Golf 7.5 headlights/NAV ownership experience please

[Jazzjames]

Hello dear PHers,

Looking for some owners’ experience. My wife is looking for a new (used) car and we’ve found a 2019 Golf 7.5 Variant (estate) 1.0 TSI (6-speed manual) which seems to have almost the spec we want.

The car has the (I assume) standard dipped and main-beam halogen headlights. Are these good enough? No way of organising a test drive at night unfortunately.

The car doesn’t have Apple CarPlay. It seems possible to get it retrofitted, but would it be a deal-breaker for you?

Anything else we should look out for?

The car is going to be mainly used for local journeys to cart around child and dog, so will be driven accordingly.

I’ve already had a Fabia with this engine on a holiday and found it to be quick enough for that size of car, but I’m not used to seeing such a small engine in a Golf-sized car. I know this engine is used across the VAG range even in some SUVs, but does the engine’s character work in the bigger models?

Thanks!

James

[Robotron70]

If the car has H4’s then they will be awful, H7’s are better and obviously led better still.

H7’s are easy to upgrade with Osrams or Philips lamps.

I love CarPlay and use it all the time, my Transporter originally had the Discover Media upgrade which cost me about £1200 and it was bloody awful. I’ve now got a Kenwood with wireless CarPlay but it’s not a cheap upgrade.

These guys will be able to tell you what options (CarPlay, reverse camera, parking sensors etc) can be added to the factory headunit -

https://northeastvagadaptions.co.uk/

[Dr G]

The standard bulbs are atrocious, but Osram Nightbreakers are transformative. Fit them straight away. Honestly the Xenons on MK7s aren't great either, and whilst the LEDs in 7.5s are an improvement they're hardly class leading.

App Connect 100% worth having, I use mine every day (and almost never touch built-in Discover pro). It's only a few hundred pounds.

[Jazzjames]

Thank you all for your replies.

Regarding headlights:
I’m not sure if they are H4 or H7. I know the DRL are LED, the dipped and main halogen. Good call with a replacement set of bulbs. I’ll just make sure they’ve got some life to them because I’ve had the experience in the past that a really bright bulb doesn’t last long.

The car doesn’t have carplay and the dealer said it isn’t possible to activate it. We’d need a replacement radio/headunit, which sucks. It does have bluetooth though so it’s not completely useless. The screen is big and looks nice, it just can’t do a lot!

[Glasgowrob]

Carplay definitely can be retrofitted by any number of specialists it might not be as simple as just software tweaks so do you me homework first

And find one with led lights you’ll thank me later

By far and away better than any halogen setup

[Jazzjames]

I agree with the headlights- I have LEDs on my Leon, it makes night driving so much more relaxed. I’ll contact a specialist and see what it would cost.

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I'm 99% certain the standard bulbs on mk7.5 Golfs with halogens are H7, therefore definitely worth upgrading to Osram or Philips.