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Driving Profile again

ah184

Passed Driver's Ed
I’ve had this mk8 RLine now for nearly 3 years and I still don’t understand the Diving Profile mode and no-one seems to either including the dealer. It’s got eco, comfort, sport and individual but they are all the same in terms of how the car drives so I’ve given up any suggestion’s welcome!
 

Silverstoned

New member
Can't speak to the RLine, so maybe many of these features are disabled? In an R, those modes impact the steering, throttle response, DCC settings, exhaust sound and the DSG shift points. When you go to individual, do you get a host of options to adjust? If so, the other modes are presets and individual lets you set them to whatever you prefer.
 

fade away

New member
I have a RLine and it has working driving modes. Eco, Comfort, Sports and Individual.
Comfort is the default.
When I change to Sports it holds onto each gear longer before changing up, enabling a sportier drive - good for acceleration. It also adjusts the ride (as I have DCC suspension), the steering has far less power assistance so feels good around corners.
When I change to Eco the opposite happens to the gears - it changes up early to aid economy, the AC is also turned down so that it doesn't sap as much energy.
Individual is as it says you can set any permutation of Eco, Comfort and Sports. In individual you could have everything Comfort but with Sports steering.
One thing to look out for is that on switch off and switch on the drive always reverts to Comfort. So drive in Sports and turn off the ignition, when you next start up the dash will say you are in Sports. Most things will be - suspension, steering, ACC, but the gears will be in Comfort. A quick pull back of the gear nubbin for S will put you back fully in Sports.
Obviously to have any effect on gear change it has to be combined with an auto gear box.
 
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SRGTD

Autocross Newbie
I have a RLine and it has working driving modes. Eco, Comfort, Sports and Individual.
Comfort is the default.
When I change to Sports it holds onto each gear longer before changing up, enabling a sportier drive - good for acceleration. It also adjusts the ride (as I have DCC suspension), the steering has far less power assistance so feels good around corners.
When I change to Eco the opposite happens to the gears - it changes up early to aid economy, the AC is also turned down so that it doesn't sap as much energy.
Individual is as it says you can set any permutation of Eco, Comfort and Sports. In individual you could have everything Comfort but with Sports steering.
One thing to look out for is that on switch off and switch on the drive always reverts to Comfort. So drive in Sports and turn off the ignition, when you next start up the dash will say you are in Sports. Most things will be - suspension, steering, ACC, but the gears will be in Comfort. A quick pull back of the gear nubbin for S will put you back fully in Sports.
Obviously to have any effect on gear change it has to be combined with an auto gear box.
That’s the way it works in my 2020 Polo GTI+. In my car, there’s a ’Normal’ setting, which is the equivalent of ‘Comfort’ in the Golf.

I have mine in Individual mode with the following settings;
Steering; Sport
Drive; Sport (Drive is the throttle respons)
ACC; Normal
Engine sound; Eco (because I dislike the fake engine sound generated by the soundaktor)
Suspension (the Polo GTI and GTI+ has DCC suspension as standard); Normal

I’ve never used ‘Eco’ driving mode (other than having the Engine sound set to ‘Eco’ in Individual driving mode for the reason stated above). Eco driving mode dulls the throttle response, so the natural instinct is to apply more pressure to the accelerator pedal for manoeuvres such as pulling away from rest, getting up to cruising speed, overtaking and maintaining momentum. Applying more pressure to the accelerator pedal will result in increased fuel usage, which kind of defeats the purpose of an Eco mode 🤔.
 

fade away

New member
Yes, haven't found any benefit to Eco. The mpg benefit is very minimal if any at all.
I've topped 62mpg on some longish journeys with a combination of Comfort and Sport.
Using Eco makes the drive so much more stressful without adding any meaningful mpg benefit.
 

ah184

Passed Driver's Ed
Thanks for all the detail here regarding your experiences. My car is a manual gearbox. Eco, Comfort and Sport modes are preset but I can change the Individual settings. However, there is no difference in how the car drives in any of them with respect to steering or throttle response etc.. Very disappointing.
 

fade away

New member
Yes, Individual is the only one that can be changed.
If it's a manual box they you are in charge of when the gears change. With my auto the difference between comfort and sports is very different.
I can't comment on any changes in throttle response between the two as I've only ever noticed the gear change response.
There is a marked difference in steering though - Comfort is very loose and easy, while Sports is tight and harder to turn. I would have thought that that aspect would be noticeable.
Suspension is different with mine between the modes as I have DCC, so the suspension gets hard or soft with the comfort/sports change.
If you don't have DCC that would be an aspect you wouldn't notice.
 

Ghawk

Ready to race!
I’ve had this mk8 RLine now for nearly 3 years and I still don’t understand the Diving Profile mode and no-one seems to either including the dealer. It’s got eco, comfort, sport and individual but they are all the same in terms of how the car drives so I’ve given up any suggestion’s welcome!
There are vehicles that make the different driving modes indistinguishable, My VW GTI in not one of them. Probably the best way to help you define the differences is first try the setting, comfort, normal, and sport on a rough paved road. Try comfort and then sport, maybe a mile each. Then try the settings one step at a time. This method makes these changes more visible than testing high speed handling differences. DCC (Dynamic Chassis Control) offers. I vary these suspension setting depending on the road and my driving spirit at the time. I keep the steering on SPORT and the sound on ECO. The throttle and transmission shift points will be quicker and allow for more speed before shifting as well. a well designed system. I do use the INDIVIDUAL
settings.
 
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