes on, for stupid crap sensors that fail on my other TDI's, or faulty Takata air bats, or clock springs for airbags that fail.

Yes the added range and less frequent charging would be nice... I just can't justify, even with the tax credit and rebate from CA, the price tag of the SEL, when I would like the durable, stain free, tan leatherette VINYL seat interior. Maybe some day they come out with it in the SE, like it was in my 2014 SE TDI Passat. One can hope. Not really interested in the automatic DAP lane steering features.
 
JoulesThief said:
Yes the added range and less frequent charging would be nice... I just can't justify, even with the tax credit and rebate from CA, the price tag of the SEL, when I would like the durable, stain free, tan leatherette VINYL seat interior. Maybe some day they come out with it in the SE, like it was in my 2014 SE TDI Passat. One can hope. Not really interested in the automatic DAP lane steering features.

Buy a 19 SE with DAP. Add HID headlights and leather or vinyl custom fit seat covers of your color choice. Done!

The SE's DAP does not have any steering features btw.
 
2016golfse said:
I haven't tried adaptive cruise control for stop and go driving, but in the open road it's nice. I would have paid for the DAP for just the blind spot monitors alone.

The start-stop ACC is terrifying at first because its nearly impossible to trust a computer to stop the car in time, especially when it feels like its coming in hot. Eventually I started trusting it once I realized that not once had it even had a near miss. Its amazing for the commute when the traffic is just crawling along and I'm tired and don't want to pay attention to micro adjustments of the vehicles speed. Absolutely still requires awareness of the situation but it makes stop start traffic far less annoying.

2016golfse said:
The 8" screen is nice for readability compared to the previous 6.5". But I do miss the physical buttons on the sides as the screen is a fingerprint magnet. The "all screen" look is more elegant/minimalist in appearance though.

The 9.2" screen on the SEL doesn't have the knobs and dials at all, which is a small downgrade IMO, however regarding the fingerprints I got a tempered glass screen protector with oleophobic coating and its helped a lot. Was $12 and you can't see that there's anything installed on the screen unless you're looking for it.

2016golfse said:
I'm happy the power steering has less boost than the 16 when traveling higher than parking lot speeds. I always felt that the previous one was overboosted at all speeds.

I didn't like it at first. In fact, I was really disappointed at first. However, I drove The Handsome Boy (2016, now my husband's car) the other day and did NOT like the steering in the 16 any more, so I guess it's mostly just what you're used to? I now prefer the steering in the 19. Go figure.

2016golfse said:
As others have already mentioned, the 120v charger they give you now sucks compared to the Delphi branded Clipper Creek ones they use to give you.
This is true, however its actually been a boon for me. I charge The Handsome Boy 1.1 (2019) at work typically, and we rent this house so there's been zero motivation to explore home level 2 charge solutions so we had been using the 110V in the garage with the 16. That outlet however is on a shared 20A breaker, shared with the socket in the living room (!) that has the TV on it. As such, I was never comfortable charging the car with the Delphi unit at full power and would always use the e-Manager to limit the current to 10A when at home. This was a bit of a hassle, but I am techy enough and committed enough to the electric car thing that I didn't mind doing it.

My husband, however, would have rapidly become frustrated with micromanaging something like charging locations so the fact that the new portable charger is only a 10A charger is amazing. He can just plug in and charge and never change the max charge current setting. This is an edge case though, and the Delphi/ClipperCreek units are incredibly well constructed. The new ones have nice feeling plastic on the cable and an attractive charge handle, but do not have the same premium solid construction.

JoulesThief said:
Now that you've had it 3 months, what are the features you most appreciate? A sort of mini review, now that you are more familiar with it?

Sure, it's been a great car. The basic summary is "If the extra range makes a difference the upgrade is well worth it. If the change in range doesn't have a significant impact then its not worth the money. I suspect the latter is the case for you as I believe you only need to charge once or twice a week in your existing car. So this would only be relevant for you for road trips, and in California 125mi is still limiting for road trips.

Range
The obvious point of difference is the range to a full charge. For me this has been incredibly impactful, as on the 24kW battery I could not get to San Francisco and back without having to stop and charge. I couldn't drive to the beach without having to drive very conservatively up the mountains to make sure I wouldn't be stressed getting home. I CERTAINLY couldn't decide at the beach that I'd like to drive to a different beach and see if I can find one with better conditions, unless I also planned to make sure I could get to Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz to charge to get home. Getting to Sacramento was scary, though I did it. Driving to Los Angeles was just not feasible in any world. Most weekends if I was going to go out and explore a bit (still somewhat new to living in the Bay Area and there's so many beautiful places to go!) I would stop to DCFC during the day. I didn't mind doing it, and stopping to charge has never been a GIANT pain point for me, rather I'm just concerned about frequent rapid charging the battery, and the longevity issues that could arise.

With the 19, I think I have DCFCd maybe twice since I've had it without changing my driving style. One of which was when I had spend a day driving around doing errands, then in the evening, spur of the moment drove up the peninsula to compare shiny new e-Golves with 2016golfse. The second time was when my husband and I fanged it over the mountains and went to the beach, then decided to cruise down to Santa Cruz at California speeds, and we stopped at the Whole Foods to pick up some ingredients to bring home for dinner. I probably could have made it back to San Jose without charging at that point (GOM said 55mi) but I did not want to strain the battery going up 17 as the SOC dropped lower and lower, so I plugged in for 10 mins just to bump up enough to ensure the battery would be happy.

I am planning to drive to Bakersfield to visit a friend, some time in the fall. That would not be possible in the 16 but I believe I can make it work with some efficient driving and with new electrify America charge stations. Bakersfield to Los Angeles is then a feasible next day hop. Additionally, since I so rarely DCFC for driving in the Bay Area now, I feel more confident that If I really REALLY needed to, I could chain DCFC to Los Angeles to get there in a hurry and the battery would overall not get too sad at me since it was such a rare occurrence. Would prefer not to test that out, though I believe European e-Golf drivers seem to consider back to back DCFC somewhat normal. Maybe their cars have different BMS. (as an aside, is the consensus still that 99 is the route to take in the e-Golf to get through the Central Valley?)

Performance and Efficiency
The 19 is actually a hair quicker. 16 is lighter and you can feel it, but the extra 15kW in the motor are impactful because you don't run out of steam until maybe 10mph faster than the 16, and it seems to handle freeways speeds more efficiently too. Where the 16 would give me about 3mi/kWh on I-280, the 19 gets me 4mi/kWh with the same driving style. Driving on local streets is a little less efficient than the 16; where I would average 5.4mi/kWh on my stop start local street commute in the 16, I see 5.0 in the 19. I have been able to achieve 6+mi/kWh in both by driving with a hypermile style but in most situations I just can't be bothered because its fun to drive, and the Bay Area has a LOT of expensive cars that are slower off the line than my car, and contain men with fragile egos that I can bruise by dragging them at stoplights in my soyboi EV. But I digress. In reality, the times when the efficiency matters most (cruising at 50+ to cover large distances quickly), the 19 is an improvement, and the regressions in efficiency happen when you're most likely to be parking at a charger anyway (local errands around home)

Regen Braking
The regen on the 16 is stronger and I would consider this one of the EXTREMELY limited number of regressions in the 2019. It still works, but the 16 very nearly felt like one-pedal driving. I have to use the brake pedal more in the 19 than the 16, though it's still ok enough.

Headlights SEL specific
This is a significant area of improvement. The 2016 LED reflectors are some of the best reflector headlights I've used, but I had no idea what I was missing with projectors. I have a particular eye condition that makes night driving a bit more challenging than average and these headlights have given me so much more peace of mind back because I can actually SEE. I also had no idea how nice curve-assistant dynamic lighting was. When I drove the 16 at night recently it felt like the headlights were almost being swiveled AWAY from the direction of the curve even though they were really just pointing forwards. I've just got used to the lights always lighting my path, not just directly in front of me. I like the auto high beam feature as I've never had one that works so reliably before. I don't often drive where I need to use it, though. I do wish we could have the European version with the dynamic shutter.

Digital Dash SEL specific
This is a nice to have, but would never be able to justify the SEL upgrade for this feature alone! I REALLY like the digital dash as it makes my car feel modern, sleek, and cool. I like the way the information is presented and the ability to have maps in the cluster if I so choose. But its not a game changer. The analogue dials in the regular dash are very good, and the small display in the standard dash still carries almost all the same information as you can get in the center section of the digital dash. I'm glad I have the feature, but it's not one of the factors that I considered when I was evaluating the upgrade.

9.2" Discover Pro infotainment SEL specific
Bizarrely, the e-Golf SEL is the only Golf in North America to get the 9.2" unit. Even the R gets the 8". Its high resolution so you get a different UI in CarPlay that shows more information than the 8" screen in the SE or in the 16 SEL. Its a hard-cover touch screen rather than the soft type in the older units, though its an absolute fingerprint magnet as described above. I miss the physical buttons from the 16, though the 19 isn't too bad. I have to press HOME, then press the equivalent soft-button to the old hard side buttons. I rarely fiddle with it while driving though so it's not a major problem overall. The colour screen is much nicer so it makes up for it.

Seats
The seat cushions seem better padded. I at first thought this was just because my 16 was preowned so I never knew what it was like new and not sat on, but I've read a few people mention that 15 and 16 mark 7s have a less dense foam core than the newer ones, so perhaps its true?

Driver Assist
ACC is a big improvement over regular cruise control, and the e-Golf gets stop-start ACC which feels pretty magical. I talked a bit about this above. The blind spot monitors have been useful, particularly at night when its a bit trickier to resolve distance in the reflections. It would be nice if it had the option of a sound when a car entered the blind spot, but it doesn't. I ended up changing the wing mirror blinker LED part to a smoked part so block out the little turn signal square light because it was a little confusing having two lights of the same color in my peripheral vision mean different things.

Automatic Emergency Braking may actually have already saved me from a collision. There's a freeway ramp, Stevens Creek Boulevard onto 85N in Cupertino, which takes you to a ramp to I-280E, with a bit of spaghetti merging that has to happen because California. I was making the maneuver from SCB to I-280N, and saw a nasty collision occur on the main carriageway of 85N, over to my left. It distracted me and I did not see that the traffic heading to the 280 ramp that I was following had slowed to a crawl. I was alerted to it by the car slamming on the brakes and screaming at me. I was able to gain control back and proceed safely. I am grateful that I was able to be reminded of the danger of distractions during driving without having to pay the consequence thereof. A lot can happen in a couple of seconds of looking away! The 16 would have screamed, and perhaps I would have hit the brakes in time, but this gives me confidence that if something terrible happened one day and I became incapacitated behind the wheel, I might have a chance of the car minimising the catastrophe that could occur.

Lane Assist SEL specific
From the factory, lane assist is ok. If you drift out of the lane it will 'bumper car' you back into the lane. It works well, detects road markings without too much trouble and is pretty unobtrusive. But as it turns out, in various markets there are other things it can do. There's a setting that can be unlocked with an OBD tool that lets you choose "early' or "late" intervention, which lets you use the infotainment to toggle between "bumper car" mode and "lane centering" mode. Lane centering is really really nice for reducing exhaustion on long freeway drives, but in all honesty that's not reeeeaaaally the domain of the e-Golf. There's a slightly more involved process to activate a function called Traffic Jam Assist that allows the lane centering to continue all the way to 0mph when ACC is active. I have it activated and its really nice crawling on the freeway but I really don't use the functions all that often. I enjoy driving the car, and the lane centering feels strange when the steering wheel is sometimes working "against" you, if you have a slightly different track you want to take in the lane. I set it to minimal intervention force, so while I can tell if it's trying to steer against where I'm wanting to steer it doesn't feel like its trying to override me. If I'm tired after a long day I'll absolutely turn it on as a second set of eyes, but I wouldn't really consider it as a self-driving car or anything beyond a self-steer assist fancy cruise control. Its a driver assistance feature only, especially in stock from factory form. This one alone isn't a good reason to buy the SEL, but as an anxious person, having active safety features that can try to catch me if I screw up is valuable to me. I have a good driving record and I like to think I'm generally an ok driver (doesn't everyone?), but even the best can make a mistake.

That mini review turned into a mega review.

I don't think the upgrade would make sense for you, JT. It sounds like the 15 already does everything you want, and the 125mi range on the SEL wouldn't make a real impact since presumably the trips you take in the TDI exceed that.
 
Sparklebeard said:
The start-stop ACC is terrifying at first because its nearly impossible to trust a computer to stop the car in time, especially when it feels like its coming in hot. Eventually I started trusting it once I realized that not once had it even had a near miss. Its amazing for the commute when the traffic is just crawling along and I'm tired and don't want to pay attention to micro adjustments of the vehicles speed. Absolutely still requires awareness of the situation but it makes stop start traffic far less annoying.

I just came back from Vacaville, so I decided to try the start-stop ACC approaching the Bay Bridge toll plaza. You're right. It never missed a beat. However, I noticed that it was a little bit less smooth than if I had driven manually in 'B' mode. I also noticed that if the car came to a complete stop, I have to hit the accelerator to tell the car to "go" because it resumes the ACC. I also noticed that on the default distance setting to the car in front of you, it's easier to get cut off by someone making a lane change.

If your 10A charger ever breaks, I'll trade you mine for your Delphi Clipper Creek, just to help maintain civility in your household of course. :)
 
2016golfse said:
I just came back from Vacaville, so I decided to try the start-stop ACC approaching the Bay Bridge toll plaza. You're right. It never missed a beat. However, I noticed that it was a little bit less smooth than if I had driven manually in 'B' mode. I also noticed that if the car came to a complete stop, I have to hit the accelerator to tell the car to "go" because it resumes the ACC. I also noticed that on the default distance setting to the car in front of you, it's easier to get cut off by someone making a lane change.
Yeah I would agree, its less smooth than driving it yourself. I don't use it often, but I like having it for the times I do use it. I really never used the regular cruise control on the 16.

Does yours do the 3 second thing, where if you stop but the car in front moves within 3 seconds it will resume driving automatically? I can also resume after the stop by holding the RES button on the steering wheel, if I don't want to tap the pedal. I can't remember if that came from the factory or required an adaptation change with OBD11.

I've noticed that people like to cut me off on the default distance setting. I tend to adjust the distance based on conditions as I drive and if someone cuts me off and I know they're going to get out of my way quickly, I'll override the ACC by just pushing down on the go pedal and it gets the hint. I really like how it adapts the follow distance based on the speed you're traveling, so that if you slow to a crawl it doesn't do anything dumb like trying to maintain 5 car lengths between you and the car ahead at 20mph.

2016golfse said:
If your 10A charger ever breaks, I'll trade you mine for your Delphi Clipper Creek, just to help maintain civility in your household of course. :)
:lol: :lol: :lol: I bet you would :mrgreen:
 
Sparklebeard said:
2016golfse said:
I haven't tried adaptive cruise control for stop and go driving, but in the open road it's nice. I would have paid for the DAP for just the blind spot monitors alone.

The start-stop ACC is terrifying at first because its nearly impossible to trust a computer to stop the car in time, especially when it feels like its coming in hot. Eventually I started trusting it once I realized that not once had it even had a near miss. Its amazing for the commute when the traffic is just crawling along and I'm tired and don't want to pay attention to micro adjustments of the vehicles speed. Absolutely still requires awareness of the situation but it makes stop start traffic far less annoying.

2016golfse said:
The 8" screen is nice for readability compared to the previous 6.5". But I do miss the physical buttons on the sides as the screen is a fingerprint magnet. The "all screen" look is more elegant/minimalist in appearance though.

The 9.2" screen on the SEL doesn't have the knobs and dials at all, which is a small downgrade IMO, however regarding the fingerprints I got a tempered glass screen protector with oleophobic coating and its helped a lot. Was $12 and you can't see that there's anything installed on the screen unless you're looking for it.

2016golfse said:
I'm happy the power steering has less boost than the 16 when traveling higher than parking lot speeds. I always felt that the previous one was overboosted at all speeds.

I didn't like it at first. In fact, I was really disappointed at first. However, I drove The Handsome Boy (2016, now my husband's car) the other day and did NOT like the steering in the 16 any more, so I guess it's mostly just what you're used to? I now prefer the steering in the 19. Go figure.

2016golfse said:
As others have already mentioned, the 120v charger they give you now sucks compared to the Delphi branded Clipper Creek ones they use to give you.
This is true, however its actually been a boon for me. I charge The Handsome Boy 1.1 (2019) at work typically, and we rent this house so there's been zero motivation to explore home level 2 charge solutions so we had been using the 110V in the garage with the 16. That outlet however is on a shared 20A breaker, shared with the socket in the living room (!) that has the TV on it. As such, I was never comfortable charging the car with the Delphi unit at full power and would always use the e-Manager to limit the current to 10A when at home. This was a bit of a hassle, but I am techy enough and committed enough to the electric car thing that I didn't mind doing it.

My husband, however, would have rapidly become frustrated with micromanaging something like charging locations so the fact that the new portable charger is only a 10A charger is amazing. He can just plug in and charge and never change the max charge current setting. This is an edge case though, and the Delphi/ClipperCreek units are incredibly well constructed. The new ones have nice feeling plastic on the cable and an attractive charge handle, but do not have the same premium solid construction.

JoulesThief said:
Now that you've had it 3 months, what are the features you most appreciate? A sort of mini review, now that you are more familiar with it?

Sure, it's been a great car. The basic summary is "If the extra range makes a difference the upgrade is well worth it. If the change in range doesn't have a significant impact then its not worth the money. I suspect the latter is the case for you as I believe you only need to charge once or twice a week in your existing car. So this would only be relevant for you for road trips, and in California 125mi is still limiting for road trips.

Range
The obvious point of difference is the range to a full charge. For me this has been incredibly impactful, as on the 24kW battery I could not get to San Francisco and back without having to stop and charge. I couldn't drive to the beach without having to drive very conservatively up the mountains to make sure I wouldn't be stressed getting home. I CERTAINLY couldn't decide at the beach that I'd like to drive to a different beach and see if I can find one with better conditions, unless I also planned to make sure I could get to Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz to charge to get home. Getting to Sacramento was scary, though I did it. Driving to Los Angeles was just not feasible in any world. Most weekends if I was going to go out and explore a bit (still somewhat new to living in the Bay Area and there's so many beautiful places to go!) I would stop to DCFC during the day. I didn't mind doing it, and stopping to charge has never been a GIANT pain point for me, rather I'm just concerned about frequent rapid charging the battery, and the longevity issues that could arise.

With the 19, I think I have DCFCd maybe twice since I've had it without changing my driving style. One of which was when I had spend a day driving around doing errands, then in the evening, spur of the moment drove up the peninsula to compare shiny new e-Golves with 2016golfse. The second time was when my husband and I fanged it over the mountains and went to the beach, then decided to cruise down to Santa Cruz at California speeds, and we stopped at the Whole Foods to pick up some ingredients to bring home for dinner. I probably could have made it back to San Jose without charging at that point (GOM said 55mi) but I did not want to strain the battery going up 17 as the SOC dropped lower and lower, so I plugged in for 10 mins just to bump up enough to ensure the battery would be happy.

I am planning to drive to Bakersfield to visit a friend, some time in the fall. That would not be possible in the 16 but I believe I can make it work with some efficient driving and with new electrify America charge stations. Bakersfield to Los Angeles is then a feasible next day hop. Additionally, since I so rarely DCFC for driving in the Bay Area now, I feel more confident that If I really REALLY needed to, I could chain DCFC to Los Angeles to get there in a hurry and the battery would overall not get too sad at me since it was such a rare occurrence. Would prefer not to test that out, though I believe European e-Golf drivers seem to consider back to back DCFC somewhat normal. Maybe their cars have different BMS. (as an aside, is the consensus still that 99 is the route to take in the e-Golf to get through the Central Valley?)

Performance and Efficiency
The 19 is actually a hair quicker. 16 is lighter and you can feel it, but the extra 15kW in the motor are impactful because you don't run out of steam until maybe 10mph faster than the 16, and it seems to handle freeways speeds more efficiently too. Where the 16 would give me about 3mi/kWh on I-280, the 19 gets me 4mi/kWh with the same driving style. Driving on local streets is a little less efficient than the 16; where I would average 5.4mi/kWh on my stop start local street commute in the 16, I see 5.0 in the 19. I have been able to achieve 6+mi/kWh in both by driving with a hypermile style but in most situations I just can't be bothered because its fun to drive, and the Bay Area has a LOT of expensive cars that are slower off the line than my car, and contain men with fragile egos that I can bruise by dragging them at stoplights in my soyboi EV. But I digress. In reality, the times when the efficiency matters most (cruising at 50+ to cover large distances quickly), the 19 is an improvement, and the regressions in efficiency happen when you're most likely to be parking at a charger anyway (local errands around home)

Regen Braking
The regen on the 16 is stronger and I would consider this one of the EXTREMELY limited number of regressions in the 2019. It still works, but the 16 very nearly felt like one-pedal driving. I have to use the brake pedal more in the 19 than the 16, though it's still ok enough.

Headlights SEL specific
This is a significant area of improvement. The 2016 LED reflectors are some of the best reflector headlights I've used, but I had no idea what I was missing with projectors. I have a particular eye condition that makes night driving a bit more challenging than average and these headlights have given me so much more peace of mind back because I can actually SEE. I also had no idea how nice curve-assistant dynamic lighting was. When I drove the 16 at night recently it felt like the headlights were almost being swiveled AWAY from the direction of the curve even though they were really just pointing forwards. I've just got used to the lights always lighting my path, not just directly in front of me. I like the auto high beam feature as I've never had one that works so reliably before. I don't often drive where I need to use it, though. I do wish we could have the European version with the dynamic shutter.

Digital Dash SEL specific
This is a nice to have, but would never be able to justify the SEL upgrade for this feature alone! I REALLY like the digital dash as it makes my car feel modern, sleek, and cool. I like the way the information is presented and the ability to have maps in the cluster if I so choose. But its not a game changer. The analogue dials in the regular dash are very good, and the small display in the standard dash still carries almost all the same information as you can get in the center section of the digital dash. I'm glad I have the feature, but it's not one of the factors that I considered when I was evaluating the upgrade.

9.2" Discover Pro infotainment SEL specific
Bizarrely, the e-Golf SEL is the only Golf in North America to get the 9.2" unit. Even the R gets the 8". Its high resolution so you get a different UI in CarPlay that shows more information than the 8" screen in the SE or in the 16 SEL. Its a hard-cover touch screen rather than the soft type in the older units, though its an absolute fingerprint magnet as described above. I miss the physical buttons from the 16, though the 19 isn't too bad. I have to press HOME, then press the equivalent soft-button to the old hard side buttons. I rarely fiddle with it while driving though so it's not a major problem overall. The colour screen is much nicer so it makes up for it.

Seats
The seat cushions seem better padded. I at first thought this was just because my 16 was preowned so I never knew what it was like new and not sat on, but I've read a few people mention that 15 and 16 mark 7s have a less dense foam core than the newer ones, so perhaps its true?

Driver Assist
ACC is a big improvement over regular cruise control, and the e-Golf gets stop-start ACC which feels pretty magical. I talked a bit about this above. The blind spot monitors have been useful, particularly at night when its a bit trickier to resolve distance in the reflections. It would be nice if it had the option of a sound when a car entered the blind spot, but it doesn't. I ended up changing the wing mirror blinker LED part to a smoked part so block out the little turn signal square light because it was a little confusing having two lights of the same color in my peripheral vision mean different things.

Automatic Emergency Braking may actually have already saved me from a collision. There's a freeway ramp, Stevens Creek Boulevard onto 85N in Cupertino, which takes you to a ramp to I-280E, with a bit of spaghetti merging that has to happen because California. I was making the maneuver from SCB to I-280N, and saw a nasty collision occur on the main carriageway of 85N, over to my left. It distracted me and I did not see that the traffic heading to the 280 ramp that I was following had slowed to a crawl. I was alerted to it by the car slamming on the brakes and screaming at me. I was able to gain control back and proceed safely. I am grateful that I was able to be reminded of the danger of distractions during driving without having to pay the consequence thereof. A lot can happen in a couple of seconds of looking away! The 16 would have screamed, and perhaps I would have hit the brakes in time, but this gives me confidence that if something terrible happened one day and I became incapacitated behind the wheel, I might have a chance of the car minimising the catastrophe that could occur.

Lane Assist SEL specific
From the factory, lane assist is ok. If you drift out of the lane it will 'bumper car' you back into the lane. It works well, detects road markings without too much trouble and is pretty unobtrusive. But as it turns out, in various markets there are other things it can do. There's a setting that can be unlocked with an OBD tool that lets you choose "early' or "late" intervention, which lets you use the infotainment to toggle between "bumper car" mode and "lane centering" mode. Lane centering is really really nice for reducing exhaustion on long freeway drives, but in all honesty that's not reeeeaaaally the domain of the e-Golf. There's a slightly more involved process to activate a function called Traffic Jam Assist that allows the lane centering to continue all the way to 0mph when ACC is active. I have it activated and its really nice crawling on the freeway but I really don't use the functions all that often. I enjoy driving the car, and the lane centering feels strange when the steering wheel is sometimes working "against" you, if you have a slightly different track you want to take in the lane. I set it to minimal intervention force, so while I can tell if it's trying to steer against where I'm wanting to steer it doesn't feel like its trying to override me. If I'm tired after a long day I'll absolutely turn it on as a second set of eyes, but I wouldn't really consider it as a self-driving car or anything beyond a self-steer assist fancy cruise control. Its a driver assistance feature only, especially in stock from factory form. This one alone isn't a good reason to buy the SEL, but as an anxious person, having active safety features that can try to catch me if I screw up is valuable to me. I have a good driving record and I like to think I'm generally an ok driver (doesn't everyone?), but even the best can make a mistake.

That mini review turned into a mega review.

I don't think the upgrade would make sense for you, JT. It sounds like the 15 already does everything you want, and the 125mi range on the SEL wouldn't make a real impact since presumably the trips you take in the TDI exceed that.

Nice post! Thank you for taking the time and effort in sharing your expereiences between the 2 vehicles. I too have a '16 and '19, and concur with most of what you have said.
 
Sparklebeard said:
2016golfse said:
I haven't tried adaptive cruise control for stop and go driving, but in the open road it's nice. I would have paid for the DAP for just the blind spot monitors alone.

The start-stop ACC is terrifying at first because its nearly impossible to trust a computer to stop the car in time, especially when it feels like its coming in hot. Eventually I started trusting it once I realized that not once had it even had a near miss. Its amazing for the commute when the traffic is just crawling along and I'm tired and don't want to pay attention to micro adjustments of the vehicles speed. Absolutely still requires awareness of the situation but it makes stop start traffic far less annoying.

2016golfse said:
The 8" screen is nice for readability compared to the previous 6.5". But I do miss the physical buttons on the sides as the screen is a fingerprint magnet. The "all screen" look is more elegant/minimalist in appearance though.

The 9.2" screen on the SEL doesn't have the knobs and dials at all, which is a small downgrade IMO, however regarding the fingerprints I got a tempered glass screen protector with oleophobic coating and its helped a lot. Was $12 and you can't see that there's anything installed on the screen unless you're looking for it.

2016golfse said:
I'm happy the power steering has less boost than the 16 when traveling higher than parking lot speeds. I always felt that the previous one was overboosted at all speeds.

I didn't like it at first. In fact, I was really disappointed at first. However, I drove The Handsome Boy (2016, now my husband's car) the other day and did NOT like the steering in the 16 any more, so I guess it's mostly just what you're used to? I now prefer the steering in the 19. Go figure.

2016golfse said:
As others have already mentioned, the 120v charger they give you now sucks compared to the Delphi branded Clipper Creek ones they use to give you.
This is true, however its actually been a boon for me. I charge The Handsome Boy 1.1 (2019) at work typically, and we rent this house so there's been zero motivation to explore home level 2 charge solutions so we had been using the 110V in the garage with the 16. That outlet however is on a shared 20A breaker, shared with the socket in the living room (!) that has the TV on it. As such, I was never comfortable charging the car with the Delphi unit at full power and would always use the e-Manager to limit the current to 10A when at home. This was a bit of a hassle, but I am techy enough and committed enough to the electric car thing that I didn't mind doing it.

My husband, however, would have rapidly become frustrated with micromanaging something like charging locations so the fact that the new portable charger is only a 10A charger is amazing. He can just plug in and charge and never change the max charge current setting. This is an edge case though, and the Delphi/ClipperCreek units are incredibly well constructed. The new ones have nice feeling plastic on the cable and an attractive charge handle, but do not have the same premium solid construction.

JoulesThief said:
Now that you've had it 3 months, what are the features you most appreciate? A sort of mini review, now that you are more familiar with it?

Sure, it's been a great car. The basic summary is "If the extra range makes a difference the upgrade is well worth it. If the change in range doesn't have a significant impact then its not worth the money. I suspect the latter is the case for you as I believe you only need to charge once or twice a week in your existing car. So this would only be relevant for you for road trips, and in California 125mi is still limiting for road trips.

Range
The obvious point of difference is the range to a full charge. For me this has been incredibly impactful, as on the 24kW battery I could not get to San Francisco and back without having to stop and charge. I couldn't drive to the beach without having to drive very conservatively up the mountains to make sure I wouldn't be stressed getting home. I CERTAINLY couldn't decide at the beach that I'd like to drive to a different beach and see if I can find one with better conditions, unless I also planned to make sure I could get to Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz to charge to get home. Getting to Sacramento was scary, though I did it. Driving to Los Angeles was just not feasible in any world. Most weekends if I was going to go out and explore a bit (still somewhat new to living in the Bay Area and there's so many beautiful places to go!) I would stop to DCFC during the day. I didn't mind doing it, and stopping to charge has never been a GIANT pain point for me, rather I'm just concerned about frequent rapid charging the battery, and the longevity issues that could arise.

With the 19, I think I have DCFCd maybe twice since I've had it without changing my driving style. One of which was when I had spend a day driving around doing errands, then in the evening, spur of the moment drove up the peninsula to compare shiny new e-Golves with 2016golfse. The second time was when my husband and I fanged it over the mountains and went to the beach, then decided to cruise down to Santa Cruz at California speeds, and we stopped at the Whole Foods to pick up some ingredients to bring home for dinner. I probably could have made it back to San Jose without charging at that point (GOM said 55mi) but I did not want to strain the battery going up 17 as the SOC dropped lower and lower, so I plugged in for 10 mins just to bump up enough to ensure the battery would be happy.

I am planning to drive to Bakersfield to visit a friend, some time in the fall. That would not be possible in the 16 but I believe I can make it work with some efficient driving and with new electrify America charge stations. Bakersfield to Los Angeles is then a feasible next day hop. Additionally, since I so rarely DCFC for driving in the Bay Area now, I feel more confident that If I really REALLY needed to, I could chain DCFC to Los Angeles to get there in a hurry and the battery would overall not get too sad at me since it was such a rare occurrence. Would prefer not to test that out, though I believe European e-Golf drivers seem to consider back to back DCFC somewhat normal. Maybe their cars have different BMS. (as an aside, is the consensus still that 99 is the route to take in the e-Golf to get through the Central Valley?)

Performance and Efficiency
The 19 is actually a hair quicker. 16 is lighter and you can feel it, but the extra 15kW in the motor are impactful because you don't run out of steam until maybe 10mph faster than the 16, and it seems to handle freeways speeds more efficiently too. Where the 16 would give me about 3mi/kWh on I-280, the 19 gets me 4mi/kWh with the same driving style. Driving on local streets is a little less efficient than the 16; where I would average 5.4mi/kWh on my stop start local street commute in the 16, I see 5.0 in the 19. I have been able to achieve 6+mi/kWh in both by driving with a hypermile style but in most situations I just can't be bothered because its fun to drive, and the Bay Area has a LOT of expensive cars that are slower off the line than my car, and contain men with fragile egos that I can bruise by dragging them at stoplights in my soyboi EV. But I digress. In reality, the times when the efficiency matters most (cruising at 50+ to cover large distances quickly), the 19 is an improvement, and the regressions in efficiency happen when you're most likely to be parking at a charger anyway (local errands around home)

Regen Braking
The regen on the 16 is stronger and I would consider this one of the EXTREMELY limited number of regressions in the 2019. It still works, but the 16 very nearly felt like one-pedal driving. I have to use the brake pedal more in the 19 than the 16, though it's still ok enough.

Headlights SEL specific
This is a significant area of improvement. The 2016 LED reflectors are some of the best reflector headlights I've used, but I had no idea what I was missing with projectors. I have a particular eye condition that makes night driving a bit more challenging than average and these headlights have given me so much more peace of mind back because I can actually SEE. I also had no idea how nice curve-assistant dynamic lighting was. When I drove the 16 at night recently it felt like the headlights were almost being swiveled AWAY from the direction of the curve even though they were really just pointing forwards. I've just got used to the lights always lighting my path, not just directly in front of me. I like the auto high beam feature as I've never had one that works so reliably before. I don't often drive where I need to use it, though. I do wish we could have the European version with the dynamic shutter.

Digital Dash SEL specific
This is a nice to have, but would never be able to justify the SEL upgrade for this feature alone! I REALLY like the digital dash as it makes my car feel modern, sleek, and cool. I like the way the information is presented and the ability to have maps in the cluster if I so choose. But its not a game changer. The analogue dials in the regular dash are very good, and the small display in the standard dash still carries almost all the same information as you can get in the center section of the digital dash. I'm glad I have the feature, but it's not one of the factors that I considered when I was evaluating the upgrade.

9.2" Discover Pro infotainment SEL specific
Bizarrely, the e-Golf SEL is the only Golf in North America to get the 9.2" unit. Even the R gets the 8". Its high resolution so you get a different UI in CarPlay that shows more information than the 8" screen in the SE or in the 16 SEL. Its a hard-cover touch screen rather than the soft type in the older units, though its an absolute fingerprint magnet as described above. I miss the physical buttons from the 16, though the 19 isn't too bad. I have to press HOME, then press the equivalent soft-button to the old hard side buttons. I rarely fiddle with it while driving though so it's not a major problem overall. The colour screen is much nicer so it makes up for it.

Seats
The seat cushions seem better padded. I at first thought this was just because my 16 was preowned so I never knew what it was like new and not sat on, but I've read a few people mention that 15 and 16 mark 7s have a less dense foam core than the newer ones, so perhaps its true?

Driver Assist
ACC is a big improvement over regular cruise control, and the e-Golf gets stop-start ACC which feels pretty magical. I talked a bit about this above. The blind spot monitors have been useful, particularly at night when its a bit trickier to resolve distance in the reflections. It would be nice if it had the option of a sound when a car entered the blind spot, but it doesn't. I ended up changing the wing mirror blinker LED part to a smoked part so block out the little turn signal square light because it was a little confusing having two lights of the same color in my peripheral vision mean different things.

Automatic Emergency Braking may actually have already saved me from a collision. There's a freeway ramp, Stevens Creek Boulevard onto 85N in Cupertino, which takes you to a ramp to I-280E, with a bit of spaghetti merging that has to happen because California. I was making the maneuver from SCB to I-280N, and saw a nasty collision occur on the main carriageway of 85N, over to my left. It distracted me and I did not see that the traffic heading to the 280 ramp that I was following had slowed to a crawl. I was alerted to it by the car slamming on the brakes and screaming at me. I was able to gain control back and proceed safely. I am grateful that I was able to be reminded of the danger of distractions during driving without having to pay the consequence thereof. A lot can happen in a couple of seconds of looking away! The 16 would have screamed, and perhaps I would have hit the brakes in time, but this gives me confidence that if something terrible happened one day and I became incapacitated behind the wheel, I might have a chance of the car minimising the catastrophe that could occur.

Lane Assist SEL specific
From the factory, lane assist is ok. If you drift out of the lane it will 'bumper car' you back into the lane. It works well, detects road markings without too much trouble and is pretty unobtrusive. But as it turns out, in various markets there are other things it can do. There's a setting that can be unlocked with an OBD tool that lets you choose "early' or "late" intervention, which lets you use the infotainment to toggle between "bumper car" mode and "lane centering" mode. Lane centering is really really nice for reducing exhaustion on long freeway drives, but in all honesty that's not reeeeaaaally the domain of the e-Golf. There's a slightly more involved process to activate a function called Traffic Jam Assist that allows the lane centering to continue all the way to 0mph when ACC is active. I have it activated and its really nice crawling on the freeway but I really don't use the functions all that often. I enjoy driving the car, and the lane centering feels strange when the steering wheel is sometimes working "against" you, if you have a slightly different track you want to take in the lane. I set it to minimal intervention force, so while I can tell if it's trying to steer against where I'm wanting to steer it doesn't feel like its trying to override me. If I'm tired after a long day I'll absolutely turn it on as a second set of eyes, but I wouldn't really consider it as a self-driving car or anything beyond a self-steer assist fancy cruise control. Its a driver assistance feature only, especially in stock from factory form. This one alone isn't a good reason to buy the SEL, but as an anxious person, having active safety features that can try to catch me if I screw up is valuable to me. I have a good driving record and I like to think I'm generally an ok driver (doesn't everyone?), but even the best can make a mistake.

That mini review turned into a mega review.

I don't think the upgrade would make sense for you, JT. It sounds like the 15 already does everything you want, and the 125mi range on the SEL wouldn't make a real impact since presumably the trips you take in the TDI exceed that.

Are you sure you aren't employed by VWoA? You should start a new thread and cut and paste this review in it, so it's not lost. Thank you, well written!

We will see on the 2019. The 35.6 kwh battery is more a want, than a need. It's advantage to me would be occasional trips up to Santa Barbara or Santa Ynez for wine tasting, or Lone Pine, CA, with minimal recharging stops either once there, on the way to get there, or to get back home, since I have unlimited access in my shop to 240V & 40 amps with my e-Motorwerks Juicebox 40 Pro.

Still seeing 114 to 117 miles showing on GOM around town, charging about 4 to 6x a month with the 2015 SEL. I'm usually recharging with 1/4 to red on reserve showing, with needle close or at the red. I just don't run it into the red. Battery is holding up quite well for range at this age. 22.7k miles on it.
 
Sparklebeard said:
Does yours do the 3 second thing, where if you stop but the car in front moves within 3 seconds it will resume driving automatically? I can also resume after the stop by holding the RES button on the steering wheel, if I don't want to tap the pedal. I can't remember if that came from the factory or required an adaptation change with OBD11.

I've noticed that people like to cut me off on the default distance setting. I tend to adjust the distance based on conditions as I drive and if someone cuts me off and I know they're going to get out of my way quickly, I'll override the ACC by just pushing down on the go pedal and it gets the hint. I really like how it adapts the follow distance based on the speed you're traveling, so that if you slow to a crawl it doesn't do anything dumb like trying to maintain 5 car lengths between you and the car ahead at 20mph.

To be honest, I didn't notice the 3-second thing because I didn't wait to find out and let someone cut me off, so I just hit the pedal. I haven't adjusted the default distance setting yet. Maybe in time when I'm more confident in the system.
 
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